Church – Page 31 – Letters from Home

Party tonight

I’m preparing for a dinner party for 12 adults today. I haven’t finished the table yet, but things will get crazy later and I may forget to take another picture. My sister Susan provided the lanterns and Long tablecloth. I have leftover bird nests from a Young Women activity filled with chocolate eggs and get-to-know-you questions for the guests to discuss over dinner.

The kids are helping tonight and will play background piano music, photograph the event, and the little boys will serve dessert in their suits. Mark has permission to change IMMEDIATELY after dessert. Richard is preparing some of our meal in his smoker. (I always want to type that he is smoking chicken, but that sounds like something else.) His smoked chicken is so good.

The theme for the evening is “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” and the guests don’t know who is invited. Our church is holding these parties in 7 or 8 members’ homes tonight. Only the hosts know who is coming. It’s a great chance to get to know people.

I finished hanging frames for a gallery wall, but I may not get all the frames filled today. All well.

Our basement flooded last night and our fence is still down in the backyard. Other than that, we’re looking good for company!

A New Feature

My voice is small and my influence is very narrow, but I have written some things on this blog about my Church that I hope will be helpful to someone. I have added a new page to my blog called, “Angela’s posts about our Church”. If you use a reader rather than visit my site, you will miss it, so I am telling you it’s there.

Here’s a link so you can look at it if you feel like it. It’s a collection of posts that I have already written. There’s nothing new here, but they are organized in one place for you.

Why is it important that I share this stuff? I don’t know. I just feel like doing it. That is all for today.

Grace

Everyone is home on this Sunday afternoon enjoying individual pursuits. There is sweet piano music echoing through the house. Thoughts from church this morning rise to the surface as I take some time to rest. I am grateful for the Savior, and that His grace carries us through difficulties. I am glad to know that the gift of grace is just that: a gift, not earned by me, but it’s up to me to accept that gift.

When I obey the commandments I show that I accept the gift.

When I repent I show that the gift is appreciated.

When I help others I show that the gift has changed me.

Nothing I do will repay the gift of the Savior, but through his grace and my obedience (acceptance of His laws) I know that I can be perfected in Him.

An important lesson

Evolution of a lesson: complex to simple

I am teaching an important topic in Young Women tomorrow. I have spent so much time working on it and thinking about it. I read all of the suggested lesson materials, scripture references, and watched a handful of Bible movies. I read General Conference talks with the girls in mind.

Then I decided that I should anticipate questions they might have. I listed about 30 questions. I chose 22 of those questions and found scripture references to help answer each question. I typed up this list of 22 questions and scriptures to give to the girls. After printing them out and gluing a picture of the Savior on each copy, I finally realized that I had gotten carried away. WHO would take the time read 80 square inches of words in a small font that are only meant to make them THINK?

Planet Angie felt like a lonely place right then.

My hours of preparation are now whittled down to asking the girls to consider one question of their choice from only five possibilities. After the girls have had a chance to read scriptures and other materials about their topic and ponder for a bit, we’ll sit in a circle and share what we have learned and felt.

And then we’ll talk about how their understanding can influence the choices they make this week.

I will consider it a success if the girls can remember one thing that we talked about one week later.

30-22-5-1

Hope

I spent a few minutes yesterday reading my journal from 2001. What a heartbreaking year that was. I’m pretty sure it was one of the most difficult in our lives. It was the year that I said goodbye to teaching seminary (I mourned over that) and I had my 3rd major surgery in 3 years. I was in pain for months and there were other troubles that I won’t list here. I’d get over one trial and another big one would emerge. The terrorist attacks affected the mood. Some of my entries were so sad. Other entries helped me see how I got through that time. I maintained hope that things would get better; I maintained hope in the power of prayer and faith. I clung to the written word from Church magazines and the scriptures. I believed that my problems were known and carefully measured for my good. I took time to realign my priorities.

I have been thinking about hope this month. I found a nice article about it in the September 2013 Ensign and I highly recommend it. Here is my favorite quote from the article and a quote by President Uchtdorf for you today.

Profound and sustaining hope is more than an attitude; it is an orientation of the spirit toward God.

-Vaughn E. Worthen, “The Healing Balm of Hope,” Ensign, September 2013.

There may be some among you who feel darkness enroaching upon you. You may feel burdened by worry, fear, or doubt. To you and to all of us, I repeat a wonderful and certain truth: God’s light is real. It is available to all! It gives life to all things. It has the power to soften the sting of the deepest wound. It can be a healing balm for the loneliness and sickness of our souls. In the furrows of despair, it can plant the seeds of a brighter hope. …It can illuminate the path before us and lead us through the darkest night into the promise of a new dawn.

-President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “The Hope of God’s Light,” Ensign, May 2012, 75.

Weekend Recap

The weekend was good. I hope yours was, too. Richard and I went to Lamb’s Grill (est. 1919) after I picked him up from his business trip. We watched the documentary, Mitt. We went to the temple. We took the kids out for Italian food because Mark wanted bread sticks. Richard was busy with church stuff and I worked on the family album. Timothy had a friend over most of the time. Daniel kept the house filled with music from his computer. He’s been listening to movie soundtracks lately. Paige worked on projects in her room. We miss her a bit. Mark began a new piano piece called Creepy Crocodile and changed clothes every few hours, as usual.

I am looking forward to a visit with my parents tonight and reserving tickets to attend the Sacred Gifts exhibit at BYU.

Trying to compete with Hallmark on a dime

I made birthday cards for the Young Women last weekend to save a little money. The supplies were donated and I took the challenge of making something from a box of paper I didn’t choose. I cut out all of the flower embellishments and made each one a little different from the next. As I gazed down at my finished creations, I wondered if the girls would even like them. What if my idea of a cute card is a little outdated, but in a non-cool, un-retro way? And they took so much time to make!

There was a time several years ago when I would create handmade cards and scrapbook pages, but I’m just not into it lately. Digital scrapbook making is so fast that I now see how time-consuming paper crafts can be. If I loved doing it, that would be fine, but I seem to be moving on. I see many others doing the same. I hope that with all of the time-saving technology that I have, that some of my extra time is dedicated to reaching out to others in concrete ways, not just through wispy texts and social media.

I mourn the loss of real, tangible correspondence. If these cards can extend the life of a sweet tradition of card giving, maybe it wasn’t a waste of time to make these, after all.

Impressive

Daniel’s Teachers Quorum presidency stopped by on Sunday to get to know him better. Echoes of their conversation and laughter from the living room were welcome additions to our Sunday afternoon rest. I was so impressed with this visit that I took a photo of these 14 and 15 year olds as they walked away so I could remember the moment.

They came without an adult leader.
They asked questions about Daniel’s life and interests.
They were dressed in their Sunday best.
They were polite and cheerful.

Just, wow. These are the kind of missionaries this world will need when it’s time for them to serve.

20 Activity Pins and a Bridge

Timothy is a “Webelos Super Achiever” because he earned every activity pin. We are pretty proud of him! We attended his last Cub Scout Pack Meeting last week.

He walked across the bridge to Boy Scouts…

and got to sign his name on the bridge.

I enjoy seeing the older version of Timothy’s personality emerging through his work in scouting, piano, school, and among friends. He LOVES to ski. He would go every weekend if he could. He plows through the books. His bedroom is decorated with Hobbit-themed Lego sets. We like him quite a bit.

Angels We Have Heard

I keep a copy of this photo close by. My great-grandmother is on the far right. My great-great grandmother is on the far left. My grandmother is the little girl.

I keep this photo for several reasons.

It’s a gathering of the powerful Howard women.
The hats
My great-grandmother (far right) looks so superior, and she WAS.

I wrote the following post a few weeks ago, but I have been afraid to post it for a few reasons.

I don’t want you to see how self-centered and insecure I can be.
I don’t want you to read too much into the angels thing. I believe in angels and they have a work to accomplish, but I’m not obsessed with the doctrine.
It’s *another* post about how scared I am to play the violin at church.

You can read it or skip it. If you don’t like it, that’s ok because I’m pretty sure all of these women in the photo have my back and they think that I am darling.

The Post I Was Hesitant to Publish goes like this:

We attended a party one day before the big church Christmas program in which I was to play the violin. As the entertainment for the party a violin professor with a PhD in violin performance played for us.

It’s not logical and it’s immature, but my confidence plummeted after hearing this violinist.

The next day I was moody and I had a bad rehearsal. How was I going to get my head back together so I could play that evening?

Then came the angels. They were people in my church congregation who stopped me in different settings throughout the day.

“What have you read lately?” one person asked, initiating a discussion that we began earlier this year. Our conversation turned to talents and gifts versus faith as we serve God. He said something like, “God uses people because of their faith, not necessarily their gifts.” This was something I needed to hear. He was the angel sent to remind me to have the faith to be an instrument, and not focus on proficiency alone.

All day people from the choir for whom I was playing the accompaniment were so kind and encouraging.These were the angels who lifted me over my insecurities.

Just before the performance, I ran into my friend who played Tevye in the production of Fiddler on the Roof earlier this year when I got to be the fiddler. We laughed over the adventures of that show. Here was the angel who got my mind off my troubles.

I asked Richard to sit near me while I played, just off to the side. His presence was angelic and helpful. My mom and Paige sat in the congregation and gave me another reason to play my best. Daniel, who was singing in the choir, always gives me a private encouragement before I play. It’s a tender gesture that always goes to my heart.

There were also probably unseen angels who helped me to play without shaking.

I cringe at this fear and weakness that I show when I have to play, but I have learned about faith, true friends, and angels through these experiences of working through it. Someday I’ll be able to get over myself.

The performance came and went. I played and it was just fine… not perfect, but sufficient. Looking back, how could it have been otherwise with such a team rooting for me?