Busy Sunday

Sunday I taught in Gospel Doctrine. I've begun teaching again this year. I like it, it makes me an odd duck I think. Josh gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting. I'll have to get his notes a bit later. He did a great job. And Boaz gave a talk in the 5th Sunday Combined Meeting. The youth and adults attended and the new theme for the youth program was introduced. So basically he gave a Sacrament Meeting talk. He worked on it all by himself.  I read his first draft, and suggested he end with a positive story. So he added the brief bit at the end.

Good afternoon brothers and sisters, today I have been asked to tak about prayer. I will admit prayer is one of my weak spots. I have developed a habit that when I pray I say the same things every time,,, and I don't really think a. Bout it at all. Then sometimes I realized what I did than I say the things that I really think about. When I don't, I've come to realize that it doesn't even "count" as praying because the purpose of praying is to communicate with Heavenly Father, not to say the same things over and over again but to really communicate How would you feel if someone came up to you every day and said, "Hey how's it going?" Then just left without even giving you an opportunity to respond, which is another aspect of communication, responding. If we want to communicate with Heavenly Fatgher we have to listen for Heavenly Father's response and act upon it. We can't expect an answer then when we get it, not act upon it.

When we get an answer to our prayers it mostly doesn't come all at once. Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said:

   "When we pray we rarely get our response all at once. Seldom will you recieve a complete response all at once. It will come a piece at a time, in packets, so that you will grow in capacity. As each piece is followed in faith, you will be lead to other portions until you have the whole answer. That pattern requires you to exercise faith in our Father's capacity to respond. While sometimes it's very hard, it results in significant personal growth.

He will always hear your prayers and will invariably answer them. However, His answers will seldom with come while you are on your knees praying, even when you may plead for an immediate response. Rather, He will prompt you in quiet moments when the Spirit can most effectively touch your mind and heart."

I think this means that even though we think it would be better to have the answer right away it would mean to miss out on great opportunities to better ourselves.

In the April 2007 General Conference, Elder David A. Bednar tells of a story about a man that was active during his childhood then veered away when he was a teenager. Later in life he met a lovely girl and eventually got married and had children. Their 4-year-old daughter became suddenly very ill and the man found himself praying for his daughter to get better, but she never did. the man's prayer changed, and instead asked "Let Thy will be done." When the little girl fell into a coma, and seeing that his little girl didn't have much time left, he being filled with trust and understanding, asked the Lord to able to hold his daughter close to him one last time. As soon as he finished the little girl opened her eyes and the man was able to hug her before she passed.

One thing about praying that me and my dad has experienced lately is that we don't always get what we want. For Thanksgiving my family and I went to Utah to see my mom's side of the family and some of my dad's. We stayed there for a couple of days at one of mom's sister's house. While we were there one of my cousins friend's lost his keys when he was playing football with some friends. My dad decided that it would be a good expereince to help him. When we got there we prayed, then split up to look for the keys. We looked for a bout an hour and a half before we decided that we wouldn't find them. In fact my cousin's friend ended up spending $400 to get new keys. My dad was not only very sorry that he couldn't find the keys but also very disappointed because he thought it would be a great experience for me to see firsthand how theLord answers prayers. It did however teach me that our prayers are not always answered the way we want them to be.

Another experience that my family and I had about prayer is when we decided to come here to California. We could have went to Boise, Idaho, which was much closer to our family, about a 14 hour difference. But we decided to come to a place where we had no family and friends. A place that was exactly the opposite of an Idaho city in all ways. And we are okay. We have made amazing new friends, and we live in an amazing ward.

I want to end by saying that I know that prayer is essential to our spiritual health an it it the only way we can communicate with our Heavenly Father. And I know that He listens to all our prayers even when it seems that he is not. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Getting ready for the season

Another track season is upon us. An unofficial race. He's wearing his orange shirt. 

Ending the second lap. 

He ended up with just over five minutes. His fastest time was 4:56. He wasn't too happy,but I loved watching him run. 

Scripture - Galatians 5

This is not the usual scripture that I think about from Galatians 5. Verse 22-23 talk of the fruit of the Spirit. That scripture helped me to understand the many different ways the Spirit chooses to speak to us. I was looking for only one - silly.

But verse 1 is important to me now.

I know what I should be doing, and yet I find myself sliding back into old habits and patterns. 

The whole improving forever, instead of just for a week.

I can be a harsh judge of others. I can become complacent in my scripture reading. I can become casual in my prayers.

I need to constantly remind myself to do what I know I should do. I need to be reminded of what is important. My life seems to go in spurts and lurches. I wish I was more graceful in my application of what I know to true.

Hair

Crazy

This is a message that no mother ever wants to see, ever!

The school that my 12 year attends "is on lockdown. A felony suspect is on foot, last seen near [the school]. The suspect escaped from a bail bonds officer and is believed to be handcuffed. [The city] PD is on scene searching."

How lovely is that?

Boaz was in lockdown for about 45 minutes.

The worst part about the day was he had to watch Sponge Bob.

Not too bad if that was the worst part of the experience. 

Joyce

Poor Joyce has been having a terrible time. She fell and broke her hip before Thanksgiving. She had a hip replacement or some kind of operation on her hip. She was in the rehab center when we stopped by for Thanksgiving. We drove all over trying to find her, and when we did, she had fallen and ripped her knee - about a four inch gash from one side of her knee to the other. We were talking and didn't keep track of how many stiched she had. She so wanted to be home for Thanksgiving. But with the gash on her knee, she had to stay in the rehab center.

We got word that her leg was swollen and bleeding. Her blood pressure was crazy low and they had to stabilize her before they could operate and see what was going on.

Apparently, she was given wrong medication that caused the swelling.

She ended up having her leg amputated.

She lived in a house with 4 or more steps to get in. She does dialysis a couple of times a week. She drove herself. She watched her grandsons after school.

She can do none of that now.

Her life has changed drastically.

When we were there for Thanksgiving, she said that my dad was coming around and visiting her a lot. She was a bit bugged by it. She had a blessing that said she would have the time to finish what she needed to do. But honestly, I don't think she has long left. 

I am grateful that we have reconnected these past two years. But I am still very far away.

Today the boys went with Craig to administer the sacrament to a lady with cancer. They came home and said getting old didn't look like fun. And then Josh attempting to lighten the mood said that Paradise was a nice place. My heart hurts to know she is struggling.

Visitors for New Years

So Devon came to visit with three friends. We have been having fun with them all weekend. 

Derek, Holly, Maddie and Devon

They hadn't seen Once I Was Beehive so we queued it up. 

Devon and Derek kept asking is this what it is really like?

Derek said, "If I had gone to girls camp, I don't think I would like girls."

Cracked me up. 

Totally unaware of the cattiness that goes on. 

Sad. But estrogen can be a hard thing.