Iaomai Medical Ministries

Our Relief Society was instructed the other day that we cannot officially use Iaomai Medical Ministries as an official humanitarian project. I understand the reasons and the Bishop agrees that I can use it as a personal good works project. Because they cannot be confirmed as legitimate (they don't have enough years of tax filings to do this), the church cannot accept them for a RS project. The Stake President says that other wards have been involved in projects only to find out a few years later that the organization was not on the up and up.

That is so sad to me that people use humanitarian projects to use and take advantage of good people. I personally know that Iaomai is good and I will continue to do what I can for them. I will just have to be patient a few more years and then they will have the report on the website that filters these organizations if they are good and bad. Then I can present it again to the Bishop and Stake President for official church approval.

I guess that is why the scriptures tell us to not be instructed in all things but to do many good things on our own.

Sun at last

It has been cloudy and overcast here for a few months now. I am glad that the sun is finally coming out the last couple of weeks. HOT, YES!!! Plants growing YES!!! They have needed to have the sun so that they can produce. I am hoping my tomatoe plants have survived and with again start to produce fruit that is edible. I know the beans are starting to produce better. We lost one of the plants on the hillside. We have a huge sweet pea plant that has died due to lack of sunshine.

So I think summer is here at last. I hope it hangs around for a while.

Good Deed

Mom and Dad S were at a restaurant and noticed a gentleman with a child. The man had on his Air Force uniform. Dad motioned the waitress over and offered to pay the man's meal ticket. The waitress brought the ticket over. It was for .89. Dad asked why it was so small. The waitress said that the man had just brought the child in for some french fries. Dad took that ticket and then told the waitress to go over to the man and tell him to order anything on the menu and it was covered. With tears in her eyes she explained that it was her boyfriend and her son sitting there. The man ordered a breakfast and thanked mom and dad. Dad just indicated that he doesn't feel like he does enough for the men and women in the military.

Thought I would share this. This is what quiet service is all about.

Special Moments

As I was on my way to work today, the Book of Mormon CD was on King Benjamin's address to the people. I am always touched by his sermon at the temple. I am grateful that he was such a great leader for the people. He talks about how the "natural man" is an enemy to God and that we need to give our lives over to the Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. Very touching address.

As I left the car and headed to my building, the hymn Dare to do right , Dare to be True came to my mind. In today's world where the lines are not black white or sometimes even gray anymore, we MUST DARE to do RIGHT. When I was a youth and we sang this song I always wondered why we would have to dare to do right. Now I know. Sometimes the hardest thing to do today in the world is the right thing. But do the right thing we must. The Lord with be there to help and guide us and protect us.

Follow the Prophet?

In Sunday School, we were talking about following the prophet. The discussion led to talk about how if we just follow him in faith are we blind followers.

I have also been reading the "Work and the Glory" series. I just got finished with the section on the Haun's Mill Masacre. It was enlightening to me that the Prophet Joseph forewarned those citizens to leave Haun's Mill and retreat to other places. Those people that stayed behind felt like they could defend themselves alright and didn't need to listen to the prophet. So many terrible and horrific things happened. How many lives lost, purity taken, etc. I know many miracles also happpened like with Alma Smith and etc. but how many lives were lost because they DID NOT HEED THE PROPHET!

Then to think of the prophets in the Book of Mormon and Bible and even Today. I have never received guidance that would be considered immoral. Uncomfortable and taking me out of my personal comfort zone. ABSOLUTELY!!! Does following their command help me grow? WITHOUT A DOUBT!

I would rather follow the prophet blindly and take the consequence than to not heed and to not follow and see the destruction that could happen. Anyone remember NOAH! I certainly cannot swim that well.

I do not feel like I follow blindly either. I PRAY and feel the warmth and assurance from the Holy Spirit that these are words to follow and I feel the blessings from obedience. I have much to work on in this area but I know I am trying my best every day. I feel the peace from this. That is worth it all on its own merit.

FABLEHAVEN SERIES-WOW

Last week I finished book 5 in the Fablehaven Series. I just need to thank Brandon Mull for this beautifully fantastic world that he created. If you want a good fun and youthful series, this is it! It is in the Youth Section of the library. There are a total of 5 books in the series and each one gets better and better. For adults these are pretty quick reads. 1) Youth book and 2) You cannot put them down!

I wish I could talk more about it but then the Golum might have to take me away and I could be attacked by an imp. Hopefully a unicorn would come to the rescue but you never know when the Sphynx might be up to some shinanigans and a dragon might carry me off to a dungeon with wraiths and narcoblixes. With my luck the fairies would think I am an enemy and I could go to the fairy queen shrine but I know I would be turned into dandelion fluff or worse, A CHICKEN! That might be the last knot in the rope........Sometimes it would just be helpful to be fairy kind wouldn't it?

Have Fun!!!!

13 YEARS and GOING STRONG

On August 9 my sweetheart and I celebrated 13 years of marriage together. I am happier now in my marriage than EVER!! I certainly married a keeper.

As I was pondering the anniversary of my marriage to this wonderful man, I was caught off guard by the feelings of LOVE that just permeate my whole being. He completes me and yet allows me to be an individual me. I started thinking of how many things I have become since I met him. My self worth has become a real thing to me. My confidence has grown beyond proportions. Even when I fail at something he is my steady rock to wipe the tears and rub my back and remind me that when you fall it is an opportunity to learn a lesson or to try again until you are better at whatever it is.

He listens to me without complaint and jokingly moans when I say "I have an idea" then supports whatever crazy creative idea I am trying to get from brain to reality.

He is a steady hand and a light to me when everywhere and everyone seem bent on making the path rocky and dark.

So I love this man with my whole being and pray for the day when our marriage becomes ETERNAL.......SOMEDAY it has to be because I honestly can't picture an eternity without him by my side. I am so grateful for my blessings. I can honestly say I don't know who I would be without him.

Thank you my SWEETHEART, you will always be my MR BUG!

The HOLY GHOST will guide and teach and comfort

So our church starts at 1 p.m. The teacher for RS called my home at 10 minutes to 11 and says she cannot come and teach because she has a sinus headache. My first reaction "natural man" was panic. Two hours to prepare a lesson!! UGH!!

If I had listened to the Holy Ghost it would have been done earlier in the week but when I felt the prompting I honestly thought I was just being paranoid about the teacher not showing up. Goes to show ya!

So then when I got over the panic phase, I realized that this is the Lord's lesson and if I do my best, the Holy Ghost will teach the lesson. He did. It was a beautiful moment and the lesson was probably the best I have ever been able to present to the class. Class participation was awesome and there were many spiritual truths taught.

I was afraid there would not be enough material and I actually had to condense the lesson as there was way too much material to present.

What a loving teaching/learning moment for me from my Heavenly Father

Being an Adult VERSUS Being a Grown Up

I consider myself an Adult. I pay my bills on time, I try to stay out of debt, I work to provide for my family, I meet my obligations of time, money, etc.

However, I refuse to be a grown up. Grown Ups are very boring people. You have to conform to all kinds of weird inane rules when you are a grown up. So I refuse to be A GROWN UP. I will wear my hair in little girl styles, I will wear my butterfly EVERYTHING and my piglet earrings. I will dance and play whenever the joy of it enters my heart. I will find pictures in clouds (saw a huge very detailed dragon in the clouds the other day. With full face detail and claws and wings. AWESOME!). I will love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and ice cream sandwiches with equal abandon. I will enjoy playing with earthworms, inch worms and other non creepy worms. I will stop and smell my orange blossoms and have fun watching butterflies, flying hawks, and hummingbirds with equal enthusiasm. I will enjoy naptime and bedtime and bedtime stories.

I LOVE BEING A NON GROWN UP. I think we need more ADULTS that are NON GROWN UPS in the world......

Bad Weekend, depressed, and grumpy then Beautiful Hymn Breakthrough

Bad weekend. I won't bore anyone with the lousy self pittying details. People problems, house problems, tired, grumpy, pain, etc. Bad Weekend. Turned into a bad Monday. So last night I got to talk to a great girlfriend and she helped cheer me up. I took two Aleve for the pain and went to bed.

This morning I woke up with a tune in my head and the words "And the Lord will lead thee by the hand". I just kept repeating that over and over. I could tell it was a hymn and then the title came to me "Be thou Humble".

What a blessing the hymns are to us. I felt the love of my Heavenly Father for me through the words of that hymn.

Then in the car on the way to work, I was listening to my Book of Mormon CD and it was 2nd Nephi chapter 31. What a powerful message for each of us. ENDURE TO THE END. We all just need to keep trying our hardest to do our best.

Here is to a new beautiful day!

As Luck would Have it

We discovered a sprinkler problem the other day. The zone mechanism in the yard for one of the zones is very badly broken and leaking and a pool is happening next to the house and it could impact our foundation and and and.

So we turn off the sprinkler system until we can resolve the problem. We went to Home Depot and purchased a sprinkler head to put on the hose and move around the yard. Needed one of those anyway.

We decided that we could just turn on the zone for the front yard. As soon as my sweetheart turned on the zone and headed back out to the back yard I had to start laughing. HARD laughing. The front zone also includes the two sprinkler heads right next to the leaking mechanism and contributes to the pool that is happening next to the house.

So to summarize, the only zone we didn't really need to turn on is connected to the front zone, the front zone is connected to the ......you get the picture. Too FUNNY!