September 13, 2015
Dear Riley,
It’s been a good week here. I hope it has for you as well. I hope the work still flows along strong and Elder H and you are wearing yourselves out everyday. I can’t wait to hear if you had returning investigators at church and how things are going there.
We had such a great regional conference today with all of the utah county area. I had such a sweet feeling and gratitude that I could receive instruction, counsel, warning, and blessings at the feet of inspired leaders. Elder Ballard was our concluding speaker and he talked about our area being the heart of the Church in many ways, pumping needed nourishment and oxygen to the rest of the Church. Then he warned us of some dangers and shared a story which had actually been shared in our sacrament meeting a couple weeks ago by Sister H. When he was a mission president, he had a missionary bring concerns that had arisen as he had studied anti-mormon literature. Elder Ballard listened to the missionary thoughtfully. He told him he was pretty sure he already knew the answers to the concerns. But he wanted a week to be sure his response was complete and accurate. He then asked the missionary when he had last spent time studying the scriptures, particularly the Book of Mormon. The elder hung his head and admitted that he had been neglectful. Elder Ballard challenged the elder to get back into his scripture study and when they met the next week, the concerns were completely resolved because of the missionary’s time in the word. Elder Ballard said that was good, but he had spent a lot of time in study and this missionary was going to get all the answers he had prepared. He told us to be careful as we search Church history, Church doctrine, and practices that we not neglect what we have been given when we cannot answer to our satisfaction the perceived inconsistencies or incongruities. And he assured us that the church has a policy of transparency. He warned us against hypocrisy and encouraged us to consider our attention to personal worship, keeping our spiritual roots nourished. He warned us against living large and the prideful pursuit of wealth and comparing ourselves, qualifying that in our access to worldly offerings, we are already prospered greatly above the majority of the people who have walked the earth. He warned us that all of our gadgets and technology come with caveats and we need to be mindful to regularly unplug electronics and engage with our family members. He asked us to be mindful in our area of those who are not of our faith, reminding us that our history shows the pain of being a mistrusted minority. Elder Ballard is an apostle. I felt his wisdom and clarity as he taught and counseled us. And that’s just one of the amazing talks of four.
Pretty cool, huh? A little before 3 in the canyon on Labor Day.
Look, a basket this time:
Friday was the worst day of the week. I had to go into work earlier in the week because we have someone looking at our network and will set up a new one for us. I don’t think he did anything that caused the problem, but I lost the ability to connect to the network on my old laptop/external monitor setup. I had to go into work early Friday morning because G's workstation is the only one that can use Quickbooks now. Grrrrrrrrrrr. It was an exercise in complete frustration. And then I had to bake and frost a cake for LC’s funeral and was late taking care of that. That afternoon M and I hopped onto the freeway headed north to celebrate my mom’s birthday with L and Mom at the Cheesecake Factor. We hit traffic almost as soon as we got on the freeway and it took us an hour and 40 minutes to get there. M had another obligation that night, so we were only able to stay 20 minutes. We ate the appetizer Mom and L had ordered and took cheesecake to go. I felt so bad that we had to leave. But thankfully we got back just in time for M to get to her other event.
Friday was also terrible for a family tragedy. Back story: Somehow last year something triggered an inexplicable connection in Dad and when Elise would run out and slam the door shut on her way out to the bus in the morning, Dad would say from the table, in a high, screechy voice, “Wait! Leesie Lu, come back. You forgot your underwear. Leesie. Oh, nevermind, I’ll bring it to you.” It’s been a long-running joke here in the family which Leesie is party to. Dad even said we should get a clean, new panty in size 3X and take it out to her for April fool’s day. Of course, that didn’t happen.
Well, Aleah decided to take the joke up a notch of her own accord and Friday morning packed a pair of Elise’s real underwear into her backpack and kept the idea alive all day long. Then she raced to the bus stop from school with the M girls in tow to hold them up for the entire bus of kids (first bus stop,remember) to see as she shouted out, “Leesie Lu, you forgot your underwear…” Elise was mortified. She acknowledge nothing and made for the door. After crossing the threshold, she shouted out the details of the affair to me before locking herself into my bedroom.
Aleah and the M girls were slow coming in. When Aleah, last of everyone, slunk into the doorway, I gave her the Mother Eye of Death and calmly directed, “I’m assuming you now recognize the folly of your choice. My question for you is, ‘How in the world are you going to make this better?’” Tears upon tears upstairs. It was like the scene in Sense and Sensibility where all the girls are crying in different rooms and the oldest sits down on the stairs and sips the tea which was brought to comfort her disconsolate sister.
When they were at least speaking to one another again, and Aleah was sincerely trying to make it better, Elise very correctly noted that nothing can be said or done which will remove the reality of what she did. And yet, Elise forgave her little sister. Aww, family.
All in all, it was a frustrating day. But what should I expect on 9/11?
Yesterday was full. I had a RS Super Saturday at the church from 9 -12. But I forgot and went late. I’m glad I went but I do feel very removed from RS when I’m in primary and nursery.
I finally finished up the tomatoes we picked from Grandpa’s garden in spaghetti sauce last night. sigh of relief. DJ ended up at our house last night and we had an impromptu party. The family watched Henry V on Cambry’s computer because we couldn’t make it work on the PS3. And I watched the game on my computer upstairs while I cooked the spaghetti sauce.
And I fermented the cherry tomatoes and they are so good! They’re little fizzy balls that pop in your mouth. I added basil leaves and they taste sooooo good. I think I’ll do another bottle later this season.
And then of course my favorite part of yesterday was that wonderful bike ride. Oh, I’m a maniac. I can’t get enough. I love it. I love the way it makes me feel about Dad, the connection it strengthens.
We went 22 miles round trip on the Murdock canal trail tonight, an hour and a half ride. It was absolutely stunningly beautiful. You can see the temple on the right of the sunset. When I'm riding out like that, I feel my spirit expanding... And I want more. The more I see out there, the more I want see.
Tonight we were over at Grandma’s and Grandpa’s for the first birthday party gathering since June. It was really nice to be together; almost everyone came. DJ was there too. I love our family.
I’m excited to hear about your week and see more pictures. Work hard, love freely, follow impressions immediately.
Love,
Mom
No comments:
Post a Comment