Ever since we had tomato soup with grilled cheese at our family reunion, I have been craving it. Since we don't have a a Trader Joe's in Utah, I sought for a great tomato basil recipe. Found this one here. I made it for dinner tonight and it was so good. It will definitely be in my recipes for the future. Especially with winter on its way.

Today I've been waiting to hear from my brother who is on a mission in Maceio, Brazil. Last week he said that he might have a surprise for me, so I was excited. I open up his email to see this:

"So, shall we start with the suprise for Andrea? Just look at thepictures and you´ll see you surprise. and no it´s not the hamick. It´s the Family that we baptized and taught how they can be together forever. So let me explain to those who don´t know about what my sister did for me. About a month and a half ago I received an email from Andrea saying that she was praying for me to find and baptize afamily. This of course pumped me up and we got to work searching for our family. Yesterday I was able to baptize that family that Andrea and I and others in the ward have been praying for. They´re awesome! Surprise Andrea and thanks for the prayers. They were answered. Their names are Emanoel, Aline, João Vitor, and Vitor. Vitor is a boy from a different family and we will baptize Emanoel´s other son this coming week during a General Conference break. I know this church is true and that prayers are answered. I am so happy to be an intrument in the hands of God to bring the world His turth. Families can be together forever."

What a great surprise! I'm so proud of my little brother and all the hard work he puts into finding people to teach. It really is one of the greatest blessings I have on this earth: to know that families can and will be together again after death if we choose to make and keep covenants in the temple. I think it is one of the greatest blessing we can give to other people! Way to go Elder Whitaker!!

For those of you who don't know, my parents have recently become obsessed with the whole Country Music movement. Working in Nashville, TN will do that to you, I guess. So this summer they bought season tickets to the USANA Ampitheatre Country music concert series. However, they aren't that big fans of good old Rascal Flatts and so guess who got to go to that concert!! ME!!!

I decided to take my good friend Rachael Pearce because she loves Rascal Flatts too and I just knew that Ryan would be rolling his eyes at me as I sang at the top of my lungs all their wonderful songs. It was a great night for a girl's night! (Don't feel too bad for Ryan. He got to golf all day, so he was good!!!)

It really was such a fun night! My parents had great seats but for some reason, the security guard must have thought we needed better seats because he practically forced us to sneak into the 6th row, center!! It was a blast and I'm so glad I got to sing my heart out without eyes rolling!! :D Thanks Ry for letting me have such a fun girl's night!!