December 11, 2016
Highlights of this
week are: Spencer turned 15!! Bryant had four soccer games. I did some more Christmas shopping. Tilly had Grammy days and three days of
preschool. Marlee and Tilly had Gilbert
youth choir on Thursday, a choir Bounce U party on Friday, and a rehearsal and
concert on Saturday. I spoke at my ward
Relief Society Christmas activity on Thursday night, I’ll add my talk as a P.S.
if you’re interested. Spencer, Bryant,
Karalee and Marlee got to go on a hay ride around to neighborhood caroling with
their friends. Tilly got to go out to
eat with Chad and me while they caroled.
Chad and I attended
a super fun MUSAWEP party last night.
MUSAWEP stands for Maycock’s Ugly Sweater And White Elephant Party. The Dave and Audrey Maycock are exceptional
party planners. Several couples from our
old ward, that we sadly just don’t get to see as often anymore, plus several
couples from our new ward attended. There
were about 60 people there in all. There
were lots of funny gifts, like an “I pooped today” t-shirt that our bishop
stole and ended up with. Besides the
white elephant gift exchange we also had some other fun games. The women had to draw a depiction of our
first date with our spouse. The men
couldn’t peek. Then then put all the
pictures up on a projector screen one at a time and the men had to guess which drawing
was theirs and explain the date. It was
so, so much fun.
I’ve been doing a
strict diet since November 30th.
I’ve become a Prolean Wellness client.
My sister Celeste and her husband Jeff own Prolean Wellness and they
have a great weight loss program. They
are helping me lose weight. On
Thanksgiving night I felt like a big blob and decided I wanted to lose 15
pounds before Christmas. I knew that
meant no Christmas goodies, but I made up my mind. I haven’t been able to lose the weight I
gained on our cruise this summer and I got to the point where I am sick and tired
being at an unhealthy weight and I didn’t want to buy bigger pants again. I have already lost 7 pounds, and I haven’t felt
hungry! It was very hard to pass up
Spencer’s s’mores cake that he requested for his birthday, but I didn’t give in…I
just smelled it a few times. J Celeste
assured me that it shouldn’t be a problem to lose 15 pounds by Christmas and that
I will lose more than that before the whole 12 week program is finished, which
is good because to get down to a healthy BMI I need to lose more than 15 pounds. I am going to be healthy and feel good about
myself…and stay that way.
Today has been a
wonderful day, except the fact that Chad has the sore throat that Spencer had
earlier this week. One of my former
laurels, Megan Sedillo, gave her farewell talk in church. Her talk was exceptional. Don’t know if I’ve ever heard a better one. I shed many tears, as did several others in
the congregation and on the stand. Megan
is an amazing young woman with a powerful testimony. I think she will accomplish much as a
missionary. I was privileged to get to
be her leader. She taught me a lot.
A single man in our
ward, who I would guess is around mine and Chad’s age, spoke after Megan and
his talk was also great. He shared two
quotes that really stuck out to me.
The first is from
President Hinckley:
“May God help us to be a little kinder,
showing forth greater forbearance, to be more forgiving, more willing to walk
the second mile, to reach down and lift up those who may have sinned but have
brought forth the fruits of repentance, to lay aside old grudges and nurture
them no more (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2005/10/forgiveness?lang=eng&_r=1).
The part that
really got me to ponder was the last words “nurture them no more”. I got me thinking, what do I nurture? Do
I nurture a grudge for someone or do I nurture my love for them? What I
feed grows. What I starve dies. That got
me thinking about other things, do I nurture my happiness or my sadness? It can apply to other things as well.
The second is from
Bryant S. Hinckley, President Hinckley’s father. “Service
is the virtue that distinguished the great of all times and which they will be
remembered by. It places a mark of nobility upon its disciples. It is the
dividing line which separates the two great groups of the world—those who help
and those who hinder, those who lift and those who lean, those who contribute
and those who only consume. How much better it is to give than to receive.
Service in any form is comely and beautiful. To give encouragement, to impart
sympathy, to show interest, to banish fear, to build self-confidence and awaken
hope in the hearts of others—in short, to love them and to show it—is to render
the most precious service” (Quoted by Elder Perry, https://www.lds.org/liahona/2002/05/learning-to-serve?lang=eng).
I think that is such a beautiful quote full of
truth.
Love,
Mindy
P.S. Here’s
my talk:
Light the
World through Service
Talk for
Relief Society Activity
December 8,
2016
“I will stand among the faithful, my testimony
lighting the way. I’ll be a witness of
and walk the path of Christ today. I
gaze up towards heaven, and my soul begins to sing. Heavenly Father loves me; I’m the daughter of
a king” (Lyrics to Daughter of a King, Lana Osmus).
How can we light
the world by witnessing of and walking the path of Christ? Before we can light others, we need to first
possess light ourselves. To do this we
need to bring light into our life regularly.
We can bring light into our life through sincere prayer. I love Elder Uceda’s recent general
conference talk about prayer. In it he
asks this thought provoking question. “When
you pray, are you really praying or just saying prayers?” (The Lord Jesus
Christ Teacher Us to Pray) We can
also bring light into our lives by reading the scriptures and the words of the
living prophets. Elder Pearson warns us
that “Unless we are ‘continually holding fast’ to the word of God and
living it, we will become spiritually blinded rather than spiritually minded.
Search the Book of Mormon and the words of the living prophets every
day, every day, every day!” (Stay by
the Tree) He goes on to promise us
that if we are struggling, confused, or spiritually lost, a prayerful study the
Book of Mormon will get us back on track.
After we have brought light into our lives through prayer and reading
the scriptures each day, it is time to go to work spreading that light.
The best way I know to light the world is to serve others.
In our busy lives I feel the biggest obstacle to rendering service is
remembering to do it. A scripture that
comes to mind when I think about the importance of remembering to serve is Alma
60:6. It is not a scripture you’d
normally think of for service. In
chapter 60 Moroni is complaining to Pahoran for not sending help to his armies. Verse 6 says, “And now behold, we desire to know the cause of this exceedingly great
neglect; yea, we desire to know the cause of your thoughtless state.” A few years ago when I read that verse I
wrote this note to myself in the margins, “Don’t be thoughtless about the good
things you can do.” Since then I’ve
tried to be more thoughtful about doing good.
A few weeks ago in
church I learned that in Hebrew, remember is an action word. An action that has helped me to remember to
be thoughtful is to put reminders on my phone.
For example, to help me be a better visiting teacher, I have a reminder
to set up each month to schedule a visiting teaching appointment. I have yearly repeating reminders of
birthdays for those I love and have stewardship over. When the reminders come up I try to send a
text right then, or I put a note on my shopping list to get a little gift.
Another thing that
has helped me to serve is to set a specific goal to do a specific service a
specific number of times. For example, a
few years ago I set a goal to take a meal to people a certain number of times
during that year. When I had that goal I
learned to become aware of people in the ward or in my family or neighborhood
were going through a hard time so I could fulfil my goal. I became more aware of when people had a busy
day coming up or when they were going through a trial or when then expressed on
Facebook that they were having a hard time.
The specific service you decide to give does not have to be big. It can be something as simple as giving a
compliment, sending a kind text, going to the temple or whatever you feel like
you can do. I love Sister Bingham’s talk
in the General Women’s Session of conference.
She said, “One of the most
significant ways we can develop and demonstrate love for our neighbor is
through being generous in our thoughts and words. … How like that glorious wind can be the
sincere compliment of a friend, the cheerful greeting of a parent, the
approving nod of a sibling, or the helpful smile of a co-worker or classmate,
all supplying fresh ‘wind in our sails’ as we battle the challenges of life!”
(I Will Bring the Light of the Gospel into my Home) The Lord will help us know what specific
service oriented goal will help us light the world.
I feel the most
important place serve and light the world is in our own homes. First, serve our spouse. Light the world by looking for the good in
him each day and then thank him for the good that we see in him each day. Periodically grab his favorite snack or treat
at the store and leave it on his pillow.
Happy marriages spread happiness.
They help our children, work places, and communities to be happier. Second, serve our children. Praise more and criticize less. Help them.
Keep a journal so your posterity can read how you dealt with life’s
challenges and so they can know of your testimony. A journal will light the world for
generations to come. As your children
receive your service and see and help you serve others, they will learn to
serve too. It is contagious and it will
light the world.
Lastly, I think it
is important that we don’t squelch our light by comparing our light to
others. Don’t hold back in what you have
to give because you think someone could do it better. Offer what you have. It is good.
It is needed. Jesus Christ needs
us to share what we know about Him through our thoughts, words and deeds. As we do so, we will light the world.
In the name of
Jesus Christ, Amen.
