Church stuff

Thanks, J, for the artwork (made using markers on a white board).

Sunday, J passed the sacrament for the first time (and did a good job) and T sat at the sacrament table. That was something new and different for our family to have both of them assisting with the sacrament.

I think because we haven't had deacons to pass the sacrament thereby necessitating T & his age group to pass the sacrament for four years, and because of T's size, it has held T in people's minds as his being twelve. Now, ward members are surprised to see the little guy as a priest (in what must seem to them a sudden transformation from twelve to sixteen) and his younger but bigger brother as a deacon. It seems to have taken ward members by surprise.


Having both of our sons involved in the sacrament on Sunday reminds me that last time the youth did baptisms at the temple, our whole family was there--from B on down to J. The bishop said he couldn't remember a time during his tenure as bishop that an entire family (parents and children) had been all together at the temple for youth baptisms.

K invited L & NB to go with K and K's mother D to the General Young Women broadcast in SLC this weekend. It was a great opportunity and L had a great time. I scanned the big screen at the chapel, as I watched the broadcast here in the Tri-cities, in an effort to see L in the conference center audience but I had no luck seeing her amidst the 21,000 attendees.

J was dying to get the new Pokemon Platinum game and had money burning a hole in his pocket, so I recruited the family to see the brand new Walmart in one of the Tri-cities, and we called it family home evening. It is not that I am overawed with Walmart. What is amazing is that so many items are available so close to home. I think I could say that most people on this side of the county are accustomed to driving the one-hour round trip (and that trip is becoming longer and longer as stop lights are installed along the route) to purchase many of the things that are now 10 minutes away from my house. In my youth, we had to go even farther away to purchase some of these same items.

I taught the lesson "Sustaining Priesthood Bearers" to the young women (combined) on Sunday. It was not such an overwhelming and mind-numbing topic (in terms of preparation and bursts of insight on my part) as my first lesson topic in December ("Choosing a Vocation"). I thought the lesson Sunday went OK, not bad but not great, just OK. I won't need to give another lesson to all the young women for four more months, but I am going to pick up teaching at least one lesson per month to the Laurels as I try to fill the weeks with substitutes. I have April all planned and all of May, other than one lesson. Once May comes to a close, that will be five months without a Laurel advisor. Surely someone will wander into the "picture" by then (but that is what I thought at the beginning of the year, "Surely someone will be Laurel advisor by the end of March!"). Our ward is SO strapped for people to call to positions AND I want to feel the person is the right one for the job so those are the reasons for the delay. Oh well.

So as not to leave B out of this post, :-) he took J to collect fast offerings, cooked a great Sunday dinner and went home teaching on Sunday. :-)

I need to get ready to do my visiting teaching (yes, on the last day of the month! I've tried and tried to get the sisters; one was ill and two were out of town).

Mom's about the same

Yesterday, I visited with Mom and she seemed to be doing about the same as she has been for months now. Whatever stomach upset she was having for several weeks seems to have ceased. She is content with the place where she lives but, since her friend G moved away at Christmas, Mom does seem to be a bit lonely. She and G would spend a lot of time together, dozing on the couch in the facility's front room. G was more impaired than Mom so Mom would look out for her.

Yesterday, when it was time for me to leave, Mom took both my hands and said, "When will I see you again? Soon?" Since Mom moved into this current facility, we haven't had that kind of querying until G moved away.

Earlier in my visit, after asking about my family, we looked at my family photo and discussed each person in the photo, particularly each of the kids. She was very pleased to hear J & L are taking piano lessons and that T is in the band. Mom said my husband looked like a good guy. I said he is a good guy. Then, Mom asked me, "How's our mother--you know, yours and mine?" I guess she thought I was her sister, so she at least knows we're related (I choose to see that as a positive thing). I normally can't do theraputic lying but I said, "She's fine."

A friend sent me this good quote . . . .

If one should give me a dish of sand, and tell me there were particles of iron in it, I might look for them with my eyes, and search for them with my clumsy fingers, and be unable to detect them; but let me take a magnet and sweep through it; and how it would draw to itself the almost invisible particles by the mere power of attraction! The unthankful heart, like my finger in the sand, discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day, and as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings. --Henry Ward Beecher