Author: Angela

I write so my family will always have letters from home.

Harden Not Your Hearts

“Harden not your hearts”* is a phrase I read today in the book of Jacob, and I began to think about the control we need to exercise over our thinking.

Recently, I started to feel a little bothered by someone. “This person just wants me to feel small,” I thought. But then these two simple words came to my mind,

“Or not.”

Or not? The Spirit was teaching me to question my thinking. I was making assumptions. I was taking the easy bait of victimhood. I was hardening my heart. I was not giving the person the benefit of the doubt. I was wrong!

It is a common tendency to trust thoughts and feelings as though they are pure truth. Sometimes thoughts can be wrong because they might be influenced by emotion, popular philosophies, low blood sugar, fatigue, unhealthy family patterns… So much static.

My wisdom for the day is that we can be fooled by our thoughts. Measure your ideas with the standard of Christ’s doctrine. For me, the words “or not” were enough to help me see that there was a better way to look at things.

Our thoughts matter because they lead to action. Our hearts matter because they represent our loyalties.

“Harden not your hearts” is great counsel.

*See Jacob 6:5 in the Book of Mormon. See also Obadiah 1:3, “The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee.”

Austin

On this quick trip, we focused on visiting just few people and places we knew 20 years ago. The memories tumbled around in my heart as we saw the old haunts, and I felt such gratitude. There were some heartbreaking things we learned and some really happy, full experiences, too. Reunions are often complicated like that.

Behind the scenes

This is just a portion of the cookies we decorated.
Refreshments and handouts ready to go.

It has been a busy few months preparing for a stake Primary training about temple and family history work. On the day of the training, Paige and I decorated 70 temple cookies, and that was a big job. Thank you, Paige!

Most of the effort to prepare for this evening can’t be shown. Truly, it was not about the pretty cookies. There was a lot of personal and collaborative work. It was a spiritual journey. By the end, I realized this wasn’t “my” training at all. My original ideas for the evening slowly changed to something better, thanks to counseling with my presidency and an enthusiastic high councilor. Answers to prayers came. My small hope for some help from a few temple and family history consultants resulted in around 16 people showing up to teach.

It’s my birthday weekend, and as I look back on my last week of being 47, I can say that it was one of the best weeks. I was with my Sanchez family in the temple, along with Richard, Paige, Daniel, and McKenna. I got to see ordinances performed for people from my own labors in family history research. And towards the end of the week, I believe miracles happened at our training.

We gathered at the grave for my grandparents the morning after we completed their temple ordinances.
Modern apostles, including David A. Bednar, Quentin L. Cook, Neil L. Andersen and Dale G. Renlund have promised many powerful blessings to those who participate in Family History and Temple Service.

Spiritual gifts

I have learned that when I have a big event at church where I will be speaking or leading a discussion, I need to retreat in the hours (and sometimes days) leading up to it. I eat simple foods, and I avoid errands and people. I have spent a lot of time wishing I wasn’t like this, that I could have endless capacity to be with people and lots of energy to do more. But my strengths need stillness to show themselves. It takes quiet to bring order to all that I observe about people and the world. I am always watching and thinking, and I am analyzing behavior and words. I try to think of little things that might be helpful. I love to study and learn. All of this takes a lot of quiet. I haven’t always had the luxury of stillness when I needed it, but during the more busy times in my life, I have learned I can function as an extrovert, too.

I have had to work to understand that my quiet ways are a strength. I admire extroverts! I think they are wonderful.

Maybe you have struggled to understand that your personality unlocks your purpose on earth, or that your gifts are needed, noticed, and enough. I have. And I can tell you that your personality and spiritual gifts are wonderful. Consider their Source!

Dressing up

Happy Halloween! It’s not my favorite holiday, but I have always enjoyed the costumes. Mark dressed up with his friend to go to a Halloween dance with church friends. Cuties.

This wasn’t for Halloween, but I asked Daniel to try on my grandpa’s US Army uniform from WWII this weekend. Wow!

Here is a picture of my grandfather in his uniform.

Did I ever tell you that my grandpa and I got along really well? He had a tough and intimidating exterior, but he also gave me the nickname, Angelina Magdalena and talked to me like a pal. He took me places, Hawaii, Hearst Castle, San Francisco, and good restaurants. I have so many memories, but one favorite was when he picked me up from the Oakland airport and drove me to his house. We listened to his Andrews Sisters cassette and we talked about what his life was like when he was my age. I loved him so much.

Which one are you?

This film is a depiction of the Savior Jesus Christ appearing to the people in the Americas from the Book of Mormon.

I have three questions for you to think about.

Which person in this short film responds in the way that you would if Jesus came to visit you today?

What do you learn about your personal relationship with Jesus Christ as you watch?

How will you share His love with others today?

A glimpse

The Timothy iteration of Elder Ross is super funny each week in our video calls. He talks about his service in understatements and we have to draw out the things a different missionary might bring up right away. He is serving in Palau on an island called Koror. He welcomes the rain on the hot, hot days, and he is training a missionary and finding plenty of people to teach. His latest video call was interrupted by a little boy (a frequent visitor on his calls) trying to get his attention by stealing his phone and running away with it. There were scenes of a little palm, then ceilings and hallways whizzing past on the screen, and a final interception by another missionary, a hello, and a handoff. This happened twice.

A lot happens during a mission. There are a lot of emotions. There is a lot of heart stretching taking place on both ends of the weekly call.