L.A. Temple

While on vacation to California, we went to the L.A. temple on Sunday and got to see the newly renovated visitor's center. It was pretty awesome. They really took advantage of the many different technologies available today. One of my favorite things in the visitor's center was the Book of Mormon display. Each Book of Mormon had a chip inside so when you picked it up and waived it in front of the TV it would tell you what language it was in and even give you a verbal sample. There are many features they just installed that are unique to that visitor's center alone. A sister missionary told us they have the video "God's Plan For The Family" just like in Mesa, but L.A. has an extended version. The L.A. temple is beautiful and sits on a hill over looking much of the city. It reminded me of the scripture in Matthew 5:14 which says, "Ye are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hid."

I took this picture. Pretty amazing photography skills if you ask me.

I love this picture of the Angel Moroni. All credit goes to Brittney.

Daddy and Addy.

Together Forever!

Girls Camp: Spiritual Edition

immediately after we moved into this new ward, we heard the bishop - a.k.a. my uncle loren - had some callings in mind for us. hearing that i became terrified that i would be put in as a relief society teacher or something. two weeks later i was put in as the beehive advisor and kyle was put in as the 13 and 14 year old sunday school teacher. whew, i blew a sigh of relief. we pretty much just left those same two callings in our last ward and i knew i could handle that one.

our ward beehive count is ridiculous. we have 15 girls in my class alone, compare that to my last ward where the beehives was also the largest class with an average of four to five girls per sunday. mia maids had two - three girls average, and the laurels class was virtually non- existent. i didn't go to girls camp with them since i was nursing, or trying to, but i remember my president ( i loved kim johnson) saying we only had eleven girls go to camp that year. then she told me we weren't the smallest ward to go. holy crap!

well, i went to girls camp last week and had a blast!

it was incredible how much i missed kyle and addison. i thought about that they were doing every day and worried about something happening to addison while i was so far away. she wasn't too happy to see me when i came home. she had been woken up very early from a nap and didn't warm up to me until that evening. and speaking of that evening. i went to take a nap at 5:30 and didn't wake up until 9:00 the next morning. i was exhausted!

but that's getting off topic. our theme this year was EXTREME MAKEOVER: SPIRITUAL EDITION. how do the leaders come up with these ideas?!? it was amazing. we learned a lot about building our foundation on christ, being strong for him, and what we want in our homes. each ward represented a different part of the home with a value assigned to them as well. our ward theme was the front yard where we talked to the girls the importance of how the curb appeal for a home reflects what the home will look like on the inside. also that it is one of the more important aspects of the home because if we compare it to our bodies we need to make sure the first impression of who we are and what we stand for is clearly visible on the outside, the first thing people learn about us. the motto the girls came up with was "how's your curb appeal?" i thought it was great.

not everyone likes it, but i know that girls camp changes lives. it gives the young women in our ward families a chance to learn more about christ and how to gain a stronger testimony of who they are and where they really want to go in life. i hear about girls who make excuses of why they can't go... work, vacations, they're not campers, or some other reason. these girls are really denying themselves a great opportunity to get away from the pressures and ugly things of the world and surround themselves with leaders and fellow girls who love them. girls camp is like drinking a huge energy boost, but instead of caffeine, they will be full of knowledge and experiences that will strengthen their testimony and fortify it against those things that will try to tear at them. nothing else can compare. it's a week of the best positive peer pressure out there. and if you have teenage girls you know they don't always listen to you, but at camp, surrounded by those that become best friends, you don't need to worry about their choices. they all choose the best together. and by the time the young women need a reminder, a year has gone by and girls camp is back again!! what could be more perfect? girls camp is truly inspired.

i told the girls in my ward how i went to girls camp all six years and after i graduated, i begged my young women's president to let me go again, but i wasn't allowed. i wanted to go because i knew what i was missing out on, and i cried. i know, somewhat dramatic.

as a leader, camp was still incredible. i loved getting to know the girls better and i gained a huge appreciation of all that my leaders did, starting months before camp. i really love megan and jessica - the second counselor in YW and ward camp director. we had so much fun together even though i was at least ten years younger than either of them. (yes, i got confused for a young women almost hourly).

one thing we did that i personally loved was the hike. i wasn't excited to go at first because i was already so dirty, but it was a great experience. at the beginning of the hike, we each received a paver (basically an over sized brick) to write our names and the date on. we listened to the hiking leader, brother olsen, talk about burdens and what they are. some that we talked about were anger, guilt, sickness, school, financial, and jealousy. he told us that as we hiked we were going to carry these pavers, representing our burdens, on our hands. he wanted us to constantly think of them as we hiked (leaders were asked to carry a paver too).

right away my five little first years, weighed down by their burdens, started to have a hard time ascending to the top of the mountain. we had breaks every ten to fifteen minutes and the girls talked about how much they hated their paver and wanted to put them on Lou the donkey to carry for them. i encouraged them as best i could to carry their burdens themselves and stay in lead of all the hikers, that helps you a lot mentally. at the top of the mountain we had lunch, rested for about an hour, and talked some more about burdens. some of the stake leaders shared personal experiences that helped everyone to really understand why we were doing this.

then we went back down the mountain and i was so proud of all my girls who stayed together in the front and had great attitudes. when we had hiked 3.4 miles, we were stopped and given bio-degradable pieces of paper to write down the burden that we have been carrying. hiking a bit further, we placed our paper under our burden in a path brother olsen had made for the entire stake. he explained that jesus, as part of the atonement, will carry our burdens for us, if we are willing to give them to him. when it rains, our burdens will wash away.

towards the end of girls camp, after we did singing trees, the whole stake walked on the path of "burdens" from each person and we had a devotional about christ. these are the kind of experiences the girls will remember throughout their life because of the physical things they did that represented spiritual things they need to do.

i love girls camp and i am so glad i got to go!

A Loving Heavenly Father

first of all i want to say thank you so much to all of those who have showed concern and prayed for kyle's mom. two weeks ago when i posted about the return of her cancer, the situation was extremely bleak. doctors were pretty sure there was nothing they could do for her anymore and she didn't want to go through chemo again. we scheduled family pictures, unsure if this would be the last family pictures she could be in. we made sure that there were pictures taken of her and kyle's dad, her and the grandchildren, as well as with her two girls. last weekend she went in for a more thorough scan of her liver and then of her lungs. she is CANCER FREE! what an unexpected relief! the spots that they thought they had found two weeks previous were of no concern. doctors were shocked.

i am so thankful for a loving heavenly father who places us in families where we learn and grow together. i know he is with us when we go through hard times mentally, physically, and spiritually. he is mindful of our sorrows and fears. and while he will not always give us the answer we desire, he is always with us and sends his spirit to comfort us in our times of need. i have lost several family members very close to me from cancer and and other conditions. even though i have knowledge of the gospel and eternal families, these losses were, and are still very hard, and at times have been seemingly unbearable. i can't imagine how those without knowledge of the gospel are able to bear their burdens. i am so thankful for the atonement, for my heavenly father, and for this miracle that has happened to our family. and again, thank you for all of the prayers and love you have shown.

Tender Mercies

so i got a phone call yesterday morning at 7:00 from a friend of the family telling me that everything was going to be fine but that my dad had a heart attack. not really the kind of news you want to wake you up first thing in the morning. i guess what happened was that my family went for a walk at five (yes, that's five A.M.). my dad started this a week ago to try and get my sisters to exercise and get up earlier. he had to come home early because he wasn't feeling well. after taking soda water for what he thought was heartburn and finishing scripture study, he told my mom that she was going to have to take him to the emergency room. she went to get dressed and he called for her and told her to just call 911. the paramedics got there and after assessing him said that he was having a heart attack. i heard that my dad kept very calm and tried to reassure my sisters and mom by winking at them and waving goodbye. but it really didn't help my sisters - especially kenna and kinsey - to see him hooked up to oxygen and wheeled away on a gurney. michelle told me that kinsey was crying and saying "don't take my daddy" to the paramedics.
meanwhile i was asleep and none of my family thought to call me. so all i heard was that he had a heart attack but was going to be okay. but i was fearing the worst and all i could think about was that my dad is way too young for a heart attack, way too young to die, and that i'm pregnant with the first grandbaby that he might not get to meet. kyle helped keep me calm before he had to go to school, but i broke down on the way to my parents house. my sisters stayed home from school all day. we had so many people from the ward and family come over to see how we were doing, help us clean or cook, or make sure we weren't left alone. kyle took work off and it was comforting to have him there with me. everyone was so amazing. i am so greatful to have so much support from people who know and love my dad and our family.
the cause of the heart attack was a clot in a main artery behind dad's heart. instead of surgery that would've taken a long recovery, doctors used a procedure that took a catheter from the top of his leg, through his artery, to the clot and dispersed it. they left a stint in the artery to keep it open and checked for any other clots. at this point he is in the hospital for recovery and observation and he guesses he'll get out tomorrow or saturday.
my uncle who is a firefighter said that if my dad had waited a couple of hours more to go to the hospital, he would've died. he said that most people try to be strong and think that they can handle the pain, not knowing that they're having a heart attack and that the longer they wait, the weaker their heart gets until it can't recover.
thank goodness my dad's heart is showing no signs of permanent damage. thank goodness my dad was smart and played it safe by getting an ambulance to the scene. thank goodness my dad decided to start walking a week ago so that he was awake when the pain started. if he wasn't awake, he possibly could've died in his sleep. heavenly father gave us so many tender mercies yesterday, so many things could have been different, but we are so blessed. if we just live right and do the few simple things we are asked to do we will be blessed in countless ways. i don't thinks i could emphasize that enough. i am so greatful for family, friends, the gospel, and that my dad is still here. obviously this happened for a reason, and my dad is still here for a reason when he came so close to dying. i'm so greatful things turned out the way they did. we are so blessed.

the thankful pot

i thought that it would be appropriate to talk about some things that i'm thankful for since it's the season to reflect on blessings. i read the talk today that president monson gave in the october 2008 conference. it was called "finding the joy in the journey". pres. monson says that there are subtle changes that are made in our life everyday and that if we are not careful in living fully in every moment and finding joy in the little things, we will, in essence, have an empty life. he quotes a play called the music man where a character says "you pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you've collected a lot of empty yesterdays". president monson advises us to look beyond the endless mounds of laundry, handprints on the wall, and toys everywhere from our children and to reaquaint yourselves with lost friends or loved ones. to have no regrets when you look back at the end of your life. to show love rather than assume someone already knows. to be thankful for the blessings in your life.
i have so much to be thankful for and i have been blessed so much. i have great parents and sisters who love me so much. i have the love of a handsome guy named kyle - who i adore. i'm going to have a baby girl soon. kyle and i by no means are rich, but we can't complain, we're doing fine. i'm loving life right now and feel like i can take president monson's advice to live life to the fullest - right now it seems like it will be pretty easy. we'll see. :)