Monday, September 26, 2016

Name that temple

Los Angeles?

The first thing that happened when I got up this morning.

My temporary crown broke in half.

I called the dentist and then said hold on, keep my mouth clean,

and they have a new one for me on October 6th.  

It was a spontaneous kind of day.  We normally have a shake or James has Malt-o-Meal or oatmeal for breakfast.  Today he got up and fixed hasbrowns and eggs.  I love hashbrown.  They are one of my favorite breakfast foods.

Helaman 10:1-19

How did Nephi qualify for this great power?  Can we have this same power?  How are you an everyday missionary?

My answer: The answer to the first question is found in verses 4 & 5.  The last sentence in verse four says: "Thou hast not feared the, and hast not sought thine own life, but has sought my will, and to keep my commandments.  The blessings are listed in verse 5.  Can we have the same power?  Like Nephi, if we learn to ask "in the Spirit" (Helaman 10:17) and according to God's will, then "it is done even as "we ask (D&C 46:30; 50:29-30).  How am I an everyday missionary?  By trying to live the gospel and serving.  When I serve I don't want it to feel like a burden or an interruption but like I am doing the Lord's will.  When I serve, I feel the Spirit.  When I feel the Spirit it fills me with great power to love and care for others.  As we live the gospel, people will notice.  They will judge our religion based on our actions.

James's answer (which I sent to the Adam, Alex, Michael, and Seth as part of our scripture study).  When I serve and feel I have blessed someone else's life, I feel that the Savior approves of my service because I have done what He would have done and I feel His love.  I feel "wrapped in the arms of my Savior's love."  I feel like rejoicing because He approves of my service.

GC: 'Always Remember Him' Elder Gerrit W. Gong

"We can always remember Him on the Sabbath through the Sacrament.

Our Savior invites us to always remember Him as He always remembers us."

GC: 'Refuge from the Storm' by Elder Kearon

" For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me . . . Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

Matthew 25:35-36

After our scripture study James went out and to take care of his baby.  I heard him talking and was wondering if he was on the phone.  No, he was talking to a bunny, telling her to quit eating his grass.

Edging

  

He is so proud of his "baby" and can't wait until next year when he can plant some more grass.

We were going to go to lunch today with Dennis, Denise, Harold, and Vickie but Dennis and Denise had to take their dog Buster to the vet and he ended up having surgery.  I hope he is ok.  I said a prayer for him.

I don't know what the princesses did to these grapes, but they are magical!!  One of our favorite snacks right now.

As I was reading from our book with James this morning, "Millennial Glory", I was touched by the way the author has the hero fight the bad guy.  Bo (weird names in this book),  uses his priesthood to defy the anti-Christ Imman Mahdi and saves the life of his son Dane.  Pretty powerful for a fictional novel.  This isn't historical fiction, I guess you would call it futuristic fiction.

Aaron's daughter Katie had a birthday this past week.  She turned 11.  She loves Minecraft so Erik's wife Amelia made her a cake.

Even Carmen was amazed.

Back to James and his many talents.  This is the guest house we have decided to build.  It is not as fancy as some of the others but it will be more affordable so we can start it sooner.

It has a bathroom and a kitchen!

Maybe by next summer.

Before dinner tonight James went out on the Razr to look for elk.  We have not seen any in our yard this year.  He found out why.  All of the water sources near us have gone dry because of the drought.  When he went up by water and bugled, he got some answers.  We are going to pray harder for rain.

I made beans in my Power Cooker using Gene Reed's recipe.  They turned out amazing and only took about an hour and a half.  James had several bowls.

For F.H.E. we listened to Elder Oaks's conference address, "Opposition in All Things."  We also tried to watch the debates between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.  What a joke.  Hillary told at least 12 lies.  And Trump kept putting his foot in his mouth.  Can we roll the dice and start over?

Yellowstone Park

Rowan's favorite animal.

Sunday, September 18. 2016

Happy Birthday to my sweet cousin Rita.

We are exactly one day and one month apart.

From 4am to 8am on Sunday morning I pray and prepare for my Primary lesson.  Today the lesson is on 3 Nephi 17 where the Savior blesses the sick among the Nephites, prays with and for them, and blesses the children.  I love these Book of Mormon lessons.

I was excited to see Brother Jerry Corter in sacrament meeting this week.  He is a new member and has not been coming the past few months.  He has been on my prayer list.

We had three speakers in sacrament meeting today.  First, Alicia Hunsaker who spoke on personal revelation.  "Living a clean and pure life opens the channels of revelation.  Pondering the scriptures is one of the greatest ways to invite the Spirit and the Spirit is the medium to revelation.  Seek God's will.  Do not try to force spiritual things.  Be patient and let it grow.  Revelation is the natural inheritance of true believers."

Next was Ashley Reidnead who is new in our ward.  She is young, and a return missionary.  She is from Alabama and was just called as the Relief Society secretary.  Her thoughts were based on the talk in General Conference by Elder Snow, "Be Thou Humble."  Here are some of my notes: "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness.  I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them. (Ether 12:27).  We must be humble as a little child to return to the kingdom of Heaven.  We need to be teachable, repentant, and dependent on the Lord.  Pride is the ultimate sin and is the opposite of charity.  The antidote for pride is humility.  Mosiah 4: 11-12.

Our stake president, President Williams was the final speaker.  He told about a Sister Diana Batson of the Clay Springs ward thought she had the flu.  She went to the hospital and they said she needed to fly to Phoenix but would probably die before she got there.  She had to have both her legs, one arm, and the fingers on the other hand amputated.  Her ward had a fundraiser for her on Saturday.  Her son is on a mission right now.  She is 40 years old.  The Lord is aware of each and every one of us and he will send people to comfort us.  He spoke about centering our lives on Christ and referred to Elder Maynes's talk in the October 2015 general conference, "The Joy of Living a Christ-Centered Life."  He said that General Conference is like tuning our lives as if we were tuning a musical instrument.  I love President Williams.

The Vernon church

Brayin, Curtis, and Zemira were in Primary today.  I also had Madison from Sister Hall's class.  During singing time Curtis actually sang.  His positive reinforcement was a box of Milk Duds.

After our meetings James went home teaching with his partner Rick.  They visited the Scott's, the Hunsaker's, and the Wallace's.  Sister Wallace has done submitted over 15,000 names for temple work.  I have got to call her and find out how she does it.

I ate lunch, had a nap and then did my gospel study for the day.  I read from my book "Christ in Every Hour."  I read one of my favorite chapters, The Restorative Power of Christ.

  

Helaman 6:1-14.

How do you remain firm and steady in your faith?

Instagram-bofm365-sue_heugly.  Stay obedient in the little day to day things, and it won't be as hard when the big things challenge us.  Forgive, repent, love others.  barleestacey - Steady, devoted covenant keeping builds a fortress of faith and makes us steadfast and immovable.

GC: 'Eternal Families' by President Henry B. Eyring

"What can the young elder do to help in the creation of eternal families?  He may be about to go into the mission field.  He can pray with all his heart that he will be able to find, teach

and baptize families."

GC:  'A Sacred Trust' by President Thomas S. Monson

" Then the Holy Spiirt spoke to my friend: 'You have the

priesthood.  Command the rescuers to pick you up.

He did as prompted: 'n the name of Jesus Christ and by the

power of the priesthood, turn about and pick us up.'

Within a few minutes the vessel was beside them, helping them on deck."

Today President Henry B. Eyring dedicated the Philadelphia temple.  He said he was baptized in Philadelphia so it was like coming home.

 I love the front porch on this little guest house.

When James got home he ate and took a short nap and then we read from Millennial Glory.  It was a wonderful Sabbath day!

From Facebook:

This was a post by Kacey.

Antelope Canyon

There are so many unique and beautiful places in Arizona.

This is our friend from Chandler, Paula.

Her friends and family threw her a surprise

birthday party.  

She loves Disneyland and James calls her Tinkerbell.

She even has the wings.

The tree in our yard.

Monday, August 22, 2016

Salt Lake temple

Alma 54:13-55:14

13 - Moroni to Ammoron: Ye have sought to murder us, and we have only sought to defend ourselves.

16 - Ammoron: I will avenge Amalickiah's blood upon you.

17 - Your fathers robbed the Lamanites of their right to govern.

18 - Become subject unto us and we will lay down our weapons of war.

19 - We fear not your threatenings, Moroni.

20 - We will exchange prisoners and wage a war to subject the Nephites to our authority or to their eternal extinction.

21 - Concerning God, we know not such a being.

22 - If there is a devil and a hell, he should send you there for murdering my brother.

23 - I am Ammoron, a descendant of Zoram.

24 - Now I am a bold Lamanite.  I am avenging their wrongs and their right to government.

Alma 55:1-14

1 - Moroni is angry with Ammoron.

2 - I will not exchange prisoners with Ammoron unless he withdraws his purpose.

3 - I know where the Lamanites do guard my people who have been taken prisoners.

4 - Moroni searches among his men for a descendant of Laman.

5 - He finds one, a former guard of the king whose name is Laman.

6 - Moroni sends Laman and a small number of his men to go forth unto the guards over the Nephites.

7 - They were in the city of Gid.

8 - Laman says to the guards, fear not, I am a Lamanite.  

9 - The Lamanites say to Laman: Give us of your wine to drik for we are weary.

10 - Laman says: You may do according to your desires.

13 - The Lamanites take of the wine freely and it was strong.

14 - They become drunken.

GC: "See Yourself in the Temple" by Elder Quentin L. Cook.

I got ready this morning and went in to town to visit Aunt Gene.  I left James behind doing surgery on the house.

We have been smelling dead mice.

He found five.  He sealed up the wall where they

were coming in from the garage.

Aunt Gene is in room 110 at the Summit Hospital in Show Low.  When I arrived around 10 am.  The room was full of family:

Rita, Bill, Randy, Debbie, Rita's kids: Chris, Rick and Gina.  And Gina's three year old boy Bentley who reminds me of Evan.  He told Aunt Gene he would give her a big prize if she would get well.  So cute.  

Aunt Gene looks very tired and frail.  She has had nothing to eat since last Thursday.  They want the blockage to go down on its own because they are cautious about doing surgery because of her age.  I don't know how long they will wait.  I stayed for about an hour and visited and then I felt like I should go.  I did a little shopping at Walmart and picked up some lunch for both James and I at Panda. I had to take this picture of Show Low Creek on the way home.

Our sunflower field in Vernon didn't bloom this year because the rains were so late.  This one is almost as beautiful.  It is

prettier than this picture shows.

I got a package from Jared today for my birthday.  It is a very large book entitled, "The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics."  I was hoping for The Great Divorce because Jared likes it so much but this has not only The Great Divorce but six other books.  Thank you Jared!

Speaking of Jared, his kids started school today in San Antonio.  Tricia posted this picture:

They grow up so fast!

I think Molly has changed the most in the past year.

This afternoon I did a little cleaning, reading, and blogging.  For FHE we filled out our voting ballots and prepared to send them in.

I cooked some navy beans in the Power Cooker in less than an hour.  They turned out quite delicious.  I used the same recipe I use for pinto beans with tomato sauce, El Pato, and butter.

Mary took Paul, Stacy and Joshua out to dinner for mexican food.

Xavier's Casa Reynoso in Mesa

House is this for a guest house:

It has a Victorian look.

For my closing picture:

Mt. Ranier

Sunday, August 21, 2016

I love this family tree and want James to draw

me one in our hallway.  The only problem,

he doesn't like it.  Boohoo.

Alma 53:18-54:12

What can we learn from the stripling warriors courage?

18 - Two thousand warriors took the oath to defend their country.

19 - They became a great support to the Nephites.  Helaman was their leader

20 - They were all young and exceedingly valiant for courage, strength and activity.  They were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted.

21 - They were men of truth and soberness, for they had been taught to keep the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before Him.

22 - Helaman marched at the head of his 2,000 soldiers.

23 - The 28th year ended.

Alma 54

1 - Ammoron wants to exchange prisoners with the Nephites.

2 - Moroni wrote to Ammoron:

3 - Repent and withdraw your armies into you own lands.

7 - An awful hell awaits to receive such murderers as thou and thy brother unless you repent and return with your aries to your own lands.

11 - Thou art a child of hell.

GC: "Fathers" by Elder D. Todd Christofferson.

Today was high council Sunday.  Montana Westbrook gave her first talk in sacrament meeting since turning 12.  She spoke on her favorite scripture story, about Lehi and Nephi as recorded in Helaman 5.  She did a great job.  This is one of my favorite scripture stories too.  Cory Davis was the next speaker.  I believe he is a recently returned missionary.  He spoke on priesthood keys and authority.  Rob Jones was our high councilman speaker.  I know his wife Fawne.  She was the stake young women's president when I was in young women's.  They live in Clay Springs.  The first thing Brother Jones did was remind us of the blessings President Williams promised us at the end of our last stake conference if we would participate in the Find, Take, Teach family history program.  Here are the blessings: 1) We will receive help beyond the veil, 2) Our burdens will be lighter, 3) We will feel more forgiveness and we will forgive others more easily, 4) We will have a deeper testimony of prophets, priesthood keys, and others around us will notice this about us.  President Williams also ask us to memorize the Family Proclamation and The Living Christ.  This is something I work on every morning during my gospel study.  

 Thank you President Monson!

Today my Primary class consisted of: Braylin, Curtis, Kacey, Zemira, and a visitor from Eagar, Joely.  I think Joely is related to the Grap family.  Our lesson was on "Signs of Jesus Christ's Birth in America" covering 3 Nephi 1-2.

During sharing/singing time I was sitting by Curtis.  Braylin drug his chair around to my other side and started talking to me about the Fablehaven book series that he just finished reading.  He knows I am reading it too.  On the other side of me Curtis starts telling me about the series he is reading called "The Amulet".  It was like stereo book report all during singing time.  I tried to quiet them down but it wasn't easy.  On the one hand I am glad they want to share what they like with me, but I don't think singing time is the appropriate time.  It was funny.

James and I came home and had a salad for lunch before he left to go home teaching with Brother Rick Lauritzen.  They visited George and Ruth Wallace, and the Kip Hunsaker family.  When he returned home a couple of hours later we had some pesto flatbread and then James went in to take a nap.  I texted Randy to see how Aunt Gene was doing.  They are putting her in ICU tonight to keep a better watch on her.  I plan on going to see her tomorrow.

Michael left for college today.  Joshua was still asleep and was very sad when he woke up and Michael was gone.

Moving is hard work.

Michael's space.

Nice blanket.

Joshua was so upset he didn't want to go to church.  It was just him and Stacy because Paul went with Michael.  At one point he got up to go to the bathroom and told Stacy he was leaving to walk home.  She looked at him and said, "You better not."  He has never done anything like that before so she really didn't think he would.  He never came back and when she went to look for him he was nowhere to be found.  She went home, and there he was, sitting on the couch with Shipley.  He probably walked a mile and had to cross McQueen Rd.

On Sunday evening James and I usually start working on our lessons for the next week but this week we didn't need to.  Next week Michael is being ordained an elder and we are going down to the valley.  We read and James called Ed Miller to teach his class.  I will talk to Hailey Chaffin tomorrow to see if she is available to teach my class.

 Clouds over Mt. Mentoso

Baby Lola

She has changed quite a bit in two years!

Guest house of the Day: