A few thoughts from the past few days...

A few weeks ago, Stacey asked me If I would teach the Relief Society lesson for Gina ( she kind of had a lot going on ...Chris just got home from his mission and was speaking that day)

First thought ( after just hearing Jill Egbert's amazing lesson) was: I can't do it!  I would never be able to get up there and talk like that!  I haven't taught Relief Society for about 20 years.  I seriously have been in Young Women forever.  These ladies are lovely and all very kind, but I feel very intimidated by them.

But I said OK.

Then it was kind of weird cause the next week, Gina approaches me and asks me if I would teach the lesson for her.  I was like "oh yeah, Stacey already asked me"  and Gina says, that's strange, because I told her I would get my own sub and we had never talked about asking you.  So apparently, neither one of them knew the other was asking me...so I guess I was supposed to teach this lesson (either that or my friends are ganging up on me!)

Anyway, I went home and looked at the talks I was supposed to take the lesson from. They were from this last conference.  I remembered the first one right off...titled, "What thinks Christ of Me?"  by Neil L. Anderson.  It was one that really struck me when I heard it.  He told about a family that was right in the middle of the big earthquake in Haiti.  The parents were away from home, but their three children were there in the collapsed building.  Everyone assumed they must be dead, because the building was completely destroyed, so no one looked for them...except the parents.  They walked around and around the building, praying and pleading with Heavenly Father to let one of their children be alive.  Then they hear a small voice from under the rubble.  It was their five year old son singing I am a child of God.  They started digging and heard another voice...it was their daughter.  They ended up finding all three of their children alive.  The little boy said he knew his dad would hear him if he sang his favorite song. 

I thought about the stories Kelley had told me about the people he met there in Haiti...about their faith and hope and perseverance through this terrible time. 

I decided I would try to never complain about problems I have... they are really nothing.

The other talk was on seeing ourselves as the Savior sees us.  Seeing the vision of what we can do to be disciples of Christ, then acting on that vision.  Both were pretty deep subjects, way over my head, so that's probably why I was asked to study them and learn how to use them in my own life.

Anyway, the lesson went pretty good.  The ladies were all nice to make comments and help me out. 

We went over to hear Sam speak in our old ward after church.  He gave a good talk and their ward choir sang a neat arrangement of I believe in Christ ( directed by Nancy)  Then while the organ played quietly, Nancy played a recording of Bruce R. McConkie bearing his last testimony.  It was pretty special.  It was really great to get to see the people from the other part of our old ward too.  Gosh I miss them!

We had our first practice for the choir for Stake conference Sunday night.  Two of my absolute favorite songs...Lord I would follow thee, and  This is the Christ.  So grateful to have these opportunities to sing!

Sunday night, sister Abarka called and said : first of all, that she didn't get transferred!  She has been here for a long time...about 7 months I think!  She thought she would surely be transferred this last week, but instead, they took her companion, sister Lupe!....and second...she said her and the other sisters wanted to do the endowments for some of those family names she had seen I had a stack of.  Yeah!  Several of them needed to have the initiatory work done first though, so Tuesday morning I went to the temple to get them done.

When I got there, the parking lot was full!  I don't know what was up, but when I got in there, the dressing room was full too!  The benches there in front of the initiatory room were all full and there were ladies standing waiting to go in.  I took my names in and lady there said "are you sure you want to wait?  It will be a while."  I had told sister Abarka that I would bring the names over to her as soon as I got them done because they were going to the temple that afternoon.  So I said , Sure I will wait!

So I stood for a while, then when one of the ladies waiting got called in, I got her seat!  It was pretty interesting, just watching everything going on around me. 

Several ladies came in to do initiatory work in wheel chairs...and a few with walkers too.  They were taken to the dressing room, then, after about 20 minutes, they came out dressed to do the work.  I watched them struggle to slowly maneuver into the initiatory room  and I thought  Wow!  These women are amazing!  If it was this hard for me to get around, would I even try to come here?  

One older lady came in that had a real difficult time walking...it looked like she had had a stroke and one side didn't work. She would take a step, then drag her other foot along. Even with the help of one of the workers, it was really hard for her.  She just had one name to do, so they helped her go right in.   When she came out a while later, she was smiling from ear to ear and just beaming and waving her pink card.    That was cool.

While I was waiting, I looked at the information on my cards.  The ones that had dates were from the 1860's and  70's. I thought ; If they have been waiting for 145 years, I  probably won't complain about waiting for an hour.   That was a good day at the temple.

(plus the flowers were all blooming and it smelled like heaven!)

  

 KC helped me plant the beans and carrots the other day. We used some of the poles we got from mum and daddy's place.  They worked out real good!

KC and Jared have been lifting weights  about every morning for the past while and it's starting to show...look at those muscles! (not cute little muscles anymore!)

Have I mentioned lately how lucky I feel to have a son like KC.  He is always willing to help do what ever needs to be done and will help with any crazy project we are working on.  He is always positive and happy and funny! Gosh I just love him to pieces.  I love all of my kids to pieces!  They are all so special in their own unique way!  How did I ever get so lucky? 

Oh and just a cute picture Camille sent me of the kids..ooh just want to squeeze them!