Letter - ASU fireside chat with Elder Andersen, Mending a broken relationship

Sunday, January 31, 2016

It has been a nice week.  Monday morning I went to Zumba.  That afternoon Spencer had a basketball game and did awesome.  He didn’t get put in until the end of the 2^nd quarter, but he came out aggressive and made some great shots and so he got to stay in the rest of the game.  It was a close game and Spencer’s team pulled out the win.

Tuesday seemed like a busy day but looking back at my calendar it wasn’t really that bad.  It was my turn to host Tilly’s friends Emma and Jane Wamsley.  Spencer had an orthodontist appointment that lasted about 20 seconds and things are still looking good since he’s gotten his braces off.  Spencer had another game that afternoon and his team won again.  He got to start, but I was late and didn’t get to see it.  He said he didn’t play very well and got pulled out quickly.  When he got put in later during the game I was there and he did a good job.  I had to leave Spencer’s game early to go with the Laurels to a special fireside chat at ASU with Elder Neil L. Andersen and Pres. Crow, ASU’s President.  It was a neat experience.  It made me quite impressed with ASU and it would be a great place for my children to go to college if they so choose.  They talked about the importance of education and that education is not to just get a job, but it is important for whom we want to become and that it is important to get as much education as we can.  Here are some of the messages I got from the evening:

• Pres. Crow- The human mind is a great endowment and so is our identity.  We need to take those two things and use them to communicate and praise God.  What do we do with those gifts?  Education is essential in our ability to adapt.  A person’s family and faith are important at ASU.  They have worked hard so that LDS can attain a religious and technical education seamlessly.
• Elder Robert C. Gay – It is a great myth that you don’t need a college education.  A college education keeps your options maximized.  If you don’t get a college degree about 85% of doors are closed to you.
• Elder Andersen – Talked about going to ASU vs. BYU because an ASU student wrote to him and asked him about that.  He said that when the church was small BYU had a big purpose in order for young single adults to be able to meet each other.  BYU used to be the one place where you could put yourself around lots of YSA.  But in our area there is no longer a need to go to a church school to meet lds youth.  The Lord will direct our humble prayers of where we should go to school.  One person’s answer and choice isn’t the same for everyone.  You don’t have to make a decision once and for all.  You can spend a semester elsewhere.  Don’t take on too much debt especially as an undergraduate.  Work while you go to school.

All of the people on the panel were asked how to make a decision of which road to choose and feel good about it? (ie which college to go to, which major to choose, etc.)  Here are their answers to that question:

• Sis. Gay – merge passions, emotion and intelligence.  Just start.  Start somewhere.  It’s ok if you decide to change paths.  Put your life in order and you’ll get direction.
• Elder Gay – There is no shame in changing paths.  Don’t wander.  No shame in failure, just don’t give up.
• Pres. Crow – What do you want your life to mean?  Get on the track of the thing that makes you smile and excites your brain.
• Elder Andersen – Stay humble, stay prayerful.  Sometimes you have to start down a direction before you feel a direction.  Make a mature decision.

It has been cool to have been taught by two Apostles of the Lord this month in our area!!  Such a rare experience and our youth got it twice in one month.

Wednesday Tilly had her music class and then she went to play at Grant and Ryan Sorenson’s house.  I cleaned and cleaned that day.  Our house needed it.  Bryant and Spencer got to go to code club at the library again that evening.  I decided to get serious about losing weight on Wednesday.  I posted this on Facebook: Ok. I have taken far too long to come to this resolution but it's time. I have resolved to lose 20 pounds. I'm sharing it here for accountability purposes. Exercising has never been the problem, but eating healthy has. I know how to do it so I'm going to make it happen.  P.S. I don't want to buy your products.  I have already lost 4 pounds and still have a firm resolve to reach my goal of losing 20 points.

Thursday Tilly got to go to Grammy days and I went visiting teaching.  Bryant had basketball practice that evening, I had a meeting with the stake YW presidency in preparation for ward conference that I almost missed because I didn’t put it in my phone and Chad and the kids helped Heather (Chad’s sister) get moved into her house.  We’re so glad that Heather and Elliot are moving back to this side of the US.  Elliot is still in North Carolina for a few more weeks finishing up a prep course to take the AZ and surrounding states bar exam, but he is finished with law school now.  They aren’t sure where they’ll end up, but they want to stay on this side of the US where the church is strong.  They’ll be in Queen Creek until he takes the bar and finds out his results.

Friday I went visiting teaching to another sister and that evening Chad and I went to the temple.  We barely made it into the 6:15 session; we were the second to last couple.  They had to do two extra sessions that evening since the Mesa temple is closed and it was so busy.  Normally 7:00pm is the last session, but that night they added a 7:45pm session and an 8:30pm session so they wouldn’t have to turn anyone away.  That is wonderful!! 

Yesterday I took the girls to build-a-bear to use the gift cards they got from Santa.  Since I had an extra gift card (they come in a 4 pack at Costco) Bryant came too.  It was a neat experience, but wow it is SO expensive.  My kids were sad they didn’t get to pick out more than one of the cheapest accessories, but I didn’t want to spend $10-$15 for each teddy bear clothe item.  I don’t even spend that much on my kids outfits.  Chad did a lot of things around the house that needed doing yesterday and then he and I went to Bryant’s basketball game and took a gift to Puring in her new care home for her birthday.  Her birthday is actually today, but since I planned to get her favorite Chinese food for her gift we took it to her yesterday. 

Today has been a wonderful Sabbath day.  It was our ward conference.  Our bishop talked about having a shatterproof testimony.  He said life will happen.  Will our testimonies withstand a “drop off the counter” or a “fall down the stairs”?  He prefaced those questions with a story about how he tried those things with the Heinz shatterproof ketchup bottle when it was new.  His message was about continually renewing our testimonies.  President Derrick also spoke about testimonies.  (He is an engineer so his analogies relate to that.)  He said that when things are hard they tend to be brittle, like a ceramic plate.  He said that Corelle dinnerware is made so that the exterior is cooled very quickly but the inner layer doesn’t cool as quickly so it is more flexible.  He asked us if our testimonies were too hard set.  They need to be strong, but strength and toughness are too different things.  We need to be tough so we need to have a fire within us so that we cool more quickly.  We also heard a lot about the Sabbath Day in our messages from the stake today.  We were challenged to go from a good Sabbath day to a better or best Sabbath Day and that we need to avoid regimentation.  We give room for the Holy Ghost by avoiding regimentation.

I felt the hand of the Lord this week as he answered my prayer of how to fix a relationship with someone who is important to me that I had soured.  I kind of made a mess of things so I had been praying for several days of a way to make peace and make it right.  On Tuesday I felt the Lord making me more aware of what I had done wrong and I was prompted to text that individual and apologize for what the Lord had shown me I had done wrong.  I followed that prompting and I feel it has brought peace between us and started the path for that individual to trust me again.  It was a neat experience.  I love how when the Lord shows you something you have done wrong you feel love and a way to make it better.  When the devil points out your mistakes you feel like a lousy, total screw up.

Love,

Mindy

Letter - Devotional with Elder Holland, Biographies, Goals, Camp Location Prompting

January 24, 2016

I have not written in my journal for a couple of weeks, but I have been writing thoughts down for other things.  I’ll include them here now.

On Jan. 15^th I wrote this to share on Facebook: 

I am not much of an animal person, but there are a handful of animals I have loved. One of them is my Dad's horse Chester. He is in this picture that was taken and given to me by my Aunt Nerita. As I was looking at this picture on my wall this morning I sure hoped that after I die and get resurrected I'll be able to ride him on a roundup again someday. I knew exactly how I could always catch him in the corral. He was dependable and not skittish so I wouldn't be a little scared while riding him like I was on the back of some of our other horses.

The other animals I have loved if you're wondering are Mike and Nellie, two other horses we had over the years, Rusty our dog who "ran away" but was really shot because he bit someone and BBQ my cat I found at the BBQ spot by the rodeo grounds.

What are some of your favorite animals you have loved?

A lot of people commented on that post, mostly Tyler and his friends who were part of the “cowboy club” growing up.  Their comments were funny.   It was fun to reminisce about animals we had growing up.  Amy and Kayla also reminded me of two other animals I loved, Charlie the dog, not the Ballard, and another dog named Heidi.

Now that I’ve finished reading The Holy Temple as part of my morning scripture study I decided to do a little bit of personal progress every morning since I am used to setting that time aside already.  I’ve realized how much I can learn and improve by doing a little bit more each day with my morning scripture study.  It has really been a life changing realization for me.  It has testified to me of the truth “that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass” (Alma 37:6).  If you are interested, you can read the personal progress journal pages I’ve made HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

On Saturday Jan. 16^th the youth of our stake had a special devotional with Elder Holland and Elder Robbins.  It was amazing.  It renewed my testimony of living prophet, seers and revelators.  I took pictures of my notes, if you care to read them click HERE.  Elder Holland’s message about keeping our promises to our pioneer ancestors and to those who had to live without the gospel really strengthened my desire and resolve to fulfil my calling as Young Women’s president.  Prior to hearing that message, I had felt very worn out in my calling.  I felt like I would really like to get released since I have now been serving for two years, but now I feel like I can do it for as long as the Lord needs me in that calling.  Doing my calling well, with enthusiasm, along with doing temple work for my ancestors, is a way I can honor the sacrifices my pioneer ancestors had to make.

Last Sunday, Jan. 17^th I wrote this for our ward council spiritual thought:

My spiritual thought is based on an article that was on the lds.org home page called Navigating the Currents of Life.  The article talks about how life can feel stagnant when it seems like you’ve reached most of your important milestones—after you have a degree, a job, and you don’t have measurable progression anymore.  “When you have nothing to measure your life against, it can quickly slip into anything from monotonous banality to debilitating helplessness.”  Last night in the devotional for our stake youth, Elder Robbins compared having no progression to being out at sea with no land in sight.  If we were in that situation we would have no motivation to row because we wouldn’t know if we were going anywhere productive.  Then he asked us to imagine we could see an island in the distance.  When we can see an island our motivation increases greatly.  That’s what goals and vision give to us. 

Going back to the article it says, “If you find yourself among those who feel trapped in this stagnating stage of life, remember that you don’t have to be doing something extraordinary to have an extraordinary life, but you do have to be doing something. In our relief society meeting last Thursday night, Aaron Wilcox taught us about a man who set a goal to do at least one push up every day.  By the time he got down on the floor to do one pushup he would usually do more, but having the goal of at least doing one kept him motivated. 

“‘Set goals, overcome mistakes, gain experience, and finish what you begin.’  By accomplishing small daily, weekly, and monthly goals, you’ll find that not only will you become a better person, but you’ll feel the empowerment and fulfillment of having a milestone-achieving, self-improving, ever-flowing, and all-around more meaningful life.”

Last night Elder Robbins told us that writing our goals down triples the likelihood of them actually happening.

I know that having large and small goals to work towards brings happiness and an improved life.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I felt the hand of the Lord last week when the Holy Ghost brought to my remembrance Silver Creek Camp (formerly known as Dipping Vats) near Taylor.  This year instead of having a stake YW’s camp at Lomia we are having a ward camps and so we needed to find a location for our girls camp this summer.  We want to be able to do kayaking and rappelling and several other more adventurous activities that we don’t get to do at a stake camp, but the camp grounds on the Mogollon Rim near lakes are so busy or don’t have running water.  Anyway finding a good location was on my mind when I remembered having fun family reunions and ward activities at Dipping Vats growing up.  I have not thought about that place in many, many years.  I feel it was the Holy Ghost bringing it to my remembrance.  After several phone calls I spoke with Roy Solomon, Uncle Carvel’s brother from the Taylor stake, who is in charge of reserving that camp ground.  He walked me through reserving it online.  The camp ground was available the days we had already chosen for our ward girl’s camp.  It is going to be exactly what we wanted!  It has a creek to kayak in, a place for rappelling, a shooting range, an archery range, a nice big kitchen, bathrooms and showers.  Plus since it is close to Snowflake we’re hoping to be able to go to my Mom’s house to ride horses for a little while if Travis and/or Bob will let us use their horses.  I am so excited about taking the YW up to my hometown.  Now I really hope I don’t get released before girls camp.

Two weeks ago I was able to read nice short biographies about two wonderful men, my Dad and Grandpa Vearl Sanders.  The biography about my Dad included a transcript of a deposition in a horse injury case where my dad was called as an expert witness.  I could totally picture my Dad answering the attorney’s questions and keeping his cool while the attorney was trying to twist things all around.  It was sure fun to read it.  I also loved learning about Grandpa Vearl Sanders.  He died before I married Chad so I never got to meet him.  He was a good man.  

Well, this letter has gotten quite long.  I didn’t do much of a day to day narrative this time, but we did have some good times as a family.  We’re trying to stay busy, but not too busy, with worthwhile activities.  Here are some pictures showing what we've been up to. 

I found this note from Bryant on our treadmill one morning.  He cracks me up.

Can you name the movie I was thinking of when I took this picture?  Hint it is a church movie.

Tilly had LBC at the park.  They weather has been wonderful.

The stake president has asked the members of every ward council in our stake to find a family name, take a selfie with it, then do the temple work and text it to the high councilman over our wards.  I'm anxious to see the end project. 

Tilly combing my hair while I was working on the computer one day.

Tilly helping me clean up our yard so it would look nice for the elder's quorum meat fest activity we hosted on Jan. 16th. 

I'm sure going to miss having a little helper when Tilly goes to school.

 

Chad's wiggly weights.

Tilly couldn't stay straight.

The boys went to a code club at our library and learned how to do computer code for some video games.  They loved it.  I love that it was free.

Quite often after I fix my girls hair, they ask me to take pictures of their hair so they can see how it looks from all angles.

I crocheted Tilly a scarf.

On Friday we took the kids to see the new Shaghi circus at the queen creek high school.  It was really fun.  The acrobats were awesome.

Marlee enjoying the show

Tilly enjoying the show

Karalee with some of the acrobats.

Love,

Mindy

Personal Progress – Knowledge Value Experience 2

Started January 19, 2016
Finished 1-21-16

Personal Progress – Knowledge Value Experience 2

In your journal list talents you have and others you would like to develop. Read Matthew 25:14–30. Learn a new skill or talent that will help you care for your own future family or home (for example, playing the piano, singing, budgeting, time management, cooking, sewing, or child care). Share with your family, class, or Young Women leader what you have learned.

My talents are:

·         Playing the Piano

·         Organization

·         Playing the Organ

·         Good choir voice

·         Playing the violin and viola

·         Volleyball

·         Basketball

·         Understanding

·         A good listener

·         Good at keeping confidences

·         Budgeting

·         Saving money

·         Cooking

·         Baking

·         Diligent at reading scriptures

·         Diligent at exercising

·         Multi-tasking

Talents I would like to develop:

·         Staying calm and not yelling at my children

·         Crocheting

·         Being more reserved

·         Missionary

·         Patience

·         Charity

·         Better manners

A new talent I am learning that will help me care for my future family is crochet. I will continue to practice so when I am a grandma I can make beautiful baby blankets for my grand babies like my mom made for her grand babies.

Grandpa Sanders' biography

Chad's cousin shared this biography of Grandpa Vearl Sanders on Facebook.  It's wonderful.

A little more of my Dad's biography

My brother Doug has been working on a biography of my Dad.  He has shared parts of it throughout the years.  He recently wrote these pages and gave them to my Mom for her birthday this week.  They are awesome.  (Doug if you don't want this posted here let me know and I'll delete it.  But really I only have like 6 readers on most of my posts so I didn't think it would matter much.)