Read book...

I finished reading The Priesthood Power of Women.  There were no aha! moments for me.  I've never had the desire to be ordained as some women have.  I've never felt less than any man because I don't have Priesthood keys.  I believe that is the order of the Church and I'm fine with it.  The Author feels the same way.  She makes a careful explanation, backed by reliable authoritative sources, that women do not hold Priesthood Keys but they have access to the Priesthood Power.  

She is cautious and careful in her building and telling of this sometimes hot topic.

I found it interesting that her Mother was the one mentioned in an oft told story about President Kimball helping her at the airport.  The one about the crying child and the Mother not able to pick the child up.  Do you know what one I mean?  I'll share it at the end.  I'll find it.

The very long list of sources referenced, is a great place to have practically all things ever said, on this subject, in one place.  She used Elder Ballards talk throughout the book. 

Also the Renlund book - co-authored by Elder Renlund and his wife, Ruth... The Melchizedek Priesthood: Understanding the Doctrine, Living the Principles.  I want to read that one. 

Lots of President Nelson (about personal revelation and his talks and challenges for women... from October 2018 and April 2019  and October 2019 and etc.)

I enjoyed some Julie Beck quotes!

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Found it! Right from the book!  The story at the airport...here


Let us Think Straight  --by Elder M. Russell Ballard  2013  here

Love can make us weep...

Valentines Day...a day focused on expressing love!  A beautiful day that is filled with gratitude for those one loves and also those that love one back!

This recent particular Valentines Day, will be remembered always, as the day someone I love and she loved me, passed on.  We'd known each other for 53 years.  Did you pick up on...we'd known each other...not--we'd been friends.  

We met in Anchorage.  She, and other Church friends, had purchased some property, on a lake...thinking ahead for a future Church Camp.  She loved everything about Girls Camp. 

We were not at all alike.  I was stunned when I realized that she did not like me.  At all.  A bit awkward...she was the Stake Camp director when I was called as the Stake YW President. 

I was relieved that she had that calling and knew the ropes.  I knew no ropes. 

I was thrilled to be teaching a Laurel class and suddenly, with zero experience, I was the Stake leader.  I'd never been in a Ward position in YW other than teaching Laurels (which was all I wanted to do for my entire life!)

I read the Handbook about how Stake things work and also about Ward things...met with my equally inexperienced counselors and we moved forth.  I went on faith.  I knew from a dream that I was to do this calling and also that these two women were to be my counselors.

What was not covered in the instruction handbook --the fact that a lot of people already knew all about the contents-- so that put me in an awkward position of doing things that others did not approve of.  To my shock I learned that there were people that actually had really strong feelings against me. 

And...they let me know.

I was way out of my league and it about destroyed me.  Remnants are still a bit lodged? 

Pat, let it be known of how she felt about me.  I was a hugger and she was an icicle.  She would make sure I never touched her or got near her.  As if I'd want to hug her!

I was so relieved when we were going to move out of Anchorage and go to Homer.  It was such a relief to leave some really bad experiences behind. (the good outweighed the bad and I had fantastic experiences during that time of Church service.  It was amazing. I loved that time but at the same time it was a very hard harsh time.)

Time went by and to my horror, one day it was announced at Church-- Pat and her husband had bought one of the two grocery stores in town and would be in our Branch!  I about passed out!  Our little Branch to be inflicted by her animosity towards me!

I was heartsick.  I prayed as to what to do.  No one knew anything about the Anchorage happenings.  The idea came to me...I needed to tell her that we were going to be best friends!

It was an overwhelming thought and made me sort of nauseous but....

She arrived...gave me stink-eye... and I went over to her and to her horror...I hugged her and said...you and I are going to be the very best friends.  

She shook off my hug and gave me a shocked look of not in my lifetime!

I did as moved by the Holy Ghost and my warmth melted her ice.  She said I was to sweet.  I felt she was unfeeling.  It took a lot of concentrated effort but in memory it doesn't seem like it took a real long time before we were true friends. 

Years later, I'd laugh as each phone conversation would end with her saying something about...I'm going to talk mushy and tell you I love you.

We were involved in so many things together and enjoyed all of them.  We logged up a lot of friend experiences...memories that we valued so much. 

One year, when she'd moved from Homer to Oregon, she called and said...I just have to see you one more time.  Please come see me.  Her health was still good but she just wanted to see her friend. It was wonderful.

A couple of years ago, her son and a couple from Homer, went on a trip to see Homerites that lived Stateside.  It was such a great reunion. 

As her health declined, she just kept doing all that she could.  Eventually, the decline picked up speed and went on and on-- she couldn't work at the Temple and she couldn't drive and a small stroke hit her and then a bit of dementia etc. etc.... and then Hospice recently. 

And then on the day of focused love she passed on.

Our last visit was a week or so ago.  She retold some stories and then shared that her ordered casket, from Costco, had arrived and it was in the garage.  She asked me...What color is it??  I said...Pink and flowers.  She laughed and said...You know me so well!  White with pink flowers.

Yes.  I did know her well and I loved her with all of my heart and she felt the same about me.

Love my guy!

Today is Valentines Day...a reminder day to let those you love know they are loved.  I love a  lot of people and shame on me!...no cards this year...not even the e-cards that I love to send!  My hubby is very sentimental and he loves celebration days and this is a big one!  Love day!!

Several years ago I decided to just give Terry the same card yearly.  sort of a GroundHogDay event.  I have done that!  I always have a card and he is never dissappointed and I have no stress!  I'm past the day of spending hours looking for the right card for him.  60 years of marriage!...Simply put- I love him with all of my heart! xoxox

This year, along with the card, I gave him his favorite addictive junk food...a bag of Cheetos-Crunchy kind. 

This year...I either struck a genius creative high in problem solving OR I've sunk to an all-time low of deceit! 

He is home-bound so no shopping.  Knowing he would feel so bad on receipt of my card and munchies...I decided to help him.  I bought some chocolates and then trickery of all tricks...I repurposed a card I'd received... into a card that he gave me!

I have a very close friend and she gave me a card that I'd saved because I loved her personal note and it just made me happy when I read her sentiments.  I took the card and cut it in half and took the front, stuck it in the envelope that she'd written my name on, with a heart around it and voila...a card from him to me!

I propped our his and her gifts, with cards, on the piano.  When he saw them he had lazer vision on the Cheetos...read the card and then immediately felt bad that he'd not given me one etc. etc.  I pointed out the chocolates and said...and I have a card also. He said...I hope it says what I feel.  I said...oh, it's lovely.  He looked at it and checked the back which was blank and I said...sentiments are on the front.  It read...You're so sweet.  He said he was glad that I had a card.

Okay.  In my defense - I did not state that he had given me the card before.  True - he did look to see what he'd written on the back but perhaps the excitement of Cheetos for breakfast outweighed further inquiry????  I count it as a save and a successful Valentines day!

Talk about prepared....2 Valentine cards awaiting 2/14/21!!!  I am so ready!!

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Our daughter shared this on FB -- if you want to see the card and him looking at it, last year. here

Delighteth!

What a surprise for me to find that the name of my new book was not what I thought.  I thought the title was ...The Priesthood Power and Women.  Not so!  It is called The Priesthood Power of Women.  It felt very different to me.  Sort of in an unsettling way.  Sort of made me put up my guard...was I going down a path that would not ring true?  I remember how impressed I was with the Author's caution and thoroughness in her research- so started my journey of reading her findings and conclusions.  

The book about self-love by the Buddhist Monk?...I have started it and then put it aside and started the above book...nothing in those first 56 pages made it impossible to put the book down.  I realize that over years of endeavoring to understand self-love and acceptance and what that means to me...I'm okay.  I'm okay with being able to say within my mind...I'm me/I'm okay/I'm glad I'm me and I do have, in that gladness, a self-love.  I feel gratitude to be me.  

I will read both of my new books and glean for some gems.  Does everyone read several books at once?  I do.  Topics vary.  My favorite?....The scriptures and all things involved with that study, which includes Conference talks (always!) are my one source of constancy.

This quote by Sister Beck is exactly how I feel!  She was the General YW Counselor when she said this.  (When she was called as the General RSP...she became my absolute favorite RSP ever!!!  Well, I guess I just loved her approach and common sense and frankness.  So saying favorite might be a stretch of the truth?  True she had the most impact on me.)


Julie B. Beck  My Soul Delighteth in the Scriptures  April 2004  here

If reading the scriptures is not already a habit with you, today is a great day to start. It did not really take 25 years to learn to make good dinner rolls. I just needed the encouragement to get started. Homemade rolls have brought much enjoyment to my family. But the greater joy has come from the habit of daily scripture reading which I started so many years ago. Some days I have a lot of time to contemplate the scriptures. Other days I reflect on a few verses. Just as eating and breathing sustain my physical body, the scriptures feed and give life to my spirit. I can now echo Nephi and say: “My soul delighteth in the scriptures, and my heart pondereth them. … Behold, my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my heart pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and heard” (2 Ne. 4:15–16). In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

My talisman

The new book that I ordered for use as a study guide, of the Book of Mormon, arrived and I sent it back!  I was so excited to get it but it was not what I expected and wasn't of interest to me.  The real kicker was the fact that several of the pages were double printed...possible to read if you were determined but not worth the effort.  I hope my copy was the only flukey one with the double print as I feel for the publisher and all concerned.  It was a $32 book so that is a big investment book-wise.

Books...yesterday the book by the Buddhist Monk, Haemin Sunim arrived.  It was first published hardback in 2016 in Korea and then USA in 2018.  Now, 2020, paperback !  Why did I order it?  Well, as everyone on the planet seems to be in self-improvement mode...I am one also!  

I shared awhile back that I was going to try new things and not drag out my old bedraggled list of must-do's, that somehow or other, seemed to never become a reality.  I decided to try new things.  I enrolled in several things and a couple I've already done and discarded.  One I didn't finish as it ended up way out of my comfort zone...tapping.  The other was chair yoga, for 21 days, I did it but got nothing out of it.  I was like a seated pretzel...trying to look at the screen and watch the gal, who talked non-stop and wasn't doing the pose that she thought I was doing.  She had another woman there and one would be on the floor and one on the chair.  Oh, never mind my yak-yak.  It just didn't work.  I'll try something similar...someday.
I have one that I signed up for 7-weeks ago...one thought a day for an entire year.  It deals with moving ahead with getting rid of excess baggage...tangible or mind-wise.  I really like it as it does make me think about how I deal with situations.  I have a couple of others that I really like.  My favorite is the 16 week course changing food habits, cooking, and eating whole foods.  I'm just getting into that one.  It's great!

I ordered the Monk book because I realize that being a co-dependent personalty, in many ways my self-love is at times minimal or even invisible and I need to place more personal private value on myself.  The book is about self-love...Love for Imperfect Things.  I'm aiming at self-care and this is a part of the deed!

The book I'm most excited about that will be here soon, maybe today!, is written by an LDS woman, entitled...The Priesthood Power of Women:in the Temple, Church and Family by Barbara Morgan Gardner.  I saw her on You-tube and I liked how she does no speculation on the 84th Section of the D&C and is very strict to not make assumptions about women and Priesthood.  I identified with her on so many counts.  I feel I did go through that 84th Section and I did enjoy it but I really have the desire to understand more and she seems like a great choice to read her findings and inspiration.  I wish I had a woman, or a few!, to also read it and talk about it together.  I want to finish it by April Conference.

May as well wrap this up with Talisman.  It seems if you do something not in the usual mode of doing things that suddenly you receive e-mails of FB ads and that tapping class brought an article on Talisman to me.  I think of objects and clear back to high school when boys had a dangling rabbit foot key chain for their car keys!  Gross!  So a talisman can pretty much be anything you want.  Even words, of your choice, written down that inspire or encourage you or make you have brave confidence.

Here is a paragraph  from the email....  

Almost any object can be transformed into a talisman of protection, good fortune, health, love, or serenity. It may be strung on a cord and hung around the neck, worn on a belt, or carried in a purse or pocket. But the physical properties of the talisman are not as important as the intention of its bearer. If you are grounded in your desires, your talisman will give you a focal point that you can concentrate on to affirm your intention and help you achieve your goals. 

The gospel and all that it entails is the best talisman ever for me!  Above and beyond anything else in my life!!  Love it!!

The Lord's Timing

A son was sharing his interest in the solar system and how amazing the Lords creations are, involving that power, that is His alone.

That set my mind to thinking of the Lord's timing on everything...be it my life or the earth's life.

I remember reading in the Book of Mormon of what had happened to the earth when Christ visited them and what would happen to the earth at his 2nd coming.  I also remember my CES Supervisor telling me that the calamities in the Book of Mormon would parallel the last days. I remember reading and not even being able to imagine that happening with cities and inhabitants because of weather!  Now I've seen those things happening...near and far.

The personal dawning of the fact and my own way of looking at it is...The earth evidently has a built in timing system, by it's Creator, and nowadays after so many years of occasional, rather singular, climate calamities, the last days will bring weather patterns, above and below the earth, into simultaneous horrific events to mankind.  The last days.  Our days.  Now.  Ultimately...the Lord's weather forecast!  He knows what is coming as He planned it and programmed it.  No amount of dismay or hand -wringing, on our part, will change what is transpiring...right now and the future.  It's set!

At the same time while we witness from afar via technology, or up close and personal and firsthand, we see these projected horrors, if you will, seemingly everywhere. 

Right along with it, is the depravity of mankind and cruelty to each other, with hearts filled with hate and lust and killing for power and Godless behavior.  People persecuting Believers and yet others constantly abrasively persuading & succeeding, on many counts, for all to join them in that spacious building.

So...a rather stark devastating forecast...weather-wise and people-wise and pretty much...otherwise!
But...there is hope!  Hope...IF I have a firm belief in a living Prophet.  Actually I do have that belief and it is firm.

I learn through observation of life unfolding and the reading of Scriptures, which include all things General Conference. I observe as President Nelson scurries about- setting everything in order and boldly attesting he is trying to gather us ...to prepare us for the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ.  There fore we see a myriad of events...such as- Meetings cut back...responsibility on ourselves for Gospel learning...changes in so many details in Church programs and activities... Asking women to prepare themselves in understanding what the Lord wants them to do in these last days...asking all of us to pick it up a notch on learning to receive revelation and how essential that is. The list is endless.  Pray/study/serve/go to Temple, pretty much as basics- and on and on.  and on!

The Prophet is doing his very best to help us to prepare but also to alleviate fear.

My own armor that causes fear to depart is pretty much 3-fold -

1-following the Come, Follow Me program.  It's a no-brainer to do, as anyone with the least amount of technology, can sit before their screen and be spoonfed a bit of feasting that is soul-satisfying.  There are people all over the YouTube teaching and sharing.  You can find someone, if that is your method of learning, that is an Institute or Seminary teacher and they are pretty much right in line with the Church and usually only add their own analogies.

2-having 3 months of commodities on hand is about all I can think of.  The weather is beyond my control and as I said...it's a ticking timer with weather forecasts happening and coming.  If I have firewood and water and some food in reserve...I feel okay about that.

3-Also the awareness that there is safety in sheltering in place for at least 3 weeks should some earth-sweeping virus or modern day plague hit our area. Paint masks aren't the way to go if a person needs to be out and about and wants as much protection as possible. an N95 mask is the one I read about.  So having a few of those on hand is about the best I can do.

Those are my fear alleviators and my faith enhancers.  I'm sure you have your own list.  whatever rolls your socks up!  We are not Preppers and we do not stockpile weapons and have plans to ban with others.  While our preparation seems very minimal...it is to our liking and we are ready for whatever happens to us should it prove inadequate.

One very positive note in all of these negative forecasts is...the best of us gets even better...tender soft hearts become even more compassionate...desire to help others becomes more of a mindset than a to-do list.  Locally this happens and worldwide, the exemplar Church, helps everyone with the basics.  What a beautiful event to witness our band of Christian soldiers marching on to war! (feel the humming in the background??)

We are endeavoring to stay on that Covenant Path and hope is shining brightly before us!!  It gladdens my heart to know you are there also!!!



Oct. 1987 CR - Elder Neal A. Maxwell "Yet Thou Art There"  here

What we mortals encounter as the unforeseen, God has already seen, such as how the oil deposits of this earth would shape the latter-day conflicts among nations. God’s “is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations” (Isa. 14:26). He likewise foresaw all the awful famines, some resulting from the unwise, unnecessary erosions of precious topsoil. He surely foresaw the terrible persecutions of the Jews. Having created the earth, He has anticipated the impact of continental drifts on the frequency and intensity of latter-day earthquakes. He who analogized that “the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest” (Isa. 57:20) also knows where and when, in latter days, the seas’ tidal waves will heave themselves savagely “beyond their bounds” (D&C 88:90).

Section 88:87:91  

(I can't resist sharing these quotes again)

Largely because of television, instead of looking over into that spacious building, we are, in effect, living inside of it. That is your fate in this generation. You are living in that great and spacious building.   
Lehi's Dream and You by Boyd K. Packer -2007   here  

****

In our world today, the adversary’s construction crews are working overtime, hastily inflating the large and spacious building. The expansion has spread across the river, hoping to envelop our homes, while the pointers and the scoffers wail day and night on their internet megaphones.¹¹

President Nelson explained, “The adversary is quadrupling his efforts to disrupt testimonies and impede the work of the Lord.”¹² Let us remember Lehi’s words: “We heeded them not.”¹³

Fruit by Neil L. Anderson  -- October 2019 here