Church – Page 32 – Letters from Home

Little Women

Paige and I watched this movie late into the night last weekend. I always watch this movie with my girl. The first time I watched it was in a theater with my mom and two sisters in December 1994, just a few days before I got engaged. That’s a sweet memory.

It was a weekend to celebrate women. My mom spoke at the Missionary Training Center to all of the sister missionaries on Sunday morning and she invited me and my sisters to attend.

We were told that 39% of the missionaries at the MTC this weekend are sisters. That’s a lot of women. There was real power in that enormous arena. There were other sisters assembled at the “west campus” and we waved via satellite. When they all sang I cried.

They took lots of notes and told me they were excited to go to Taiwan or Scottsdale, Arizona and all over the world. My mom’s words were beautiful and reminded us that The Gospel Blesses Families. It’s quite something to be invited to speak to such a unique and historic audience. It might have been the largest gathering of sister missionaries ever. It was a special thing to see my mother speak with confidence and power to that audience.

I went home to my Young Women at church and told them that they look like the sisters at the MTC. They are nearly the same age and they have the same countenance. Do they understand that they have power through their obedience to covenants? I hope so. Do they understand that they are respected and valuable in their roles at church? I hope so. Do they know that it’s a blessing to be a woman? Oh, because it is!

An Evening of Excellence

The Young Women came together to display some of the goals that they have been working on this year. We served a nice dinner for them and their parents. The evening was full of sweet moments as the girls shared honest, real experiences and accomplishments.

I keep smiling as I recollect their words, their courage, and the things they chose to display. Striking themes were the lifeline of scripture study in their lives and the huge opposition they feel to gospel living. There were talents shared, such as piano pieces and crafts, and each girl was given the chance to speak. I felt happy when one of the young women stood up and talked about the experiences she and I have shared this year working on her project to make soft and cute hats for cancer patients. She keeps mentioning how much fun she had doing it. Hooray!

Paige was there and she displayed her concerto music and her scriptures. She has done so many incredible things this year, from ballet to piano, and academics to painting. I am proud of her for playing the organ at church. I am proud of her for working so hard in school. I am proud of her because she studies the scriptures carefully and keeps a journal of her thoughts. She sacrifices a lot to study; she is a great help to our family.

It was a beautiful evening to celebrate the lives of our Young Women.

My buddy

Here is Mark in his new suit and fresh haircut. I couldn’t resist taking a picture of him. At church this week I let him skip Primary and come to class with me. In the hallway someone reminded me that it’s good for kids to face their troubles, which is a good insight… but not for us today. I have learned that sometimes a child just needs a little break and he can face his troubles better next time. Also, I can’t discount the effect that Richard’s absence is having on the little hearts in our family, and I think that extra love is needed.

Family Home Evening

Mark taught our Family Home Evening lesson this week about the Armor of God. He gave each person a piece of armor and asked us to look up the scripture in Ephesians and explain how each piece of armor represented something spiritual we can do to be protected from evil. We placed the armor on a disproportionate picture of a little man. We called him Pippin.

The next morning I found our visual aid thus arrayed:

I’ve had to trust that our armor, however hastily or incompletely placed, will be enough this week because I can’t do any more than I’m doing. I have felt lifted physically and mentally even though I’ve fallen asleep every time I’ve tried to read the scriptures this week. I’ve felt like I’ve been carried. The grace of God is amazing like that. We turn to our Father in Heaven in our weakness, and that act of turning (however incomplete or imperfect) puts us in a position to receive great blessings.

Roadshow pictures

Paige and Daniel were in a roadshow production in October with their church youth group. Daniel had the part of Jaws and he played the ominous theme from the movie on the cello as he made his entrance.

There were heroes and there were villains and they danced and sang.

Paige played the part of Mary Poppins. Paige 1 “Practically perfect in every way.”

Photos by Janine Clarke and Jolynn Sorensen

Charity

I am in need of this scripture in my life, so I’m memorizing it using the help of these beautiful images from lds.org.

jesus-comforts-mary-martha-1104492-print — And charity suffereth long

woman-at-the-well-942631-print — and is kind,

jesus-christ-1138494-print — and envieth not,

jesus-christ-last-supper-949772-print — and is not puffed up,

jesus-christ-children-958501-print — seeketh not her own,

jesus-christ-betrayal-999236-print — is not easily provoked,

jesus-teaching-in-synagogue-olsen-82887-print — thinketh no evil,

jesus-cleansing-temple-948976-print — rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth,

christ-in-gethsemane-960127-print — beareth all things

rane-jesus-healing-baby-christ-160161-print — believeth all things,

woman-taken-in-adultery-948852-print — hopeth all things,

resurrected-christ-with-people-1103021-print — endureth all things.

A Baptism Day

My niece Ruby was baptized this weekend. This was the cousin shot, and this was the best they could do to hold still after the loooooooong program. They love each other. Can you tell?

My parents were there and I’m grateful that I can see them so often. Sitting with family at baptisms was a blessing that I missed when we lived far away. That little Ruby is such a pretty and kind little girl! She is learning to speak Chinese, too. Wow.

Clean

draper-temple-769424-print — Draper Temple image from lds.org

Occasionally we have the opportunity to clean the Draper Temple after hours. This means we go from 9 to 11:30 p.m. or on a Monday afternoon. We have a cleaning supervisor who sees that we are thorough and know what to do. We present our temple recommends to enter and we change into white cleaning clothing. The temple is meticulously cleaned often. In fact, it’s difficult to find any evidence of debris on our cleaning rags and dusters.

On my last trip to clean the temple I was given the task to vacuum the sealing rooms and two additional rooms in the hallway. I spent two hours beneath chandeliers and between mirrors with the afternoon sun coming through the stained glass windows. The air in the temple always feels tight and hushed and even the vacuum cleaner I was given was especially quiet. I suppose that the people who were cleaning bathrooms will receive additional blessings, but I felt pretty blessed that day to be able to spend so much time caring for these beautiful sealing rooms in the House of the Lord.

I envisioned the families who had gathered there to witness marriages. I thought about my own family and my hopes that my children will be married in temples someday. It was a good way to spend an afternoon. I looked into the mirrors. When I see myself in the mirrors at the temple I feel more beautiful than I do at home.

Mormonism at a Glance

httpv://youtu.be/7o-ByARPf9w

My Conference Notebook

This morning I am finishing my conference notebook. I got this idea from a religion course my mom took at BYU. The idea is to find the quotes that are meaningful to you from the words of the prophets and compile them by topic into a document.

This summer I read the General Conference addresses from the May Ensign and marked the passages that meant something to me. Next, I went through the marked passages and placed a post-it note at the top of the page with a topic written on it. I color coded these post-it notes, pink for motherhood, yellow for revelation, etc.

Using an electronic version of the Conference addresses, I am copying and pasting the quotes by topic into a Word document.

Through this exercise I have discovered that these are the topics that were important to me this year:

Motherhood
Priesthood
Revelation
Trials
Chastity
Marriage
Prayer
Media
Peace
Missionary Work
Obedience
Atonement of Jesus Christ
Mormonism IS Christianity