I just wanted to tell each of you how wonderful you are and how lucky I am to be your wife, mom or grandma.  The Lord has blessed me with an outstanding husband and father to my children and an even better grandpa to my grandchildren.  I love you with all of my heart.  I am so thankful  that we chose to be sealed for eternity.  I am looking forward to our being able to be together 24 - 7 in the near future.  Dennis I love you and want you to be eternally happy.  I want with all my heart for you to grow in the gospel.  You are a wonderful son and I am proud to be your mother.  You are so smart and kind.  I love how willing you are to help with all of the family.  Thank you.  Sean & Heather I love you both more than words can express.  I am so thankful for the two of you and the way that you are raising you beautiful family.  You are an example to me.  The two of you make one.  That is what this life is all about.  Dave and Adrienne I love you both more than words can express too.   I can't tell you how happy I am that you are together.  I am happy that you have had this time to live away from here.  To strengthen you marriage and family.  You both have grown so much.  I miss you and your sweet family, but I know that your move was a good one for the whole family.  Can't wait to see you soon.  I personally hope that Lucy is baptised up there.  I am selfish because I like the one on one that dad and I get when we travel up for a special occassion.  Richy & Kari I love the two of you more than words can express too.  You are both a wonderful example of selflessness.  You are teaching you children how to be good people.  I feel the love that you have for each other, your children and the rest of the family.  Ethan & Kim you will never know how my I love the two of you.  I am so grateful for the way you are raising your sweet family.  I love that you allow us to share in the life of your family through the blog, and visits.  Thank you for being such a great example to me.  I will post again after Tracy's wedding and that time I will add some pictures.  Once again I want to say thank you to my wonderful husband for loving me, thank you to my wonderful children (that includes Heather, Adrienne, Kari and Ethan) and my wonderful grandchildren.  I love you all more than you will ever know.  I have been truly blessed in this life.  Mom

Checking In From Washington

My lovely bride informed me that it was my turn to post something.  I told her that was great because I had a wonderful spiritual experience I wanted to share anyway.  But then she told me that y’all would be upset if I didn’t include pictures.  So we went to the temple today and snapped a few. 

About quarter to six yester-evening while Adrienne was out on the town with Lu, one of our neighbors asked me, “Is tonight at our building or in Benton City?”  My response was a simple, “What’s tonight?”  But before they had a chance to castigate their corrupt contact I remembered it was Stake Conference this weekend, and they must have been talking about the Adult Session.  I did some digging and informed them the meeting was at 7:00 about 25 minutes away in Benton City.  They invited us to ride with them, but since A was not yet home, and I had no inclination as to when she would be I declined. 

I tossed around the idea of hurrying to get ready to go once I knew if my wife would arrive in time.  “Or maybe I should just throw in the towel, and not worry about it.”  In the past my approach to Stake Conference was, “Woo-hoo, it’s a day off!”  But I’ve been trying to make daily effort to become better at making good decisions, and get closer to the Lord.  But still, “I legitimately forgot about it, we don’t have a babysitter, and even if we make it, we’ll most likely be 30 minutes late.”  I had enough good reasons to not go, and feel perfectly fine about it. 

That’s when my mind played a dirty trick on me, and thoughts that I didn’t really invite seemed to pry open the window of my conscience.  “How many scripture stories talk about people sacrificing, and traveling sometimes great distances to listen to God’s divinely inspired message?  We are lucky enough to live in a time and place where we don’t have to look far to find and feast on our Father’s words, and more importantly feel our Father’s voice.  These leaders are called of God, and even if I can’t understand the words that are coming out of their mouths, if I go with the desire to feel, like Alma taught, and the faith to act, His message for me will be received, and He will be well pleased, and I will be happy.  That will help me to be better at being a person, which will help me be a better husband, and dad, and better at everything I do.” 

I was touched.  My testimony of the gospel grew.  My testimony of church callings was strengthened.  I will always do whatever I can to be sure to attend my meetings.  It is easy to forget the things the Lord taught me this weekend.  All it takes is missing church a couple times here and there.  Rationalizing for something that might seem to be completely valid will only cover my eyes, and hide from me the most necessary things to this life, constant nourishment by the Spirit of God.  Jesus is our Savior, and He wants so badly to do everything He can for us.  We simply have to let Him, by opening our hearts to Him, by not shutting Him out.  I testify that He lives, that He loves, and that we can share everything with Him.