January 2025 - Jaxon's 22nd Birthday

1/5/25

Hi Leila,

I’m catching up on the stuff we did for this week that we missed out on writing to you but probably mentioned in the last call. Since Christmas and New Years were on a Wednesday I took the Thursday off after them to make a long weekend, Wed-Sun. Dropped Mum off in the early morning on Sunday the 29th at the airport. It was really foggy and I had to drive carefully. I dropped off Jaxon about 9:45am too, then it was just Erana and I at home. Kinda feels weird. But the married couples came for dinner. Mum had made curry chicken the day before for us. We played Catan after. For New Years eve, Mina and Tane came and Tyrell and Alisa came. We made Orange Chicken, pot stickers and won tons. Mina and Tane left early to go to a Moleni get together. We had the countdown with Alisa and Tyrell. We played Jack box 3 like last year. It’s a fun game. The next day Maya came to stay until Saturday. She brought some of her own food like mac and cheese lol. We had gotten some tortillas and cheese too. Thursday night I dropped them off at the Illuminaria light garden at Thanksgiving Point. Uncle Jody met them there and dropped them back off. Friday they went to a Ferguson dance at a chapel. They had some fun but they said the music wasn’t all that great. Erana says she has lost some confidence dancing without you lol. Saturday evening we ate at Uncle Scott’s, Some Midgley cousins were visiting. Your Uncle Tyrone, brother to Uncle Sheldon. His wife Sarah and 3 daughters were there, Camron, Cadence and Casman. I might have got one of those names wrong lol. They sang a nice maori song after introductions. You’ve heard it before, it’s called Tai Aroha. Take care, kia kaha, love you.

1/12/25

Hi Leila,

This week was work as usual. I filled in for mum to take and pick up kids from school a couple of the days. I video chatted with mum a lot at night before I went to bed. Friday Erana and I went and got fish & chips and pies from Sagatos because mum was always eating them and made me hungry. I went to the temple on Friday and did initiatories. Saturday we had a DnD session at Mina’s. It was fun. Also I found the Noah video. The sarcophagus of his wife was 18’ long. Today the Stake Youth Council spoke in our ward. The Theme is D&C 6:36, “Look unto me in every thought, doubt not, fear not.” That’s my message for you this week. He’s always there to help, strengthen, comfort and forgive so that you can become a better missionary and person every day. Keep doing your best and the Lord will show you that you don’t need to doubt or fear. “How do you know when you’re doing your best? When you’re trying to do better.” (My own quote from my mission, lol).

Love you and proud of you, 

Dad

Hello sis,

Not much happened this week. Just had to edit a few photo galleries for Spencer & Shaylee’s new baby, Aunty Ana and Mark, and Matiria’s wedding. The wedding photos are a pain to edit and I’ve been procrastinating. I have been a little stressed with my calling as a Stake Relief Society first counselor because my president wants to do a lot of things that are stressful and unnecessary. lol I have to pray for a lot of patience. This is a secret but Becca and Eric are pregnant! They will have the first great grandchild of the Moleni side. Anyways, I hope you have fun even though missionary work can be frightening sometimes. But sooner or later, you learn to forget yourself and put yourself out there and that's really when you will feel satisfaction and joy. Love you and let me know if you have any troubles!

Mina and Tane

Hello Leila,

We are currently at dads house watching home videos. Alisa and I made Sunday dinner a Japanese dish called Gyudon which is just thinly sliced beef cooked in soy sauce with onions then placed on top of rice. Not much has been happening with us lately. Last night Alisa and I did play Dungeons and Dragons with Josh, Uncle Jody, Wesley, Dad, Mina and Tane at Mina and Tane's house. That’s probably the most interesting thing that happened this week. Alisa and I got released from primary yay. Dad pretty much included what we did on New Years Eve. Anyways, we miss and hope you are doing well and staying strong. President Nelson has been expressing the importance of receiving personal revelation especially in our time. This is something I am going to try to work on this year. We love you and will keep you in our prayers.

Alisa and Tyrell

Winter break ended last week.  A bit after you left, we rearranged our bedroom and put our beds together to make a humongois bed and our wardrobes are against the wall on the other side of the room, so now there’s a bunch of space in front of the mirror.  Yesterday, dad and I went to Mina’s house because they were having a d&d session.  CoryxKenshin had come back and has been posting more frequently lately.  A new semester has started and only one of my classes has changed - fitness for life has changed to business office specialist.  I’ve been lazy a lot lately; doing nothing.  Nothing much has been happening.  I don’t know how I’ve been feeling lately.  I miss and love you.  - Erana

1/19/25

Hi Leila,

This week was another quiet week of usual work and stuff. I did a work team meeting lunch on Tuesday at the Black Sheep grill and had a yummy burger. Didn’t do much in the evenings. Had video chats with mum. She’s having fun and gaining weight in NZ. I’m trying to lose my weight again. I gained back what I had lost before the holidays. Very exciting that you are actually in Samoa now. I keep you in my prayers. Keep going strong and stay faithful and busy for the Lord. You won’t have time to worry about anything else. Love you so much, Dad.

Hi Leila! This week was pretty lowkey. I had a lot of meetings at work, and we had a special guest come speak to our Sales Team. His name is Bronco Mendenhall, who is a College Football coach - he coached at BYU for 11 years, and we learnt about setting and achieving high expectations. Mina got to speak in another ward today, and did really well! It is exciting to hear you made it to Samoa finally. It all starts now! Love, Mina and Tane

Hello Leila, Not much happened for us this week other than work. Dad made burgers for us today and we made our mango sago dessert. We did go to the temple on Tuesday at 8 in the morning to do endowments. This weeks lesson was about the First Vision. I had to recite the first vision account a lot like every day on my mission I had it memorized. The spirit carries the truth, including the first vision, to the hearts of those who are ready to accept it. Do you have it memorized? Anyways we love you. Tyrell and Alisa.

I can barely recall what happened this week.  I didn’t need to go to school on Tuesday as it was a social distance day.  I also had mutual on Tuesday and it was ice skating.  I connected with Annabelle fairly quickly and I thought she had matured but she’s still the same, which is kind of annoying, but she’s better than Zander.  Annabelle kept on calling me pookie.  I’m still weird.  I’ve decided a while back to explore old rock.  I like some songs from Motley Crue, Led Zeppelin, and other old school rockers.  Cory posted two videos recently, one of them being a Chilla’s Art game called ‘Parasocial’ and the other being a game called ‘Bad Parenting’.  I’ve decided to watch some of Cory’s older game plays of Resident Evil.  I wish some songs on Spotify and Youtube had clean versions as I haven’t been able to find clean versions of some songs.  I’m gonna try and get back into bass playing.  The Kansas Chiefs are gonna win the superbowl because dad said he saw a video of some guy getting a vision that The Chiefs would win the superbowl 3 times in a row and something will happen after.  The Chiefs have already won two times in a row.  Right now, we just watched What If and a new Star Wars show called Skeleton Gang - practically a Star Wars Goonies - and now we’re watching football.  The Baltimore Ravens against the Buffalo Bills.  I have a lot of paranoia and high imagination in morbid/scary things due to fear of confronting bizarre scary things or getting into scary scenarios.  I had a dream last night with you in it, I can barely remember what was in my dream, though.  My brain has comprehended that fact you have short hair, though, and not long hair anymore.  I don’t know how that happened so quickly in my dream since the bathroom upstairs is a blur between it being what it looks like now and what it looked like back then.  We learned about Joseph Smith and The First Vision in Sunday School today.  It’s cool.  Zander kept on interrupting the teacher and he was annoying the heck out of me, but I tried to stay patient and calm.  Tried.  I’m tired.  A few days ago, I woke up with two scratches on the inner corner of my left eye and a scratch on the outside corner of my right eye.  I don’t know how those scratches got there but they hurt for a bit.  I have a hectic sleeping schedule.  Some days I fall asleep quickly at the time I’m supposed to, other times I take an unintentional nap after school and I don’t go back to sleep at night till late.  Or the same previous scenario happens and I can’t stop sleeping.  Kiko has gotten even more cuddly since you left.  Mum and Jaxon are coming back home from NZ tomorrow.  We had bacon burgers for dinner today; I cut the melon and tomatoes.  The melon was yummy.

Love, Erana

1/26/25

Hi Leila! How have you been, how's Samoa? I don’t really have much to say, but I just got back from New Zealand, it was pretty fun, well needed vacation, super relaxing and stress free and peaceful. Sky and KK are getting olderrrr. And Pumpkin is another argumentor just like you. Super annoying sometimes lol jk. The weather was so nice too, super sunny, I got more tan a lil bit. Mom will probably tell you everything of what we did in New Zealand. Anyways thats all I can think of right now, hope you are doing well. Always trust in the lord! Love, Jaxon

Talofa Leila,

I had the worst period of my life and I cried through my cramps. Tane took care of me really well. My husband is the sweetest and the best. We are both practicing the guitar more. Tane is my teacher. I hung out with Louisa and Serina the other night to have a girls yapping night. I also went with Julie to Barnes and Noble at night because the 3rd book of Fourth Wing came out and Julie wanted to buy a copy once it came out. It was fun. It snowed quite a bit. I heard Savii is the best island and is paradise. Cant wait to hear how the work is going with you. Don’t be too hard on yourself, have fun and be cheery!

Love, 

Mina and Tane

Hi Leila, nothing interesting or exciting happened for us this week. I started school at SLCC and am taking an in person class in architecture. Alisa and I made a strawberry sago for the family today, you know the coconut soup with mangos and jellies we usually make, but strawberry this time. As i’m writing this we are just watching moms videos from her trip to New Zealand. Mom brought us back a lot of treats. Our new favorite is the lamington mars bar and the mango coconut wittakers. Alisa loved the New Zealand treats. Anyways we’ve mostly been busy with boring adult life work and school. We hope you’re doing well and loving the people and area. We love you, Alisa and Tyrell.

Hello Leila, I can barely recall what happened this week, but I’ll try my best.  Mum and Jaxon came back from NZ and got the family some treats and nicknacks.  Mum got me some things to decorate the room, but it’s frustrating me because I don’t know how to decorate my room.  I’ve got so many things I want to showcase, but we don’t have any shelves except for our wardrobes which are cluttered.  I also want to hang things up on our room wall like the Jesus pictures and my hotdog, but mum says dad has to Ikea our room but he won’t.  My grade in my Earth Science class went down to a C- and my grade in my English honors class went down to a C.  Earth science is because I got a 2 on a test and that’s the only grade she’s put into the gradebook so far.  English is because these kids were being naughty so our teacher made us do a test which I did horrible on because I was still confused on the thing that we had just barely learned.  Gerunds and infinitives are hard :(.  My friends are shipping me with my guy poly friend because he’s literally the only guy friend they see me hanging out with.  I see him as a cuzzie though because he’s a lot like how Dray or Kage used to be, kind of.  I’m silently stressed from school because so much is happening and I have to make sure I take all the right classes so that I graduate.  My counselor said I’d probably only have room in my whole high school schedule for two elective classes.  I want to try woodwork and that smelting class or whatever it’s called.  I’ve been thinking of what I want to do for the future.  I think I want to get into IT things and computer stuff like dad, but I don’t know because that stuff confuses me right now.  For some reason, the thought of pursuing IT and computer stuff has popped up in my head randomly recently.  I’m trying to find the plug for the electric piano in our study room so that I can have a piano in my room.  Cory had been posting more regularly.  He posted a video called Parasocial - meaning someone who thinks they have a relationship with a youtuber/streamer when they in reality don’t - a tiktok try not to laugh video right when tiktok got banned and unbanned, and a video of Poppy Playtime Chapter 4.  I had a nightmare sort of a while ago and it was on my mind for a long time.  Usually I would have fantastical worst case scenarios for my nightmares like a monster chasing me or a zombie apocalypse, but this dream was more realistic which is why it scared me a little more.  I think it was ‘cause I watched Cory’s video of Parasocial as this was a key thing in that game, but I had a stalker in my nightmare.  In my dream I was older - like a young adult - and I had a stalker.  It wasn’t really stalking as I knew I had a stalker and I was running away from them, so it was like my stalker was actively chasing me and I knew it.  It was very scary and I had family and friends in my dream and I’d tell them I had a stalker chasing me and they would try to help me to try and catch the stalker or get away from them.  At the end of my dream the stalker caught me and that was when I woke up, but I can’t remember what my stalker looked like, as if their face was blurred out of my memory.  Anyways, today in church Brother Jensen announced that Jared got his mission calling.  He’s going to New York on a Mandarin Chinese speaking mission.  This week was pretty good.

Lots of love, Erana

Talofa Sis.Wihongi, 

 Jaxon and I got back to Utah on Monday 1/20. A good day, Trump's inauguration day! No one sat next to my Delta flight home so I was able to lie down and was very comfortable. I also paid for a same day change in LA and caught an early flight from LAX to SLC. It was so nice to come home early and not have to go to SFO and get back at night. Dad and Erana picked me up. I unpacked some goodies and gifts when I got home and then I spent some quality time with my JayBean. We picked up Jaxon and then we unpacked his stuff (Jaxon and I had paid for a 2nd bag each) We had tons of chocolates, 3 feijoa smoothies, 1 bottle of watties and tons of lollies. My NZ Christmas ornaments, jewelry including bone carvings and pounamu. Your Christmas gifts from Aunty Trisha & Leo will be waiting here for you when you get back from your Mission lol. Tyrell and Alisa came over and got their goodies and gifts. 

The next day I was back at work. I gave my Admins some NZ choco’s and a kiwi keychain. I had a nice relaxing day at work no ISS (In School Suspension) and just tried catching up on attendance. I was a little jet lagged and was dozing off now and then. Same thing for Wednesday. Instead I had 4 people in ISS. Some kids were happy to see me and asked where I had been. I went to Mutual and forgot Erana is now in the older girls class. The Masina’s taught us Youngin’s about the Temple. Thursday I substituted Biology class till 4th period and then I had ISS, lunch detention and ISS again, got some groceries from Winco. Friday ISS with kids again, while I was gone kids sluffed or misbehaved lol. I have a lot of down time at school. I'm able to prepare for my Young Women class lessons. 

Saturday slept in and then Dad and I woke and had breakfast. Dad and I went to Walmart and bought stuff for home. Went to Dollar Tree and bought some more stuff. It was too cold so we came home lol We tried to do productive things, cleaning and organizing. I lost my white and gold maori earrings from NZ and tried to look for them. I dyed my hair and put the pork roast on in the crockpot.

Sunday, went to church and conducted and taught my ‘BrookBee’s (A name I came up with for my younger young women class since we don’t have names anymore. I combined Brookshire and Beehive’s together and got ‘BrookBee’s lol). Seren and Lydia also helped teach the lesson. Our time was cut short because the Young Women Presidency girls were getting set apart. Erana is not the older class Secretary. 

Wedlings came for dinner, we had Pork roast, mashed potatoes and squash. Mina bought grapes and Tyrell bought Saigo (asian otai). Tane could not fit his ‘Influence’ 2xl hoodie so he gave it to Tyrell. But Dad’s cousin ‘Te Kauri’ his wife Edith gave me a green fleece Maori top and I gave it to Tane and it fit. We watched some of my NZ trip in the basement. And now I’m in my room writing you this letter. Hope you are well! Bro. Leonard said your plaque has been hanging up now for 3 weeks, and I haven’t even seen it. I forgot to look today at it too, so you won’t be able to change your scripture, no worries it’s still a good one! Love you and Kia kaha! - Mum xxx