Halloween Time

Happy Halloween (tomorrow)!

I decided that I should post pictures of my halloween decorations, I crafted all of them! We had our trunk or treat on Saturday, so tomorrow night Glen and I will be continuing the Nielsen family tradition of making Aebleskivers. We'll be sure to take pictures!

Glen helped me paint these ones :)

Have a great Halloween everyone!

A Thrifting Miracle

Glen and I were recently called as Ward Missionaries. For my friends who aren't members of the LDS church, this means that we were given a special assignment to help the missionaries teach people who are wanting to learn about the church, new members, and members who don't come to church as much anymore. Anyway, as a part of this calling I have been going with another woman in the ward to visit a recently re-activated member of the church. We were asked to teach her from Preach My Gospel, the book that the missionaries use when teaching those who are investigating the church.

Scary! Neither of us went on missions and we were not very familiar with the book or the lessons. And we felt much less prepared than real missionaries who spend weeks in the MTC (Missionary Training Center) and teach and study from this book regularly. Regardless, we have had a lot of faith and have gotten better at learning and teaching. Anyway, from this calling Glen and I have already received so many blessings, one I would like to share here:

Because of this new calling I have been using my scriptures more than ever and have been taking them to all of our visits. These are the same scriptures I was given when I got baptized when I turned 8, which was 16 years ago. They are definitely getting worn out.

My 8 year old self

The inside seam is coming apart. 

And it is filled with little papers and handouts that I got in Young Women, Seminary, and Relief Society. Yeah, I save these! And they all fall out whenever I open my scriptures.

Anyway, I was telling Glen that I really needed new scriptures, but they can be kinda pricey ("pricey" for a poor law-student couple like us means anything more than $15-$20 for any one item). On the church's website we learned that a nice new set would cost over $50. We put the thought aside and decided mine would have to do for now.

On Saturday, we took a trip to my favorite thrift store. Glen was grumbling a little bit about going because it is 25 minutes away but he bucked up and we went. I found a cookbook I was interested in so I made my way to the furniture section and took a seat at a table while I flipped through the book. Glen came over to find me. He stood there for a moment and then leaned over my shoulder and picked up a small, gold-painted box that was sitting almost right in front of me. He opened it up, and inside was this:

A brand new quad, still in it's saran wrap.

Priced at $4.99.

We were shocked. This store was in downtown Austin. This is no Deseret Industries. We never find LDS material here! Or brand-new anything! We felt incredibly blessed. Heavenly Father knew the righteous desires of our hearts and allowed us to happen upon exactly what we were needing.

Trust me when I say I know it's not always easy to have a calling, let alone to magnify it. But when you give it all you have, Heavenly Father wants to bless you. This was definitely a tender mercy and a reminder to continue to try our hardest. I'm grateful for the opportunities the LDS church has given me to expand my comfort zone and develop new talents, and I'm grateful to Heavenly Father who believes I can do things that scare me sometimes like teaching.

Happy Wednesday everyone! 

Weeks 10-11: Family Reunion & Goodbye Philly

Week 10 in Philadelphia was spent gathering our belongings and preparing to leave. We were also preparing for Glen's family to come to town, which was week 11.

This Ellsworth gathering was particularly exciting because 3 of the 4 Ellsworth children got to play "host" in their own cities. We started out in Middletown, then to Philadelphia, and then to Richmond, Virginia. We had a blast! It was a week of sight-seeing, food-tasting, picture-taking, game-playing, familial fun-ness. That's not even a word but who cares. So, enjoy the plethora of pictures I am about to unload on you!

We started the week with a photoshoot by the fabulous Nancy Jones. Here are some photos from the shoot. Glen and I only had 2 different poses taken of us...and the one that was featured on her facebook page was our least favorite and we aren't even forward facing... but I posted the picture here anyway. Maybe when we have kids we will be more fun to shoot? Anyway everyone looks great!

At the Washington D.C. LDS Temple with all of Glen's siblings and their spouses.

Back in Middletown with the nieces! Playing "car"

And Cindy had a birthday!

Brant making crepes for the kiddos

Playing hide-and-seek with Uncle Breck

Philadelphia! First stop: Pat's Steaks, the original cheesesteak place. Not the best, but a tourist must-see.

Cute picture of Coralee! Thanks Glen, for ruining this picture.

Mabel basically ate a whole cheesesteak! Look at that bite she's taking!

Philadelphia Museum of Art! Everyone running up the steps to do the famous Rocky pose.

The next day we went to New Jersey for a beach day

Breck and Brielle were craving some real seafood, so we found this little place and had their cravings satisfied. Mission accomplished.

Then we were off to Richmond! Steve and Carolyn had just bought a house and they were gracious enough to let us all stay there! While we were there, Glen got a much anticipated phone call. One of the partners at Dechert (where Glen worked this summer) called to let him know they wanted to offer him a job after graduation! I can not tell you how thrilled/relieved/grateful we felt. And it was even more special that all of Glen's family was there to share the good news!

Hooray for guaranteed income!

Later Carolyn took us to a really great state park in Richmond. We walked across a really long bridge and then basically played in the river! It was so fun.

The next day we went to another really great park. It was partially inside, partially outside and had animals! The kids loved it.

Then everyone had to get back to real life and go home, including us. The night before we headed back home we spent the night at Brant and Coralee's house. We spent a lot of time with their family this summer and we were really sad to go!

And that was our whole 11 weeks in Pennsylvania this summer! We can't wait to return, but we're going to enjoy our last year in Austin.