The beauty of the gathering...

My daughter is here and we are enjoying every single cozy minute while the weather wales wind and snow and freezing cold.  It's wonderful!  We are heart connected...this my only, most beautiful daughter ever!, and we love to talk endlessly and reminisce and this time we are binge watching Call the Midwife (not for the faint of heart and also not the best to binge watch if you are put off by sounds of laboring women!)  We always find something to do and being housebound weather-wise is not a problem at all!

My heart is so full of love for life right now...a life that includes family and friends and a Church congregation.  I am 100% in love with the Gospel and my testimony and my belief/faith/confidence in Prophets and Apostles, has increased so much!  The doctrine/principles are always the same but the way of doing things has totally been revamped and I'm in love with all of it!  This is not the way things were done/presented/expectation of living, when we joined the Church.  It's now so marvelously Christ centered in following that simple scripture about Christ...He went about doing good.

I welcome all of the changes and am thankful that is not a struggle for me.  I look back at scriptures and think of how things were for each era for believers and how they were provided for, in dealing with life challenges, be it building an ark or picking manna or looking at a brass serpent on a pole or whatever.  Most of all I think of Adam building an altar and how burnt offerings permeated everything.  All was so symbolic and so much went into that offering.  So many things to be aligned.  and I think of how the Law of Moses was given and how there became so many facets, added by others, that it was riddled with complexities but still loved and believed in.  My mind cannot fathom how people must have felt to have been told...it's over...the law of Moses is fulfilled...stop living this...don't do animal sacrifice...it's over.  Surely that would have been a shock that some would never be able to accept those realities, even to this day, and Christ is not accepted as the actual prophesied Savior.  Even though He told them He was the One.  And that was when he was 12!  and in the Temple!

What a fantastic day we are living in.  I do not understand why we are being told to do things in this wonderful new way but I know in time I will.  I also know...it doesn't matter if I never know or never understand.  I know it's right and I know it's true and I'm loving how all of this makes me feel.  That feeling is joyous!

President Nelson was in AZ and I loved this counsel he gave.  It's so doable and sensible and inviting and promise filled.

Enjoy this!.....

• “As you work together to remodel your home into a sanctuary of faith — filled with learning together from the home-centered, Church supported curriculum — that is gathering Israel.
• “As you parents create experiences where your children can learn to feel the Spirit of the Lord — that is gathering Israel.
• “As you do family history, serve and worship in the temple, use your discretionary time to draw closer to Heavenly Father and to His Son and to help someone else do the same — that is gathering Israel.
• “As you help to strengthen the testimonies of others; as you repent and help others to repent; as you reach out in your communities and participate in worthy efforts to alleviate suffering — that is gathering Israel.