Saturday, February 8, 2014
Tomorrow is my dear sister Amy’s birthday. She and my other sisters are my best
friends. Love them and their examples to
me. So the last two weeks have been
pretty good. We’ve been busier than I
would have liked and there have been times where I’ve gotten my priorities out
of order, but I’m glad that at the end of the day the Lord has given me gentle
reminders of what priorities matter most and that through the gift of
repentance and forgiveness I can try to do a little better every day. That’s my new motto.
Monday Jan. 27th was my kid’s 100th
day of school. Spencer and Bryant both
had perfect attendance for those 100 days so they and all the other kids with
perfect attendance got to release a balloon during flag ceremony that day. They were excited about it.
I took Puring to see the Gilbert temple open house last Tuesday, Jan. 28th. My friend Tena watched Marlee and Tilly for me and we had a nice experience there. Puring was very emotional when we were in the sealing room and I told her she could be sealed to her parents there. She misses them so much. After the tour we were supposed to have a member discussion with the Elders, but they forgot. Oh well, we made good use of our time waiting for them. I helped Puring set up an account on familysearch.org and we got enough information to be able to do the temple work for her Mom and Dad. Since she is pretty frail, she says she just wants to watch us do the baptisms and then she can be confirmed for her mother. Later that afternoon I was able to go do a home visit and welcome a new twelve year old girl into Young Women’s with the counselor over the Beehives. We taught her about the personal progress program and the purposes of YW. There was a very special spirit there. I was glad to be a part of that meeting and to have felt that spirit. The Lord sure loves his young daughters.
Last Wednesday day I spent all morning finding the
right cell phone numbers and email addresses for my laurels and their parents
so I could send them a reminder for our activity that night. Glad that’s done now and that they are saved
in my phone and in my Gmail contacts so I can send reminders easily. That afternoon I went to Sis. McGuire’s, a lady
in my ward, house so she could show me how to sew Spencer’s temple cultural
celebration costume. I could figure most
of the pattern out, but there were some steps where I needed some
tutoring. That evening was our first
Stake rehearsal for the Temple Cultural Celebration (TCC). We were filmed as we did some shout outs and
we will get to be on the jumbo tron welcoming every town in the temple district
to the celebration. They had a really
cool remote control aerial camera that hovered over our heads as it took video.
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| Spencer's friend Danner came over on Wednesday afternoon and I took some pictures of each of them practicing their dunks. |
Last Thursday evening I took Puring to get her
Patriarchal blessing. I found it
interesting that the Patriarch didn’t declare a linage for her. He did bless her with the blessing of
Abraham. I asked him if since he didn’t
declare a specific lineage if that meant she was adopted into the family of
Abraham. He said that many of us have
the blood of several of the tribes of Israel and that he couldn’t determine
hers, but that she was blessed with the blessings of Abraham and that’s what
matters most. Her blessing was beautiful
and very special.
Last Friday night the kids had a few friends over
for a late night. We grilled hamburgers and the kids played basketball and
video games. It was interesting to watch
Karalee and her two little girl friends that she invited over. All three of them are very strong willed, but
they compromised and took turns picking the activities that they liked to do.
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| Tilly loves Despicable Me 2. She watches it at lease once every day. |
Saturday morning I spent time paying bills,
printing the kid’s new chore charts for the month of Feb., and paying the kids
allowance for the days they did all their chores--the kids have the opportunity
to earn their age in dollars every month, so if they are 9 they can earn up to
$9, but they only get paid for the days that they complete all their chores and
they can only earn allowance until they are old enough to get babysitting jobs
and the like. I also chose and printing
out a new scripture of the month. The
new scripture of the month is John 13:34, “A
new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you,
that ye also love one another.”
Perfect for Valentines month don’t you think? I love the teachings of Jesus Christ. They are so basic. They teach us that we should treat each other
with love, understanding, and if something offends us we should, “Go thy way unto thy brother, and first be
reconciled to thy brother, and then come unto me with full purpose of heart,
and I will receive you" (3 Nephi 12:24).
Last Sunday was very busy. I had lots of meetings including one about girl’s
camp. I was overwhelmed at the end of
the day. Being in the Young Women’s is a
whole new type of busy. When I told my
mom about my new calling in YW back in Dec. she told me, “If you thought you
were busy when you were the Primary President, now you’ll really be busy.” She was right. The older I get the more I realize she’s
pretty much always right. J I typed up all the meetings and activities
for the next three months so I can have them all in one place to add to it, and
make sure they’re in my phone, and have my secretary communicate them with the
YW and leaders. It took up more than a
whole page! I love YW’s though. I’m very thankful to be working with the
young women in my ward and the other leaders.
I finished sewing Spencer’s TCC costume and am now
working on some other YM’s costumes.
Sadly the YW’s costumes were above my sewing abilities. I guess I could have learned, but since I had
already learned how to sew the boy’s costume I figured it would be faster to
just keeping working on that pattern.
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| Tilly watches Despicable Me 2 while I sew. When the movie is over then its time to stop sewing! |
Spencer started tackle football last week. We went and got him some used equipment--a
helmet, pads, and cleats--last Thursday afternoon. He and Bryant were in heaven trying on all
the equipment. Bryant can’t wait until
he gets a chance to play tackle football too.
The equipment was very pricey even though it was used. Spencer’s going to pay half. J He’s really excited about tackle football,
but has been very sore from practice this week.
He’s on a pretty serious team.
Yesterday Spencer had a scout overnighter near canyon lake, which
included a 2 mile hike to and from the campsite.
Chad was able to go with him and they had a good time. It was fun watching them load up their hiking
backpacks with all their gear. I was
just glad I didn’t have to go. I don’t
like camping in the cold weather. When
they got home this afternoon Spencer was so excited to tell me all about the
rattlesnake they saw on the trail that was eating a mouse and how they had to spit
water at it to get it to move out of the way since it was right in the middle of the
trail so they could hike to their camping spot.
Talk about every mother’s nightmare!!
I am just glad Chad was there to help keep the boys safe. Although, I’m sure the other leaders are
capable of that too.
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| That's the snake coiled up in the middle. |
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| Spring has sprung here in Gilbert |
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| Last night there was a beautiful sunset. I was glad we were going past the temple so I could get a picture of it with the beautiful back drop. The picture doesn't do the sunset justice though. It was awesome. |
My quote for today is from Elder Dyches’ Oct. 2013
conference talk, Wilt
Thou Be Made Whole? “‘And so I discovered that it is not on our
forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but
on His. When He tells us to love our
enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.’”
Love,
Mindy
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