Hooray for General Conference! It always makes for such a wonderful weekend. This Conference I took a page out of our Mia Maid leader's book and asked the Beehives to listen to General Conference looking for a favorite talk that they could share with each other this Sunday, and us leaders were to do the same. But as I listened, there wasn't any one talk that really just stood out as my "favorite." (In retrospect, I don't really think that I usually do have 1 single favorite just after listening, except for last October Conference. I absolutely LOVED President Nelson's talk on joy, and I have loved rereading and reviewing it over the last six months.)
I did, however, have a few favorite challenges that were given this Conference, and I am striving to be better at them in my day to day life. First was President Monson's challenge to read the Book of Mormon every day. He said, "If you are not reading the Book of Mormon each day, please do so," and "I implore each of us to prayerfully study and ponder the Book of Mormon each day." You can't get much clearer and direct then that. And especially with it coming from the prophet himself, and being one of the only things he stood and said this Conference, I felt I had better listen and obey. I do read from the scriptures every day, but lately I have been working my way through the Old Testament (and by lately I mean off and on for the past 2 or 3 years....), and sometimes I use the scriptures and material from an upcoming lesson I am teaching for my personal study. But for the past week I have made sure to also read at least 1 chapter from the Book of Mormon. Nothing overly profound has happened, but I have been very grateful for the counsel and the challenge. I just love the spirit of the Book of Mormon; it is just so familiar to me and so easy to understand. It has really helped, too, for the days when I don't really feel like studying. Instead of continuing to put off my scripture reading, I start with my one chapter from the Book of Mormon, and then even if I am just casually reading it, it more fully invites the Spirit, and puts me in a better place to really study other scriptures or prepare my lesson.
Which brings me to the second challenge that I heard and loved. Elder Rasband spoke about always having the Spirit to be with us and how we can make that a reality. It was his fourth suggestion that I took as a challenge, to act and be confident in the first promptings that I receive from the Holy Ghost. I think that probably everyone can relate with his comments that, "sometimes we rationalize; we wonder if we are feeling a spiritual impression or if it is just our own thoughts." But what followed played a large part in my determination to act. He said, "When we begin to second-guess, even third-guess, our feelings - and we all have - we are dismissing the Spirit; we are questioning divine counsel." Again, can you be any more clear or direct? I loved everything Elder Rasband said in that section of his talk: to act, and 9 times out of 10 we will get it right, that first promptings are pure inspiration from Heaven, and especially his caution to not expect "fireworks" because "you are about the work of the still, small voice." As with following the challenge to read the Book of Mormon each day, nothing overly profound has happened this week as I have tried to act on my first promptings, but I have felt more confident about my choices, and more satisfied at the end of each day that I have done what the Lord wants me to. Like I was saying about my scripture reading, instead of setting aside and dismissing the promptings I may receive during the day to stop what I am doing and read my scriptures because I don't really feel like it at the moment, I am now doing better at acting the first time, pulling out the Book of Mormon, and reading, which prepares my heart and mind for further study when I take the time to do so. And if I don't do any further studying, I have still at least read my scriptures for the day and followed that first prompting.
Truly, what a blessing it is to live in a day where we are guided by living prophets and apostles with modern revelation. And how remarkable that within a week of first hearing their words, we have access to read, listen to, or watch their talks again as often and wherever we want. I have been studying the Restoration lately in preparation for the combined young women lesson I am teaching next week and those blessings have been brought to the forefront of my mind. That we have again a living prophet, and that we have access to his words, and the words of those before him, that we are able to read them in our own language, and we can carry them with us everywhere we go by downloading them to our phones. These are all such commonplace things to us now, but what miracles and gifts they truly are.
Sunday, April 9, 2017
Sunday, April 2, 2017
Oops, I Did it Again...
I know you have Brittany Spears stuck in your head now, but that's actually NOT what I'm talking about. Nope, I'm talking about locking myself out of the house again. *eye roll* And only like two or three weeks after the last time - you'd think I'd have learned... Only this time Gabe was with me, and neither of us had keys.
It was Sunday over spring break. Gabe had a seminar that morning, and I had to go let a friend's dog out before going to Stake Conference. Thankfully Gabe always likes to leave early. We were talking to each other, and then I was also distracted with making sure I had the dinner stuff that I was going to put in the crockpot at the friend's house after letting the dog out. I think I was also carrying out all of my scripture study and lesson stuff to work on at their house. Usually when we go somewhere together, Gabe drives, so with my hands full with books and food, I forgot to grab the keys. We step outside together, and as he shuts the door, I stop what I'm saying in relation to the conversation and blurt out "I don't have the keys!" Too late. It was like 7:30 in the morning, so we're thinking, well at least we know the park manager will be home this time! But the door to his porch was locked and he didn't answer his phone, because I'm sure he was still sleeping...So Gabe tries opening the door with an old card (which he told me the last time wouldn't work on our door...just saying). No luck.
Then we remember that our kitchen windows don't actually lock, so if we can remove the screen, we could get in that way. Gabe finally bends the screen out of shape so that he can get it out of the way, and realizes he picked the window that actually halfway does lock shut...so he can't get it open. He moves over to the other window, has to break that screen as well, and then we get that window open. But trailers are raised, so the window is actually kind of high when you're standing on the ground. So we prop the window open (with the wooden spoon we keep next to it for that purpose) and I half stand on the trailer jack, half stand on Gabe's hands as he hoists me into the window. Of course it was the one cold day during the past month, so I have my winter coat and layers on as I pull myself through. This time, it totally looked like a break-in, lol, so I guess it's a good thing pretty much everyone was still asleep and didn't see us, haha. I got in, opened the front door and grabbed the car keys, and we continued on with our day, not really late for anything because, like I said, Gabe had us leave (or attempt to leave) early.
And this time, he made sure I learned from my mistakes. He gave me the spare key that he usually keeps in his backpack, and now it stays in my purse 100% of the time, haha. And if he needs a spare key, he takes the one with the mail key on it. (Except for that day, when I dropped him off at the seminar and then realized that he forgot a key, so I had to go back to the house, pick up another set of keys, and take that to him before heading to our friend's house to let the dog out, lol). What can I say...apparently I'm not always on top of everything. :P
It was Sunday over spring break. Gabe had a seminar that morning, and I had to go let a friend's dog out before going to Stake Conference. Thankfully Gabe always likes to leave early. We were talking to each other, and then I was also distracted with making sure I had the dinner stuff that I was going to put in the crockpot at the friend's house after letting the dog out. I think I was also carrying out all of my scripture study and lesson stuff to work on at their house. Usually when we go somewhere together, Gabe drives, so with my hands full with books and food, I forgot to grab the keys. We step outside together, and as he shuts the door, I stop what I'm saying in relation to the conversation and blurt out "I don't have the keys!" Too late. It was like 7:30 in the morning, so we're thinking, well at least we know the park manager will be home this time! But the door to his porch was locked and he didn't answer his phone, because I'm sure he was still sleeping...So Gabe tries opening the door with an old card (which he told me the last time wouldn't work on our door...just saying). No luck.
Then we remember that our kitchen windows don't actually lock, so if we can remove the screen, we could get in that way. Gabe finally bends the screen out of shape so that he can get it out of the way, and realizes he picked the window that actually halfway does lock shut...so he can't get it open. He moves over to the other window, has to break that screen as well, and then we get that window open. But trailers are raised, so the window is actually kind of high when you're standing on the ground. So we prop the window open (with the wooden spoon we keep next to it for that purpose) and I half stand on the trailer jack, half stand on Gabe's hands as he hoists me into the window. Of course it was the one cold day during the past month, so I have my winter coat and layers on as I pull myself through. This time, it totally looked like a break-in, lol, so I guess it's a good thing pretty much everyone was still asleep and didn't see us, haha. I got in, opened the front door and grabbed the car keys, and we continued on with our day, not really late for anything because, like I said, Gabe had us leave (or attempt to leave) early.
And this time, he made sure I learned from my mistakes. He gave me the spare key that he usually keeps in his backpack, and now it stays in my purse 100% of the time, haha. And if he needs a spare key, he takes the one with the mail key on it. (Except for that day, when I dropped him off at the seminar and then realized that he forgot a key, so I had to go back to the house, pick up another set of keys, and take that to him before heading to our friend's house to let the dog out, lol). What can I say...apparently I'm not always on top of everything. :P
Just Some Rambling
While I've definitely been writing on my blog more consistently than I probably ever have in the past, I still have not been writing even close to my goal for this year...which I'm pretty sure was like once a week. But hey, at least I'm improving! Anyway, point being, I'm writing now because I need to do it more. Not because I have anything specific to say or talk about. So this post may end up a little less than coherent. You have been warned, so here are my thoughts. :)
Moving: Holy smokes! We're down to a month left in St. Louis! :O I seriously almost can't believe it. And while I am still very much going to miss our awesome ward and serving in the temple, I no longer have the mixed emotions that I did at the beginning of the year. After our short trip home a week and a half ago - Ok, insert side-note here. Gabe's spring break was TWO and a half weeks ago, but Marshall's was ONE and half. We weren't sure if we'd be able to make it to baby Adelai's blessing in April, so we decided to try and visit Springfield the same time as Marshall and Jenessa to meet her there. So Gabe took a vacation day from clinic that Wednesday, and totally just skipped class on Tuesday and Wednesday (like he would have gone if we had stayed home...) and we had a super quick trip home from Tuesday morning to Wednesday evening. It was great. So, as short as that trip was, it was SO GOOD. We spent time with both of our parents, Marshall and Jenessa (and their adorable baby!), Marisa, Sarah, Glenda, and James and Kelli. And it just made me so ready to be living back home again. No more mixed feelings. As much as I will always remember our time here and the people we've associated with here with love and fondness, I am so excited to get back home. Because Springfield IS home to us, and St. Louis, as much as I've loved our time here, is not.
Trailer: Unfortunately with moving comes the necessity of selling our trailer...and we just heard that the trailer park may be bought out...so we're not expecting to get as much for our trailer now as we were hoping to before, because there's a chance whoever buys it will have to move it soon. Which could possibly make this place fall apart. Just saying. We're not super worried about it, like I said, just not expecting to get as much money out of it. But like we've told everyone since buying the trailer, ANY money we get back out of it is money saved compared to what we would have spent if we had been renting an apartment the whole time - because rent here is nuts. So we're just starting to post our extra furniture and stuff that we want to get rid of, and we'll post the trailer for sale sometime this week, and hopefully we can get rid of it all before too long. :)
James and Kelli: They came to visit again last week! Some people would say we are crazy for having them stay the night in our two bedroom trailer with their 7 kids, but we always have a blast. :) This was probably the 4th or 5th time they've come up to stay the night with us, and then go to the temple while we watch their kids. We just throw all the kids in the spare bedroom, and then James and Kelli sleep on the couch, haha. This time though, we also went on a date together! I texted one of the young women in our ward and she and a friend babysat all the kids Friday night while we went to dinner and a movie together. We watched Beauty and the Beast, and I loved it! James fell asleep, lol. But the rest of us thought it was great, haha. I was pretty impressed. Gaston did an especially good job of being pompous and self-centered, lol. So ya, that visit was fun. Also, James helped Gabe fix more of our crappy plumbing, so now our kitchen sink always drains properly - yay!
Young Women: Man, being a Young Women leader takes so much more time and work than I ever realized, and can be way harder than I ever thought, but I love it SO MUCH. I think one of the things I love most is how much it has made me grow. I think it's kind of like the growing that parenthood causes. Learning to understand each individual girl, how to relate to them, how to love them and get along with them has been much more of a stretching experience for me than I would have expected. Also, I LOVE teaching. Sometimes I procrastinate too much, and totally fail, and those lessons aren't so great, but more often I spend the week thinking about it and am really able to feel the Spirit guiding my preparations and then guiding me during the lesson itself. And that is so neat. Teaching the Beehive class has been fun - a totally new and different experience from teaching the Laurels! I feel like I get more basic questions from the Beehives, and it's just kind of neat because that's a new thing for me. Especially feeling the Spirit bring scriptures and teachings to my remembrance to help me answer their questions that weren't necessarily a part of my preparations. THAT is a neat experience.
That one girl: But of course, stretching and growing comes from challenges...and since I had overcome most of my personal challenges with the Laurels in our ward, of course I was moved to the Beehives. And had to start all over. As always, there are a couple girls that I just absolutely love - they are super sweet, always have comments and questions to contribute to the lesson, they're always positive, engaged, and happy. But there's also in my current class the girl who thinks she's too cool for school. *eye roll* She only wants to participate if it's going her way. Her attention span is worse than a 3 year old's. And her "loving" jokes can actually be super jerk-ish and cutting. And somehow, she is the leader of the pack and the one in control anytime she is around. It's kind of super frustrating. Especially because she actually is a really good girl, and she comes from a really good family. But man does she rub me the wrong way - especially when the girls I super love get snubbed or made to feel less than others because of her. So that's my current stretching experience...that I've been trying to figure out since I moved to Beehives last October... And sometimes it's tempting to think, "Who cares, I'm leaving in a month anyway," and then I listen to conference this weekend and hear Elder Palmer talk about serving as a mission president and learning to stop asking how to correct these missionaries making such ridiculous mistakes or saying such surprising things, and change it to start asking how to be filled with Christlike love for them instead. And that's totally what I had to learn with the girls I struggled with in the Laurels class. And that's kind of hard to do when all you see of them is the things that drive you crazy about them. But I'm trying. Maybe not always trying my best - like when she keeps derailing the class presidency meeting and makes it last an hour instead of 30 minutes because she will NOT keep on topic - but I am trying. So I should probably stop complaining about her, because that definitely doesn't make me feel any Christlike love toward her...
New Ward: But as frustrating as that can all be, and as annoying as driving 20 minutes each way to get to mutual on Wednesday is, I seriously love serving in Young Womens. And so I really wonder what my new calling will be when we move. And if I am lucky enough to be with the youth again...I have a totally new group of kids that I would have to get to know. And getting to know new people is NOT one of my fortes. But whatever happens I'm sure it will be good. Or at least it will be what the Lord wants for me. I do believe that (of course that's easier to believe before receiving a calling that you really don't want :P ). Plus I just found out today that Sarah team teaches Gospel Doctrine in the ward we will be in! That will be fun. :) Unless I get a calling that takes place during 2nd hour and I never actually go to her class...but for now I'll just pretend like that won't be the case. ;)
Health: Holy smokes...I am SO grateful for my husband! I don't know how I would survive if I didn't have him to work on me. It's been a couple months now since he last really worked on me, and I am so feeling it. He was super busy in January and February so it didn't really happen, and then in March I was taking saliva samples during my cycle for a hormone panel, so he didn't work on me, because we didn't want any supplements to come up that might affect my results. And now we're waiting for the results before he starts working on me again. I'm hoping to get them sometime this week, and I'm really anxious to see them. We're both really hoping it will help him find some answers for what the heck is going on with my body. After going so long without him seriously working on me, I've gotten so much more tired again, needing way more sleep and being super groggy in the mornings again, more headaches and muscle aches, and being more moody and irritable, also having less of an appetite again. Mostly it's all just really annoying.
So ya, that's the stuff that's been on my mind lately. As usual this ended up super lengthy cause I'm long-winded and wordy. But hey, it's my blog, so I can make my posts as long and rambling as I want, right? ;)
Moving: Holy smokes! We're down to a month left in St. Louis! :O I seriously almost can't believe it. And while I am still very much going to miss our awesome ward and serving in the temple, I no longer have the mixed emotions that I did at the beginning of the year. After our short trip home a week and a half ago - Ok, insert side-note here. Gabe's spring break was TWO and a half weeks ago, but Marshall's was ONE and half. We weren't sure if we'd be able to make it to baby Adelai's blessing in April, so we decided to try and visit Springfield the same time as Marshall and Jenessa to meet her there. So Gabe took a vacation day from clinic that Wednesday, and totally just skipped class on Tuesday and Wednesday (like he would have gone if we had stayed home...) and we had a super quick trip home from Tuesday morning to Wednesday evening. It was great. So, as short as that trip was, it was SO GOOD. We spent time with both of our parents, Marshall and Jenessa (and their adorable baby!), Marisa, Sarah, Glenda, and James and Kelli. And it just made me so ready to be living back home again. No more mixed feelings. As much as I will always remember our time here and the people we've associated with here with love and fondness, I am so excited to get back home. Because Springfield IS home to us, and St. Louis, as much as I've loved our time here, is not.
Trailer: Unfortunately with moving comes the necessity of selling our trailer...and we just heard that the trailer park may be bought out...so we're not expecting to get as much for our trailer now as we were hoping to before, because there's a chance whoever buys it will have to move it soon. Which could possibly make this place fall apart. Just saying. We're not super worried about it, like I said, just not expecting to get as much money out of it. But like we've told everyone since buying the trailer, ANY money we get back out of it is money saved compared to what we would have spent if we had been renting an apartment the whole time - because rent here is nuts. So we're just starting to post our extra furniture and stuff that we want to get rid of, and we'll post the trailer for sale sometime this week, and hopefully we can get rid of it all before too long. :)
James and Kelli: They came to visit again last week! Some people would say we are crazy for having them stay the night in our two bedroom trailer with their 7 kids, but we always have a blast. :) This was probably the 4th or 5th time they've come up to stay the night with us, and then go to the temple while we watch their kids. We just throw all the kids in the spare bedroom, and then James and Kelli sleep on the couch, haha. This time though, we also went on a date together! I texted one of the young women in our ward and she and a friend babysat all the kids Friday night while we went to dinner and a movie together. We watched Beauty and the Beast, and I loved it! James fell asleep, lol. But the rest of us thought it was great, haha. I was pretty impressed. Gaston did an especially good job of being pompous and self-centered, lol. So ya, that visit was fun. Also, James helped Gabe fix more of our crappy plumbing, so now our kitchen sink always drains properly - yay!
Young Women: Man, being a Young Women leader takes so much more time and work than I ever realized, and can be way harder than I ever thought, but I love it SO MUCH. I think one of the things I love most is how much it has made me grow. I think it's kind of like the growing that parenthood causes. Learning to understand each individual girl, how to relate to them, how to love them and get along with them has been much more of a stretching experience for me than I would have expected. Also, I LOVE teaching. Sometimes I procrastinate too much, and totally fail, and those lessons aren't so great, but more often I spend the week thinking about it and am really able to feel the Spirit guiding my preparations and then guiding me during the lesson itself. And that is so neat. Teaching the Beehive class has been fun - a totally new and different experience from teaching the Laurels! I feel like I get more basic questions from the Beehives, and it's just kind of neat because that's a new thing for me. Especially feeling the Spirit bring scriptures and teachings to my remembrance to help me answer their questions that weren't necessarily a part of my preparations. THAT is a neat experience.
That one girl: But of course, stretching and growing comes from challenges...and since I had overcome most of my personal challenges with the Laurels in our ward, of course I was moved to the Beehives. And had to start all over. As always, there are a couple girls that I just absolutely love - they are super sweet, always have comments and questions to contribute to the lesson, they're always positive, engaged, and happy. But there's also in my current class the girl who thinks she's too cool for school. *eye roll* She only wants to participate if it's going her way. Her attention span is worse than a 3 year old's. And her "loving" jokes can actually be super jerk-ish and cutting. And somehow, she is the leader of the pack and the one in control anytime she is around. It's kind of super frustrating. Especially because she actually is a really good girl, and she comes from a really good family. But man does she rub me the wrong way - especially when the girls I super love get snubbed or made to feel less than others because of her. So that's my current stretching experience...that I've been trying to figure out since I moved to Beehives last October... And sometimes it's tempting to think, "Who cares, I'm leaving in a month anyway," and then I listen to conference this weekend and hear Elder Palmer talk about serving as a mission president and learning to stop asking how to correct these missionaries making such ridiculous mistakes or saying such surprising things, and change it to start asking how to be filled with Christlike love for them instead. And that's totally what I had to learn with the girls I struggled with in the Laurels class. And that's kind of hard to do when all you see of them is the things that drive you crazy about them. But I'm trying. Maybe not always trying my best - like when she keeps derailing the class presidency meeting and makes it last an hour instead of 30 minutes because she will NOT keep on topic - but I am trying. So I should probably stop complaining about her, because that definitely doesn't make me feel any Christlike love toward her...
New Ward: But as frustrating as that can all be, and as annoying as driving 20 minutes each way to get to mutual on Wednesday is, I seriously love serving in Young Womens. And so I really wonder what my new calling will be when we move. And if I am lucky enough to be with the youth again...I have a totally new group of kids that I would have to get to know. And getting to know new people is NOT one of my fortes. But whatever happens I'm sure it will be good. Or at least it will be what the Lord wants for me. I do believe that (of course that's easier to believe before receiving a calling that you really don't want :P ). Plus I just found out today that Sarah team teaches Gospel Doctrine in the ward we will be in! That will be fun. :) Unless I get a calling that takes place during 2nd hour and I never actually go to her class...but for now I'll just pretend like that won't be the case. ;)
Health: Holy smokes...I am SO grateful for my husband! I don't know how I would survive if I didn't have him to work on me. It's been a couple months now since he last really worked on me, and I am so feeling it. He was super busy in January and February so it didn't really happen, and then in March I was taking saliva samples during my cycle for a hormone panel, so he didn't work on me, because we didn't want any supplements to come up that might affect my results. And now we're waiting for the results before he starts working on me again. I'm hoping to get them sometime this week, and I'm really anxious to see them. We're both really hoping it will help him find some answers for what the heck is going on with my body. After going so long without him seriously working on me, I've gotten so much more tired again, needing way more sleep and being super groggy in the mornings again, more headaches and muscle aches, and being more moody and irritable, also having less of an appetite again. Mostly it's all just really annoying.
So ya, that's the stuff that's been on my mind lately. As usual this ended up super lengthy cause I'm long-winded and wordy. But hey, it's my blog, so I can make my posts as long and rambling as I want, right? ;)
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