Thought to Ponder: “Governing Ourselves"
from “The Lord’s Way”, April General Conference, Elder Stanley G. Ellis
Joseph Smith was taught from his youth the ways of the Lord. When asked how he led the Church, he explained that he taught correct principles and the members governed themselves. Brothers and sisters, our living apostles and prophets are still teaching correct principles. The question is “Are we using these principles to govern ourselves?”
One thing we have often been taught is to bloom where we are planted. Yet sometimes we are tempted to migrate to some new area, thinking our children will have more friends and therefore better youth programs.
Brothers and sisters, do we really think the critical factor in the salvation of our children is the neighborhood where we live? The apostles and prophets have often taught that what happens inside the home is far more important than what our children encounter outside. How we raise our children is more important than where we raise them.
Certainly there are other factors involved in deciding where to live, and thankfully, the Lord will guide us if we seek His confirmation.
If it seems like these "thoughts to ponder" are more for us than for you, that is just fine:). This one is definitely for me. I was reading ahead in the RS manual after church today and found much in next week's lesson to help me in this dilemma of what we should be doing in the future. I do believe the Lord will guide us and I know the answer will come in His time.
Last Monday was not typical because we shut the office down at noon and went up to the Mission Home for lunch - a very good lunch and we appreciated it very much. It was President Young's way of saying "thank you" for all we do. We enjoyed the food and the time to just visit - plus talk a little about upcoming events.
Tuesday was sort of normal and ended with our Tai Chi class in the evening; we're still hanging in there but do not practice as much as we should. We will see how we are doing at the end of the month. Wednesday we went down to Roseburg for the day...stopped by the house to put clean sheets on the bed and clean towels in the bathroom because the Wimbers asked if it would be alright for their parents to use the basement when they visit the first week of June (actually the 6th through the 13th). One of their boys is graduating so they are gathering as a family for that. After doing the bed and the bath, we did a little more cleaning up before leaving for town and our yearly medical check up with Dr. Powell. That went fine; he pronounced us both very healthy "for our age" - we could do without the last three words:). I think we had a little lunch then went to the audiologist to have our hearing tested. We both tested good and it gave us a "baseline" for future checks. We thought it was a good thing to do and were glad to get it done. Afterwards we went back and finished our clean up efforts for the basement and then headed for home. Stopped for dinner somewhere maybe - or maybe we made something here... I honestly cannot remember.
Thursday seemed really hard as I tried to catch up with things left over from Wednesday, but I made it through. I made it to Relief Society that evening for the first time since we moved here, but if Dad had not committed to be the "security" person, I would have backed out and headed for bed. I was glad I did not because I was able to make a beginning on the crafts that they had available that night. I started a little project that I hope to send to each of our families with grandkids. Kind of a little care package of sorts. Will probably take me some time to finish...but at least I have a start. It was nice to be around the other RS sisters - I do miss that.
Friday was another hard day; if I remember correctly that is the day I spent hours working on the supply orders (on top of the hours spent the day before). There is a spreadsheet to take the orders on and it is supposed to summarize and total the cost for the 15 zones. Beginning on Thursday it began doing strange things - putting the numbers for one zone into a number of other zones - so I ended up calling those zone leaders back and re-doing their orders. Then Friday it did more strange things and I ended up having to call all of the zone leaders to get all of their orders again - this time writing them down with pen and paper. By 5:30 p.m. I had the orders all re-entered into the computer spreadsheet, they looked like they might be correct (I had printed each one as I did it so I could go back and check) and I sent them off to the president for his approval, with a note saying I thought the orders were correct, but not the overall balance and gave him what I had calculated the balance to be on my little calculator. It did not make me happy that I was supposed to have had the orders actually in and done by Friday morning:(.
Jim, Jr. called as I was in the middle of all that (mid afternoon) and offered to work on my spreadsheet - so I sent it to him. He has returned it to me and I am excited to open it at the office tomorrow and see how it looks. It would be so nice to have a template done by someone who really knows how to do these things rather than one that has been worked on over and over again by several of us who are not so good at them. Thank you, thank you, thank you Jim!
Family Notes: Not so much communication this week, so not so much news. John did finish up his semester at college and informed me today that he had passed all of his classes - so everyone is very happy about that:)! Chris and Christi hope to start the addition to their house in a couple of weeks and are excited about that!
I think I had mentioned that Jeanie was setting a good example for all of us with her new exercise & eating routines, and Jim informed me Friday that she had passed the 40 pound mark for weight loss!!! Go Jeanie!!! I have been trying to lose weight for the last several weeks...and it looks like I might have lost 4 pounds - but I won't believe it until I get back on the scale next Saturday. Exercise would help me, but I just am so tired in the evenings and it seems to get harder and harder to get up in the mornings. The plan was to take 2 mornings off each week to exercise and then do it on Saturday as well... only for the past two weeks important needs at the office have overridden that plan and this coming week will as well with transfers on Monday, departures on Tuesday and arrivals on Wednesday. Did I ever mention that we have 35 new missionaries coming on Wednesday? 9 of them are visa waiters - which does complicate it some, plus next transfer is right before the mission splits to create the new Salem mission. It all seems very complicated... lots of work for everyone in the office:).
Checking Facebook told me that Sara had a horseshow recently and one of her students did very well on a pony that they all love! I talked with her briefly this week and she sounded good; says all is well with everyone there. Talked with Mary and found out that she did NOT go to Indianapolis as planned, but will go later for their "grand opening." She sounds well.
Emily is managing to stay alive with her new schedule and baby Rose; pictures on Facebook are fun, but I know it is not an easy time for her. Hard to have babies and keep up with a demanding work schedule. Kudos to her for all she does. No word from Steve and Holly, so I think they are doing fine; Charlotte and Seth are planning to come visit us this next weekend...altho I am hoping to hear soon what times they are actually thinking they will be here. Depends on Seth's schedule, which is ever changing. It will be fun to see them.
Guess that is all for this week, except I thought I would add a few pictures here...the first is us at the rhododendren gardens in April where me met the other Senior Couples from the office and Camp Alpine.
Next is one from our most recent get together AT Camp Alpine - where we did our barbeque. I wanted to add more, but they didn't come to me in a jpg format and won't transfer apparently:(. This picture just shows half of us - there were 10 in all. I'm the one in the blue skirt:) and I think Dad is over with the others at the grill. So I guess that's all for this time!
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