OUR FAMILY: skunk

Calgary, Alberta

140th operating temple

Dedicated: 28 Oct 2010

By: Thomas S. Monson

Jesus Christ, Davidic Descent of

Psalm 132:11

The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.

Book of Mormon #1

3 Nephi 15:1-24

*Why is it so important to keep the commandments? How does keeping the commandments allow us to be a light to others?

- Keeping the commandments can help us avoid a lot of sadness, misery and really hard things. "If ye love me keep my commandments." (John 14:15).

Every commandment has a promised blessing. Obedience brings growth, protection spiritual and temporal blessings, and ultimately Eternal Life. The most important reason is we show our love, gratitude and devotion when we keep His commandments.

Book of Mormon #2

Mosiah 8-10

Old Testament

Ezekiel 3-4

General Conference

Now Is The Time

Elder Jack N. Gerard

"If there is anything in your life you need to consider, now is the time."

I have a notebook where I keep favorite scriptures. Right now I am working on the Old Testament. The scripture for today was Isaiah 53:3 - He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

I felt the Spirit as I read this scripture and was filled with gratitude for all the Savior has done for me.

I read the first couple of paragraphs of my Patriarchal blessing. I was impressed with this promise in paragraph 2: In accordance with my righteousness I will surely be blessed.

I emailed Ben today and this is the email I received in return:

Dear Grandma, Thank you so much for your love and support! I can feel the influence and of family and friends in my life. I am glad you got everything figured out with your car. That sounds like a hassle. THE TEMPE IS THE BEST. I had the opportunity to go this week, and it was amazing. I wish I could go more often. You are so lucky to be able to work in the temple. I definitely want to work in the temple after my mission. I see pictures of Charlie on Facebook sometimes, and think it's awesome. There was a song back home that I listened to, and every time I see her I think of it. It's called "Charlie" and it's by a band called "The Milk Carton Kids." You should look it up and if you like it, show it to Jared.

I love being a missionary. Of course it's hard to deal with the negativity of getting doors slammed in my face, and curse words thrown at me, and so on. But, it doesn't bother me too much, because I know, for myself that this Church is true. Nothing will take away my testimony. I have seen miracles in my life and in the lives of those around me. I have felt the Spirit in an undeniable way, and will not fall away from what I know to be true. Elder Gay came to the MTC and talked to us while we were there, and in part of his talk he said, "It's funny how the Lord knew that many people would struggle reading the scriptures. Often times we read from the beginning up until the Isaiah chapters in 2nd Nephi, and then lose interest. Shortly after, they restart at 1st Nephi again. The Lord knew many people would do this. Have you read and really paed attention to the pages leading up to that 'restart point?' Most of the pages before it describe the Gathering of Scattered Israel. Over and over again. The Gathering of Israel is the most important work in these latter days. He gave us the Book of Mormon in the latter days, and put that at the beginning, knowing that we would read it time and time again." That is so true. The work of gathering God's children in the world today is second to no other work. It is called "The Work of Salvation" for a reason. One of my stake president's, President Hall is a very spiritual man. He was in the mission presidency when I got here, but shortly after, got released and became a stake president. He gave a training to his stake about this. He recited Mosiah 28:1-3 (because he basically has the entire Book of Mormon memorized) which talks about how the sons of Mosiah HAD to go and preach the Gospel, not only because they were called to, but because they "could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble." We need to have the desire to get out there and bring souls to Christ. Bruce R. McConkie once said, "if we are to have faith like Enoch and Elijah, we must believe what they believed, know what the knew, and live as they lived." It goes beyond belief and knowledge. "Faith without works is dead." We must have action. We must stand up for what we know to be true. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary. Thank you for your support.

-Elder Trezise

I am so grateful for our missionary!

I watched Christmas movies today while working on the computer. Here is the list: 1. I'm Not Ready for Christmas, 2. A Christmas Wish (filmed in Mapleton, Utah and the guy from The Best Two Years is in it), 3. Most Wonderful Time of the Year, (love Henry Winkler in this one!), 4. Charming Christmas, 5. Farewell Mr. Kringle. All of these movies are about people overcoming trials and others serving and loving them. All are "feel good" movies with good endings. They bring the Christmas Spirit into my heart and home.

I made cookies for Talon today. I heard he was leaving for his mission on Tuesday, but I was mistaken. They left for the valley this afternoon and he leaves on a plane at 10 am tomorrow morning. He will be serving in the Uganda mission.

James went hunting today between Eagar and Big Lake. He saw a small buck that was quite close but when he went to shoot he heard a noise and turned around to see a bigger buck. He shot at the bigger buck and missed. He's kicking himself for not shooting the smaller buck which was a sure thing. (Almost anyway).

All is not lost. He brought home tacos from Aliberto's again.

For FHE we worked on our book business together.