Tuesday, December 3rd, 2019

Vernal, Utah

51st operating temple

Dedicated: 2 Nov 1997

By: Gordon B. Hinckley

Jesus Christ, Head of Church

2 Nephi 25:14

And behold it shall come to pass that after the Messiah hath risen from the dead, and hath manifested himself unto his people, unto as many as will believe on his name, behold, Jerusalem shall be destroyed again; for wo unto them that fight against God and the people of his church.

Book of Mormon

Ether 2:13-25

New Testament

1 John 3; 1 John: "God is light and God is love. 1John 2:24-3:3 "I can become like Jesus Christ.

10/19 General Conference

"Be Faithful, Not Faithless"

Stephen W. Owen

"Where do we find true spiritual nourishment? Most often, it is not trending on social media. We find it when we 'press our way forward' on the covenant path, 'continually holding fast to the rod of iron,' and partake of the fruit of the tree of life. This means that we must deliberately take time each day to disconnect from the world and connect with heaven."

RWC: "We will not finish our work until we have saved ourselves, and then not until we shall have saved all depending upon us." - Joseph F. Smith

I began paying creditors this morning with the checks that Amrock sent. The problem is, the amounts are all wrong because they looked at the balances two months ago and we have continued to make payments on all of our accounts. One account we will be overpaying by $396.00. The company will not send us the refund. They will only send it to whomever issued the check, which is Amrock. Amrock told James they would send us the refund. It's just frustrating that they won't send it to us.

We over payed a couple of other creditors and they said they would send us the balance. It took me most of the morning to send out most of the checks. 

We left for the valley around 12:37. We got gas and while I was getting the car washed James walked over to the bank with two checks to pay off our Chase credit cards. 

On the way out of town we stopped at Arby's because James was hungry. He couldn't finish eating his sandwich and began to choke on it so badly that we had to stop. I wonder how long he is going to have this problem.

When we realized we were going to be a little late to Joshua's 5:00 performance, we asked Michael to pick up Evan for us, which he did. We stopped at Darrel's and unloaded our car and picked up Ruby and Lola and headed for Gilbert and Queen Creek where Legacy School is located. We got there just in time. Stacy had saved us seats on the front row. 

It was a class play and very low key. The kids did everything and everyone knew their parts and they all had microphones. Joshua was a good Scrooge. Here are some pictures:

Such a handsome Scrooge

Scrooge's fans:

Paul, Lola, Alexis, Michael, Evan, Stacy, Dallin, Ruby, Grandpa and Grandma

After the play we took Evan, Ruby, and Lola to Chikfila for dinner.

Afterwards we took Evan home and got Ruby home in time to go to her dance class. I asked Evan about school and he said he was studying about World War I. I told him I didn't know much about World War I. How did the war start? He didn't know so I looked it up. 

June 28, 1914. Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, are assassinated by a Bosnian Serb nationalist in Sarajevo. July 28, 1914. World War 1 begins when Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.

I learn so much from my grandchildren.

Back home at Darrel and Trina's. Oops, I forgot to mention that I asked Evan, Ruby, and Lola what they wanted for Christmas. Lola wants earrings, Ruby a Fitbit, and Evan says he's been asking for a Fitbit for years now and has never gotten one so he's about to give up.

Rowan had a cross country meet this afternoon and that's why he couldn't come to the play. Addy is working on a project for school.

Trina is getting ready for a Christmas Boutique this week. She had all of her leo's out and was getting them ready. When Darrel got home from work he immediately began making Trina another rack to hang her leo's on. He made it out of copper tubing.

James and I went for a walk outside. James also walked to Safeway. I was too tired. I also walked inside the house. While James was at Safeway I played "hide the baby Jesus" with Lola. Addy was watching "The Christmas Prince" on Netflix. I kind of got in to it. It's a trilogy. She started the second one but I didn't watch all of it. I went to bed. 

 Candi is in our ward. She and her husband went down

to help look for Willa.

Decorations at Darrel and Trina's:

 Lola's tree

 Trina's tree

 The stockings were hung by the 

stairway with care...

 The neighborhood was all lit up.

 The biggest Santa I've ever seen!

 Outside Darrel and Trina

Kid's tree. Darrel making a rack and Trina making

tags for the boutique.

Kacey said this was soooo sad.

Charlie says no to Santa,

but YES to Jesus!

These photos made my Christmas!

Such a sweet picture

These two are so adorable!

Sunday, February 3rd, 2019

Palmyra, New York

77th operating temple

Dedicated: 6 April 2000

By: Gordon B. Hinckley

Jesus Christ, Divine Sonship

Mark 3:11

And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God.

Book of Mormon

1 Nephi 22:11-31

What are some things you are looking forward to during the Second Coming and the Millennium?

New Testament 

Review and "Repentance" by Elder D. Todd Christofferson, 10/11

General Conference

Lift Up Your Head and Rejoice

M. Joseph Brough

"Forgiving those who may have caused our hard thing and reconciling 'ourselves to the will of God' can be very difficult. It can hurt most when our hard thing is caused by a family member, a close friend, or even ourselves."

I forgot something very important in yesterday's blog. Sheri received a letter from Ben's mission president regarding Ben being chosen as a trainer after only being out five months. Here it is:

So sweet!

I fasted this morning and re-read Ben's January 21st letter about the Savior and I cried. I am so grateful that Ben is having these experiences on his mission and I wish all of my grandchildren could have spiritual experiences like he is having. 

Trina stayed home with Ruby and Lola this morning. It was windy and rainy and cold and she wanted to make sure Ruby was well. Darrel, Addy, and Rowan joined us at fast and testimony meeting. 

It does my heart good to see Andy W. bless the sacrament and Curtis Wilhelm pass the sacrament. Curtis just turned 11 in December. 

I felt the Spirit prompt me to bear my testimony, so I did. I lost control of my emotions as I told about Ben. Somehow I managed to finish and James said I did a good job. I am not so sure but I hope Heavenly Father knows that our family needed Ben right now and we are so grateful. Another blessing and gift our family needed is Charlie. We are so grateful for both of these blessings.

After sacrament meeting James was nervous about downloading a video for his class. While he went to singing time I went to his classroom and downloaded a video of the Savior's baptism for him. I really didn't need to download because he brought our wifi with him but I did anyway. He only had two children today, Andyn and Amaron. 

I went in to Sunday School where Sister Wood was teaching the lessong. I sat by Holly and Charlie Gordon. Pam seemed very organized in teaching the lesson and had the class divided into three groups, one to discuss John the Baptist, one to discuss Luke and one to discuss Mark.

When we got home I went in to change my clothes and hurried into the kitchen. I had told Ruby and Lola that I would make them waffles. I ended up making them for Addy, Rowan, and Darrel too.

I played a game of Five Crowns with Addy and Trina. This time I won!  Ruby felt much better today and asked if I wanted to play the match game. I suggested Uno instead. We played three rounds. I won two and Ruby one. Lola wanted me to play Barbie's so I said I would. We went over by the fireplace and Ruby showed up so I did not have to play too long. I needed a nap. 

I made two no-bake cheesecakes this afternoon using cream cheese and whipped cream with vanilla wafer crusts. They took six hours to set up so while we were waiting for them James and Rowan made a blackberry and cherry cobbler. James is so funny. He has to add almond extract, brown sugar, and oatmeal just to make it a little "fancy." Rowan made a great sou-chef. It turned out delicious!

Putting pats of butter on top of the cake mix.

While Darrel had the Super Bowl on Trina, the girls and I made Valentines. At one time James also joined in the fun. We peaked over and saw the half-time show with Adam Levine with his shirt off showing off his tatooes. I was not impressed. I did think that Gladys Knight to a good job singing the National Anthem. 

The Patriot's ended up beating the Rams 10-3. It was a bit of a boring game if you asked me. We would never have watched it if Darrel and Trina had not been here. This is the sixth Super Bowl win for Tom Brady so everyone is comparing him to Michael Jordan. Oh brother.

Trina put chicken in the crockpot and shredded it and put in bbq sauce for dinner. Darrel made hamburgers and hotdogs and with the desserts we had plenty to eat. The cobbler was delicious and everyone loved it. The cheesecake was mighty fine too. We ate one and left the other for tomorrow.

Sunday cuties

Lovebugs!

 Love the "Heart" Hog Ruby

 Lola made all of her valentines for her
best friend, Charlie.

Trina made this quilling flower with the

quilling ribbon James bought for me.

 Helping Addy with her owl.

All the guys were watching the game and just as 
I decided to take a picture James got up and left.

That is a big mama bear.

Guess who's a Patriot fan.

I thought Cathi was his best friend.