New glasses.

Boaz says I look like a crazy cat lady. 

We are rural now

Coming home from getting new glasses, I was driving up our new road - a state highway that is more frequently traveled than I thought when we bought our house. 

A truck was parked on the side of the road with a red flag. He waved me down and the motioned me forward. I had no idea what was going on until I drove slowly up the road a few hundred yards. 

I found myself looking at a cattle drive coming right at me. On the road. 

I was nervous about them ramming my red car. Thoughts of bulls charging the red capes filled my head for a minute. 

Then I took out my camera. 

Most seemed to be cows and calves. Some of the cows looked pregnant. 

Cowboys (and cowgirls) on horses urged them along. 

Skirting my car. 

And on the other side. 

We are not in the city anymore. 

Milestone - Boaz

This week Boaz pointed out the thicket of scraggly chin hairs growing on his face. They were long and going in all directions. 

He needed to shave, in the worst way. 

He has shaved before, but this time the need was clear and present.  

I couldn’t sleep last night

I stayed up thinking about the beginning robber and the end robbers of the Book of Mormon. 

I thought about Nephi and Moroni. 

I thought about who they quoted in what they wrote. 

I thought about Laban contrasted to Moroni. 

So here goes. 

Nephi was part of a group that was adventuring, following God. The civilization he was leaving had turned their backs on their God and were racing to a reckoning. 

Laban has the records. They appear to not be at his house. Nephi followed The Spirit and then Zoram to the treasury. The plates were not an item treasured because of what they contained: the word of God. They were treasured for what they represented (prestige or position in ancient Jerusalem society) or for their monetary value. A contrast to what Joesph Smith was commanded or taught about the plates he received. 

Laban, who had proven himself a robber, stood condemned by God, the lawgiver. He had also tried to kill Lehi and his family several times. I can’t help but think of this law. 

Lehi was run out of town. Laban tried to kill Laman. Laban took the property of Lehi’s family and tried to kill the boys/young men. I’m thinking there had to be one more time. I can’t find the law right now in the Old Testament that states this principle. But Laban had broken the Law and the punishment was just. 

Nephi wrote in 1 Nephi and quoted three witnesses to God. His father, Lehi; himself; and the prophet Isaiah. In 2 Nephi he quoted three witnesses as well. Himself, his brother Jacob, and the Prophet Isaiah again. 

Moroni quoted three prophets. His father, Mormon; Ether, who also quoted the Brother of Jared; and himself. Three witnesses and more at the end of the plates. 

Moroni, the last keeper of the plates, protected them from destruction and those who wanted to have them for status or for the gold they were written on. He hid them away to preserve the testimonies written on them. He was the last righteous man in a civilization that had rejected their God and were racing to their reckoning. 

The nation the plates are to save from a similar fate is us, our nation. Our nation has rejected our God. We are racing to our reckoning. However this time there is more than one family that has stayed true. More than one man who listens to God to preserve the testimonies. Our little group of saints fulfills the ancient prophecies. We must treasure to testimonies of both sets of plates. We must stand in our holy places. We must trust God in His work to preserve His people. Then we will be part of those who welcome Him in His glory. 

We must defy the robbers and live. 

Visitor

Deb came to visit. We quilted and worked on genealogy. 

You can see our weather vane perched above our room. 

I don’t have a picture of the entire quilt. We didn’t finish the borders, but we got the body of the quilt done. 

Deb does a memory quilt for her kids when they graduate. This is the last one. Raven graduated last year. The quilt is in three columns. These are the first two. 

We are figuring out that we have to correct FamilySearch. There are a ton of mistakes. So today we found a new family in Massachusetts. Our family is in Pennsylvania. I’m not sure if we are related to the new family we found, but we cleaned up the Pennsylvania family a bit and divided according to location. That seems to be a good way begin the cleaning process. 

Scripture 1 Nephi 3

I was in 2 Nephi somewhere. But I was really focusing on the Old Testament. But during Conference, President Nelson challenged the women to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. 

Josh and I have been reading it in Spanish, but I started over again. So I have read most of 1 Nephi twice in the past month and a half or so. 

This verse caught my attention this time around. 

The Book of Mormon starts off with Laban accusing the sons of Lehi of being robbers. In ancient Israel, robbers were violent and it was an offense worthy of death. 

Laban was actually a robber. He accused them of being what he was. By following the Spirit, Nephi was able to destroy the robber. 

So the book begins with a robber. The book ends with a society of robbers. 

These robbers refuse to listen to the prophet and the Spirit and that leads to the destruction of the Nephite civilization. 

An interesting observation of parallelism. 

New house

So this has been an eventful week. Last Friday we got the keys to the house. 

Craig and I signed papers on Thursday. Friday he had a visiting physician. 

We had two days to get moved. That included driving to Farmington, New Mexico to unload 6 pods into U-Haul trucks and bringing them back to Colorado. I packed up the condo and tried to clean two different houses. 

We are do it yourselfers to a crazy degree. We do have two boys who have grown strong and who are so helpful. However, Josh only had half a day because a sweet girl asked him to her high school homecoming. 

She got him with her invitation. "I know your homecoming will be in two years, but mine is in a week and a half". He couldn’t say no to that. 

We worked until ten when we were saved by the bishop who came to check on us. We were almost done for the night - Saturday. There were just a few things to go and get in New Mexico. And one car load left from the condo. 

The house is open - the kitchen flows to the dining room and turn the L into the family room. Two bedrooms on the main floor with the master upstairs over the garage. It’s a log cabin, but it’s cozy and we feel comfortable. We have 2 1/3 acres. A little creek runs through the corner of the property. 

Our little corner of the world has been experiencing a major drought. This weekend we’ve been blessed with some rain. I feel bad for the people who endured the hurricane in Baja, but we are so grateful to have the rain. We have loved watching the puddles turn back into a creek. We were happy to try out the stove. 

We had a sweet surprise this weekend, besides General Conference. Dear friends came to visit from Cali and college in Utah. We didn’t get a picture of the whole group, but we got a picture of the guys. 

Good friends are great. 

We are in such a different area than before, but we find we are relaxing into the house and the area.