Sunday, October 28th, 2018

Brigham City, Utah

139th operating temple

Dedicated: 23 Sept 2012

By: Boyd K. Packer

Jesus Christ, Davidic descent of

Psalm 89:4

Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah.

Book of Mormon #1

3 Nephi 14:1-27

*What fundamental truths do we learn from Christ's teachings in these verses? How will you incorporate these important teachings into your life?

- Stop judging, extend love, follow the Savior's example. Verse 7 - Pray for others and for answers. Verse 12 - Live the Golden Rule. Beware of false prophets. Build our foundation upon the rock of Christ and when the storm comes we will stand strong.

Book of Mormon #2

Mosiah 5-7

Old Testament

Ezekiel 3-4

General Conference

Choose You This Day

Elder Dale G. Renlund

"The magnitude of our eternal happiness depends on choosing the living God and joining Him in His work."

I felt the Spirit as I was reading Mosiah 5 this morning. 

We left for church at 8:40 but not receiving pictures of Charlie. Kacey and Jared are speaking in their ward today. I wish we could be there!

I'm dressed up. Oh no, that means the car seat!

Talon is leaving for Uganda this week. He spoke in church today, from the heart, without notes, about the Atonement and service. He is going to be an amazing missionary. Jackson was there to support him. 

Bishop Miller spoke about gratitude and how important it is to have an attitude of gratitude at all times.

President Beeler spoke about the great missionaries who have served from the Vernon ward. He mentioned Jackson and his worthiness to serve.

We sat by the Howard's during sacrament meeting and I went to Sunday School with them. Sister Wood taught a lesson about strengthening the stakes of Zion based on the words of Isaiah. 

Sister Curtis taught in Relief Society. A lesson on ministering based on Elder Holland's April conference talk, "Be With and Strengthen Them."

James taught about Job in his Primary class. 

I gave two closing prayers today. One in Sunday School and one in Relief Society.

We had leftover roast beef, a salad, and glazed carrots for lunch. I can't stop snacking afterwards!

I watched the new Hallmark Christmas movies, "Christmas at Pemberly Manor" based on the characters Elizabeth Bennet and William Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. It was good. I also watched one of my very favorite Christmas movies called, "Angels and Ornaments." An angel comes back and steers his granddaughter to her true love. A good Sunday movie. Is that my attempt at rationalizing. 

I did lots of gospel study today. I love the Sabbath.

 I love this picture!

Babies are being born everywhere!

The Luke's are our friends from Chandler.

What a sweet picture of our Prophet and his wife!

Another sweet couple!

I don't normally walk on Sunday but

I guess I needed it today.

Thursday, December 8, 2016

This is probably the challenge that I do best!

Ether 6:12-30

We learn that the Jaredites were taught the importance of humility.  Modern revelation also teaches us the importance of humility:

"Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand and give thee answers to thy prayers" (D&C 112:10).  Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin explained that "humility is the recognition and attitude that one must rely on the Lord's assistance to make it through life" (CR, Oct. 2004, 110).

GC:  Am I Good Enough?  Will I Make It? by Elder J. Devn Cornish

"The God of heaven is not a heartless referee looking for any excuse to throw us out of the game.  He is our perfectly

loving Father, who yearns more than anything else to have all 

of His children come back home and live with Him as families forever He truly gave His Only Begotten Son that we

might not perish but have everlasting life!

Please believe, and please take hope and comfort from that eternal truth.  Our Heavenly Father intends for us to make it!

That is His work and His glory."

Calgary, Alberta temple

James ordered me a Christmas gift.  I saw the order when I was going over my credit card statement.  The name of the place he ordered from is called Diamond Pendant.  Sounds exciting!

I saw this on the back of James's deodorant container:

"Contains odor-fighting  atomic robots that shoot lasers at your stench monsters and replaces them with fresh, clean, masculine scent elves."  

This is the only deodorant I am going to buy for 

James from now on!

Well I had to go back into town today because I forgot to pick up my prescriptions yesterday.  I went to Walmart and bought more Christmas socks and picked up my prescriptions.  I also went by Firehouse Subs and got my favorite sandwich, a Hook and Ladder, and then went to Dollar Tree and got 8 snowman mugs and 7 Santa mugs.  I hope I am through shopping for awhile!

James made it home around 4 p.m. with burros from Burger House.  I sure do love him and I am so glad he made it back safely!  I always worry when he is pulling a trailer with equipment on it.  

I watched two Christmas movies today, one by myself and one with James, "A Christmas Wedding Date," and "I'll Be Home for Christmas," starring James Brolin.  James and I watched the last movie together.  It is a new one and we loved it!  It is always fun to watch movies with someone you love!

I absolutely love this picture of Shipley and Joshua

taken Monday evening when they went to look at Christmas lights.

Convert, Relief Society president, visiting teaching companion,

mother of two and wife of a fireman.

I love you Kaeli!

(She is the same age as Adam!)

I don't know what they are doing, but

these two are great buddies!

Five years ago at Joe's Farm Grill!

Time flies by when you are grandparents.

Lunch with some of my favorite people!

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Manti temple

Mormon 9:22-37

Mormon knew that Moroni faced overwhelming challenges due to the wickedness of the Nephites.  Nevertheless, Mormon also knew that Moroni could endure with the assistance of divine grace.  The book 'True to the Faith' explains that grace provides strength to persevere in the daily struggles of life: "The word grace, as used in the scriptures, refers primarily to the divine help and strength we receive through the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.  In addition to needing grace for your ultimate salvation, you need this enabling power every day of your life.  As you draw near to your Heavenly Father in diligence, humility and meekness He will uplift and strengthen you through His grace."

GC:     Repentance: A Joyful Choice by Elder Dale G. Renlund

" Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more.  By this ye may know if a man repenteth of his sins, - behold, he will confess them and forsake them." - D&C 58:42-43

One of the first things I did this morning was read an article called: "Why Being Bored is Good for Children."  "We don't have to have a particular creative talent or intellectual bent to benefit from boredom.  Just letting the mind wander from time to time is important, it seems, for everybody's mental wellbeing and functioning.  Children need to sit in their own boredom for the world to be quiet enough that they can hear themselves.  Inner quiet equals self-awareness.  Their interests are stimulated as they come to find solutions to boredom."

Do either one of these girls look bored?

James got a call from Brother Skousen who is our ward High Priest Group Leader in the Vernon ward.  He asked if he and President Jensen from the new stake presidency could come by for a visit this evening.  James got out the nativity set and I got out some more Christmas decorations and tried to clean the wood floor where James had tracked mud in before their visit.

President Jensen is the retired member of the stake presidency.  He lives in the Pinetop Lakes Country Club and must be quite wealthy.  He knew our former bishop, Bob Horne and so did Brother Skousen.  We had a nice visit.

No, they did not give us a balloon.

We watched two Christmas movies today:

"Finding Christmas," and "Married by Christmas."  The first one is one of my favorites but the second was meh.

Last years week after Christmas.

I love pictures of Arizona

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Happy Birthday Carmen!

 Such a cutie!

James's sister Carmen is one of the most talented people I know.  She also has a great fun-loving personality! We wish she lived a little closer so we could see her more often.

 Carmen makes some awesome cakes!

We had to de-ice our windshield this morning before leaving for church.  James measured 10 and 1/2 inches of snow on his truck.  

We had some sunshine today, but it was very cold.

Brother O'Dair from the high council and Brother Peeler from our ward were the speakers in sacrament meeting today. Brother O'Dair's son David was the youth speaker.  He ask how we can become better leaders and his answer was, by following Jesus Christ.  The other two speakers spoke on leading by following Christ.  It was a great meeting.

I noticed Pam and Rick Giles attended our ward today.  I guess they didn't move to Snowflake, but were just trying out another ward when they attended there.

Today during sharing time we took pictures of all the children in Primary.  The Primary is in charge of the front of the sacrament meeting bulletin for January and February and the pictures of the Primary children will be featured there.

Small Primary 

My class is on the far left with Zemira, Braylin, Kacey, Joely, and

Talena.  Ashten is right in the middle in front of Macy who is the tallest girl in Primary.

My class plus Macy, Dakota, and Taylor.

James and I went home and had something to eat.  He went in the bedroom to take a nap and I laid down in the recliner in the family room.  He told me Brother Westbrook wanted to come home teaching but that he would call first.  The doorbell rings the same time it does in the movie I am watching.  The girl in the movie is asleep on the couch just like me!

It is Brother Westbrook at the door.  I go get James up and we greet Brother Westbrook.  The lesson for this month is on loving service.  We had a nice visit and he told us his wife Rosa was going to come with him but she had a previous engagement.  

I go visiting teaching with James because his partner, Rick Lauritzen, jlis sick.  We visit the Scott's and their 3 year old great grandson, Adrian.  We also visit the Wallace's where we almost got stuck in the snow.  Our visit with the Wallace's in their beautiful home was cut short because their neighbors got stuck and came to George to rescue them.  I told George I was grateful for all of the service he gives.  Tomorrow is his birthday.  

We had fried chicken and cilantro wontons for dinner.  Someone left them in our freezer.  

James and I arranged substitutes for our classes next week.  Ed Miller is teaching for James and the Primary President and my visiting teacher, Becky Skousen is teaching my class.  She told me she would anytime I needed her to.  I promised her I would not ask her too often.

We watched "A Boyfriend for Christmas" and "The 12 Days of Clhristmas."

 

Monday, December 7, 2015

I've only just begun!

"Our adoration of Jesus is best expressed by our emulation of Jesus." - Elder Russel M. Nelson

It was a gorgeous day here in Vernon, Arizona, with a high of 65 degrees.  

James fixed me the most delicious lunch ever!  Elk steaks and elk meat with gravy.  Yum!

 My own private chef!

No elk steak is complete without ketchup.

Believe me, it tastes better than it looks!

 

We started decorating our tree today.  It is so much bigger than our last one.  I think I am going to have to buy some more decorations.

 

For FHE tonight we watched the First Presidency Devotional.  I was a little disappointed that President Monson didn't speak.  We did hear from Linda Burton, David A. Bednar, and President Uchtdorf.

 

We also watched two Christmas movies that we really enjoyed; "Twelve Gifts of Christmas", and "The Christmas Note."

 I miss my doggies!

 

 

 

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.

 

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

All ready for Christmas

After I picked up Alex from school around noon and took him home I stopped and picked up Cathi and we headed for Costco.  

It was a fun time to be at Costco because they had lots of samples!  I had something I needed to return and Cathi went to get gluten free bread for Wendy, her daughter.  

We liked the tamales we sampled so well that we bought a dozen and decided we would share them.  I guess we didn't quite get enough samples because before leaving we stopped at the snack bar and got a hotdog and a drink. Costco hotdogs are delicious and a real bargain at $1.50 which also includes the drink.

This afternoon I went to Dr. Allen's to get blood drawn so I could get my thyroid prescription renewed.  Kathy, the girl who draws blood is really good and never misses.  I wish they were that good at the arthritis doctors.

I went to visit Lola and Trina when I left Dr. Allen's.  The other kids weren't home from school yet.  Lola is so darn cute!

Lola loves car keys!

I told Trina I was getting Evan and Joshua the General Grievous Lego set and she said that was something Rowan would like too.  

On my way back home I stopped at Target and got thee General Grievous's.  

I wish everyone was this easy to shop for.

Terry is coming home tomorrow with his elk.  Cathi and I cleaned out the freezer so there would be room for it.  It's a good thing the trash man is coming tomorrow.

 

Tonight we watched "Christmas Angel" and "A Princess for Christmas."

  

Saturday, November 21, 2015

James and I slept in the recliners last night.  James wanted to sleep with his head more elevated to keep from getting such a dry throat and a cough.  It worked!

I left James working on his taxes while I went in to town to get some rolls for our dinner tonight with the missionaries.  I put the roast and veggies in the crockpot before I left.  My friend Pam Giles is always talking about how good Karen's Bakery is.  They are located just a mile or two past Walmart so I thought I would give them a try.  They only had six rolls so I bought them and a loaf of bread.  I also bought myself a buttermilk bar which I proceeded to eat on my way back to Walmart.  It was very heavy and dry...like it was a couple of days old.  I didn't finish it but threw it in the trash as I went into Walmart.  

Because I only got six rolls at the bakery I decided to buy some Rhodes rolls hoping I would have enough time to allow them to rise and bake before 5.  Why is it I can't come in to Walmart without spending $100??

I noticed when I was driving past La Casita, our favorite mexican food restaurant, there was a for sale sign out front and the restaurant is closed.  How sad for us.  James says he bets the health department closed them down because he always thought it smelle funny inside.  I am the one with the bloodhound nose and I never noticed a bad smell.  I will miss going there for the delicious food and will miss seeing Charlotte, our favorite waitress.

 

As soon as I got home I started the rolls.  I tasted the ones from Karen's Bakery.  They were ok, but a little heavy.  I put the loaf of bread in the freezer.  

James was such a big help getting ready for the dinner.  He determined that the roast wasn't done so he put it on the stove to finish.  He made a drink and a salad.  My rolls turned out delicious!  (Notice I am taking credit when I should be giving the credit to the Rhodes family).  

Elder Brown and Elder White, both from Utah, arrived right on time.

 Brown and White

After dinner they shared a video with us and then they were on their way.  We sent them with a bag of rolls and some jalapeno jelly.

James and I did the dishes together and then sat down to watch our Christmas movies.  I made him watch "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" because I enjoyed it so much.  We also watched "A Christmas Wedding Tail" starring Jenny Garth.  

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

One of the tiny houses I want James to build.

James is scouting for elk for Terry and Dave.  Every morning he goes upstairs on one of the balconies and glasses with his binoculars.  This morning he saw two herds, one with 12 head and the other with 30.  There was one large bull in the small herd.

Although James had a busy day planned he took time out to go to town with me and have lunch and then shop at Walmart.  He even let me choose the place for lunch.  I chose Grumpy Jake's because I love their barbecue sandwiches.  

 Waiting for his food

I found the jacket he's wearing in the entry closet I cleaned out this week.  He thought it was James Hayden's, but Jared says no.  We aren't sure whose it is, but James really likes it and it fits him perfectly.

It was like a ward reunion at Walmart.  I saw Rick Lauritzen, Lorraine Tieman, Owen and Donna Peeler, and Joelle and J.D. Miller.  I guess everyone is shopping early for Thanksgiving.  I had to get groceries because we are feeding the missionaries on Saturday.  James helped me checkout and he put the groceries in the car for me and carried them in when we got home.

My carry out

This guy was parked nearby.  I couldn't resist taking a picture.

James says he's a bloodhound.  

Back at home after getting all the groceries put away.  I sat down to watch a Christmas movie.  I watched one of my favorites, "Mistletoe over Manhattan."  While I was watching I was also looking on my phone for a replacement for our chair that's broken in the family room.  This is a perfect replacement, available at Sears.

I just wish that it reclined.

This evening after dinner we watched "The Twelve Dog Days Til Christmas."  I really liked it.  James said it was ok. It wasn't a Hallmark movie.  I taped it from the Up channel.

Sunset in Show Low