OUR FAMILY: Sun, Apr 10th, 2022: Raleigh North Carolina Temple, Church, RS, Mtg w/SRP, lemon squares, sawdust everywhere, Grombach's, missed Jared's fam, Charlie, Scarlett

Raleigh, North Carolina

68th operating temple

Dedicated: 18 Dec 1999

By: Gordon B. Hinckley

Jesus Christ, Savior

John 3:17

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Book of Mormon

Mosiah 4:16-30

"Come Follow Me"

Review Exodus 14-17

AprGenCon

"We Each Have a Story"

Elder Gerrit W. Gong

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Please come find your family, all your generations, and bring them home.

Inklings

"Preaching the Gospel of Peace"

"The Power of Spiritual Momentum"

"Now is the Time" - Russell M. Nelson

Moses 1

I spent from 5-8 this morning working on the Relief Society lesson I am giving today. At 8 o'clock I began getting ready. We left the house around 8:40 and picked up Kathy down by her gate. Chuck is at ward council and Kathy's car is in the shop.

Pierce conducted sacrament meeting. There was no one to play the organ. Sister Rosen who is new in the ward and is only here every other weekend walked up and played. You can tell she is really good. She lives in Gilbert on Willis Rd. and they are moving up here when their place is ready.

Willie Grombach blessed the sacrament for the first time today. He did a great job. Brother Tesarek blessed the water and Andy Wilhelm was at the table. Andy also gave a talk and did an awesome job. It was short and sweet but it was from the heart, well at least I think it was. I have been worried about him. His talk was on avoiding the tactics of Satan, the enemy of all righteousness. He bore his testimony about how living the gospel brings happiness.

Sister Ann Margaret Johnson was confirmed by the bishop during the meeting. It is wonderful to have her as a member of our ward.

Stefani Hunsaker was the next speaker. She talked about the temple. She grew up in Blanding, Utah and they had to travel to the South Jordan temple to do baptisms for the dead. Going to the temple is part of being on the Covenant Path. The power of the temple. Eternal life is the greatest gift of God. "Hold tight to you children's hands."

2014 San Juan fire was 1.5 miles from the Hunsaker home. They found comfort in fulfilling the assignment to clean the temple. Camrie's husband, who was inactive, said to her when she was a little stressed, "Camrie, do you need to go to the temple.?" Walk back to the presence of the Father.

Stefani's husband, Sean was the last speaker. Sean is a people person and he spoke about people he met on his mission and baptized. The son of a sister he had baptized served a mission in this area. He saw him one day in the Basha parking lot in Taylor. Here are some notes I took: The Covenant Path. A covenant is a two-way promise. How am I doing? Covenants and Commandments require us to do something. If we ever veer off we can come back. Sean talked about our dear friend Tom Howard who was a convert. Tom was one that was "all in."

As soon as sacrament meeting was over I headed for the Relief Society room. I stopped to speak with Aubrey Harris to ask her how she was doing and to ask where her children were. She said they were visiting their "other" grandparents in Nevada but would be home today and she couldn't wait. Aubrey is Pierce Goodman's daughter.

The stake Relief Society Presidency visited our Relief Society today, on the day I am teaching. Wendy Dewitt's daughter, Janelle Douglas was also visiting. We have a new sister in the ward, Lindsay Shaw, and I introduced myself to her.

I felt like my lesson, which was on the love of God, went well. I had several women come up afterwards to tell me they enjoyed the lesson. Little did I know I was about to have an awakening.

James forgot I had a meeting after the block so he ended up waiting because he missed getting a ride home from the Crane's.

We set 8 chairs in somewhat of a circle in the front of the Relief Society room. Tamara opened the meeting with prayer. Sister Wilcock, the stake Relief Society president, conducted the meeting. We discussed ministering interviews. Tamara said she liked my idea of one sister a week during the quarter and said it was my idea. She said she offers a prayer before she decides who she will interview. I like that. I'm going to start doing that.

We talked about missionary work and then family history. I learned that Collin is meeting with the consultants but he is not including us. We also need to get a girl from the oldest class and a priest to attend our family history meetings. They do not have to be consultants. We got some new computers and will be opening up the family history room soon.

Although all of the stake presidency said I did a good job teaching, we discussed the fact that the teacher is more of a discussion facilitator that a teacher. We aren't supposed to "stand and deliver." We are supposed to ask thought provoking questions to get the sisters involved. I did ask questions but not to the extent they wanted me to. Sister Wilcock kept saying we aren't to regurgitate the conference talks because the sisters can read them. I responded that they don't. She didn't say anything. We also discussed turning the chairs around to face the side wall in two semi-circles. Relief Society was out at 11 and this meeting lasted until 12:40. Catherine was waiting for Kerri, Gary for Maxine, and James was walking home. I was a little stressed and so was he. We had lunch and then we both rested. We changed our temple prep meeting with the Grombach's from 4 o'clock to 6 o'clock.

I got up and made some lemon squares. Afterwards I began cleaning the floor in the family-living room. What a disaster. There was dust everywhere from James's log project. The maroon couch closest to the entry table was covered with sawdust. I tried using a lent roller but James had more success using the small vacuum I got for the car. James kept saying we shouldn't be cleaning on Sunday. He's right, this should have been cleaned the other day when he was finished.

Our lesson was long because we all like to talk. After the meeting was over we ate lemon squares. Jana said lemon was her favorite flavor. The Grombach's are going on an Alaskan cruise in May. They have been before and began telling us about their experiences and then they shared some pictures and so James had to share pictures of his caribou. Oh yes, Willie was born in Zion, Illinois and he had to show James some of the billboards that were up. One said, "If you don't believe as we do, you are not welcome here." Interesting.

By the time we were finished it was almost 8:30. We were supposed to Facetime with Jared, Kacey, and Charlie at 7:30. Jared said they forgot that they are now two hours ahead of us and that Kacey and Charlie were gone to bed. This has not been my best Sunday ever. We will try again tomorrow.