Parents Visit

My mom and Mike spent the weekend here.  They arrived Thursday and left today.  We got to spend some time with them each day except Sunday because my mom was pretty sick on Sunday.  They looked at some houses while they were here, but didn't find any they liked.  But they are impressed with their real estate agent and I think if they are willing to extend their search into some other areas, they will be able to find something they will be happy with.  We will be pretty excited to have them closer!

Today we went to lunch at 5 Guys before they headed to the airport.  Alfredo had to work but he met us for lunch. 

I feel very blessed to have such wonderful parents.  Sara talked to my mom for a few minutes on Thursday and she said on Sunday that my mom seems just as kind and happy and wonderful as me.  (If I'm even half as wonderful as my mom, then that is quite a compliment.  My mom is such a Christlike person.) 

How Can I Know My Heavenly Father

This, essentially, is the lesson I taught the YW (girls age 12-18) at church about God.  There were a few parts that went a little off script as I felt prompted to share slightly different things. 

There is a Jewish proverb that tells of a man looking into the distance and seeing a blur.  As it got closer, he could tell it was a man.  As it got a little closer, he saw that it was a neighbor.  As the man drew near, he realized it was his friend.  The message is that the farther away you are from a person, the more sterile and unrecognizable they become.  So it is with God.  Unfortunately, much of the world envisions God as some unknowable, unrecognizable force rather than as a loving Father.  We are so very blessed to have the knowledge of God that we have.

Two quotes that help me recognize and remember how well we know/knew our Father:
 “Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father and how familiar his face is to us.” ---President Benson

Brigham Young said, "When you . . . see our Father, you will see a being with whom you have long been acquainted, and He will receive you into His arms, and you will be ready to fall into His embrace and kiss Him. . . . You will be so glad and joyful. . . . When you are qualified and purified, . . . you can endure the glory of eternity."

Going along with that quote, I am listening to a talk on CD by John Lund.  He said that God walked and talked with us for thousands of years.  All things are present for him...so while we have a veil of forgetfulness placed upon us, He knows and remembers everything about us because our past, present and future are before Him. (See for example D& C 38:2)  I don't know how to explain that or even really understand that, but the scriptures teach that we can't comprehend all the things which God can comprehend. For example, we read in Mosiah 4:9:  "Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend."


Why is it important for us to know our Heavenly Father?  Hopefully the girls will have some answers to this question.
Here are a couple of my answers:

John 17:3 "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."

*Knowing Heavenly Father helps us to make better decisions, makes it easier to do what is right.

Jeremiah 29:

11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.

13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

I read a BYU devotional given by a professor at BYU, Andrew Skinner.  He quotes the Prophet Joseph Smith who said: “It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the Character of God” (Teachings, 345).

 Then Brother Skinner explains,"In other words, one of the foundation stones of the restored gospel is a knowledge of what kind of being God actually is. But not only do we need to understand what kind of being God is, we must come to know God. In the same sermon from which we just quoted, the Prophet Joseph further stated, “If any man does not know God, . . . he will realize that he has not eternal life; for there can be eternal life on no other principle” 

Brother Skinner also said, "Thus everything of sacred significance connected with our future rests on both our coming to know about God the Eternal Father and, ultimately, our coming to know Him. “If men do not comprehend the character of God,” said Joseph Smith, “they do not comprehend themselves” (Teachings, 343). God and men are of the same divine, eternal species, and if we do not comprehend the nature of God, we cannot appreciate our divine parentage nor the very real potential we possess to become like our heavenly parents."

Elder Robert D. Hales said, "Without God, life would end at the grave and our mortal experiences would have no purpose.  Growth and progress would be temporary, accomplishment without value, challenges without meaning.  There would be no ultimate right and wrong and no moral responsibility to care for one another as fellow children of God.
 Indeed, without God, there would be no moral or eternal life."

So for the rest of the time, I'd like to talk about what we know about God and how we can come to know Him better.

What characteristics does God have?  Specifically, in the scriptures, how is God described?  It helps me to think of my father and his best qualities to enumerate the qualities God might possess. 
I asked the Young Women to be prepared to share a scripture that described one or more characteristics of God.  I also had this list (many from the BYU talk by Brother Skinner) with a few verses.
*merciful (D &C 3:10)
 *gracious  (Exodus 34: 6   And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodnessand truth,)

*slow to anger (Psalm 145: 8-9)

8 The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. 9 The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.

*abundant in goodness
*generous
*changes not (Mormon 9:19   "And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles.")
*just (Mosiah 29:12)
*God of truth, can not lie (Ether 3:12 "12 And he answered: Yea, Lord, I know that thou speakest the truth, for thou art a God of truth, and canst not lie.")
*possesses all power and knowledge
*He is love.  (1 John 4:16And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.)


*Study of General Conference talks and notes about God from these talks.  (Show poster. )  (Note:  As part of my study of General Conference in 2017, I wrote down every thing each speaker said about each member of the Godhead.  For October conference, I had 6 pages of notes about Heavenly Father!  I took my notes and reduced them to short phrases and created two posters of what we were taught about Heavenly Father.  I hung these up and asked girls which ones felt most meaningful to them.  I was impressed by how often speakers referred to His love for us.  I was also impressed that He knows our sorrows, discouragement, joys, etc.  I mean I knew these things, but it is powerful to be reminded of them.

So how can we come to know both about Him and come to know HIM?  At the beginning I shared that Jewish parable...the farther you are from a person, the more unrecognizable & unknowable they are.  So how do we get closer to God?  I was going to pass out small sections of Elder Hales' talk, Seeking to Know God, Our Heavenly Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ and ask each girl to find something in the talk that would help them better come to know Heavenly Father and be prepared to share it.  But we were short on time, and I didn't feel like that was what the spirit wanted me to do.  So I just asked them to share their ideas of how to come closer to God.  They shared several ideas and I shared a couple.

*Pray. 
* Study the scriptures.
* Study teachings of prophets.
*Pray to have the Holy Ghost testify of the Father. 
*Attend the temple.
*Attend church, partake of the sacrament.
*Repent.



*Keep the commandments.  (John 7:17  If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether
 I speak of myself.)  (Also see 1 John 2:3-5:  "

3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.)

What a tremendous blessing to know that God lives!  I challenged them to determine a way to come to know God better.  Maybe you want to make your prayers more meaningful.  Maybe you want to reread some of the conference talks and pay closer attention to what prophets and apostles have taught about God.  Maybe you want to study the scriptures and pay attention to what they teach us about God.  Maybe there is a commandment that you struggle with, and you want to improve your obedience.  As you draw nearer to God, you are "walking in the meekness of His spirit" like our youth theme this year tells us to, and you will gain greater peace in Christ. 

I gave them a box of colored pencils with a quote from President Uchtdorf, "As we draw near to God, He will draw near to us."  I told them they can use these to study or their scriptures or to literally draw.  I love these young women so much!

   

2017 Year In Review & Looking Ahead

It's January 1, 2018!  2017 felt like a great year to me...so many wonderful experiences and memories made!  Of course, there were challenges, but I feel like the blessings far outweigh the struggles.

I asked my family to help me compile a list of the highlights of 2017.  Here's what they came up with:

*Everyone was pretty healthy!
*Gabby loves dance!

*Our trip to Canada...visiting cousins, going kayaking, celebrating Canada Day, having a Nerf gun war, etc. 

*Girls Camp for Michelle, Ella and me:

*Camping Trips to Fremont State Park and to Bryce Canyon, as well as the trip to Arches with Suzy. The girls also specifically mentioned sleeping in a teepee:

*My trip with Ella to upstate New York to Church History sites and to Boston.

*Brenda came to visit!

*Michelle started high school and she is loving it!  Ella started junior high.  Gabby is in 4th grade and her teacher said at SEP conferences that if she had to describe Gabby in one word, the word she would have to use is "perfection."

*Alfredo was able to visit his family in El Salvador and Costa Rica.  Everything went smoothly while he was gone, he had a wonderful visit, and he came home safely. 

*The girls went to Christmas Around the World with Suzy.

*The girls went camping with the Harding family.

*We went to Pineview Reservoir with Patty's family.  We went kayaking and paddle boarding and swam and ate and had a great day.

 

*Michelle and I went to Lake Powell for Youth Conference!

*I went to San Diego with my mom and sister.

*We bought new bedroom furniture for Michelle, Ella, and Alfredo and me.

Our bedroom furniture

Michelle sitting in front of her bed's headboard

Ella's headboard and new dresser.




 

There are many other things that I feel grateful for.  I made it an unofficial goal to invite more people over to dinner.  To try to get to know people from our ward better.  We didn't have other families over every month like I had hoped, but we had people over several times.  Among the families that came to dinner this past year were the Fetzers and Julios,  Rasmussens, and Bennetts.  We have plans to have other families over this year.  I feel so very thankful that we have good friends!  My children all have great friends.  Alfredo has several loyal, wonderful friends.  I have phenomenal friends.  We have great people in our life!  I'm grateful for my family...both my parents and sisters, nieces and nephew as well as my husband and children.  I feel like our family has grown a lot closer and stronger and happier this year. I love the school I'm teaching at and really enjoy the students I am working with.  We have the best neighbors and such a caring and supportive ward!   I am blessed to serve in the Young Women's presidency which I love!  I love the women I serve with, I love the sweet Young Women of our ward, and I love having the opportunity to serve while two of my daughters are YW. 

Another thing I am really grateful for is scripture study.  For years, I have tried to read the Book of Mormon with my girls as well as by myself...with mixed success when it comes to family scripture study.  It hasn't always gone well.  But over the summer, I bought journals from a company  called Red Headed Hostess.  The journals are Book of Mormon study journals and as we read we write down about what we are reading and learning.  They are organized chapter by chapter, often with questions to answer or hints of things to watch for or consider.  It's been so great to help focus our reading, encourage more discussion and asking questions, and I have found it has been pretty motivating most of the time. I've noticed that our scripture study is better than ever before.  But also, I have noticed more peace in our home.  I think the girls are remembering more about what we read.  We are slow...we haven't even quite finished the Book of Mormon this year, we are half way through Ether.  But I know this has been such a blessing for our family.  Some days the girls don't want to write, and I try to encourage them but have not forced them to write.  But most days they want to write.  The journals I bought were for Alma through Moroni.  Since we are getting close to finishing, they asked what we would do when we finished.  I said that I was going to buy the journals for 1 Nephi through Mosiah.  They were all excited and happy about that.  So I think they recognize the value in the journals as well. We still miss days, and some days are a bit better than others...but I see the overall results and they are good.

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A few not so great things from this year:  (None of them are really that bad...and I'm sure there were other hard things that we have forgotten)
*Ella has very mild scoliosis, but sometimes her back really hurts.
*Gabby's foot got stuck in her bike tire as she was riding to school one day and it was very sore and tender for several days.
*Michelle developed tendonitis from dance class. And her AP Human Geography class has a lot of homework.

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Favorite Books of the Year:

Michelle: 
Cinder series by Marissa Meyer
The Siren by Kiera Cass
The Selection series

Ella:
Wonder by R. J. Palacio
Return to Sender by
Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper
Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Gabby:
Harry Potter
Crenshaw

Jenny:
A few book stats for me this year.  I read and reviewed 320 books on Goodreads.  That includes many picture books but also many novels, nonfiction books, etc.  I read 39,732 pages. 

A few of my favorites:
The Contrite Spirit by Bruce Hafen
One by One by David A. Bednar
Worth the Wrestle by Sheri Dew
They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel
What Do You Do With A Problem? by Kobi Yamada
The Blackthorn Key series
A Hope More Powerful than the Sea:  One Refugee's Incredible Story of Love, Loss and Survival by Melissa Fleming
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
Pax by Sara Pennypacker
The Invisible Library


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Goals for 2018:

Gabby:  Pray morning and night.
Learn more Spanish.

Ella:  Exercise every day for 40 minutes.
   Pray morning and night.

Michelle:  Read scriptures daily for at least 10 minutes per day.
   Pray morning and night.

Jenny:  Exercise at least 3 times per week.
    Have FHE every week! 
    Increase love, peace and unity in our home...through family activities, scripture study & prayer, sincere compliments, avoiding criticism, showing love, and offering forgiveness.  Make sure to have regular date nights and make time for Alfredo.  This is hard to even exactly articulate and harder to quantify or measure.  But I feel like when I have asked, "What lack I yet?" this is what the response has been...love my family better.  Be humble.  Forgive.  Love, love, love...even if it's only at the 100 pence level.