Week in Review - July 20, 2015 - July 26, 2015

Hello home! This weeks email will be divided by topic, instead of days so you can stay with the theme.  So to start out..

Elder Holmes and Inkley

This week was Elder Inkley's last week in the mission. Yup, I'm gonna miss that guy, it was super fun to be his companion in Satipo, and have him be my ZL [Zone Leader] here in Huanuco.  

Something that was pretty cool this week that I got to do was go on divisions with him, one of his last days.  And I can tell you, did he feel the stress or what!  That is something I am not looking forward to. But it is ok.  I just finished 11 months yesterday!  Woah!  At least, that I am almost halfway done, things are going way faster, It is so hard to believe how the time is just flying, but only if you keep yourself busy!  There are a few times however when time doesn't pass to quickly and that's when you are at a Restaurant named San Felipes.  It's a chicken Restaurant (Surprise!) I will just say, terrible service, goofed up my order, messed up my receipt, and I sat next to a completely exposed chicken cooker exhaust pipe.  Yup. It was camouflaged  with paint to make it look like one of the pillars of the restaurant.  

Well I bumped into it, my arm was battered with Chicken Grease, and If I had stayed it would have burned me.  With all of that, they have us our soda without means of opening it (Glass bottles without means of cap opener).  I will tell you, with all of that, I went and asked for the owner. First they told me he wasn't in, then I told this little miss nobody if I went downstairs to the first floor if I would find them.  Sure enough I did. And in a very politically correct manner let him have it, and told him that I will NEVER recommend that anybody eat here.  I'm sure that hurt, as one of the few gringos that eats there now tells people not to eat there.  If I was in the states, I could have easily sued and won on this sinking disguised exhaust pipe and poopy service.  Did I get a new shirt form them, a coupon, something free, or even a mint?  No.  So that is for the world to see , do NOT eat at San Felipes.  Thank You.  Oh yea.  and this as the day we went to eat with the Bishop and his wife, and we took them out to dinner. He loved that I said something to the owner too.. Many times here the people are afraid to talk to the owner, or they just blame it on the fact that they just don't know better.  Well, they will never learn if nobody tells them.  

Talking about the bishop, funny story, Somebody bailed on Saturday night to give a talk, so bishop came over to me and asked me if I could give a talk about the Sacrament for 10 minutes.  I asked him if he was sure because this is the 3rd time I talked in 6 weeks, he said sure!  I love how you talk and don't hide anything and you burn the people when they need it.  Your example and your manner of talking with the members in the ward in this manner has really helped us, so Elder, I would like it if you could lay down the law with the Sacrament because there are always people who are late, and don't get to participate if they are late.  Oh bishop No problem.  I accept.  Whoo... Bible Book of Mormon, and I didn't call out by names, but counted how many people walked in late after the blessing.  30.  30 People.  I used scripture and laid the law.  I saw jaws drop, and right after they were shaking their heads with me in accordance. I hope they apply this to the following weeks.  Ugh... I am definitely developing different manners of speaking to the people here based on their needs.  And let me tell you, I can speak faster and cleaner when I am in the burning mode.  Haha...

Speaking of burning, the stake called a stake ward council meeting last minute, and nobody knew, but the majority went.  Basically the stake called everybody in just to burn the missionaries because there hasn't been baptisms in a few wards for more than 2 or 3 months.  They are comparing our numbers to a few years ago when they had more, but now they are less.  The thing that they have yet to understand is that we do NOT Baptize people who will become less active.  They just want us to baptize, and that's it. And this is something that the members finally understand, and it was a beautiful experience to see our members depending on us in the meeting. And these baptisms the stake has, they were all investigators that were taught for 5 months and it wasn't something fast and easy.  Here in the Huancayo Peru Mission, we try to baptize converts, not numbers, and I'm sorry if a few leaders don't yet understand that:  What I would love for them to show, is how many less active members we have rescued every month and how recently since President Henderson came, the attendance in all wards are climbing, and the wards are strengthening.  It's because we are as missionary here to fulfill our goals.  Baptize, Confirm, Retain, and to Activate. If they want to know where our progress is at them, maybe they should look at the other in forms we send in weekly. Ugh. As missionaries, we all understand our role and with the same help and clarification from the Seventy Elder Waddell, we were able to defend our position a bit.  If they only look at the Less Actives that are progressing, after 3 months that we have been teaching somebody, this individual is finally in their interview.  And interview for 2 hours! THIS is what I like to call progress.  The spiritual and temporal progress of one individual cannot be a number sometimes. Sorry.

To finish this off, this week a little girl that has down syndrome got lost this week.  So needless to say we went to help when we received the information the same evening.  We went for a few hours and helped out.  As of yet, I do now know where the little girl is, but I hope that they will be able to find her.

Woah.  So here is the sneak peak into the life of a missionary here in Peru.  Less Actives, that are finally progressing after 3 months, the struggle to find new investigators that keep commitments, stake meetings that makes us want to throw up.  And grass filled skirts with poppy service.

But this is what I signed up for right?


P.S.  Ward council.  I bought everyone who fulfilled with their duties a little chocolate.  Out of the 10 assignments, 6 of them finished, so these 6 received their chocolates.  And look, I received a reference of a family from one of them, and the rest  were joking that they would do what ever we need if we just bring chocolate.  Hahahaha....

Elder Holmes
Fúanuco, Perú   

Week in Review - July 13, 2015 - July 19, 2015

Lima, Peru Temple

Darn it!  I left my letter all written out in my room, so I will have to write it as I remember it this week. 

Monday -  Today we had a relaxing P-Day, not to much to write about, we played some Monopoly, and went to the chapel and played some games with the other missionaries.  In the evening though is when we had a great lesson.  We were teaching one of our Less Active Families that we are in the process of reactivating, and I decided that we should do something special for them this week.  So I invited the Family History Director for our ward to our Family Home evening, and also made a few laminates of the Temple in Lima and the Family Proclamation to the World for them.  But, with a twist, we laminated dates for when (If they remain active) do Proxy Work, and also Seal as a family in the Temple.  And they are laminated, so that they cannot change the dates.  It truly was a great family home evening, and the daughter who is like 25 came up to me a few days later in the church and told me that this is the first time that her family has desires to do anything with the church, and they have desires to go to the temple now, as before they didn't really place the importance, or the desire to go because it was to far.  But now, there are desires for them to go, and they really are happy for the little gift we made for them.  Their only homework from us this week was to put it up on their wall so they will see their goals daily.  It was a great night. 

Tuesday - Today we had our District Meeting.  As usual, because I am the district leader, I give a quick little training on something.  So this week, we did a training on the importance of the temples, and how we can help our investigators and the less actives to really understand the importance of the temple. 

After the District meeting we had lunch, and then went off to a lesson with another Less Active, spur of the moment.  And we found her husband there as well!  Usually that doesn't happen.  Quick background is that he knows a BUNCH of stuff about the gospel, a BUNCH, but still remains less active.  We had a lesson with them today about the 10 commandments, and how the Sabbath Day is mentioned in more scriptures then anything else in the 10 commandments.  I think we struck a nerve with them, because for the first time in the 10 weeks that I have been here he came to church.  And stayed for the 3 hours!  It was a great change to see in this last week. 

Wednesday - Only one big thing happened today.  We were teaching a family in the street because we usually don't teach inside of her house.  Well basically what happened is an old man, the father of the person we are teaching (The investigator is like 40 years old) came out and yelled at us in a very unprofessional way telling us that we shouldn't teach, and that she shouldn't listen to us and a bunch of dumb stuff... Yup.  She didn't come to church this Sunday for the first time in months.  Not quite sure what we are going to do with her, she loves church, but doesn't keep the commitments because of her father.  Well.....

Fursday (With the Accent that they say Jueves here they say it Fueves)
The highlight of today was our lesson with a lawyer that is a less active we are teaching.  I will be brief.  This has taken many cases that are shady in the first place, and that is still following with her with some of this individuals cases. Anyways, we were teaching this individual, and this individual was very exited that they were going to win this case.  Out of curiosity we asked what it was, and found out that there were some moral issues that this lawyer was avoiding to tell the judge which could drastically change the outcome of the case, and very well the well being of the child that is in this case.  I won't get into the details, but Satan worshipers, and prostitutes.  I never thought that I would have to remind a lawyer about their responsibility.  I asked this individual straight up what their responsibility is as a lawyer, and they told me.... To Preserve and Find Justice and the Truth.  And I straight up asked this individual if they were fulfilling with their responsibility to the common good.  And the answer was no.  I can tell you that this lawyer went to their case with the determination to lose, because they finally realized that some of the actions that this person was taking will very possibly have eternal consequences.  The case hasn't ended yet, and this lawyer has dropped this client as they do not want any future problems.

I will note we did not make the advice to her, merely we taught here about the morality of the situation, and that this individual should do all that is possible to find the justice and the truth, and not hide what this individual found out int he investigation from the judge. 

Woah.  Never thought I would be doing that in the mission either!  Just another thing to add to the list I guess!  And this person is now attending church, and has their interview scheduled with the Bishop. 

Friday-Saturday:  NO Pasa nada. 

Not sure if this is the Patriarch and his wife, they don't
look that old. lol

Sunday - Today was the day of Chicken Here in Peru.  So naturally, unlike any other day, we ate Chicken.  Surprise!  We were invited to eat with the Patriarch and his wife, they are super old, like 90 years old this week!  We had permission to eat their because our new pension that we will be changing soon was preparing the food, so there wasn't any issues there.  And I will tell you, it was very delicious.  Maybe because all day we didn't have even 1 grain of rice.  Ahhhh... No Rice.

Also, worthy of mention, I had a talk today.  15 Minutes.  Guess what the theme was!? The Mission Work.  Hahahaha..I took the theme and modified it a bit.  Plan of Salvation, and that now we know this, and are refreshed, what will we do with this information.  We need to share it.  It was super difficult to squeeze all of the Plan of Salvation in 15  minutes, but it is possible for me to do it, and speak very fast.  Woo hoo!!!  

Ward Council was also very good this week.  We talked about everything that we needed, and nobody complained.  It was great!

Oh... and this week I was shocked by the shower head 2 times.  It hurt.  I don't have much desire to use hot water right now,.... But sometimes, you just break down and do it....

Hope you love the photos, and the info from this week, all is going well here, and My little son Elder Cano is learning a bunch.... We will see if there are transfers next week or not, I don't think so, because I have to finish training, but we will see!

Elder Holmes
Huanuco (City of Dust), Peru

Week in Review - July 6, 2015 - July 12, 2015

Moroni 9:1
"My beloved son, I write unto you again that ye may know that I am yet alive; but I write somewhat of that which is grievous."

As usual, there usually isn't a normal week here in the mission, but I will do my best to describe the week we had here.  I'm sorry if there are many errors in this email, the keyboard doesn't respond very well to my typing here.  There is probably some squished up drugs or something stuck between the keys....

Starting with P-day, we went to a place named Pilcomoso, and as you will see in some of the photos it was a fun climb.  We did pass through some weird stuff, like witchcraft, candles and a million beer bottles offered as some sort of sacrifice... Yup, we pass though that part pretty fast so we could get to the top.  I uploaded some photos of that adventure , as well as where in the world went my little Lego guy.  Hope you all enjoy those!

This week we also had interview with President Henderson.  No big deal, I really like our President, the interview you always leave feeling a bit better, and ready to keep working. And it is a nice time to talk about our areas, and the needs that we have as missionaries in our areas, and our needs personally.  

So, this week we did a service project, we took apart a 50 year old couch so that a member could refinish it as part of his job.  All I could think about was the Frasier episode, this disgusting couch that nobody wanted, and Frasier accidentally tipped it over the edge and it was destroyed, and there was absolutely nobody who even made this material anymore. Well, this couch was like that, and As Frasier said, it is now the most expensive piece of furniture in his house.  Hahaha,,, this couch was so disgusting!  But we took it apart, and now it works well so that he can repair it. 

There were a few other things we did this week, but they weren't that big of items, I just wanted to make sure I got that in.  

Elder Holmes

Huanuco, Peru

Week in Review - June 29, 2015 - July 5, 2015

Well, here we go with another week...

Well, I wont do a playback of everyday, but this week was an interesting week.  Not because anything big happened, but you can tell that even when your numbers are low, if you are really working or not, based on how stressed you are.  So, with that, one could say that I am a bit stressed.  But we also need to remember that this is normal, because there is a healthy level of stress that helps us to do the things that we need to do every week.  

During this week we did a Zone Attack in my Area which is really helping us out, because the Area Book is not updated for anything, and there are people that I should be visiting but I have absolutely no idea where they live, or a phone number, and trying to give directions here in Peru is just the worst.  Through this Zone Attack we were able to locate about 6 more people that we can supposedly visit now, so this week we will be going to their houses.

English Classes are doing well, we are having people show up from other wards, so that is always a good sign.  Hahaha... What I am doing to get people to understand that I am a Gringo and that I can really teach English is that I am teaching them HOW to say the words and that I can teach them the Pronunciation.  

This week we also did have a chance to do some service for a family we found in the super high up section of Huanuco, where we basically demolished their path to their house so we could construct a new one. I'm not kidding, this dirt path to their house you would have to jump on parts of it so you wouldn't fall off the hill.  So, we showed up with a few picks and we got to work .I showed them how to make a proper path, and moved rocks, and finished it in less then 2 hours.  I can tell you it brought back many many memories of me digging the wall in our house every year when the dirt would fall. Guess that was for something, no dad? haha

I won't lie on another part, we are having a tough time finding new people to teach, and I am dropping a bunch of the people that we were teaching, and that we were teaching before in the previous transfer.  Sometimes, you can just tell that they don't want it, they avoid you, and just wont tell you to your face that they don't want to do anything.  Its harder when they know, and you know that they know they need it, but they still refuse it.  I guess that would be part of the reason I am stressed.  Another part could be that we are teaching a few people, that have some problems with the 10 Commandments, and it is our job to help them resolve their problems.  I guess that does mean that we are doing our job, if we are worrying so much about the welfare of others.  Sometimes it becomes overwhelming, but then I realize that it is only overwhelming when we don't have our priorities inline.  

All in all we are doing good here, there aren't any problems with us, I am teaching my companion the ways of the force so that one day he can leave and train another. 

Don't worry about us over here, we are doing good, some days and weeks just stretch out a bit sometimes, something that I know that all missionaries understand.

Elder Holmes
Huanuco, Peru

[Elder Holmes added this to our personal email, and we thought you would enjoy this.]

P.S. I will tell you, on July 4th I totally called my Zone Leader who is Elder Inkley my ex companion, and we sang the National Anthem.  I didn't have BBQ, it was difficult, but I knew that there was somebody at home eating some for me..  Hehehe

Week in Review - June 22, 2015 - June 28, 2015

[No pictures this week. He was having trouble with Peru's Internet.]

Ok, so this week will not be divided by days, but just by what happened.  I'm in the corner of my internet, and my hand hurts because it has to be shoved in a corner to use the keyboard.   
But all is well here!  This week we had a Multi Zone Conference here in Huanuco with Elder Wadell, and let me tell you, we learned a bunch.  Elder Wadell is one of the Elders from the first quorum of the 70, so it was fun to get some training from him. As usual, I directed the hymns.  Its like the people here know that I can do it, and it has just become a routine!  

This week we had a great opportunity to give some service to those in need.  From one of the streets in our area and for the sections above, where there are not any roads, they had their water cut like 5 days ago, and since then have not had water.  To add to this, they live super far away from the roads in respect to bringing in water, and the water tank trucks that bring water like 2 times a week cannot get close enough to the houses.  So with that, we noticed a great time for some service.  We started with one family and their buckets to bring water to their house, and then after that everyone else brought their buckets!  We were helping about 45 people in this little section with their bucks, and let me tell you, these roads and stairs to all the houses, they are not small.  They are steep and long!  We got a good workout!  I invited the other elders from our ward to help us out, so we could get some more people serviced.  It became a very good activity.  We have been doing a bunch of service like that this week, and have contacted a bunch of people this week only through service.  48 people contacted only through service.  we did not knock on one single door.  Ahhh... I love this so much more, but my back hurts!  I need Jennifer to walk on it!  hahahhaa [Our daughter Jennifer (almost 13) has a fun little talent of being able to massage your back by walking on it. Her dad has trained her from a very very early age. She knows exactly how to do it right.]

This week we also had a mini conference with President Henderson and his wife as a Zone.  Usually we do these as multi zones , but this time he wanted to be able to talk to us a bit more, so we did it like this.  I really do like the conferences when we get the chances, to have them!  

I will try to talk a bit more next week, maybe I will write it out first and send you a copy of the page, but you will then have to type it and put it in the blog....   

Things were good here over all.  Just because there wasn't power in the city all day of Sunday, and I'm super sore, it was a great week.  I hope that all is going good in home, and that you are all enjoying your summer!

Elder Holmes
Huanuco, Peru

PS: It wont snow this week.  It doesn't do that here... it isn't that cold.  [Okay, we need to explain this one. I guess wunderground.com has failed us. We would check on the weather from time to time and it looked like it was in the 20's at night and a snow was expected this weekend. NOT! I guess we will see I spelled it right or another weather site. Okay, I just checked, I have been spelling the town he is in wrong and to believe that my wrong spelling is actually a town in Peru. In case you are interested, here is the LINK. lol]

Week in Review - June 15, 2015 - June 21, 2015

Elder Holmes was able to attend the temple dedication via Satellite
for the new Trujillo, Peru temple. These are his temple recommend and handkerchief 

Well, I will need to let you all know... this week was one for the books, a bunch of stuff happened this week, and so as I have before I will go through it all one day at a time!

June 15th, 2015

Well, today was P-Day, and in the first part of today we had to move the sisters room, and uninstall a few of their things that are property of the mission.  Like their smoke detector and the water heater for their shower head.  Yes, I did the two, but it was all good.... But when we were doing that, I accidentally left my phone in the room of the sisters when I was reinstalling the new smoke detector.  Whoops.  Normally if president calls the missionaries for assignments like district leader or to train he does it the Monday night before the transfer... So I wasn't freaking out to bad, but of course... President liked to change things up.  He called my phone at lunch time... The sisters picked up.  Uh oh.... Sisters on the other side... I'm sure that looked great!  But basically i had to call president later in the day and found out that I will be training in the mission!  A New missionary!  Woo hoo!  I will leave tomorrow morning with the other missionaries that are in Huanuco that will be training as well...

Elder Holmes and Elder Cano

June 16th, 2015Ok, today was those goodbyes.  And after 9 hours of traveling to Huancayo, (normally it is only 5 or 6, but we were stuck in Ambo for like 3 hours, so that added some time to our journey.  I can tell you that I bought so much food on this trip, especially when I got stuck in there for 3 hours!  Ajhhjhhhh.  So, after all of this we arrived in the Mission Office at 8 PM, we got some dinner, Pizza Hut Wraps and Pizza, and I can tell you right now, that pizza destroyed all the missionaries!  All the bathrooms were loaded with missionaries... such a change in diet... I was so messed up.,  I needed my rice to get back to normal.  Haha. 

Capacitador means Trainer

June 17th, 2015

Ok, so this morning we had a training as the new trainers of the new missionaries.  Just a quick little meeting to remember how our training was, and to improve upon the experience that we had when we were learning how to be missionaries.  So, they all walked in, I still didn't know who was mine, until President did the role call, and assigned everyone to their companion.  My New Companion is Elder Cano, and he is from Lima, Peru, and is a super cool guy!  And guess what?  He knows a bit of English.  Yup, we are talking English now, so he can practice.  Woo hoo!  So cool!  After the training, we had some Burger

King for Lunch.  No Joke.  There is Burger king here!  and I got to eat the lettuce!  Woo hoo!  Yum yum!   

June 18th, 2015

Always wear your seatbelt! So glad he did and all is okay!

Ok, so today in the Mission Office we are still here, because it would take like 9 hours to travel back to Huanuco, so we hung out until the morning in the office.  I happened to snag a New DVD Player for our room, woo hoo, and placed a new order for the Scripture Case for the Book of Mormon that is always in my hands.  I will have a flag of California on the back, that will look very nice there.  Ok, so we waited until 10:30 to leave, and was all good, then on the way something happened.  My companion and I were in our car all calm and all, and then it began to rain on the road.  No big deal, but I forgot how crazy our taxi drivers are, and we were sleeping for a bit, then about 20 seconds before something, my companion and I woke up, it was really weird... Then we realized in a few seconds that we got into an accident.  My taxi driver was hydroplaning and we hit a concrete pole.  From the concrete pole which we totally riped out of the ground, we went in reverse off

the road as you can see in the other photo.  Backwards.. It was awesome!  We are all ok, there was no problems what so ever with us, but more then all it was because we were using our seatbelts!  My agenda and a few things in my front shirt pouch pocket went flying out to the back seat, but its all good. After that i looked at my companion which only has a few hours in the mission, looked at him and said, Welcome to the mission Elder!  hhahahahahhaa... You should be able to take the picture and put it into your GPS Software I left behind to see exactly where the accident was.  We changed cars, and it was all good, luckily we were traveling as a caravan with a few other cars to Huanuco and the missionaries, so we quickly loaded up into another car. 

After this lovely 10 hours of driving, car accident, and being stuck in Ambo for 3 hours, I was able to get our bags dropped off in our room, then pick up food, and off to the English Class.  Yup, that was a short lesson!°

June 20th, 2015

Today the main event was the Cultural Event going on in Trujillo, Peru, In Preparation for the Dedication of the Temple,. President Uchtdorf and Elder Bednar, their wives and a few cronies here from Peru where there to see the Activities.  We got to see them here as well in the Stake Center on the projectors as long as we brought some less active and investigators to watch.  It was really cool, dances from different parts of Northern Peru where this temple will be serving.  You can look it up on LDS.org and watch this part for free.  It was soo cool!

June 21th, 2015

Up close of the handkerchief that they handed out.

Today was the Temple Dedication of Trujillo, Peru!  Only those with Recommends to Enter the Temple could enter the Stake Centers here in Peru to watch the Dedication and participate in the dedication.  The little kids of 8 years or older could enter, but they still needed a little card, which I was able to snag one as a little recuerdo. [??]  As you can see from the photo I also got a white handkerchief which we use as part of the ushering in of a new temple.  Temple number 146.  Woo hoo!  I will admit though, we lost power in the chapel from 15 minutes before the dedication until 5 minutes after it starts.... As this is an extension of the temple for this activity, the doors were locked and nobody could leave.. it was a very interesting experience.  A super full stake center, which a bunch of quiet and confused people.  But, we only missed the prayer.  President Uchtdorf, Elder Bednar, Pres. Uceda, and a few others were there, one of which will be visiting the mission in a bout 1 week.  His name is Elder Waddell.  Uhh... Oh yea, the dedication was in English with a Spanish translator translating President Uchtdorf and the rest.  He even tried to speak a bit of Spanish.  Sorry Pres, only German is for ya... hahaha...

So, that was this week!  Loaded with adventures, and fun things to do.  I celebrated fathers day as a new dad in the mission.  I'm training!  And  had a car accident (I only told you guys in trust, something that I do want in the blog just so people know that when you use your seat belts it really does do its job, and here as missionaries, we are protected!)
Pizza Hut, English Class, and more.  I guess you could say it was a loaded week, and I am a bit tired... We will see what adventures this week brings!

Elder Holmes
Huanuco, Peru

Week in Review - June 8, 2015 - June 14, 2015

Happy Birthday Elder Holmes

Hello there!  Not a bunch of time to email you guys this week, but I will try to squeeze it all in... 

So this week I had a birthday!  Oh no, I am now 20.  But that really doesn't mean anything to me here because they all think I am like 28 (without the fake glasses) so the whole age thing has just passed and gone.  But, with that, I was able to enjoy my birthday in the Pension with the pensionista, and she went out and bought a cake!  Woo hoo!  A big fat vanilla cake with my name and everything.  Yup, that was my breakfast.  It was so funny too, I walked into the pension and they said, Happy Birthday! And I was all like, what?  I had totally forgot as had my companion.   It had completely slipped my mind!  But I enjoyed and am continuing to enjoy the birthday cake.  Yum!

The English Classes and Ward Mission Nights are continuing every week, with a bit more success every week. We are beginning to get references through these activities which is a good sign that they are feeling comfortable with us. Yea!  But with that in mind, We also had Ward Council as we do every Sunday evening. Yup, I burned them good. Really Good.  Uhh.....  The life of the missionary continues..

On Sunday I was also asked to give a talk for 15 minutes on the Missionary Work.  I was asked on Saturday. Whoops!  But it went well, I used a few different teaching manuals, and taught it from a different aspect because i am basically tired of teaching the same thing that we always give talks!  

All in all this was a good week, and who knows... this week is transfers... There might be some move around in our Area, there might not... Just wait and see next week... Because this week is when we normally have transfers, not the emergency transfer that I had to get into Huanuco again.  

A slice of cake and hot cocoa

Elder Holmes
Huanuco, Peru

P.S.  Thanks all for the Birthday emails and wishes!  They don't go unnoticed!