Logan Temple

Ellie kept saying she wanted to do something fun but I wasn't really in the mood to go and do anything so we drove to the Logan Temple to walk around. The only other time we have gone was a Monday night so the gates were closed. We lucked out today because although the building is closed for cleaning and maintenance, the gates were open and we could still walk around. This time I remembered my camera and that I needed to take some pictures. 

Swinging and sliding down the back railing.

Ellie wanted a picture with some flowers

Taking time to cool their hands off.

Smelling the flowers and digging in the dirt. 

  They knocked on all the doors, tried to open them, and smelled half of the flowers.

As I went to take the above picture, the wind started blowing just a bit. I didn't have to wait long for the wind to be strong enough for this pic. After that the wind just stopped again. I love it. Two of the most amazing and strongest symbols out there. One stands for freedom, liberty, and hard work. The other stands for agency, eternity, and love.

This simple trip reminded me how blessed I am and how I am watched over by a loving Heavenly Father. It brought such peace to my day that we were able to do more.

Baby Tanner, especially for Uncle Jeff

Just like Jeff was always vying for favorite uncle, I am trying for favorite sister. I even took a video of Tanner just for Jeff so he could see how big and talkative Tanner has gotten. 

Favorite sister, right here.

Family Night at the Conference Center

The week before General Conference I thought it would be fun to go down to Temple Square and the Conference Center so that Ellie could see it. Every time we watch General Conference she comments about the choir and where they sing. So we headed downtown and took the tour they offer at the center. Although I didn't hear much because that's what happens when you have kids, I had fun and I think the girls did too. 

As we walked into the auditorium at the Conference Center, Ellie said in a loud voice, "That's where they sing on TV." Then we pointed out the following week would be General Conference and the Prophet and the Apostles along with others would speak and teach us about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She loved it, especially when we turned on conference and she said, "We went to that place."

Awkward posing for the camera

More awkward posing.

 Is anyone else sensing a theme?

Seriously?!?!?

So much for cute family pictures by the Temple.

Finally.

 Ellie loves water and asked all night to touch every stream of water that flows around the Conference Center.

God's Great Gifts

With recent incidents, I have spent some time reflecting these past few days. I have never known what to say to someone dealing with loss or an extreme trial. This message comes from me trying to think of something adequate to say to another parent who has lost a child unexpectedly, an adult how has lost a spouse, or any other difficulty. "I'm sorry for your loss", "Things will get better," and such just don't seem like enough. Instead, I have decided to share my gratitude for the greatest gifts I have received that are available to everyone in hopes it will provide some comfort.

Gift of Life - God gave man life and continues to grant life. I am grateful to live here on the earth, to have experiences that help me grow, learn, and become a better person (hopefully).

Gift of Repentance - I am not perfect. Not even close. But God gave us the gift of repentance, allowing us to feeling sorry after choosing poorly, asking for forgiveness, and turning away from those choices. When we do this, our poor choices (aka sins) will be forgiven. We can feel free and happy. I am so glad I don't have to live with the guilt or sadness of poor choices.

Gift of Resurrection - Long ago, Jesus Christ died while hanging on a cross meaning His body and His spirit were separated. Three days later, He was resurrected meaning they were joined together again in a perfected state never to be separated again. Christ will never die again. He gave us this gift of resurrection meaning at some time, after we have died, we will be resurrected and live again just as He lives. Because of this knowledge, I understand that one day I will die but I won't be separated from my loved ones for very long.

Gift of the Atonement - Before His Crucifixion, Jesus Christ went to pray and start the Atonement in the Garden of Gethsemane. During this time, He felt and experienced all the emotions we (as in everyone who has lived, is living, or will live) have and will go through. This covers physical, emotional and/or mental pain or sadness. He truly understands what we are going through and we can call upon the power of the Atonement to help heal us in any capacity, at any time. I love having someone who knows exactly what I have been through and what I need in order to overcome my trials. He already paid the price for my sins. As I repent, I become free from the sin and any feelings that come with it. He already experienced the pain and sadness I would feel as I pass through life and because He has, He can help me learn to cope or handle the situation to the best of my ability and then provide any extra that I can't do on my own.

Gift of the Sealing Power - Jesus gave man the power to seal things on earth so that they may be sealed in Heaven as well. I am so glad that we have been given the sealing power and that we can be sealed together as families. No matter what happens to us in this life, as long as we stay true and faithful to our covenants, we will be a family for eternity.

Gift of Families - My family is one of my greatest blessings and largest challenges. I think it is because we know each other so well and spend so much time together that often we either feel like we are taken advantage of or over look all that our families do for us. Gratefully, as well as having earthly families, we have a spiritual family with a loving Heavenly Father and spirit siblings who care for us. These additional family members watch over us as angels having come to earth before us or friends and neighbors who are here at the same time. My earthly and spiritual families add so much to my life. I have been able to move past many hard times because of the love and support of family and friends.

Gift of the Holy Ghost - The Holy Ghost is the 3rd member of the Godhead, given the assignment to teach the truth, testify of Jesus Christ and provide comfort to those in need. After baptism, you receive the gift of the Holy Ghost to be a constant companion as long as you allow him. The Holy Ghost blesses me and helps me so often that I wonder if I how much I really do. Then I remember I have agency.

Gift of Agency - Agency, the right to choose, to act for yourself of your own accord or to be acted upon by the consequences of choices (or simply put moral agency to choose between right and wrong). What a great gift! When things in life happen that are out of our control, we can choose are actions and responses to these things. They don't just control us. I am grateful that I can choose and that I will be judged only according to my actions.

Gift of the Priesthood - Priesthood, God's power given to man to act on His behalf here on earth. God allows His power and authority to be used by men to bless the lives of everyone, be it through performing saving ordinances or by blessings in the family or for the sick. It's as if He were here Himself performing the same acts. I am so glad that the priesthood is in my family and that I have the opportunity to use its benefits to help me in my life.

Gift of the Gospel - Jesus Christ establish His church and taught the gospel while He was on the Earth. After the death of Christ and the Apostles, many plain and precious truths were lost or confused. Christ's church and the truths of the Gospel were restored (made new and whole) in these latter days. We can have truth and knowledge of God's plan. Because of this, I know who I am, where I came from, and where I am going and this is knowledge helps me make choices, hopefully good choices. I feel apart of something greater and feel like I play an important roles in the plan, like I really make a difference.

I apologize if this sounds cheesy or doesn't read eloquent. Writing isn't one of my strengths. Despite my lacking, I hope you can remember these great gifts or learn more about them. Life was meant as a trial, to test if we would be faithful so we have to pass through hard times but it doesn't mean we can't be happy at the same time.

Just for Jeff

This post is specifically for my younger (not little) brother Jeff who is currently serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Michigan. Here is a special shout out to you. Also, I will try really hard to keep my blog updated but in return you can't complain about my lack of letters. I don't have that much time between hearing Ellie say, "mama, mama, mama, mama, mama, mama" and  chasing Sammi around the house and keeping her from rolling up in mom's rugs or chasing Sophie out of her bed. Besides, not like you wrote me much while I was out.

P.S. I have been trying for the past 20 minutes to add some pictures and add another post or 2 but the site is acting funny. Hopefully by next time I will have something more interesting to read.

LDS.org Children

While playing around online and trying to find something fun to do with Ellie and still do a small Family Home Evening, I found this website for the Friend magazine. There are so many fun little things for kids. We watched a few of the Book of Mormon Scripture stories, which have been made into recorded slide shows. Ellie was so excited to hear more stories about Lehi.
We then watched a few of the new Bible Videos, which she really seemed to enjoy. She asked questions about the Good Samaritan. It was a great teaching experience.
I am so excited to have found this and wanted to share with others.

She can be taught.

I had one of those proud mother moments yesterday during and after church. For Christmas, we gave Ellie a little hard book of simplified Book of Mormon stories. Normally when we read it, she is more excited about the camels, jungle trees and other pictures. In sacrament meeting, we pulled the book out to help keep her quiet and she turns to me and says, "Read about Lehi?" Why, yes we are.

Then after church, I was asking about what she learned in Nursery. When I showed her the picture she colored to remind her, she replied that was "Ellie's paper. E is for Ellie." Then I asked what the picture meant and she said, "Ellie is a child of God. And Gavin. And Kate." (Gavin and Kate are 2 of her friends.) Today I spoke with the nursery leader who said that's how they ended the lesson, by pointing to each child, saying their name and telling them they were a child of God.

She is learning. It was so nice to receive that reinforcement.

I must be a spiritual giant!

To have to write, teach, and speak so much in one week must mean I am a spiritual giant, right? Maybe it just means I have a lot to learn. I recently changed callings in church. I am now the 2nd counselor in the Primary presidency. Because of this calling, I now have a month in which I teach the primary sharing time lessons. This is my month. My first question is how do you teach children that their bodies are temples and it is important to take care of them, especially in today's society. So I have been preparing for weeks.

A few weeks ago, I was also asked to speak in Sacrament meeting about sacrifice and service so I have been preparing that (yes, ahead of time) in addition to the lessons. I am also in charge of the nursery as part of my counselor duties and have been trying to prepare materials for newly called nursery teachers because we were going to try and hold a meeting this week.

Then in a meeting on Wednesday we as a presidency decided to provide material to the parents of primary children to help with family discussions. I have been preparing that as well.

All I can say is this week, after all my studying and preparations, I feel like a spiritual giant.

New Calling

Why do people always wait to give you good advice until after something happens? I was called as the 2nd Counselor in the Primary Presidency for our ward. After my wonderful sister says, "That's why you don't work hard and do a good job in the nursery." 

The interesting thing is because our ward is so close to the University of Denver, there are a lot of young transitioning couples and empty nesters. There aren't too many middle ground families so even though there are 2 wards (with separate classes for all the adults) there aren't enough kids to have separate classes for them. That complicates a few things when trying to organize cub scouts, activity days, and baptisms.

I think this calling does have a great benefit that I didn't realize before. Our bishop has asked that someone from the primary presidency attend Sunday morning meetings. So I trade off with the other counselor but have to make sure it is opposite of when Jake is supposed to be attending the meetings (so one of us can be with Ellie). The benefit; on those mornings when I am at the meeting, Jake is the one to shower Ellie and himself, dress both of them, feed both of them and then make sure Ellie's bag is packed for church. I come home from the meeting, do Ellie's hair, pick them up, and head back for church.

So far, I am enjoying the calling.

Families

Because I hadn't done it in a while, I reread The Family: A Proclamation to the World. I had some interesting thoughts during this reading. It almost seems like it was written more for today than back in 1995.  Here are just a few of my thoughts.
"Each [all human beings] is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual, premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose." - We were given gender to help us see our eternal potential and to provide us with the characteristics we would need to complete our purpose.

"We declare that God's commandment for his children to multiple and replenish the earth remains in force." - I recently read an article about a No Baby Boom. People are forgoing having children because of the cost and because studies have found that people are least happy with marriage during the child rearing years. I personally feel that having a child in my home makes it happier and well worth the cost. It isn't the child that cause unhappiness; it's a failure of communication with my spouse and when I (or he) starts acting/feeling selfish about our roles in life.

"Parents have a scared duty to rear their children in love and righteousness... Husbands and wives - mothers and fathers - will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations." - Rearing a child means more than just having and making sure they are alive. It means teaching them about every aspect of life; work ethic, responsibility, love, service, gratitude, respect, etc. It seems there are too many children nowadays that don't learn half of these and it is having a detrimental effect on society. (Ever meet a child that feels they are owed everything and anything?)

"By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners." - Just like a job, each person has a main job or responsibility but to make sure the company runs smoothly there are times when you may need to help out with other jobs. Actually, in my opinion, the more you help each other out (serve), the better. (This means men are designated to only fixing the house, taking out garbage, etc and women only cook, clean, watch the kids, etc. It takes a joint effort to make things work.)

"Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets." - I believe we are are already seeing this.

It was so nice to read this again and remember what modern prophets have said about families and the blessing families can receive.

I'm a Mormon

A couple of weeks ago, we were asked by our bishop and the missionaries to create a profile on Mormon.org to help people understand a little more about Mormons. This is a new effort by the church to show the world that Mormons come from all walks of life, have a variety of interests, and are like most people.

If you want to see my profile, click on the "I'm a Mormon" button on the side of the blog.  I encourage anyone reading this to check out the Mormon.org website, maybe my profile, and if you are a member, create your own profile to share with your friends and family.