Just a Thought... or two...

Today, in church, a young man named Jordan spoke. He is leaving on a mission to Mexico and his assignment was to talk about the Christ-like attributes necessary for a missionary. He spoke about the ability to love all people and how that was an attribute he wanted to work on. He began praying for help to develop the ability to love all people. He described how the answer to his prayer came one morning as he was waiting in the dentist office for a root canal. He said he wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone and so found a chair in a corner away from other patients. He noticed a mentally handicapped man in a wheel chair, being very loud and boisterous and talking to other patients. Jordan tried to ignore him and read. Soon he realized the man was wheeling his chair toward him. "No", he thought, "Go away, I don't want to be bothered." But the man came anyway. He pulled his chair right up to Jordan and began asking him questions. "Why are you here?" "For a root canal." "Do you go to school?" "No." "Do you work?" "No" "Why not" "I'm leaving on a mission for my church." "Do you have a girlfriend?" "No" "Why?" "Because I'm going to be a missionary." And so it went. Then the man lifted himself out of his wheelchair and sat in the chair next to Jordan. He lay his head on Jordan's shoulder and said, "I love you." As Jordan shared this experience, I too learned the lesson that Jordan learned about loving our fellowman. We all need hearts as pure and gentle as the handicapped man. We all need to feel that love for those around us.

Currently, my job (calling) in the Church is as a Ward Missionary. That means I help the full-time missionaries (those guys in dark suits) in teaching the gospel. A man we are teaching was telling us how his uncles were very concerned that he was studying with the Mormons. This man has really enjoyed learning about the gospel of Jesus Christ and is making changes in his life that are more in harmony with the gospel. Nonetheless, his Uncles are concerned and have been spending great amounts of time with him,trying to convince him that he is headed down the wrong path. As the man told us about this, he paused. Then he wondered out loud: "Why are they so concerned now, when I am making changes for good in my life. Why weren't they concerned like this when I was blowing coke up my nose? Why weren't they there trying to lead me away from bad friends and drugs when my life was a mess? Where were they then?"

The gospel of Jesus Christ is so simple and so easy. The more we learn about Him, the more we learn about ourselves and our potential. Who are we? We are literal sons and daughters of a Heavenly King. This life is but an instant in our eternal progression. We lived with Heavenly Father before we were born and if we live Christ-like lives, we will live with Him again. When you truly know and understand that, it's not as hard to give up the worldly ways and live as Jesus has taught us too... With compassion, love, charity for all, peace, forgiveness.

I Wonder When He Comes Again...

Cadie took this picture at the Portland Temple last weekend. It is the angel Moroni. A statue of him is on every L.D.S. temple and the statue always faces east. Why? Because when the Savior comes again, He will come from the east. I always think about that when I see the sun rise.. I actually see the sun rise quite a bit, because I go for those early morning runs when it is still dark when I leave. I love to watch the sunrise, because first there is a glimmer of light and then it grows brighter and brighter. Sometimes I imagine that this will be how it is when the Savior comes again too. We will be looking towards the east and first there will be a glimmer, which will grow brighter and brighter until there is no mistaking His coming. Will the world be ready? Will I be ready? All He asks is that we strive to become like Him as we live in this world. Sometimes it is hard. We get angry over petty things. We are selfish. We want "Me" time. But in the scriptures we learn, "I give men weaknesses that they may become strengths unto them." Who gave us our weaknesses? God, Himself. Why? So that we could master those weaknesses and become like our Savior Jesus Christ, who mastered the temptations of the devil and who showed us how to return to our Heavenly Father. I wonder when He comes again?

Thing One, Thing Two and Thing Three

Thing One is Cadie, my gentle sweet first born girl, also know as Twin A. She loves to cook, is very smart and likes to play jokes on people. She plays the fiddle very well and keeps her room very messy. Thing Two is Charli, aka Twin B. She is a little miracle, as the doctors said she would not make it. She is tiny for her age, but very big in spunk and spirit. She loves to play basketball and likes to write stories. She is not much neater than her sister, thus the Thing One and Two labels! Thing Three is Cami, our amazing caboose who has decided her job in life is to entertain us, boss us around and make sure we all know what is going on. She will want to show us a trick she has learned and will go around the room with her bent little finger pointing into each face, saying "Watch me" to each person there. If someone says, "Bye Mom, I'm leaving," she comes to me to "tell me", "Robbie's going to school Mom." "Daddy's going outside Mom." When she wants you to play with her, she won't let up til you sit down. "Cami, I'll play with you in a minute." "No, you play with me now. Sit down, right here. You play with this doll." "Cami," I say, "I can't play with you yet. I'll be there in just a minute." "No," she answers back calmly, "You play with me now." Thing Three, the terrorist!

Cami started Primary!

Sunday, January 4th was Cami's first day in Primary. (By the way, it is also to anniversary of my baptism, oh about 34 years ago.) Troy and Cadie took her to Primary. Cadie sat with her during opening exercises. Then Cadie had to leave... and Cami cried. But things must have gotten better, because she said she had a good time and she liked her teacher and she liked the songs, but she didn't sing (she told us this.)

Hope smiling brightly before us...

My computer caught a virus and has been in the hospital for the past 2 weeks. I can't wait to get it back so that I can post pictures of the terrific snow that has bombarded us for the past 2 1/2 weeks. It began snowing on Wednesday the 17th and hasn't really ever stopped, although today there was not a single flake. Never fear, it begins again tomorrow--a "MONSTER" storm, they're saying. Over 80" of snow has fallen since it all began. Currently there is about 3 feet on the ground. Every morning, I wake up, attempt to run my 3 miles (thank heaven for Yak Traks!), wade out to the property to feed the horses, shovel a new path to the snow field where the horse hang out by day, then home to shovel all the other paths... out the front door, to the barn, etc. Then I finally come inside about 2 pm and feed kids and wish we didn't have so much snow. Our Christmas was interesting because the kids got out of school 2 days early due to snow, the family computer didn't work, snow slid off the roof and repositioned the satellite, leaving us no TV, the temps hovered around 15 degrees or less and we had sooo much snow. We kept the kids busy shoveling, plowing and feeding the neighbors horse, so cabin fever wouldn't over take us. Troy called it "Going on snow patrol". Today, as the sun shone brightly (although it was only 10 degrees), the words to the song "There is hope smiling brightly before us and we know that deliverance is nigh..." ran through my head and I knew that it would eventually all go away!

Christmas in the Northwest!

As soon as my "real" computer is fixed, I will attach pictures of the "amazing" "astounding" "enormous" snow that has fallen upon us in the past week. We have well over 40 inches of white stuff on the ground, it goes up past my knees. It snowed 2 1/2 feet last Thursday, 12 inches on Saturday, 9 inches by Monday morning and probably near another foot by 4 pm today, Christmas. We are not dreaming of a white Christmas anymore!

The most amazing experience of our Christmas this year was performing at the Union Gospel Mission. Troy called to see if we could serve dinners to the homeless and then mentioned that we had a little family band. They immediately put him in contact with the Services coordinator, who asked if we could just do their worship hour. Troy said yes, and we began to practice. We were a little aprhensive about playing there, unsure what we would find. But the day finally came (Dec. 9th)and we took our little rag tag bluegrass, country, jingle bell band to the chapel of the homeless shelter. After we were all set up and ready to go, they opened the doors and the chairs filled with well over 50 men and about 20 women. We thought somehow we were there to serve them. The chaplain said it would be good for them to see a family working and performing together. Little did we know how much they would serve us. Amazing is the word that best describes it for me. Just Amazing. To watch their faces as the clapped, laughed and joined us in singing was absolutely priceless. But the coolest thing was afterward, as I watched my children, my family being served by homeless, raggedly dressed men and women. One by one, so many came up and thanked my family, complemented my kids individually. "You sing so beautifully," "You are really good on the drums, I play the drums, so I know you are really good." "Thank you for coming tonight." I came away realizing that these men and women served me more than I could have ever served them.

Merry Christmas!