Please try to be there!

Papaw is getting his award on Sunday, at the nursing home at Hugley (sp?), at 4 pm. This is contingent on if the preacher can be there. Mom would like to have everyone come that can make it. For those of you who don't know, Papaw is getting this award for service as a deacon in his church for 40 years.

Chrystal and Posse's Toilet Paper Excursion

The Toilet Paper and Chalk Excursionaka The death of Bert The story starts with a lame concert. Afterwards we headed to Chrystal's house to try to salvage the night. First we ordered pizza and watched 10 Things I Hate About You. That was pretty fun…lala…then the boys left and things got a little out of hand. We were a little bored at home and the brownies we made were kind of lame. It was about 2 a.m. and we headed to Wally World to pick up some toilet paper. We decided to get 6 rolls of toilet paper a piece. There we were hit on by…about 7…yeah, 7 guys. This one guy basically did a double take and "had to get some office supplies randomly at 2:30 in the morning"…yeah right. He left our aisle and came back with a friend. Jessie, Delyn, and Chrystal started walking faster, but poor unfortunate Katie was too distracted with the hunt for the chalk. They attempted to start a conversation with "So, are you guys old enough to drink?" wow…what a nice start to a healthy relationship. When we were walking to the checkout, this guy decided to tell us that "groups of teenagers were only allowed to buy one package of toilet paper at night." *Not a good pick-up line* His name was Benny…and he was lame! On top of all that lameness, he had a strange goatee…what a freak. We laughed at him, and continued on our path to the checkout…the only open checkout in all of Wal-mart. On our way we picked up a random box of sidewalk chalk. The lady that sold us our toilet paper (not in Mexico mind you…) had a strange theory that all the girls in Mansfield were having "issues" tonight that called for LOADS of toilet paper. She was funny, much better than the lame Benny. On the way out, we were taking pictures and these scary SCARY Mexican guys (Delyn says they were white guys with really dark tans…yeah right…) begged us to take their pictures so we could remember their "oh-so-hotness"…ew. Anyway, we were terrified, and sprinted to the car, with calls of "run Forrest run" in the background (after a quick picture by the Wal-mart sign of course!) The first stop was our dear Alex's house. We parked a few houses down and got out of the car armed with our toilet paper. But suddenly, out of the darkness, a car pulled into a neighboring driveway. They suspected something, so we hid our toilet paper and remained near the car. They wouldn't leave their car, so we were forced to retreat to John's house around the corner. At John's house, we realized that there was nothing in his yard to toilet paper, so we busted out the chalk, and began decorating the driveway. When that was complete we jumped in the car and began turning around to head back to Alex's. But as we were turning, this car pulled into the neighbor's driveway. A boy got out and began raving (obviously to show off for the 4 girls who just jumped, giggling, into the car.) So we drove away, but something told us to turn back. So we flip the car around, and head back to the boy. Delyn casually asks if we can take a picture of him. He agrees, and thus was the beginning of a 20 minute friendship. We ended up parking the car in the middle of the street, and taking all sorts of crazy pictures on top of the car. We found out a lot about Tim the Raver (as we found out his name was) in those 20 minutes. He had just broken up with his girlfriend of 10 months, who Jessie knew, and actually, Jessie had met Tim the Raver before when he came to visit his ex-girlfriend at school. He was a really funny guy, and opened up to us nicely. He couldn't remember our names (except for Katie...guess we know who the pretty one is.) Apparently he knew "what Delyn's name sounded like, but couldn't pronounce it." We really needed paper and a pen, and we asked Tim the Raver to go get us some from his house, but apparently the house rule is "once you come in for the night, you can't leave again." So we talked to Tim the Raver for awhile, and we were going to go TP Andrew Livingston's house, but decided instead, to head back to Alex's house. So we left Tim there, cold…alone…and wanting…and raving his little heart out, hoping to get in one last amazing impression. We traveled around the block to Alex's house. The person that was in the car earlier had gone into their house, so the coast was clear. It was a relatively uneventful toilet papering. No cars drove by causing us to go bush diving, we didn't get any rolls stuck up in the tree. Everything ran very smoothly and we got out without any problems. It was brilliant! So we began our journey to Bert's house. On the way, it started raining. This caused us much sadness, because a lot of rain meant that our beautiful chalk writings would be lost. Luckily it stopped raining. We don’t know how much damage was caused to our artwork, but hopefully it wasn't much. When we got to Bert's house, we piled out, armed with the remaining like 15 rolls of toilet paper and the chalk. All of the cars parked in the driveway were conveniently covered with a nice layer of rain, thus making it extraordinarily easy to stick the toilet paper to the cars. So we wrote on the cars in toilet paper, and it was beautiful! We only got a few rolls stuck in the tree, which Delyn had to go after. Then we put chalk to concrete and made the driveway beautiful! By the time we were finished messages like, "Bert's got a sexy girlfriend!" and "Dirty Birdie" were displayed on his driveway. We took a bunch of pictures and documented the occasion nicely. When we were finally done, we started the car (for a quick getaway) and ran up and each of us rang the doorbell, sprinted to the car, and drove away. *Keep in mind, Robert had told us earlier that evening that he was home alone for the night.* Anywho, we got to the end of the street and turned around to see the reaction from Bert, and maybe get a few pictures of him. But when we drove past, his grandpa was outside examining the damage. Everyone freaked out and started screaming so Chrystal had to drive very fast and conspicuously to get out of there. We then called Bert's cell, and told him to run and hide (his grandparents aren't known for being the nicest people) and he was very confused as to why. So he looked out his window and was very angry with us. By this time it was about 4:45 a.m. Robert apparently didn't know that his grandpa had been outside, but he got his butt in the front yard and started cleaning it up. By the time we got home and got him back on the phone he had cleaned up all the toilet paper except for a few pieces that were really high in the tree, and he was just about to get out the hose to clean off the chalk. It was so sad. He should have left it…oh well, he didn't end up cleaning the chalk off, because Chrystal went over the next day and it was still there.

E-mail from Carrie!

So, here's an e-mail from Carrie! Enjoy!

Dear family,
How is it going? Things here in Pulaski are lots of fun. It’s so beautiful! We got lost on a dirt road the other day and came across a little trail where you can hike down and see this waterfall. We’re going to take a picnic and have our lunch there sometime this week (we have an hour set aside for lunch each day). Our area is really big, the biggest in the mission I’ve heard, so we have a lot of countryside to cover.
We actually have some investigators now, which is really exciting. We met this couple, Norman and Heather, while we were tracting. Norman had met the sisters a couple of weeks ago, but the return appointment fell through for some reason, so they never went back. Well, we met him again and taught the first lesson to the two of them. They were really interested, and Heather read a couple of chapters from the Book of Mormon. They said they have been wanting to go to a church, but they didn’t know which one to go to. We gave them a tour of the church Saturday and watched a video about Christ. They really enjoyed it. Heather even asked how long they would have to wait to be baptized if they decided to join. We told them as soon as we’re done teaching them the lessons and they receive that witness from the Holy Ghost that it’s true, then they can make that covenant. They are really great, they have two cute little boys who are 1 and 2 years old. They seemed to really enjoy church, and we’re going back to teach them in a couple of days.There’s a few other people we’ve met who we have appointments with, and a couple of people the missionaries have been working with who we’ve had really good lessons with. One lady, Donna, pretty much knows it’s true but she has had a lot of opposition from her family members. Her husband doesn’t like us very much, so she only has lessons once a month. We asked her to pray and read the Book of Mormon daily, and she’s done it every day for the past week. We’ve talked to her a couple of times on the phone, so we hope she gets the strength to overcome that opposition. Carol and Al are friends with the bishop, and Carol comes to church pretty regularly, but they’ve been taught over and over again and have some concerns that are keeping them from moving forward with their testimonies. We had dinner with them this week and then we stopped by a couple of days later and had a good discussion/debate about women and the priesthood. Al thinks that women are being exploited because they aren’t involved in any of the decision-making within the church, but we kind of explained about the roles of men and women and the priesthood being the authority of God, not of men. Carol said she really enjoyed the discussion and that Al is excited for us to come back next week to talk to them again. S. Martin said Carol has never said that before, so that’s a good sign. I’m excited to see the work moving forward in the area.
We had mission conference this week to say goodbye to President and Sister Mullen. Our new president comes in this coming weekend, and we will get to meet him next week. It will be interesting to see the differences of having a new mission president, but it’s also comforting to know that this is the Lord’s work. It’s amazing how we can make the transition between bishops and stake presidents and other leaders so smoothly. We talk to a lot of people from other churches who will tell us about all the drama that happens when they change ministers, and how half the congregation will stop going. It’s good to know that those who lead our church act as servants of God, and that even though we are all subject to human weakness, the work of the Lord will move forward. We memorized the Standard of Truth as a mission, which says “The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, ’til it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, ‘til the purposes of God have been accomplished and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” It’s amazing to be a part of this great work upon the earth. I’m so grateful for the gospel.Have a great week! I love you.Love, Carrie.

Stake Fast

Hello everyone! Our Stake leaders have asked that we all fast for moisture for our area this coming Sunday. We desperately need it, especially in the McKinney-Wylie areas, and I was hoping that if you didn't have anything else to fast for, that you could join us in our fast. McKinney is on the verge of implementing Stage 4 drought restrictions, and things are looking pretty brown up here!

Update

For anyone who has talked to me recently, they know I've been trying to get released from my calling teaching Primary. Well, they talked to me today and are officially releasing me! Yay! The girl who is taking over my class is very excited, but I gave her the run-down. Turns out they've decided to split up the twins I had in my class which should make her life easier. I don't know why they didn't think about doing that while I was PREGNANT!! That would have made for some less stressful Sundays. But in the end, it's all good. I'm excited about getting to go to Relief Society again!

The Adams' New House

We want pictures, or a blog entry about how much you love it! Something. Or, how about an address and we can all come and visit? Give us an update on how things are going! :)

Papaw, Ben and Mary

Me and Randi happened to be visiting Papaw at Hugley at the same time a couple of weeks ago. So we decided to take a picture of Ben and mary with Papaw because who knows when the next time that might happen!

Manuel is 70!

Wow, can you believe it? Today is Manuel's (Danny's dad) birthday, and if I'm not mistaken, he is 70 years old today!

So much for not posting

Hey everyone,
I know I said I probably wouldn't have time to post
much this week, and I don't, but this was interesting
so I figured I'd pass it along quickly. This article comes
from cnn.com and was posted this morning. I'd tell
you what it is but link kind of gives it away. Enjoy!
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TRAVEL/DESTINATIONS/06/21/temple.square.ap/index.html

-C.J.

Test Day Jitters

So I just realized a way to get people to post on the
family blog more often; just say something to get people
to worry about them and then they have to post to let
everyone know that they're doing okay. The test
yesterday went fine, but it was a little nerve racking.
I passed, but my class actually rated a 6 point curve,
our largest of the year and the first that was more than
2 points I think this semester. Anyway, yeah. There
was a lot of panicking among the med students yesterday
afternoon. Thanks for praying. It was nice to know I
have that kind of help. That's it for now. 2 more weeks
'till freedom.
-C.J.

ps- I have to say that cheap shoes does a lot to a girl...
I don't know why that seems strange to Mandie, but my
experience over the last year is that there is nothing that
brings an, "Are you Serious!?!" (and the accompanying
spasms of excitement) out of Randi quicker than hearing
that the $9.99 shoe store is the $4.99 shoe store for a week.

Test

Hey All-
CJ had a big test this morning from 9- about 11:30. If you happen to read this any time during that, can you say a little prayer for him? I am certain he would appreciate it and I know I would. Thanks guys! I love you all!
~Randi

Thanks and Congrats

For those of you that don't read the McMurdie blog, I just wanted to say thanks for everyone coming out to our housewarming party. I know it was a trek, and I know for many of you it will be the last time you ever make it out here, so it was nice. Check out the pictures on our blog!

Also, next time you see Brian, make sure to congratulate him. He got promoted to Senior Consultant! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

Our blog

Okay, we've jumped on the band wagon and we now have a blog. Check it out! Najera Family

Baby Blessing

The temporary date for Ben's baby blessing is July 2. We have to confirm with our bishop on Sunday to make sure that will work so I will keep everyone posted! We hope to see many of you there, but understand we're all busy people, so if you can make it we'd love to have you!