life goes on...

Hello!  Back here again and thinking of each of you.  I really enjoy sharing what I'm thinking about and how the Gospel fits in so PuzzlePiecePerfect with any of life's challenges.  You know we are regrouping and dealing with health issues and trying to age in a graceful manner.  Is that even possible?  I think so.  Sort of like finding a road closed that used to be open and was as familiar to you as the back of your hand and then you are putzy-ing along and suddenly a roadblock.  Like a rock slide that will require a new road being built.  We are into roadwork!  Same destination goal but taking a new untraveled route.  Building the road as we go!  Tedious and overwhelming at times but still well worth the effort and pleasant journeying as paving becomes a reality.

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So...do you keep a journal?  Just a simple journal with the happenings of the day.  nothing poetic and heart wrenching.  just a simple thing of what was done that day.  I know I've mentioned it before and have wished I kept a running list of callings I've had in the Church.  maybe a sentence about it.  when called.  when released.  dates.  who I worked with.  I shared I can no longer recite from memory every wonderful opportunity I've had.  Would also enjoy bits of daily life experiences.

My sister recently was diagnosed with asthma.  I was startled when she said...I've had it since childhood.  I used to have to come in from outdoors and stop playing.   I said...What?!  you never came in from outdoors!  we made pioneer cabins using those sawhorses and putting lumber and sod on top..we played on those cable spools that Daddy brought home and played until Mother called us in to eat and I went on and on.  She said ...I played but I always came in early.  I said..No.  You didn't.  You stayed outside.

I'll spare you the word battle details.  We lived the same life with two 100% entirely different scenarios with this last telling.  Of course you know that I'm going to say...she's totally wrong and I'm totally right.

I thought how nice if we had a journal with the happenings by my Mother.  She could be the arbitrator/mediator!  And I of course!, would be found the sister with the true version of our shared childhood!  Maybe Mother would have written...The girls played outdoors all day as they usually do!!

Then I thought of you and decided to bare such unpleasantness with our sister standoff!  Sharing/baring in hopes that you will keep a journal of your ground hog days as some day you will be glad.  (If I do remember callings.  I can't remember dates/years...of calling and releasing)

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We continue to enjoy the recent conference talks.  We listened to Elder Packers talk and his health is so declined and his speech so mumbly and slurred at times--our hearts just went out to him.  Terry said...Let's read it outloud 'cause I think we missed a lot.  He was right!  I felt like we would never see him at another General Conference but when I read his words they had the power of a super strong powerful person.

Elder Packer gave one of the most beautiful statements about the Atonement ever.  I copied it for you.  3 paragraphs.  You will see it when you scroll down.  Do you ever have trouble really forgiving yourself or even others and what they have done to you????  You will want to copy and print this and hang it on your fridge and you can thank me later! 

Some of the talks are below and if a quote is there?...I just knew you'd want it!

"Subjects for general conference talks are assigned—not by mortal authority but by the impressions of the Spirit. Many subjects would address the mortal concerns we all share. But just as Jesus did not teach how to overcome the mortal challenges or political oppression of His day, He usually inspires His modern servants to speak about what we must do to reform our personal lives to prepare us to return to our heavenly home."

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"As I have prepared for this opportunity today, the Spirit has taught me, and I have committed to speak words of kindness more often to my cherished companion and about him, to lift the men in my family and express gratitude for the ways they fulfill their divine and complementary roles. And I have committed to follow the proverb 'Thee lift me and I’ll lift thee, and we’ll ascend together.'"

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The Plan of Happiness by Elder Packer...here

The Atonement, which can reclaim each one of us, bears no scars. That means that no matter what we have done or where we have been or how something happened, if we truly repent, He has promised that He would atone. And when He atoned, that settled that. There are so many of us who are thrashing around, as it were, with feelings of guilt, not knowing quite how to escape. You escape by accepting the Atonement of Christ, and all that was heartache can turn to beauty and love and eternity.

I am so grateful for the blessings of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the power of procreation, for the power of redemption, for the Atonement—the Atonement which can wash clean every stain no matter how difficult or how long or how many times repeated. The Atonement can put you free again to move forward, cleanly and worthily, to pursue that path that you have chosen in life.

I bear witness that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that the Atonement is not a general thing that is for the whole Church. The Atonement is individual, and if you have something that is bothering you—sometimes so long ago you can hardly remember it—put the Atonement to work. It will clean it up, and you, as does He, will remember your sins no more. 

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The only legitimate, authorized expression of the powers of procreation is between husband and wife, a man and a woman, who have been legally and lawfully married. Anything other than this violates the commandments of God. Do not yield to the awful temptations of the adversary, for every debt of transgression must be paid “till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing” (Matthew 5:26).