Saturday, July 4th, 2020

Houston, Texas

97th operating temple

Dedicated: 26 Aug 2000

By: Gordon B. Hinckley

Jesus Christ, Lamb of God

Revelation 22:3

And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:

Book of Mormon/"Come Follow Me"

Alma 28-29 with James and Anthony; BM Study Guide

April General Conference

"An Especially Noble Calling"

Joy D. Jones

"The Lord instructed Emma Smith to 'receive the Holy Ghost,' learn much, 'lay aside the things of this world, ... seek for the things of a better,' and 'cleave unto her covenants' with God. Learning is integral to progression, especially as the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost teaches us what is needful for each of us to lay aside - meaning that which could distract us or delay our progression."

Happy sixth birthday to Lola! What a girl! We are so grateful to have her as a part of our eternal family!

More Lola pictures to come

James and Anthony started on the fence around 5:30 this morning. They are setting posts with bags of concrete. There have been ten posts set and a total of 20 bags of concrete, all hand mixed by James himself. At 8:30 they came in for breakfast and scriptures and prayer. I made scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, hashbrowns, and toast and herbal tea for breakfast. Anthony read scriptures with us. I let him use my new Book of Mormon and he loved it. After this break Anthony went home to take a nap with his Cat. James worked on the fence a little longer then he came in and we went to town. He got paint for the basement where he had to fix the water line. He went in to Walmart and came back with shakes, a watermelon, his raspberry dark chocolate bars and some ice cream for me. While he was in Home Depot I went over to Aliberto's and got an Arizona burrito. Delicious but quite greasy. Probably a 1,000 calories. I read a chapter of two from "Aunt Dimity and the Buried Treasure." 

After nap James went out and worked on the road putting more gravel in the low spots. He went for a ride on Luna and then came in and worked on the basement. He painted the wall and hopes the paint will match when it dries.

I got instructions from Amazon regarding my stranded 16 books. I have to delete them all and then re-enter them using the same SKU and ISBN numbers. The only thing I can figure is when I changed the setting for shipment that messed everything up. I can't re-enter the books for 24 hours so that means it won't be until Monday. 

I walked, worked on my blog and studied from the Book of Mormon this evening before going to bed. 

Fasting for missionary work and for the riots to stop in our country.

Congratulations Trenda and Emery!

Friday, July 3rd, 2020

Caracas, Venezuela

96th operating temple

Dedicated: 20 Aug 2000

By: Gordon B. Hinckley

Jesus Christ, Lamb of God

Revelation 21:23

And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

Book of Mormon/"Come Follow Me"

Alma 27 with James; BM Study Guide; "Teaching with Power"

April General Conference

"Ensuring a Righteous Judgment"

Elder James R. Rasband

"As President Boyd K. Packer once taught: "The thought that rescued Alma . . . is this: Restoring what you cannot restore, healing the wound you cannot heal, fixing that which you broke and you cannot fix is the very purpose of the atonement of Christ." The joyous truth on which Alma's 'caught hold' was not just that he himself could be made clean but also that those whom he had harmed could be healed and made whole."

I listened to "Teaching with Power" this morning and Brother Wilcox talked about and made a list of "Attitudes of True Conversion":

1.)  Willingness to give all that God asks - Alma 22:15

2.)  Give away all my sins - Alma 22:18

3.)  Converted unto the Lord - Alma 19:16, 31; 22:23; 23:6, 8, 13; 24:6

4.)  Distinguished from the world in righteous ways - Alma 23:16; 27:27

5.)  Repentance and restitution and filling the void with good - Alma 24:11, 15, 18; 27:8

6.)  Bury sins or weapons of rebellion deep in the earth - Alma 23:13; 27:27

7.)  Gratitude in the face of trial - Alma 24:8-10, 19

Anthony was here this morning a couple of hours to help James get started on the fence. He left around 9:00 when it started getting a little warm. 

The Razr engine was delivered to our front door this afternoon. Instead of rebuilding the old one, they just sent us a new one. James tried to schedule with Erik to come and put it in. He is gone on vacation with his family and won't be able to come up until the 25th. James doesn't want to wait that long. He said maybe Anthony could help him put it in. Anthony fixed the Ranger and has quite a bit of experience on car repair. 

James went to town to get hay and more fence materials this afternoon. I discovered that the last books I sent in, all 16 of them are in stranded inventory. I didn't know how to get them out so I contacted seller support. Hopefully I will hear from them tomorrow. 

James has been doing some heavy lifting and is in a great deal of pain. I think it is because of the bags of cement that he has been lugging around for the fence. 

Today was not our best day ever.

 Arizona Highways 1945 

Dobson's Sheep