Monday, March 16th, 2020

Hartford, Connecticut

155th operating temple

Dedicated: 20 Nov 2016

By: Henry B. Eyring

Jesus Christ, Judge

1 Peter 4:5

Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.

Book of Mormon/"Come Follow Me"

Jacob 5:1-14

Jacob quotes Zenos relative to the allegory of the tame and wild olive trees - They are a likeness of Israel and the Gentiles

Oct 2019 Gen Con

"Beloved Daughters"

Bonnie H. Cordon

"My dear sisters, I bear witness that these adjustments I have spoken of today are inspired direction from the Lord. As we diligently implement these adjustments, may we never lose sight of our purpose: to strengthen our resolve to follow Jesus Christ and help others come unto Him. I testify that this is His Church. How grateful I am that He allows us to be a very important part of His sacred work.  I pray that the same Spirit that has guided these adjustments will guide you as you press forward on the covenant path. I so testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

The Saints, Volume 2
Chapter 44
Blessed Peace

It was a quiet morning as the boys slept in. I worked on my blog and then when I got frustrated with the photo app freezing up, I began working on books. 

James left for the valley this morning. He was going to spend the night at Sheri and Ian's but decided to come home this afternoon instead. He brought me a bean and cheese from Burger House. Ian was disappointed he didn't stay. He just inherited some of his grandpa's shotguns and he wanted to show them to James. He is dying to come up and try them out. Probably next week when they were supposed to be in England. 

When the boys finally got up I fixed them a big breakfast, scrambled eggs, hash browns, and turkey bacon. Max extolled the virtues of turkey bacon over regular bacon. We said we were both glad it tasted more like bacon than turkey.

After cleaning the kitchen I went back in the bedroom to work on books again. I am repricing and buying, and working on inventory and merchant fulfilled inventory.

At one o'clock the electricity went off. I was miffed. I told James who is in the valley and of course he couldn't do anything. I also texted Darrel who is on his way up here with his girls. The boys had been upstairs playing video games and they went outside. At 1:25 it came back on so I texted Joshua and told him. A minute later it was off again. I did contact Navapache because they sent me a notice that it was back on. It soon came back on and stayed.

A few minutes later Darrel, Addy, Ruby, and Lola arrived. Darrel brought food and some toilet paper. I had cleared a space for their stuff on one of the kitchen counters and they filled it up. Darrel only stayed a few minutes and then he was on his way home.

I guess my social distancing is reversed. Instead of having two people in our house we now have nine, when James gets back that is. 

Sheri sent Ben's letter and some photos he sent. I will share them later. 

James got back in time to grill some hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner. Ruby, Lola and I had gone on a walk and we met him down the road and to Lola's delight he gave us a ride back to the house/cabin.

After dinner I cleaned the kitchen and then we did "Come Follow Me" Jacob 5:1-14 the Savior's first visit to his vineyard which was during Old Testament times. We also had family prayer. 

I was so tired when we finished "Come Follow Me" that I went in and soaked in the bathtub and then went to bed. 

James stayed up a little longer walking and listening to "The Saints." He also listened to Max sing. He said he is really good. He sang, "Did You Ever See the Rain." Max is an old soul when it comes to music. He likes Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, and the Beatles. 

Sheri brought peach pie for me and

apple for James

Scarlett is beautiful!

Love that face!

 Best friends!

I don't care that this isn't cropped!

It takes forever!

Saturday, November 16th, 2019

Stockholm, Sweden

34th operating temple

Dedicated: 2-4 July 1985

By: Gordon B. Hinckley

Jesus Christ, Head of Church

DC 119:2

For the building of mine house, and for the laying of the foundation of Zion and for the priesthood, and for the debts of the Presidency of my Church.

Book of Mormon

4 Nephi 1:1-22

New Testament

Hebrews 13; 10:32-36, 11, 12:2-12:5-11; SS: Questions about faith from chapter 11; The blessings of the Melchizedek Priesthood are available to all; "Cast not away therefore your confidence."

10/19 General Conference

"Beloved Daughters"

Sister Bonnie H. Cordon

At the heart of all we do in Young Women is our desire to help you gain unshakable faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and a sure knowledge of your divine identity as a daughter of God. 

Tonight, I would like to announce a revision to the Young Women theme:

I am a beloved daughter of heavenly parents, with a divine nature and eternal destiny.

As a disciple of Jesus Christ, I strive to become like Him. I seek and act upon personal revelation and minister to others in His holy name.

I will stand as a witness of God at all times and in all things and in all places. 

As I strive to qualify for exaltation, I cherish the gift of repentance and seek to improve each day. With faith, I will strengthen my home and family, make and keep sacred covenants, and receive the ordinances and blessings of the holy temple.

Notice the shift from 'we' to 'I.' These truths apply to you individually. You are a beloved daughter of Heavenly Parents."

Day 5: Generosity: 1 Timothy 6:18
Use money to do good. Rich in good works and generous to those in need, always ready to share. 
We serve a generous God. His love gives us mercy and grace everyday. Teach children to be generous with their time, money, service and forgiveness.
Prayer: Dear Father, help me teach Max, and all of my children to be generous with their time, money, service and forgiveness. Help us to realize the great blessings that come to us from thee everyday. The blessings of love, mercy, grace, place, joy and forgiveness. Help us to always be ready to share with others and freely give of our blessings.

"If you judge people, you have no time

to love them." - Mother Teresa

"Success is found in following the Spirit."

- The Priesthood Power of Women

by

Barbara Morgan Gardner

James was busy today. He worked on the roof, refinished the back door, and split wood with Brian until the wood splitter ran out of hydraulic fluid. When James was refinishing the door so much sawdust was coming in that we taped up a sheet in front of the open door opening. 

Kim worked on her puzzle today only to find that a brand new $17 puzzle came with a piece missing. This isn't the actual puzzle, it's the cover on the box.

The piece that is missing is from the candy cane sweater in the upper left part of the picture.

Brian went to Dollar General and Stanford store this morning to get some ear drops. He also got me some passion punch sherbet, my favorite!

Our friend Anthony came by this morning and brought us some bread, a sweet roll, and two muffins from the "Just Baked" bakery in Pinetop. He knows the owner and he gets lots of leftovers from the bakery. The sweet roll had almonds with almond flavoring and was delicious. The muffins were wonderful, one was cranberry orange, and the others was cinnamon sugar. The bread was parmesan sourdough and it was yummy too. It made me want to go to the bakery.

Kim and Brian put up our Christmas tree for us. Kim spent over three hours putting more lights on the tree. Many of the ones that came with the tree were burnt out. She and Brian also started decorating the tree. Here is what the finished product looked like.

Normally I put ribbon on the tree, but not this year.

Around 6:30 we were waiting for Jared, Kacey, and Charlie to arrive from Sedona. They left around noon and came over on the I-40 through Snowflake. They stopped to eat at "The Skillet" and then went to walk around the grounds of the Snowflake temple. They also stopped at the Walmart in Taylor to do a little shopping. They asked what they could get for the dinner. I had them get some lemons and oranges to put in the turkey and some rosemary. Jared also got some Bluebell pecan pralines ice cream. He didn't know that I had already bought some when I went shopping.

Anyway, just before Jared, Kacey, and Charlie arrived around 6:45, the electricity went off. Perfect timing to bring a baby into a new house, while it's dark. At first we thought maybe we had thrown a breaker because of the lights on the tree, but when Kathy Crane texted and asked me if our electricity was off, we knew it wasn't the tree.

We lit all of the kerosene lamps and candles we could find. We had wanted to watch a Hallmark Christmas movie but instead Charlie entertained us. She is such a fun, cute little girl with a great personality! The lights came back on around 8 o'clock. Brian cooked himself a pot pie and Charlie was in the kitchen. She won't look at Brian. We think it's either the beard or his hat. 

Speaking of Brian and his hat. We have named the "upstairs ghost" Orson. Kim thinks she heard him this morning. I think she probably heard  "Woody" the woodpecker who is trying to drill a hole in our roof, or siding.

Instead of watching a Hallmark movie we turned on the ASU game. They lost to the Oregon Beavers 35-34.

James and I went to bed around 10.

"Come Follow Me" lesson

Charlie in Sedona and at the Snowflake temple

James refinishing the door

#TBM (Throwback Memory)

 Now they are doing baptisms for the dead together

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