a year of happy

have you read it yet?

 

Contact me

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free copy of the Book of Mormon.

The language of your choice.

this easter morning

 

On this beautiful Easter morning,
we are celebrating.

We are rejoicing.

And we are grateful...
for the atoning sacrifice
of God's own son,
and the gift of new life
that He gives us
because He gave His own.

Several years ago,
the First Presidency
and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
of The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
shared their testimony and witness
of the Savior Jesus Christ.

It was given at Christmas time,
but it seems perfect
on this Easter Sunday
to share it today.

The Living Christ:
The Testimony of the Apostles

As we commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ two millennia ago, we offer our testimony of the reality of His matchless life and the infinite virtue of His great atoning sacrifice. None other has had so profound an influence upon all who have lived and will yet live upon the earth.
.

He was the Great Jehovah of the Old Testament, the Messiah of the New. Under the direction of His Father, He was the creator of the earth. “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3).


Though sinless, He was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. He “went about doing good” (Acts 10:38), yet was despised for it. His gospel was a message of peace and goodwill. He entreated all to follow His example. He walked the roads of Palestine, healing the sick, causing the blind to see, and raising the dead. He taught the truths of eternity, the reality of our premortal existence, the purpose of our life on earth, and the potential for the sons and daughters of God in the life to come.

He instituted the sacrament as a reminder of His great atoning sacrifice. He was arrested and condemned on spurious charges, convicted to satisfy a mob, and sentenced to die on Calvary’s cross. He gave His life to atone for the sins of all mankind. His was a great vicarious gift in behalf of all who would ever live upon the earth.

We solemnly testify that His life, which is central to all human history, neither began in Bethlehem nor concluded on Calvary. He was the Firstborn of the Father, the Only Begotten Son in the flesh, the Redeemer of the world.
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He rose from the grave to “become the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20). As Risen Lord, He visited among those He had loved in life. He also ministered among His “other sheep” (John 10:16) in ancient America. In the modern world, He and His Father appeared to the boy Joseph Smith, ushering in the long-promised “dispensation of the fulness of times” (Ephesians 1:10).
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Of the Living Christ, the Prophet Joseph {Smith} wrote: “His eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his countenance shone above the brightness of the sun; and his voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters, even the voice of Jehovah, saying:
.

“I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father” (D&C 110:3–4).
.

Of Him the Prophet also declared: “And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!

“For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father—

“That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God” (D&C 76:22–24).
.

We declare in words of solemnity that His priesthood and His Church have been restored upon the earth—“built upon the foundation of … apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” (Ephesians 2:20).

We testify that He will someday return to earth. “And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together” (Isaiah 40:5). He will rule as King of Kings and reign as Lord of Lords, and every knee shall bend and every tongue shall speak in worship before Him. Each of us will stand to be judged of Him according to our works and the desires of our hearts.

We bear testimony, as His duly ordained Apostles—that Jesus is the Living Christ, the immortal Son of God. He is the great King Immanuel, who stands today on the right hand of His Father. He is the light, the life, and the hope of the world. His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come. God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son.

my favorite weekend of the year

It's LDS General Conference Weekend!
One of my favorite weekends of the year.

Thousands will gather on Temple Square
to attend in the Conference Center
as well as the Tabernacle.

The rest of us
all across the world
will watch on television or the internet.

Conference is audio broadcast
in 68 languages
from Armenian to Vietnamese
and everything in between.

Would you like to join me?
Click here to watch or listen!

be strong and of a good courage

Last night,
we had the wonderful opportunity
of attending the
General Young Women's Meeting
at the Conference Center
in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The theme for the meeting was:
"Be strong and of a good courage,"
a scripture found in Joshua 1:9.

I've mentioned before
that I serve as a leader
for the 12-13 year old girls
in our Church group.

Every March, our Church
holds a worldwide meeting
for the young women ages 12-18.

Many local young women gather
in the Conference Center
with their mothers and leaders.
But most watch the meeting
from their local churches
as the meeting is broadcast
to church buildings all across the world.

Usually we watch from our church,
but this time a friend got tickets
and we were able to take
a couple of our young women and attend.

What an awesome experience.
It's an amazing feeling
to gather with 21,000 women
who believe the same way you do,
and listen to speakers
who motivate and encourage
the young women to be strong and
to stay close to the Savior
in these troubled times.

One of my favorite quotes
from the meeting
was by Elaine S. Dalton:

"The world places so much emphasis on our physical attractiveness and would have you believe that you are to look like the elusive model on the cover of a magazine," she said. "The Lord would tell you that you are each uniquely beautiful. When you are virtuous, chaste and morally clean, your inner beauty glows in your eyes and in your face."

I love how our Church
focuses on these young women.
With a great goal setting program
called Personal Progress
and activities that center around
spirituality and
self-improvement
and service,
these girls are given
great tools to help them
negotiate their way
through their teenage years
and into adulthood.

Every Sunday,
Young Women groups
all across the world
meet together and we say
the Young Women theme,
which goes like this:

We are daughters
of our Heavenly Father,
who loves us, and we love Him.
We will "stand as witnesses of God
at all times and in all things,
and in all places" as we strive to live
the Young Women values, which are:
Faith
Divine Nature
Individual Worth
Knowledge
Choice and Accountability
Good Works
Integrity and
Virtue.
We believe as we come to
accept and act upon these values,
we will be prepared to
strengthen home and family,
make and keep sacred covenants,
receive the ordinances of the temple,
and enjoy the blessings of exaltation.

Every time they say this theme,
they remember who they are,
why they are here,
and where they are going.

I think it's beautiful.

________________________

a hymn of my ancestors

In the mid-1800's,
humble people across Europe,
and throughout the United States
began hearing the message
of the Mormon missionaries--
of the Book of Mormon,
and that the Church of Jesus Christ
had been restored.

Many of my ancestors
in England and Wales and Denmark
heard and believed this message.

My great-aunt wrote this
about her grandmother in Denmark.

"At approximately the age of sixteen, my grandmother first heard the gospel from two Mormon Elders who visited the home of her father at Kanehavehus.

"A most glorious feeling filled her breast as she listened to those strangers. However, the Mormon missionaries did not remain long on the island. Many years later after she was married and had her family, there came three more missionaries to Samso and knocked on her door.

"As she listened to these men, the same sublime feeling of joy surged within her that she had experienced years before, and she knew of the truthfulness of the message they brought. Grandfather was deeply impressed and after prayer and investigation, he and grandma and Marie were baptized in the cold waters of the Baltic Sea.

"They suffered from the rebukes and scorn of their friends and relatives, as did all of the early converts. This was willingly endured because they were so happy in the truths of the gospel.

"The early saints had such faith in God's servants and a love of the gospel so strong that they were willing to endure anything to fulfill their hearts desire. This great desire in the hearts of the early converts was to gather with those who believed the same way they did--to go to Zion, to America."

_______

These early members
of the LDS Church,
like my ancestors,
were often persecuted
for their beliefs.
For a time they gathered
in Nauvoo, Illinois,
but were eventually
forced from their homes
and had to go west
to find a place far away
where they could
live their religion in peace.

They loaded their wagons
and their handcarts,
and traveled at great hardship
across the country
to their new home,
the mountain valleys of Utah.

Tradition has it that
one of these early pioneers,
William Clayton,
composed a new hymn
that quickly became
a Mormon pioneer favorite.

They say it was sung
when they were coming
across the plains
and around their campfires
when they stopped for the night.

As members of
The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints,
or the Mormons,
we still sing it,
and it is still one of our favorites.

I like to think
of my ancestors singing it,
whether it was
by their wagons and handcarts, 
or in their church meetings,
or in their homes.

It makes me feel closer to them,
like I have carried on
where they left off.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir
is requested to sing it often,
and on this
beautiful Sunday morning,
I thought you might like
to hear this hymn,
called, "Come, Come Ye Saints."

the three 3's that inspire me

On her blog yesterday,
my cute cousin posted
her favorite things in threes--
and she invited her readers
to do the same.

Her favorites inspired me....
and so I'm doing it!

These are the three 3's
that lift me up,
encourage me,
and motivate me
to keep going.

Songs

Come to Jesus by Kenneth Cope

Dream Big by Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band

Viva la Vida by Coldplay (sung by these kids)

Places

Snowbird in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/vxla/ / CC BY 2.0

The Salt Lake LDS Temple

The Ocean





Books

The Greatest Salesman in the World

The Book of Mormon

A Heart Like His





What are the three things
that motivate and inspire you?

some of the best yet

I was talking
with a lady today
who was upset.

She feels like
the youth of today
have lost their manners.

She was quite opinionated
about how they have become
rude, and self-centered,
and disrespectful.

I have to disagree.
.



 


As a youth leader
for the teenage girls
ages 12-13 in my Church group,
I have to say that they are
some of the best yet.

They are good and kind
and aware of the
needs of the girls around them.

One of our girls
just lost her mother to cancer.
It's been a hard thing
for a long time.
But the other girls in our group
have rallied around her
and made her feel loved.

And then there's one of
the older girls, who 
was in a gas station
with her mom one day.
Her mom gave her
some money to go inside
and buy some candy.

As she was waiting in line,
she noticed that a
handicapped young man
ahead of her was very upset
because he didn't have
enough money
to pay for his items.

This girl put her candy back,
and stepped up 
to give her money to him.
She just said it made her
feel really good inside.

______________

I know this world
has its challenges.

And there are lots
of troubled teens who
show their angst
in desperate behavior.

I've seen that too.

But I choose to believe
that there are many more
good kids than bad,
and these wonderful young people 
are going to grow up
to really make a difference!

_______________________

I hope you'll take a minute
to watch this video.
I don't know the girls in it,
but I'm so impressed.

Take a look, and you'll see what I mean!

i {heart} february!

The pressure of January is off.
Now let's focus on February!





In February, I'm going to:

• Keep working on my Spanish.
  
  I'm using the "Rosetta Stone" for Latin American Spanish. So far, so good. I'm saying things like, "La mujer corre" and "El hombre bebe" and stuff like that.
  
  The biggest problem I have?
  
  Somewhere in my brain is still some college French and quite a bit of Chinese. So when I try to say something off the cuff, it comes out in a Chinese-French-Spanish mess. I really have to concentrate.
  
  But I'm determined to press on!
  .
  .
• Take a knitting class.
  
  I haven't knitted since college, when I chose crocheting over knitting because I didn't like the click of the needles against each other.
  
  But I'm really excited to give it another go!
  .
  .
• Work on our food storage.
  
  Our Church has counseled us to store a basic supply of food and water, which we really try hard to do.
  
  Our goal in February is to go through our food storage room, and replenish where we've gotten behind.
  
  (The whole principle is to rotate--use the oldest first and replenish as you go. I have a tendency to use the oldest first, but procrastinate the replenishing part. I'd better work on that too!)
  
  
  
  
  What are you going
  to do in February?
  
  
  
  
  
  ___________________________
  
  
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it was good

In Sunday School yesterday,
we discussed the Creation.

Something jumped out at me
this time
that I hadn't
thought of before.

.

.

After each thing was created,
God saw that IT WAS GOOD.

And after everything was created,
and He was finished,
He saw that IT WAS VERY GOOD.

Why is that such
an important
part of the story?

It hit me yesterday
as I pondered this thought
that the scriptures
are always very symbolic.

And we are told
that the best way to study them
is to apply them to ourselves.

So how does this apply?

Could it be
that the Lord is trying
to teach us
to step back
and see the good we do each day?

How often
do I end the day
with thoughts like:
"I should have done this,
I could have done that better,
I didn't finish what I started."

Do I ever
go to bed
pleased
with what I accomplished?

________

My sister is training
for a triathlon.
In her training,
they are taught to
spend a little time
each night as they're
falling asleep
repeating to themselves
something good they did that day.

They repeat it over and over
until they fall asleep.

I like it.
Focus on the good.

Say it over and over,
"I did this today and
IT WAS GOOD!"

___________

What do you do
to focus on the good things
you do everyday?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/ / CC BY 2.0

yesterday

Yesterday
started out gloomy.

Our family's January goal
is organization and order.

I've been trying for many days
to really get to it...
but I only seem to be able to
grab an hour here or there
for the task.

And it seems
like I'm just making
a bigger mess
than what I started with.
(Isn't that how it goes?
It always gets worse
before it gets better!)

I spent a couple of hours
yesterday morning
in my den,
going through papers,
and files,
and photos,
and stuff I haven't seen
in years.

I was getting pretty grumpy.

Then I ran across
an old thank-you card
from my sister
who lives in Washington.

It made me miss her.
So I called her.

I interrupted HER project
of ripping out her
bathroom floor
to put in a new one.

But she didn't care.
She stopped everything
to talk to me.

I know when I call my sister,
we will have a good laugh.
And we did.

Then my mom came over.
She is the scrapbooking queen!
(And I'm not.)

She took all my old photos,
and is organizing them for me.
Thanks Mom for helping
me with my January project!

Then D and I took a break
and went to the
Mount Timpanogos Temple.
.


photo from here

.

If you're not familiar with LDS temples,
click here to read a little more
about why I came home
feeling peaceful,
and happy,
and rejuvenated.

Then we went to dinner
with two of our
favorite people in the world.

They are from Spain, where
D went on his mission.
They are living in the U.S.
right now, and we are
so glad we get to see them
now and then.

They have the most beautiful home.
It is an expression
of their wonderful philosophy of life.

All of the decorations
have meaning--
special photographs and
treasured mementos,
all arranged to
bring joy.
I love being there.

____________

Yesterday

all of these special people
stepped into my life
and turned what started out
as a rotten morning
into a day filled with
laughter,
and gratitude,
and joy.

.

Do you have people
in your life
that do that for you?