Temple Trip

Jack will be going to the Memphis Temple on Saturday. This is a big step for me. Jeremy does not get to come and be his escort so our old bishop is going to take Jack through. He is very excited about going. I am sad that Jeremy and Lora won't be there. When we go to Utah the end of July, Jeremy will do a session with Jack and that will be good. We had to order all his stuff and have it shipped, so different than renting at the temple or going to the local distribution center to pick it up! I look forward to going to the temple, I need it right now.

Missionary Acceptance

I was very impressed with the Acceptance letter Jack wrote to accept his mission call. I could not believe how grown up he sounded in the letter. I guess all the preparing these past few months has really changed him. I have noticed it in his prayers too. He sounds so mature and prays for such grown up things, no more let me get to the swing set first at recess now it is please help me to have compassion to those who get on my nerves. WOW what a difference!!

No Regrets

I have been doing a lot of studying and reading and learning lately and I have decided to make my motto "No Regrets". I need to do my best at whatever I am doing, put it all on the line, leave it all on the field, however you want to say it. I need to do my best in every situation and then I will have no regrets in life. I need to do my best in my relationships with others and be the friend, mother, sister that they deserve. Not only do I need to live with no regrets, I need to enjoy the journey along the way.

The prep begins

Jack and I have read every word of his mission call and the book they send along with it. We have talked about what we need to do next and how the process is going to go. We are trying to decide what he can buy after he gets there and what he can buy in Utah and what needs to be bought now. The sadness is beginning to overtake the excitement for me and Jack is beginning to get more excited as each day passes. Tomorrow he will announce it in church. I have been very careful not to talk about it much so that Jack can be the one to talk to people. It is an exciting time for him and the experience is different in the mission field than it was in Utah. People out here don't understand very well but in Utah all you had to do was say he is going on his mission and everyone knew what we were talking about and what we needed, just getting suits was an experience here but when Jeremy got his we walked into Mr. Mac's and told them he was going on a mission and they when around the store getting things he needed for that area and recommending the proper stuff and saying no he will not need that where he is going. Here they wanted to try and sell him everything in the store and the expensive stuff like $60 for one white shirt, etc... What a difference a state makes!!

MY SECOND MISSIONARY

Jack has been called to the Baltimore Maryland Mission. This will be my second missionary, Jeremy went to the London England South mission. Jack leaves Aug 5 from the Provo MTC. Jeremy flew to the MTC in England. These will be totally different experiences for us. Jeremy was the first to leave home and there were three younger kids at home. Jack and Jennifer will leave home on the same trip to Utah and then it will just be Joy and I left at home. I will be able to blog my experiences with Jack and hopefully he will write every week, Jeremy began his mission writing well but the last year was hit and miss. At least Jack saw what it was like not having news every week and he vows he will write every week, that is a comfort to a heart that is full of emotions right now. I am glad he is serving a mission but I am hurting because he will be leaving in just 8 weeks. I remember how hard the last mission was on the family and I dread the hard times ahead but I am very grateful that Jack is worthy to serve a mission and he will do very well. At least he is going to a place with heat in the summer and snow in the winter!

Another Bishop already

This makes Bishop number 9 for us and we have just made our 13 year mark in the church. That is not even a 2 year average per Bishop. We had 4 Bishops in our first year but that was because we had one in Colorado then in Kaysville while we were looking for a house then our Bishop was released about 4 months after we bought our house. Our ward split 3 times when we lived in Layton because of reshaping our stake. Our ward here is so spread out that it takes almost an hour to drive from our house to some of the other ward members. There are so many changes all the time that it is hard to feel close to people. I miss being able to walk to church! I love you all,

God is Great, God is Good

God is Great, God is Good, Let us thank Him, for our food, AMEN
When we were children we took turns saying grace over our food. Each one of us had a prayer memorized and we would say it every time. This was my prayer. It was short and sweet. As I have gotten older it has taken on a whole new meaning for me. This past week I was reminded of this prayer and all that it means. Sula was not only a co-worker but a friend. She was a special lady who loved everyone. We have seen God work miracles in her life and the lives of those she touched. Last week Carl, her husband found her on the floor unconscious when he woke up in the morning. She was taken to the hospital and after a few hours we received the report that she was awake and alert. Jack got to spend time with her during his lunch break and then again after work on Thursday. I am very grateful for this, he can make anyone laugh and feel better. Then Friday she got worse but was hanging on because her daughter was out of town and trying to get back. Saturday with everyone there they decided to take her off the life support and they called her death around 5pm but Ms Sula was not quite done and her heart started up again. It beat strongly for a bit and then stopped again. The machines read flat lines and they thought she was gone but time after time she left and came back. I am told that throughout the night she continued this, at least 10 times the machines showed flat lines for around 2 minutes or longer but her heart would not quit. Finally on Sunday morning she took her last breath. This was typical of Sula, she had the greatest heart I have known. She was always concerned about everyone and made each person feel special. She always gave you a hug and a smile and when she said It's nice to see you, she meant it. She made everyone feel special. We were able to leave a couple of girls at the office and the rest of us go to her funeral on Wednesday. Jack and Jennifer were able to get off work and join Joy and I there. Our work filled the front few pews and it was nice to hear all the things said about Sula and to give comfort to Carl in his time of need. The little miracles that have taken place this week is showing everyone that our God is a great god. Through him, people who did not know about Sula called and said they had food they could not use and could we put it to use. Through God, family members were blessed to be here when they did not think they could make it. Through God, little everyday miracles were noticed for what they were - His loving touch. We do thank Him for our Food, but not just that food that going into our mouths but the food that goes into our heart and our soul. The food that fills us up both spiritually and physically. The food that we need to keep going. Yes, Mrs Sula touched many peoples lives while she was here on this earth as well as after she left here. We will meet again someday, of that I am certain!

Losing a friend

Today I lost a dear friend and a co-worker. My heart is heavy. I know that she has suffered so much the past couple of months and she was tired of fighting. She is finally resting and I know this but it does not make the sadness go away. The next couple of days will be so hard on her family, her husband of 51 years, her kids and grand kids. She is dearly loved by many people. They do not have the same faith as I do and I know that their pain is much more than mine because I know that she is in a restful paradise now and that all is well with her. I am so grateful for the gospel and the Book of Mormon and other scriptures that explain so much about our journey in this life and all eternity. I love my Heavenly Father!

Blessing come big and small

We had the missionaries over for dinner this week and were left with a scripture that spoke about the small things. It was a nice ending to a fun meal but even more important than that, Robert was here. To some it may seem like a small blessing to have the missionaries in your home but to me, this one visit was a big blessing. They were able to talk to Robert and spend a bit of time with him. They were not pushy but their presence was felt by all.

If everyone knew what I knew

Sometimes I get sad because I know that not everyone knows what I know. God sent His Son into the world to die for me. That is the greatest gift, the eternal life I now have because He did that for me. How do I get people to understand that? I talk to people about it but they just don't get it. I know that no one can convert anyone, that it is the Holy Spirit that helps them see the truth and that they must make the decision on their own. We can not force them to see the truth, that is what Satan wanted but that is not how it is suppose to be so I have to do my part by praying and talking and teaching and then maybe they will see. I believe the unbelievable. I know that God lives and that He love me and someday He will say to me "Well Done Thy Good and Faithful Servant". I look forward to that day but until then, I must teach and serve!

Temple Experiences

I am so happy for Joy, she is out in Utah visiting Jeremy, Lora and Bailey and she gets to spend the weekends with her friends. Janet and McKenna took her to the Draper Temple Open house the day after she arrived in Utah. Then last Sunday she was able to attend the Dedication ceremony with the Coopers! When she was being interviewed by their Bishop for a recommend to go, he asked her to speak in church on Sunday before they all went to the ceremony. She spoke on temples. She had not attended their ward before and I was very surprised that she accepted the opportunity to speak but from what I am told, she did well. It just goes to show you that the church is the same everywhere and she felt at home with our very dear friends who were also speaking that day. I have never been to a dedication ceremony before so I made her tell me all about it. What a blessed event! She now has a deeper love for temples.

72 hour kits

Throughout the past 13 years I have worked on my family 72 hour kit. I found every list I could and made sure that I had everything on it so my family would be prepared. The past few weeks I have gone through my kit and reorganized it for our current situation. I realized that I am home most of the time by myself or with just one child being here and there was no way I could carry all the kits if I had to evacuate. I now have them all down to just two buckets. You have to pick and choose what is best for you and your family, just like in your food storage, pack what you need, what may work for someone else may not work for you. What worked for you 5 years ago does not work for you now. This is one of the reasons we are asked to update our kits each year. Conference weekend is the perfect time to see what you have and what you need to get. Make it a family project, something to do in between sessions. Commit to it and then just do it!

Put Yourself in their shoes . .

During my 13 years in the church I have known people who, for one reason or another, could not take the sacrament for a period of time. I have often wondered why this is done. If you are struggling with something how could NOT taking the sacrament help you? I decided all on my own to NOT take the sacrament, repent of any sins I committed during the week and see what happens. DON'T DO THIS. I had a terrible week. It was harder to stay happy and upbeat. It was harder to see the positive in people, instead I dwelt on the negative. It was harder to make the time to read my scriptures and say my prayers. Let's face it, the Sacrament is a very important part of our lives. I am having an even harder time now trying to figure out why they tell people NOT to take the sacrament when this time in their lives should be the time they need it the most. I am grateful I have not done anything to cause me to not be able to take the sacrament and I will not try to put myself into others shoes in this way again. Maybe someone can explain how this is suppose to help those who are struggling already???

13 Years ago

It was 13 years ago that I began reading the Book of Mormon for the first time. I read it all the way through while the Missionaries were teaching us for those 24 days. I did not study it, I just read it to make sure there was nothing in there that I did not agree with. I wanted to make sure there was no contradicting messages and that there were no cult teachings. There were not any. It was a peaceful feeling when I read, very familiar messages. I believe with all my heart that the Book of Mormon is true and that it is just another testament of Jesus Christ. I love the way that Christ taught everyone and not just a select few. I love the fact that everyone was important to Him and He left no one out. If the Savior stood beside me is such a wonderful song. I had looked up the history of the song and had it prepared to share with the Young Women's class I was subbing for last week and then when I got there I found out that they were beginning to learn it for an activity this next week. I was grateful to know that I was in tune enough to listen to The Spirit and prepare the way I did. The song is all about stopping and thinking if I would do the things I do if the Savior was standing right beside me, watching over me. I hope the girls take to heart the things the song says and treat people with the respect they should.

Trust In The Lord

Trust in the Lord always . . . I have been reading the scriptures and there is a story about a man who was told to build a boat. He did not know how to build a boat but he trusted in The Lord and he did as he was told. He prayed about it and was able to ask the right questions and get answers and then he and his family built a boat.
What can we learn from this story?
1. Sometimes we are asked to do something we do not know how to do. When that time comes, we need to trust in The Lord and turn to him for answers as to how to do the thing we are asked. We might be asked to learn how to live when you have lost your job. We might be asked to suffer through a sickness or disease that will teach us how to humble ourselves and pray for help. We might be asked to learn to live without a loved one, through death or simply moving away, and experience a small glimpse of what Heavenly Father went through when He sent His Son to this earth to pay a price He did not owe.
2. We need to pray. When faced with a difficult task we need to pray for guidance. We need to pray a prayer of thanksgiving when we are blessed. We need to pray always, not just when life gives you more than you can handle but if we pray always in all things, we will be ready to handle everything life gives us.
3. We can not do things alone. We need to turn to Heavenly Father to comfort and guide us and we need to use the people he has sent to us to help us. Most times it is our own family members that are there for us, to help us, to strengthen us, to lean on, to help build that ship in our own lives. Turn to your family for they will be with you through out all eternity. But there are other people sent to help us as well and when people are sent to help you, you need to swallow your pride and let them help. You also must be aware of those around you and when you see they need help then you need to help them even if they do not ask. I will never forget when I was in college and Linda had me go with her to deliver two sacks of paper products to a lady that was in need. We left them on her front porch about 10 minutes before she was to return home from work and waited down the street so we could watch the house to make sure she got them but where she could not see us. Later that night Linda got a phone call from this lady talking about the angels that left her exactly what she needed because she had no toilet paper left and she had no napkins or paper plates or paper towels in her house and it was such a blessing.
Sometimes we do not know why we are sent to do things but God knows and we need to be ready when called upon. It might be we are building a ship to save someone even if it is disguised as a sack of toilet paper!

We are those saviors

Elder Theodore M Burton has said: "The promise was made them, our ancestors, that even if they were born at a time and place where they could not hear the gospel preached in life, God would provide saviors for them from among their descendants so they could eventually receive all the blessings promised them. We are those saviors." In our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we believe that we will all be together again in the next estate (when we leave this earth). How wonderful it will be to get to the other side and see the people who belong to the names in our family tree. How wonderful it will be to look them in the eye and know something about them because of the work I am doing during my lifetime, researching their past, learning all I can about who they were and what they did and what it was like when they were alive, what the ship looked like that carried them to the United States, how if they did not have the courage to leave Poland or Scotland and settle here, I would be living a very different life right now. I am grateful to my ancestors for the courage they had in living their lives the way they did, even when their families disapproved and cut them off wanting nothing more to do with them, because now I have the freedom to live my life the way I choose and open up paths for future generations. I am grateful I have the opportunity to leave a legacy of faith for my descendants to follow.

Following the Example of Jesus Christ

Today I am blessed to be able to teach Jennifer's Sunday School class. The lesson is on following the example of Jesus Christ. He is the perfect example of how we should strive to live our lives. It is a nice reminder to try to be more like Him. The Savior said "What manner of men ought ye to be?" then answered "Verily I say unto you, even as I am" and that got me thinking, are there things in my life that I could change? I decided to start making a list of things I needed to change and then I realized that the list of things to keep the same would be much much shorter! I have taken the challenge that I am going to give the girls today, Live for 24 hours as if Christ were right beside you seeing everything that you do. In the lesson a girl begins with the way she set the table, instead of a wrinkled tablecloth with stains on it she put out a clean one and even picked flowers from her yard to put in the middle of the table, even tho it was just her family eating dinner, she stated "I don't know of anyone I'd rather fix things up for than our own folks". Why do we only bring out the good china when company comes and even then it is not all company that gets to use it? Why do we treat others better than our own family? We do not have to use it everyday but why not every Sunday or any other day of the week we choose? I will let you know how my 24 walk with Christ goes.

Stake Challenge

Our Stake has challenged us to read the Book of Mormon before the next Stake Conference in June - Conference to Conference. Jack and I have taken that challenge and we are reading after the girls leave for Seminary and before we leave for work. So far, so good. We are on schedule (ok, we just got the challenge three days ago but we are off to a good start!)This time I am taking a different approach when I am reading because I am looking at this as my family history. Sure they are distant cousins but at some point our lines meet. I am reading a history lesson on my heritage so I am reading with that thought in mind and want to know what story Cousin Mormon is going to tell me next. Try it out, it is a really cool way to look at everything.
You can do the same thing with the Old and New Testaments. Read the Bible as if it were an older relative telling you stories about your family.

Finding Joy in the Journey

Conference Oct 2008, President Monson gave a talk entitled "Finding Joy in the Journey" and we are going to be discussing it in Relief Society today for our lesson so I decided to reread it this morning so that I would have everything clear in my mind and could take part in the discussion. I loved this talk when he gave it, and I loved it again when the Ensign came out and I love it again now. I have printed off a copy of it and will keep it with my scriptures so that I can refer to it often. When I read it I think about how often I dream of tomorrows that never come. I worry about when will I have time to do things with the kids like I use to and not be tired every evening when I get home from work. I think about the yesterdays when the kids and I would spend all our time together, going to support each other and being involved in each others lives. I often regret living here, being so far away from friends and family and knowing that Jennifer will be moving out to Utah in the summer to live with Jeremy and Jack will be on his mission and it will be just Joy and myself home. Time flies by so quickly. Some things in life seemed so large at the time and took alot of effort but they were just fleeting moments and now they are gone and other things have taken their place. I do try to enjoy the here and now and I cherish the moments we are all together. I am very thankful to Heavenly Father for all that He does for my family. In the last week and a half we were able to travel to Missouri and see most of my family, then back to Arkansas to spend time with Robert's family and all the kids were together, laughing and having fun and fighting at times, just like they use to. Robert has been home for two weeks now, enjoying all the time together with everyone. It is a sobering thing to read the words of President Monson when he says "Brothers and sisters, my sincere prayer is that we may adapt to the changes in our lives, that we may realize what is most important, that we may express our gratitude always and thus find joy in the journey..." I have taken inventory of the things I have and the things I can not change and the things I have to look forward to on the other side. I am very grateful for the true gospel in my life. I am very grateful that Elder Ballard sent missionaries to our home to help us find the truth that this church teaches us. I am grateful to know that someday my family will be together forever with true love for each other and time to spend together. I am very grateful that Jack is home for this semester before he leaves on his mission, so we can spend time together, working and playing and having a priesthood holder in the home again. Jack is such a good example to the girls and myself, he is going to be an awesome missionary and who knows, maybe he will be a good example to Robert and our family will be able to be sealed together in this lifetime! I am going to try harder to find the joy in the journey and life each day to the fullest. I will enjoy the last few games the girls have in basketball knowing it is Jennifer's last because of graduating this year and because we do not know where Joy will go to school next year and if she will be on any sports teams. I am going to enjoy having Jack and Jennifer both work in the same office as me even if we do not see each other much during the day. I am going to enjoy using the webcam and seeing Bailey grow up and be thankful we have this technology to use. I am thankful that both of the kids work at places that will allow them to be off on Sundays and also Wednesday nights so they can attend church activities. I am thankful that we have jobs and cars and a home to live in. I am thankful we have clothes to wear and friends to visit with, even if only in emails and blogs. I am grateful to have the gospel in my life and to know that my Savior lives and that He loves me enough to die for me. I am grateful to know that one day I will return to my Heavenly Father and that just maybe, He will say to me "well done thy good and faithful servant" or it might just be "well thanks for trying" but either way, I WILL return to him. I love you all.

Jack's Special Day

Sunday Dec 21, 2008 Jeremy was able to bestow the priesthood on Jack. It was quite a day. We arrived home just after 2:30 AM and unpacked the van and then off to bed. Bailey slept in until 7 AM so I was able to get a bit of sleep. It has been a long time since 8 people needed showers/baths before church and the timing had to be worked out but we all made it. Jack and Jennifer left early to meet A.J. and Jacob at the church. They drove in from Russelville so they could celebrate with Jack. Robert went to church with us and we took up one and a half pews. They had asked me to say the opening prayer and Jeremy to do the closing prayer in Sacrament. I was so proud of Jack when they asked him to stand and we all were able to raise our hand and sustain him in his new responsibilities. It was a nice service and I was able to hold Bailey part of the time. Then afterwards we met in the Bishop's office and talked for a few minutes and then Jack sat down in a chair and those who already have the Priesthood gathered around him and placed one hand on his head and the other on the shoulder of the man next to him. Then Jeremy said a prayer and blessed Jack with the ability to use his priesthood to help those in need. He prayed that Jack would be able to seek out those who would need him in the future and to be strong in his faith. He blessed him to be a bright shining light to those he meets and to bring joy to many people. He blessed him to be in the right place at the right time and to continue to learn the scriptures so he can help others. It was an amazing blessing and then Jack got up and hugged all the men in the room and also ME. He was going to hug all the girls when he got into the hall but I do not know if he did or not. After that we all went to our house and Jack was able to spend some time with his friends before they drove back to Russelville and then on to somewhere south of Fayetteville. I am so very grateful that both of my sons live worthy to have the priesthood and that they take their responsibility seriously. Jack will now be able to help give people blessings. He will start attending the Elders meetings and prepare his papers to submit for his mission. He is hoping to have everything ready for mid march when he is able to submit them. We are all very proud of him and I am very grateful the whole family was there to witness it.