We got Tyson's memory card in the mail yesterday, so I thought I would share a picture of him....he is such a serious boy....yeah, what ever.

We had a good week for Jr. Jazz basketball. All 3 kids won their game today! WooHoo! Jordyn even took a shot and scored...her first of the season, after Troy talked smack with her about never taking a shot....she showed you, didn't she, little brother? Anyway, it was a good, if not long afternoon of basketball.

Well, I seemed to have aged another year this week. I must say that I have had better birthdays. It was a hard week for us all, and to top it all off, I was in bed sick for the day. For those of you that know me well, and know how I love to be the birthday "Queen", this was definately a bummer....I hope for better next year.

Just in case any of you haven't heard, we are having a celebration of Steve's life at Heather's church on monday, January 28 at 1:00pm. The address is 4000 s. 1150 w. in Riverdale. I believe 1150 w. is also known as Parker's Dr. The easiest way to get there from the south is to take the 31st street exit, get on the frontage road(which is Parker's Dr.) and double back to the south. Anyway, it will be casual dress, and there will be a luncheon provided by Heather's ward. I want to thank everyone for their love and concern, and prayers on behalf of our family. We couldn't get through this without you. Joey

I wish I had not so sad news this week, but for those of you who knew my brother Steve, he passed away this last week on January 16. The circumstances of his death were tragic (not a suicide), and saddens me more than I can express in words. I am not yet in a place where I can talk about it without falling apart, but maybe soon. As Heather and I have been getting an obituary ready, I came across this picture, and thought I would post it. He was such a beautiful little boy. I know that Steve is now happy, and with his earthly and heavenly parents, and can finally progress, where he just couldn't in this life, but it is still so hard. We love you Steve. Joey

Cold, cold, cold......that's really all I have to say for this week.......Brrr. I think all of Tooele is frozen. It has been a pretty uneventful week full of work, basketball games (all 3 kids are playing), and the usual mom stuff. I am very happy, and a little embarrassed to admit that the highlight of the week was finally getting all of the christmas put away on saturday night. Hey, I say I put it all up, someone else should have to take it all down......unfortunately, I am the only one who sees this reasoning. The rest of the family thinks "the crazy lady put it all up, she can take it all down"....and so it goes....Anyway, we are all doing well. Hope you all have a great week! Joey From Tyson last week: yep things here are pretty good, still warm, usually about 65 70 here, no snow, not too much rain,.. its pretty sweet. we just got out of a funeral. one of the converts from about 4 months ago died from cancer,.. and so the missionaries in the ward were asked to usher, and they volunteered the rest of the District as well. It was ok, but kinda long. Its weird when i really sit down and think about how much time i actually spend in the church and talking about it. ha. but it was good, him being a convert, there were plenty of non members there and there was lots of plan of salvation talk. i felt like alot of ppl were comforted and feel alot better, and hopefully learned something goodabout us and felt the spirit. tomorrow we will have interviews with pres again, i like those, i know there are some missionaries who dont look forward to them, but when he doesnt have anything to yell at ya for, you dont get yelled at. this last week at church was really good, this new family that we have been working with, la familia perez, came to church. its a family of 5 and they seemed to enjoy church. i like them alot and have faith that they will go far. they are awesome and im really exited to work with them,. the work here is going well and seems to be picking up. i was sick this last wendsday and thursday... we are at Chili's(not as good as applebee's) and i think it was the spicy buffalo wings that got me. i felt horrible for about 2 and a half days and prety much stayed in bed. i hadnt been that sick in along time, and i lost almost 10 pounds, which is annoying, cause now i have to go back to the gym and work it back on, i feel super skinny. but im fine now.things here are good, the ppl are good, the food is good and the spanish is good. love ya

Well, not alot to report this week.... we did have a horrible wind storm friday night that caused some damage in the yard. Not to the house...thank heaven's, but with things like the barbeque grill blown off the deck, patio table damage(repairable), and the saddest of all....the BYU flagpole is down.......leveled......dead. This is very sad news..... we had one man in our ward ask Ed..."so when a BYU flag touches the ground, do you have to burn it? And if so, can I be a part of that?"...Thanks Rob, way to kick a man when he's down.... ;) Anyway, not much else has gone on this week.... I am posting part of Tyson's email from last week..... Joey



christmas was very good but a little differerent. i like to consider myself pretty tough, and i dont get homesick.. but i couldnt help but think about home and going to grandmas and seeing the cousins and everything,. but i never got homesick or sad. i love it out here so much. i really feel like if i wasnt here, i would hate myself, i would just have an emptiness for the rest of my life. i love working with the ppl here so much. especially the spanish culture. they are awesome. we had some killer french toast for breakfast on christmas and some good food with other members for dinner. wayyyy to much food hah! im shocked im not fat. i finally got your package. ha, thanks, i like the scripture case alot. its perfect. it looks really nice. and the food is all good, and yeah, the other guys in the apartment thought it was a tad odd that i got baby food, but i was pretty exited for it. ha, so they just laughed. we as missionaries were taken care of for christmas. 2 reasons i think, there are alot of parents with boys on missions, and we are partially in an english ward... so they know how to do christmas and they have money. i did have a question about the cd you sent me though... haha. im not exactly sure what to think about it,. cause yeah, its pretty country, and also its all about women and love and junk like that,. but the elders in the apartment and i were laughing pretty good at it.. but im not sure if that was the intent or not. anyways, as far as the official rule go's for the mission on music.. its pretty vague, it just has to bring and spirit and be appropriate. which leaves a wide range of music. but anything like himns of course is ok. but also stuff like the tribute to the prophet and even stuff like the best 2 yrs soundtrack. (both of which i have)the work here is picking up. we are really working hard. we just finished our 100% week. i think i told you about that. I called it Heaven week, like "hell week" in high school football, where we just wear ourselves out. and it helped alot. the rest of the missionaries followed it well and we are seeing alot of lessons taught. for us in particular, we usually have anywhere between 1 and 3 new investigators each week, and we had 8. thats a great jump. i could say i would like to keep it up there, keep this pace of working hard and such, but i want more. i know we can do more and work harder. i want to see more baptisms here. the average here is low, i want to change that, and i know with hard work and obedience, along with working more with the members, we can change that.we are currentyl teaching about 23 to 29 lessons(good lessons with good ppl), which leads lessons taught per week in the mission, or atleast its high. i love it down here. come feb i will hit the yr mark. weird. i dont want to be on the down hill, once that happens the time is going to speed up.. i dont want that. well, i guess i wrote enough, thanks for everything,. go cougs!! i will be sending home a memory card within the next few weeks. enjoylove ya!

Well, another year has almost come and gone. Today is Christmas, and I am exhausted. We have had a busy, crazy week. We took the kids to Las Vegas to watch BYU play in the Vegas Bowl against UCLA. Talk about a nail biter, but more on that later. We were gone from the 21-23rd. Then later on the 23rd we had the Clayson family Christmas party with Ed's family. Had a very nice dinner (thanks mom), and exchanged presents. We had fun, as usual, but I have no pictures to show for it.....maybe Angie will donate a few....
I also have no pictures of Christmas....I am such a loser when it comes to that sometimes. I didn't even get any of Sarandon and Dantley today. Heather, any to share? So I guess the best that I can do is post the pictures from our Christmas card. I guess you better take what you can get. And don't let those smiling children fool ya, either...they were not happy children...they were complaining the whole time...."I'm cold...there's snow in my shoe....blah, blah,blah..."
Anyway, the highlight of our day today was a phone call from our missionary. He called us from a members home. They were fixing him french toast for breakfast...It makes me happy to know there is a mom out there somewhere looking out for my boy. He is doing well, and loves what he is doing. His attitude is always positive, and he looks for the fun in any situation. I know that alot of the people he has taught have been drawn to this trait. He is truly doing his father's work, and takes it very seriously...I am a very proud mom, and have been missing him alot today.
Well, Santa treated us very well this year. For the second year in a row, we stayed home for christmas day. Heather and her family, and Troy came to our house for dinner. It was nice to just relax and enjoy each other's company. Of course the Wii that Santa surprised everyone with might have done some of the entertaining. The other present the kids were surprised with will be enjoyed in February, when we fly to Long Beach, CA for a much needed winter break.
So back to the game....I knew you were all waiting for me to get back to BYU football....we had a blast. We left early friday morning, and stayed at the Flamingo Casino in Las Vegas. We drove down with the kids, Troy, Mike, Steve, and Rick (Angie's uncle). We played around that night, and had a nice prime rib dinner (ok, Mike whined about dinner...they didn't have corndogs...) Saturday we shopped at the two outlet malls in Vegas. Troy poked fun at this a bit...."I can't believe it is 3 days before Christmas, and you guys are going shopping....." Troy, have you ever been with the Clayson Boys when they haven't gone outlet shopping? Anyway, there are a few traditions that have been born on these Vegas trips...that is one of them. Another is eating at an In'N'Out Burger before the big game. This is very important. So is going to the 'pink' 99 cent store. Yes, we have dollar stores in Utah, but apparently this one is WAY better.
Troy did buy some very nice strawberry body wash, which he left in my car, and I later wrapped up and gave him for christmas....best present ever...anyway, we did make it to the game, we did win 17-16 with a blocked field goal for UCLA's almost win in the last 3 seconds of the game...(my heart has finally started beating again), and we had a blast. Troy said if we had lost, he was going to take a taxi back to Utah to avoid riding with Ed....
Anyway, all is well with the Clayson's. Tomorrow it is back to the real world. I will probably get more rest at work anyway... Joey

Ok, so I haven't been the best at posting Ty's emails the last 3 weeks, but in my defense, my life has been crazy busy at work since the week of Thanksgiving....since our receptionist quit, and me and one other girl have had to split the front desk duties for the week, and still find the time to get our own jobs done....so you will just have to give me a break.....please.... ;) anyway, Ty was finally transferred to a new area. This was pretty exciting news, as you will read. Joey (sorry about his spelling.....I don't think he proof reads....anyway, that should keep you busy, Heather...haha) From November 19, 2007 go cougarsoh my fricken gosh i have so much adrenaline pumping through me rightnow... too much stuff going on! im going to lose it!and i got news,,.IM GETTING TRANSFERRedyeah, about time, 7 and a half months here, 5 transfers,. i found outthis morning, i am pretty exited. this was an aweseom area, good ward,good companions and some way good recent converts, .. with 2 baptismsthat i will get to come back and see. but i wont find out where imgoing till wendsday.. man im so stoked! too much stuff to think about!transfers.. byu.. utah.. thanksgivin.. bday.. scriptures! ah i love itgo cougars i dont know what to think about the cougs utes game.. im soscared, i made it throughtr the other games pretty well, but this oneis already gettin to me,... i got too much blue clayson blood in medang it!thats cool that beck is going to start, man i hope he does well, weneed another good qb int he nfl.go cougarsabout tthe scriptures, im thinking black or blue... suprise me.. sograndma tells me taht shes sending somehtin, i think she said that shesent it to the office, thats good, cause im outta here! im glad imleaving, a change will be very good, and i knwo i left this areaalllllooooooooot better off than when i got it.go cougarsso for my day i will be getting transfered and a new comp and newarea... everyone in my district is guesssing that i will english.causeeveryone that is spanish has to spend their time over in englishatleast for a little while. my comp was there for about 8 months. butmy Zone leader was only in it for 2 months,. i hope i never have to .. From November 26... 2525 st christopher ave #1615League City TX 77573thats the new address, im down more in the small city now, its weird. im so used to being right smack in the middle of everything, now we are about 45 minutes away from houston.my companions name is Elder Marsh. its funny cuz i took his spot when i got to my last area, he was the elder i replaced. now im here with him. because he was elder griffins comp and mine, i heard plenty about him, mostly good things, elder griffin always told me that me and marsh would get along really well.... and we do. ha, we are going to have so much fun this transfer,. he has been in the mission about 4 months longer than i have, and is the District Leader. Hes way cool, and he loves me, he tells me all the time how he has missed having a funny comp. He is a good missionary. but i think him and his last comp were a little disobedient, and me being with him will make him a better missionary, he has already told me that i have. its kinda funny that he is district leader, but i have to control him somtimes. ha. but hes not that bad, we get along way good. i just think pres. is figuring out that if he puts me with a cool comp, that is good, but has some problems being obedient , that i will fix them, and they will still have fun. it worked with E. Hildreth.so to be completely honest, my bday sucked, ha, like the worst one yet. pretty much cause i spent it with alot of ppl i ddint know, and it would have been was awesome to have spent it with my odl ward and converts. but thats ok. i did get the package from dad with the trail mix and folder and stuff, thanks. i love all the food, especailly the pistacheos(spelling>?) , its all good thanks.so my new area is waaaaaay different than my old one.1st. we have a huuuge area, and a car, im talking like 4 towns big.2nd. i live in an apartment that house 4 missionaries. its way fun, the other two missionaries are way chill as well.3rd. our complex has its own gym. its not that big, just a bench machine and a few treadmills, but of course i still love it,. i am buying some protien powder today, and i will see what i can do..so things here are very good, and we had a good thanksgiving.now... on to the important stuffGOOO MIGHTY COUGARS!!!heck yeah@! man i was soooo scared, we were home for lunch and planning session during the 3 and 4th quarters of the game, so i would call a news station called "tell me" and check the score about every minute. i cant wait to watch the game. 10 - 9 with like aminute left. thats nuts. ha. i was soooo exited. man oh man.so what is byu ranked now? what are all the utes fans saying? ppl down here are happy and sad, i guess texas a&m beat the longhorns. by a few td's.i havent got a packagge from grandma yet, so soon hopefully. if she sent it to the office or mission home, it could be a while untill i get it, we live a little ways away from the office. so when you send things, probably better that you send them right to me, so i get them a few weeks earlier. atealst thats what my comp tells me.thanks for everything. love yaust brown. ha.racist.and since i wont be here in this area, i have no idea yet whats upwith thanks giving. im hoping for some good turkey though.go cougars!wow, thats soooooo sweet that the cougs are ranked, .. jsut anotherreason for the utes to hate us.man i hope we win!thanks for everyting, love yaPS.. go cougars! From December 3... things are good here, i only so far got the one package, with the quad.. thats by the way, its soooo sweet. cause it went to the mission office, pres and sis allred brought all the mail down from the office to our chapel for our interviews, and they watched me open it, i was sooo happy, pres and sis allred were laughing at how happy i was. it was funny. but its way nice, ive been marking it up and stuff, thanks a ton. interviews went well, he told me how he needs me to be a leader, although im not in a leadership position yet.as far as how many investigators we have... ha... when i got here there was 1. yeah, 1. thats right. i left my old area with like more than 10 that vould progress, 3 recent converts, and 2 ready to get baptized. here. 1. no recent converts. nothing. my comp straight up told me that he and his old comp didnt work a whole lot. thats pretty obvious. ha. 1 investigator. and the whole time my comp has been here he has never even brougth anyone to church.. that is untill this last sunday. when we had 3. and they are amazing and maybe going to have dates this coming week. it just feels good to work hard, and see the fruits come sooo fast. i love it here. its kind of a weird situation. im still in spanish,. but we dont have a ward, or even a branch,... we have somehtiing called a "group". its about 40 ppl. we are technically part of the english ward here, so i spend alot of time meeting with english ppl. my bishop and everything like that is english. its soooo weird to be in all these english meetings. ha, i miss pure spanish soo much. we eat alot with english members and its honestly kinda awkward sometimes, ha. i miss spansih food too. so we are going to try and get ymca passes, to the local ymca. im in pretty good shape, but i wanna come home about 190, without changing a belt loop. im at 180. so we will see if they can work us a deal. we are really close to the coast here, we drive by it about every other day. From December 11.... yeah i got the package you sent me with the pics and the cd monday after we had went to the library. ha. the cd is pretty funny, my comp was laughing at how the whole thing revolved around byu. ha. i wasnt suprised at all. its funny, sometimes during the cd you all just get talking to each other about nothing, like you forget that the tape is running. but it was cool, cause it felt like i was right back home..good pics. i like em alot,. especially some of the close ups on the cougs. i could find everyone in the pics,.. except josh. did he get to go? i even spotted steve and blain-oso yep. its warm here. it was about 77 when we got outta the car. it is alot different. it feels nothing like christmas, its weird.ok, so the scriptures are from gma. i will thank her for them then.Elder HIldreth called and told me that he had a packafge from gma. so i shojld get it on the 14th at the mission conference.so there were 2 ppl that we have been working with that i helped find. and we have been teaching them for about 2 weeks, and they have come to church. so we extended a baptismal date to them thursday for the 23rd of this month, and they accepted. so we are reaaalllllly exited about that. there hasnt been a baptism in this area for a while.my comp and i are getting along very well, he tells me about every 10 minutes how I am his favorite comp ever. hes too cliniging. ha just kidding, we are like best freinds. its really good. my spanish is good, im still working on it, its still amazing how 10 months ago i couldnt speak hardly anything or understand anythin, but now i would definantly consider myself fluent. and i love speaking it.by the way, i made a christmas card to send out to ppl. so im going to send some to youu guys, like 5 or 6. and let you decide who to send them to. i will send one to grandma and erica and georgio,. but you should be getting that this within this week. its pretty goofy, as usuall.so we are still workin out at the YMCA. i broke my record of bench and put up 185 and then 190. so im feelin pretty hot about myself right now. hagood to hear that things are well at home. i will be praying for the stagg family,. love ya

So, my baby is 13......boy, that really means that Ed is old...hehe. I say Ed, because I know I am still a young happenin' chick! My kids roll their eyes when I say that, but I do remind them often. But yeah, my youngest has officially entered the ranks of "teenager" (though if I must be honest, he has been driving me crazy for at least a year now....). To make matters even worse, I became the mother of a 20 year old a few weeks ago! Ouch....If my mom were still here, I would really give her a hard time about that! How old she is getting, I mean....not me. Never me. Anyway, not too much going on around here this week. A few weeks ago, I had Sarandon and Dantley for 4 days, to give Heather a much needed rest. We had so much fun. I had 2 little girls in my big bed with me every night....sorry Ed, no room at the inn. Dantley would wake up in the morning with the biggest smile and say Hi Joey.....hi sissy! In fact, Dantley would tell me hi several times throughout the day, but the funniest part was, she always acted genuinely surprised to see me. We had lots of fun playing with the dollhouse, and kitchen set...and watching movies, and going to McDonald's. We all had fun, but I think mostly Heather.










A few days after I took the girls home, we went to Ed's parents for Thanksgiving. This is always an adventure. I can't remember a time that we haven't gone to grandma's and not laughed our heads off at something. This time was no different. Troy was with us, because Ed's mom adopted him as family after mom passed away. Thanksgiving was fun, but the really exciting part of the week was that saturday.......Go Cougs! Sorry all you who might be Ute fans, but whatever. I am sure you have all stopped pouting by now. Hmmm....what was that score again? 17-10? Yep, that would be it.... way fun game. The whole family was there, (except for Tyson, who was calling a radio station in Houston getting updates on the score every few minutes...I am sure that is ok....following mission guidelines and all..... ;). We had a blast. We are all going down to Vegas right before Christmas to watch our Cougs in the Vegas Bowl. Watch out UCLA. The little
guy with the dreadlocks is my nephew, Payton.









Anyway, I can't believe how fast Christmas is approaching. I was very proud to have all 3 of my Christmas trees up and decorated before December 1st. Ed likes to complain about storing 3 trees and all the trimmings, but that's what we built the attic for, right? It's not like he has to help or anything.....because he doesn't. He is not allowed. I am a little bit picky when it comes to my trees. I get this from my mother. Her christmas tree legacy lives on. All the trees are on the main floor of the house. One in the formal living room (this baby is 12 feet tall), one in the main family room, and one in the kitchen. Yep, I said the kitchen. I tell Ed he is lucky I haven't put one downstairs in that family room. I also have smaller trees throughout the house...on the mantel, up on the plant shelf in the entry way, and a few 4 foot trees that are grouped with two of the full size trees. Technically, there are 12 trees, all lit up and decorated. I love it. If I keep it up, we will need to build a bigger house.
Anyway, hope all is well with everyone. I will post Ty's new emails in the next few days. He has been transferred, finally! Joey

Tyson's email 11/13/2007

things here are good. i will find out this monday what will happen with me, being transfered or not, im thinking im gone, but i guess we will find out. this saturday in the planned baptism, but she didnt come to church this last sunday, and she didnt read the chapter we left here and i think its cause her 1st husband is back in town , she has had 2. anyway he is like a pastor at his Baptist/Christian church, and he sure wanted to talk about the bible with us. ha, man o man that guy new his stufff, he was annoying. its kinda crazy to think sometimes that im expected talk with this guy,. who has been studying and preaching for that last 10 or 15 years.. ha. anyway, we did, and we pretty much put him in his place. then i had a talk with susana, and retold her the impotance of joseph smith and the book of mormon, and she told me that she was going to pray about it..then she said something about her husband and his church, and i just stopped her and said, you know what? yeah, he knows alot about the bible, probably more than i do, and he can teach you alot about God, but he cant teach you who God is.. and she kinda looked at me, and i could tell that she was really listening, and then i told her that when i looked deep into that guys eyes, there was something that wasnt there, a complete knowledge that we have, that can only be given through the Holy Ghost. so hopefully she will pray and find out for her self,. i think if everyone would just take the faith they have, use it, put into practice and really expect an answer from God, and then come to chruch and try it, millions would be baptized, but you cant make someone use their faith, you can help em, and show them how to do it. but you can never make them....but yeah things are good, my comps good, he has changed alot for the better, he is starting to figure it out, and is alot more obedient, and close to the Lord, and we are having alot of fun together and teaching alot,..thanks love ya

Part of Tyson's email from 11/06/07

things are good here, we have another baptism coming up. its exiting. susana. a single mom, whose husband kinda left here and now he got deported. she has 3 kids, all way cute. the date is the 18th. she has come along way. my bday lands on the 21st, which just happens to be the date that i could be transferred, so in my interviwes with pres, i told him that if i get moved, to move me somewhere nice.. ha. he luaghed and said he could do that. hes a good guy, i like him alot. and at the temple i saw E. Tall again for the fist time in about 7 months,>>> it was so crazy exiting. we were both yelling and huging and stuff. it was awesome, i love that kid.also, every transfer the mission sends out a news letter thing. it has a letter from pres. some pics and quotes from the mission, pics of the new missionareies and the ones leaving, then on the back, its got names of ppl that baptized, and who got baptized, my name was there(again), and this time there was a little extra box, that said" Congratulations to the missionaries who have baptized each of the last 3 transfers." then it had a list of 8 missionaries, (about 150 in the mission) ,..and i was one of them. it was prety sweet.

Just a quick posting from Tyson's last e-mail.... I will write more later.... Joey everything is wonderful down here, its sittin about 70's. pretty sweet stuff. not to hot, not to cold, no rain(knock on wood) its perfect. so we went teachin with one of my recent converts and it was amazing. he is so strong in his testimony. we were teaching a couple, one from peru ,catholic, and the other a white guy from virginia who is a jew and speaks a little spanish,. it was good, francisco who is kinda of a shy 19 yr old from guat was sooo powerful. i felt the spirit so strong and the ppl we were teaching did too, at the end of the lesson i asked them how they felt, and she just said interesting.. and i said what? and she was like, he just seems so sure.. like he knows. and iwas like. yeah , hello,. he does. anyway love ya. things are good, we are going to the temlpe on halloween