Sunshine Sentiments

Thursday, June 4, 2020

SOMETIMES ANGELS COME WITHOUT WINGS

I got to spend a couple of hours with my angel daughter and her district today. It was absolutely wonderful! Everyone of these missionaries are truly amazing! I enjoyed each of them and their talents and their spirit! And I felt that the world is in good hands if these kids are our future leaders. (And... of course... my daughter is the angel without wings!) Katia is thriving, and growing and becoming all her Heavenly Father wants her to be. I'm blessed to call her mine!

Horton - Me - Katia

(This church building was huge, 3 stories, and beautiful.)

But these two girls have stolen my heart.

Yes, Horton fits right into our family!

Red Head = Elder Farmer - who I jokingly explained to him that his favorite football team was a bad life decision. Next to Elder Farmer is Elder Clark. He always smiles... or at least he was always smiling during our visit. And he just friended me on FB. :-) Then from left to right on the bottom:

Elder Moreno, who wants to go into the medical profession. He's quiet, but kind. Elder Robins enjoyed our outing to his namesake Red Robin. According to Katia, he is the Elder that everyone just really likes! I can see it. Me - Katia After Katia, Sister Tree. She loves fish and sushi. Maybe because she's from California. Sister Horton - who is an honorary DeGooyer. And last, but not least is Carko. (Sister Clark) She is so sweet and loves musicals and Diet Coke. We are kindred spirits!

Me and my girl!

We made a quick stop to the Twin Falls temple.

It's beautiful! Katia wants to be married there someday.

Like Mother Like Daughter

Me - Katia - Horton - GJ

I love these 3 women!

I count them all as friends, family, and role models!

I'm soooo grateful for the opportunity to see my angel!

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

2020 DeGOOYER DAY - COVID-19

The Shirts - The Theme

Today was a successful DeGooyer Day! One of my favorite days of the year! We celebrated Covid-19 style! We were Creative, Obsessive, Visionary, Insightful, and shared our Desires (hence: COVID) It was so wonderful! Here’s the breakdown of our fun day:

First we ate our traditional DeGooyer Day Donuts.

Skittles LOVED the donut!

Then GJ taught us a COOL painting technique using blending sky and water together with bright, wonderful colors. Scott’s painting is my favorite with the pine trees, but I loved the colors in my sky and my tire swing.

Our instructor: GJ

Scott

Kiara

Cody

The Lillywhites

Then I taught a short unit on poetry and we all wrote poems. I finally wrote the words to my song that I’ve been attempting to write for over 2 months. Now I need to add a melody. (I have the chords already.)

Katia called and taught us about the Plan of Salvation! And Sister Horton sang for us! Her whole mission is excited to celebrate DeGooyer Day too!

Sister Horton and Sister DeGooyer

teaching us.

Sister Horton's musical testimony!

Isn't my girl so cute?!

Next, we made some amazing goblets out of clay that Cody taught us how to do. He made a dragon! It was truly impressive. And Scott’s gnome was hilarious.

Fun with clay!

This is what talent looks like!

My "Full Disclosure" Challice!

Fun with Butterflies!

The Dragon was incredible!

The Gnome's beard goes all around the goblet!

I loved the vine and leaves!

Kiara taught us all how to do felting. I made two flowers. Felting is a great way to get out aggression because you literally just stab the felt over and over and over again.

Stabbing...

Felt Selfie!

The dinosaur was amazing!

GJ loves forget-me-nots!

Our instructor was amazing!

Another dragon from Cody!

We made mini pallets with Scott and then decided it was time for dinner.

We ate at the Blind Squirrel. Yummmm! And it was nice to get out!

Eating Out!

Learning how to color!

The Lillywhites!

Skittles!

GJ!

SD2!

When we got home, we finished up the pallets and made mini-cakes. We then learned how to make Dungeons and Dragons characters. My character was a high elf named Lavinia. She was a bard. It was kinda fun to be creative in story telling. Then we learned about Vision Boards. I think GJ and I will be making some this week. And we decorated the mini-cakes.

Love my yellow cake!

A gnome in bed...

Forget-me-nots are GJ's fave!

A gingerbread cake!

A heart with berries!

It tasted good too!

Yes, it was a super full day. Yes, it was a super wonderful day. And yes, the spirit of joy and unity and love and fun were all present. I’m truly grateful for my DeGooyer family! (Including our honorary members: Sister Horton, my sister, and the Lillywhites)

SISTER DeGOOYER - WEEK 47

Hello, everyone,

What a couple weeks it has been! Good news, our rules have been updated and changed! WE are now allowed *with masks on* to go into members' homes. We can eat with our wards again, teach in their homes, and enjoy their company. By the end of this month we should be back to attending short Sacrament Meetings. All of this is a part of one of my favorite games to play: Top 10 things I Didn't Think Would Happen on my Mission. I didn't really realize how hard quarantine had been on me, until we were given to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This quarantine has taken a real toll, but we have made it out and we are better for it!

Goodness, with the announcement of the rule changes, came an excitement like no other! I was bouncing off of the walls- you can ask my companion. I knelt down almost immediately and prayed that we would be able to see success in the next few weeks despite the face masks. I know we will! God is good and his work will hasten despite what we do or don't do- wear or don't wear! Hallelujah!

Sorry, it is a short email for today, but I figure it is better than nothing. I hope anyone and everyone who is reading this knows how much God loves them!

Sister DeGooyer

P.S. I feel as if I must also say this: I have felt really how much God expects of me this week! (sidenote: I got to go to my first MLC- which was amazing! I know even more now, how inspired the calling of Mission President is! I am so grateful for the Southward family- you can always feel their love when you are with them.) I know that God expects a lot of His children, but that is because He knows how much we can accomplish with our Savior and that is everything. Even when we feel as if we have completely missed the mark, when we kneel to pray, we have met the expectations of of our God. I am not explaining this well. In short, I am grateful for my Savior and what He has done for me!