Little Answer to Prayer

It's been a very long time since I've written anything on here. I've been feeling the call to come back. I feel more in control of my time and life and I'm remembering how much joy this tiny domain had brought me. Last night, I thought I'd be losing it. After a few hours of trying to figure out how to pay for and renew becomingversed.com, I just couldn't get it done. I asked for help from my famiy. I asked other friends if they knew anything about Blogger and Google and GSuites. No luck. So, last night I said a little prayer and asked Him for help. Just a little one. I said, "I know it's probably silly, but I think you want me to come back to this and continue my little work. If that's what you want, please help me find a way to get this thing renewed and back on track."

Tonight I got inspiration. I was able to see what I was doing wrong, and fix it. Becomingversed.com is back up. I need to get back up. This little experience felt like a little nudge and being told, "Hey, I'm on your side, I helped you, Now get to work and help me."

With that, I will leave off, but I will be back soon.
Love,
the mrs.

Today I got to share the gift.

Share the Gift

It's no secret that I haven't been around lately as my life has become consumed by my wonderful family and a bunch of sweet little first graders.

Those firsties are sharing so much with me. Today it's laryngitis.  Can you imagine working with a bunch of 6-7 year olds and not being able to talk to them! Crazy. Thankfully, they behaved pretty well - at least in the morning.

We are doing a "Christmas Around the World" unit this week and I get to present Christmas in Mexico to all four classes.

When I was giving my presentation for the first time today (to my own class),  I became so emotional. You see, in Mexico (at least in what we are presenting to our first graders), Christmas is much more of a time to celebrate Christ. We talked about Los Posadas, luminarias, families being together and the traditions of putting out a nativity set and putting baby Jesus in on Christmas Eve.

Did you catch that? I got to talk to my sweet little ones (who I pray for every day that they might feel His love through me) about Him!

I got to tell them them how much I this time of year means to me and how I love my collection of nativities and I cried. 

But I don't think they noticed. My voice had been crazy all day, the lights were out because the bulb in our projector for the presentation is super dim, and my heart was humbled by how my accident of getting to "do Mexico" showed me in such an incredible way that God wants all His children to know.

It's an incredible gift.

I'm humbled and in awe of how I stumbled into sharing it today.

Sunday School - little mr. j's Primary talk that we wrote together

little mr. j gave a talk today in Primary.
We wrote it together.
He spoke very clearly and enunciated his words and didn't look up the whole time and maybe didn't breath either.
But it was great and I think we are a good team.
Here you go:

Living the Gospel Blesses My Family
J. E.
21 Sept 2014

The Gospel teaches me to be a good person and be like Jesus and when I do that, it helps my family. A good person, who follows Jesus, makes choices every day that makes family life nice.

For example, the Gospel teaches us to serve. Some ways I serve my family are: making my bed in the morning, helping unload the dishwasher, and helping clean the house. When I do these things, this gives the other people in my family a chance to get their responsibilities done and then we have time for fun. Sometimes I don’t feel like doing my chores, but I know I can sacrifice and play later.

The Gospel also teaches us to be kind. Sometimes I don’t feel like being kind to my brother and sisters. Sometimes they make me mad. I try to be kind and forgive them and I try not to be annoying. It’s more fun when we all get along and are kind to each other. Some kind things my siblings do for me are: share, play with me, and listen to me when I talk to them about things that are important to me.

We learn to be grateful in the Gospel. We focus on the blessings we have and not the wants we don’t have. We have a lot to be thankful for.
Doctrine & Covenants 59: 7 says, “Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things.” In our prayers, we should always talk to Heavenly Father about what we are thankful for before we ask for anything. This helps me remember that I have so much and have a better attitude and not want so many things.

I can be like Jesus and bless my family by serving, being kind and being grateful. I am thankful that living the Gospel will get me to our family’s ultimate goal - being a family through eternity.

In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

I Survived

Just wanted to let you know that I survived and had a great time!

32 Young Women and 5 awesome leaders-we were probably 1/3 of the entire group.

Lessons of mine from the "week"

and I type "week" because really it was only three days

(but wooee baby, it took a lot out of me).

-asking teenagers to give up their cell phones and other electronics for camp is L-A-M-E

(in said teenager's opinion-but not in mine)

-we all just want to feel included

(I felt like I was back in my junior high days-for a little while, then I got over it.)

-food is always better when someone else cooks

(our cook has a sneaky secret recipe for french toast)

-I need to remember to pack earplugs next year

(there's a dreaded WM a few miles down the road where you can pick some up)

-pack extra feminine hygiene products

(the girls will not-see above parentheses)

-spending uninterrupted time with these beautiful young women and other leaders is an incredible way to get to know their souls.

(that was the best part)

______________________________________________________________________________________

Girls' Camp is an annual tradition in the Young Women program at my church.

It's a fun time where the girls learn some outdoorsy things, play, and have opportunities for spiritual experiences. This year was especially spiritual.

I'm very grateful for that.

Sunday School

One of my precious newborns

I got to hold a nineteen hour old baby last night.

I think in my life, it's easy for me to get caught up in the "busy-ness."

It's easy to lose perspective.

To remember.

Holding that baby brought me schreechingly back to a wonderful spot.

A spot where I can remember really what life is all about.

So here's a bit about what it's all about:

A very, very long time ago, before we were all here on earth, we lived together in a place that my church calls the pre-existance.  Pre-earth life. 

We existed before we came to this earth.

We were a huge family-can you imagine it, every person who's ever lived or will live on earth was there.  And more.

I know you and I followed the same plan, because we are here on earth and you are reading this.

You see some of our family chose to follow a different plan that we did.

There was a meeting that we all attended.  We were shown a plan.  A plan in where we would come to earth, gain a mortal body and have a Savior would be provided for us.  It wouldn't be easy.  There would be tests and trials and pain.

We would have to make choices ourselves that would determine what would happen to us in the world, both on earth and after our time there.

One of our brothers didn't like that plan & came up with one that would guaranty our return.  One where our choices would be made for us.  We would all make it back.  It would not be hard.

You can probably guess what happened, which plan was used.

Our other brother was cast out, as were all of his followers. They lost the priveledge of gaining a mortal body & they were not very happy about that.

So this precious little girl in my arms is just starting her journey.  Fresh.

Just like each of us.

Everyday.

We just need to find and follow the plan.

To end tonight's little lesson, listen to this song.  It was one that I sang to one of my little newborns who screamed and cried for her first six months on earth. Click here. Hit words & music and then the play button.

For a much better (& official) description of the story click here.

And very importantly-thank you to yesterday's baby and her family for giving me that day's lesson and the honor of looking at such a new life.

Sunday School

picture from here

Today we went to church at a hotel.

Weird, I know.

And no, we haven't changed religions or anything like that-we had stake conference in a ballroom. A very large ballroom.

I've only set foot in our stake building once since moving to this area.  I can't remember why.  It's being remodeled currently, which causes some excitement in meeting locations.  What I don't get is that when we first moved here, one of the first meetings we attended was stake conference and it was at that same hotel, and I am pretty sure the building wasn't being remodeled at that time.

Anyway. 

In case this whole "stake" business is a bit confusing, here's a little info:  in the church we attend, the congregation you attend with depends on geographical boundaries.  That congregation is called a ward.  Many wards make up a stake.  So the stake meeting is a pretty big meeting with a lot of people attending. It happens twice a year in place of regular Sunday worship.  If you'd like to know what congregation you'd be in, click here.

There were a lot of talks, some very sweet musical numbers, and some very entertaining moments near the end when someone's dear little one pulled a fire alarm.

The speaker during the fire alarm's talk had the most impact on me. This one's one I need to use - daily.

So we'll keep this Sunday School session short by just getting to the point.

Overcome the spirit of contention with love.

Sunday School

picture from here

So, I have spent most of my adult church life with kids. I've had a few stints in adult classes, but "primarily," I've been working with the kids. The children's class I taught last year had the same message in almost every single lesson. It is a very important message.
I'm meeting with the grownups presently (have been for a few weeks) and guess what the message was in our meetings today?

The same one.

The wording was a little different, but it's the same message.

Maybe you've heard it, maybe you'll know it. Maybe you've heard it, but don't know it.  Maybe you've never heard it.
I want to share it with you.

We have a Heavenly Father (aka God), who loves us very much & wants us to return to him after this earth life.

If you'd like to know more about Heavenly Father & life after life, you're welcome to ask me a question. You could also click here.

Halloween Article

Hi.
I am still new to this blogging thing and don't know the traditional or appropriate way to say, "Hey, I found something cool. Maybe you'd like a peek." So here's what I'm going to do:

Hey, I found a very interesting article called "The Spiritual Origins of Halloween." It doesn't site references, but does say where he got his information. It's something to think about.

Here's the link:
http://meridianmagazine.com/ideas/091001halloween.html

Ok-how awesome it that that I just learned how to add a link in a blog entry. Woo hoo for me. (What a geek I am-wait-not geek-if I was a true geek, I would already have known how to do this-so- what a dork? Does that work? I think so. Learning something new everyday is good, don't you think? Today was a twofer, woo hoo.)