Saturday, May 26th, 2018

Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

143rd operating temple

Dedicated: 4 May 2014

By: Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Jesus Christ, Birth of

DC 76:41

That he came into the world, even Jesus, to be crucified for the world, and to bear the sins of the world, and to sanctify the world, and to cleanse it from all unrighteousness;

Book of Mormon

Alma 5:53-6:8

How can we make the word of God available to all?

-Preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words.

Use social media to bear testimony, live the gospel, love the gospel, stand as a witness at all times and in all places.

Old Testament

1 Kings 1-2

1 Abishag cherishes David in his extreme age - Adonijah aspires to be king - Bathsheba and Nathan advise David of Adonijah's plotting - David names Solomon as king, and he is anointed by Zadok - Adonijah's cause fails.

2 David charges Solomon to keep the commandments and walk in the ways of the Lord - King David dies and Solomon reigns - Adonijah, Joab, and Shimei are put to death, and Abiathar is rejected as high priest - The kingdom is established with Solomon.

General Conference

Ministering

President Russell M. Nelson

"We constantly seek direction from the Lord on how we can help our members keep the commandments of God, especially those two great commandments to love God and our neighbors."

I was up at 4:24 a.m. I ate, and then got ready to go to the temple. 

We said a prayer before we left and then had scriptures and a general conference talk on the way. 

Sister Wenhardt and her daughter are gone to Hawaii so that leaves Sister Cochran in charge.

The Palmer's conducted the preparation meeting. We saw films on temple clothing. 

I have the same schedule that I have had for the past month which is ok with me. I start out in initiatory then go to the celestial room and then I have a break with James. 

During our break with visit with Sister Humphreys from St. Johns who knew Uncle Delbert and Sister LundrAfen whose husband is from Vernon. We tell them about our weight loss challenge and our "green" smoothies.

There is an own endowment couple in our session. I say our session because James led the prayer circle and gave one of the best prayers that I have ever heard given in the temple. 

After the endowment session the couple have their four month old baby girl sealed to them. Sister Bower got to be in the sealing and she told me all about it. She said that to her the sealing of a family is the culminating ordinance in the temple and I would certainly agree with her. 

After the session I went back to initiatory for 30 minutes, was the baptismal greeter and then last I was in charge of assigning lockers in the women's dressing room. 

Tyler, from our ward was here this week. He said he felt bad about missing last time but his phone was doing an update and his alarm didn't work. He said he came and did a session because he felt so guilty.

Our friends from Chandler, the Vance's were not here this week. We miss seeing them when they aren't here.

When we got home James took a quick nap and then went over to the Howard's to help Brother Howard clear trees. He was gone from about 4-6:30.

While James was gone I did some walking and then I went upstairs to find some things to put together for a family history display tomorrow. I am in charge of the displays at our ward activity on June 23rd. I was specifically looking for the picture of my "Nannie" in a big hat when she was about five years old. I found lots of other photos, but never did find the one I was looking for. I found plenty to make a display using old photos, an old sewing machine, some personal documents of my dad's and his Book of Remembrance. I found a family photo of myself as a baby with my mom and dad and a family photo of my dad with his parents, Aunt Gene, and Uncle Jerry. Uncle Jerry was not dad's brother he was my grandma Verdie's brother but she raised him as her own.

I called Charlotte this afternoon to see how she was doing. She got new glasses and she can see! She seemed pretty positive and said I could take her off of my worry list. This is great news!

I took a bath and went to bed quite early with the intention of getting up early and finishing up the lesson I am giving for Relief Society tomorrow.

Sunrise

Uncle Delbert at the 

Lambson Family Reunion

Aunt Luella and Uncle Delbert

One of my favorite pictures of Emmy

Addy and Emmy

Such cuties!

Anna

James Hayden

My mom and I

Ollie enjoying the 3-day weekend.

Monday, May 21st, 2018

Manaus, Brazil

138th operating temple

Dedicated: 10 June 2012

By: Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Jesus Christ, birth of

2 Nephi 26:3

And after the Messiah shall come there shall be signs given unto my people of his birth, and also of his death and resurrection; and great and terrible shall that day be unto the wicked, for they shall perish; and they perish because they cast out the prophets, and the saints, and stone them, and slay them; wherefore the cry of the blood of the saints shall ascend up to God from the ground against them.

Book of Mormon

Alma 3:20:-4:4

*What changed in the land as a result of the wars with the Amlicites and Lamanites?

- Their food source was gone due to the crops being trampled and herds were missing or slaughtered. On top of that so many were killed or wounded, even Alma was wounded. The survivors had to start over in every part of their lives. The minute they had time to think "they were awakened to a remembrance of their duty, and they began to establish the Church more fully;" The words more fully means they did it with full purpose of heart.

Old Testament

2 Samuel 15-16

15 Absalom conspires against David and gains the support of the people.

16 Mephibosheth is alleged to be seeking to be king - Shimei, of the house of Saul, curses David - Ahithophel counsels Absalom, and Absalom takes his father's concubines.

General Conference

He That Shall Endure to the End, the Same Shall Be Saved

Elder Claudio D. Zivic

"Jesus Christ assured us that 'he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.' To endure means to remain firm in a commitment to be true to the commandments of God despite temptation, opposition, and adversity."

James left for Legacy golf course early this morning. He has some cleanup to do and he is submitting the invoice for payment to the owners. 

Lola and I left around 7:45 to take Evan and Max to school. We took Evan first but before we left Lola went in and gave Ollie a piece of cheese for a treat. At Evan's school a little girl with glasses got out of the car in front of us. Lola wanted to know why she was smaller than Evan. I had to explain to her that not all children are the same size and Evan's school included children lots of different ages.

We went back to Sheri's and waited with Max and Ollie until it was time to take Max to school. Max gave Ollie some treats but first he made him sit up and roll over. Lola thought that was so funny she asked Max to do it again, which he did.

I guess we wore him out.

When we got to Bogle Jr. High, where Max goes to school, I told Lola this was where her dad went to school. Max asked if his mom went there too and I said no. Your mom and Jared went to Andersen Jr. High, and Stacy and Kim went to Willis.

After dropping Max off we drove over to Stacy's. I needed to give her some pictures and Lola was anxious to see Shipley and Vader.

Shipley was on her best behavior but Stacy had to hold Vader most of the time because he was so excited to see us and was a little overzealous. 

Next stop was the Target in south Chandler. Lola said that her Target did not have red doors and the big balls out front were smaller. I started to tell her that all Targets have red doors but I decided not to. 

We spent a good deal of time in the bathroom for Lola. The first time someone took our cart so the next time I stood guard at the door, watching our cart. Lola kept asking if our cart was ok. Once I went to check on her and she said, "Don't look at me grandma." I apologized and said I would give her a private moment.

We shopped in Bulleye's corner where Lola got a zippered plastic container with stickers, a pen and pencil and a pad of paper. She also got some sunglasses. Next we went to the back of the store where the books are. 

Lola picked out a Peppa Pig coloring book with paints, and I got her a Princess book with 5 minute Princess stories in it.  I also bought myself a couple of children books. 

I bought a few groceries and then we checked out. The lady at the checkout stand said Lola looked like a movie star with her glasses and I said, yes, and she even has a movie star name. Her name is Lola.

Before going home we stopped at Olive Garden for lunch. Our waiter was very kind and very cute. He paid special attention to Lola. She ordered mac and cheese, with mashed potatoes and a Sprite to drink. He also brought her some grapes. I had soup, salad, and breadsticks. Those breadsticks are just too good. Lola had two before her lunch came and then she  just had a couple of bites of mac and cheese and some grapes.

She drank all of her Sprite.

Feeling the burn.

Those mashed potatoes were totally ignored.

Lola fell asleep on the way home. I thought she was being awfully quite so I said something to her and she didn't answer so I looked in my mirror and saw that she was asleep. When we got home I layed her down on Rowan's bed. I guess getting up at 6 o'clock with me was just to early for her.

Sleeping Beauty

Worn out from our big day.

When Trina got home from getting her hair done Lola and I were still laying down but we were both awake. Trina said she missed her little girl who usually goes everywhere with her. I said that today she was my special angel, and she was. 

When James got home he took a nap and then I ordered him some dinner from Olive Garden, stuffed Marsala chicken and we went to pick it up and then got lost trying to find Rowan's flag football game. When we finally arrived Rowan's team was ahead in this championship game, 13-2. The final score was 19-14 with Rowan's team winning. 

 Rowan caught a long pass and ran in

for a touchdown but they called it back

because of a penalty of some sort.

Darrel said Rowan made 3 touchdowns in

his game on Saturday.

Darrel was at work today so he didn't make it to this game and 

Trina was at Ruby's concert. We went to the game and she went to the concert.

Cute little Ruby in the front row. She said her favorite song

was "I've Been Workin' on the Railroad."

I told her that I liked that song and wished I could have been

there to here her sing it.

After the game Rowan went with us to visit Lois and Dawn. Of course Lois fed us. She was watching the finale of "Dancing with the Stars" and I asked her to leave it on. Our favorite couple won!

Adam, the Olympian ice skater, and pro, Jenna

Lois had a nice collection of flowers for Mother's day:

 This one was from Dave and Laura.

Very interesting.

I think this bouquet was from Connie.

Those dark purple leaves are real which

Dawn is pointing out.

Orchids and philadendron

Not sure who they are from.

James parked his truck at the church. He said he caught a bunny for Lola so of course all the kids had to go over and see if they could find the bunny locked in grandpa's truck. They never did find him and the only thing he could figure out was the bunny must have gotten out when he opened the truck and he didn't see him.

This is what Lola had to say: "Grandpa, you should have taken better care of my bunny."

This evening James and I went for a walk and we checked on the truck. I didn't get a ton of steps, but I got over 10,000.

 Delbert is hold a bear that he carved out of a stump and telling his funny bear story. This photo was taken last July at his grand-daughter Kyra's funeral. Jaelyn is Kyra's sister.

Uncle Delbert was the last survivor of his generation

in the Frank Bates - Annie Laurie Mangum

Family.

When I first met Delbert it was at the State Fair

in Phoenix sitting in front of the Apache county

exhibit which he created. He almost always

won first place for his exhibit.

His funeral is June 2nd in St. Johns, the

same day as our anniversary celebration in Chandler.

I think James is going to go and then hurry back for

our celebration.

Saturday, July 1st, 2017

Sao Paulo, Brazil

17th operating temple

Dedicated: 30 Oct - 2 Nov 1978 by

Spencer W. Kimball

Rededicated: 22 Feb 2004 by

Gordon B. Hinckley

Alma 25:1-17

*How were Abinadi's prophecies fulfilled?

The Lord sends His prophets to serve as His messengers and make His will known. Slometimes they predict future events. Alma 25 is the fulfillment of Abinadi's prophecy from Mosiah 17:14-19.

*What has our prophet counseled us to do today?

DC 95:1-17

1-6, The Saints are chastened for their failure to build the house of the Lord; 7-10, The Lord desires to use His house to endow His people with power from on high; 11-17, The house is to be dedicated as a place of worship and for the school of the Apostles.

Which verse stood out to me?

*1 Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you whom I love, and whom I love I also chasten that their sins may be forgiven, for with the chastisement I prepare a way for their deliverance in all things out of temptation, and I have loved you-

8 Yea, verily I say unto you, I gave unto you a commandment that you should build a house, in the which house I design to endow those whom I have chosen with power from on high;

11 Verily I say unto you, it is my will that you should build a house. If you keep my commandments you shall have power to build it.

13 Now here is wisdom, and the mind of the Lord - let the house be built, not after the manner of the world, for I give not unto you that ye shall live after the manner of the world;

14 Therefore, let it be built after the manner which I shall show unto three of you, whom ye shall appoint and ordain unto this power.

General Conference

Trust in the Lord and Lean Not

Bonnie H. Cordon

" We must each ask: How do I keep centered and lean not unto mine own understanding? How do I recognize and follow the Savior's voice when the voices of the world are so compelling?

How do I cultivate trust in the Savior: May I suggest three ways to increase our knowledge of and trust in the Savior?

First, we can come to know the Lord and trust Him as we 'feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do. Scriptures enlighten our minds, nourish our spirits, answer our questions, increase our trust in the Lord, and help us center our lives on Him.

Second, we can come to know the Lord and trust Him through prayer. As we make a habit of approaching Heavenly Father in prayer, we will come to know the Savior. We will come to trust Him. Our desires will become more like His. We will be able to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that Heavenly Father is ready to give if we will but ask in faith.

Third, we can come to know the Lord and trust Him as we sacrifice to serve others."

James and I made an early morning trip to town. Kim and Brian were still in bed so I left them a note. It was James's errand but I took advantage of it. I bought a mattress topper for the bed in James's office. I bought ping pong balls and paddles, and various and other sundry items. We stopped at Jack-in-the Box for breakfast and I had one of their yummy supreme croissants.  

Happy 14th Birthday Max!

This is one amazing kid. He seems tough on the outside but

on the inside he is a marshmallow.

Max absolutely loves Michael!

They are buddies, even if Michael did

knock his tooth out on the trampoline.

Such a handsome boy, and so talented!

His brothers and his cousins are his

best friends.

Such a smart boy, even at this age!

I love you Max!

We had smoke from the San Carlos Hilltop fire today. It got so bad that it was difficult to go outside. It kept Kim and Brian from going for a walk and a Razr ride. They even talked about going home. That's how bad it was. 

James went to Kyra's funeral in St. Johns. This is a picture of Kyra's dad Curtis, and his finance Joie. They are pretty amazing people. More to come about them at a later date.

Curtis is Uncle Delbert's youngest son.

Uncle Delbert was a prisoner of war in

World War II. He wrote a book about it.

He is 94 years old and he and Uncle Kay are the

only two of James's dad's siblings that are

still alive. He lives in St. Johns.

Kyra's kids and one of two of the

children that Joie and Curtis adopted.

I stayed home from the funeral to finish cleaning upstairs. Jared and Kacey and their kids will be arriving tonight. There were so many dead bugs in the bathtubs!  It was a chore, but I finished. The upstairs is ready for company.

Brian cooked me a cheeseburger for lunch. Thanks Brian.  I am so tired. When James got home he, Kim and I played a game of Five Crowns.

Jared, Kacey and the kids arrived around 9:30 after spending 15.5 hours in the car.  They were exhausted and went straight to bed.

Random Photos:

Molly met Kacey's friend Gloria and they were

instantly best friends!

Upper Black River

I love the diversity of scenery in Arizona!

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Happy 35th birthday Darrel!!

Darrel and his sweet family.

There is a fire in Yosemite right now called the Rim fire which was started by a hunter on August 17th which has burned nearly 371 square miles.  It is one of the largest wildfires in California history and has cost 81 million dollars to fight.

James and I had our weekly lunch date at LaCasita today.  Afterwards we went to Home Depot to get some shelf brackets for our bookshelves and some Krud Kutter to remove the wax from our wood floor.  While walking in we saw James's Uncle Delbert and so we stopped and spoke with him.   Uncle Delbert is in his mid 90's.  He said he just returned from visiting with Curtis in Iowa. 

After shopping at Home Depot we went to Walmart.  James waited for me on a bench in the front of the store while I did my shopping.  Just outside the store we had seen a woman holding a homeless sign.  James had me get $10 to give to her.

This evening we went on a Ranger ride.  We saw a wild turkey, an owl and a large six point elk near home.  On the way home from town we saw some antelope in the field across from the post office.  James counted 9 does and 6 bucks.  We also saw some archery antelope hunters scoping them out.  Here's hoping the guy is a lousy shot.

Some pictures I took today:

Mary Johnson, Paul's mother posted this picture on Facebook today:

Paul is the youngest, just to Mary's left.