Check out this article in the church news online about a father who raised 8 missionary sons!!!
Of course, you know this was near and dear to my heart as we are now in that process!  We have two returned missionaries, one serving missionary, and five prospective missionaries (and maybe a prospective sister missionary—-who knows?).

Anyway, there have been  some unique challenges we have faced recently.  I’ll elaborate more later.  But check out the article!  It’s amazing!

Yesterday, although very busy, was a sweet day indeed!  Slim’s best friend Richard gave his homecoming address, so Slim, Spanky, Drew and I attended the morning ward to listen to him.  It was a really neat feeling sitting in sacrament meeting with my two oldest, now grown men, while watching and listening to another young man who spent a lot of time in our home.

I can only imagine the feeling is close to sitting in the temple with all of them.  The three of those very different men, all doing what the Lord is asking of them and trying to be who the Lord asks them to be.  My heart swelled with gratitude.  (Especially considering Scuff and Tammy are currently serving mission and Sport will be ordained an Elder later this week.)

I couldn’t help but feel sincere gratitude for the blessings of the Lord in my life and the lives of my children.

One of our amazing sister missionaries spoke yesterday during our meetings.  She quoted one of the Brethren, though I cannot remember which one and told the story of the beehive.  She said that each bee in its life time only contributes 1/12——–

Never mind.  I looked up the story.  It is Elder Ballard and here are his words:

unlcms.unl.edu

web.ncsu.edu

The important thing to remember is that your contribution counts, and counts significantly, regardless of what is actually looks like or what you want it to look like.  Just because you might only be able to give a little, your little matters, it matters to all of us and it relieves the burdens of many.  So go about your daily work in the kingdom with your head held high.

I will throw this little bit in too.  I have often considered myself not a very great missionary because no one I ever personally talk to actually gets baptized.  (I measure by results, which is not fair or right either, I know.  I am working on that.)  But nonetheless, I struggle sometimes because I feel like I do not have any ‘results’.  However, the Lord has been trying to help me to understand that I am doing my part and that my part is significant.  Every time someone interacts with me, I leave them better than when I left them (except for that whole Ms. P stuff, which I have been working on also…..)  But, part of being a missionary is leaving people better than when we found them.  Our example and attitude can help to lift others, which brings them closer to Christ and closer to someday accepting His doctrine even if today they are not ready to meet with the missionaries and join the church.  Behaving in a Christlike manner with our interactions with the little bit of humanity the Lord gives to each of us, is enough, regardless of how they receive our kindness and service.  (So there is my other two cents.  Now you have exactly four!)

Have a wonderful day!  I need to go and make breakfast now for the crew!

Yesterday morning I was invited to attend seminary.  As I showered and pondered in the early morning hours, my mind went to several interactions I have had with a few people.  These were not recent events, but simply remembered events, that obviously still have some issues for me.  As I let my mind think about the events, my feelings were again hurt and irritated.

Copyright Karen Larsen photography

Then, for my scripture reading that morning, I read this verse at the end of Alma (63:14)
And it came to pass also in this year that there were some dissenters who had gone forth unto the Lamanites; and they were stirred up again to anger against the Nephites.

That verse struck me and I realized that is what I had allowed to happen that very morning.  When I awoke, I had no particular feelings, positive or negative, toward the individuals whom I was thinking about.  But by the time I finished preparing for the day and before my scripture study, I was again ‘stirred up to anger’ against my siblings (because we are all children of our Heavenly Father).

I have seen the same thing as a mother.  Two particular children (in  our case, many different sets of children) have several perceived instances where their feelings have been hurt by the other person (they believe). [This is a BIG pet peeve of mine—others cannot hurt your feelings.  You can be hurt by what they say/do, but you are in charge of your own feelings.  So if you have hurt feelings, it is because of your perceptions of the meaning you attribute to their words/actions.  This could be a post all on its own, so I won’t go into it.  But just know that whenever my children say ‘So and so hurt my feelings,’ we have the entire discussion again.  They love it, I am sure!]

Anyway, they do have hurt feelings.  Because the issue isn’t sufficiently resolved, when the next issue happens, their previous feelings are validated by their new feelings (stirred up again) and the blow-up and interaction is bigger than before.

So my question then becomes, how do we keep ourselves from falling into the trap of ‘being stirred up again’?

Copyright Karen Larsen photography

I think one of the biggest and first issues is to remember that we are in charge of our own feelings.  No one causes us to be upset, hurt, angry.  Those things come from inside of us.  If we can control the things we are thinking about and the meanings we are attributing to those interactions, we can, in effect, control our feelings.  We can choose not to take offense (as this talk from Elder Bednar explains).

Two, we can  recognize that sometimes we just are not going to know what is going on in another person’s head or heart.  We may just have to accept that reality and chalk up their negative and hurtful behaviors to ignorance, a bad day, hurt feelings on their part, problematic things happening in their lives, etc…  Dismissing their behavior is not always a bad thing.  If their negative behavior is going to continue to affect you, you may need to say something to them, in a kind way.

Copyright Karen Larsen photography

Three, keep yourself in a place where you can feel the Spirit of the Lord.  For those of you who are baptized members of the Church, you probably already know those things, but in case you do not, here are some reminders:  Read your scriptures, say your prayers, attend church and the temple, forgive others, choose not to be offended, ask for help as needed through prayer, fast.  For those of you who are not baptized members, these behaviors work just as well, with the exception of attending the temple, you’ll need to be a member to participate on that level.  But you are capable of doing all of the other suggestions.

Four, let bygones be bygones.   Once you have waded through an interaction and decided how you will respond to another person’s behavior and you have done so well, let it go.  Don’t think about it anymore.  Don’t dwell on it.  Don’t remind yourself of what the other person did that hurt your feelings and why you feel justified in your nasty behavior toward them.  Just let it go and remind yourself that the Lord is perfectly just.  Which means, when anyone has done anything wrong (unkind in any way to another person or contrary to the commandments or to their knowledge or understanding of right and wrong) there will be a consequence.  Leave it to the Lord to decide what, when, and how the consequence will be meted out.  You do not have to be judge, jury, or executioner.  Leave all of that to the Lord and know that it will be managed appropriately, whether or not you ever hear about it.

Remember:

Copyright Karen Larsen photography

As we do our best to follow the Savior and learn of His way and then try to implement those doctrines and practices into our own lives, we truly will have a peace that surpasses all understanding.  I am so very grateful for the messages of His servants, and to have those available at our fingertips within just a few moments is such a huge gift and blessing!  We will be accountable to put that information into practice!

Have a great weekend!

So this post will be quite controversial I am sure.  I like to stay out of very controversial subjects because, well, let’s face it, I hate conflict.  I am very opinionated, but I respect other people’s right to have their own opinions, different than mine.  I can agree to disagree and not be disagreeable.  But I still hate conflict and when people take my words or my meaning out of context and then use it to say something that I don’t believe, or intend, which in our day and age, happens a lot, it really hurts my feelings!  So I just usually keep to myself about details that are floating around in the media.

The Lord has been trying to help me learn that I have not only a right to speak my opinion, but also an obligation to try to help those around me, specifically those in my circles, to see things the way I do.  Not so much so that I can have my way, but to raise their sights and their thinking as they try to implement policies and activities that affect those in my community.  I really do not like the process, because I do not like to have to defend my position and because my opinions are often so very different from those around me.  I like being included, not left out, not leading out.   But sometimes, at least in these times, that is what the Lord needs us to do.

copyright Karen Larsen photography

So here goes.

I have been reading a lot of CNN lately.  I have been so very saddened by the repeated reports of people hurting others, especially children.  It really breaks my heart that such innocent lives are taken for such senseless reasons.  With the rash of school shootings and violence from the college campuses all the way down to elementary schools, I am left to wonder what is happening to our young people.  How do they get to a place where they commit such violence against other children, at such young ages??

To me, it says, something is very, very wrong in the lives of these children.

Now, before you quote me as blaming the parents, that is not what I am trying to say.  I think even very good and attentive parents can have children who make bad choices and get into bad things and make decisions that break the hearts of those parents. 

Some parents are trying to say this is the problem of the NRA and we need stricter gun control laws.  That may be true.  I am not sure that is the only problem, however.

Personally, I think our issues are much, much deeper than that.  Legislation never solves the entire problem.  It might mitigate issues, but truthfully, people who are bent on certain behaviors just find loopholes in the laws or propose other legislation that will allow them to do the things they want to do.

Some people blame Hollywood and the movies it produces and the violence it displays.  Yes, I think some of our issues come from what we see and how it is portrayed.  Psychology has long cited the Bobo doll experiment in announcing the finding that children who view violence (personally with their own eyes, or through a television screen) are more likely to mimic the behavior they have seen, sometimes even escalating that behavior.  So yes, the things our children watch, whether on TV, on the movie screen, over the internet, on their phone, at a friend’s house, all of that plays a role into what behaviors our young people are finding as acceptable.

When I was a child, the term was “Latch Key Kid,” which basically meant, your parents weren’t home when you got home from school.  Did you know that most adolescent sexual activity happens between 3 and 5 p.m.  Isn’t it interesting that those are the same hours that children are home from school, but parents aren’t home from work?  Does that really surprise anyone??

And how about those violent video games, the first person shooter ones where they player actually shoots other people?  Do we really think that doesn’t have an affect on the minds of our youth?

Here is another thought.  If these children had close relationships with significant adults in their lives, do you not think that some of their private thoughts might trickle out into their relationship and then be molded and shaped and changed into something less violent?  When children have someone, anyone, in their lives, who can help them to redefine some of the misconceptions that happen in childhood, they can have a dramatic effect in reframing the child’s view point and the meanings that child espouses to people or situations.  Then those same people can help them understand the consequences and sorrow and suffering that would happen should the child choose to act on those violent thoughts.

Are we so very busy with our careers, volunteer work, and other responsibilities that we are neglecting the mental, emotional and spiritual needs of the smallest people in our communities?  Are they growing up lonely and feeling like no one cares?  Are they left to themselves for hours during the week where they can endlessly entertain themselves on a dribble diet from the internet or Hollywood?  Or practicing the very behaviors they one day chose to carry out in reality by playing first person shooting games?  Where are we, the adults, for these children left to themselves?

Now, I understand that probably most of you who are reading my ranting are probably the parents who are there for your children.  You are helping them to see the good in the world and helping them learn about being fair, and just, and sharing, charity and learning how to love your neighbors.  I think that is probably most of you.  And you are doing a wonderful job!

 But we need to do just a little bit more.

I believe the major problem resides in the hearts of our people.  As we understand our responsibilities to one another, particularly our responsibility to nurture, love, teach and train the rising generation, and as we participate in that responsibility, whether it is with our own children, or others in our communities—through church, neighborhoods, schools, clubs, recreational activities–showing them love and concern, correcting their negative behaviors toward others, we help to make the world a better and safer place—especially when it is done one child at a time.

Do we really believe the day care worker who watches 20-30 kids every day for 6 or more hours is really concerned with the morality and feelings of each and every one of those kids?  Or is he or she just going to work, like you do every day, just hoping to make it through the day?  Even if your day care provider is amazing and loves your child, do you think they will do a better job taking care of that child’s needs than you, as their parent will?  How do you think your child feels about their situation and who loves them?

copyright Karen Larsen photography

“Children are an heritage of the Lord.”  Psalms 127:3  They are a gift, given to us by a loving Heavenly Father in the hopes that our interactions with them and our understanding of our responsibilities to them will grow within us the ability and desire to nurture them and to make sacrifices for the growing child who completely relies on us and our willingness to care for them.  They are not a pet that you can slough off responsibility for when you have decided that you really do not want to do this anyway.

Parenting is not a right.  It is a gift.  It is a responsibility.  Our communities are too concerned with the rights of adults at the neglect of the rights of the children.  The littlest people in our society have a right to a protected childhood, to be cared for, nurtured, taught, trained, and loved.  They have a right to have others make sacrifices to care for them, to do for them what they cannot do for themselves, until such time as they are capable of managing that.  In our day of me and mine, and what do I get out of it, we are leaving our young people alone and vulnerable long before they are prepared to manage the information they have available to them.  We need to be more involved in their lives, especially as they are maturing into adults, during those rocky teenaged years when they believe no one likes them even when they come from stable homes with loving parents.  But we especially need to reach out to those children and teens who don’t come from stable homes and let them know that someone is thinking about them and someone really cares about how they are feeling.

We—the adults—need to be available and proactively seeking opportunities to reach out to the rising generation.  We—the adults—need to be making sacrifices in our own lives to teach and nurture those children in our communities so that the rising generation understands its responsibilities to all of us and to the future generations after them.  If we do not show them how to do that, who is going to?  No one.  And the generations after them will not have a chance.

Then, we have the responsibility to help others in our communities and within the sound of our voice understand their responsibility to the rising generation.  We must share our views in the hopes that others will listen to us and quiet the loud voices of me and mine.  We need to think in terms of us and we—-ours.  Our society is sick.  Our society needs change.  Our society needs morality.  We need to do something.  We need to make sacrifices that will bring up the rising generation in light and truth.

There is my soap box for the day.  Let the nasty comments begin.  I am ready.

Life has just been very, very busy.  But here are a few of the things we have been doing.

Sport’s Graduations (college and high school):

Now that those are out of the way 🙂

Sun has her Spring Review Show tonight.  Because she is singing a solo, she gets to wear whatever she wants for her solo.  She had nothing that she felt comfortable wearing.  So we dug through the fabric piles and found some materials that would work.  I have been busily sewing for the past week and would have been finished a while ago, except my sweetest little son spilled yellow nail polish all over the skirt I was sewing, so we had to start over.  Since then, I have been pumping out the next skirt and shirt especially the past three days.  But!!!  Last night at 11:30, I finished the outfit.  Hopefully, I’ll get to video her performance tonight and then put it up here on the blog.  Then you can see my magnificent sewing skills (NOT).  But you can see what I did and hopefully hear my beautiful daughter.  If it doesn’t work, then Oh well!

And, my dear friend called me yesterday in my mad sewing place and said, “Do you want to pick my raspberries? They are falling off of the plants and I don’t have time to do it or do anything with them.”  So I sent the boys over yesterday to pick.  And pick they did!  Now I have tons of raspberries to do something with.  Luckily they freeze pretty well and fairly easily, so they can wait until next week.

Also, next week, Slim arrives home.  Currently he is traveling across the country visiting a few peoples here and there.  Next weekend I have to go and pick him up. 

With all the extra men, there has been a lot of extra cooking, and we had a death in the ward, so there is that business also.  The funeral is on Monday and the death was expected.  Also, on Thursday, we got a phone call that one of the ward members was in the emergency room, a home teachee of my sweetheart.  When we arrived there, the missionaries were there.  One of their companions fell off his bicycle and broke his arm.  One of our other ward members was there.  He had just brought his mother-in-law in because they thought she had experienced a stroke.  And we had another ward member there who had had two surgeries earlier in the week.  So there has also been lots of visiting others and doing what we can to help them.

You can see, things are a little chaotic.  But things are happening.  Life is moving forward.  Now we just have to really focus and get Sun’s class finished off completely.  That will be the focus for the next week.  Wish us luck!

(I missed Family First Friday, I  know!!)

Woohoo!!!  I have wanted a scanner for quite a while, just because we have photos that I have no other copies of other than the original print.  Like this one:

This is the only photo I have of my father’s parents, Melvin Cleo (Bill) and Dorothy Rosella Bryant.   (The little people are my brother David [baby] and me.)  Don’t you just love the green paper on the ends??!!  And the tapestry on the wall—I think my mother still has that.

But I am so excited to upload some of these photos on Family Tree!!!

In fact, in researching some of my ancestry and evaluating some genealogy my mother sent me, I learned that her side of the family, in fact, is descended from the Chief of the Wampanoag Federation of Indians, Massassoit.  He is THE Indian who had the first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims.  Oh!  Ya!  That Indian!  There is a statue of him:

But I was also able to scan in this little gem:

These are my great grandparents, Dorothy’s parents.  I knew them for such a short while.  My great grandmother died when I was 11, and my great grandfather was killed in an automobile accident when I was 13.  Don’t you just LOVE his hair???!!  And the bow tie, so sheik!

My other scanning treasure, also a family history jewel.  I guess on my mother’s side, there is a coat of arms.  No kidding!  Kind of strange, I know.  But here it is:

I scanned it in straight, but when I color corrected it, for some reason, it slanted it.  So weird.  It didn’t seem to matter even if I tried to scan it in crooked.  That just made it worse.  My girl friend who is also apparently my cousin many, many times removed, said that each of those symbols on the coat of arms have a meaning.  So I started doing a little research.  Not everyone agrees on what the symbols mean, but I did find out that those little birds are called ‘Martlets’–footless sparrows, which are a symbol of the fourth son (mark of difference) that may signify one who has to subsist by virtue or merit, not inheritance.  Well, that’s nice to know, and still very, very true today.  Yep, that part fits.  The belt across the front is called a Fess.  It is a military belt or girdle of honor, representing readiness to serve the public.  That fits me too.

As far as the scrolly plant stuff??  No clue.  Don’t know about the helmet thingy either.  Or the three rings, or why there are three swallows…..

Any thoughts on your end?

Well, anyway, it is a cool thing. I am enjoying it and I can upload these things to Family Tree (as soon as I figure out that) and then someone who is related to me will have more information to work with.

Those are my ramblings about how fun Family History can be.  I really do enjoy it and I like finding things out about my family and the people who came before me and paved the way that I can enjoy the life I have.  I find it a particular and sacred honor to be able to go to the temple and perform eternal ordinances for them so they may have the blessings of the gospel, if they so wish.

That is the wonderful thing that I think some people do not understand.  Yes, we do perform ordinances for and in behalf of people who have left mortality.  However, we do not believe that because we have done that that the people whose work has been completed are now members of our church or our religion.  We believe that these ordinances are necessary for each and every person ever born.  However, we also believe each person has their agency.  If they do not want to accept the work that has been done for them, they do not have to accept it.  It is their choice.  On this side of mortality, we do not usually know if they accept it or not.  But we do the work, so it is available if they want it and are worthy of it.

So that’s a little bit different.  Anyway, now that I have rambled on and on, I may go scan some more stuff!  Have a great Memorial Day as we remember those who have gone before us and paved the way for us to enjoy the lives we do!

commons.wikimedia.com

I wish I was an amazingly consistent blogger who you could always count on to post something inspirational every day, that my posts would go viral and my readership would just soar through the roof.  But alas, I do sin in my wish.  I’m just an average, ordinary person with a life and a family and oh, did I tell you I have nine children?

This is what I want the world to think it looks like.

THIS

is more often

the reality of

how it is.

I would like to think that as they have left the house and grown up that my mothering job is done.  Not so.  On occasion, I am more needed, and usually more urgently.  When the big boys (because my only daughter is not there yet) call and need me, it is usually because they have exhausted all of their other resources and their time is critical, and it usually involves money.  But that’s OK, because we have all been there right?

Have you ever noticed that the Lord does that for us too?

Just today I was stressing because with extra boys at home, there are no leftovers.  The things I plan for meals just do not seem to stretch as far and I am functionally feeding four and a half men three meals every day.  In another month, it will be five men (for a week, then two will leave).  But the point is, I do my grocery shopping on Thursdays and it is Tuesday afternoon and the fruit basket is empty, the eggs are gone, some of the condiments are out, the refrigerator is looking like bachelors live here, you know what I mean.  (I can see how badly the fridge needs to be cleaned.  It is that empty!)

As I put on the beans to cook for dinner tonight and realized that I didn’t have enough left in the bucket to feed everyone tonight, I didn’t think it would be such a big deal because I always have a bucket of beans somewhere.  So I searched through the food storage cupboards.  Nothing.  I looked in all of my buckets.  Couldn’t find any more.  As I was starting to panic, I had the thought, just keep looking in the food storage.  OK.  I have checked my cupboards.  The only place left is the garage.  I think I only have 30 year old wheat out there.  But, true to the prompting, I went out.

I looked in my pile of wheat bags, not yet put into buckets.  No beans.  I stared at the shelves and shelves of someone’s weathered and aged #10 cans that came to our house because someone couldn’t bear to throw out their 30 year old food storage and neither could my spouse (we might need that someday you know?  We are still working on his ability not only to declutter, but not to bring it home in the first place.  I throw out more things that way……..SSSSSHHHHHH!!  Did I say that out loud?)

What did I see?  Some shiny #10 cans mixed in with the weathered ones.  I got closer so that I could read the label.   BEANS!!!  Sweet!  6 cans of beans!!  I recognized that they were older, not 30 years old, though.  When I opened them the seal broke.  That’s good, I thought.  Inside were red, black and pinto beans, our favorites!  Hip hip hooray!!  I didn’t even know they were in our house, but the Lord knew.  Kind of like that feeling I get when I know one of those big boys is going to call and ask us to transfer money to help them cover something (not like toys, or entertainment, I’m talking food, rent, getting home, you know, the important stuff).

I was just so very, very grateful that the Lord knows us, loves us, and will do what He can (and what we will let Him) to help us.  And as we help one another, like Drew and I do for the boys and Tams, and the other kiddos, we answer each others’ prayers and we become angels employed in the service of our God.  “As ye have done unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”  And King Benjamin’s amazing address:  “…I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God.”

copyright:  Karen Larsen photography

So even, no especially, when our service may be limited to feeding, clothing, bathing, wiping noses, and bottoms and soothing hurt feelings, for little people or big people or one person, we are making a contribution to the work of the kingdom.  Some day those little people are going to grow into big people, (who need money) and love and attention, and sometimes advice, but sometimes just a listening and sympathetic ear.

Yea to the Lord for putting us into the service of one another, through families, or church, or neighborhoods, or work or whatever.  We are truly brothers and sisters of the same Father, who even cares about beans for dinner tonight!

While I was at Slim’s graduation, I had plenty of time to contemplate life and the cosmos.  As I relished in the quiet and the lack of people demanding my attention and time, enjoyed having all of my meals prepared for me, someone else cleaning the bathroom and cleaning up after dinner, not worrying about laundry or housework or children or service to those who live by me or homework, I just soaked in the solitude.  I drank deeply of the peace that surrounded me.

this is where I had breakfast every morning!

Don’t get me wrong, I love people!  But the older I get, the more I enjoy solitude.  Maybe it is because I have so little of it.  I love sitting in the morning sun, watching nature around me as the world wakes up.  The warmth of early morning sunrise, the smell of the new day—-time to be alone with my thoughts, time to commune with God, my Father in Heaven.  Oh Solitude!  Thy name is Peace! Envelop me in tranquility!

And yet, even though that joy fills my heart, where is the service?  Where is the growth?  Where is the assistance to my fellow man?

There is a lot to be said for helping one another to claw and scrape through daily mortal mire, to hear the lament and tales of another, to problem solve, and to comfort and assist, to bear another’s burden, or at least assist in the process.  That brings us humanity, charity, closer to our eternal goals and becoming of the Christ-like character we hope to emulate.

Those ties and demands upon us—-the children, a spouse, parents, neighbors—those relationships keep us real, keep us grounded, hone our appetites, desires, and passions as we make sacrifice for one another.  Those ties that bind—-that is reality.  Continued solitude is selfishness—necessary on occasion, but too much is good for neither man nor woman.

As I sat around pondering for those four days, I recognized that the life I was participating in at that moment was all fluff.  It was not a thing of eternity.   I wasn’t doing anything that was going to help anyone else reach their exaltation.  In  that moment, I recognized that the true battles are won and lost in the home, doing the mundane, the things I do every single day, that is where the fight is won and lost, in the trenches of motherhood.  I was up to my eyeballs in that scenario.

It was good to get some perspective and to receive a little grounding.  For I have been exhausted and quite weary in well-doing.  I have been thinking that the grass IS greener on the other side and I have been ready for quite a while, to jump ship and go build Zion somewhere else.  The truth of the matter though, is that my ‘exhausted in Zion building’ syndrome would follow me, being that the magnitude of my work, I live with.  So living somewhere else with a few different people, but all of the important and significant and exhausting ones living within the walls of my home, really wasn’t going to change anything, except that I would probably have more stress because these darling children of mine would be more discombobulated because of a move.  Lovely, how I would create my own drama!  Oy!

So this great morning, I was reading my Doctrine and Covenants, and came across this scripture:

64:33-34
Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work.  And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.
Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days.

As tired as I am, I am laying the foundation of a great work!  I know that.  But sometimes foundation building is just exhausting.  I mean seriously, when all you do all day is go around slapping down cement and fitting two by fours for the erection of some major house, it is hard to get excited about what the gardens are going to look like, everything is always gray!

Listening to Elder Ballard’s CES address this month also helped my perspective and taught me where I can go to strengthen my perspective and how to tune my spirit into the spiritual reality and significance of what I am doing.

He said as he was sharing part of the dedicatory prayer of the new Arizona temple, in effect:

[All temples] are a “a sanctuary of serenity, a refuge from the storms of life, and the noise of the world.  May [the temple] be a house of quiet contemplation, concerning the eternal nature of life and Thy divine plan for us.”

Then he continued his personal remarks (speaking to the young adults):

“Satan is working overtime to confuse God’s sons and daughters and divert the very elect from fulfilling their duty and receiving a fulness of the Lord’s blessings.  Satan wants you to stop practicing good habits you learned on your missions, such as having daily scripture study, praying daily, worthily partaking of the sacrament weekly and giving genuine heartfelt service.  He also wants you to stand on the sidelines in today’s important crucial battles.

Remember my dear young people, we at at war!  But not a war of guns and bullets.  Nevertheless, the war is real, with countless human casualties.  The war is in fact a continuation of the one that began in the premortal world existence.

Paul invited us to put on the whole armor of God, he said, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

As an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, I invite all of you within the sound of my voice in the vast world that we now live in to put on the whole armor of God and join the battle today, like the sons of Helaman did so many years ago.  Don’t wait until you get married, or start your life long career or get older.  The church needs our youth now!  The Lord needs you now!….

You will recall 2000 stripling warriors entered into a covenant to fight for the liberty of the Nephites.  The church needs modern stripling warriors who have made a covenant to stand as witnesses of God at all times, and in all things and in all places…

You young men and women are the modern sons and daughters of Helaman.  May it be said of you as it was said of them, they became now at this period of time, a great support…..”

And guess what?  You and I are their parents, those who were so strong in the conviction of their repentance and love for the Savior, that they buried the weapons of their rebellion, never to pick them up again, but to lose their lives first.

We need to set that kind of example for our modern stripling warriors.  We need to remind them every day of who they are, what they are to do, and why they are to do it.  This is our battle as much as it is theirs.  We are at war.  And we are in the trenches of mortality, where the battles for the souls of men are won and lost.  May we be true to our stewardship and not diverted from our duty!

Yes, I know it’s a little late, but whatever!  Things are just busy here and I cannot always keep up.  (Just ask the kids or Drew about the laundry………………….)

So my sweet little ones, and the not so little ones, showered me with gifts on Mother’s day.  I received personally made stationery and pens, notes of appreciation, stuffed animals, silhouette necklaces, breakfast, cards, and phone calls.

It was kind of interesting trying to speak with our missionaries, as both phone calls/skype came in during church.  The one in Brazil, we couldn’t manage making changes to mostly because the scheduling is a little tighter in the MTC on Mother’s Day.  For us, church starts at 1.  The phone call was suppose to come in at 2.  So after the intermediate hymn, the counselor conducting made the announcement that he would be the concluding speaker, but that wasn’t the reason the Bishop and all of his family were leaving.  He explained our circumstances to the congregation, and we left.  I was already in the foyer with Spike, because during the sacrament, he kept yelling “NO!” at the top of his lungs.

We tried to skype with our missionaries.   After 15 minutes of trying to get skype to work from Brazil, we finally gave up and used the cell phone.  Scuff only got to talk to us for 10 minutes before they were telling him he needed to go or be late for the devotional.  We were only expecting 15 minutes anyway, as there are plenty of missionaries in the MTC or the CTM as they say in Brazil, who want to speak to their mothers.

We then made our way back to the chapel.  If we lived farther away, that would have never worked.  I got there just in time to do my sharing time in primary, and made my presentation to the junior primary.  Then I did it again for the senior primary and left again about 20 until 4, grabbed Spike out of nursery, and Sun out of young women’s, and let the Bishop know we were on our way home for the 4 o’clock skype with Tammy.  Her call came in a little late.  If we had known that, we could have stayed for the rest of our block.  We had a great conversation!  We love her!  She is doing so well and looks so good and so happy!

We finished off with Tams, and then Drew and I headed back to the chapel to take in the Spanish sacrament meeting.  That has been kind of funny.  It is just a small, small group, but the entire meeting is in Spanish.  I had a whopping one year of high school Spanish and my husband is fluent in German.  So we are there mostly to support the other bishop, who speaks Spanish fluently, conducts the entire meeting, blesses the sacrament, and is usually the speaker.  It reminds me of the year we spent in Oklahoma where we attended a branch of the church.  I felt like the same people spoke all the time.  Oh wait!  That’s because they did!  Those of us who only have to speak every few years, really have nothing to complain about!

Anyway, that was our Mother’s Day!  I hope you had a great one too!  See you on Friday!

My trip to Virginia was amazing!  It was beautiful!  I love that area—so gorgeous!  Of course, all of the two times I have been there have been in May, so what can you expect?

Here is where I was.

It was such a rewarding experience to watch my first son graduate from college—especially this son—the one who didn’t want to learn to read, and decided as a first grader that he just was never going to do it.  Oy!  That was awful!   Because Slim was my first reading student, I decided that if it was this difficult to teach kids to read, no one at my house would be reading.  It was not that difficult to teach kids to read.  It was that difficult to teach SLIM to read—very different things.  And what did the man graduate in?  English Literature, with creative writing and philosophy minors.  The man reads a……l……..l…… …….t…..h…….e………….t…….i…….m……e!

The flights over I spoke with Gary from Australia, who was on his way to Indiana to visit his in-laws, has seven sons and plays the trumpet!  We had a really fun conversation about boys, the crazy things they do growing up, and then he showed me his ‘traveling trumpet’ that was the only carry-on luggage he had.  It was so fun and so cute!  My final flight into Virginia landed in Roanoke at 10:30 p.m.  There was a couple there who, while waiting for their carry-on luggage, were holding their sleeping sons, probably about 3 and 4, so their arms were totally full!  I decided to ask them if they needed help.  They politely told me that they didn’t speak English.  I asked what language did they speak?  Portuguese!  I told them my son who was meeting me at the airport speaks Portuguese!  Then I followed them to baggage claim and took their carry-on luggage.  When I got down the stairs, there was Spanky.  I hugged him, told him I needed his brother and sent him back to the car to wait and send in Slim.  Slim came in and immediately started chatting away in Portuguese.  I offered to hold one of the boys while the father went and got their 3 giant suitcases and the stroller, all the while Slim spoke with the wife.  Then we helped them get their sleeping boys and luggage to their rental car.  And to boot, they are both lawyers.  It was sweet and they were very grateful for the help.

Wednesday I spent all day running around on campus and meeting all of Slim’s friends and professors, with Drew’s dad and Spanky.  It was really fun and they all adored our son.  Of course, I will not remember any of their names, but that’s OK.  Wednesday evening, they held a banquet for the Seniors.  It was nice to have the Seniors recognized for their accomplishments.  The highlight of the evening however, was that we were two table away from Southern Virginia’s commencement speaker for graduation, Sister Elaine S. Daulton.  She has been one of my personal heroines for as long as I can remember!  I have loved every speech I have heard her give!  She served as the General Young Women’s President from 2008 to 2013.  Before that, she was the counselor to Sister Tanner from 2002 to 2008.

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Typically, I do not approach the general leadership of the church when they are anywhere around.  This has been my practice mostly because I know they meet with thousands and thousands of people and I do not want to add to their weight.  But with Spanky’s encouragement, I went forward.  I thanked her and her husband for their service and sacrifices to the work.  And guess what?  We even got a photo:

Sister Daulton also participated on BYU’s folk dance team, which Spanky currently performs with, so there was this one:

That was definitely the highlight of the trip for me.

Thursday was graduation.  Slim was more than ready.  Graduation was held just outside of Main Hall.  Spanky was there early enough that we got really good seats, though we weren’t in the shade, so I got sunburned.  It was a beautiful ceremony, a little long though.  Sister Daulton’s address was amazing and once again I took notes, as tears streamed down my face, the Spirit acknowledging to me the truth of what she was saying.

Slim cried as the honor choir sung their final number, Shenandoah, with the current, graduating, and former choir members.

Don’t you just love that tree?  I sat right behind it.  However, I could see the speakers as long as someone wasn’t standing to the left of the tree trying to get a photo of the speaker.  After graduation, we had a little meet and greet on the back lawn with tons of yummy food.  Then we went out to lunch because Slim and Dad didn’t eat at the meet and greet, but Spanky and I did.  Oy!

Thursday evening we went to Monticello, the famous home of Thomas Jefferson.  We got there too late for a tour of the house, but did manage to walk around the grounds.  It was beautiful and really neat to walk around a home built during that time period and see how they lived and worked and stored things.  As we got back into town, we were starving.  We found where we wanted to go on the GPS and headed over there.  When we arrived, the restaurant had closed.  It would have been nice if that had been on the GPS.  We walked around town and found a place to eat.  Who happened to be there?  Why, President Sybrowsky and his wife, Brother and Sister Daulton, and another couple (I’m thinking it was the Knights, who are the benefactors of the University, but I’m not sure).  We let them enjoy their meal and we didn’t interrupt them.

Friday morning we packed it up, drove to the airport.  As we pulled up to the curb, Brother and Sister Daulton were just leaving their automobile to head into the airport.  I kind of felt like we were stalking them without trying to do so.  Weird.  Then as we went through security, the Daultons were right behind us, again.

The flights home were uneventful, but long. Well, with the one exception that as I was waiting to board my flight in DC, I turned around and saw Mitt Romney sitting on the chairs behind me.  I left my luggage in line, and went to thank him for running for office last year.  I was obviously bothering him, so that was all I said, and no photo.  But I shook his hand.

 I was really, really done with flying by the time I got home.  And since I got up at 6:30 a.m Eastern time, by the time I arrived home, 10:30 p.m. Pacific time, I was exhausted!