Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Happy Veteran’s Day! I am so very, very thankful for the soldiers
and their families, who have fought, are fighting and will fight for my
freedoms. I am thankful to be able to
worship and raise my family as I choose in a safe place. We’ve had a nice day celebrating Veteran’s
Day today. The bank is closed so Chad
didn’t have to work and the kids didn’t have school so we went to see Big Hero
6 this afternoon after a leisurely morning at home. It was very cute and made us all laugh. I plan to buy it when it comes out on DVD.
So in my last letter I wondered which one of my first
cousins was closest to me in age. I
found out my cousin Martha Skouson Taylor is the closest in age. I sure love her. We’ve become close in the last few years
through our letters and Facebook for which I am so thankful. She is a wonderful friend and example to me.
I’ve spent a lot of time over the last two weeks
working on projects for Christmas. I can
hardly wait to give them out to my family and friends. I also got some online shopping done for
several people a couple weeks ago. I
love online shopping!
Spencer's tried out for the 7th grade basketball
team Oct. 27 – 29. Chad and I were so
nervous and anxious for him. He came home from the first day of tryouts
very nervous about his chances of making the team; 37 boys tried out, only 12
would make the team. He found out
Thursday Oct. 30th that he made the team. We are so happy for him!
Karalee turned eight years old on Nov. 1st. She had a soccer game bright and early at
8:00am on her birthday. On the way there
she told me she wanted to score a goal. She
played so well. She was so aggressive on
defense, which is her specialty, and made a lot of good stops. When she got a turn on offense she got her
goal!! She’s very determined and
talented. We look forward to her baptism
on November 15th. I still
haven’t heard from several family members if they will be able to make it to
the luncheon afterwards. Please let me
know. We would really love to have you
come, but will understand if you can’t make it.
We also had the adult session of Stake conference
on Karalee’s birthday. I was a bit
nervous to play for the special musical number that night, but it went well,
except for when the violinist’s music blew off their stand. One of the violinists was able to manage to
keep going while the other one picked up the music so they recovered well. I still feel like we were able to bring the
Spirit into the meeting. The adult
session was very nice. The Sunday
morning session was so frustrating it almost brought me to tears. It was a statewide stake conference
broadcast. Chad and Spencer sang in the
choir so I had the rest of the kids by myself.
Tilly lasted through our stake president’s talk before the broadcast
began, but as soon as the broadcast started she was done. I took her out to the hall to quiet her down
3-4 times before I stayed out there for good.
I was so sad I couldn’t hear the talks.
I really wanted to hear them and knew I wouldn’t get the chance to hear
them again. (Unless there is a way to
see it again on lds.org, I’ll have to look.)
Anyway at one point I noticed a couple of adults sitting on the couches
without small children who were busy on their phones and I judged them and
resented them for not listening, but I quickly repented of that. I don’t know their story. I know I could have been more prepared with
snacks and quiet activities to keep Tilly quiet so I could listen. I’ll have to do better next time.
Bryant had a band concert on Nov. 6th. It was a very nice, short concert. He likes band and says he wants to play again
next year and through jr. high and high school.
I know he can become a talented trumpet player if he sticks with it. He’s a quick study at just about everything
he tries to do.
Sunday afternoon Chad’s brother Jace took some new
family pictures for us. A couple weeks
ago I got the girls matching Christmas dresses at Costco and have been saving
them in my closet. I realized they would
be perfect for family pictures and so I set it up. It was so nice of Jace to take them for
us. He’s a good brother. I’ll share the pictures after I send out our
Christmas cards.
Yesterday we had quite a few sickies in our
house. Marlee had a fever and sore throat. I got a terrible, terrible headache, probably
the worst I’ve ever had. Chad had a
headache too and worked from home all day.
We are all glad to be feeling better today.
The last couple of weeks the other young women
leaders and I have been planning our ward’s Young Women Evening in Excellence. There have been some differences of vision
about how we should decorate and it has been stressful for me as I’ve tried to
make sure everyone feels appreciated and that their ideas have been heard. No one has gotten mad or anything and
everyone has been flexible and there haven’t been any hard feelings, but there
has been tension because the ideas that we’ve been working on don’t seem
together very well. Yesterday morning
after making a few calls to the leaders we figured out a way to tie everyone’s
ideas together and we’re moving forward.
I do not like tension. It
stresses me out. In the future I have
figured out that I need to plan these types of activities with my presidency instead
of with my whole YW board that way there will be less opinions and it will go
more smoothly.
My quote for today is about the temple. “In
addition to the closeness we feel to the Lord when we are in the temple, we can
continue to receive blessings even after we have returned to our everyday
lives. Attending the temple gives us a clearer perspective and a sense of
purpose and peace” (https://www.lds.org/church/temples/why-we-build-temples/blessings-of-the-temple?lang=eng). My love for the temple has grown so much this
year. Since we have a temple so close
now and since I don’t have a tiny baby anymore, I made a specific goal
regarding the number of times I wanted to attend the temple this year. It has blessed my life in ways that I have
never imagined. I feel greater confidence
before the Lord. I feel guidance and
peace in my life more strongly than before.
I have learned more about the ordinances and blessings in the temple in
this year than I have in the other 13 years that I’ve been endowed
combined. In the past I’ve heard my Mom
and Brenda (my MIL) and another lady in my ward speak about the temple and how
they miss it when the temple is closed and they can’t attend every week. I kind of wondered why they felt so strongly
about it, but now I know. I guess I’ve
finally exercised enough faith in regards to temple attendance to receive a
witness of the power of the temple. (Ether 12:6) The temple has brought the power of God into my
life in a way that can’t be denied. I will
set a similar goal regarding temple attendance next year so I don’t lose these
blessings that I’ve been given this year.
When I was talking to my mom about these feelings last week she said
that’s how she felt when she started reading the scriptures every day. She grew to love them so much that she could
feel it when she missed a day. It is an
eternal principle that you have to live a principle in order to gain a testimony
of it; you have to experiment on the word. (Alma 32)
Love,
Mindy
P.S. The
other day while I was reading in the Book of Mormon a particular verse stood
out to me that I had never noticed before.
“I conclude this record, declaring
that I have written according to the best of my knowledge, by saying that the
time passed away with us, and also our lives passed away like as it were unto
us a dream, we being a lonesome and a solemn people, wanderers, cast out from
Jerusalem, born in tribulation, in a wilderness, and hated of our brethren,
which caused wars and contentions; wherefore, we did mourn out our days” (Jacob
7:26). Jacob sounds so depressed
here. I never pictured in my mind how
hard it must have been for him to have his brothers and their families hate him
so much that they tried to kill him. He had difficult circumstances his whole
life, yet his words that are recorded in the Book of Mormon are so full of hope. I hope I can leave a record of hope even when
I struggle.
1 comment:
Your new pictures of your kids make them look SO OLD!! Especially Tilly; she looks so big and grown-up in her new picture.
I can't wait to see the rest of your family pictures; I hope the experience went well.
I've had that same experience in church meetings before when I'm with a child who's keeping me from listening as closely as I'd like to--I look over at people who are (in my judgmental view) not paying attention, ditching class, or playing games on their phones, and I feel frustrated that they have the opportunity to listen and choose not to, while I don't get the opportunity.
I'm impressed you were able to repent of those resentments so quickly; it's sometimes a little harder (or a lot harder) for me to let go of those kinds of resentments when I'm in those situations. Good thing I get lots of practice at repenting; it's something I guess I need to get very, very good at! :)
Sure love these updates.
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