Thursday, January 24th, 2019

Edmonton, Alberta

67th operating temple

Dedicated: 11 Dec 1999

By: Gordon B. Hinckley

Jesus Christ, Divine Sonship

Matthew 4:3

And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

Book of Mormon

1 Nephi 17:1-16

*Why did Nephi feel so blessed in spite of their suffering?

*How has the Lord been your light in the wilderness?

New Testament "Come Follow Me"

John 1:19-28; JST John 1:20-28; BD Elias

General Conference

Try, Try, Try

President Henry B. Eyring

"Each time we say the word amen when that prayer is offered on our behalf, we pledge that by partaking of the bread, we are willing to take upon us the holy name of Jesus Christ, always remember Him, and keep His commandments. In turn, we are promised that we may always have His Spirit to be with us. Because of these promises, the Savior is the rock upon which we can stand safely and without fear in every storm we face."

I got up early, before six, but not back on schedule. Still a bit sluggish in the morning. 

I had a pure carb breakfast: cereal, pie, lemon cake bites, and on yes, a shake with a little protein. Maybe this is why I am feeling sluggish.

I made sub sandwiches for lunch. This afternoon I played Five Crowns with Jared and Kacey. We also watched the Beach Boy movie about Brian Wilson, "Love and Mercy." Kind of a sad story with sort of a happy ending but definitely not Hallmark worthy.

Today is Tanna Conrad's birthday. James is her ministering brother so he wanted to take her a treat. Jared offered to do the baking when we decided on peanut butter cookies. We had to throw out some of our peanut butter because it was so old it was rancid. Anyway, the cookies turned out delicious and we had our fair share while giving a dozen or so to Tanna. 

This afternoon we watched Taylor Cole starring as "Ruby Herring" on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries. It was pretty good. I guessed who the killer was before the ending.

James made us venison and gravy for dinner. I put the biscuits in the oven. Everything was delicious and Kacey and I both had seconds.

We watched "Maverick" this evening. 

Summer had a photo session today for her senior pictures. Her photographer is from Show Low. Of course Vickie knows the family. 

Trina sent me a couple of texts today. One was of their kitchen cabinets and railing being installed in their new house and another one was of Lola's gratitude journal.

Trina is so excited about this house!

Trina has her kids write 3 things they are thankful for each night.

Tonight Lola was thankful for us coming to visit and for Charlie and her family and she wishes we would come back.

 The Trezise's love their dog!

This definitely interrupts my joy!

I guess Roe vs. Wade was on the 22nd, not

on James's birthday.

 I'm doing it now!

 She loves to look at colors.

Kacey is reading Llama, llama, red pajama to Charlie

with her llama pajamas on.

Such a pretty girl with a great smile!

Saturday, January 5th, 2019

Hong Kong, China

48th operating temple

Dedicated: 26 May 1996

By: Gordon B. Hinckley

Jesus Christ, Death of

DC 45:4

Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified.

Book of Mormon

1Nephi 4:1-19

Have I ever been "led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do?"

New Testament

I am responsible for my own learning.

1 Nephi 10:17-19; Alma 32:27; DC 18:18; 58:26-28; 88:118

General Conference

Be Not Troubled

Elder Ronald A. Rasband

"Our desire to 'always have his Spirit" with us will push fear aside for a more eternal view of our mortal lives. President Nelson has cautioned, 'In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.'"

Our plan this morning was to load up our garbage, go to the church to do our cleaning assignment, and then take the garbage to the dump. When James went out to start loading it up he realized it was gone. I'm surprised that we didn't notice it last night when we came in. Brian and Kim took our 12 bags of garbage with them. Wow! What can we say. We appreciate them so much! 

When James contacted Brian to thank him and ask him what he did with it, Brian said: "When we got home the garbage man was just coming down the street. We put some of the bags in our container and some in our neighbors. The rest I took to Auto Zone around the corner."

James made us smoothies for breakfast before we left to clean the church. The Allen's, one of the families we are assigned to clean with, wanted to meet no later than 8 a.m. We arrived at the church at 8. James went in to see if anyone was there because he saw a car parked on the other side and the door on that side was propped open. We could find no one inside but soon the Gardner's showed up, Brother and Sister Gardner and Liam. The Allen's said they forgot when James called them later. They said they had a temple wedding to go to and that's what they were thinking of. We found out later that it was Aaron Winsor's sealing. He was a youth in Vernon and after his mission he moved to Taylor with his mother.

James started out by emptying trash throughout the building and discovered one of the classrooms was missing their trash cans. I started out by cleaning the bathrooms. Brother Gardner and Liam vacuumed and cleaned the chapel. Sister Gardner washed windows and cleaned the kitchen where she found mouse droppings. We will need to report this and the missing trash containter to the FM (Facility Management) so I took down their number. 

It only took us a little over an hour to clean. At 9 Sister Crane and her crew, Kerri, Amy, Alicia, Kip, Hailey, and Colter came to take down the Christmas decorations. Brother Gardner and Kerri took all the trash to the container outside. It was a good experience being in the building with these good people. The Gardner's are hard workers and so very kind.

We picked up our mail and headed to Dollar General to see if they have bananas. They don't. Next stop was Stanford General. They had one ripe banana and the clerk gave it to me. She said they needed to make a produce run but hadn't done so yet. I need at least three bananas to make banana nut bread for the Crane's. I have been promising them since Christmas. I thought we had bananas or we would have picked some up yesterday. James was so nice and didn't even complain when I asked if we could go to Walmart. 

We bought bananas, flour, sugar, eggs, shakes, oil, and butter. I just like to have baking supplies on hand, plus I am also making peanut butter cookies for Brother Wilhelm who had a birthday on December 30th. We stopped at Taco Bell and I got two tacos and a diet Pepsi. When I realized that a medium diet Pepsi at this joint cost $1.89 I vowed to never buy another.

We also stopped to get gas and then we were homeward bound.
It was stressful going up our hill and around our driveway but we made it, mud and all.

I worked on my blog and tomorrows "Come Follow Me" lesson while baking peanut butter cookies for Brother Wilhelm. I also read James a chapter from our book, "The Captain's Daughter." 

I was just getting ready to put a loaf of banana nut bread in the over at around 4:05 when the electricity went off. I put the bread in the refrigerator instead. The electricity ended up being off for around two hours.

While we were waiting in the dark James decided to light our kerosene lamps so I could read some more. After reading a chapter he said we should go deliver John his cookies. I reminded him that we could not get the garage door open. He said we could. 
It was difficult but we got the door open enough to put James's walking stick under it to prop it open. I drove the car out and we delivered the cookies to Sandra and the kids. John was not yet back from the young men's bicycle outing. 

The electricity came back on shortly after six and I baked the banana nut bread for the Crane's. James walked over in the snow and delivered it around 8 pm. James was gone for awhile as Chuck told him about the outing with the young men in Black Canyon.
Kathy texted me and said the bread was delicious! 

I put a log on the fire and we watched the new winter Hallmark movie, "Winter Castle." It's about a wedding held in an ice hotel. This hotel actually exists in the city of Quebec. Why would anyone want to stay in hotel that is freezing cold no matter how beautiful it looks? There is a new Hallmark movie every Saturday night in 2019. I am excited!

We began our fast before going to bed. We are fasting for greater family unity. 

After the electricity came back on James had

to go up and fix something on the garage door.

He's saying, "Don't take my picture."

 The Gilbert temple

 Where are the hearts on this Valentine

card?

 Nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby.

I wonder what's buried under this

pile of snow.

 I miss these guys

This is the first Christmas card we received this 

past Christmas. I love this sweet family!

 I like this.

 Dennis and Denise's family

Dennis, Rachel, Evie, Santa, Peg

Denise, Thor