Sunday January 20

We had a really nice day today.

The speakers were just great.

One of my Beehives spoke, Kamber, and she was a fantastic speaker.

She spoke about keeping the commandments.

Then she had a high councilmen speak with her.

He talked about missionary work.....but ways we can be better at it.

He asked the question...who shares the gospel.

The answer is....those who are truly converted.

If you love something so much....you want to share it.

If you know about something that changes lives for the better....you want to share it!

When you know for yourself, then you don't care who knows you know!

It's like having a favorite dessert place.....you love it so much, so you tell others about it so they can try it too.

Some might not agree with you, but that doesn't mean they won't be your friend anymore!!!!!

But at least you shared it!

It should be the same with the gospel of Jesus Christ!

In Sunday school we went over the last few weeks of the Come Follow Me lessons.

Man, I love it so much!

Having studied it on my own and then all the input from others......it really is helping with my scripture study and understanding.

Two main things from the last two weeks.

I need to be better about writing my thoughts down and taking notes at church....

But this I what I have for now.

With God, nothing is impossible.

This brings me such joy and comfort.

If God can give an old lady the baby she has been desiring, and the Virgin Mary to be with child.

He can surely do the impossible with me.

The key is......he will do it with his own timing, not mine.

That is the tricky part.

and...

I can receive revelation for my family.

I am so grateful for this, especially as a parent to teenagers.

The kids might not understand why Dad and I sometimes don't let them do thing, we might not understand either.

But the Lord let's us know, through the spirit, when things just don't seem right.

I also enjoyed talking in Sunday school today about the difference in the way Mary reacted vs. how Zacharias reacted.

There were some interesting comments.

One being, they both had questions, but Mary's was a question about Okay, but how?

And Zacharias was more like, uh, I don't think so.....give me another sign!

So one could say that Mary had a more trusting or faithful heart.

But I liked another comment that was made.

Who's to say that Zacharias going dumb wasn't how it was supposed to go down anyway.

Sometimes our afflictions have nothing to do with us...

He commented that possibly him going dumb made it when he finally said the name of his son, John, that is was a significant moment.

One that wasn't forgotten.....causing John to be someone that people paid attention to.

Putting him in the pace where he was able to teach of Christ and minister.

Anyway, I liked that.

We never know what will come from our tribulation…...how it might just be the exact thing that is needed to lift someone else up.

I hope that makes sense.....

Then when we got home, Cassi and Porter went to choir practice.

Madi had a meeting and I took a couple quick pictures of a couple other girls that needed pictures for our New Beginnings on Wednesday.

Back at home and after we ate and rested and did some personal study, we came back together to do our Come Follow Me for this week.

This was cool, because it went along with the talks we had in Sacrament meeting today.

We talked about becoming truly converted and how we would want to share what we know.

Talked about John the Baptist, introducing Christ to a couple of his disciples.

They asked him where Christ was staying and he took them to his place, and they HUNG OUT!!!!

How cool is that?!?!?

I would love to be able to spend time hanging out with Christ :)

But then how John the Baptist, because he shared his testimony of the light of Christ, so many others followed.

Just one testimony made such a difference for so many!!!!

I loved the part also about Nathanael, asking questions about Christ.

And how that isn't a bad thing!

We can not build our testimony without asking questions.

Is there a god?

Go search it out.

Is the Book of Mormon true, find out for yourself!

Do we have latter day prophets?

Study and find for yourself!!!!

Questions lead to a stronger testimony because you know for yourself!!!!!

Just being told what other think are true WILL NOT be enough!!!!

We have to figure out what we want to know, ask the questions and then find the answers!

We had a really fun night with the Youngs.

They came over for dinner and we really enjoyed their visit.

It has been so long since we have all gotten together as families!!!!!

Too long!

We ate, played games.....kids sang, Madi wrote an official break-up text to a kid that would not let go of Kara :)

Good times.

We sure love that family!

After they left we had scripture study, which then turned into FHE, since Dad will be at work tomorrow.

This weeks fortifying brick is REMODEL :)

Dad shared a great quote by C.S. Lewis (posted at the bottom of the page).

We talked about following the promptings of the spirit, because as we do, the Lord trusts us with more and more and bigger tasks.

I shared with the family that the other day I had a thought.

I minister to the bishop's wife.

Her new baby was hospitalized with RSV.

So she has not been to church since before Chritsmas, because she is supposed to keep him home.

I was feeling bad that she wasn't having the opportunity to take the sacrament.....then I thought to myself (well, I mean I was prompted by the spirit) to offer to come and sit with her little ones so she could go to sacrament meeting.

I thought that there was no way she would accept.....she is very self sufficient.

I didn't think she would accept.

Well, I texted her and she did accept!

I was all prepped and ready, then she texted me this morning and said that one of her older kids woke up in the night, throwing up :(

So she would just stay home, but thank you.

I was sad...it seemed like such a great answer for her to be able to get out for a bit!

But you know what?

I still listened to that prompting.

The Lord knows I will act, so he will trust me again, maybe with something even more important.

But also, I think me texting her and offering it, even though it didn't happen, still helped her to know and feel the love of the Lord.

That she isn't forgotten.

That she is important.

I still hope to be able to help her out soon and I hope she can get back to church soon as well!

But I just told the kiddos, don't ignore a prompting, even if it feels silly , or that someone won't accept.

You just don't know what the Lord knows......but he will guide us to know!

Okay, so that was the first step of remodeling…..listen to the spirit's promptings.

Next we talked about Trusting in God and his plan for us.

Like the C.S. Lewis quote, he wants us to be more than a cottage!

He wants to make us into a palace!

But if we don't trust him with the sledgehammer, it can't happen!

And third, we need to always be building our testimony.

If we aren't moving forward, we are moving back.

Building our testimony is strengthening our foundation!

You need a good foundation for a palace remodel!!!!