Wednesday, April 24th, 2019

Tucson, Arizona

157th operating temple

Dedicated: 13 Aug 2017

By: Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Jesus Christ, Divine Sonship

John 14:13

And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

Book of Mormon

Mosiah 15:10-31

New Testament "Come Follow Me"

Matthew 18:15-20; Luke 10:17-24

General Conference

"Come Follow Me"

Russell M. Nelson

"Jesus Christ invites us to take the covenant path back home to our Heavenly Parents and be with those we love."

I'm starting out with a book business statement: "How fast should my inventory sell"? Here is the answer from Peter Valley of Zen Arbitrage who claims he has done this business for 25 years. (Not a member of Book Profits, our business associates.)

"You will at least double your investment in 30 days and sell at least half your shipment in 60 days."

While James went to the dump, picked up books at the post office, and went to town to get some diesel and a prescription I prepared books to ship, 18 of them. It ended up being two shipments, one going to Troutdale, Oregon and the other to Rialto, California.

The profit on these books ranges from $30 to $6. We have set a goal of making at least $10 on a book and I believe as an average, we have done this on these two shipments. I just figured it and the average is $17.77 per book.

I wish I could have been outside more today. James was outside working with his Cat and said it was about 69 degrees and there was no wind. A perfect day. Instead I was inside preparing books and stripping my floor. I finished the floor stripping project in the family room, living room area. Tomorrow I will start putting a light wax on and buffing. I also am all caught up on my blog!

James mailed the Statistics looseleaf book back to the seller today. He got $9.99 back on the Social Problems book. He spent $16.98 on this book. We still have not heard from Hippo Books regarding the Marriage and Families book we sent back. Returns are a headache, especially when they are the sellers fault and they won't acknowledge it.

James fixed dinner this evening. Chicken strips and corn. Thanks honey.

This evening we watched the newest episode of "Morning Show Mysteries" starring Holly Robinson Peete and Rick Fox. It was a good one. 

 Castle in Germany

 Rosemary from "When Calls the Heart"

Ollie is a handsome dog. 

 Charlie is a cute baby from any angle.

Tuesday, April 9th, 2019

Gilbert, Arizona

142nd operating temple

Dedicated: 2 Mar 2014

By: Thomas S. Monson

Jesus Christ, Divine Sonship

Moses 2:1, 26

1 And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Moses, saying: Behold, I reveal unto you concerning this heaven, and this earth; write the words which I speak. I am the Beginning and the End, the Almighty God; by mine Only /begotten I created these things; yea, in the beginning I created the heaven, and the earth upon which thou standest.

26 And I, God, said unto mine Only Begotten, which was with me from the beginning: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and it was so. And I, God, said: Let them have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Book of Mormon

Mosiah 4:4-15

New Testament "Come Follow Me"

Matt 17:14-21; Mark 9:14-29 Luke 9:37-42

General Conference

"The Eye of Faith"

Elder Neil L. Andersen
"If we pick and choose what we accept in the proclamation, we cloud our eternal view, putting too much importance on our experience here and now."

I read an article in the Ensign today by Brian K. Ashton, "Three Lessons on Love, Joy and Peace". This quote is from that article: 

By consistently doing the small things, we yield our hearts and minds to God, which purifies and sanctifies us (see Helaman 3:35).This purification and sanctification changes our very nature, little by little, so we become more and more like the Savior." 

Today's bunny report. "I saw none of the bunnies this morning. Either they are hiding or they got carried away by a hawk or owl. Thanks James for that visual image! 

Kathy, my favorite, and Kris did the Book Profits webinar this morning. They both are so very successful it's hard to imagine that we will ever be there. One of the things Kathy stresses is to set goals. She said her goal for her first year in the business, 2017, was to sell $100,000 worth of books. She actually ended up selling $150,000. James and I have a goal to make $2,000 a month our first year. Now we have to sit down and figure out how many books we have to sell per day to accomplish that goal and how much we need to make from each book. 

We had Marie Callendar pot pies for lunch. I had chicken and James had beef. When I looked at the calories on the back I thought it said 400 and something. Well that was for half a pie. The entire pie was over 800. I let James eat half of mine as well as his. He loves pot pies. I saved the rest of my calories for a gingerbread mix I made topped with Coolwhip. Delicious especially while still warm from the oven.

After nap time I walked and finished watching "Christmas Next Door" and started "Surprised By Love" another one of my favorites. Tim Conway is pretty funny as the grandpa who pretends he can't talk to avoid dealing with people. Hilarie Burton and Paul Campbell are always great and this movie is no exception. I think it's one of Kim's favorites too.

This girl can really play the violin.

I enjoyed the music in this movie.

I have three Hilarie Burton movies I love and this is

one of them. The other two are Summer Villa with Victor

Webster, and a Christmas one where she plays 

Krissy Kringle.

I walked over 17,000 steps today until my right knee started hurting and I had to quit. 

James and I both bought books today. I also paid all the rest of the bills on James's last construction project and some personal bills too. I paid down our Amazon Store Card so we could order books and pay with this card instead of using our other credit cards. 

We waited until late to go to the post office today. James went in and a few minutes later he came outside and asked for my help. We had 14 packages of books. Wow! 

James opened all of our packages of books and "cleaned them up" while I started getting our other books ready to ship. Amazon created three shipments from our one shipment but two of the shipments only had one book each. The other shipment going to California had the other 16 books.

James has been doing alot of repricing on books in our inventory and wants me to remove some of them. I can't make the removal process work so I guess I need to call Amazon tomorrow. It worked the last tie I had to remove books but a message keeps coming up that there is an error and they are taking care of it. It's been a few days now and nothing has happened.

It's like Christmas everyday!

These look brand new but we can't sell them new,

we can only sell used books.

Ben's Email:

I love this baby and her happy face. She is cutting

teeth and I can hardly wait until we can see them!

 Lunch with dad at the park.

 Dave and Laura visiting Kevin's family in Texas

Saturday, March 30th, 2019

Gila Valley, Arizona

132nd operating temple

Dedicated: 23 May 2010

By: Thomas S. Monson

Jesus Christ, Divine Sonship

2 Nephi 25:12

But, behold, they shall have wars, and rumors of wars; and when the day cometh that the Only Begotten of the Father, yea, even the Father of heaven and of earth, shall manifest himself unto them in the flesh, behold, they will reject him, because of their iniquities, and the hardness of their hearts, and the stiffness of their necks.

Book of Mormon

Jarom 1:1-15

New Testament "Come Follow Me"

John 5:17-47

General Conference

Shepherding Souls

Elder Gary E. Stevenson

"May we raise our sights to this prophetic vision so we can shepherd souls to the temple and ultimately to our Savior, Jesus Christ. He does not expect us to perform miracles. He asks only that we bring our brothers and sisters unto Him, for He has the power to redeem souls. As we do so, we can and will secure this promise: 'And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.' Of this I testify - and of Jesus Christ as our Savior and our Redeemer - in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

We left the house this morning at 5:44 am. for the temple. President Palmer and his wife did the training today. President Palmer is the temple president. We saw the same video we saw last week regarding the endowment session. This time President Palmer decided to focus on learning from the Spirit. He told a story he heard about a group of Saints who lived in Sierra Leone, Africa who had never been to the temple. They planned a new trip to the temple in Accra, Ghana. Before they left they had a meal together. The mission president was a little troubled by one of their culture traditions which allowed the men to eat first, then the women, and then the children if there was anything left. He was troubled but he did not say anything. After spending two days doing ordinance work in the temple the group had another meal together. This time the men went to get the food but instead of eating it they took it to their wives and children. President Palmer said that no one had told them to do this but they had been taught by the Spirit through their temple attendance. I loved this story.

I saw my friend from Chandler, Ruth Gale, in the temple today. She lives in Snowflake now and I see her from time to time

I also saw two girls from our ward, Holly and Khaya with a group of girls from the stake. I love seeing people I know when I'm at the temple.

My temple lunch break was quite delicious today. I had half an egg salad sandwich, chalupa, and orange gelatin, Coolwhip salad. I thought all of those things would be good to serve at our Easter potluck. Oh, and the best brownie I have ever had! Maybe I was just extra hungry today because all I had for breakfast was a Slimfast shake.

After our shift was over I went to the dressing room to get my ordinance clothes so I could attend the 1:30 session with the Gordon's from our ward. The Gordon's are a mom and son who joined the Church around a year ago after their husband/father died and are going through for the own endowments today.

While in the dressing room Sister DeWitt began telling us about a sister who complained about one of the films shown. (This was several years ago).  She went in to the office and told them she was going to report them to Salt Lake for showing a film with such an evil Satan that brought a bad spirit.
I guess it was the older film with the bald Satan. She said she wanted to know if they showed that film again so she would not be there on that day. I said, "Well it's not like we have a marquee where we can announce what's playing." Sister Wenhardt said: "Maybe we should and it could say: "Now showing 'Bald Satan' movie." I guess you can't please everyone.

While waiting in line to get my new name I met a sister probably in her early 40's. As we began to talk I found out her mother was Nancy McCleve, the sister of one of my best friends in high school, Sharon McCleve. She said Sharon was one of her favorite aunts. This woman's name was Michelle Baker. She lives in Snowflake and was at the temple with her son who just returned from a mission in Germany. It's a small world, especially in the Snowflake temple where I always see someone I know or make a connection with someone.

There were 11 people from our ward supporting Holly and Charlie in the endowment session. The Millers, the Wilhelms, Us, Anthony, Alicia, Stefani, Judy, and Brother Grapp. Being in the Celestial room and seeing how happy Holly and Charlie were and how long they embraced was a real treat. It felt like Heaven and how it will be when we reunite with our loved ones.

Back at home we did our normal things; walking, eating, blogging, and watching Hallmark movies. James went outside and checked out how his bunnies are doing. I thing he also bought a couple of books.

 Cool quilt

 Those eyes and cheek

 How does anyone make cookie like this?

 Cute movie

Sunday, November 25th, 2018

Mesa, Arizona

7th operating temple

Dedicated: 23-26 Oct 1927

By: Heber J. Grant

Jesus Christ, Death of

Mosiah 14:12

Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death; and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Book of Mormon #1

Mormon 6:6-22

*Mormon asks his people why they rejected the open arms of Christ. Mormon taught that their reunion with the Savior world have been joyful (6:17). We too must prepare ourselves to stand before the Lord at the Judgment. President James E. Faust explained: 'We long for the ultimate blessing of the Atonement - to become one with Him, to be in His divine presence, to be called individually by name as He warmly welcomes us home with a radiant smile, beckoning us with open arms to be enfolded in His boundless love. How gloriously sublime this experience will be if we can feel worthy enough to be in His presence. The free gift of His great atoning sacrifice for each of us is the only way we can be exalted enough to stand before Him and see Him face to face. The overwhelming message of the Atonement is the perfect love the Savior has for each of us. It is a love fully of mercy, patience, grace, equity, long-suffering and, above all, forgiving. The evil influence of Satan would destroy any hope we have in overcoming our mistakes. He would have us feel that we are lost and that there is no hope. In contrast, Jesus reaches down to us to lift us up. Through our repentance and the gift of the Atonement, we can prepare to be worthy to stand in His presence.'" (CR Oct 2001).

Old Testament

Hosea 13-14

General Conference

The Father

Brian K. Ashton

"In the premortal world, we were born as spirits to Heavenly Parents and lived with Them as a family. They knew us, taught us, and loved us. We wanted very much to be like our Heavenly Father. However, to do so, we recognized that we would have to: 

1. Obtain glorified, immortal, physical bodies;

2. Be married and form families by the sealing power of the priesthood;

3. Acquire all knowledge, power, and divine attributes."

Up at 6 a.m. Study, ready for church. James studies his lesson, "Daniel in the Lion's Den."

The DeWitt's spoke in sacrament meeting this morning. We haven't seen them for weeks. They returned from their mission to the Taiwan temple towards the end of May. These talks were to report on their mission.

Wendy  did not think she would need to learn Mandarin. When the temple president told her she would she asked him for a blessing and specifically asked for the gift of tongues. As a result of that blessing she learned all of the ordinances for the temple in two weeks. This has never been done before and she believes it was a miracle as a result of her blessing and her study. She says she has never studied anything so hard. She really is quite an amazing person.

Collin only had a few minutes to speak. His talk was heartfelt and I truly felt the Spirit. You can tell he loves Vernon and the people here so much!

The second hour I went to teacher council meeting which was taught by Brother Allen and Bishop Miller. We talked about the new program beginning in January and how to get people to study at home. I said in order to stand as a witness we need to have a testimony of the gospel and we get that through study and prayer.

Brother Grapp says he has learned from his children. He took Benson to visit someone with a boy Benson's age and Benson introduced himself by saying: "Hi, I'm Benson. Do you read the Bible. Let me tell you about my favorite story, Daniel in the Lion's Den."  

Sister Curtis taught Relief Society. The lesson was on personal scripture study. We had a great discussion and Diana used the microphone. 

James told me on the way home that during the 3rd hour teacher council meeting the bishop talked about me and how I got to know the kids in my Primary class and visited the inactives. James said he mentioned me several times. I don't deserve all the praise but I am grateful.

We had Thanksgiving leftovers for lunch. Delicious!

Sister Dye has been moved to a rehab center and will be there for at least a month. She is doing much better be needs some therapy.

During naptime I watched, "Reunited for Christmas." I really liked this movie about memories at Nana's house and family traditions.

I also finished my gospel study and worked on my blog. 

A nice evening at home with a fire and Christmas movies:

Along with "Reunited at Christmas" I watched

"Pride, Prejudice, and Mistletoe"

and 

"Christmas on Honeysuckle Lane"

Two old people in front of a tree.

 So adorable!

 When Lola had a crush on Evan.

 All dressed up with pink shoes.

CityScape Phoenix

Friday, March 23rd, 2018

Medford, Oregon

79th operating temple

Dedicated: 16 April 2000

By: James E. Faust

Jesus Christ Authority of

DC 107:3

Before his day it was called the Holy Priesthood, after the Order of the Son of God.

Book of Mormon

Jacob 5:35-48

*Jacob 5:41 says that the Lord wept for his wild trees after all of his work to help them grow. How can you relate?

Third Visit 29-60

29-32 - Zenos prophesies of Latter-day Restoration.

33-37 - The blood of Israel preserved through Apostasy.

38-46 - Universal Apostasy, all branches of Israel affected.

47-51 - Branches overcome Roots = Apostasy

Old Testament

Deuteronomy 11-12
11 Thou shalt love and obey the Lord thy God - If the children of Israel obey, they will be blessed with rain and harvests and will drive out mighty nations - Israel must learn God's laws and teach them - Blessings flow from obedience; cursings attend disobedience.
General Conference

"Lord, Wilt Thou Cause That My Eyes May Be Opened

Elder W. Craig Zwick

"I witness that through the power of Jesus Christ, we become able to look spiritually beyond what we see literally."

I read an article by Elder David A. Bednar today: "Quick to Observe" from the Dec 2006, Ensign. It was very good!

I felt the Spirit when I read the first sentence in Exodus 33:11. It says: "And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend." Is the Savior my friend and will He speak to me face to face?  

I ironed two white shirts this morning and cleaned the mud and bird poop off the front porch. It isn't a pleasant job but needed to be done.

I made rolls and pork green chili today. I used the crockpot to make the chili. It came out shredded. James likes it better in chunks.

I took a nap, walked, worked on my budget and called a new sister I visit, Sister MacArthur. I found out she is Sister Umphress's sister and lives across the road from me. I made an appointment with her for next Tuesday.

Kim and Brian came in this afternoon from Albuquerque where they attended the Avett Brothers concert. They brought Doubletree Inn cookies with them. Yum!

James and I had to run to town to pick up the wax/acrylic remover I ordered, to get gas for the Razr, and propane for the grill. 

We had the pork chili for dinner and everyone decided it needed a little more kick. I bought some of this to put in it.

Spicy delicious!

I also bought a dozen eggs a piece for each of the 7 younger children that will be hunting for eggs on Saturday. Each person will receive their own color of eggs. I bought golden eggs for all the kids which will have money in them.

The basket is for Stacy. She is having surgery on her foot on Friday.

I enjoyed visiting with Kim while she did the Italy puzzle that Brian got her for Christmas. 

I worked on my blog and walked before going to bed. Tomorrow is our temple day. We wanted to go to bed at 9 but it was actually 10.

beautiful state in the nation!

The kids got a good start on my temple.

Can't we all just get along.

I love the Lamb cookies!

Talon from our ward.