Hearing the Spirit of God

Last night, as I was leaving Macey's grocery store, I thought I heard the Holy Ghost tell me to ask a lady if she and her sons needed a ride.  She was sitting on a bench with her 3 young boys.  She looked to be on her phone and not to be in great need.  The boys were well behaved and just sitting there like nothing was wrong.  I kept walking but not far before I turned around.  At that point she looked as if she was wiping a tear from her eye.  I wasn't sure.  Wasn't sure if she really needed my help.  Wasn't sure if it was really the Spirit that was telling me to talk to her or if it was just my mind (something I often have a hard time discerning).  The thought to help her was so silent.  I could barely hear it.

A great lesson was learned last night.

I turned my cart around and asked her if she and her boys needed a ride somewhere.  In her very broken English, I soon learned that she had been waiting there for 2 hours, not knowing what to do.  Not knowing how to get to her destination.  She and her children had taken a bus and didn't know where to go from there.  When I asked her where she needed to go, she told me Washington Terrace.  What is the likelihood that this woman and her children would need a ride to
Washington Terrace?  The place where I live.  A place with only 1 gas station, no Post Office, no Police Station, no grocery stores, and the list goes on.   

I smiled at her and told her that I lived in Washington Terrace and would love to give her and her sons a ride.  As we were driving to Washington Terrace, I was trying to figure out where she needed to go.  She knew it was a LDS church but that was about it.  Even though Washington Terrace is small, it still is in Utah which means lots of LDS churches!  But as her son was translating for her, I remembered a certain church that I was pretty sure had a Spanish speaking branch that met there.  I told her about this location and what it was near and she got all excited that she was pretty sure it was the place.  I drove her there and all was well.

But such a powerful lesson was taught to me as I was pulling away from the entrance of that church.  I kept thinking, "I barely heard the Holy Ghost tell me to ask this lady and her children if they needed a ride."  I was instantly repentant.  The only way I would ever hear the voice of the Lord, through the Holy Ghost, would be if I live the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  If I am busy with pointless things, I will never hear His will.  I am so grateful that the Lord loves me enough to give me these wake up calls.

We've Got A Walker!!!

As of yesterday, we can say that Baby Boy is walking!  He has taken a few steps here and there, before yesterday, but with as many as he actually took yesterday....well, we're going to call it!

He also has 4 teeth.  This is crazy....he's only 10 months old!

Stake Conference

This weekend was Stake Conference.  Since we live so close to the temple, our Stake Conference session on Sunday is at the tabernacle next to the temple.  The seats were comfortable and atmosphere peaceful.

Afterwards, we walked over to the temple so that Hyrum could take pictures with his tablet (Thank you MeMaw and Poppy!).  He has been wanting to go and take pictures for some time now.  To prove how much he loves the temple let me share our Sunday morning, wake up experience.  

Conference was at 9:00 a.m.  Because we meet with another ward in our building on Sundays, we rotate each year as to who goes first or second.  This year, we go at 1:00 p.m. and we have gotten spoiled!  David and I woke up the boys and Brigham and Hyrum were not happy about it!  You should have seen the sour look on Hyrum's face.  "Why are we getting up so early?!"  I told him we were getting ready for Stake Conference.  "But why THIS early?!" he wanted to know.  Which followed with an even more crabby face.  But the instant I told him it was at the tabernacle by the temple, oh, I wish I could have recorded that frown turning upside down.  We was instantly happy!

 (We ran into some of our ward members while taking pictures so we decided to take one with all of us)

On the drive over there, this car was in front of us.  David said it was "all American!"  Yes is was!  It was proclaiming it's love for Jesus (Can you see the "Elect Jesus" bumper sticker as well as the fish sign?) and well as the flying flag.  Love it!

Ponderizing

The Saturday before General Conference was the Women's General Conference.  I have been meaning to write my testimony of something important that I came away with on that Saturday.  I now see why I didn't.  

Elder Durrant's challenge to "ponderize" scriptures (during last week's General Conference) lead Levi to choosing a scripture for our family that just made what I learned at the Women's Conference all the more real and important to remember.  He choose Matthew 11:28.  

" Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

With this "ponderizing" that we have committed to do, we will be putting a new scripture on our fridge every week after Family Home Evening.  We will see it over and over as we are in the kitchen throughout the week.  This will get us ready to talk about it at the following Family Home Evening.  Well, on Tuesday night, after reading our scriptures as a family, I brought up this scripture.  Brigham complained, "Aren't we supposed to talk about this at our next Family Home Evening?"  Little stinker.  But I love his honesty.  Yes, we will talk about it then but I wanted to bring it up for some reason.  Maybe it was to keep it in their minds.  Not sure, but I'm glad that I did.

So we talked about all the ways it could be interpreted.  So many good things were brought up by everyone.  It could mean working hard physically and getting rest through God daily.  It could be working hard Monday - Saturday which means you could be very much "heavy laden" by Sunday.  If we keep the Sabbath Day holy, then that is when we would find rest.  It could be a pregnant mother in labor, who is obviously heavy laden, and finding rest once delivering that baby.  But the the interpretation that I kept thinking about was one that would apply to this life....our whole life experience on Earth.  

For some of us, and I would guess it is most of us, going throughout life can seem so very hard at times.  And for some of us, it can feel that way the majority of our lives.  Talk about "heavy laden!"  You may feel you "labour" a lot in your mind, as you beat yourself up about things not accomplished.  Or not being good enough.  You may just want a break!  Doesn't that "rest" sound so wonderful?!  For some of us, that "rest" will only be found in the afterlife.  Which brings me back to the beginning of this journaling experience today.

Sister Linda S. Reeves said at the Women's General Conference,

"Sisters, I do not know why we have the many trials that we have, but it is my personal feeling that the reward is so great, so eternal and everlasting, so joyful and beyond our understanding that in that day of reward, we may feel to say to our merciful, loving Father, “Was that ALL that was required?” I believe that if we could daily remember and recognize the depth of that love our Heavenly Father and our Savior have for us, we would be willing to do anything to be back in Their presence again, surrounded by Their love eternally. What will it matter, dear sisters, what we suffered here if, in the end, those trials are the very things which qualify us for eternal life and exaltation in the kingdom of God with our Father and Savior?" 

"Is that all that was required?"  I have thought about that phrase over and over again since that Saturday.  But as we, as a family, were discussing the meaning of Matthew 11:28, that phrase just sunk in even more.  Embedded in scripture, now this means all the more to me.    

I truly can not wait for the glorious day to be able to say to my very loving Father in Heaven, "Was that really all that was required of me?  Really?"

Conference Weekend

On Friday, Helen came up to stay with us for the night.  I didn't tell the boys so that they could be surprised.  Last week I surprised Brigham by getting him out of school early so that we could get his hair cut and get a treat.  So I though it would be perfect for Hyrum to be the one taken out of school early so that he could come with me to pick up Helen at the  UTA FrontRunner station (commuter rail train).   He was excited just to be checked out of school so when I told him we were going to pick up Grandma, he was bursting with joy.  He has always loved his Grandma Helen.  I think it is because she takes the time to just listen to him talk...and if you just wait, trust me, he will talk your ear off.

 So after we picked her up, we went to lunch at Kneaders.

 The next day was the beginning of General Conference.  The picture above looks like our house is trashed but really Hyrum was getting a fort put together.  It is amazing to me the imagination of a child and then even more so what that particular imagination of the moment leads to.  Somehow he talked Grandma into pulling on this airplane (Baby Boy's toy) as he quickly tries to make his way from one end of the fort to the other.  He wanted her to see if she could get his head, with the airplane, while he was crawling under the fort.  They did that over and over until there was success and then she told him that they had to stop so that they could listen to conference.  

Like this picture portrays, for the most part Conference was very peaceful.  The boys do better and better each year.

As always, Elder Holland's talk stood out.  That man is the best speaker in the world, I'm telling you.  Every time he speaks I know he is speaking of something that he knows to be true.  So I listen.  I listen really hard.  I love this man so very much.

But a talk given by Elder Durrant really struck David and I.  He challenged us to do two things.  1)  To save money each week.  2) To start ponderizing scriptures.

Our family decided, last night at Family Home Evening, that we would start to ponderize a new scripture each week.  We will decide on a new scripture each week and put it on the fridge, think about it throughout the week and then discuss it at the following F.H.E.

For me personally, I needed to be reminded the importance of truly keeping the Sabbath Day holy.  I can't even remember the man's name who spoke of it but it had a lasting impression.  The Sabbath Day should be different from the rest.  I'm good at that to an extent.  But I want to be better.  Much better, actually.  I want to be better about getting to church on time so that I can focus on the Sacrament.  I want to start thinking of the Sacrament before I even get to church.  I want to go over, with Heavenly Father, what I need to repent of BEFORE I get to church.  I thought this man bringing up the latter thing to be very important for parents of young children.  It is very hard to concentrate during the Sacrament part of the meeting when you have little ones.  But if I do it before I get there, somewhere in my home alone, it can be done.

Cub Scouts Raingutter Regatta

Last night was the Cub Scout's (from our ward) Raingutter Regatta.  But before the race, Sister Stephensen gave out awards.  Here is Brigham leading a cheer.  He's so stinkin' cute.  Even if the boy won't go to Scouts (he was only there tonight because of the race...but at least he was supporting his brother, right?)!  He got an award (which is why he was up there) but he was suppose to get this award MONTHS ago.  You get awards once a month during the pack meetings but since Brigham complains each week about not wanting to go to Scouts, yeah.....

Little things can be hard about parenting.  I think he should go.  You learn survival skills in Scouts.  You learn respect for country.  You also are away from electronics!!!!!  And I know parents who make their children go to Scouts.  I can get that because it really is such a great program.  But I also know parents, mainly parent's of the older Boy Scouts, who won't buy them a car or let them get their license unless they get their Eagle or other things of the sort.  I just don't agree with that.  I already "make" them go to church.  I don't want to "make" them do too many things.  I have seen that in certain parenting and it almost always leads to children pushing back so hard that they go astray.  I don't know.  It's hard to know what to do that is exactly right when it comes to parenting.  I guess I just have to have the faith that I am doing the best with what I know at this point of my life.

 Daddy and Hyrum made the wood part of the boat from scratch together.

 Everytime Hyrum raced on this side of the gutters he would get stuck.  But look at his face!  Instead of him crying or getting mad he was just having fun.  I was so proud of him!  When he raced on the other side, he won each time.