Welcome

We welcomed Elder Figgins home last night with loving, open arms. We are so proud of him. He will be released this evening and is welcome to continue his mission anytime if he chooses. 

It was so wonderful to see our boy and get an amazing welcome home hug. I just love him so much and am proud of him. The dogs were ecstatic and wouldn't leave his side the whole evening. Todd has been following him around like a puppy dog; he sure loves his boy too. 

Santa even managed to stop in and put a few goodies in his stocking. 

 

Christmas Call

We weren't sure if Caleb would be able to call home from the MTC; we had been told it to plan on it. Turns out, we were given a 30 minute call window. It was so great to hear his voice, and I bawled like a baby afterwords. 

We miss him so much and pray for peace and happiness for him. The MTC has been such a struggle, but he is almost ready to fly outta here and begin his service in New York. 

 

 

 

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

Soon after Elder Figgins entered the MTC, I set my phone to ring church bells when an email from Caleb comes through. 

This snowy Christmas morning we unexpectedly heard the bells! It was a Christmas greeting from my boy. This small gesture made my day. 

"Well can't you see that it's just [snowing]? There ain't no need to go outside" - banana pancakes,  Jack Johnson.  

Marry Christmas!!:) I love you! 

 

Christmas Eve Tradition

We have an unusual Christmas Eve tradition in the Figgins family. Grandpa gives his usual toast of  "wise me still seek him" then we all give each other cheers and good wishes. After drinking down our sparkling 

Martinellis, we throw our glasses into the fireplace. This year I got to throw two glasses; one for me and one for Elder Figgins. Sure miss my boy, but am glad he is where he is. 

 

 

A Missionary Christmas

A MISSIONARY CHRISTMAS

I skipped the sales after Thanksgiving.

The thrill just wasn’t there.

No pictures taken with Santa Claus.

My decorating has no flair.

His presents are shoes, shirts, and ties,

two suits and socks… no fun.

I’ve bought him all white clothes because 

this year I’m giving Christ my son.

I’ve spent more time in the temple, 

my testimony stirred.

I’ve re-read November’s Ensign, 

felt strength come from His words.

Our family prays more frequently. 

My tears are quick to run.

Abraham seems closer because 

this year I’m giving Christ my son.

I wonder how those Lamanite mothers 

gave their sons to war?

Or how the pioneers chose Zion—

their sacrifice was so much more.

My loss will be his presence. 

I’ll miss his smile a ton.

For two years we will pray for him. 

I’m giving Christ my son.

I stare at his face when he’s not looking. 

I memorize his eyes, their shine.

He’s always hungered for the part of him, 

that makes his soul divine.

The stories and lessons he always heard. 

His choice and mine are one.

I’ll put my faith in God’s hand. 

This year, I’m giving Him my son.

Past gifts have lost their glitter.

I think I finally understand

Christ’s birth should be celebrated by 

giving Him a hand.

It’s because I know Christ lives and reigns 

that all his packing’s done.

My gift has taken years to make. 

This year I’m giving Christ my son.

I know there’s One who understands 

the sacrifice I’m making.

Who knows the gift I willingly give, 

the toll it will be taking.

For He has done it all before. 

Greater love — there could be none.

For years ago God gave to me 

His only begotten son.

The hands I washed, the hands I held, 

the hands I taught to pray—

Now knock on doors to find the ones 

who will listen to what he’ll say.

Because I know Christ needs him 

until all the gathering’s done.

My gift has taken years to make. 

This year I’m giving 

Christ my son. 

Author Unknown

Ward Mission Plaque

I asked Caleb for his favorite scripture and a picture to put on his plaque. He chose Moroni 10:5. 

Moroni 

Capítulo 10:5

 5 y por el poder del Espíritu Santo podréis conocer la verdad de todas las cosas.

Pacos

And our pacos... 

number 1 is a whale with a lions foot, horse legs in the front, a goatee, big nose,  unicorn horn,  pierced ear,  eyebrows,  wings, dragon tail that turns into a mandala,  and a helicopter blowhole.

Number 2 is a praying mantis with a kangaroo pouch, elephant nose,  gills, acorn head,  fingers for front arms,  a tail  that turns into a snail with a scorpion tail holding a fly swatter that's attacking a human fly. oh and he has robot legs

Number 3 is an armadillo grenade that shoots laser beams out of its eyes

Number 4 is a racecar turtle with rabbit feet,  a goatee,  pierced ear, and a cotton tail. 

Number 5 is a fish chameleon, whose tail turns into a lollipop which he is climbing on,  with a rainbow pouring out into a pot of gold.  he also has butterfly wings and a fist for a tongue wing he is punching a guy in the face with. 

Number 6 is an eagle head,  with elephant heads/trunks that turn into octopus tentacles,  with an octopus beak for a belly button,  and I don't even know what his legs are.  

So yeah.  we are basically completely insane haha.  this last one is just us drawing dotted lines like crazy people cus for some reason we enjoy it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MTC Week 5: Real Situation

Check out the real situation

Nation war against nation

Where did it all begin? when will it end?

Well it seems like

Total destruction is the only solution"

Real situation- Bob Marley

So this week was... another week in the prison which is the mtc. we are all going completely insane!! we have decided that this crazy amount of media deprivation is making us way more creative (or in other words... totally insane).  we have thought of the craziest stuff that we never would have otherwise. 

 we have started drawing ¡Paco! which is where we start with a normal animal and keep adding insane features until we have the craziest creature thing drawn on the board. And his name is always Paco.  it's fun.  I'll send pictures and explain some of them.  we also constantly come up with the funniest band names,  and song names. 

when I get back,  Lang and I are starting a punk band called definitely plugged up.  first album will be called schmacked. I'll send a picture of the album cover.  

One good memory of this week is when Elder Richey, Elder Lang and I were standing in a row at the urinals harmonizing to take it easy by the Eagles.  that was pretty funny.  

This Sunday we had the piano guys for our devotional. it was pretty cool,  he is crazy good at the cello! they played one of their Christmas song videos where they used a grand piano and everyone was plucking and tapping all over it.  one guy used a piece of paper with something under it so it wasn't quite touching what it was on,  and it made a great snare drum sound,  so we have implemented that into our makeshift drum set.  if I could send videos,  I would send one of us jamming on uke and cardboard box drums. but email doesn't really work with videos.  

The funniest thing about this week was the two days after we did leg day at the gym.  Elder Lang,  Elder bly and I all are pretty active so we do a decent amount of working out. my companion,  Elder dyerly  is not at all used to that.  he's never done leg day before in his life,  which means you get rrrreeeaaalllly sore afterwards.  so those two days he was hobbling around like an old man.  it was super funny.  it's probably a good thing he only has one more week with us... we are all sorta relentless haha.  oops. but so is he,  and so are we with everyone else in our district.  it's pretty great. 

Now that I have my uke,  I take it with me wherever I go.  it is the greatest thing ever.  I'm having everyone I know here sign it,  and I'm putting all of our inside jokes on it,  so it's covered in writing.  I love it. 

We found out that Chris Farley didn't actually die. he just became a Mormon and works at the mtc. I saw him at the devotional last night.  it was so funny! 

Update: the no nips rule is still working.  

Otter than that this week was just another week.  spiritual stuff... well,  nothing crazy awesome or worth sharing.  just normal missionary stuff.  I'll talk to you all in a week! 

Elder figgins 

Here are a few pictures.  some of my signed uke,  my haircut (yes I finally did it >:( not happy about that but oh well) a few at the temple with Elder Richey and battiloro.  the rest are of dyerly. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MTC Week 4: Miss You

"WHERE ARE YOU? 

AND I'M SO SORRY

I CANNOT SLEEP

I CANNOT DREAM

TTOONNIIGGGHHTTT" 

-Miss you by blink 182

That's the song of the week... just because we constantly belt out that part of the song in the most ridiculous exaggerated way.  (Ifyou know the song you'll understand why that's funny cus he is super whiney to begin with haha... but for anyone that doesn't like punk rock,  you probably won't wanna hear it.  sorry grandparents.) 

This week has been pretty good.  Lots of funny things have happened, so I'm just going to get down to it because let's be honest,  all you guys wanna hear about is the funny stuff we do.  Everything else is boring missionary stuff!;) But I will tell some spiritual stuff at the end so you think I'm at least doing some missionary stuff heehee

So when the new elders showed up last Wednesday,  we wanted to think of a good prank,  so we decided we are going to tell them that it's an mtc rule you can't show nipples. We all got in on it and are playing it off really well.  We wear our towels like girls. So when we saw one of them with a shirt we would tell them very seriously how we know it's kind of a stupid rule,  but they really push exact obedience here so we try to follow it.  and it has been working! heehee. Some of them have started wearing their towels up high,  and when someone doesn't we call them out on it and they remember and quickly cover up.  It's hilarious.  We are trying to get them all to believe it so when we leave,  they perpetuate it with the next elders. 

Thr byu boys choir.  It was way funnier than it should have been.  Some of the guys in the choir were so ridiculously enthusiastic.  It was so funny.  Then they started clapping and went all gospel.  Don't get me wrong,  they were ridiculously good,  and some songs were super spiritual,  but we couldn't help but laugh at most of it.  We are terrible people haha. 

Update on mi compañero... he is a legend. This whole week,  he has had a cold,  and he hoks loogies into napkins like a maniac! It is ridiculous! We call it the dragon cough because he sounds like a flipping dragon breathing fire! It is also hilarious because hermana durston sits right next to him in class and she gets so grossed out every time.  Very  comical.  

Also,  he sleep talks every single time he sleeps it's fantastic! He goes into rem sleep like,  within thirty seconds which is freaky.  His  eyes go crazy.  The best story about it is one night when he was sick, we're all sitting there,  and he just mumbles "I'm gonna down" so I ask him why and he says something like "the water is coming in,  obviously."  Lang says, "I'll pass you abooie so you don't drown.  sleeping dyerly just says "uuugggh you're such an idiot" so iall him where we are and he says "we all live in a yellow submarine"... which makes sense cus a booie wouldn't do anything in a submarine haha.  Then we decided to try and change his dream so we told him he fell in a well, which worked! Then after a little conversing he we figured out he was now at his house and we told him we were robbing him blind.  He tried to barter with us and we ended up buying his TV from him haha. Sonehoe the story escalated and we ended up killing him in his dream which was crazy because when that happened he jerked awake! We were like wwwoooaaahh we killed dreaming dyerly!! So apparently,  when you die in a dream you do wake up.  Kinds awesome, but we also felt really bad and decided not to do that again. 

Oh then he dropped a can of soda in the classroom and it exploded all over everyone! it was crazy! So yeah,  mi compañero is pretty legit.  

The best quote of the week is from Lang... we had taco bell one night,  which he hated with a burning passion.  so he got soup instead.  Then  he says to all of us... "I'd rather kiss a dude and eat this chicken noodle soup than eat taco bell!!" All of us instantly stopped eating and looked at him like WHAT!? you're crazy!!! It was pretty funny.  He won't be let off the hook for saying he would kiss a dude. 

I played violin this week,  that was awesome!!   I'm going to play in sacrament this week,  so that will be great. It was definitely "novocaine for my soul"-eels. 

I also got a uke this week. that was the best! The night I got it dyerly was super sick so we went back to the dorms around 7. I got to just chill and jam till 9:30 when everyone else gets back.  It was the best thing ever.  (probably should have studied or something but it was the first time I held an instrument in a month!!) 

Okay so now for a few spiritual things I guess;) 

I got my first baptism commitment! Her name is Patricia and she is a real investigator we have been teaching. (I'm like 99% sure she is.  We teach people,  and don't know if they're already members or not.  But I have the feeling she was for real.) It was an awesome experience!

Last night,  we had Elder Holland come for our devotional.  that was the.  coolest.  thing.  ever. He gave the entire group a blessing.  He said it was as if he was putting his hands on each of us individually.  It was so awesome!! and his talk was the best.  He talked about the importance of the book of Mormon. .. the same topic as my farewell.  He did a much better job. Then he used Alma chapter 26 all throughout his talk,  which was the chapter I spent half an hour studying that morning for personal study.  Those  two thingsmade me  feel prepared for what he had to say.  It was awesome. 

Anyway, there's a lot of other funny things I could talk about but I'm finding that they aren't as funny when I try to write about them haha so I'll refrain;) 

I love you all! till next week. 

On Dec 14, 2016 9:52 AM, "Caleb Figgins" 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MTC Week 3: Time

Caleb's email address: caleb.figgin@myldsmail.net

Keep on writing to him! He loves it. Here are some excerpts of his letter:

I'm not writing you some fancy letter,  I'm talking to my family and friends.  This is the one day a week I'm allowed to relax a little so I'm taking advantage of it in any way possible haha.  So anyway... this week was alright.  Everything sorta mixes together so I don't even know what to talk about.  As far as class... we still sit in the same room for 16 hours a day... it all sorta just blurs together haha.  "I've become comfortably numb"- Pink Floyd.

Spanish is going good... I'm picking up more and more.  Understanding is getting way better. I don't have to strain to figure out what people are saying... usually... I'm able to talk in Spanish more.  In lessons I don't have a script anymore,  I just say what I wanna say.. but I totally sound like an autistic caveman.  So it's mas o menos, but está bien.  It makes for lots of really funny jokes.  I told a guy that I am God,  in stead of I know God..(whatever it was I  was saying.  Can't remember)

We found a piano this week so every meal we eat as fast as we can and go play.  Elder Lang and I have figured out how to play a bunch of songs... hotel California (the Eagles),  Layla (Eric Clapton),  three little birds (Bob Marley), da**it (blink 182), miss you(blink 18),  stairway to heaven (led zeppelin), wish you were here (pink Floyd), and tons of other stuff... it's pretty great.  Gives us a release before it's back to the classroom for more Spanish haha.

We found out that my companero,  Elder dyerly talks in his sleep and it is the most hilarious thing in the whole world! He falls asleep in class sometimes and we can talk to him and he is a total savage haha.  He totally roasts everyone and it's great.  It happens every time he falls asleep too. It's pretty great. 

One night we got into some crazy science and math topics and had this huge discussion about everything crazy... like quantum physics,  string theory,  crazy calculus concepts... it was super fun,  and it was a good break from the usual topics of girls and poop. I feel like that needs some explaining.. the food here messes. You.  Up.  So it has made for a ton of interesting bathroom conversations... basically we have All reverted back to being in fourth grade.  And girls... well.... we're around a bunch of guys 24/7 so of course we talk about girls all the time. 

Oh yes,  I'm going to be sending home a song of the week (if you haven't noticed, music is kind of a huge deal to me and it's literally constantly playing in my head. It is definitely my biggest distraction but I'm not complaining.  The fact that I can totally listen to a song in my head helps me survive) so for the first week,  the song was people are strange by the doors because when we got here every missionary that was already here seemed crazy. Week two: I'll be here a while by 311. Pretty self explanatory. This week,  the song is time by pink Floyd.  "Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day... fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way" it is pretty fitting.  I do get a ton of work done on the mission,  and I work really hard but sometimes I also feel like I'm the stress reliever of the district.  I'm the one that makes everyone laugh and I am more laid back than anyone else in the district and I definitely fritter and waste a lot of time in an offhand way... not sure if that's a good thing but it's my personality and I don't know how to change that haha

Anyway,  the mtc is a very different place... still not used to it in the slightest but I'm making the best of it! Sorry I don't share a ton of spiritual experiences... I do have them.. a ton... but every missionary in the history of ever has lots of spiritual experiences.  We all know it and we've all heard it all from every missionary we know.  So besides some really cool stuff that happens in my mission,  I'm gonna be keeping this a little more fun to read.  Sorry if anyone doesn't like that but that's how I feel.  So until next week! I love you All thank you for being so supportive!

Pictures:  The ones with all of us are back at the dorms... all the other elders just left our zone to go to their missions so we inherited a ton of stuff and had a party.  We had a mini basketball hoop,  tons of candy and food,  and even got a mini fridge! Pretty dope.  That was a fun night.  The one of me on the floor was Sunday night and marley hadn't sent me a selfie and the wifi turned off for the night so everyone was roasting me for half an hour about how she is gonna dear John me now.  It was a long half hour;)

MTC Life, Week 2

Caleb would love to hear from everybody! He very much looks forward to emails/letter/packages. His mailing address is:

Elder Caleb Daniel Figgins

DEC27  NY-NYCN
2005 N 900 E Unit  33
Provo UT 84602

Email:

caleb.figgins@myldsmail.net

Here are a few snippets of his letter this week:

I am doing slightly better with Spanish,... it's hard because all the people in my district have some previous Spanish.. like high school so I'm pretty far behind.  Me and hermana (sister.. it's so weird to say stuff like sister and companion now.  It's hermana and companero haha) Durston are the only ones that have zero Spanish background so we both struggle haha. 

Also tell Megan to send me an email... I don't have her email.  Put that in the blog... and on fb and everywhere... tell everyone I can't email them unless they do it first.

I miss home and it's a lot of work.  I miss you guys a ton but I know you'll be there when I get back so that is all manageable.  

The things I miss most are music,  because it is my stress reliever so now I have to find something else to relieve stress and I haven't figured that out yet. I constantly have songs flowing through my head and Elder Lang and I sing rock songs constantly haha.. everyone must hate us heehee but it's still hard without my violin and guitars.  And I miss Oakley... I wanna take her on walks every night.  That was my alone time to think... now all I can do is sit in a bathroom stall with all the other elders being ridiculous outside haha.. got a big ball of wet toilet paper thrown at me while I was in the bathroom the other day.. that was fun haha.  I also miss Marley... a lot. 

We go to the temple once a week... on p day.  It's fun.. we go to the birthday cake.. so that's.. cool I guess;) we don't do it in Spanish,  maybe we could once we know a little more. 

If dad wants to try and make a belt that matches the boots I made that would be awesome... just use the buckle from the one the dogs chewed up and dye it with the light tan dye.  He needs to get a new blade for the strip cutter first,  then he should be able to do it.  Tell him to use rivets in stead of sewing it too.  That isn't necessary but it would be nice.  

Anyway,  it's all going pretty well.  One more week down! Love you all.  Te amo.

Elder Figgins