Journeying in joy!

There is something undeniable going on inside of me and I feel so terrific...such joy...such peace...such tenderness...such amazing feelings- it's incredible!!  I am absorbing every beautiful feeling and every single thought that pops into my mind!  I've had enough life experience to know that this, most likely, is not going to maintain for the duration of my mortal life but oh, my! this feels heavenly!  sigh.  oh, bliss!  yes!  this feels soul deep.  A spiritual tutoring and as it comes, I understand and recognize it and feel such joy and gratitude.  I document my feelings.   Right now I try to find the words for my overall feeling but they are not forthcoming and I respect that but I can share what I am able to express with a few words... Amazing...this started February 25th and bits and pieces of learning pop into my mind and remain for the savoring and pondering and leave traces of comfort and guidance and understanding. 

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the enjoyment of feeling the Church members embrace being Christians is so exciting to me.  Studying the NT is so perfect for all this newness.  The entire walking on the water chapters are inspiring.  today Terry and I listened to this talk.   here  It is a great read but if you really want to feel the spirit of the message you have to watch this.  If we were an amen saying Church...there would have been several.  Terry and I did the head nod and said things like...Wow!...isn't that something?...that is so beautiful!...that sort of whisper talk.  It made me teary in all of it's tenderness.  Afterward I read the Hymn Lyrics to #105- Master the Tempest is Raging. Then we played it and sang.  Well, I sang and he was not feeling so hot so he sort of hummed.  I think I now sing bass.  Life will never be the same after you listen to President Howard W. Hunter deliver this CR.

"Moses in a business suit."...

...What a quote about the Prophet.  CNN!  Wow!  here  This is the first time I've ever seen anything like this!  Oh, yes...I'm so excited my thoughts are flying around!

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I always say I'm going to blog M-F and then I let life get in the way and thoughts stack up and blah blah blah.  Sorry.

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I've been having a serge of marvelous feeling the Spirit in a really powerful way.  Like last night.  something very simple and yet the Spirit just moved me to tears.  Terry and I are enjoying the Come Follow Me program.  It's so important to us because he hasn't been to Church in what seems like forever!  He and I had talked about including music in our study and Section 25 and hymns like prayers etc. etc.  blessing on heads etc. etc.  We are both looking forward to GC and are amazed at the Prophet and the revelations coming to him.  We got on the music section of hymns and we listened and sang several hymns about the Prophet.  I would read the words first and then we'd sing.  The lyrics were so beautiful and I found myself teary.  Teary with gratitude!  Gratitude, for my testimony, of the entire package that comes with being a Church member.  

We listened to Hymns 19-35.  Then we talked about when Terry was the Branch President or maybe Bishop and he called a young struggling sister to be the choir director and she introduced us to some hymns that we'd never heard before...127 Does the Journey Seem Long? and #115 and #118 and #120.  So we played those!

Hymns have been my friend through my struggles many times.  They are comforting and reassuring and give me hope and peace that I will make it though whatever is mine to conquer/overcome.

When the current Hymnal was new and replaced our navy blue one in 1985...our DIL was with us for the summer in Alaska.  She, and our son, were there earning money for college.  She and I sat for hours, figuring out which hymns were new, and she played them and we sang them.  When the new Hymnal comes out next year I want to do something similar!  Thanks to technology I can go to the Church site we used last night and hear every single hymn.  Yes!

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I've enjoyed the parables so much and have really thought about the wheat and tares.  How that gathering is happening now!

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The age of women coming to the forefront in the Church and what President Kimball prophesied is happening!  Everywhere I see women with husbands, serving right along side them, on the General level!!  I know I've blogged before and you know that I am super excited!!  Saturday I attended a Stake Woman's Conference and the speakers were powerful and they were local Mothers on high alert to protect their cubs!  You step in with the world mishandling children, in any way, including not valuing them and promoting abortion, and every woman's heart will rise to the occasion and all, will step up to the plate inunited fashion.  and the same thing holds true for demeaning of the female role.  What a day!!!

Word Power...

Today I was visiting with one of my granddaughters.  She was calling from Florida while headed out on a shopping trip with her Mother, with the goal, to find the right dress for her white coat ceremony (Pathology).  We are at ease talking about anything and everything.  I love that!

We just yak-yakked for 30 minutes and it was wonderful!  Words...how we use them and enjoy communicating and strengthening and comforting each other... or words mis-used that have the power to create pain/anger etc. so powerful!

A man has joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season, how good is it! Proverbs 15:23

This morning I've been addressing St. Patrick day cards to my family and SS class and friends in distant places.  I was reminded of the connection and the power of staying in touch by sharing our feelings through our words...even something as outdated and archaic and time consuming as greeting cards!

I know I blogged (somewhere) about our early membership and trying to understand and figure out how Priesthood blessings work.  That was just so foreign and yet so desirable to experience that power in our life.  I shared about Terry being asked to help the Branch President administer to his very sick son and how Terry and I both really hoped it "worked" so the young man wasn't let down.  To our surprise he was healed.  The event that helped us most of all was a wedding that I attended in the Oakland Temple and the officiator asking the men in the room who had given their wives a Priesthood blessing and they all raised their hands.  He then said that he wasn't talking about when they were sick but when they needed comfort and told them they should use that power for their families.  Up to that moment we thought it was for illness.  Terry worked that day and wasn't with me and when I told him we both decided to use that power for our family.  I have received some absolutely marvelous blessings from him.  Even now, with his health not 100%, and if I start feeling overwhelmed or whatever, he will bless me.

One thing that he had to learn was how to feel the spirit to pronounce a blessing.  He did that.

If I needed a blessing of healing...I wanted someone that I had confidence in (sort of me judging them worthy of having the Priesthood!  Maybe that already negates any good forthcoming!), not only of their faithfulness but their belief in the power they had.  I wanted to believe their words and would listen and have them recorded and re-read them.  sometimes I struggled with the pronounced blessing.  I know my son and husband both would struggle sometimes over a blessing they had given and fret about it not happening to the individual as they had said or puzzling over why they said such and such. I remember Terry receiving a blessing once and was told "I command you to get out of this bed and walk".  Well, I felt no spirit about that and two hours or so later, I had him in the ER.  None of that shakes my faith as that fellow must be on a rather steep learning curve!

Others probably learned about the words pronounced, and understand what I was late to understand.  The words are great but that is not the main thing!!  What a beautiful relief!!

IF you are going...ho hum yawn...everyone already knows this!...then just stop reading my blog today!  If you have had or are having questions or struggles or etc. etc. then read this!!!  (really I should charge you for me sharing this!)  In 2010 Elder Oaks clarified it as only he can do!  The last sentence is such a summary!  (IF I shared this talk before...I don't think I did...then enjoy again!)

Healing the Sick by Elder Dallin H. Oaks here

There are five parts to the use of priesthood authority to bless the sick: (1) the anointing, (2) the sealing of the anointing, (3) faith, (4) the words of the blessing, and (5) the will of the Lord.

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Words of Blessing

Another part of a priesthood blessing is the words of blessing spoken by the elder after he seals the anointing. These words can be very important, but their content is not essential and they are not recorded on the records of the Church. In some priesthood blessings—like a patriarchal blessing—the words spoken are the essence of the blessing. But in a healing blessing it is the other parts of the blessing—the anointing, the sealing, faith, and the will of the Lord—that are the essential elements.

Ideally, the elder who officiates will be so in tune with the Spirit of the Lord that he will know and declare the will of the Lord in the words of the blessing. Brigham Young taught priesthood holders, “It is your privilege and duty to live so that you know when the word of the Lord is spoken to you and when the mind of the Lord is revealed to you.”13 When that happens, the spoken blessing is fulfilled literally and miraculously. On some choice occasions I have experienced that certainty of inspiration in a healing blessing and have known that what I was saying was the will of the Lord. However, like most who officiate in healing blessings, I have often struggled with uncertainty on the words I should say. For a variety of causes, every elder experiences increases and decreases in his level of sensitivity to the promptings of the Spirit. Every elder who gives a blessing is subject to influence by what he desires for the person afflicted. Each of these and other mortal imperfections can influence the words we speak.

Fortunately, the words spoken in a healing blessing are not essential to its healing effect. If faith is sufficient and if the Lord wills it, the afflicted person will be healed or blessed whether the officiator speaks those words or not. Conversely, if the officiator yields to personal desire or inexperience and gives commands or words of blessing in excess of what the Lord chooses to bestow according to the faith of the individual, those words will not be fulfilled. Consequently, brethren, no elder should ever hesitate to participate in a healing blessing because of fear that he will not know what to say. The words spoken in a healing blessing can edify and energize the faith of those who hear them, but the effect of the blessing is dependent upon faith and the Lord’s will, not upon the words spoken by the elder who officiated.

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Wow!...oh, WOW!!!

In 1984 President Nelson and President Oaks were sustained at the April General Conference...35 years ago!  President Gordon B. Hinckley, sustained three years early as a counselor in the First Presidency, gave his address and I remember how he mentioned about the calling of these two men (which created quite a stir because of their ongoing major accomplishments in life)...

Some will ask, why has the Church taken such competent men out of public service in their professions when they are doing so much good where they now are? I do not know. The Church has not done it. Rather, the Lord has made clear that these are they who should serve as his witnesses. There are others, well trained and equally qualified, to carry on what they have been doing. These two have now received a peculiar and unique calling to which the Lord, in his better wisdom, has beckoned them.

It's the norm when new quorum members are sustained that the other 12 will welcome them.  President Hinckley's talk went way beyond that.  I found it so interesting to listen to it, in light of all the happenings, with the amazing events transpiring under the leadership of President Nelson and his Counselor, President Oaks.  enjoy it!  here

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I believe this is also President Nelson's rule!

President Joseph Smith...“I made this my rule: When the Lord commands, do it.”5

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President Russel M. Nelson..."Having all of the apostles in Rome is a powerful symbol that the Restored Church is the same church of Jesus Christ that our Lord established in the meridian of time."

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President Nelson added, “This is a hinge point in the history of the Church. Things are going to move forward at an accelerated pace of which this is a part. We think the Church is an old Church. It’s 189 years old. But it’s only the beginning. Just project out what the next future will be and the Church is going to have an unprecedented future. Unparalleled. We’re just building up to what’s ahead now.”

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(from a news clip)

President Nelson typically is accompanied by one apostle at a temple dedication. Occasionally, the church president brings more. He rarely takes all, and never have all been together away from American soil in the faith's 188-year history.

They uniformly expressed astonishment at and appreciation for the opportunity to join President Nelson at the dedication of the Rome Temple, the church's first in a New Testament city.

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1st group photo in 20 years

first picture ever of 13 wives!  (Sister Eyring-ill.  Sister Ballard-passed on.)

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Over the years of blogging you have come to know about me and most likely some sort of pattern and predictability has surfaced.  You know-at one point the thought of finding out that a part of our Church was the belief in the heavens being open and God actually communicating with man...and for the governing of the Church...the chosen Apostles/Prophets had that sort of communication...can only be described as cringe worthy.  I have no idea how I missed that fact but I did!  

You also know that a belief in this fact...this marvelous truth... is the base of my testimony and I absorb, so deeply absorb this revelatory process that surely it is now in my DNA!  

You also know that I have waited since 1979 to see how and when President Kimball's prophecy about women in the latter days will come forth...and my excitement at seeing it start to unfold!!!

You also would know them that I am giddy over this Temple in Rome...President Nelson meeting with the Pope...Elder Bednar and Elder Rasband sharing their testimony outside the prison that Paul was incarcerated in...Also Elder Bednar and Rasband giving a Rome Temple interior tour and guess who was suddenly a part of the tour and introduced the Brides room and bore a great testimony?--Sister Bednar!...President Nelson acknowledging that having all 15 members in Rome was what the Lord wanted...and all of the wives!! and then...to my utter shock, amazement and delight- Sister Nelson sharing her testimony about her husband being in communication with the Lord!  hear

What courage and faith that takes with all of the possible ramifications, for both she and President Nelson...being vulnerable and willing to be ridiculed etc. for sharing their powerful witnesses of Jesus Christ. 

I am so thankful for my testimony, developed to the point and strength of conviction, that I can say....YES!!!!

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(PS-just have to share this!! Prophet and Pope meet  here)

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(PPS- I just can't get enough of this!! here )

Little Changes

None of us stay the same...we are always changing.  Also, nothing around us or things that surround us, ever stay stagnant.  Just witness the daily change in a newborn!  At a certain age we start to look the same.  We are all "grown up".  In time even that maturity changes into looking old.  The body may be in what seems a natural decline but the Spirit/Mental health, if a person is fortunate, remains intact. I have been caught off guard with comments and impatience and judging of senior citizens.  My sister (oh, do I miss her!!!) used to say overweight people and senior citizens at some point become invisible!  She felt they were treated as if they were brainless!

One of my most favorite things about aging is seeing the changes that have come about.  Seeing how things used to be done...fade away.  Seeing new things come into play and realizing...it's just a replay of something that had faded!

I bought a gift card at a burger stand (named Major's).  On the door it had a sign ...Closed on Sundays. I thought that was wonderful and told the fellow so.

In my life this was an accepted thing...of course stores were closed!  It was Sunday!  No one complained.  They thought ahead.  Prepared.  And filled their Sundays without the hustle and bustle and running around.

I wondered what year stores started opening and found this...

In the 1970's stores started opening on Sundays. In the 1960's even in big cities everything was closed except gas stations. 

Some of the greatest sales were on a Sunday only special!

What a change that made.  Not really so little in impact!  One single change...stores open on Sunday has impacted all of us!  Hello, ChargeCards!

Also when I was growing up they had Liquor Stores.  They were State run.  True you could drink in a bar (Alaska had a lot of bars.  Some said as many or more than Churches) but you could not buy a bottle of liquor except in these State licensed stores that were strictly regulated, and to my knowledge, the licenses were covenanted...Spendy but they made the bucks.  

The shelves were lined with all sorts of liquor bottles. Liquor stores were small in size...just a room.  Then came the time that pressure, in politics and the public, transferred that opportunity to private retailers and this brought hard liquor into grocery stores.  I remember being stunned when I saw liquor in grocery stores.

I decided to look up what happened here in Washington State...in 1934 it was State controlled.  In 2012 Costco was really wanting to get that right to sell booze and some called it the "Costco bill".  That is just the bare bones of a long battle and I don't know about your Costco but our Washington one just keeps adding new aisles of liquor.

One change, not so little, to be able to sell liquor in stores and Wow!  that has impacted a lot of lives!

Terry and I were talking and I told him...Through all the struggles and challenges and ups and downs and changes (large & small) in life...my life...the one source of pure joy...the one certainty of truthfulness/happiness for me, is my core belief in Jesus Christ and His restored Gospel and living Prophets and Apostles!!  That base of feelings, so deeply embedded is one thing that has anchored me, to truth.  Yes...I love change and it means growth and excitement and learning acceptance but my core truth is not up for change!

Conference is coming up and I will be surprised if no big changes come in regards to women!  

(Natalie- I just noticed your comment.  I'm not sure when I reply if you see that fact or not. When I saw your name, I was thinking that other than Kathy Broze, you have known me longer than anyone else on the face of the earth!
My note:
So glad to hear from you, Natalie! I hope you are healing and getting stronger and stronger. I've always been thankful that we don't get a brand new basic to-do list each Conference! I'm thankful that the core basics remain the same and we just keep developing those foundational habits of prayer and study and Church attendance and service and Temple attendance and those sorts of things. It's interesting how themes sometimes emerge. I also love how a person can listen to one talk and feel one way and notice one detail that is just the thing for them and then read the same talk a few months, or even a few years later, and still be helped/advised, but in an entirely
different vein!)

Change=Learning Curve

Preparing for another Sabbath and just feeling so peaceful.  I am loving this new way of doing things!  I'm adjusting to not having the close- weekly/1 hour involvement- that I did, for the entire last year, with my most loved Primary class.  I will always love them with my entire heart but it's a new program for all teachers in the Church.  I miss that weekly indepth study and sharing and watching them learn and grow.  The responsibility to the family, on teaching their children, has never been more clearly stated or more necessary.  What a great blessing for all the families.  And what a challenge!

The team teaching in our class is each of us teaching one Sunday a month, of the two designated Sundays.  I'm getting more comfortable with that even though we've only had 5 classes so far this year.  Now it's Stake Conference and then General Conference so it's just so different from old time classes but....

the changes are so terrific.  It's like the Ward being a puzzle of 1000 pieces and each of us have one itty bitty piece of the puzzle and when we each do our singular tiny part then the Ward produces such a wonderful program.  Hmmmm...maybe the Bishopric and the RSP and the YW/YM and Elders Quorum Presidency and Primary Presidency etc. etc....  they do not have one itty bitty piece of the puzzle!!  True, there are those that have a fist full of pieces but right now...for me...I've got one piece and I'm enjoying it to the max!  

Never have I enjoyed Sunday services as much as now.  It is so relaxed and wonderful to have so many weeks of just going and being a listener at Sacrament and then a listener/participant at RS.  There is no rushing around and no hubbub and definitely no exhaustion.  Just a bit of heaven!

I know I've mentioned this before about loving the changes but it's all still so new and I'm still awestruck and I just keep repeating myself!

Terry and I love studying together and learning, new takes on familiar subjects, and sharing feelings of how thankful we are for our membership and testimony.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, it will not surprise me if someday we just go for Sacrament meeting!  

Party Time!!!

It's almost that most wonderful time of the year!!  I can hardly wait!!!  here