Sunday, March 19, 2023: Packed a lunch, mtgs, Joe's baptism, nap, BM videos, Index, Blog, DMT, Bm family message, Cathi, Laura report

 

Columbia, South Carolina

62nd operating temple

Dedicated: 16 Oct 1999

By: Gordon B. Hinckley

Jesus Christ, Testimony of

John 5:34

But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved.

Book of Mormon

Jacob 3:1-14

Come Follow Me

Review, Sunday School and "Don't Miss This"

Jesus' Name

Lord of the Sabbath

Word

Yoke

Phrase

Matt. 11:29 - Take my yoke upon you, learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

OctGenCon

His Yoke Is Easy And His Burden Is Light

Sister J. Anette Dennis

First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency

While President Nelson has invited all to enter and stay on the covenant path that leads back to our Father in Heaven, he also provided the following counsel: "If friends and family . . . step away from the church, continue to love them. It is not for you to judge another's choice any more than you deserve to be criticized for staying faithful."

100 Favorite Verses - "In Favor with God and Man"

Luke 2:40, 52

40 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.

52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

I packed a lunch before church for us to take with us. We thought that Joe's baptism was going to be at 11:30, right after the block. We found out later that the baptism wasn't scheduled until 12:30. We went home after the block and ate our pbj's,, dill pickle chips, and peanut M&M's on the way home. 

This was a Wilhelm sacrament meeting. Ruthy gave the youth talk, and Zemira and Mel blessed the sacrament. Zemira's first time! He looked so handsome and happy!

It was also high council week. Ed Miller, the high councilman from our ward was the closing speaker. Sister Cindy Jones, the stake Primary President was his companion speaker. 

Ruthy Wilhelm - Heavenly Father can help me through anything if I have enough faith in Him.

Cindy Jones - My talk is based on President Ballard's conference address, "Follow Jesus Christ with Footsteps of Faith," and Sister Craig's, "Wholehearted." The premises: Faith requires action. Convenience does not bring power and we need to be wholehearted in our commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sister Jones told this story. When she was young she had two girls and she divorced her husband and moved to Franklin, Idaho where her parents had a house that she lived in. She looked for work and all she could find was a job in a lumber mill near Logan, Utah. She worked cutting boards for 8 months. She had to cut at least 200 boards an hour to keep her job. She said the job was dangerous, and nerve-wracking. She said she was constantly praying for Heavenly Father to help her to do her job so she could feed her family. He watched over and protected her for 8 months in which time she grew very close to Him. Prayer made her difficult task possible. "Trials are part of the plan and are meant to bring us closer to God."

Ed Miller - Serves in the Fort Apache branch. It is a blessing to be in my home ward today. President Beeler and his counselors are very concerned for our stake. They fast and pray for us often. President Nelson's talk, "Overcome the World and Find Rest." Focus of our stake: "Living a Christlike life by being covenant conscious."

The world is upside down. Wrong is right, and right is wrong.  I'm the only redneck on the high council. I leave the meetings knowing I made them feel better. Ran my business on a handshake. I'd rather lose money than insult someone with a piece of paper. Bore his testimony. I love this man! All of his boys, including Bishop Miller, now live in Kansas.

Brother Applegate was sick today so Tamara who teaches the same class for the new members combined classes and taught for Jimmie, her husband, today.

I love Tamara's style of teaching. She doesn't use powerpoint but did a presentation on the chalkboard. We focused on two things from the lesson keeping the Sabbath day holy and Matthew 11:28-30 - Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

While we were at home before the baptism I worked on my blog. I think James worked on his talk for the baptism. We left in time to get to the baptism before it started at 12:30. The room was already full. There were lots of people I didn't know, including a row of children. I did see Joe's granddaughter, Rikki. Several members of our ward were there, including Tamara Applegate. Rikki handed Tamara two of Joe's books. I don't know if she knew that Tamara is the town librarian or not. I had already told Tamara about the book and she had already ordered a copy for the library. She gave one of the books to Lorraine Vaught who said she would like to read it. 

Joe was baptized by his son-in-law who was probably the only one there, except for Elder Higginson, who was tall enough to baptize him. After he was baptized it took an extra few minutes for him to come out because he had to change the bandages on his feet. He has no toes and his foot cannot get wet or else infection might set in. 

James gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. He quoted scriptures and gave several ways that the Holy Ghost helps us. He complimented Joe for his life of service and devotion to God. He then told the story of how Brother Warren Peterson, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, saved him from a fire when James was 8 months old. It is always a powerful story. 

Joe was confirmed a member of the Church by Pierce Goodman. No one else could have done a better job than Pierce did. It was a powerful, spiritual blessing and Joe had tears in his eyes as the end.

I told Pierce what a power confirmation he gave and he said, "The Lord is good."

I am so grateful that I attended this baptism. It was a spiritual feast and to see the happiness on Joe's face as people came up to congratulate him was priceless. He is 90 years old but he is like a newborn babe in the gospel. I wish he was going to be attending our ward but I understand that he has family in Snowflake who want him to be with them.

I sat down in the family room to take a nap. James came in and sat beside me and we ended up watching some Book of Mormon videos on YouTube. 

I slept longer than James did. He was up doing indexing when I woke up. I drug myself into the bedroom to work on my blog. Some other things I did this evening. Sent out a Book of Mormon message to 24 members of our family. Indexed. Listened to "Don't Miss This," and texted with Cathi Lambson. James spoke to Dave about Laura and he says she is having some difficulties and her body is showing some signs of rejecting the lung. He takes her over to Phoenix to St. Joe's every single day. He says it will be at least a year before she completely heals.

Happy Sabbath with Charlie & Lovie!

Bishops family, Sedig's, Grombach's go to

The Hole in the Rock

Saturday, March 18, 2023: James's truck fiasco, Beef cabbage soup, Crane's, My lesson, James's talk, Walk & listen, Hallmark movie

 

Bismarck, North Dakota

61st operating temple

Dedicated: 19 Sept 1999

By: Gordon B. Hinckley

Jesus Christ, Testimony of

John 1:15

John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.

Book of Mormon

Jacob 2:17-35

Come Follow Me

"Teaching with Power"

Jesus' Name

Lord of the Sabbath

Scripture

Matthew 11:29 - Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto you souls.

OctGenCon

Lifted Up Upon The Cross

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

As the glorious Resurrection followed the agonizing Crucifixion, so blessings of every kind are poured out on those who are willing, as the Book of Mormon prophet Jacob says, to "believe in Christ, and view his death, and suffer his cross." Sometimes these blessings come soon and sometimes they come later, but the marvelous conclusion to our personal via dolorosa is the promise from the Master Himself that they do and will come.

100 Favorite Verses - "These I Will Make My Rulers"

Abraham 3:22-23

22 Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones;

23 And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.

When James gets up in the morning I either ask how he is feeling or else he just tells me. Today he said he still hurt inside from his procedure. I gave him some magnesium citrate because he said he was constipated. TMI

He had an appointment at Horne Auto at 9 o'clock this morning about the truck he would like to buy.

He told the salesman he would walk out the door with it if he could pay $43,000. The salesman came back from talking to the manager and said, "Well, we did it for you. It's only $51,300." I'm not sure what James said in return but I'm sure it wasn't pleasant.

 

When he got home I asked how it went and he said, "Terrible." They got their price down to $47,500 but he refused to go past $43,000. 

I asked him if he was back to square one and he admitted he was but didn't want to do anything about it today because he had already wasted enough time.

I decided it was time to make some lunch when James started scrounging through the refrigerator. I have a new recipe called,  Inside-Out Stuffed Cabbage. James loves cooked cabbage and I like it too, but I needed a new way to fix it and this is what I came up with. I made it with ground beef and onion and garlic, zucchini, a yellow chopped pepper, an envelope of Lipton beefy onion soup mix, one tablespoon of brown sugar, 11 ounces of V-8 juice, a cup of water and some extra added chicken stock because I wanted a more soup like consistency. I then added six cups of cooked cabbage and let that all cook together for about 15 minutes. It called for a 1/2 cup of instant brown rice but since I didn't have any I omitted this ingredient. I cooked this in my cast iron pan. When it was done I served it with some garlic bread. It was delicious! I was excited that it made enough for us to have it tomorrow and then James suggested we ask the Crane's if they wanted some.

I said that was a good idea and I would text Kathy, which I did. She said that sounded great and yes, they would like some. I put all of the rest of the "soup" into a Snapware container and wrapped half of the French bread in a piece of aluminum foil. When James came back in I asked him if he would take it over to the Crane's. He said he just talked to Chuck and that Ruth Wallace had brought them over some soup and they still had plenty of it left. I told him what Kathy said and he made the comment: "Okay, Kathy wants me to come over and bring in some wood and haul off their garbage." Off he went with the soup. 

I cleaned the kitchen and went back into the bedroom to work on my Relief Society lesson for next week. I remembered a site on the internet I use to subscribe to when I was the counselor over teachers called, LovePrayTeach. I got on and signed up for the RS lesson account. Not only did I get a lesson outline with questions, etc., but I got about 15 handouts for each of the lessons we are covering next week. My only problem is I am having a difficult time trying to decide what I want to focus the lesson on from each talk. 

This coming week is going to be a busy one. Sheri has to be home on Monday because their basement flooded and the guy who is putting in the new sump pump is coming, so she and Ben and Evan aren't coming until Wednesday and will go home on Friday. Alex, Shayna, Nick and Chelsea are coming up on Friday. I am making the Lemon Bar cake for the ward party on Saturday and Sunday is my lesson. All I can say is I better get the cake made early in the week and have an outline for my lesson before Sheri gets here on Wednesday.

It was a beautiful sun shiny day today but there is another storm coming in on Sunday or Monday. We are grateful for the moisture but we are a little tired of the mud and mess. I guess we complain when we don't have moisture and then complain when we do. Actually we are very grateful.

I am slowly making some progress on my closet and James has hung most of the pictures back that were in our bedroom. Just a couple of more and they will all be done.

This evening James worked on the talk he is giving at Joe Vaal's baptism tomorrow and I watched the newest Hallmark movie starring Kristopher Polaha. I also listened to most of "Teaching with Power" for Come Follow Me. 

I wanted to go to Dollar General or Stanford and get a diet Dr. Pepper today but I didn't. Now that's self-control. The problem is I couldn't get it out of my mind all day. That's a problem.

Trina:

Sheri's run

Bishop Lewis & Cindy

James's Nutella fudge, it doesn't 

look good but it tastes delicious!

Ian and Sheri memory, look at Max, Evan and Rowan!

March Ministering Treats

Friday, March 17, 2023: Up @ 4:30, Jacob knows the thoughts of his people, 3 Big Sins, trip to town, James picked out a truck, American Fidelity,

 

Columbus, Ohio

60th operating temple

Dedicated: 4 Sep 1999

By: Gordon B. Hinckley

Jesus Christ, Testimony of

John 1:7

The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.

Book of Mormon

Jacob 2:1-16

Come Follow Me

"Follow Him"; Shannon Foster's scripture book

 Jesus' Name

Lord of the Sabbath

Scripture

Matthew 11:29 - Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

OctGenCon

Drawing Closer To The Savior

Elder Neil L. Andersen

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

We are all "children of the covenant" stretching across the earth in nations and cultures on every continent, numbering in the millions, as we await the glorious return of our Lord and Savior. Shining as a light to those around us, we consciously shape our desires, thoughts, choices, and actions. Seeking with all our heart to know and love the Savior, we separate ourselves from the world through covenants with God, being distinct, uncommon, and special, as we honor Him and His teachings without isolating ourselves from others who believe differently.

100 Favorite Verses - "Choose the Right"

D&C 88:121

Therefore, cease from all your light speeches, from all laughter, from all your lustful desires, from all your pride and light-mindedness, and from all your wicked doings.

"The path of least resistance can so easily become the freeway of spiritual destruction."

Up at 4:30. I finally did it!

As I was reading from the Book of Mormon this morning I realized that Jacob, the prophet, could read the thoughts of his people. Maybe it was because of the sins they were committing. Jacob tells his people of three sins that they are committing: 1) Materialism, 2) Sexual immorality and 3) Pride. 

I finished listening to "Follow Him" with John Hilton III. It was really good. I started listening  to "Teaching with Power" but didn't finish. 

James and I went to town yet again today. I am doing my grocery shopping and James went to look for a truck. James found a truck at Horne's if they can bring the price down $4,000. He took me by to see it. It's a silver color, not the red or white that I liked but it is beautiful. It's a 2021 model with only 10,000 miles. 

James helped me check out at Walmart and he got gas in my car for me. We listened to our book on the way to and from town. We go back and forth from Germany and Utah. Right now the story is in Germany.

It snowed this afternoon, just enough to turn the trees and everything on the ground white. It was beautiful. James still didn't get his check in the mail from work. He wanted to use it for a down payment on his truck. He is also waiting for his money for the truck. 

Stacy is trying to sell my life insurance policy but she needs some more information and asked me to call them. By the time I called they were gone for the day so I will have to try again on Monday. 

James is meeting with the Applegate's tomorrow about building a house. They are coming here. Also, he got a call from the elders asking if he would speak at Joe Vaal's baptism on Sunday. Joe wants him to speak on the Holy Ghost. What an honor.

Kacey

Allie & Peter Ray

Bridal party in this beautiful kitchen

Today's snow