Lots of things going on

 

Roy was asked to write the opening article for our ward newsletter this month.  He wrote the following:

           The Lord is our light

“The Lord is our light and, literally, our salvation…..His light will form a protective shield between you and the darkness of the adversary as you live worthy of it….learn to claim the protective light of the gospel as your own.

You may ponder, ‘How can I do that?’ There is only one way: you must learn to generate that light each day by believing on Jesus Christ and following His commandments….

                “The generation of spiritual light comes from daily spiritual pedaling.  It comes from praying, studying the scriptures, fasting, and serving” (Robert D. Hales, “Out of the Darkness into His Marvelous Light” 70)

Everyone has had an interesting last 12 month to say the least.  I cannot remember any time in my life of 62 years when there have been so many different types of challenges and issues.  There is light and great hope and much to look forward to.  I think that the main thing that has provided me with solace in my life and within my family, has been the knowledge that my Father-in-Heaven and my Savior are aware of each one of us and all that we are going through.  All of this is part of his plan. 

As I look back over the last couple of years, I have seen the connection that our wonderful Prophet Russell M. Nelson has with our Savior.  This has greatly reaffirmed my testimony.  He had the vision of what we were going to go through far in advance.  Shifting to home gospel learning and study was an obvious move to not only help us to improve our gospel knowledge but bring us closer to the Spirit in our lives.  This new approach has been instrumental in providing us exactly what we needed to adjust to our current environment.

We also have a great opportunity in a few weeks to hear from our Prophet and the rest of the inspired general authorities.  Around 30 years ago, when my family lived in the North Atlanta Georgia area, we lived about 30 minutes away from our closest church building.  It took effort, but we would try to dress up and head to the stake center to watch as many of the sessions of General Conference that our large family of small children would tolerate (sometimes only one or two).  It was great to meet with the saints in the area and hear inspired words.  Later, for a few years, we had the wonderful experience to be able to watch and listen at a nearby neighbor’s house.  It became a semi-annual tradition for us and our young children to go to their house and use their basement TV (which was connected to an old-style satellite dish) for conference sessions.  Our kids would bring drawing books, etc. to help keep their attention and it became our tradition to watch all four sessions together.  I believe that this helped to teach our kids the importance of watching and listening to the general authorities and feeling the spirit that comes with it.

May all of us take advantage of this great opportunity and make this a priority in our lives.  We will be blessed and comforted, and our testimonies will be strengthened.   

Hyeji sent us this picture early in the week.  
She had curled her hair.  It makes her look very
grown up.  She is already in Young Women (one year 
early).  I can't believe my oldest granddaughter is almost 11.

Roy took a day trip all by himself this week to reconniter for a future hunting trip.  He took some beautiful pictures.  These are taken in the west desert, in the Simpson Springs area.  This gave me a day of solitude--which was nice but not really that unusual anymore.

Site of the Pony Express

Wild horses that roam the area.  

Luke Osborne (Tara's husband) aquired one of these horses one year (he's also been assigned to try and round some of them up).  He said that they were never able to domesticate this horse.  

Harvey, Max, Mav and Bevy.  They had beautiful weather
in Georgia this week.

Saturday, Roy and I took the rest of the grandchildren (last week we took the Vance family) to the aquarium in Layton.  They had a blast.  With a token, we bought a few turtle snacks for the kids to feed the turtle.  Being the great children they are, they tore up the snack into small pieces so even the little children could feed the turtle.  Guess what happened?  Dojin got bitten.  Luckily it didn't break the skin, but it upset him for a little while.

At the aquarium: Ori, Gunnar, Hyeji, Ila, Yuna, Effie, Finn
and Doyeon. Avie refused to be in the picture.  Effie wanted to be in
it, but she didn't realize there were openings on the sides, so she tried
to crawl in over the teeth.

There is a tank with the little fishes that will munch on
your dry skin.  Dojin got a couple of fish to munch on him, but he 
and Ila were more interested in the glass beads 
in the bottom.

Gunnar and Ila, watching the stingrays.

The next several pictures are the kids in with the parakeets.  We thought it cost a token, each, but the helper didn't take any coins.  Dan took all of othe kids in to play with the birds, except Avie.

Doyeon, Gunnar, Ila and Hyeji

Finn and Dan

Dojin and Yuna

Ori and Effie--and the whole group

Catharine, Finn, Ila, Roy and Jieun
Ila and Finn were obviously not excited about
being in this picture.

Effie with the tortoise (I'm pretty sure she
couldn't see much the way her mask fit.  I know
it's tucked up in her glasses so they won't fog up, but
I think it may be a little counter-productive.

Gunnar, Finn and Ila (this is how big the snacks were

supposed to be).

Ori and Effie, Finn, Hyeji and Dojin
I think Ori loved being with her cousins because I hardly
saw her at all while we were there.

Effie

The group

Caitlyn has been working towards taking her final test for figure skating.  She has to do a four minute program with a certain number of jumps and spins.  The spins have a required number of rotations.  She took the test yesterday and did a beautiful job--however, the judges all have their own opinions.  One judge gave her honors, but the other 3 didn't pass her.  She has to have two judges in agreement.  That means she'll have to try again next month.  I felt like she did well enough to pass (and so did she).  She knows what they are looking for, so next time she should have it.  She has been dealing with a sore leg and is recovering from a gum graft surgery this past week.  I was actually surprised she went ahead and tested.

Caitlyn

Roy, Catharine, Caitlyn, Dallin, Robin and Eric (Cait's in-laws)