This week has been great! Gabe took his final Boards exam back in St. Louis last weekend, so it finally feels like we are here and settled in. Saturday night and Sunday were Stake Conference, and we saw so many friends and family members there. Then we spent Sunday evening out at James and Kelli's and I got my hair cut again (yay!). Monday and Tuesday we babysat for James and Kelli while they were out of town. Taking care of 7 little kids really is a lot of work! It always makes me feel good about myself that I can handle all of them without a problem...and then somewhat overwhelms me when I think of having to do that EVERY day, not just for a few, haha. Being a mom to a bunch of young children is a lot of work! And very mentally exhausting, haha. It is truly a self-sacrificing labor of love. You moms are awesome. Also, I can tell how good of friends we are with them that Gabe was so willing to do it, when just 2 or 3 months ago he commented on not wanting to do anymore overnight babysitting for a long time after a 6 day stint for a family in our previous ward (the one with 4 kids that pretty much all took care of themselves, lol).
So I thought I might take today to sleep in, relax, and get caught up on my housework after being gone for 2 days, but I woke up to a phone call from Mom, saying that they were ready to start painting the new house today. That phone call was also basically as Gabe was getting ready to walk out the door for work (which is a whole other tangent on how awesome, laid-back, and generous Sam Sanders is and has been as Gabe interns with him). So I quickly got dressed and grabbed my stuff and headed out to Mom and Dad's. I ate breakfast with them at their house, and Mom and I got to the new house around 10-10:30. We had to start with scraping the walls to smooth out the texturing, and then when Hyrum and Baylie (I was just getting used to spelling Bailee...I wonder how long it will take me to get Baylie right :P ) showed up, we painted the two bedrooms and the bathroom downstairs with primer. After cleaning up, Mom and I left right around 4. It was a pretty good day of work!
Gabe was done by the time we got back, so we headed back into Springfield to go home. After cleaning up from my day of painting, we decided to go out for Gabe's birthday. We tried a new Indian restaurant downtown, Zayka's, and it was delicious! It was fun to go out with my sweetheart. :) Then of course we had to have some Andy's for desert. ;)
It has just been so nice to be back home again, nearby and available to help family and just spend time with them and be a part of their everyday (or at least weekly) lives. We're getting settled in nicely, too. All of our regular-use things are unpacked downstairs - we just need to organize our books and storage things in the upstairs bedrooms. I love having a house to live in. And James and Kelli are giving us a fridge this week to replace the old, small one here. They also have a dishwasher we can install and a board to use as a counter top for our "bathroom vanity turned kitchen cabinet". Again, it's so nice to be around family, so that they can help us out, too! :) Gabe's parents are also coming down to replace the old window ac unit in the living room with a new one that works better so that the house stays cool this summer. It's just so nice to be home!
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Sunday, May 7, 2017
My St. Louis Testimony
I'm sitting here this Sunday in an almost completely empty home. Our stuff is all packed up and moved to Springfield (thanks everyone for your help!), minus a small carload of stuff that we are taking with us when we leave tomorrow morning. As our time here in St. Louis quickly comes to an end, I can't help but think about all the ways we have grown and changed since being here; all that we have learned and become. For the most part, those changes have come slowly over time, the kind that you don't really notice while you're in the midst of it. But when I look back at who I as 3 years ago when we first moved here, who WE were as a couple, we really have changed. A lot. And being fast Sunday today, I thought more specifically about how my testimony has grown and changed during my time here in St. Louis.
First and foremost, I have gained a testimony of the temple, stronger than I previously knew was possible. Words cannot express the peace that regularly and consistently being in the temple brings into your life. They cannot express the strength and fortitude that I have been blessed with through my service there as an ordinance worker each week. They cannot express the paramount importance of the work and ordinances performed there and their role in our salvation. They cannot express how completely being in the temple changes you, and fills you with the Spirit, with love, with His love.
Now that is not to say that every single time you attend the temple will be a profound, ground-breaking, life-changing experience that you will remember the rest of your life. To be certain, I WAS blessed with a precious few of those experiences through my service there, but they definitely did not happen every week. There were plenty of days that I went to bed the night before, dreading the time I had to wake up the next morning for my shift. Plenty of days that I wished I could just fall back asleep rather than get up and get ready for the temple. But even though I didn't always feel like going, and even though I didn't always have a miraculous experience while in the temple, I DID always feel the Spirit. I DID always feel His peace. I DID always have opportunities to serve. I DID always have opportunities to be blessed by the service of others. And that is how my testimony grew into what it is now. Just as the scriptures said, through small and simple things (Alma 37:6) and by doing his will (John 7:17). It was in the doing that I learned for myself, the going and being in the temple each week. And it was the everyday, nondescript, small and simple things that took place there each week that drew my heart to Him, that changed me and brought to my heart a new spirit, the Spirit of the Temple.
I have such a love for the temple now; I wish that everyone could have that some love for and testimony of the temple. The beautiful thing is that everyone can. Everyone can become worthy of a temple recommend, and choose to make temple attendance a priority in their life. Everyone can determine to act. Everyone can feel the sense of belonging, the feeling of coming home when they walk through the temple doors and participate in the ordinances therein. But for you, just as it was for me, that love will not come right away; that change will not come immediately. It will come slowly, many times almost imperceptibly. It will come piece by piece. It will come here a little, and there a little (Isaiah 28:10). It will come line upon line, precept upon precept as you are faithful and diligent in your efforts (D&C 98:12). For that is how the Lord works. That is how He shapes and molds His people. That is how you draw near unto Him.
And that is the testimony that I have gained as we have been in St. Louis these past 3 years. That is the change that has begun in me. And that is the change and testimony that I hope to keep alive and burning within me throughout my life, that I hope to be able to look back on and still be able to say in the years to come that I still "feel so now" (Alma 5:26).
First and foremost, I have gained a testimony of the temple, stronger than I previously knew was possible. Words cannot express the peace that regularly and consistently being in the temple brings into your life. They cannot express the strength and fortitude that I have been blessed with through my service there as an ordinance worker each week. They cannot express the paramount importance of the work and ordinances performed there and their role in our salvation. They cannot express how completely being in the temple changes you, and fills you with the Spirit, with love, with His love.
Now that is not to say that every single time you attend the temple will be a profound, ground-breaking, life-changing experience that you will remember the rest of your life. To be certain, I WAS blessed with a precious few of those experiences through my service there, but they definitely did not happen every week. There were plenty of days that I went to bed the night before, dreading the time I had to wake up the next morning for my shift. Plenty of days that I wished I could just fall back asleep rather than get up and get ready for the temple. But even though I didn't always feel like going, and even though I didn't always have a miraculous experience while in the temple, I DID always feel the Spirit. I DID always feel His peace. I DID always have opportunities to serve. I DID always have opportunities to be blessed by the service of others. And that is how my testimony grew into what it is now. Just as the scriptures said, through small and simple things (Alma 37:6) and by doing his will (John 7:17). It was in the doing that I learned for myself, the going and being in the temple each week. And it was the everyday, nondescript, small and simple things that took place there each week that drew my heart to Him, that changed me and brought to my heart a new spirit, the Spirit of the Temple.
I have such a love for the temple now; I wish that everyone could have that some love for and testimony of the temple. The beautiful thing is that everyone can. Everyone can become worthy of a temple recommend, and choose to make temple attendance a priority in their life. Everyone can determine to act. Everyone can feel the sense of belonging, the feeling of coming home when they walk through the temple doors and participate in the ordinances therein. But for you, just as it was for me, that love will not come right away; that change will not come immediately. It will come slowly, many times almost imperceptibly. It will come piece by piece. It will come here a little, and there a little (Isaiah 28:10). It will come line upon line, precept upon precept as you are faithful and diligent in your efforts (D&C 98:12). For that is how the Lord works. That is how He shapes and molds His people. That is how you draw near unto Him.
And that is the testimony that I have gained as we have been in St. Louis these past 3 years. That is the change that has begun in me. And that is the change and testimony that I hope to keep alive and burning within me throughout my life, that I hope to be able to look back on and still be able to say in the years to come that I still "feel so now" (Alma 5:26).
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