Chapter 15

The Lord's Covenant People
Covenants are promises. When we are baptized we promise our Savior to take his name upon us. This means that we promise to represent Christ. We renew this covenant each week when we take the sacrament.
The fulness of the gospel is called the new and everlasting covenant. It is the same covenant given to prophets of old. It will never change. We accept this covenant and we promise to repent and be baptized and then receive the Holy ghost. As we continue to grow and learn we take on more covenants with Heavenly Father. As we keep these covenants Heavenly Father promises exaltation in the celestial kingdom.
Think about our covenants with Heavenly Father every time we get dressed, are we dressing to please Him? Every time we do something, would He be proud of me? Every time we speak, are we speaking honorably, the way Christ would? Do we represent Him in all we do???

Chapter 13 and 14

The Priesthood is the eternal power and authority of God. I do not know too much about the priesthood, I have not experienced it in my home until now. When my boys received the Melchizedek Priesthood they left on their missions. When Jeremy returned he got married and moved out. Now that we have both boys in the house I am looking forward to seeing the priesthood in action.

Chapter 12

The Atonement
The Atonement is the great sacrifice that Christ made to pay for our sins and overcome death. It is THE most important event that has ever occurred. We could not do that for ourselves. We needed a Savior. That Savior was Christ. He went to the garden and suffered all of our sins. He bled from every single pore. He didn't stop there, he then gave his life on the cross, a most painful death, because he loves us so much. Then three days later he rose from death and made it possible for all of us to be resurrected as well. How can we do all this? By placing our faith in Christ , repenting of our sins, being baptized and receiving the Holy Ghost, then obeying his commandments. What a loving Heavenly Father we have to make that great sacrifice to send His Son to do this for the rest of us.

Chapter 11

The Life of Christ
We owe everything we are to our older brother Jesus Christ. He is my Savior and my friend. He is my teacher and my confidant. He experienced all the pain and grief that I have and has made it possible for me to be forgiven of my sins and begin anew again. He was born a humble birth and he lived a life of service. I heard someone say that the miracle he first performed in public, changing the water to wine, was not a big deal in the scope of things but what made it so important was the fact Christ cared about it because his mother cared about it. This means that when we care about something, Christ cares about it. There is nothing too small to take to our Father in prayer and Christ will be right there petitioning for us. He loves us and if we love Him we will try our best to be like his example to us, to live a life of service to others.

Chapter 10

Scriptures are the word of God written down by men. When we take the time to read our scriptures we gain knowledge not only about the past but about the future and how to survive in our current situation. We can find the answer to all of our problems by searching the scriptures. I find that I am a much better person when I read my scriptures daily. I have prayed over the scriptures and have found for myself that they are true. I love my Heavenly Father even more for speaking to me through the written word. I try to read my scriptures daily. There are times in my life when I do not fail, I read them every day and learn much from them. Then there are times when I read them most days and find myself frustrated on the days I miss because I find myself not being the person I could be. Then there have been times where I have gone for weeks and yes even months without reading my scriptures on a daily basis, only reading them when I was searching for something. I have found these to be the hardest times of my life. I do not have the patience I should or the compassion that I should. This has taught me to try harder to do what my Father in Heaven has asked of me so that I may receive the blessings He has for me, even in the simple day to day things of life.

Chapter 9

Prophets of God
When I joined the church President Hinckley was our Prophet so I have only heard two Prophets of the church speak. You can feel the love they have for us even tho they have not met us. The first presidency and the 12 apostles are all prophets but THE Prophet is the President of the church who holds all the keys of the kingdom. I believe it is not enough to just believe that President Monson is a prophet but we must also pray for him and learn from him. We must listen to his counsel and study what he says. His words come from God as if it were God himself standing before us. I love President Monson, I believe he keeps himself worthy at all times so that he can hear Heavenly Father when he speaks.
I have a testimony of Joseph Smith. I believe that he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in that grove and they spoke to him. I do not believe that Joseph Smith was a perfect man, he just tried his best to do as he was asked. He repented when he was wrong and learned from his mistakes and became stronger for that.
I believe in the Prophets of old and that they had struggles but over came them enough to get Heavenly Father's work done.

Chapter 8

Prayer is a sincere, heartfelt talk with our Heavenly Father. We pray for strength and we pray for forgiveness, we pray for guidance and we pray for protection. We pray to show our love and to feel closer to our Father. Prayer is a mighty tool. Some people pray to Heavenly Father morning, noon and night without missing a time. They pray by themselves and they pray as a couple and they pray as a family. Some people only go to Heavenly Father when things go wrong. They cry out to Him for help, to be rescued or to be strengthened. My problem is that when things are going bad I tend to pull away from my Father and try to handle things on my own. It is like a teenager pulls away from their parents to prove they are mature enough to make the correct decisions. When things are going great I pray many, many prayers of thanksgiving but those prayers lessen as times get harder. I am trying to work on this. I can see the pattern and I am trying to break it. I love my Heavenly Father so much and sometimes I feel like I am a burden to Him, like I should stop complaining to Him or asking for something all the time. Then I remember that I am suppose to search it out in my mind and then go to Him for help, to see if I am on the right track. My goal is to become a better listener at the end of my prayers. I must remember that I have had my turn to talk and now I must give Him a turn.

Chapters 5 through 7

I smile every time I think about the fact we shouted for joy to come to earth. To know that I wanted to come here and experience all this. Did I really know how hard this was going to be and still I was so excited for it that I shouted for joy? I know that Heavenly Father loves me and has put people in my life to make things easier. I also know that there are many times things are easier to give me a bit of a rest from the hard times for it is the hard times that make us grow stronger. I love the fact that Christ himself created the earth for us to live on and it pains me to see mankind not take care of it the way it should be. I envy the relationship that Adam and Eve had. They stuck together and experienced the fall so that we all might return to Heavenly Father. They were sent the Holy Ghost to comfort them and to witness to them about our Father and that Jesus is our savior. He helps us know the truth without seeing it ourselves. It is a great comfort to have the Holy Ghost in my life. There are many times I can feel his presence and know I am on the correct track or know I am wrong and to correct it right away. I have been warned of danger and I have been comforted in times of sorrow. I am truly blessed to be a member of this church and know the truths of these things.

Chapter 3 and 4

These chapters are about Jesus Christ and our agency or our Freedom to choose. Heavenly Father had tow of his sons come to Him with a plan to save all mankind. He had to choose between the two plans, although the choice seemed like an easy one, a no brainer you might say, He knew what would happen in the end. It must have been heart breaking for Him to know that he would lose not only one son but 1/3 of the Hosts of Heaven along with him. He would also lose many more of the righteous souls who fought WITH Christ but lost their way after coming to earth. Heavenly Father knows exactly how we feel when our children disappoint us or even break our heart. Some disappointments are as simple as taking a cookie from the jar without asking or as heartbreaking as forgetting about the values of the church and making a life changing mistake that effects the entire family. The point is that Christ loved us so much that he agreed to die for us so that we could return to Heavenly Father. He came here and taught us. We must have faith to make correct choices so we can return. We must use our freedom wisely so His sacrifice was not in vein.

Gospel Principles for my own study

I have began a personal study of the Gospel Principles book. I feel like I need to read each chapter as it pertains to my own life. I am going to attempt to document my thoughts about each chapter.
Chapter one: I know that Heavenly Father is wonderful and is every good thing. I know He is all I want to be. Right now, in this point in my life I want to know HIM more personally. I want to be better friends with HIM and want to share things with Him not just pray "to" Him.

Chapter two: It just occurred to me (like someone hitting me in the head with a book) that because we possessed different talents and abilities before we came here and we were called to do different things that I have to stop getting upset at my family when they do not show the compassion towards one another (and towards me) and when they do not serve each other the way I want them to. Maybe I had the gift of service before I can here and maybe that is why I feel so strongly about serving people. I have always said that service begins in the home to your own family and it upsets me when I see my family being selfish with each other and I have to learn to let it go because their purpose here isn't to build up our family, that is one of my own purposes. Maybe if I can remember that they are all responsible for themselves now I will not have so may heartaches. I always dreamed of the day when my kids would appreciate all that I have done and continue to do for them everyday and would love to hear a thank you to make it all worth it. Maybe that day won't come until we are reunited on the other side???
It says God has chosen the time and place for each of us to be born so we can learn the lessons we personally need and do the most good with our individual talents and personalities. This means I am here to learn and grow and use my own talents to help others just like other people use their talents to help me. I have been jealous of people like Dana and others who are excellent cooks and are great seamstress and people like Michelle who's musical ability is beyond belief, and many others as well. I have always wanted to be able to do things like they can and now I realize that I wanted to be good at it so that I could help other people with the abilities, that is the service part of me trying to come out even more. Maybe I should spend my energy serving better with the talents I have instead of being jealous of others talents. I am a great teacher of Family History. I have the patience to help others learn what they have to do in order to do their own work. Not everyone can teach others just like not everyone can make great meals without using recipes, or have the eye to take perfect photos or have the musical ability to bless everyone's lives just by playing a song with a smile on her face.
It says in Chapter 2 that the purpose for our progression was to have a fulness of joy. That we would have trials in our lives to purify us. I have to remember that the trials are to make me stronger NOT to defeat me. I have to take the sickness, disappointment, pain, sorrow and death that I have been given and use it to make me a better person. I am the only ME in this world and I have to grow with each experience that I have to make me a stronger vessel for Heavenly Father to use.

Stay tuned for more lessons I am trying to learn!!

Mary's Talk from Aug 28 2011

I did not read it word for word so some things were different but this is the essence of it:

Alma 37:6 states: “By small and simple things are great things brought to pass.”
D&C 64:33 says “Out of small things proceedeth that which is great”
Last conference Elder Ballard told a story about a prospector who went panning during the gold rush. He was frustrated throwing rock after rock on the shore, not finding any gold. Then an older prospector came by and picked up two of the rocks that had been thrown ashore and hit them together, showing the tiny flecks of gold in them. The younger man said he wanted big rocks of gold like the older man had. This is when the older man opened his pouch and showed it was full of the tiny flecks.
We often are so worried about finding the big things in life that we miss the tiny flecks that strengthen us. Focus our life around the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ is simple. We should strive to keep our lives simple, focused on the things that matter most.
While Jack was on his mission he would often remind us to get back to the basics, to make sure we were doing our Prayers, scripture reading, FHE, tithing, attending church, fasting, increasing our faith. These things not only bring us closer to our Heavenly Father but will pull our family closer together as well.
I have learned that these things do not come automatically to us but we must work at them, use them daily and weekly in order to develop them.
To those who have much, much is given.
When we use the talents and abilities that God has given us, we will receive more. When we bury our talents or refuse to use them, we begin to lose them.
We learn line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little. This enables us to grasp what we are learning and apply it to our lives.
Our prophets did not just one day open their mouth and a great prayer came out, they learned to pray by doing it day after day. The more you pray the stronger your prayers become. The same thing applies to reading the scriptures;
The more you read your scriptures, the more knowledge you gain and the more weapons you have to fight with. After all, The Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God.
A few weeks ago I was listening to a friend of ours give a talk after returning home from his recent tour of duty in Iraq. He was talking about their weapons and how big and powerful they were but they were useless without their tiny bullets. Zac talked about how it was easy to find time on the battlefield to read and pray and that we need to work on that in our daily lives.
He made me stop and think about my own testimony and if I had been feeding it daily. Was I taking the time to read my scriptures every day before I took the time to do other things? Was I praying not only for my own family but for the families of those around me, those in leadership, and those who cross paths with my children? Was I arming myself with tiny bullets of scriptures and prayers for my own little battlefield?
15 years ago I began with a small and simple step by reading a book that Elder Ballard had written called “Our Search for Happiness”. On the last page of the book he says if you have any questions to write to him. I did. He sent the missionaries to our house. We were baptized. After that we began to get up early in the mornings and read scriptures and prayed before the kids went to school. They were not always happy about it and many times I wondered if it was even making a difference. We paid our tithing, we attended church, we bore our testimonies to those we went to school with and those we worked with.
I believe these small steps helped Jeremy and Jack both go on missions. They were able to share the gospel with many people who would not have otherwise heard it. They worked with less active members as well as investigators. They touched the lives of all those around them in one way or another.
When we lived in Arkansas members of the church were so spread out that we did not come in contact with other members except at church or church activities. This was very hard but made us stronger. I worked at an accounting firm and everyone there knew we were LDS and preached against our church often during the first year I was there. After that they stopped preaching against us but did not want to hear anything about our faith. By the time I left there everyone in the building and many clients as well were friends with our family and we had given out 7 books of Mormon.
It did not happen all at once or with any big thing. It was the daily living our lives and setting examples. It was the quiet answers to questions they had or standing my ground during the discussions where they tried to show me how I belonged to a cult not a church. It was listening to the kids and their experiences going to a Christian school where the three of them were the only LDS kids in the school with many Pentecostal kids.
They would come in after school and wait the hour until I got off and go around and talk to the accountants and bookkeepers. They shared their faith without pushing it on people. They shared their faith without preaching. Then after Jack and Jennifer had graduated Joy was able to move to the public school and was so excited to know there were close to 10 LDS kids in the school. She even had an LDS teacher in one of her classes. She was able to witness to other kids in the school and introduce some to the missionaries.
The kids were able to work at a job where the ground work had already been laid by Sarah and then Paula, two Young Women who went to our church and had good work ethics. Because of this, the manager of the restaurant wanted to hire more LDS kids because he could count on them. They were honest kids who came to work, to work, not just play around.
Because our kids continued this work ethic, there were more LDS kids hired. They were able to witness to those they worked with. It all happened line upon line, precept upon precept, Young Women and Men upon Young Women and Men, member upon member.
But it all started with a small step.
My testimony to you is that if you start where you are,
right here,
right now,
you too can gain a testimony and do great things.
Begin with a simple prayer and arm yourself with the Word of God. Do all you can to build your faith, it takes work every day to stay strong. When you are around others you have to stand strong in your faith. This means making wise choices and when you fall to pick yourself up and begin again. To get back to the basics and begin with praying and scripture reading, by taking time for your family, leaving no one out. By putting others needs above your own and serving those around you.
I have Simple Partial Seizures and they had gotten so severe I had to quit work last November. They cause memory loss and are brought on by a mixture of stress and lack of sleep. Some days all is fine but other days I can’t comprehend what is going on around me. I could not be the front person in an accounting firm if one day I knew everything and the next day I would get scared when someone walked in the front door. A few months after I left work I ran into some of our clients in the grocery store and they stopped me and expressed how sad they were when I was no longer working there. They said they could always feel the love I showed to people and the service I gave to them as people. This humbled me, I could not even remember their names but they could feel Christ’s love for them because I was willing to serve everyone who walked through the doors.
I believe with all my heart that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I believe that God still performs miracles today and that we can feel His Spirit everyday in our lives. I believe that going on a mission changes not only the missionary but every person that comes in contact with them, including their families and friends back home. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Blessings from above

We have a new baby in the family, Karson Eugene Deaton was born July 21 2011 at 01:16am and was 7 lb 9 oz and 19 1/2 in long. Lora and I went to the hospital with Jennifer Wednesday morning and we spend all day long with her in labor. Heavenly
Father blessed her by her having soft labor pains and then when they began to get stronger she was given a epidural and really did not feel much. I was able to be with her the whole time and I was able to watch as Karson was born and then cut the cord. I then watched as he was wiped off and I put his first diaper on him. Jennifer was a trooper through the whole thing and did a very good job. Heavenly Father blessed her with an easy delivery and a wonderful baby boy. He has belirubin and has been on a light for his first week of life but he is doing much better now. We are hoping he will released from that on Monday, his 11th day of life.

Moving back to Utah

I am in the car right now as we are driving from Arkansas to Utah. We have had quite a trip already. We started off yesterday morning getting up on schedule and started going through the rest of the things in the house and loading up the small trailer we have. At one point our real estate agent called and said he had an offer on the house and not to leave until he got there. Several hours later we found out the offer was $14,000 less than what we owe on the house. This will not do so Robert and Wes sat and tried to figure out a counter offer. He is going to counter with an offer that will have us walk away breaking totally even. We should hear something Monday night. By the time everything was over with it was 6pm before we got out of there. We have had the house on the market for two years and this is the first offer we have had. We made it just past the Morrelson exit on why 40 when the old Uhaul I was driving started going slower and slower even when I was flooring it. I told Robert he need to drive it because I could not get it to work properly. He went about 100 yards and it was totally dead, the engine gave out. Here we are less than two hours from home and the truck is fully loaded with stuff and we are stranded. We ended up taking the tow dolly off the rental truck and hooking it to the haul, Jenn was driving her car, Joy driving the van, Robert in the Penski pulling me in the broke truck. There was no steering or breaks and we had to go 14 miles down the road going 7miles an hour like this. My hands have blisters on them and my shoulders hurt along with my arms and back from trying to hold the truck steady as we went down the road. We made it to Russelville at 11:35pm which should have taken only 2 hours. We slept until 6:30am and then got up and tried to figure out what to do. I guess I should have said they slept, my arms and hands were cramping most of the night so I did not sleep much. After talking to several people and Robert taking the car and driving around the town and the town before there he found a tow truck who would only charge us $200 to tow it from the truck stop to a garage. This is not what we were praying for but we were out of options. After making arrangements for this he was headed back to the truck stop and saw a man opening a gate up and Robert noticed he had trucks inside his fence so he stopped and talked to him. NOW HERE IS WHY THIS IS IN MY CHURCH JOURNAL Robert explained our situation and he said he would come and tow the truck to his place and store it for up to one week in exchange for us giving him the truck for scrap metal. Not only did we not have to pay anything upfront but we did not have to dispose of the truck afterwards! Yes now Robert is going to have to fly out to Arkansas and rent a truck and drive it back to Utah but Heavenly Father is watching over us and took care of us. We are on the road (24 hours behind schedule) but we are safe and on our way. I serve an awesome God!!!

Blessings

I am at Jeremy and Lora's house for two weeks to help out with the new baby. My second day here I was making egg rolls and one of them dropped back into the hot fat and splashed on my hand giving me 2nd degree burns in three places. After getting ice in a bag for me, Jeremy asked if I wanted a blessing. Oh my, it is so nice to have someone in the house to give you a blessing when you really need one! Usually we have to wait until Sunday and we get to church to see if someone will give us a blessing and by that time we are over the worse part of whatever is hurting us. Then last night I was able to witness Lora's Dad give Jeremy a father's blessing to help with all the stress he is under right now. Last night was the first time in a week that he has gotten peaceful sleep. Everyone needs a priesthood holder in their home to give blessings. It is a powerful gift from Heavenly Father.

When Times are Hard

When times are hard it is so important to continue to go to our Father in Heaven and let him know how we feel. We are to pray without ceasing and that means everyday no matter how we feel. I have found that when times are difficult I tend to not pray as much but I am working on this. This morning I learn a valuable lesson when I was telling one of my children that we, as a family, have to stop trying to do everything ourselves and start asking for help. It is snow and ice outside and my daughter went off the road and could not get the car to move. I was already at work and could not get there to help her. I said I would call a neighbor but she didn't want me to bother them. I gave her a lecture about how we need to start letting others help us and it was ok to ask for help sometimes. That is when I realized that I have been praying for others and their needs but have neglected to ask for help for our needs. I have tried to do it all alone and that is not good. I hope I can be more honest with my Father in Heaven and let him know about all my trials as well as the good things.

Joy Earned Her Young Woman Recognition

We are so very excited for Joy, she worked so hard on everything and took it very seriously. I will add some photos of her painting and quilt that she did as some of her projects. She wears her necklace everyday and even wore it during her surgery.
To those of you who do not know what this is, it is equivalent to a boy earning his eagle scout award. It is over a period of a few years and many things must be accomplished before they can get it.

Posts from Jack

Here are a few lines from Jack's emails:
I'm sorry I dont write much but my days are long and super busy the work is great out here, I dont have much time. We even have been doing appointments on our p-day, so I didnot get to write letters this week like I wanted to. Sorry I'll try this next week but we have a pumpkin contest this next week at zone conference so that might take up our p-day we'll have to see. The work is picking up tons for Fort Meade and we are finding more people to teach, so our days are super busy. Tell Joy to thank her seminary class for the letter, hope they got my letter back to them. still ain't baptized yet but thats okay, soon we hope, if he can quit smoking. He is trying but it is hard. Conference was great. I'm behind on my journal I have not got to do it the last two or so, days were to busy. So I'm going to try and catch up on that. ummm I love you all so I don't write as much. But I'll try and find time. Love Elder Deaton

Here is a little about me and the east coast. Colder much colder and I love I woke up this morning to 36 F degrees weather. mmmmmm... I love it. The work is going great and hey all those of you that don't open your mouth at all about the church better start and read Elder Bednars talk form conference. Tt was great!!!! Any way so I see miracles almost every day out here and you can too if you just look for them. Like the other day, we biked our butts off to get to these peoples house I almost pasted out and they were not home. :( But the Lord had their neighbor see us and say hey you guys want a coke. (heck yes we do if it gets us in the door.) and so we taught him the first lesson. bam, awesome the Lord opens windows for us to share the Gospel left and right. No joke just look around you and start talking and people will start asking you why this and that. Tell them what you believe then if you can't answer their questions get them pretty boys in suites with name tags on and they'll help ya. ya know, EH? any who, I love the Lord's work the church is true and so help fellow ship every new member and person you see at church then need that fellowship. I don't care if there not cool, and look funny. They are children of God also. and you are no better than them, so say hi and how ya doing, so time alright? thank form your Southern Elder in the northern east coast coming to ya live / through e-mail. Elder J M DEATOOOONNNNNNNN.

Conference is coming!

I am so looking forward to conference this weekend, I love hearing from the General Authorities. Joy and I will head to the church for the first session and then Joy will be at work during the second session so I will drive there by myself for that one. I can't wait to have pages of notes to take home and read over and over again and "fill my cup" as Joy said in her talk.

Will I go and do or just sit and stew?

Some of my notes from church today: Am I the kind of Mother I want my daughters to be? The example I want my sons to look for in their spouses? The gospel is there, use it and follow it. We must all lose our life in unselfish service. Do we act when we see something that needs to be done or do we wait until asked to do it? In our service, do we worry that it takes time away from what we want to do or are we grateful to be helping Heavenly Father? Lose ourselves, think of others. Take time to enjoy life along the way, cherish your family and always be there for them spiritually as well as temporally. Stand by our word, be a foundation of trust. We have a responsibility to hold up our end of the Lord’s work so be honest in all our dealings whether at work or in any other area of our lives. So many people have made sacrifices greater than I, stop complaining about the ones I have to make. Why are we here? Is it just for the mansion? We are here to be tested and to serve with love. Ask yourself, is what WE want what the Lord wants? We can receive further light and knowledge when you do what you are commanded to do. Pray to be lead to where we are supposed to be not where we want to be. I’ve asked you to do this, are you going to do it or not? Your promptings could be the answer to someone else’s prayers. If we are asked to do something great we would do it, why do we struggle doing the little things?
What do I get out of all this? So many times today during church I was prompted by The Spirit to stop trying to control things. I am to go where Heavenly Father needs me to go even if that means to a neighborhood where I do not know anyone, where I have never been. My success in my mission here on earth depends on how much I follow Heavenly Father’s plan for my life not how much I can do on my own. Sometimes I have to step back and realize that Heavenly Father sees the whole picture and I can just see a tiny piece of it. I know without a doubt that it is time for us to move and be there for our children. I now accept the fact that I am not to push my wants on Heavenly Father and simply go when he wants me to go, where he wants me to go and stop murmuring. It is not REALLY a hard thing he asks of me, so I will go and do!

Missionary Trip

I watched as Jack said Good-Bye to people in Arkansas and we headed out to Utah. Jack was so excited to go but was sad to say good-bye to his many friends. It was the beginning of a life changing experience for him and a bitter sweet time for me. I know it is time to let him go and that Heavenly Father will protect him while he is gone and he will make a great missionary but at the same time it is so sad to know that I will not get to see him or hug him for two whole years. Jack had become the Spiritual head in our home and took a bit of the weight off of me for a while and now he is leaving. That sounds selfish but being the Spiritual head was meant for a priesthood holder and I just am not strong enough to carry that burden. We are back to no priesthood holder in the house and last night when Jack was set apart as a full time missionary I felt the load come back to me. The day was a good day, Janet (a dear friend),Jeremy, Jack and I went to the Salt Lake Temple to support one of Jack's best friends growing up as he took out his endowments preparing for his mission to Brazil in October. Then Lora brought Jennifer and Joy down and Janet and I watched as Jack preformed baptisms with first Joy then Jennifer and then Jeremy did Lora. As the others were getting dressed, Jeremy continued to help several other people who were there waiting. Then we drove home and prepared Jack's farewell supper which we had to hurry and eat and leave everything sitting on the table while we went to the stake center for Jack's setting apart. Robert was there and he was at work when Jeremy was set apart. It was a wonderful time as Kyle played the piano and we sang Be Still My Soul and then Jack said the prayer. Jeremy gave a spiritual thought which was fabulous and then President spoke. After his words of advise the priesthood holders were called up to set Jack apart. It was great to see Kyle be able to stand in the circle to support Jack along with all the very close friends who have supported us since we joined the church. Then we were all reminded that Jack is now a full time missionary and no more hugs for people just handshakes and he must have a companion with him at all times now. He went home with Jeremy and we will pick him up this morning on the way to the MTC. I did not sleep at all last night and was up at 4:30 this morning trying to write a letter to give to Jack to open tomorrow and then one to mail to him so it gets it on Friday. We do not know how long he will be at the MTC with assume 3 weeks, they will tell him after he arrives there. Today is a hard day but a happy one.