3/11/2018 Orlando Temple Missionary Trip

Very short - A couple of pictures and a thought to let you know we are alive and well.  We do enjoy the Orlando Temple Trip that comes around every six weeks.  President Lee has all missionaries that are at their half-way point or going home attend a temple session.  As mentioned before, we get to take the ones from our area.  An extra that comes is that we get to see any missionaries who have served in our area before they go home.

This was on the way down and is one of those times you are grateful you are going the other direction - more than seven miles of back up caused by a multi-lane accident.

Love the temple and the flag and the weather this time wasn't cold.

 

 Not something you would see in St George or Las Vegas - umbrellas particularly used if needed for weddings

In Alma 5:45-48 Alma teaches a great lesson about how we gain a testimony.  We know that Alma had seen an angel (Mosiah 27:11-17) but he doesn't mention that as a basis for his testimony - he says it came through fasting and prayer by the power of the Holy Ghost.  We must do the same to have that kind of testimony to be able to endure to the end. We must know for ourselves.  In verse 46 Alma says "and now I do know of myself that they are true."  We we were reminded of these words from Elder Bruce R. McConkie's last talk.  We were there.  It still is a strength:  

"And now, as pertaining to this perfect atonement, wrought by the shedding of the blood of God - I testify that it took place in Gethsemane and at Golgotha, and as pertaining to Jesus Christ, I testify that he is the Son of our Living God and was crucified for the sins of the world.  He is our Lord, our God and our King.  This I know of myself independent of any other person.  

I am one of his witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears.  But I shall not know any better than I know now that he is God's Almighty Son, that he is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way.

As all senior missionaries, we have our times of missing home and children and grandchildren, but we would not be anywhere else.  We try to work extra hard for those friends and family who would love to come and are not able.  We are grateful to be able to be a part of this amazing missionary work that brings the gospel to all the world.  

3/4/2018 Graphics, Packets and Tender Mercies

    Our YSA organized an EFYSA one-day event, inviting other stakes throughout Florida.  They asked us to help with the service project.  My specific assignment was to purchase the items they needed to put together packets for the veterans who are hospitalized.  To make a long story short (just think if this is short, what is long?) I made an attempt using my very lacking computer and artistic skills to come up with a cover sheet ... but it didn't look all that great 

Decided I better send it to Krishelle for help and thirty minutes later, we had this back.  Printed on red, it looked great!! The first of a line-up of tender mercies to have this project ready

       They expected 100 participants, so between Amazon and Dollar Tree we put together an order, but had to wait for an OK on the budget.  We are used to Amazon's fast shipping and went there for pens, pencils, packets, ribbon, etc., but for the most important part of the packets, Dollar Tree was considerably less on Journals, Crosswords, Sudoku and Word Hunt so we ordered from there.  We had eight days when the budget was okayed, which seems like plenty of time.  Wrong!!  When I went to place the order, we found out that to get it by the time we needed it, the charge would be $208.00 and although they were nice, no amount of explaining or pleading could change it.
    It is interesting what kind of answers we expect to our prayers and I think I expected a quick, easy answer.  Although I had thoroughly searched the internet for the prices, I went back again expecting heaven to miraculously guide me to another site.  It wasn't long before I discovered nothing had changed.  Dollar Tree was still the least expensive and the only one that fit in our budget.  So the answer to the prayer wasn't simple on-line ordering but involved much more work.  One of the young ladies (Katrina, a faithful convert of almost a year) from the institute went with me and we went to all four Dollar Tree stores in Gainesville.  Mike and I went to the one in Orlando when we went to the temple, and one in Ocala which is on the way back from the temple. 

We finally rounded up one hundred of everything we needed, breathed a sigh of relief (and said several prayers of thanks)   But as participant registrations continued to come in, we found we were going to have to have at least forty more so it was back to the stores.  Thanks to another string of tender mercies .. we finally finished Friday.
    Saturday morning when we went back to the Institute to print the cover sheets and the lists, Mike decided just to run down to check the mail, although we didn't think we would be getting anything for the activity, forgetting that I ordered cards, pens and pencils through Amazon.   Mike fit everything he needed to help with in between preparing for his classes and then got everything organized on the tables as I counted and recounted to be sure we had enough.  It was a good activity and just one more evidence of our Heavenly Father's help in little things that make big things better.

The youth assembled 150 packets, the Elders were there to check them and package them.  It has been a few weeks of  more than a few extra blessings. 

 We do love and appreciate these missionaries .. Elders Kautai, Krupp, Ivie and Jheng.

My study has been in Mosiah - 28:6-7 says - And king Mosiah went and inquired of the Lord if he should let his sons go up among the Lamanites to preach the word.  And the Lord said unto Mosiah:  Let them go up, for many shall believe on their words and they shall have eternal life; and I will deliver thy sons out of the hands of the Lamanites.

     The commentary says this - There is an important lesson to be learned in the phrase "I will deliver thy sons out of the hands of the Lamanites."  Often, when people are in the service of God, on His errand, they feel that they should be protected and blessed such that all will go well all of the time.  As we study the missions of these men, we will see that they sacrificed much and some of them suffered much in order to fulfill this mission.  Yet the Lord did bring them back to Mosiah when their missions were completed, as he promised he would. 

        Being called of God and serving Him does not mean that there won't be trials, tribulations, disappointments, suffering, etc., along with the joys and satisfactions that go along with such work.  But it does mean that He is there to help us and give comfort as we travel that path.  

        One of our missionary friends said of their daughter and her family after a particularly difficult experience.  "Their hearts are broken, but their testimonies are rock solid."   It seems that scripture reading, prayer, obedience, service, loving one another, bearing one another's burdens -- those are among the things that build the pillars to make our testimonies rock solid.   

       Grateful for all of you and your love and support. 

2/25/2018 Leaves, Trees and Temple

A great picture with the Statue of Liberty we had not seen before.  It reminded us of the picture of Kenyon and Marianne's family with the twin towers in the background not long before 9/11.

Apparently Florida has two "falls" as far as the leaves - in a warmer climate like this, some trees lose their leaves in the fall and others in the spring.  It is fun to see the leaves falling slowly through the air and to see them dancing across parking lots and then be able to shuffle through them - and not be cold at all.  You can even get a bit of a shuffle sound when you scuff through them. 

Another "every squirrel in the Grand Canyon"  - this time trees - and Gainesville has plenty  They kind of look alike but each is a little bit different.  One of the young men from here served his mission in Boise, Idaho, called the City of the Trees.  He said he had to smile - 

"City of Trees?  not really -- I'm a Florida boy."

Our favorite - across the street from the Institute building.

Coral snakes in Florida -- the kids said they are taught this rhyme young

Red on black - friendly Jack

Red on yellow - deadly fellow

We'll stay away from both.

There is something exciting and impressive about people's creativity, like Chris & Nicky Miller's school bus conversion. (Nevada)

And what we saw in the Orlando Temple parking lot last Saturday.  Unfortunately we didn't get to meet those it belonged to.  There is a solar panel on top.

 The white box on the right top is water and has a a hand held shower .  Below you can see the curtain rod for the shower curtain better.  The door can be opened top or bottom or all.  The A/C is at the top left.  There is also a lantern, a wash bucket and a ladder.

 The box at the front is a generator.  Wish we could have seen the inside.

  We called Claudia to get a name for me to take to the temple but when we got there they had to have her membership number so I just picked one up from the Gainesville Stake drawer.  I "just happened" to get  one submitted by Ellie Gordon, who, even though she is a young married, comes to institute occasionally because her husband is deployed.  She also is a first cousin to one of our missionaries so we know her pretty well. After I sat down, I noticed that I was born on Florence's (the name I had) birthday, exactly fifty years later.  When it was time to go through the veil, Ellie "just happened" to come in with the other veil workers and I "just happened" to go through her veil.  One of those tender mercy moments for me and Ellie - and probably for Florence too.

 
Our Institute secretary, Elaine May, told of one of her experiences at the temple.  In her family file, she had three sisters, but she could only take two down to the temple, so she left the youngest sister's name home.  She is a temple worker and when she was on her second assignment that morning, the temple matron came to her with a name slip, saying "You must have dropped this, it has your name on it as the submitter," and handed her the card with the youngest sister's name on it.  Three sisters, who did not bring names with them, came in so she was able to give them the three sister's to be done in the same session.

We'll close with these thoughts on temples:

Every Temple Built Lessens
the Power of Satan on the Earth
--------------------------------------------------

George Q. Cannon (First Presidency) Every foundation stone that is laid for a Temple, and every Temple completed...lessens the power of Satan on the earth, and increases the power of God and Godliness. ("The Logan Temple," Millennial Star, Nov. 12, 1877, 743)

John A. Widstoe (Quorum of the Twelve) There never yet has been a time in the history of the world when temple work has increased without a corresponding increase in the opposition to it.  Some three or four years after the pioneers came to this valley, President Brigham Young said it was time to begin the building of a temple; and some of the old timers here will probably remember that thousands of the Saints dreaded the command, because they said, "Just as soon as we lay the cornerstone of a temple, all hell will be turned loose upon us and we will be driven out of the valleys."

      President Young thought that was true, but that they also would have, if temple work were undertaken, a corresponding increase in power to overcome all evil. Men grow mighty under the results of temple service; women grow strong under it; the community increases in power; until the devil has less influence than he ever had before.  The opposition to truth is relatively smaller if the people are engaged actively in the ordinances of the temple.  (Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, Vol XII, 1921, 49-64)

2/18/2017 Churches, Fog and Spring

     We like that Florida is a state full of churches, large and small, plain and ornate, on major streets or back roads and often they are fairly close together.  This time, taking pictures of "every squirrel at the Grand Canyon" brings a fun variety.  Usually we have to get the picture as we drive by, but for the first one we were able to stop so we have the sign and the church - it is right off the highway and is beautiful.   So here is a small sample:

 

 

                                                 

way back in the trees

Not Florida obviously - but such a beautiful picture of the St. George Temple.    

We have had quite a bit of fog during the mornings this last week.  It gives a quiet, peaceful sound to everything, even the cars seem a bit muffled.  The last two pictures are the same location, just a day apart.  Today it was clear.

 

You think BYU has tight parking - this is across the street from us - lots and lots of curb parking
Bottom picture - mopeds, mopeds and mopeds, there are several parking lots just for these.

  

The roots come up through the ground and almost make steps in this very short hill we climb from the shortcut trail to the junior high track as we start back home from our morning walk. 

 Bamboo tree 

 

 Service project at the Episcopalian Church - all missionaries except the one in blue in the middle who is also in the next picture with Mike.

 

Before

 After

 One of our daily tender mercies is that we live in a good apartment building, evidenced by this sign in the exercise facility.

 Finally some of the warm weather Florida is supposed to have.  One weather screen on our phones show Saratov Russia and where all of our children live.

And spring is coming

 The lighter green is the new growth

The branch had an activity they called Super Smash Brothers .. an amazing variety of old and new video games .. and the biggest pizza we had seen ... which didn't last long.

 

This was posted by John-Evan's good friend Meghan Petterson Pringle (daughter of Dan and Ann Petterson who had the market in the middle of Mesquite for several years) 

 Couldn't resist this one - Jessi Tedrow and Allison Dorothy Waite

 Guess nobody ever gets too old to pop the air bags that come in packages. They work hard, good to watch them have fun with such a simple thing.

Elaine May - Secretary for the Institute.  We left her a Valentine treat the night before and she heard us coming up the stairs the next morning, cute way to say thanks.

   Sorry to end on a sad note, two LDS girls from the same ward were victims of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.  Alaina Petty, a 14 year old freshman,  the same age as three of our granddaughters, was killed. The other, Madeleine Wilford, a junior on the Eagles basketball team and scheduled to play in a basketball regional quarterfinal Thursday, was shot numerous times.  The bullets went through her back, crushing her ribs, piercing her right lung and exiting her stomach but damaging no major organs.  Several bullets went through the shoulder and traveled the length of her right arm before exiting.  After several surgeries she is in stable condition and they are expecting complete recovery.  Both girls have other siblings who were in the school at the time of the shooting.

 

  President and Melania Trump visited Maddy in the hospital - 

We have been reading Changed Through His Grace by Brad Wilcox - a book we recommend to y'all.  The following is taken from that book:  

     Earth life was never meant to be a perpetual Garden of Eden or a twenty-four-hour amusement park.  It is a school, and sometimes the best teachers are the hardest ones, and the most important courses are required rather than electives.  Lessons that don't challenge us rarely change us.  "The overarching purpose of Heavenly Father's great plan of happiness is to provide His spirit children with opportunities to learn.  The Atonement of Jesus Christ and the agency it afforded...are divinely designed to facilitate our learning." Elder Bednar

     Our experiences here have strengthened our testimonies and  deepened our love and appreciation for our Savior and the sacrifice He made for us.  We are grateful for the promise of this scripture - it seems that peace is becoming a rare commodity, but we can find it if we do what He asks. 

Learn of me, and listen to my words; 

walk in the meekness of my Spirit and you shall have peace in me.

D&C 19:23

(Our love and appreciation to y'all)