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Sunday, October 5, 2014

Letter - Accompanying, Indexing, General Conference

October 5, 2014

Happy Halloween month!!  I love October because it is the beginning of the holiday season.  I have fond memories of Halloween growing up, except for the time I was sick on Halloween and I didn’t feel well enough to even trick or treat at all of the houses in our neighborhood.  I remember not feeling good when we stopped at the Haglesteins house so I didn’t go to the door and that year they gave out lots of candy.  It was such a bummer.

The last two weeks have been quite busy, mostly because I really needed to get into Spencer’s school a few times to rehearse with the choirs for the concert.  It was a little tricky trying to fit that in, especially last week.  For some reason I felt so swamped.  Spencer’s concert was Thursday, Oct. 2nd.  His choir sang really well as did the other choirs.  I’m really impressed with their choir director.  My accompanying went ok.  I didn’t play as well as I would have liked, but I didn’t stick out or make any really noticeable mistakes.  I just got quite nervous and the songs were fast so my fingers wouldn’t work right and I had to skip several notes in the chords. Luckily I didn’t have to play all the songs for the concert.  There was another accompanist who played more songs than I did.  She was great.  It was nice that we had each other to turn pages when it was our turn to play.  I can turn my own pages, but having a page turner is easier.  I will play again if asked, but I got so nervous that I hesitate to volunteer again.  It's good for me to stretch myself and perform in front of a crowd again though.  

Spencer’s football season is over.  They ended up winning their last game!! It was so nice to end on a win.  Spencer learned how to be a good defensive player this season.  I was glad to be able to watch him improve.  He is excited to try out for basketball later this month.  Marlee had her first soccer game last Saturday.  She scored the first goal of the game and ended up scoring 2 of the teams 4 points and she is the only girl and the team playing against all boys!!  Karalee’s game was rained out.  We got a huge wonderful storm!! 

I missed Marlee’s game because I went to the airport to watch Shelby come home from her mission.  It was sure exciting to see her again.  It is so emotional for me to watch missionaries come home.  I’m a big crier though.  I get emotional about everything.  For example, I cried when I watched Heather and Anna run against each other in a track meet in high school, not because I thought it was sad, just really cool.  I also cried when my cousin Vicki was competing in the keg race a few days before she left on her mission.  When I was pregnant I even cried over a radio commercial. 

My kids had early release all week last week.  I loved having them home longer every afternoon. We are on Fall Break now and the kids don’t have to go back to school until Oct. 15th.  Yay!!  We are leaving to Rocky Point, Mexico on Wednesday and will get back on Saturday.  Four of our friends and their families will be there too and we will all be staying at the same resort.  Brandon, your friend Clayton Mowers and his family are going too.  I bumped into him while I was watching Chad play stake basketball, Clayton is in our stake.  He said you should come next year!!  That would be fun.

Wednesday I had a neat experience where I think the Lord was trying to teach me something.  I wrote about it on my blog.  Click HERE to read it. 

This month our YM and YW and all the leaders are competing against each other in an indexing challenge.  If the YW and leaders win then the YM and leaders have to serve us dinner at our combined activity in December.  If the YM and leaders win then we have to serve them.  I made a promise to my young women that I would stay off Facebook for the whole month of October to create more time for me to index.  I asked them to make a sacrifice as well.  I told them it didn’t have to be the same as mine, but that I would like them to set a goal and sacrifice a little.  However, on Wednesday night it dawned on me that it was October 1st and that the competition had started.  I had been so busy that day that I didn’t realize the competition had started.  I checked Facebook that afternoon for a few minutes while I was at the school waiting for Spencer to finish football practice.  I was SO MAD at myself for breaking my goal on the first day.  I owned up to my mistake and told all the leaders and girls and promised to do better.  I’ve done at least one batch every day.  I’m pretty addicted to Facebook though so it’s been hard.  If anything important is announced on Facebook this month please let me know.

We finished another wonderful conference weekend today.  I had a particularly great experience this session.  I’ve had some concerns weighing on my mind and I received guidance and answers to my prayers in several of the talks.  One particular weight on my mind is a lesson I will be teaching to the young women this coming Sunday.  We have a few young women who feel bullied by some of the other young women.  My lesson is “How can I become more Christlike?”  So I will be able to address the bullying situation a little bit and teach the young women to be kind and how to resolve conflicts, and to forgive.  I feel quite weighed down by this responsibility right now, but I know the Lord will help me know what to teach.  I hope and pray the young women will receive what the Lord prompts me to teach.

I have two quotes that I’ve come across over the last two weeks that I will conclude with.

"Advice is like snow - the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper in sinks into the mind." -Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"The Final Judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts--what we have done. It is an acknowledgment of the final effect of our acts and thoughts--what we have become. It is not enough for anyone just to go through the motions. The commandments, ordinances, and covenants of the gospel are not a list of deposits required to be made in some heavenly account. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father desires us to become.” – Elder Oaks

We are here to learn how to be Heavenly. We take on Jesus Christ name at baptism to do as He would do if He were here.

Love,

Mindy

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