Beneath the Wraps

                In April I was asked to outline the RS lessons to correspond with Come Follow Me lessons.   I had only my notes and the titles of the 2020 “Don’t Miss This” Episodes. It was right after general conference and so I didn’t have the titles of the talks we had picked, only the speakers. Of course I prayed for inspiration on where to put the 11 or 12 conference talks that we had picked for our lessons.   There were six that were definitely set in stone but wasn’t quite certain how to place the other talks.   This week’s theme was spot on as the reading in Come Follow Me was on the Strippling Warriors (starting here ) and the RS lesson was from this talk .  

               Our Relief Society lesson last week was taken from Shayne Bowen’s talk on miracles, angels and priesthood ( here ).    The same talk was used for one of the talks given during sacrament meeting. An inactive member made the comment that she was meant to be there that day as the message was given twice.   It was a good lesson and I reflected on miracles past and present.   Miracles happen every day. Some are obviously more powerful than others.             When Jaime was still a baby Richard and I had been called as ward missionaries.   Primary baptisms were done at a stake level, but if for some reason only one ward had youth being baptized when the head position was out of town, the ward missionaries were asked to fill the font.   The font took roughly two hours to fill.             One Satu...

            Young Sheldon is a spin-off CBS ’ s popular TV series Big Bang Theory starring Jim Parson as Sheldon Cooper.  Young Sheldon is also narrated by Jim Parson who explains further about himself and his family.  His mom is Mary Cooper, a very religious woman who often turns to God and encourages her children to do the same.  I, too, encourage others to allow God to be a part of their lives by thanking Him or asking Him for assistance.  For example we each had a chaotic day yesterday though I think Claire and Biff had more unexpectancies to deal with.          One of our lights had busted at the front of our car – we don ’ t even know when or how but finally got around to asking someone to look at it.   We had an appointment for yesterday.   Richard was going to take it in and have me follow – only the other car wouldn ’ t start.   We tried starting it on our own a few t...

             Something that irks me more than anything is when my integrity is questioned – especially when it is by one who knows me – or I thought knew me. I can think of only one example though I know that more exist.   The one example I can think of happened so many years ago it’s a wonder I do remember it.           I was working for Standard Brands at the time.   My position was cashier and I took a clients money, set it on top of the register, counted back her change, removed the ten dollar bill from the top of the register, checked out the letter and first three digits of the serial number (a trick my brother had taught me) and then she told me that she had given me a twenty.   I looked at the only twenty in my drawer and compared the serial number to what ten laid on top.   She had given me a ten – not a twenty.   But she went over my head and got a manager who seemed to...

            It’s been nearly a year since my first mention of the neighbor’s chickens.   They used to lean a ladder near the fence so the chickens could climb back into their own yard.    At first it was just a few on the hill – not the 15 plus that have accumulated in our yard during that time.   Roland doesn’t want them under the deck and I don’t want them on the deck.   We don’t want them in the garden and so have been putting up barriers all over the yard.   we had to add netting to the steps to prevent them from going through   I did find at least three of them on the inside; they had dug under the wire to make it wide enough to go though. Roland used some stakes for the bottom.  Hopefully that will work. Despite our efforts the chickens have managed to dig under, fly over, or somehow manage to squeeze themselves into areas where we’d rather they not be.   The chickens always stop near ...

A virtual stake conference was scheduled for Sunday.  Of course we couldn ’ t watch it at home as we had no internet.  Our options were to either miss church or watch the video at the church building. I think Roland was planning on working with connecting the internet as soon as it was warm enough, but I told him if he wanted to be blessed that he would have to go to Church with Jenna and me. When we hold ward meetings each Sunday, the podium and microphone are wiped down between each speaker.   They did not do that at stake center in Roseburg (we did not go to Roseburg but watched the broadcast at the building in Myrtle Creek) and it was kind of freaking me out – especially since two of the stake presidency were quite moist with emotion.   I guess when you are on the stand behind the speaker you don ’ t notice what the speaker is doing or how he/she might be spreading germs around unintentionally.   I personally don ’ t enjoy sitting behind the speaker as I ...

          We had signed up to feed the missionaries for Saturday.  Roland had requested them to come at 4:00 but they said they could not come until 5:00 – which is their normal eating time.  We were doing another breakfast dinner but with a few changes – such as having waffles. Roland believed he could start the dinner at 3:00 and have it ready by 4:00.  I think with the amount of time he spent trying to repair the cable, he would just assume have not had to deal with the missionaries at all.  However the arrangements had already been made. With the cable disconnected and his working to get it repaired, I started a countdown which I don ’ t think helped his mood at all.   I thought it would be nice if he showered before our breakfast dinner got started.   I ran over the list in my mind – eggs, waffles, sausage and bacon.   It seemed like there was something else but I could not figure it out otherwise I would have started...

            We fed the missionaries on Friday though the air quality was not that great.   They did not seem to mind as we built and ate Hawaiian haystacks out on our porch and visited for a bit.   I’d given them containers to take home some food which they said they would give me on Sunday.   Sadly that was my main objective for going as I knew we haven’t returned to normal and I thought it would be depressing.   Only the speaker was allowed to remove his mask.   We were told we could sing but had to leave our masks on.   I chose not to sing as the smoke has been enticing me to cough. Several announcements were made before the bishop talked about how many of us are opinionated and often our opinions will put us into a box. There are a wide variety of boxes that exist – in our jobs, in our community, the way we serve (he didn’t say politics – but that is one I had thought of) . . . some people, such as the Pharisees, will...

https://www.guideposts.org/faith-and-prayer/7-trending-faith-and-prayer-topics              I have noticed that there are several prayers that are answered in a way that we would not choose to be answered in that way.   Remember this post? For some of us the answer comes with such devastation that we may not even recognize it as an answer until several months or years down the road.   Allow me to provide some examples.             I remember a sister in my home ward who was always on the go.   It seems she spent many hours driving, serving, nurturing, what have you . . . constantly assisting others but never herself.   She had a desire to spend more time for scripture study and prayed about it.   When she threw out her back initially, I don’t think she viewed it as an answer to her prayers.   She had to stay off her feet for several weeks which gave her the time to ...

When the “Come Follow Me” program was announced last year, it was also announced that our Sunday church meetings would go from three hours down to two but that we, as members, were still responsible for filling that third hour on our own and were provided with a manual – one per family.   Jenna and I both predicted that many, though may have started out with great intentions, would not keep on their studies on their own.           As the program was new to all of us, I thought our family could invite others to learn with us and we could all struggle through it together.   Not that going through the scriptures is a struggle.   I had taught the youth when the Church did away with traditional manuals and so had a familiarity – the trying to learn it without instruction seemed a little more trying.             I felt inspired to invite families or individuals to learn wi...

            On Thursday someone had called Roland’s phone to see if I would offer the closing prayer at the end of today’s sacrament meeting.   I didn’t know how my throat what be, but as it has started healing, I decided I would go to Church and stay for at least sacrament meeting but might not stay for Relief Society.   Jenna made other arrangements for getting a ride home.             Sacrement meting was really good!   The first speaker expanded on Elder Uchtdorf’s talk “Our Great Adventure”( here ) in which he compares the hobbit creatures to each of us.   For those who have seen or read “The Hobbit” the parallels may have been easily understood.   I’m not really big fan of fantasy and felt somewhat lost with Elder Uchtdorf’s talk which evidently our sacrament speaker had also and provided some more in depth detail to make more sense out of ...

            There are definitely many values that our parents instilled in us, but the three I would pick to answer this question would be prayer, family and service. Prayer           From an early age, we learned that we could communicate to our Heavenly Father through prayer.   We were taught not only to ask for things but to thank God as well for the many blessings that we had.   And there truly were many.   Mom and dad were able to help us understand what the blessings were.   Especially dad.   He had tremendous faith and find the blessings where we could not such as in car failure or his swelled foot ( here )and in his final years could see the blessings with his deteriorating health.                     I remember on several occasions seeing my dad kneeling in front of the gre...