Howard, Amelia

Hey everyone! I know it's been a while again... oops.  The past couple weeks have been crazy! My family went on a skiing trip after Christmas. It didn't exactly go as planned, but I did have a great time. :)  Be prepared for a ramble! We had a great Christmas. I got a couple books, Paden got me a cool knife, my parents gave me a heated blanket, and a few other things. I was able to spend lots of time with my siblings over the break. We played games, watched some movies, and read together.  We rented a VRBO at Bear Lake so that we could go skiing at Beaver Mountain. It was a big, awesome house! We all loved it there. The bunk beds were super cramped, though, and Jack and I hit our heads a few times trying to get in and out of them. Instead of the typical pair of beds, they were three beds stacked on top of each other with very little clearance between them.  Skiing was awesome! I hadn't skied in a few years, so I had to relearn everything. We spent some time on the li...

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been a while!  So much has happened in the last month! Some of the main things that I remember are that my family and I went on a trip to southern Utah for Thanksgiving, I got  super  sick, and my temple schedule changed. I've also been making more of an effort to vary my scripture studies a bit. :) And I made some time to visit SeaQuest again. It was nice to see some of my animal friends!  1- Thanksgiving trip 2- Sick 3- New temple schedule 4- SeaQuest 1- Thanksgiving was so fun! I got to stay at Grandma and Grandpa Johnston's house one night, then spent another night at Grandma and Grandpa Howard's, and also stayed with Uncle Dave and Aunt Shelly's family for a couple of days. We went hiking around Dixie Rocks and went on another hike to Red Cliffs! I enjoyed both hiking trips, but Red Cliffs was definitely my favorite. There were so many gorgeous rock formations and cool desert plants! I also climbed up a couple rock walls I wasn't so...

Hi everyone! The past few weeks have been a crazy blur.  My services are all going well! I've had a few more funny moments at the elementary school. One little girl asked me how old I was, so I told her I'm 20. She gasped, "You're too old for McDonalds!" XD  Personally, it's not my favorite fast food place, but I do like their breakfast food. I don't feel too old for it yet. XD When I went to the Bird Refuge last week, I got to sort through the contents of some storage bins. One was all about bats, and it had a couple little skeletons inside of it! I can't believe how small and fragile they are! I got a picture of one. The other crate was full of models of different animal tracks and scat. XD The model tracks were made of a really greasy, nasty-feeling rubber, so I didn't like touching them. I had to rebag and label some that were old and faded. And the scat models were jars full of candy. XD Everything from milk duds to represent deer poo and melt...

Hi everyone! :D (I wasn't sure what to title this email. XD) Not a ton of updates for this week, but I'm trying to get back in the habit of writing  weekly  emails instead of monthly emails. XDD I had a pretty good week! Enjoyed serving at the elementary school and going to the temple. I got to read a lot of scriptures because my new temple rotation now includes a lot of hallway waits.  The weather was really bad at the Bird Refuge again. Only two people came in asking about Tundra and Trumpeter swan sightings. There are some swans flying in, but the rain and wind caused them all to hide. I did get to talk to another volunteer, though! We geeked out about Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians (a hilarious book series by Brandon Sanderson). Turns out we've read a lot of similar book series! She reminded me  so  much of myself as a kid! Loves to read, writes her own stories, has a broad vocabulary. XD  I also got to attend the weekly meeting with my district! We ha...

Hi everyone! I know it's been a while since I've done a weekly again.  The past few weeks have been crazy but awesome. I've really enjoyed my services, and I've had some great chances to spend time with family. :)  1- Willard Elementary 2- Bird Refuge 3- Temple 4- Camping Trip! (Longest part, just a heads-up!) 5- Halloween 1- Willard Elementary has been really fun and fulfilling. I've helped out in the classroom a bit more because there were substitutes for a while, and yesterday there wasn't time to take kids out for counting and number recognition. Benton's been teaching the kids in the classroom that my name is 'Melia', so I hear that quite often now. XD Some of them still call me Sister Howard, though, and the rest usually call me 'Miss Teacher' despite me telling them I'm not a teacher, just a volunteer. XD  I'm learning a  bit  more Spanish, but most of the kiddos still know way more than I do. I honestly love sitting behind the...

Hi everyone! I know it's been AGES since I last sent a weekly! I've been sick off and on and I honestly just forget to write about stuff. XD I'll try to break it down with a summary: 1- Temple 2- Willard Elementary 3- Bear River Bird Refuge I'll probably ramble about each of these, haha. Lots has happened in the past few weeks. Biggest updates are my new service opportunities, though! 1- I'm still serving at the Brigham City temple! I'm really adjusting to the schedule, even though it's still rough to wake up at 4:30 on temple mornings. I make sure to go to bed early the nights before, and I've been sleeping like a log most of the time. XD  I'm also to the point where I don't often need a nap when I come home. :)   1- I've been able to read the scriptures a TON in the temple. Found some verses in Moroni that I really like. :)  I'm mostly reading the Book of Mormon in the temple to get more familiar with it, and because with Come, Follow M...