Friday, October 12, 2012

Week of June 12, 2012

To my Sons!

Hello!  How was your week?  We are doing well here.  Dad and I decided to change the floor in the downstairs bedroom before Lainey moves in.  Here is a before and during photo:

We’re hoping to finish the flooring, paint and install floor trim and move Lainey in by tomorrow.  We’ll see!  I’ll send pictures when we get it done!  You know us, though.  We start a lot of projects, but rarely finish.  We’ll see!




























This weekend, we were able to attend some regional training at the local Stake Centers in the area.  Primary Presidencies were at the Lake Oswego Stake Center and we were taught very well by Sister Rosemary Wixom.  She is the General Primary President of the Church!  She was very fun and insightful.  She gave us some food for thought and some real insight into specific items we can use to help teach and to teach our teachers. 

She taught us that there are four things we need to do.

1.       Prepare Spiritually

a.       She asked us “Does it make a difference if I prepare spiritually?

b.      She made the statement that the Lord can only teach an inquiring mind.

c.       Our spiritual preparation can affect all of our concerns.

d.      When we are spiritually prepared, it can affect those we teach and our own family.

2.       Council with Priesthood Leaders and with each other. 

3.       Teach principles and include the children, giving full responsibility and respect to the father of the family.

4.       Minister with the purpose of having the family (re)join and live the Gospel.

These principles seemed to lend themselves so well to missionary work, so I thought I’d share!
So, today is Father’s day!

Today was also the day that Brenna gave her homecoming talk in church, so we went to see.  Teri’s sister and parents were there as well as Brenna’s cousin and family.  Also Jim’s mom.  It was fun.  After that, we went to their house for lunch.  Teri suggested steak, since it’s one of Jim’s favorites, so Dad and I marinated a flank steak and took it over to cook.  It was yummy!  Brenna made a wonderful cake.  Then we had to get back to our ward to fulfill our various responsibilities.  After church, Annie and Nick came over for dinner and I made Dad Kielbasa for dinner.  He was very well fed today!

Some of the things that Brenna said today in her talk were worth sharing:  She talked about dads and also about missionary work and her mission.  She said that though we may think we are nothing in the grand scheme of things, we are everything to our Father in Heaven and His purpose is to exalt us.  We should share this by being good missionaries.  She said that the reason we were so lucky to be born into good LDS homes is because Heavenly Father trusts us to share.  I thought that was a great point!  Never looked at it that way before.

She shared the scripture Mosiah 4:26.  Administer to others spiritually as well as temporally.  The happiness that we experience from it is the Spirit.

She mentioned that there were times when her mission was really hard.  More so than she thought it would be.  But, she said it was worth it. 

She bore her testimony in Portuguese and then again in English.  She said before she did that she would say the same testimony, but the Gaudreaus told us afterward that she said different things each time, so we busted her!  She’s so cute. 

By the way, Drew we had a hard time getting your photos to download from your SD card, but finally did it.  We took them back over to Brenna and she loved (as did we!) the videos.  Especially the one where you and your companion gave the discussion in Spanish.  She is working to learn the language. 


Okay.  There is one thing that I’ve been putting off telling you guys.  You may already know (especially Drew).  But, in case you haven’t heard through other means…

As you know, Josh Weed keeps a blog on line and I have actually sent a few posts to you to keep you updated on things there.  Well, two weeks ago, Josh and Lolly went out of town for their 10th wedding anniversary and they wrote a post for his blog.  They have decided to tell the world that Josh has struggled with same sex attraction for most of his life.  They spoke of the affect it has had on their decisions and the choices he has had to make in his life to be able to also live the Gospel and stay true to his religious beliefs.  The blog is very long and for that reason, I didn’t include it here.  If you’d like me to email it to you I will, but I’ve printed it so I can mail it to you instead if you’d like.  Just let me know.  Just let me tell you the article was very well written and my respect for them has gone through the roof.  They have understandably had a lot of attention brought to them as a result.  Both from their friends, blog followers as well as the general public.  They have been contacted by national news outlets  as well as big blogs like gawker.com and they are overwhelmed by the response.  I’ve spoken to Brother Weed about it and he supports them in their work and they are excited for Josh that he has stayed true to his principles and I know that he will be able to help a lot of people along the way with his counseling practice. 
Did I tell you that Shaulana has been accepted at LSU (Louisiana) for a masters program and has a full ride there as well?  Yay for her!

I’m looking forward to hearing from you this week!

Love you!
Mom

PS-My surgery is this coming Friday morning at 7:30am our time.  A little prayer would be lovely!  I’ll let you know next Sunday how it went.  I will be hanging around the house for about a week afterward, but I think I’ll be a little nuts if I can’t get out soon after that! 

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