Monday, December 23rd, 2019

Ciudad, Juarez

71st operating temple

Dedicated: 26 Feb 2000

By: Gordon B. Hinckley

Jesus Christ, Jehovah

2 Nephi 16:1

In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train felled the temple.

Book of Mormon

Ether 15:18-34

New Testament

Revelation 12-13; Redheaded Hostess and New Testament Student Manual

Oct 2019 General Conference

"Deceive Me Not"

Elder Gary E. Stevenson

"Satan, the father of lies and the great deceiver, would have us question things as they really are and either ignore eternal truths or replace them with something that appears more pleasing. 'He maketh war with the saints of God' and has spent millennia calculating and practicing the ability to persuade God's children to believe that good is evil and evil is good."

A strong testimony of Jesus Christ gives peace, comfort, and assurance. It generates the conviction that as the teachings of the Savior are consistently obeyed, life will be beautiful, the future secure, and there will be capacity to overcome the challenges that cross our path. A testimony grows from understanding truth, distilled from prayer and the pondering of scriptural doctrine. It is nurtured by living those truths in faith and the secure confidence that the promised results will be obtained. 

James and I had lunch with a friend from Chandler at Olive Garden today. Her name is Judy Pargetter. Judy's husband Allen passed away about six months ago. She reached out to me on Facebook and we arranged to meet for lunch. Judy has overcome many trials in her life. At one time she weighed over 400 lbs. Now she is at an average weight for her age and height. Her husband served in the military most of his life and had PTSD and alzheimers along with some other physical handicaps, in their later years while she was his caregiver. She passed on genetically a weakness in her sons and grandson causing mental and physical disabilities. Through all of this she has persevered and remained faithful and active in the gospel of Jesus Christ. When James had his heart surgery she was the one friend that came to visit us and brought a blanket because she knew the hospital blankets were not warm enough if I decided to spend the night. She is a wonderful friend and an inspiration to both James and I. When Allen, her husband, was wheel chair bound James went over and built them a ramp. They were also in our ward when James was the bishop. I think you can say that we belong to a mutual admiration society. We love Judy and she loves us.

After lunch and saying goodbye to Judy, I asked James if we could go to Hobby Lobby so I could get some ribbon to use on the packages I am wrapping. I have an entire box of ribbon at home that I forgot to bring. Of course he said yes because he loves Hobby Lobby almost as much as I do. I told him he could look around while I was buying ribbon and maybe he could find something for his mom for Christmas. 

The ribbon was 66% off as were all items in the Christmas department. I told James I was going next door to look for a couple of things at T.J. Maxx. James said he was going back to the car to rest. No, he did not find anything at Hobby Lobby for his mom. I guess a blanket and an Amazon card will be our gifts to both her and Dawn. 

James called Janis Willis. Janis wants him to get someone to do some drywall work on the eaves of her house, which he did. Now he needs to either paint for her or arrange for someone else too.

James went over to talk to Mario Chacon about the two houses he is going to build while I went back to Darrel and Trina's to wrap presents. I listened to two podcasts while wrapping, "The Scripture Study Project," and the Proctor's from Meridian magazine who also do a "Come Follow Me" podcast. 

Lola helped me wrap and made a list of all the people I was wrapping for. She loves to write as long as you do the spelling for her. We wrapped: Ian's, Alex's, Kim's, Brian's, Joe's, Paul's, Addy's, and Darrel's blankets. 

It is raining outside and I need to make another trip to the Hobby Lobby close to Trina's. James went with me and helped pick out ribbon. I wanted to buy more because it was so cheap but he told me to wait until next year when we would, "have more money."

Ruby gave a Christmas lesson for her family. She had cards with all the symbols of Christmas and what they represent. Afterwards she hid the symbols and you had to look for the symbols you had cards for. It was fun for the entire family, especially Lola!

The Symbols of Christmas lesson

 Ray-Decker grandkids

 The plaid blanket was made for Kim!

Tan one is for Harold, my brother.

Oh my

Wednesday, November 27th, 2019

San Diego, California

45th operating temple

Dedicated: 25 April 1993

By: Gordon B. Hinckley

Jesus Christ, Head of Church

Mosiah 27:13

Nevertheless he cried again, saying: Alma, arise and stand forth, for why persecutest thou the church of God? For the Lord hath said: This is my church, and I will establish it; and nothing shall overthrow it, save it is the transgression of my people.

Book of Mormon

Mormon 8:12-25

New Testament

1 Peter 3-4; I/F: 1:3-9; 2:19-24; 3:14-17; 4:12-19 I can find joy during times of trial and suffering. SS: the same

10/19 General Conference

"Giving Our Spirits Control Over Our Bodies"

"I suppose most of us fail to fully appreciate what others do for us until they are gone. I knew Barbara was always busy, but I did not fully understand the constant family, Church, and community demands upon her time. There were daily consecrated efforts repeated thousands of times through the years that kept our family functioning. And through it all, no one in our family ever heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word."

RWC: There are few coincidences for covenant people, and therefore no important person is in our lives by accident.

Ensign: Four Gifts from the Savior, by Russell M. Nelson

Love, Forgiveness, Eternal Life.

I found a Book of Mormon with Sheri's testimony in it when she was 11 years old:

"I believe that there is a Father, Son, and a Holy Ghost. They guide us throughout our lives, and help us each day. I also believe that sometime soon Jesus Christ our Savior will come again and visit the earth. I hope that you can cherish this book as much as I have. Read through it and pray about it and you will know it is true. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost I say these things, Amen."

-Sheri

Sheri also wanted to fly over Russia and drop Book of Mormon's in a time when missionary work was not allowed in that country.

I also found a Book of Mormon in which I wrote in the front, 28 Truths Found in the Book of Mormon.

I am on a quest to find rum extract. I texted my friend Debbie and she said she thinks she got it at Bashas in Taylor. So I headed for Taylor on a cold and blustery day. 

If you can't find something at Safeway or Walmart, Bashas will have it. Kacey and Jared found my Dr. Pepper 10 at the Bashas in Round Valley and now I found my rum extract at the Bashas in Taylor. I also went across the street to Walmart and bought some blankets, and things I forgot to get yesterday. I also bought Olaf to show to Charlie on Sunday.

We tried to take cookies and the Thanksgiving game to Tanna but she was not home. She did tell us earlier in the month that she was going to be gone hunting on Thanksgiving. We also went to the Howard's and had a nice visit with them. We took them chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and enough Thanksgiving cards for six people to play the game. We visited for awhile and then headed home. The wind was blowing and it was cold!

We got a box from Autumn today. It had blueberry apple and strawberry toppings, two magnets with Scarlett's picture on them, and a handprint of Scarlett's little hand with the date on it. What a kind and thoughtful gift. We are so grateful for Autumn and the love she has shown to us.

Two Christmas movies today:

Lifetime: "Christmas Pen Pals" starring Sarah Drew and Niall Matter.

Hallmark: "The Christmas Club"starring Elizabeth Mitchell, and Cameron Mathison.

 The Church has a new video out about the 

First Christmas. We have not seen it yet.

Wednesday, November 28th, 2018

Los Angeles, California

10th operating temple

Dedicated: 11-14 Mar 1956

By: David O. McKay

Jesus Christ, Death of

Matthew 16:4

A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.

Book of Mormon #1

Mormon 8:26-41

*Generations are affected by the choices you make. Your decisions today determine your destiny. In a day when some people might be inclined to abandon faith in the face of great difficulties, Moroni's words teach us to see miracles and revelations as evidence That God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Although the spiritual and social conditions in the world may be in a state of constant change and decline, God's covenant people can have full confidence that He is eternally the same. 

Book of Mormon #2

Alma 53-55

Old Testament

Amos 3-4

General Conference

Now Is The Time

Elder Jack N. Gerard

"We live in a world of information overload, dominated by ever-increasing distractions that make it more and more difficult to sort through the commotion of this life and focus on things of eternal worth. Our daily lives are bombarded with attention-grabbing headlines, served up by rapidly changing technologies.

Unless we take the time to reflect, we may not realize the impact of this fast-paced environment on our daily lives and the choices we make. We may find our lives consumed with bursts of information packaged in memes, videos, and glaring headlines. Although interesting and entertaining, most of these have little to do with our eternal progress, and yet they shape the way we view our mortal experience."

I love this!

The following quote was taken from the Old Testament Student Manual, volume 2, p. 92: Amos 4:1-3 - The Evils of Israel's Women: "The quality of life in any community is largely what it's women make it. If they are cruel and covetous, their children will likely be the same. The women of Samaria were like cows which fed upon the rich pastures east of the Sea of Galilee, caring for little but eating and drinking. Their sin consisted of urging their husbands to bring them food bought with money squeezed from the poor."  I thought this was an interesting observation, especially the part about some women being as cows, and how influential women are. 

James spent most of the morning working upstairs trying to deal with the city of Mesa. They are driving him crazy. One person will tell him that plans are ready and another will say they aren't. He is trying to get the job started before his surgery. Armando is going to be in charge.

We put the ribbons on the tree today and the tree skirt on, so it's officially done. I love it, it's my favorite Christmas tree ever.

I decorated the front porch but the poinsettias kept blowing over so I put them in the entry. I put the big nativity on the entry table so the important things are done. 

Just before Relief Society presidency meeting I saw on Facebook that our former bishop, Bishop Hall had an anuerism between his spleen and his diaphram. The surgery is life-threatening so during our meeting tonight we said a prayer for him. 

Bishop Hall was our bishop when we moved to Vernon. Later I learned that he was the grandson of my bishop when I was a teenager growing up in Show Low. 

These are the Christmas movies I had on today:

"Naughty or Nice," "Christmas at the Palace," and our new favorite, "Every Other Holiday."  

One thing more for today. James has a competition going with someone on Pacer, our walking app, called PacerGal1966.

If she has 24,000 steps, he will get 26,000 and then she goes up to 27,000 and he does 28,000. She usually quits and he wins but if she is ahead he insists on walking some more. So funny. 

 I love that she loves to learn

Charlie loves this giraffee

 All of the Hunsaker's together

Saturday, December 5, 2015

So true

James and I went in to town to buy a Christmas tree today.  Kim told me she got hers at Lowe's so that's the first place we went.  The first tree I saw when I walked in the door was a nine ft. one.  It was beautiful and full like the one Kim had but it was $558.00.  I liked it but James wanted to look around, saying he didn't want to buy the first one he saw.  There were no other nine footers at Lowe's so we went across the street to Home Depot.  There was nothing there that interested us so James said he would go back and get the one had Lowe's while I did my shopping at Walmart.  I gave him $500 in cash and away he went.  They sold him the store model and he talked them into giving him a 10% discount.  He had to do some talking because they weren't going to give him any discount when he first asked.  He doesn't give up easily.  It's a good thing I didn't go because I would have paid full price.

They wanted James to take the garland but he refused.

The only drawback with the floor model is that it did not come

with a box.

One the way home we stopped and got lunch at Sonic.  I had a cheeseburger and a diet cherry coke.  Yummy!

We started our fast this evening.  We are fasting for our 8 oldest grandsons.  They are all struggling in some way.

I ordered the Star Shower laser lights for outside.  Hopefully they will get here before Christmas.

Teresa Smith called and asked to use my nativity set for a Relief Society meeting this Tuesday evening.  I told her that would be fine.  We have enjoyed it so much since I bought it at Costco a few years ago.

Nativity set

This evening we watched, "Christmas with Tucker", and another Mrs. Miracle movie.