CLAM

The California Los Angeles Mission leaders, President and Sister Newell started a newsletter. 

Here are some highlights with Sister Willardson in them. 

It’s good to be Meg Willardson

We had some severe weather blow through the other night. Tornado season is always an exciting time. I do love sleeping to the sound of thunder. 

Some Willies do not enjoy the sound of thunder and take up residence on the sofa with me. This time, we had Quincy, Brightyn, and Sloane. 


Kids went to a cousin party at Mattie’s. 

I sent a big tray of bagel bites. 

I found the bagel bites under the seat of the van 4 days later. Gross.  

I went to an informational meeting for musicians abroad with Corbin. The concept is much like all region where an an audition curated group of musicians meet for 3 days to fine tune music as an orchestra (with the talented Jeff Grogan as their director and Mr Collett as his assistant) and then go on a 10 day European tour. The trip looks incredible with opportunities to play in Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, Andermatt, and Germany. Playing cello all over Europe while visiting the birthplace of classical musicians? Crazy awesome. Crazy expensive.  So expensive, I think we are going to pass. Part of me really wants this experience for Corbin. He’s such a talented kid. $7k is wild though. He’s working hard saving for a car and his mission. 




Corbin turned 16 last week! I love him so much. 

Corbin has endless friends and wants to be with them all the time. He runs a fast paced life and fills all his minutes with all the things, all the time. I took him,  Ammon, and Quincy to Torchy’s for lunch and then we visited Grammie in the hospital, where he got a lil queasy watching Quincy assist the nurse pack her wound. 

How cute is this throwback? We love you, Grammie! 


Quincy and I toured the whole health institute with Robyn. Robyn had really thoughtful mentoring questions for Quincy. Good conversation and ministering. 




Twinning in the rain 


Annual basement cold storage room clean out. It took nearly all day and the little kids were troopers and helped a lot! 


We treated them to Viva taco after because nothing tastes as good as street tacos after a Saturday of hard work. 


On the way home we stopped for fuel at NHM in pea ridge and the kids were fascinated by the Walmart drones coming and going. 




Soren is finished with middle school! I popped into his awards ceremony. I sure love this almost-teenager! 


Q received a couple thoughtful books as graduation gifts that sparked some great conversations as she prepares to make temple covenants. 


One of my faves went to the temple to receive his endowment last week. I loved being there to support and took some family pics for them out front. Congratulations Shef! 



Quincy and I went over to the Shefchik’s right after and I gave Zacky a much needed trim before his scheduled senior photoshoot, while Q visited with everyone at the dining table. 

And then a week later, he pulled up for the mullet. He has about 10 days to enjoy it before we give him a full missionary haircut live it up, Shef! 


Oh speaking of missionaries, my missionary is back with Sister You for her last transfer, and they are serving in a Korean ward! 

Sister You recorded Reese practicing her talk and sent it to me. I’m so proud of her. She says she has only been learning Korean for one day, but more than half of Reese’s mission has been with companions from South Korea who are learning English. She is well prepared and familiar with the language and pronunciation and I know her efforts were blessed. 

Look what arrived in the mail! 

A trim for Bear

Family Mariokart 


Quincy has started working 12 hour shifts. She came home hangry and not very delightful until after she had a shower, a meal, and a 2 hour nap.  

I took Corbin to open a bank account yesterday and we realized we were in twinning outfits for the occasion. I cracked a Motherboy joke and our bank teller is an Arrested Development fan and totally caught the reference. Corbin also made her laugh with some funny brain rot commentary. 

I am in full nesting mode before my Reese comes home. Last week we cleaned the porch and scrubbed pollen off all the furniture, planted flowers and pressure washed everything. It looks so happy and is giving me life day and night. 

I also made a good dent in the garage. That concrete area was not passable yesterday. 

I picked up Cutler B and left Soren to hang with Tommy B and set out for an adventure with my little guys. We hit the trails and Creek at Coler Mountain and Cutler was very enthusiastic about photo ops. They chased butterflies, pet a lot of doggos, found many things to climb on and collect, and almost lost a flip flop in the creek. I love Arkansas! 

I arrived early to pick up Corbin from work the other night and got a sneak peek at him on the job. He bussed tables, shook hands with some patrons, and cleaned a lot. What a cutie. 



Scenes from the basement and evidence of life at play. 





Sloane graduated from elementary school! She received awards for global connections and efforts in literacy. She cried a lot the last week of school. She loves her friends and her teachers so very much.  Transitions are not easy for her, but she is looking forward to middle school! 

Quincy graduated from 4 years of early morning seminary! She says she connected most with Luz, Sister Gordon and Sister Meadows. Her favorite seminary social memories were Piper throwing water on Jake and going to Benny’s class sophomore year.  She felt the Spirit and developed her personal scripture study skills through seminary as well as her confidence in sharing her testimony. She also grew very close to her bishop during some intense conversations about Metfield Ward and 5:45am seminary start time. 

Four years of doctrinal mastery and early morning gospel deep dives is an accomplishment to celebrate. Well done, seminary graduates!