August moves on...

Thought to Ponder:  "When you are choosing your companion, make sure that both of you have a desire for a celestial marriage relationship, a desire to have a companion for eternity, a desire to have a family for eternity, and a desire to live in the presence of our Heavenly Father."  (Robert D. Hales, "A Little Heaven on Earth")

When I saw these words on my "daily messages" early in the week it caused me to stop and think what a blessing it would be to begin a marriage with both partners having those same desires. Since we were not members of any church at the time we dated and married, I doubt that we could have responded in a positive way to each of those points - we were much more "of the world" - as are multitudes today.  Yet look how we have been blessed as the Lord has worked with us to help our marriage become more of a celestial one.  For the past 46 years as of tomorrow:)!  I am so very grateful.

Coming Up:  Next would be Stephen's birthday - next Sunday!  Hoping it is a nice one and that he and Holly do something fun together:)!

Mission Notes:
I didn't post anything last week...now I need to try to remember why.  I think because by the time we did our P-day things (laundry, grocery shopping, apartment cleaning, etc.) and made it to a "Movie Night" that our elders in another ward/stake had worked really hard on, we were pretty tuckered out.

The movie night offered Free Popcorn and Movie: The Restoration!  I was really glad we went; had not actually seen that movie and really enjoyed it - except the DVD or something went bad near the end which made me sad.  But...always resourceful, our elders filled in with a testimonial from Elder Holland - which was powerful and perfect.  It was a fun evening, but Dad has volunteered to bring the popcorn next time:).  (His is better!) The elders were disappointed in the attendance...but we know of several people who were very positively affected by it, so it was worthwhile to do - altho a LOT of work on their part.

The elders from our ward were there and came up at the end and asked if we could provide a ride for a couple of investigators the next morning.  Of course we said yes, and thus came to meet Stephanie and Julia.  I think they have had and are still having a pretty hard life...so I am hoping that they will actually be able to make the changes they need to do in order to enjoy the blessings of the gospel.  It seemed as though every word spoken last week was for them; it was amazing - the whole 3 hours.  Originally they had said they could only stay for Sacrament meeting, but after that ended I asked if they would like to join us in the Gospel Essentials class and they said yes, they thought they would stay for the whole time.  I was glad, and the next two hours were as awesome as the first.  I invited them to the RS dinner on Thursday and was going to pick them up, but they called Thursday morning  with sick kids, saying they could not come.  Then called yesterday and asked for a ride today... so we did it again:).  Today was another good experience for both of them; I am praying it will continue.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty quiet in the mission office - still work to do, but very much less demanding than we had gotten used to.  Tomorrow is transfers, Tuesday is departures (altho not too many are leaving), and Wednesday is new arrivals - 37 of them.  6 of the 37 are visa waiters.  Elder Terry has been super busy hunting down new apartments to help us distribute our elders and sisters over the mission; it has been a hard job, but the Lord keeps supplying the places, for which we are so grateful.  With all the changes happening this week we will see if our work load picks up again in the office.

Last night the Seniors from the office and Camp  Alpine got together for our monthly social:).  We ate at a place called Buddy's Diner, which was straight out of the 50's.  Food was good, fattening, and definitely not on the healthy-for-you list:)!  Then we went to an EM's baseball game - and they won, finally, in the bottom of the 9th inning:)!  Haven't been to a real baseball game in forever...it was a fun evening.

I really got a lot out of the RS lesson today: Faithful, Energetic Service in the Kingdom of God.  I must admit that I agreed with the teacher at the beginning in feeling that my service is often faithful, enduring to the end service rather than energetic. (Sorry about that)  But what I took away from the lesson came in part from  page 185, "When the Lord calls an individual or a class of individuals out from the world, it is not always with an object to benefit that particular individual or individuals." (and the remainder of the paragraph).  I thought about how hard serving in the office has been for me and realized that this call is not necessarily to benefit me, although it has in many ways and I know will continue to do so; but  that I need to renew my efforts to serve with "faith, energy, and cheerfulness" knowing that that is what the Lord is asking of me at this time in my life. Thus, I re-commit to doing that!

Family notes:  Had a call from Steve this week - that is a little rare:) - and was sad to realize that he is one (of many?) who doesn't read the blog.  But - in honor of his phone call - I am trying to get Dad to e-mail me a picture of Steve's new car to add to this blog since I put Jim Jr.s on last time:).

Steve's New Car: July 2013

Abby's birthday has come and gone and Sara's pictures on Facebook were much appreciated. Looked like she was having great fun:). Thought I would just put a few here:).  We are looking forward to being in Utah over Labor Day weekend for her baptism:)!  I couldn't believe how grown up she looks in these pictures!

Abby & Payton...my goodness how they have grown!

Party Girl!

All three girls at once..Josie looks thrilled!

OK - not much other to offer here except that I know that Holly is back teaching - and hoping that she is loving it:).  Christi and family were highly involved with fair stuff...and it sounds like the lamb growers/showers made a ton of money...even Ammon who had a sheep that did not want to gain weight and ended up being just over the required amount. We congratulate them and their parents for their support!  (Hope they recognize the part that plays!)  I think everyone is basically busy, hopefully healthy and happy as well.