Letter - Making Connections, Woven Into the Body

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Happy birthday to my dear cousin Kent!!  He is the closest cousin to my same age on the Flake side of the family.  Maybe on both sides--Martha when is your birthday?  I always think of Kent during the month of October.  He was and is a dear friend to me.  I love my cousins so much.  They were my best friends growing up.  I am so grateful to have grown up alongside so many of them, working on the ranch and playing in the neighborhood together.

The last two weeks have gone well.  I’ve missed being at the beach and having a relaxed fall break schedule, but I love being at home too.  I love our house, our neighborhood, our ward, our community. 

On Thursday Oct. 16^th I got to go help in Marlee’s kindergarten class during small group time.  It was fun.  I love teaching young children.

On Friday the 17^th Karalee had a soccer game at 6:30pm then Chad and I went on a date.  We went out to eat and then walked around Discovery Park. 

I snapped this picture of the Gilbert temple on our walk around Discovery Park.  I love seeing the temple all light up at night.

On Saturday morning the 18^th Marlee had a soccer game.  That evening Chad and I attended the baptism of Dennis Chamberlain, a new convert in our ward.  Dennis is a decorated officer in the US Army.  He is currently serves in the Reserves.  His baptism was amazing.  There was a member of the quorum of the seventy from Utah that came and presided, Elder Wilford W. Andersen.  Dennis met Elder Andersen on the side of the road when Elder Anderson got a flat tire while vacationing in Arizona.  Dennis stopped to help him and Elder Andersen gave him his card and told Dennis that if he could ever return the favor to give him a call.  Dennis later started investigating the church and a week before his baptism he called Elder Andersen and asked him if he’d return the favor by attending his baptism.  So Elder Andersen flew back to AZ to attend.  Elder Andersen bore a powerful testimony of Jesus Christ that I hope never to forget.  It was incredible to be present.  Dennis also bore a powerful testimony.  He will be speaking at our adult session of stake conference this Saturday night.  Two of his daughters joined the church a few months ago and attend our ward periodically.  One of them is my young woman.  They go to their mom’s ward when they aren’t in our ward.

Marlee and I went on a little date last Saturday night after the baptism.  She decided to go to McDonald's

On Monday of last week Spencer finished up his cooking merit badge and turned in his blue card.  He only has five merit badges left towards his Eagle.  Karalee and Marlee had soccer practice that evening.  Then we had FHE.  Bryant gave us a good lesson about the qualities of Jesus.

Tuesday Marlee invited her friend Chloe come over to play in the morning and then we took her to kindergarten with our carpool since they are in the same class.  I also had a practice with two ladies from my stake that morning.  I will be accompanying them as they play a violin duet at our adult session of stake conference this weekend.  Bryant had pack meeting that night.  He got the aquanaut and scholar activity badges.  We had a combined YW’s that night for mutual and the beehives were in charge.  They planned a great activity.  We had four stations that we rotated through – writing letters to the missionaries serving from our ward, making a cute Halloween treat, indexing, and helping one of our YW make a Mormon messages video.

Wednesday the little girls had Grammy days.  Chad had to attend a work dinner with several other managers and a regional manager or a mortgage CEO or something that evening and didn’t get home until around 9pm.  I sure missed him that evening.

Thursday morning we attended an assembly at the grade school to watch Bryant perform a square dance with several other 5 graders.  He did a great job.  The little girls and I loved the assembly.

Friday Spencer had a Deacon’s overnighter.  They went up to Show Low to stay in the cabin of one of his advisors.  Since Spencer was gone, we hired one of my young women to come babysit, while Chad and I went out on a date.  We had planned to go see the movie, “The Good Lie”, but it isn’t playing anymore.  We ended up going out to eat, then shopping at Walmart, then getting custard for dessert and then renting a movie from redbox.  We rented “Million Dollar Arm”.  It was a good movie.  I recommend it. 

Yesterday was jam packed busy.  I donated blood, Marlee and Karalee each had soccer games then we went straight to their school carnival for a few hours, then we came home and I made a pot of chili and we went to our ward chili cook-off/trunk-or-treat.  It was a fun, exhausting day.  It was also really hot this weekend, in the mid 90’s.  Thankfully next week it is supposed to cool down.

The school carnival had a photo booth.  Karalee wanted to take pictures all by herself.  Oh boy, look at those poses!  I better watch out.  She's 7 going on 17.  She's a cutie.

I love these type of photos!!  They are so fun.

Tilly's is such a cute Pooh Bear!

This is how I felt at the end of the day too!  It was a long, but fun day.

Today has been a wonderful Sabbath Day.  I was thankful to partake of the sacrament so I could be cleansed of my sins and mistakes from the past week.  I have noticed the Savior’s hand in my life as he’s enabled me to be more patient with my children.  But I have also lost my patience several times too.  I’m doing my best to try to do a little better each day.  I accompanied Bro. Del Bianco’s vocal solo in my ward’s Sacrament meeting today.  He has a very nice voice.  One of my former young women also played the cello.  Our number turned out very nice.  I really liked the song.  It is called Shards of Glass by Sally Deford.

The kids are enjoying our winter grass.  It came it better than we've ever done before.  There are still a few sparse spots though so we still have room for improvement.

Today I have contemplated how I can make better connections with my laurels.  I don’t feel like I’ve made really good connections with several of them yet.  I really felt connected to two of my girls that graduated back in May, but they have moved on now.  I felt prompted that I need to make personal visits to them with the laurel advisor.  I decided that it would be fun to make it like “the dates” I do with my kids.  I told them that Sis. Wilcox and I will pick one of them up and they get to pick what we do--go on a walk, go get a treat, go talk, etc.  I told them it has to cost $5 or less and I would like it to last about 30-45 minutes.  They seemed pretty excited about it.  We plan to do these visits every other Thursday.  It will take us a few months to visit each girl.  On the first visit with each girl we are going to go over where they are at with their personal progress and see where they need to focus in order to finish if they haven’t already finished.

Chad has a business trip to Dallas this week.  Luckily it is for only one night.  Of course that is one of the places in the US that has had an Ebola outbreak.  I sure

hope he doesn’t get Ebola!

I have two quotes to share today.  The first quote is from Pres. Uchtdorf and was shared as a spiritual thought in ward council this morning.  “Patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can—working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!” (Continue in Patience)  I love this quote.  I love that even when we are waiting for something we should be actively waiting and progressing.

The second quote is about the Holy Ghost and is from Gospel Principals.  (Chad and I attend that class with Puring.)  “President Joseph Fielding Smith said: ‘When a man has the manifestation from the Holy Ghost, it leaves an indelible impression on his soul, one that is not easily erased. It is Spirit speaking to spirit, and it comes with convincing force. A manifestation of an angel, or even of the Son of God himself, would impress the eye and mind, and eventually become dimmed, but the impressions of the Holy Ghost sink deeper into the soul and are more difficult to erase.’  President Smith also said, ‘Through the Holy Ghost the truth is woven into the very fibre and sinews of the body so that it cannot be forgotten’” (Gospel Principles Chapter 7: The Holy Ghost).  I love this.  I have felt this in my life.  There are times where I have felt the Holy Ghost teach me in such a powerful way that it is woven into my body so much that I can’t forget it.  I hope that I can stay worthy to have more such experiences throughout my whole life. 

Love,

Mindy