The Storm Kind of Fizzled

I'm glad that the storm that was supposed to be so bad in Illinois today didn't meet expectations. (That's what they said on weather.com.) Tiff said that a really loud thunder bolt jolted her awake this evening, but other than that the weather wasn't too bad. At least not as bad as was predicted. So that's good. I guess there was some bad weather other places but nothing like they were saying was coming. I just heard the weather man say that the snowstorm that is going to hit the Upper Midwest will more than make up for what didn't happen today. That doesn't sound too good. There's been quite the wild weather going on lately. I guess it's been flooding in Vicksburg and Natchez with all the rain they've been getting. It's funny how you don't pay much attention to weather in other parts of the country until you have some kind of connection with it. Here's hoping that Spring will find its way to our locations soon. I'm heading down to St. George tomorrow to visit Mom and Dick. I hope the weather will cooperate.

Dinnertime at the Barretts

This evening after dropping Richard off in AF and making a Wal-Mart run, I stopped by the Barretts to see how they were doing. Something sure smelled good in there! Lindy was cooking up some tortellini soup and she was nice enough to invite me to stay. (I always happen to time my visits around dinnertime. Hmmmmm.) Steven is at the MTC tonight greeting the new missionaries who just arrived today, so I was happy for a dinner invitation. While Lindy finished the soup, I went downstairs where Camden and Riley were playing Barbies. They were playing so nicely together. Sidney joined us after she had greeted Daddy Nate who had just come home. She started bringing me lots of food which is her favorite thing to do for me. Camden and Riley had quite the harmonica concert going, and Sidney wanted to join in. So it was pretty musical there for awhile. Then Nate called us up to dinner, and it was very tasty! Lindy has posted the recipe for the soup on her veggie blog, so I think I'll try it sometime. It was soooooooo good. They girls made their way through it, slowly but surely. Sidney would have none of it. Lindy said she keeps forgetting to get her some spaghettios. Nate ate his dinner quickly because he had to go off on a Church assignment. Camden said, "We wanted to play with you." And Riley said, "We'll miss you, Daddy." He assured them he'd be back in time to tuck them in to bed. After dinner the girls wanted me to see some "Dancing with the Stars" which they had TVOd (?) from the night before. They thought it was all quite wonderful, especially the little kids who dance like they were grownups. I had lots of fun there, and then I came home to get some stuff done around here. I'm making progress with my clearing out so we'll be ready for Sarah and Joel and Eliza to come in a few weeks!

The Best Time to Be Alive

Tonight at the MTC, Elder Robert S. Wood told us that right now is the best time to be alive in the history of the world because we live when the fulness of the gospel is on the earth. He told of reading a book some time ago, titled The Birth of Plenty, written by a non-LDS author. This person was interested in determining when things really started to improve for people in the world, because economic and technological advancement had been so slow for a such a long period of time. The author discovered that around 1820 the pace of economic advancement picked up and there was an explosion of technology. Elder Wood thought this to be very interesting since it coincides with the year of the First Vision and the subsequent restoration of the Gospel. Before 1820 there was only miniscule progress while after 1820 the world became a more prosperous place. He had a graph that showed how most of the people who have every lived upon the earth have been born since 1820, in the dispensation of the fulness of times. He told the missionaries, "You have been held in reserve to help bring about the purpose of this whole period of time." When we met with the missionaries in the departing districts A and B (those who hadn't left yet), they seemed quite impressed to think they were living in such a great time in the history of the world and to be part of the missionary force taking the gospel to the world. Elder Wood had another graphic showing how the stakes of the Church have grown from the time of the organization of the Church until now. It was quite dramatic to see how the stakes of the Church are flooding the earth. When I did the Priesthood Leadership filmstrip back in 1972, there were about 550 stakes in the Church. I remember because the Church made a copy of the filmstrip for every stake. At the time, I thought that sounded like quite a few stakes. Now there are 2,790 stakes, as reported in this last conference. Dad and I commented how much of the growth of the Church has taken place just in the time that we've been married and in the lifetimes of our children. It's really quite amazing to be part of it and eyewitnesses to the great growth and expansion of the Church upon the earth.

We saw Cousin Jacob Rawle before the devotional this evening. He seems to be doing well. Steven and I wondered why we hadn't been seeing him at the MTC since he came in, but tonight he chased us down. We heard some missionaries running, and there was Jacob. Earlier tonight in the cafeteria we saw Jacob's cousin, Jared Rawle. His parents are Mike (Jim's brother) and Michelle Rawle. I had talked to them at Pat and Jim's when we were having lunch there after Jacob's farewell. They told me that their son, Jared, had gone into the MTC bound for Taiwan. I told them I'd keep my eyes open for him; and, sure enough, there he was in the cafeteria. We were sitting with a lot of missionaries going to Taiwan, so I wondered if he might be among them. We also saw the Romneys and Andy, who is going to Mongolia. He had just found out that he'll be leaving for Mongolia on April 23, which is earlier than he had been expecting.

Conference Bowl

I had planned to go to St. George today to be there for Grandma FT's birthday tomorrow, but the weather turned out to be stormy, so I'll wait until Friday to go down. The weather is supposed to be better by then. When I called Mom to tell her I wasn't coming, she said she'd rather be disappointed than worried about me driving down there in bad weather.

So I continued on today with my project of trying to get things cleaned out a bit and organized before Sarah, Joel and Eliza come this month to stay for the summer, followed by Tiffany next month. We should actually all be able to get along fine here together, I just need to have things somewhat more organized and cleared out than they have been. I got the kitchen counter cleared off of the things that have been on there for a few years and put out my new organizer which I've had for about three years just waiting for the right time to break it out. The counter looks much better now. Slowly but surely I'm getting stuff done. That's one reason I've been so slow posting on my blog this week.

Tonight for FHE we had our semi-annual Conference Bowl, and we did it differently this year. Steven did the questions and I got to try to answer along with Richard. It was pretty scary for me because I'm used to putting everyone else on the spot. And it is kind of funny because when you're on the receiving end of the questions, you can remember the talk but you can't quite remember who it was that gave it. I only missed two, however; I got Elder Eyring's and Elder Holland's talks mixed up. Richard got them all correct. Way to go Richard! For our treat we finished off the orange floats and then we watched the NCAA championship game. We were all hoping Memphis would win, but Kansas beat them in overtime. It's too bad because Memphis could have won in regulation time, but they missed their free throws. I bet that guy is mad at himself! As far as the family contest went: I won guessing the overall outcome and Richard won the round-by-round. We beat Dad out again.

Conference Weekend

Wasn't that a great conference weekend?! We sustained our new prophet and first presidency and heard lots of wonderful talks. I kind of zoned out a bit in the afternoon session yesterday (I'll have to be sure to read those talks, especially Elder William Walker's talk), but I was more alert today. I enjoyed all the talks, especially Elder Uchtdorf's talk about "Faith of Our Fathers." "True religion should not originate from what pleases man or even what pleases our ancestors...the 'faith of our Father' is on the earth today." Elder Uchtdorf has such a commanding presence, and he did such a wonderful job in conducting the sessions and, especially, the solemn assembly. Pres. Monson gave a great talk. I liked how he said that each one of us can feel the Lord's inspiration if we live worthily. He gave us good counsel saying, "We need to show kindness and respect for all people everywhere, especially within our own families." Our homes should be places of peace and love, "where the storm stops at the door." He reminded us that "in order to be tested, we must sometimes face challenges and difficulties, but together we shall move forward, doing His work." In the afternoon session I especially liked Elder Neuenschwander's talk about the crowds of the world and how we can have the Savior's blessings in our lives, even as we are part of the crowd, if we seek Him out as the woman did who desired to be healed of her affliction. Elder Ballard's talk about "Mothers" was a different kind of talk for him and I thought it was especially good. He gave great counsel to mothers: (1) The joy of motherhood comes in moments. Don't rush past fleeting moments. (2) Don't overschedule yourselves of your children. Take time to listen, play together, laugh. (3) Find some time for yourself to cultivate interests. (4) Pray, study, and teach the gospel. To husbands he said: (1) Show more appreciation. (2) Have regular time together to talk about each child's needs. (3) Give your wife a day away. (4) Come home from work and take an active role with the family. And to children, he said: (1) Help your mother by picking up your toys, making the bed, doing the dishes, etc. (2) Say 'thank you' more often. (3) Put your arms around your mother and let her know you love her. To Church leaders, he said: Be watchful of the demands on mothers. I liked all the talks and look forward to reading them when they come out in the Ensign.

After the last session, the Barretts came over for Sunday dinner. We had bean soup and some wheat bread that I made with the breadmaker. It turned out kind of funny looking but actually tasted pretty good. We had fun afterward playing hide 'n' seek, etc. It's so funny to see Sidney when we play hide 'n' seek. She wants to be in on it, but it's kind of scary for her because she doesn't know what to expect. When she and Grampa found me in the closet she had just the most worried/scared look on her face as if she didn't know what they were going to find. But then she was happy when she saw that it was just Gramma in there.

Girls Night Out

Today in general conference we got to sustain Pres. Monson, his counselors, and other general authorities in a solemn assembly. That was one of those experiences you don't get to have too often. This evening, when I went over to have "Girls Night Out" with Lindy and the girls, I asked them what their favorite part of conference was. Riley said, "The standing up and raising hands part." I think they thought that was the best because they were actually participating in the conference. I asked them if they heard about the new apostle (Elder Christofferson). They said they had. Then Camden asked, "Is he an old man?" My first response was "no, he's not an old man" (because he is near my age). But then remembering that I'm pretty old, I said, "Well, he's about the same as as Grampa and I are." Then Camden asked, "Is he 59?" She's quick. I even have to stop and try to remember my current age. I told her that actually, he's a few years older, 62 or 63 (he was a senior and a studentbody officer at BYU when I was a freshman). Another new general authority is Larry (Lawrence) Corbridge, who is my same age and grew up in the Oak Hills First Ward with me. He was called to the first quorum of the seventy.

While "The Boys" all went to general priesthood meeting, I went over to Lindy's for "Girls Night Out." We decided not to go out some place to eat since it's pretty wild out there on the Saturday night of priesthood session--lots of women and girls having their own Girls Night Out. I remember back in the day when Lindy, Sarah and Tiff were young we always had a Girls Night Out before that became the popular thing to do. There weren't so many people out having fun as there are now. (When Lindy and Sarah got to be teenagers and stopped wanting to go out for our Girls Night with Tiff and me, I felt bad. But that only lasted for a few years. As they got older, they started liking Girls Night Out again. It's a fun time to be together. We miss having Sarah and Eliza and Tiff with us, but we know they're thinking about us and we're thinking about them.) So for tonight, Lindy ordered a marguarita pizza from Pizza Factory, and I picked it up on my way over to their house. Pizza Factory was crazy when I went in there--tons of people waiting to be seated. I heard someone ask how long of a wait and they were told 35-40 minutes. I was glad that I had a pick-up order, which I was able to get quickly, and that we had decided to eat "in" at the Barretts. We had a lot of fun. The girls didn't know quite what to think about that pizza loaded with so many veggies. (I think they're getting veggied out.) They were kind of like, "Even our pizza is loaded with veggies." So they each took their un-favorite veggies off their piece of pizza and ate it. After pizza we had orange floats and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that Lindy had made. YUM! Then we had some fun before I went home to fix orange floats for Grampa and Richard.

That was a great conference session today. I especially liked Elder Rasband's talk about how our life experiences are building blocks for our testimonies. "They shall learn in their own experience who He is." And Elder Wirthlin's talk about how we should keep going even if we're tired. "The Lord giveth power to the faint." I also really liked Elder Carlos H. Amado's talk about Service. "Through serving our fellowmen we come to know the Lord."

Some Thai Food Should Help

When I read Lindy's blog from yesterday (Wednesday) I thought, "This calls for some Thai food!" So I called her about the time Camden was coming home from school and asked if they would like to go have some Thai food. She thought that sounded like a good idea, so I went over and got there just as Camden was getting off the bus. She and Riley came running towards me with their arms outstretched calling, "Grandma! Grandma!" When Sidney saw this she also came runing with her arms out calling "Maama! Maama!" I think she thought she'd try to be like the big girls; but she actually wasn't that happy to see me, because when I tried to pick her up she just cried. She wanted to be down and running back the way she came from. But we loaded her and the other girls into the car and off we went to AF for some Thai Village food. We had "the usual," only the spring rolls were deepfried instead of fresh. We needed to be more specific, I guess. Camden and Riley wondered if the rolls would be good; but after taking a bite, they decided they were actually pretty good (as long as there was sauce to go with them). Then we had some Pad Thai noodles and mussaman curry. We found two "peanuts" (cashews) in the mussaman for Camden and one for Riley. That's their favorite thing. Too bad they don't put more "peanuts" in the mussaman. Nothing appealed to Sidney. She has a bad cough and wasn't feeling well. But she did all right. She just didn't want to eat anything. Maybe she needs more spaghettios in her diet. Just a thought. After lunch we headed back home so Riley and Sidney could have their naps. All in all it was a fun little outing.

The speakers on Tuesday night at the MTC were Elder Marcus B. Nash and his wife, Shelley. They're here for conference from their home in Lima, Peru. Elder Nash is in the area presidency there. Sis. Nash talked about how she has had to trust in the Lord every day to be able to accomplish her purpose there in Peru. She said her daughter's advice to them when they left was: "Always remember your purpose." She said as she recalls evidence of the Lord's hand in her life, it gives her the assurance to act and move forward every day, knowing that the Lord will bless her as he has in the past. Elder Nash also spoke to the missionaries about their purpose. He said it's important for them to not only have their purpose in their minds, but in their hearts, as well. He related the story of Ammon from the Book of Mormon and how he was connected in mind and heart to his purpose. He fulfilled his purpose and a kingdom was converted. When we met with the ten elders in District A afterward, they seemed quite enthused about remembering their purpose as missionaries and acting accordingly. This was the first district meeting with a district from the new branch, and we enjoyed it. They're all fine elders, and it was good to be with them and to hear their thoughts from the meeting and their testimonies.