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Sunday, August 2, 2015

Letter - Flake Reunion, Weddings, My 2nd Poem, Observe

August 2, 2015

What a whirlwind the last few weeks have been!  But it has been a FUN whirlwind.  My last letter left off on July 22nd.  Well on July 23rd, the second day of school, Chad and I got the kids out early and headed up to Snowflake so we’d make it in time for the Virgil and Gerda Flake Reunion at my cousin Tom’s Pond.  It was such a fun reunion.  The kids swam in the pond, Chad played some serious basketball, I got to visit and watch Chad play basketball, and my brother Tyler and cousin Ben Caldwell light off fireworks.  Since fireworks scared Tilly really badly, I took her into Tom and Angie’s awesome 11,000 square foot home until the fireworks were over.  While I was in there my cousins Suzy and Heidi came in to admire their home so Angie graciously gave us a tour.  I sure love Tom and Angie.  They are gracious and willing to share what they’ve been given.  They allow everyone in town to come to their pond and yard.  Their yard is awesome--full size basketball court, a grass volleyball court, covered ramada, a zip line and a large pond for swimming and fishing.

Friday the 23rd was the Flake Family Rodeo.  It was awesome.  Best day of the year.  Bryant and Ryan won the 10 and under stick horse keg race and got t-shirts.  Spencer and I competed in the 11 and older stick horse keg race, but sadly I slowed Spencer down too much and we got out the 2nd round.  (Spencer’s been faster than me for several years already.)  Spencer did the grocery race with some of our Brimhall cousins and fell off the horse twice, luckily he didn’t get anything more than a few scratches and had a fun time participating.  After the Rodeo we enjoyed visiting with everyone at the luncheon, then we took the kids to Josh’s birthday party and then I attended the Flake program for a while.  After that we stayed at my Mom’s long enough for dinner with the family and then we headed back home before the rest of the Snowflake celebration was over so we could attend Hayley’s wedding the next day.

Hayley’s wedding, luncheon and reception were wonderful.  I was sure happy to be there for it all.  It was fun to see Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins.  Nick and Hayley make a wonderful couple and I’m excited to have a new brother-in-law.

Last week was good to get back into a routine a bit.  I’ve got carpools worked out pretty well for school so I don’t have to drive too much.  On Tuesday Tilly and I went swimming with our Lonely Baby Club (LBC) that my friend started for the Mom’s in the ward with only one baby left at home while all their other kids are at school.  We invite all women to come though, not just the ones with only one baby left.  We meet on Tuesday and Thursday.  Wednesday I went to the temple and did a session while Tilly went to Grammy Days.  While there I had a thought to write a poem.  I don’t usually write poetry, but thought it would be a good thing to do.  Later during the session I thought I should write it about a scripture and my thoughts turned to 2nd Nephi 2 since it goes along with the temple endowment.  So when I got home this is what I wrote:      

The Garden
By Mindy Flake Sanders

In the Garden where life began
Are God’s greatest lessons for man.

There’s opposition in all things.
Utterance from which mortal life springs.

Taste not the sweet without the bitter,
Pain grants pleasure, there’s no plan better.

Men are that they might have joy.
Falling’s essential, it needn’t annoy.

In another garden, Gethsemane,
Redemption comes, we can be free.

Liberty and Life or captivity and death,
Choices last while we have breath.

Late Wednesday evening I found out that we would get to have the newlyweds Hayley and Nick come stay with us for three nights since they had to come back into town for their wedding pictures and for Anna and Tyler’s wedding.  I was so excited to have them as house guests!!  I love to have house guests.  Thursday I spent the day cleaning to get things ready for their stay.

Friday I went visiting teaching and had my visiting teachers visit me.  Nothing like the last day of the month!  Chad and I went on a date that evening.  We went out to eat and then went grocery shopping.  Then we came home and I read a little bit and fell asleep on the couch while he watched a movie.  We are getting old, but it was still nice to go out together. 

Yesterday was Anna’s and Tyler’s wedding, luncheon and reception.  Their sealing was wonderful.  I loved the thoughts the sealer gave about initiatory.  He mentioned that even if all we got in the temple were the first three initiatory blessing that would still be amazing.  I loved his thoughts about how we are blessed to not speak guile.  I am thankful for and want to better use that blessing.  I know I can do better.  He explained that the men’s blessing on the shoulders is different than women’s.  He taught a lot.  I loved it.  Chad was in charge of making homemade root beer and homemade red cream soda for the reception.  They both turned out great.  He loves those types of assignments.  He’s very diligent about getting everything just right. 

Today has been busy with lots of meetings.  By the time I got home from a meeting right after church I went and lay down on my bed and Tilly and Marlee came in and asked what I was doing.  I told them I was going to “take 5” and invited them to lay down by me if they could be quiet and hold still.  They did for a while and then we all got up and I started to make dinner.  We had homemade bread sticks, goulash and peas.  

My quote for today is from a gospel doctrine lesson a few weeks ago.  Elder M. Russell Ballard said:  “We should strive to change the corrupt and immoral tendencies in television and in society by keeping things that offend and debase out of our homes. In spite of all of the wickedness in the world, and in spite of all the opposition to good that we find on every hand, we should not try to take ourselves or our children out of the world. Jesus said, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven,’ or yeast (Matthew 13:33). We are to lift the world and help all to rise above the wickedness that surrounds us” (Ensign, May 1989, 80).

Love,
Mindy

PS.  If you’re interested, here is a spiritual thought I gave about marriage in ward council a couple weeks ago.

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Observe

There have been several times where I’ve had different words of the temple sealing prayers stick out to me.  When that happens, I ponder a lot about those words and do my best to apply them to my life and to my marriage.  About two weeks ago as I was in the temple doing sealings the word observe in the marriage sealing prayer stood out to me again...it has stood out to me before at least once.  So while in the temple I thought about how observe can mean both to do and to watch, or notice.--I have since looked up the definition of observe and it has 12 definitions in the Webster dictionary.  I love it how the Lord can teach us multiple things with one word.

Fast forward to last Friday night at girl’s camp when Pres. Derrick talked to the young women, he had his wife come up and speak with him so the young women could observe him and his wife together.  He shared how the only sealed couple he was able to observe before he got married was his mission president and his wife since he is a convert to the church.  His remarks confirmed to me the importance of the impressions I had in the temple a couple weeks ago. [He also shared how he and his wife dated for like 2 ½ years because he was wanting his wife to be pretty much perfect and to have one foot in the celestial kingdom before he came to his senses and realized what a good person she was.  He said he was SO lucky she was patient with him.]  

His remarks also brought to mind a talk by Elder Clayton called Marriage: Watch and Learn.  In that talk it says, “We can learn so much by watching and then considering what we have seen and felt.  In that spirit, let me share with you a few principles I have observed by watching and learning from wonderful, faithful marriages.  These principles build strong, satisfying marriages that are compatible with heavenly principles.”  He goes on to talk about five principles that strengthen marriage. 

My first spiritual thought that I gave in ward council when I was called to be YW president was about marriage.  The topic of marriage has been on my mind a lot over the last year or so because Chad’s parents are recently divorced.  It was just finalized a few weeks ago.  It has hit really close to home.  I feel like Chad’s and my marriage is strong, but I sure want to keep it that way.  While we don’t have the same obstacles his parents faced, it is important to me that I listen and do my part to keep my marriage happy. 

I know that as we observe good marriages and apply the good things that we see, it can keep our marriages strong and happy--although it is not guaranteed to do so.   I’ll close with a quote from Elder Clayton’s talk.  “Marriage is a gift from God to us; the quality of our marriages is a gift from us to Him.”    


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