This year I find myself serving in the Stake YW Presidency while Brad serves in the Stake Presidency. We are both 2nd Counselors. We learn such different lessons. I am grateful to have a few minutes to write and record my thoughts and feelings.Every other week on Sunday mornings Brad has meetings at 6:00 a.m.. I get up with him to visit for a minute since I won't see him again until after 6:00. Sometimes he stops in for a bite to eat quickly about 3, but has temple recommend interviews every week from 4-6, so it is brief! Makes for a different Sunday that we have had before! He is amazing and I am so grateful for him!
We find ourselves right now a part of ward conferences which take us from our home ward when they overlap. Our youngest kids are 5 and 6 and so we still have a little juggle time making sure they are ok without us. Brinley is 15, not quite driving, Sam is 17 and hardly home! He is a good kid, he just has his own schedule, and yet, I expect him to come around and help with the other 5 young people when I can't be there. He has been playing lacrosse again this year, I believe this is his 3rd year. His team decided to enter the Las Vegas league this year instead of the Utah league so our travels have taken us to Las Vegas weekly, sometimes twice a week or more instead of up north. Yesterday was his last game.
Samuel is funny! He cracks us up often! He drives a 1979 Red tall truck! He works on it constantly! He has learned a lot about motors and how they work, the wiring, the axels and details of engines. He is talented in his understanding and ability to fix things. He has long been the one in our family who can find anything! He now can find the problems, rattles, etc in his truck and fix them! This week, he learned that the U-Joint in his truck was welded together prior to our purchasing his truck. He had to take the axle out and take the whole thing into the shop to have them build another one because it had been welded together. Everyone who hears that laughs! When he took it to the shop, and told the mechanics, they had to take turns walking out to look under his truck to believe it, and one by one came back laughing!
Today I get to testify of the power of prayer in the YW meeting of ward conference for the 1st ward. I like to use current examples of prayers answered. I love Elder Rasband's talk in the October 2016 conference about recording our spiritual experiences so that we can remember them. I love to study the conference talks and learn from them again and again. I can't wait to get the newest Ensign. I haven't seen them out yet, but anxiously wait for that to come so I can study the new messages! Indeed the scripture in the Doctrine & Covenants about "What greater witness can ye have than from God.... Do ye not remember when I spoke peace to your mind?" is a powerful one in my life! It was that scripture that was the answer to our fasting 28 years ago that confirmed that Brad and I were supposed to get married. I struggle with telling experiences that I have right now, or ones from my YW years. I want the YW to understand that we do understand what they are going through. Times have changed. We had computers when I was their age, but they weren't like what we have today where I can write here on this blog, have it saved to the web, but not have others able to view it. That wasn't my experience in highschool! I still had to write my papers on a typewritter. So how do I understand and help them know that technology has changed, our ability to connect with the world has changed, but the moral values and commandments have NOT changed. The promises of the Lord for our day have not changed. He loves us today just as He loved me when I was a young girl, just has Joseph Smith was loved! We are in the mist of the hastening right now, but that doesn't mean that the light of the Lord is less bright! No, in many cases, it shines brighter! In many cases, even science is proving that there is a creator of this universe. Instead of trying to say that we have evolved, today, many things testify that scriptures of the Bible must be true! What an amazing time to be alive! To have the opportunity to find names of our ancestors to take to the temple! What a blessing it is to have a temple so close by! We go on our dates to the temple with ice cream. We take our kids there to talk. Everyone over the age of 12 goes to the temple to serve every Wednesday morning. I am grateful for the temple! I am grateful it is a vital part of my life! I know that is not the case with every family, but it is with mine, and I am so grateful!
This life is the time for me to prepare to Meet God. It is that plain and simple. Life is not really about how much money we can make. It is not about how much education we receive although we are told that we should learn about all things in the heavens above and in the earth beneath. All things testify of our God! This life is the time for me to prepare to meet God! I can't wait for our Savior to return! I love that thought, and hope that I can be on the earth to run to greet Him! I know that Jesus Christ will come again! Just as Samuel the Lamanite promised that He would come in his day. I testify that He will come again! It is our responsibility to prepare for that day so that when he does appear, we will be like Him, we will know Him, and feel worthy to run to His feet to worship Him!
Of this I testify today! Laus Deo!