A few months ago on my senior spring break I went to arizona to visit my sister.  Livivng in a very LDS centered part of the state it wasn’t very surprising when the two girls doing our pedicures were LDS.  I told them about how I was excited to graduate and go to college.  They warned me to move to the singles ward immediately after graduation to avoid a nursery calling, apparently the young women are hunted down.  My sister and I laughed, and thought nothing of it.  About a month before I graduated I found myself sitting in a room with a member of the bishopric accepting a call to serve as nursery helper.  I have now been in there about two months.  It’s not that bad, the kids are cute (when they’re not throwing toys, hitting eachother, and wailing), I get to eat the snack that smiles back, and I’ve made some little friends in there.  I have one problem, a three, almost four, year old boy.  They should move up to sunbeams as soon as their birthday comes, not at the new year.  He is full of energy, loud, doesn’t listen, and wrestles the other children.  I’m still gonna be in there anoter two months, any advice out there?

Every summer brings the infamous Girls’ Camp.  As a young woman you go to pre-camp meetings to begin the singning off process, and prepare for camp.  Once you arrive at camp your week is filled with hiking, ward time, certifying, crafts and of course camp songs.  The leaders’ pre-games are a little different.  A sister from my ward was called to the craft leader.  She had quite the job; first she had to plan crafts that would be fun and functional for 150 girls.  Then the materials needed to be purchased and prepped. This included spray painting hundreds of tiny army men, cutting square wooden slabs (in which she lost her fingernail), cutting up countless papers, and gathering the supplies.  She accomplished all of these tasks without an assistant.  It soon became clear that there was no way she would make it through the week without help.  I was hunted down and immediately recruited. The week was filled with drama, and I was in shock at the amount of work that went into being craft leader.  150 needy girls, who were in constant need of assistance, kept us both very busy. I myself wondered how she would have gotten through the week alone.  It was a daunting task for two people, let alone one. This was the ultimate learning experience of the sacrifice these leaders make to ensure an enjoyable and memorable girls camp.  So this year appreciate all of the women who put camp together for you, especially your craft lady.

Selected Events in History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

We hope you enjoy this time line of the Mormon Church that was posted recently online at MormonHeritage.com. This is an awesome outline of some of the great events in Mormon History and MormonHeritage.com offers Mormon tours to show you some of the locations of these event in real life.

Click the image below to see the FULL SIZE image:

I just received a message on Twitter that @blendfashions is offering a 15% off coupon via Google Maps.

So, I thought I would pass on the savings. Thanks Blend.

Many of you may have recently received an email which I have pasted in part below. The question is: Is this legitimate or not? Read the email and then read the results of our investigation as to its legitimacy.

BEGINNING OF EMAIL

President Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Speaking at the Forest Bend Ward, Salt Lake City UT
Sunday, October 12, 2008

“Even though I regularly have the opportunity to attend Fast and Testimony meeting, I don’t usually stand to speak. But today, I feel moved upon by the Spirit to share a message…

END OF EMAIL

One of our employees called the Church public affairs department to check on the legitimacy of this email. He was told that the Church is getting calls from all over the world inquiring as to the legitimacy of this email. Our employee was told:

“Elder Packer was at the meeting, he was inspired to stand and speak and did so. He did give a talk, but that the notes that are being sent around on the Internet are an attending member’s interpretation of the talk Elder Packer gave and that the notes should not be considered an official church notice or statement of any kind.”

This talk has been posted in its entirety on several “family blogs.” Initially, we had posted all of the email, but upon further consideration decided not to continue the furtherance of a non official church notice.

Another General Conference has come and gone, and once again we were bombarded (in a good way ) with the mantra to “stay out of unnecessary debt.” With each General Conference you can pretty much count on being counseled on staying away from three latter-day vices:

Avoiding debt
Avoiding pornography
Avoiding addictive substances

When discussing the avoidance of debt, our leaders generally suggest that debt is really “ok” in only 3 or 4 circumstances:

1. A mortgage for a modest home
2. Loan for a practical car or cars
3. Loans received for the pursuit of higher education
4. Emergencies, i.e. health related, etc.

Outside of the aforementioned areas, LDS people are strongly encouraged to live below their means and stay out of the grasp of debilitating money problems. Many people live by these words and are better off for it. However, I believe that there are many other well-intentioned individuals who cannot seem to avoid gathering debt, although they are truly trying.

One of the reasons many of us have such a hard time with this concept is we almost never receive any formal training in money management. High School curriculum is all but void of budgeting skills, colleges and universities rarely address the subject, which means you really have to be a self learner when it comes to finding and effectively using a budget online planning tool.

Fortunately, there are many types of household budget software systems out there. I have found that I am a real fan of the envelope budgeting system. In days of yesteryear, families would actually put a number of envelopes on the wall and label each for a different expense, i.e. mortgage, groceries, tithing, etc. Today, you can set up virtual envelopes and assign a budget to each of these spending areas. The software links up with your bank account so that every expenditure is automatically tracked via the envelopes. This makes it very easy to see where you are overspending on a daily basis. I find that this daily spot-checking allows my family to make spending adjustments before we completely blow the budget.

I will probably post on this subject again next April, after a friendly reminder from our Church leaders!

As my daughters baptism approaches I have been doing some hard reality checks on myself and my worthyness to perform such an amazing ordinance. I am not confessing any major sins here or anything, but it gets you thinking about the sacred nature of the ordinance of baptism and just how special it is.

Baptism is the literal washing away of all unclean things (sins), and a fresh start. It also gives you the ability to be worthy of the holy ghost as a constant companion and guide. That is so amazing. I know my daughter is ready, and I had no problem baptizing people on my mission, so I don’t know why its such a different feeling when its your own family. I guess I just want to be 100% prepared and ready, and its been good in getting me more focused on the things that really matter.

I use to love the feeling I got seeing those I baptized come out of the water, and how fresh and clean their spirit was. It was so amazing to see their face and how happy they were. For that moment, they were the most pure thing on earth.

I am looking forward to baptizing my daughter, and really can’t wait, but I just wanted to share how it really makes you take a step back from your day to day, and makes you want to do everything you can to be even more worthy to perform the sacred ordinances. I am very great full to my Heavenly Father for entrusting us with such power, and that our brother Jesus Chris set the example for us.

Here is an amazing picture of my Father: I took this picture, and did not intend for it to be such a cool picture, but it turned out that way!

I just wanted to thank my Dad for giving us kids everything. I remember growing up, and my Dad never got the “toys” or cool things that I know he wanted. He choose to make sure his kids were taken care of first. If I can be 1/2 the Father he was to me, then my kids should do ok. Thanks Dad, and I love you!

But what seems to be the hard thing is to remember him when things are going well. I was thinking about this the other day as I was pondering mission stories. I recently posted on this LDS Blog that we were looking for returned missionaries to submit stories to us, (and that invite is still open) and thats what really got me thinking!

I remember growing up I had always relied on the testimony of my parents, and I guess I never did a good job enough of getting a solid testimony of my own. I had a testimony, but did I really know for sure beyond any doubt it was true? If my parents knew, that was good enough for me until I could figure it out I guess. I had never read the Book of Mormon until I was in the MTC, and really had never felt that burning everyone talks about. I just knew serving a mission was the right thing to do in my heart, just like I knew the Church was true (even without that amazing burn).

Well I got into the mission field fresh out of the MTC, and found myself in a weird country that smelled like pancakes. That is the best way I can describe it. I got called to the Fiji Suva Mission back in June of 1995. When I first arrived and smelled the weird smell, and looked around at all the weird looking people (at the time I had thought) that return trip ticket that I had not given back yet really seemed like a good deal.

Contrary to what I hear from everyone; “Oh you are so lucky to get called to an exotic Island”, it was a 3rd world country, and the resorts that everyone goes to and talks about (with Fiji) was not where I served. I remember being humbled my very first day because the two things I hated in life the most was the hot (or being hot - no air conditioners in Fiji “bures” or huts) and fish. I found myself hot, and eating a fried fish (with the head attached) the very first day.

I needed to rely on the Lord big time. I remember pouring my soul out that night and praying harder then I had ever prayed in my life for guidance, and that I was indeed in the right place. I soon calmed down, and had a feeling in my heart that I was doing the right thing. The major burn, and gaining my own testimony came about 19 months later during my mission (another story for another post another day), but I got what I needed to finish my mission and survive in Fiji!

The point here is we need to remember to rely on the Lord even when things are going great. He never goes away, so why do we? I think the start of my mission would not have been so difficult if I had that open line of communication with the Lord already.

As I promised I would share more pictures on this LDS Blog, I am living up to my word. I hope you all are enjoying the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them on all my travels!

During one of our trips back and forth from Arizona/Utah we went out of the way to visit the Manti Utah Temple. This really is one of the coolest Temples that I have ever seen in person. I took quite a few pictures, but this one is the one I like the most. I hope you all enjoy: