Sanders' Saga: 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.