Letter - Miraculous Super Saturday

I'm a little late getting my letter up on the blog.  I was too tired on Sunday night after writing it.  I don't think anyone even reads my blog anyway, but I like to keep it here for a digital family history for my posterity.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

What a week!!  I had some amazing experiences.  It feels like Monday was ages ago, but I’ll try to remember what we did.  Monday the kids didn’t have any school in honor of Presidents Day.  In the morning I took Spencer to Sports Exchange in Mesa to redeem his voucher for football pants, socks, etc.  After that we stopped at Bosa Donuts since it was in the same parking lot to buy a dozen donuts to take home.  Then we went over to our rental house to do a few things to prepare for workers to come in and fix up the house so we can sell it.  After that we stopped by my friend Chani’s house to say hello for a few minutes and to share our donuts.  It was nice to see her again.  I talk to her on the phone fairly often, but we rarely see each other.  She’s a friend for life!!  Monday afternoon our ward’s youth had the unique opportunity to go assist the newly called Gilbert temple workers.  We were asked to show up at the front of the temple at 4:00pm.  We weren’t sure what we were going to do.  We ended up putting shoe coverings on all the temple workers as they went into the temple and then took them off of them when they came out.  Afterwards we asked and were very fortunate to get a special tour of the bridal room.  The YM got to come too.  They YM will probably never get a chance to see that room again, but hopefully all my young women will be back there when they get married in the next 5-10 years or so.  It was definitely an amazing experience.  I felt the spirit more strongly that day with the youth as they were being so reverent than I did when there was a constant stream of tourists during the open house.

Spencer crashed out on the chair after waking up early on Monday morning to go play basketball with Chad and some of the YM in our ward.  They played for 3 hours.

 On the temple grounds waiting to assist the Gilbert temple workers with their shoe coverings.

This week Chad and I hired my nephew Ray to remove the old carpet and tile from our rental house.  He did a great job.  He said to tell everyone that I got the manliest nephew out there.  He “got er done.”  We will be listing our home soon, after we make a few improvements.  If you know anyone who is the market to buy a nice little 3 bedroom first home send them our way.  Its major crossroads are Horne and Brown in Mesa.  It’s in a nice quiet little neighborhood.     

Wednesday I went to the temple during Grandma Days.  In less than a week I’ll be able to drive over to the Gilbert temple instead of going to the Mesa temple!!  It’ll probably be really crowded for a while though, but that’ll be so nice to have so much temple work being done.  Wednesday evening I watched Amy’s kids and fed them dinner while she and David went to the Keg restaurant for their free birthday steak dinner.  Chad and I were both able to spend that evening at home.  It was so nice. 

Thursday I had parent teacher conference for the three school kids.  They’re doing well and their teachers enjoy having them in their classes.  That night Chad had his first game for a Mesa flag football league that he was invited to play in.  He plays basketball on Saturday morning with the man who heads up the team.  I think half of the men in our stake have a man crush on Chad since he’s so amazing at sports.  J

Friday my visiting teachers came to visit me.  We had a nice visit.  After the school kids came home, I took my friend’s eleven year old daughter to the church building to listen to and observe her playing the organ so I could approve her to play postlude in Sacrament meeting.  Since I’m the organist in my ward, my bishopric member wanted me to make sure she was ready to play.  She did a great job and played postlude for me today.   Our stake President has asked that we help more youth learn how to play the organ.  I start the youth with postlude and prelude.  I think one of my laurels is probably ready try playing the closing song now too.  It’s fun to teach them the few skills and tips that I know.  

I entitle this "Mastering the art of Multitasking".  Friday morning I wanted to read my scriptures and get some exercise in so I could shower before my visiting teachers arrived.  While doing that Marlee and Tilly asked me to blow up their balloons.  So here I am reading my scriptures, while riding my exercise bike and blowing up a balloon.

Yesterday was our TCC super Saturday rehearsal.  It was a long, yet miraculous, rewarding day.  We met at our church building at 6:30am to carpool over to Discovery Park.  All morning we rehearsed with our region for our first regional practice.  Then in the afternoon we met as the whole temple district and worked on staging for the performance and then did a run through of the show.  While we were doing the staging I was feeling a little grumbly and hot and tired.  I kept my feelings to myself, but sadly I was more like Laman and Lemuel than Nephi.  I was thinking and said to some of the other YW leaders, I’m glad this is a once and a lifetime type of event.  I was so tired.  Then all the youth did a run through the show.  I watched my region perform our dance from the top of the hill, behind a different region because I was about to go run to check on some of the youth back at our “camp” but stopped to watch our dance.  As I watched our region’s tumblers start us off with cart wheels and back flips and other amazing gymnastic feats then as all the rest of our youth ran onto the field to do our Babylonian warrior fire dance all the other regions gasped and cheered.  It was SO cool.  I was overcome with emotion as they ran onto the field.  I couldn’t stop the tears from coming.  It was kind of embarrassing.  All the preparations, sewing, meetings, rehearsals, etc. were worth that moment.  It was miraculous and changed my murmuring heart.   Then at the very end of the dance as our youth all yell out with their warrior yell all the other regions cheered and yelled loudly.  They loved it!  I’m probably biased, but our dance is the most exciting and it is really fun to watch and do.  I can’t wait until they get to perform it for the prophet and for all the parents and family members who will be watching the broadcast this Saturday night.  I still can’t talk about that experience without emotion.

Waiting for rehearsals to start.  To help with traffic congestion our stake was assigned to arrive at Discovery Park at 7:00am, one and a half hours before rehearsals started.

This is our first time rehearsing together as a region.  We are region 4, which is comprised of 4 stakes.

There were so many youth my camera couldn't get them all.

This was how many pizza's it took to feed all the kids in our stake!!

I copied this aerial photo of all the regions rehearsing together off Facebook.  It's awesome!!!

For those of you who are interested, ABC15 is providing two ways for the public to view the 7 p.m. cultural celebration on March 1.

·         The celebration will be broadcast on ABC15's Antenna TV. You can find the channel over the air on 15.2, Cox Cable 95, Century Link 815, Prism Channel 16, Orbitel Channel 764 and Mediacom Channel 10.

·         The celebration will also be live streamed on www.abc15.comand within our ABC15 mobile app.

It will also be broadcast to the stake centers in our temple district.

Marlee taking some photos of our relaxing Sunday afternoon.

Isn't she so cute?!!

Well that’s my week.  I’m going to forgo a quote for tonight.  I’m ready for bed. 

Love,

Mindy

Letter - Visit from Kayla, TCC, Eternal Lives

Sunday, February 16, 2014

3:58pm

It has been such a fun week.  I woke up this morning at 6:30 about an hour before I had hoped to get up and couldn’t get back to sleep.  I started thinking about what I was going to write in my letter today and about all the fun things that we did this week and then couldn’t turn my brain back off to get back to sleep.  So I got up and made some blueberry muffins before my 9:30 meeting instead of sleeping.

Last Sunday was nice, busy, but not overwhelming.  Sunday evening I attended a cornerstone choir rehearsal for the Gilbert temple dedication.  We have to have one of our two songs memorized by tonight, parts, words, rhythms, etc.  I’m glad that I had lots of practice memorizing choir songs in high school and college so it was pretty easy for me.  Words that are put to music are lots easier to memorize than they are without the music.  I found out that the cornerstone ceremony will not be rebroadcast to the later dedication sessions.  So if you want to see that ceremony and listen to me sing in the choir you’ll have to attend the 9:00am dedication session.  J  I’m very excited to be able to sing my thanks and praise for our new temple with the choir.  It is such a blessing to me.  I’m very impressed with the talent level of our director and the choir members.  There are a lot of great musicians in the choir.

Shortly after the choir rehearsal was over on last Sunday my sister Kayla and her girls arrived at our house.  They drove over from Huntington Beach, CA so they could tour the Gilbert temple.  I’m so glad they stayed with us!!  It was lots of fun.  I didn’t tell my kids that they were coming.  I just told them they got to get to stay up late for a surprise.  Karalee and Bryant skipped school on Monday so they could stay home and play with their cousins that day.  Spencer and all the 6^th graders put on a play at school that day so Spencer and I didn’t feel like he should miss that.  He didn’t have a part in the play; he was just in the chorus with all the other sixth graders.  He told me he didn’t want me to go and watch, because it was a dumb play. 

On Monday my Mom and Crystal drove down from Snowflake to visit with Kayla and my Mom went to the open house too.  It was a nice surprise to have Crystal come.  That afternoon my nephew Ray came over to visit with his mom and probably the rest of us too.  Amy and her kids came over after school and then Brandon and his family came over to have FHE with us.  I was so happy to have everyone in our home.    

Marlee got wiped out from staying up late with her cousins.

Tilly giving Jason a Valentine

Crystal has a nice shiner.

Tuesday morning Kayla, Mom, Crystal, Celeste and I met at Sweet Cakes in Mesa because Kayla saw a show about that restaurant on Netflix and wanted to try it out before she left town.  It was really yummy and now I want to try and make cinnamon rolls with homemade caramel sauce and nuts instead of cream cheese frosting like they did.  Chad liked it that way too.  Tuesday afternoon Bryant had an orthodontist appointment and was supposed to get his tongue rake taken out, but they noticed he’s been going around it a bit and still pushes his tongue on his  teeth when he swallows so they want him to keep it on for 3 more months.  He was so excited to get it off, but took the news of having to keep it on longer well and didn’t even complain once.  I’m so proud of him.  He’s really growing into a mature young man.  Tuesday evening Spencer and I had stake TCC practice, which went well.

Wednesday I finished sewing the two temple cultural celebration (TCC) costumes that I was working on while the girls went to Grammy days and during nap time.  Whew!  Glad to have those finished and off my plate. 

Thursday morning Spencer had to get a physical for the football league he’s playing in.  He had to get a tetanus booster and didn’t like having a sore arm for a couple days.  Thankfully, I don’t think he is as bad around needles as his dad is though.  J  Remember how they had to revive Chad with smelling salts after the delivery of Tilly?  Ha ha.  Thursday evening I had a Captain of 10 meeting for the TCC.  The stake center we met at was packed.  When I realized that we were going to add 10 people for every 1 person at that meeting for the TCC I finally got a glimpse of how big the rehearsals and celebration are going to be.  Discovery Park is going to be standing room only!!  There are so many details that have to go into planning an event like this.  It is exciting to be a part of it, it takes a lot of time, but it is worth it!  The lady who wrote the cultural celebration play, I can’t remember her name, told us of the experiences she had while writing it.  It was amazing!!  Quite a few years ago she was asked by President Thornock, a stake president in one of the Gilbert Stakes, to write a dance festival for four stakes, around 4,000 youth, in the Gilbert area.  The two days following that call, ideas for the whole festival filled her mind.  She wrote them all down, through the night.   Then when she was asked to meet with Pres. Thornock that week he said, well, we need to make a plan of what we are going to do.  She showed him her binder of ideas that she had been given and said, you mean like this?  She told him how the play would go from the beginning to the end.  The person who wrote the music had a similar experience.  Then they festival got canceled.  She told of how agonizing that was for her.  Then a while later she saw an ad about a play contest, I think it was a contest at BYU, but I could be wrong about that.  She thought, I have a play, and submitted her work.  The director of the contest called her and said he wanted to meet with her.  She thought she had won the contest.  At the meeting they sat down for three hours and he told her things she could do to improve her play.  He told her he’d never met with someone who hadn’t won.  She asked, then why am I here?  He said there’s going to be a temple built in Gilbert and this is the play you are going to use for the cultural celebration.  It was neat to be there to hear her story.

Spencer's coaches told him to wear his helmet around the house a bit to get used it and to build strength in his neck muscles.  I laughed when I saw him practicing the piano with it.

Friday was Valentine’s Day.  The kids had a half day at school.  Since Spencer was home to babysit, at 2:00pm I met Chad for lunch at D-vine, one of our new favorite restaurants.  Chad got me some chocolates and wrote me a very nice love letter.  It made me feel so loved, I cherish it.  I bought Chad a new jacket; made him some trail mix out of his favorite nuts and some Reece’s Pieces, and deep cleaned our room that has been a dumping ground for various projects and odds and ends since before Thanksgiving, and wrote him a love letter.  Earlier in the week, I came home with a new skirt that I saw at Seagull Book and told Chad that that was my Valentine present.  I think he was glad he didn’t have to go shopping to get me something.  J  Spencer had football practice on Friday night so we spent the evening here at home with the rest of the kids.

Tilly riding a scooter in my high heels.  Love it!!

The girls and I spent a lovely Valentines morning out front.

After my lunch date with Chad, I was able to stop by the hospital and hold my 2 hour old Valentine nephew Clark Moore Sanders.  Son of Devin and Suzannah Sanders.  He was so sweet.  It didn't make me baby hungry though.  :)

8:40pm

I’m back.  We had dinner and I went to another choir rehearsal.  I love singing in a big, talented choir.  I forgot how enjoyable it is.  It’s been a long time.

Yesterday afternoon Chad and I went to the temple to do sealings.  We saw my nephew Ray there and recruited him to come do sealings with us as the sealing office was really slow.  We had a really neat sealing session and the sealer took a lot of time teaching us.  He asked us to pay attention and count how many blessing we are promised if we are faithful to our marriage covenant.  I counted 18 blessings.  He also taught us the meaning of Eternal lives.  It is found in D&C 132:24.  “This is eternal lives—to know the only wise and true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent.  I am he.  Receive ye, therefore, my law.”  Eternal lives means we won’t have only belief, or faith, we will “know” God and Jesus Christ.  He said it might have other meanings too, but that’s what he’s learned.  Something else in the sealing ceremony stood out to me, we covenant and promise to specific things when we get married.  I have thought a lot about what a covenant and a promise is and how they are different.  I’ve looked them up.  I like to look up definitions.  I will keep thinking about them and what that means in my relationship with Chad.   

Chad had a soccer game with Macaia, our sister-in-law, on Saturday night.  He's fun to watch.

Suckin' air.  He's a little out of shape.

Chad taught the kids how to play racko while I made dinner this evening.  We love that game and haven't played it for a long time. 

My quotes for today are from the hymns we sang in sacrament meeting. 

1. “I would be my brother’s keeper; I would learn the healer’s art.  To the wounded and the weary I would show a gentle heart” (Lord, I Would Follow Thee, Hymn 220).   I love the phrase healer’s art.  I want to be able to learn The Healer’s art and to show a gentle heart to those who are hurting and tired. 
2. “‘These deeds shall thy memorial be; Fear not, thou didst them unto me’” (A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief, Hymn 29).  Our deeds are what we will be remembered by.  Whatever we do, or don’t do, to our family, friends, and neighbors, whether good or bad, we have done it unto the Savior.

Love,

Mindy

Letter - Love One Another

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. 27^th was my kid’s 100^th 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. 28^th.  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.      

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.

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.

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.

That's the snake coiled up in the middle.

Spring has sprung here in Gilbert

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