oh, my!

Feeling that sizzle of burning guilt!!!  He did not mince words at all.  Feeling the Book of Mormon verse....1 Nephi 16:2 in a prodding way!  I guess I can give myself some slack if I count family things.... Like doing what I can for my SweetHubbyMan.  What lack I yet?...answer in red below!  Not fire engine red but a softer rosy red is my uncomfortable guilt color!  All self-awareness is a part of figuring the balance and change in my life.  It's good to be prodded by conscience and tweaked by words that have that singe effect in a gentle searing of sorts! 

Elder Uchtdorf really brings Matt 25:31-46 to life, doesn't he?

Having charity and caring for one another is not simply a good idea. It is not simply one more in a seemingly infinite list of things we ought to consider doing. It is the core of the gospel—an indispensable, essential, foundational element.


Without service we are a mere shadow of who we are meant to be—both as individuals and as a Church. We are endangering our heritage and promise as children of God. We cannot, we will not be saved without blessing and lifting the poor. No matter the outward appearance of our righteousness, if we look the other way when others are suffering, we cannot be justified. 

--Elder  Dieter F. Uchtdorf 

An Apostolic Blessing!

Maybe you listened to the Broadcast yesterday or planning on doing it today or tomorrow.  This is the last part of it and the strongest longest most powerful Apostolic Blessing I've ever heard!  amazing!!
It will buoy you up!!  Strengthen your testimony and faith!!  Enjoy.  Bask in the love.  Contemplate.  Meditate.  and above all else...rejoice!...rejoice at living in these days with living apostles on the earth!

An Apostolic Blessing for the YSAs from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland


For excerpts to read from his candid talk about same-sex attraction, marriage, pornography and more... here  The Apostolic blessing was given after this talk.


To watch the entire talk go here

Just sayin'...

Sunday...

It's Sunday and I'm home.  Thinking that right now my Laurels are meeting and the Bishop is talking to them and all the other YW....then they will review what they are doing tonight for New Beginnings.  I wish I was there but I'm not.  I'm an enjoyer of Sunday and meetings and classes and all of that.  Terry took some Rx, not an overdose but powerful, so I'm on WifePatrol!

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Yes...I went to the Dentist.  I survived!  So unusual...I got lost!  I was to be there at 10:40 and I got there at 11:15!  I'm an on time person so this was not me and yet it most certainly was me as it did happen!  (would this be called a Freudian Slip?)

They were nice and kind and I didn't meet the Dentist as he was in with an on-time patient BUT I did get x-rays and talked about different Rx methods to put me in various degrees of being out of it!  She was nice and so was the gal that took the readings etc.  All sounds good, fixable and expensive but doable.  I said I wanted no implants or dentures...just hang on to what I have!  As I said...sounds doable.  I did have this niggling little thought...what if the Dentist didn't say that? What if that is her opinion?  What if he feels different than I do?  Why on earth do I worry myself into a flurry!!??...I do not know.  I do know I'm on track and have an appointment to go in and review my "treatment" plan.  Yay me!! 

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A friend brought The Cokeville Miracle over for our viewing enjoyment.  She said it fits in with the blog about family/spirits from the other side.  I'm going to watch it today.

Speaking of today...enjoy this great quote!!! 

Every Sunday we have the opportunity to partake of the sacrament and remember the atoning sacrifice of Christ. As the world gets worse, the observance of this commandment will make all the difference in our families and in our community.

The Church will not give you a list of things to do and not do on the Sabbath. We must each think how to make the Sabbath a delight. We must build traditions that strengthen Sabbath day observance in our families. This will bring peace and love to your families. 
                                                                                                                  --Elder Quinton L. Cook

Woe is me...

I think I found someone to help with my hair and look more decent!  A new hairdresser!!remember...I'm trying to pick things up a notch for 2016.  Hair is underway.  still have to pierce my ears.  well, re-pierce them.  they grew back.  solid.  That will sting, I bet! But the really big whoopee-do...the real stomach churner is going to the dreaded dentist in the morning!!! shudder....shiver...cold sweat...clenched jaw.  A friend recommended a dentist that works with cowards so I fit the bill!  I have to get that chipped tooth fixed and decide about other work.  I may start one of those GoFundMe accounts to pay the bill!  Dental insurance is cut when you retire!  So it's been gone a long time!!!  Maybe sticker shock will snap me out of my sheer terror.  Wish me luck!!

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I believe this is true!  Yes.  Indeed I do!

Marvelous Treasure!!!

Started off my Wednesday with wallowing in a colorless cloud of emotion.  One that wafted in and enveloped me.  Uninvited.  Unwanted.  Definitely unneeded! 

Feeling overwhelmed.  Again.  or should I say still?

Read on.  Things do get better.  No need to fear participating in a descriptive read of a pity party.  Relax.

Surely you understand what I mean.  Surely you have felt that feeling in one degree or another. Mine just seems to hang on like an irritating cold or the likes.

In my prayer I stated that I honestly didn't know what to pray for.  I felt trapped and didn't know what to do to help myself, beyond what was my norm, for surviving this probationary time! I just acknowledged that I had no idea of what I needed to do and opened my mind to whatever came.

Terry was so sweet.  He does not experience, and never has, the emotions that I have at times had full acquaintance with.  It's very nice because he is level headed.  He reminded me of what I know but I needed a reminder...lots on my plate with his health/sister's health/son's health/adult children at odds with the Gospel/feelings of more responsibility in our life/feeling co-dependent etc. etc.  And the pressure, the desire to conduct myself as a Beloved Daughter of God with all of my heart.  You can imagine the talk we had.  Most likely you also have had such a talk with someone.  Maybe even more than once.  Mortality is not always smooth sailing.

He used his Priesthood gift of bestowing blessings on me.  I absolutely love his blessings and really, no matter who was available, on any level of authority in the Church...I'd choose my Hubby.  he is the best!  Such a blessing of comfort and counsel.  Such a help.

Then I started studying scriptures and even did some basic genealogy and did some laundry etc.  Had a couple of great conversations with a son and also my daughter who is visiting my sister.  Then I had my wonderful Aha!Moment! 

I need to backtrack to November 2013.  That was when I as assigned to do the Stake Women's Conference.  It ended up being a fantastic spiritual experience.  One of the speakers, and I don't remember her assigned topic right now, but she shared a personal experience about needing help with a son that had gotten derailed gospel wise.  She and her husband had done everything in there power to help him and nothing helped.  Then she read something that made them feel to ask for help from those beyond this life.  The parents of both she and her husband were on the other side of the veil so they decided to ask specifically for those 4 grandparents to help their son.  She said the experience that happened was to sacred to share but he did get the needed help.  She told of the dire straights he had been in and how his life was impacted after this experience (she said it was very specific) and what he was currently doing and all of it was terrific.  I was so thrilled to hear that personal story.

I knew somewhat about angels and believed in help beyond but was a little uncertain as to how to avail myself of such help.

(now don't be thinking I'm all of a sudden going to share some angel story from today. nothing happened like that.)

Anyhow...I called her and asked where the source was of what she read and she tried to find it but what she shared wasn't what I'd heard her say.

So....3 years later and today I read the quote!!!  my gift to you!  we can both use it!

President Joseph F. Smith declared: “When messengers are sent to minister to the inhabitants of this earth, they are not strangers, but from the ranks of our kindred [and] friends . . . . In like manner, our fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters, and friends who have passed away from this earth, having been faithful, and worthy to enjoy these rights and privileges, may have a mission given them to visit their relatives and friends upon the earth again, bringing from the divine Presence messages of love, of warning, of reproof and instruction to those whom they had learned to love in the flesh.”

here is how I found it.  Sister Wendy Nelson (yes, wife of Elder Nelson)  heard a talk by Elder Holland in CR April 2010 about dealing with temptations.  At one point he said...Ask for angels to help you.  She said those 6 words changed her life!  She couldn't believe what she'd heard.

Then she ends up learning how to apply this in her life and amazingly enough she writes a book about it!!  plus she has some sort of a 21 day experiment she has devised to accomplish what I would assume to be greater connection or more spirituality?

Plus she says she now has 3 truths that compel her life.  so curious as to what they are!  I love that she has recently personally learned and experienced all of this and is willing to share with all of us!!

So...summation....incrementally the Lord led me through this day, that started being piled on many similar days, and it culminated with me ordering the book and eagerly wanting to check out the 21 day experiment.  Before I tackle those 11 Gospel Essays, I'm going to read the book and do the 21 day experiment.  Let me know if you do it also!

Easy peasy reading for you right here.  I know you want to read all it right away!  Trying to save you look-up time!

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Covenant Keepers by Sister Wendy Watson Nelson. Read the article here

Where to buy her book here

Elder Holland's talk.  the one that influenced her and changed her life. I'm thinking this talk will help me also!   Place No More For the Enemy of my Soul -- Read talk here

Gospel info in abundance!!

This morning we finished listening to Conference talks from 1973.  Somewhere or other I thought I blogged when we started.  Now I don't know where it is!  Terry thinks we listened to all of 2014 but I'm not certain.  It's amazing how they add up and equally amazing the power in each and every one.  (well, almost everyone.  We listened to one of Paul H. Dunn and skipped the rest.  He unfortunately embellished his stories or just flat out made some up...got himself in hot water etc. etc.  I know I mentioned that before.  Anyhow we decided we wouldn't/couldn't know if he was in truth telling or not so we opted to skip him.  But everyone else...we listened, loved, and learned!!)  so we have listened to both Conferences, April and October for 1971  1972  1973  2015 and Woman Conferences in 2015  (We decided to listen to a CR talk everyday as a couple.  Starting with 1971.  when a current conference comes then we read that one and go back to the old ones.  Maybe some of you were confused with the paragraph I just wrote!)

The power of these talks is so amazing as the Spirit bears witness of the truths spoken and also we recognize the men speaking and it is wonderful to see/hear them!  We have enjoyed hearing how changes were made and the effort it took to put those things into place and then a few years later those things were replaced with another set of new changes.  From well stocked libraries becoming simplified and now the Internet!!  The Church is always pulling into modern ideas and always upgrading and improving.  so much fun to hear about what was new and current back 45 years ago!

One of the most powerful Conferences was the October 1972.  President Lee had just been sustained at a Solemn Assembly and those Friday talks were dynamite!!!  and Saturday and on and on!!  Amazing talks!!!

so our current tally, minus 2014, stands at the two of us together enjoying 326 CR talks plus we listened to 11 Women Conference talks.  Well, that did add up!  Soon we will be in April Conference.  I am already antsy about it!!  can hardly wait.

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I know I blogged that I was going to read the Book of Mormon and not read chapter headings/make no notes etc. except for drawing a small heart if heart was mentioned.  True, I did it twice before and it was enjoyable but that was years ago.  It just didn't work this time.  I was constantly thinking...that relates to such and such.  do I have that marked?  I decided to stop when I found myself reading in 1 Nephi 15:3 and realized that I liked my marked scriptures.  That verse is key to 6-11 and I loved the explanation...they had been previously told to ask and they did not and Nephi was reminding them to ask.  I've always loved that sequence and knew it was marked, so I just decided to plow ahead with what is normal for me and relax and enjoy. 

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Last Friday I was anticipating watching the live streaming of the CES talk  by Elder Ballard.  True, I don't teach Seminary anymore but also true that I feel the training from all things CES, is incredible information and cutting edge, on what is in store for all teachers.  Plus I teach the Laurels and I wanted to see if there were teaching techniques, or counsel, that would be of value to me.  IT WAS!!!  I've never heard any talk like this.  I listened to it twice and still want to again.  Today it came out so at least part of it is available in print.  here 

I was surprised when he said...

“As Church education moves forward in the 21st century, each of you needs to consider any changes you should make in the way you prepare to teach, how you teach and what you teach if you are to build unwavering faith in the lives of our precious youth,” Elder Ballard said. “Gone are the days when a student asked an honest question and a teacher responded, ‘Don’t worry about it!’ Gone are the days when a student raised a sincere concern and a teacher bore his or her testimony as a response intended to avoid the issue. Gone are the days when students were protected from people who attacked the Church.”

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He then challenged teachers to increase their testimonies by study and also faith.  Most surprising to me was his mention of 11 Gospel Topics essays and challenged everyone to KNOW the content-- like you know the back of your hand!  I went there and we are talking lots of info!

“Church leaders today are fully conscious of the unlimited access to information and we are making extraordinary efforts to provide accurate context and understanding of the teachings of the Restoration,” he said.

Using the eleven Gospel Topics essays available on lds.org as an example, Elder Ballard said it is crucial that teachers “know the content in these essays like you know the back of your hand.”
“As you teachers pay the price to better understand our history, doctrine and practices — better than you do now — you will be prepared to provide thoughtful, careful and inspired answers to your students’ questions,” Elder Ballard said.

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I really enjoyed when he said...
“Today, what they see on their mobile devices is likely to be faith-challenging as much as faith-promoting,” Elder Ballard said. “Many of our young people are more familiar with Google than with the gospel, more attuned to the Internet than to inspiration and more involved with Facebook than with faith.”

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My all time favorite quote -it will surely end up a Meme!!! is...

“Teach them about the challenges they face when relying upon the Internet to answer questions of eternal significance,” he said. “Remind them that James did not say, ‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him Google!'”

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my Gift to you...the 11 Gospel Topics!  you don't have to go looking!  I did that for you! 

Good luck to all of us as we learn the content of these essays like the back of our hands!!!

Study group anyone???

Gospel Topics Essays  here