Another day of spiritual feasting and feeling blessed knowing who I am and that I am loved. Aren't we lucky to have a wonderful earthly experience surrounded by so much beauty to enjoy while we work and serve,laugh and love, cry and forgive ourselves and each other. We learn so much each day to help us grow into better people.
I am so happy to be able to finally share photos of the beautiful flowers that have popped up now on The Square. Each day more and more come up, open and show us their colors. Isn't it great what Heavenly Father did to make our surroundings so beautiful. I know there are many others places around the earth that have come to life. I am happy to be able to share this little part.
The red buds are leafing out today but I wanted to share a little of what we had last week. The little pink blossoms are blowing around on the ground today. It is a cool effect too.
The bed looking north is so pretty now.
This is the bed looking toward the south entrance.
This is the bed by the Family History Library, but I won't be seeing it too much during the week as we have moved to the JSMB. When we go for our personal research time it will be fun to watch the change....and on Sunday's, of course.
Our week has been full because of our move. We are completely moved and most of our missionaries are settled in and working away. The Historical Families Reconstitution Zone is no longer. We have been added into the Data Quality Zone but they decided to give us all a new name so we are now HISTORICAL RECONSTITUTION AND DATA ANALYSIS (HRDA). Ed is no longer a Zone Leader but it was made clear that he would basically be an assistant zone leader although he hasn't been officially asked to do that. Our new ZL is Elder Waddoups who is from Preston, Idaho. He is a wonderful man. I like him more and more each day. Our zone meets each morning in the JSMB Chapel for our prayer meeting and Elder Waddoups does a "This Day in the History of the Church" moment in addition to someone giving a spiritual thought. I love learning the little historical information he gives to us.
About a month ago my mother asked if I would like to take a bread making class with her. It is a two hour class from 6-8pm on Tuesdays at the House of Bread and goes for 3 weeks. It started this week and because Tuesday was our huge moving day we were still working at 5pm and I had forgotten about the class but Ed reminded me and I dashed to pick up my mother and my niece, Miriam and get to the class. I was so tired but once we began it was quite fun. The wheat and white bread was delicious and I enjoyed the tips and recipes and the final product that we all got to go home with. I had forgotten how much I used to enjoy kneading dough. I returned home called a couple of missionary couples to come over and enjoy a piece of warm bread before bed. It was a delightful diversion from the move with delicious results. Now I know how to better use my food storage wheat!
Missionaries in this mission get 4 hours per week of personal research time for their own family genealogy. We have Friday afternoon. One day a month we take 8 hours for a "Temple and Research Day". The idea is that we would work on our own family and prepare family names to take to the temple. Ed is finding so much information on his family, but my family is so long in the Church that most of the work has been done for my 4-5 generations. What I am finding, however, is that some of the work has been done incorrectly so I am enjoying the task of finding sources so I can correct the problems that exist. As I do this I find information about my ancestors that bring them closer to me.
One such ancestor of mine is my great grandmother Mary Jane Baum. She was a young girl born in Provo, Utah in 1854. She was hired by William Wright (born 1831 in England)to help his wife, Jemina Dand, who was ailing from childbirth of their 8th child. Jemina died, and in 1871 William married Mary Jane. At the time she was only 4 years older than the oldest of William's children. She took care of them all and subsequently had 15 children of her own with William, the 14th being my grandmother. She was an amazing woman. I am so proud to be part of her family. It makes my little daily challenges seem so petty and gives me a strong example to look up to.
Yesterday (Sat. Apr 16) was a baby shower for Autumn given by one of her ward friends in Provo. It was so fun to be there and see these young women make Autumn feel so loved. Most of them already have children of their own and they are so excited for her. They were very cute giving her advice and commenting on the gifts she received as she opened them...."Oh you really will need that!" "You never have too many of those..." "This was a life saver for me..." I didn't say anything but enjoyed every moment. We are so excited for our first grand child to arrive. We did wonder on our way to the shower with some of the food if it was a statement about this baby boy to come that we were asked to prepare deviled eggs and not angel food cake??? Only a few weeks to go...
Today (Sunday) I sang in my mother's ward. She wanted me to sing "His Hands". It is such a beautiful song and I enjoyed singing about the Savior's life and His Atonement and Resurrection at the beginning of this holy week. I am so grateful for His Atonement and the promises it brings to us all. I feel so weak at times with my many mistakes, my pride and my ingratitude. I may not have any gross sins but I have so much to improve in my daily walk and talk. I love that I can participate in the blessed Atonement and become better each day. I have such a desire to live each moment so that I can feel the guidance of the Spirit in all I do.
I love the story told by Elder Rasband about being assigned to go with President Eyring to make missionary assignments. He tells of being in the room with the large computers to display the photo of the missionary (or couple) and another screen showing their detailed information including what their priesthood leaders said about them. Another screen shows the missions of the Church and their needs. He tells that Pres. Eyring greets each missionary as their picture comes up just as though they were in the room. He would study everything about the missionary and then look at the missions and then make the assignment. After some time a new missionary came up and Pres. Eyring turned to Elder Rasband and asked him where he thought this missionary should be sent. Elder Rasband answered that he didn't know and had no idea how he would know. Pres. Eyring answered by saying, "Pay attention".
This happened a second time with Elder Rasband giving the same response and Pres. Eyring saying, "Pay closer attention". Sometime later another missionary picture came up and Elder Rasband was immediately filled with a strong feeling that this missionary should be sent to Japan. He didn't know if Pres. Eyring would ask him about this one, but he did and Elder Rasband replied this time with the answer of "Japan". Elder Eyring responded with, "Oh good! Let's look at Japan!" When they looked at the missions in Japan Elder Rasband had another distinct impression as to which mission, Japan Sapporo Mission. Although Pres. Eyring didn't ask Elder Rasband that missionary was assigned to the Japan Sapporo Mission.
I love this story because I learned that if I pay attention and focus on listening to the Spirit I can be guided to do the things that my Father in Heaven wants me to do. I know we were called here for a reason. I pray each day that I will pay attention well enough so that I will know what that reason is and do it well.
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