Draper Temple

 On January 11, Aly and I took Max and his friend and Michelle and Ella to the Draper Temple.  Annie had to work later than expected and was unable to make it.  The Draper Temple was SO busy!  It was a Friday evening and there were SO MANY youth there.  There were youth groups.  There were families, bringing their 11 year olds for the first time.  A member of the temple presidency was in the baptistry, welcoming people, teaching the 11 year olds, training the new Priests who were able to baptize for the first time and helping each person to have a good experience.  It's such a blessing to have temples dotting the Earth and to have opportunities to go regularly!

 When we arrived the sky was so murky that you could barely see the angel Moroni on top.  You couldn't see the temple at all from a mile away.  When we left, it was lit and glowing...light emanating from the temple.

The night before I'd read in 1 Nephi about the tree of life and the mists of darkness...and the two images of the temple...one murky and covered in mists of darkness...and one with light emanating from it...seemed a perfect analogy for this.  As we spend time in the world, it becomes harder to see what is true and what is right. Things become more murky.  But as we spend time in the temple, with the word of God, and praying...light enters our life and it becomes easier and clearer to see what really matters.

This year my goal is to gather more light.  Going to the temple regularly is one of the best ways I can do that.

 Photo credit for all but the first of these photos goes to Aly.

It's a Beautiful Day...at the temple

A few months ago, I told Sara that I'd never gone to the temple and done all the ordinances in one day.  She hadn't either so we decided to go together over Winter Break to do that.  It worked out that January 3 was a day that worked for both of us to go spend the day in the temple.  That morning when I woke up, I saw a First Presidency statement that changes have been made in the temple in the past and a reminder that sacred ordinances shouldn't be discussed outside of the temple.  So it seemed some changes had been made, which made our timing feel even more wonderful.  When we got to Jordan River, the parking lot was packed.  We did find a spot, but we were lucky...lots of people parked in places that weren't spots.

We went to the baptistry first.  Our stake member/friend Kaye was working in the baptistry.  She asked if we had done an endowment session yet, and we said no and explained what we were doing.  She told us that four apostles were in the temple at that time.  The baptistry was busy, but not too busy as were the initiatories.  We saw Sister Joy D. Jones in the dressing rooms.  After completing initiatories, we had a delicious lunch in the temple.  Then we did an endowment session and sealings.  It was such a wonderful day.  The spirit was so strong and I found myself weeping with joy over and over.  I loved seeing the connections between each ordinance and knowing that we had helped women receive these ordinances that they couldn't do for themselves.  I loved spending that time with Sara and feel so grateful for her friendship and example.  And I loved being in the temple.  It's my favorite place on Earth!  I love that there are so many temples in such proximity to us and I love that I can go so regularly and feel that peace and find guidance and direction.  We are so blessed.  It was truly a glorious day!!!

New Years

On New Years Eve, we had the Galatas over for games and dinner.  It was a lot of fun. 

On New Years Day, we had the Lazartes over for dinner.  Alfredo made his delicious sopa de res!  And Annette introduced me to my new favorite game...Splendor.  Really, I'm a bit obsessed with it now.  I bought us a copy and we play every Sunday.

Straightened hair

Every once in a while, Gabby likes to have Michelle help her straighten her hair.  Last week she had one of those days and I can't believe how long her hair is getting. (On the other hand, she is 10 and has only had 1 hair cut in her life, so I guess her hair should actually be much longer!)

She is the funniest, cutest girl and I sure love her!!

Gabby

Gabby sure loves dance.  I love to watch her dance.  And she did her hair in such a cute hair style for dance last night that I just had to snap a couple of photos.   

Love First

I have the best people in my life.  I'm feeling yucky and stayed home from work today.  I took a nap after I got home from work and still went to bed at 8:30 last night.  My dear friend Sara brought me soup for lunch.  A few seconds after she brought the soup, I got a text from my dear friend Aly saying that she was thinking of me and loves me and that I'm an example to her.  I am so thankful to have such great examples of Christlike disciples all around me.  It reminded me that 1.  I have dear friends who love me.  2.  My Heavenly Father is mindful of me.  I am sure that Aly was prompted by the spirit to send that text.  3.  If I ever truly needed something, I have people who would help and be there for me.  I'm fine.  I will be back at work tomorrow and my life is good.  But it means so much that on just a lousy sick day, people reached out to show love.  I know that if there were ever really a tragedy or great need, I would be enveloped by love.

 This morning I watched a beautiful video on Instagram from Multiply Goodness this morning.  Emily Freeman shared a bracelet that she wears that says HWLF on it.  She explained that a college student wore a WWJD bracelet (What Would Jesus Do?) One day as he was studying for an exam, he was staring at the bracelet and began to really ponder, what would Jesus do?   And he decided that He would love first.  That's what Jesus would do.  So this young man created bracelets to remind himself and others that Jesus would love first...and so should we.

Another dear friend, upon hearing that story, texted me to ask how many young women I have.  She texted later and told me she hoped it was okay but she'd ordered enough bracelets for each of my young women.  She hoped I'd share this story and give them each a bracelet...as a reminder that Jesus loves them so very much, first and foremost, and also that what He spent His life doing and what we should spend our lives doing is loving people first.  I'm going to give the bracelets to the young women at our New Beginnings.  It will go perfectly with our theme for this year, John 14:15:  "If ye love me, keep my commandments."

A couple of other things.  I've been drinking herbal tea to help fight off this illness. Mostly homemade with garlic, ginger, and honey.  Disgusting but it helps.  But this morning I made packaged tea. When I made my tea this morning, I noticed the tea bag had this little message.  "Live righteously and love everyone.   You will build up around you an aura of light and love."  Perfect, huh?!

On Sunday, I was studying for Come Follow Me for Individuals and Families for this week.  I read Luke 4 and was so touched by these verses.

  This is Christ declaring publicly that He is the long awaited Messiah.  Many were angry or disbelieving but I am sure that many hearts thrilled at His declaration.  My heart surely does.  I thrill at His declaration because it occurs to me that each of us will at times be brokenhearted, spiritually blind, poor (in money or in spirit), captive (to sin, pride, anger, jealousy, self doubt, discouragement, selfishness, or grief) and bruised.  But in verse 21 he says, "this day is this scripture fulfilled in me."  And it occurred to me that TODAY He can fulfill those words for each of us.  TODAY He can calm our sorrow, heal our broken hearts, free us from our doubts and our sins, and help us to see more clearly.  If we exercise faith in Him, He can do these things for us today and each day.  Sometimes it takes days, weeks, months or even years for us to see the fulfillment of these promises but they will come!!  I'm so grateful!

Latin Cooking Night

Our dear friends, Jeremy and Stacie, bought us tickets to a Latin Cooking night at Park City Culinary Institute as our Christmas gift this year.  The cooking class was on January 26 and it was SO fun!   We went with Jeremy and Stacie and one other couple was at our table, also.  We learned how to make tostones (twice fried plantains), mango salsa, chicken empanadas, and pasteles (a guava pastry).   Everything was delicious and it was a lot of fun doing the cooking and visiting and enjoying time with our friends and each other.

I was surprised because I've had fried plantains before and I don't like them at all.  At all!  But when they are smashed and then fried twice, they are thin and crispy and taste more like a chip. With mango salsa on top, they are quite delicious!

Alfredo's empanadas are even better than the ones we made there, but they were good.  And the pastelitos are delicious.  I made them again for dessert this past Saturday, though I couldn't find guava paste so I made half with lemon curd and half with raspberry jam.