Mat's Temple Day

Mat received his own endowment at the Las Vegas Nevada Temple on Saturday, March 21, 2009. It was a beautiful spring morning. Those in attendance with Mat were his parents, his sister Valerie Kukahiko and her husband Tyler, and his brother Ryan. Our bishop, Mark Dixon and his first counselor, Paul Jaramillo also attended the 9:00 session with us.

This was a wonderful experience for Mat and he was well prepared. He is looking forward to attending the Provo Utah Temple while he finishes the semester at BYU, and then attending the Las Vegas Temple again before he departs for the MTC in May. It was a great blessing for Mat to be able to be with his family in the temple. He is setting a great example for his younger brother, Daniel.
As Mat's mother, I'm so grateful for the decisions he has made over the course of his life that allowed him to worthily enter the temple. It was a real pay day for me to be in the temple with my three oldest children.

The Army of Helaman

Mat's Palo Verde Ward priests quorum, July 20, 2008. These boys had just graduated from Palo Verde High School and were ordained elders. They are all such handsome young men and have all received and accepted their calls to serve full time missions. Their excellent mothers are my very dear friends, and it's not hard to see why these young men are so prepared!


Left to right: Weston Parker, Manchester England, November 2008; Cameron Brooks, Argentina Buenos Aires West, Spanish, February 2009; Ben Jensen, YM President at the time; Tyler Jaramillo, Hamburg Germany, German, May 2009; Erik Leavell, Los Angeles California, American Sign Language, July 2009; Andrew Ludwig, Argentina Buenos Aires North, Spanish, June 2009; Mat Squires, Anchorage Alaska, May 2009.

Alaska, Mat's Future Home

When Mat got back to Provo last week, his roommate Mark had drawn pictures on Mat's whiteboard of Mat on his mission in Alaska. I loved it!

Here are some things we told Mat to avoid while in Alaska:

The rule is, if you ever encounter a moose, make sure there is a tree between you and the moose.

That rule won't help if you run into a bear!