Simple Woman's Daybook - Prayer Needed Today~

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Outside my window.....It is a very dreary day. Yesterday there was a hope for spring and now we are back in the rain with the temperatures in the low 40's. We are in drought conditions and need the snow and rain. I would say our prayers are being answered. 

I am thinking...that it would be nice right this minute to take off to a movie or maybe a mini vacation; sounds wonderful. It's not going to happen; but I will put it on my wish list for sometime soon. 

I am thankful...today for the simple and wondrous daily moments when I feel that I am being watched over and blessed by a loving Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for prayer.  I do have a true testimony of the power of prayer. I know I have discussed this before but I am grateful to know that I can pray anytime and anywhere. For the past several days I have been wearing holes in the knees of my pants as I have keeled and offered intense prayers in behalf of my husband, my brother and his family, my children, grandchildren and a dear friend. Each of my children are carrying heavy burdens of care. My dear brother has been in the hospital this week and his cancer has spread to his Spine. He is my only sibling left.  My sweet husband has not passed his kidney stone yet; so he was back to the doctor today. A dear friend has had so many health issues since she was in a severe car accident 3 years ago. My heart has been saddened by all of these difficulties. My prayers have been more fervent and tears have wet my pillow. 
After taking with my brother I felt great peace. He has a positive attitude and plans to live his life to the fullest. With his positive thoughts my spirit was lifted. I do believe that faith proceeds the miracle. Prayer does bring me peace. I know that my Savior is near and walks with me. I am grateful for this precious gift of prayer. 
I am grateful for the temple. At the temple I receive comfort and peace. I have often received answers to prayers while in the temple. I have also felt close to those who have passed through this life. I have had some sweet spiritual experiences within the walls of the temple. 
Here is a picture of the temple I serve in. 

You can read more about temples here:

In the kitchen...I was going to cook something simple tonight. However, my dear husband had to run an errand so he said he would bring back some salmon sandwiches for dinner. Yeah!

I am wearing....black pants, teal silk blouse, black socks and shoes and a black sweater. Today we are back to sweater weather. 
I am going...to finish up this blog and do some journaling. I am a bit behind on my journal. 
I am wondering.....how my dear grandson is doing in the MTC. He did email his parents on Monday; so they forwarded it to me.  It was such a wonderful email telling his family how much he is enjoying being in the Missionary Training Center. He is learning so much and is so filled with the Spirit. He is excited to be learning how to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so proud of him. 
I am reading.... The Book of Mormon as always. I am through with the writings of Nephi in The Book of Mormon: 2 Nephi: 7-26; which was about the prophecies of Isaiah. I learned so much more about the writings of Isaiah. The study manual I am using had me cross reference with the writings of Isaiah in the Bible.  I have spent a lot of time in these chapters. 

The Visions of Isaiah~

I am continuing to enjoy; "The Triumph of Zion, Our Personal Quest For The New Jerusalem. I have learned so much about Zion and becoming a Zion person. It is true that in order to have a Zion society one must first be a Zion person. I am discovering many things about Zion that I did not understand or know before. 

I just started reading this book and I am loving it. The  challenge in the book is to do What a Holy Woman would do. The author asked several woman in different stages of life to act upon 

what they think a holy woman would do in their day to day life experiences. Their stories were compelling. 

 I am hoping...that those I love can have life a little easier. I am hoping that prayers will be answered. I am hoping that I can accept the Lord's will in the lives of others and myself. I  learn many lessons from my day to day life experiences. Usually, the hard times are just more blessings in disguise.  I do know that the difficulties of life cause me to reach for our Savior more often and my prayers are more focused. I become more humble and teachable. 

I am looking forward...to spring. I will be so happy to see the sun peek out from behind the clouds as it warms the earth. 

I am learning....more about what is really important in my life. I want to know what is the most important thing to be doing with my time and energies.
Around the house..I am not doing all that much. I do need clean my house. In fact, I am planning on starting some spring cleaning soon. 
I am pondering...upon going on a technology break. I need a blog and face book vacation. I plan to do this for a couple of weeks. I may peek into your days once in a while during this time. I love to read your posts. You need to know that you are true friends and I love you and enjoy following your thoughts and life experiences. I am not sure I will be able to go on this vacation for very long. There is a slight addiction with this. I will miss you all!

One of my favorite things....is visiting with dear friends either in person or on the phone. 

A pet Peeve.....I am really tired of not being able to actually talk with people on the phone anymore, especially family and close friends. With face book and texting we don't communicate on a one on one basis. It makes me sad, I like to hear the sweet voices of those I love. 

Something new about me....is I love art. I wish I could draw or paint. We have several lovely paintings in our home. My favorite is a picture of the Savior entitled; "Walk With Me" by Greg Olsen.

I also have a lovely picture of the First Vision that my children gave us us a few years ago along with their written testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

First Vision by Leon Parson - If you want to know about the First Vision you can look here.

One of my guilty pleasures...I love to take naps and I need one right now. I don't take naps very often. Sometimes, on a Saturday afternoon after our temple shift, I fall a sleep for a while. 

A few plans for the rest of the week: Do my temple schedule - catch up my journal - My son's family is coming tomorrow to stay overnight. They are flying to San Diego for fun in the sun - Saturday, the temple of course and then Sunday is just always sweet.  

A  Favorite Picture to share......

Enjoy The Moments! 
Blessings and hugs for all~

Our Missionary - Elder Jackson Williams~

Provo Mission Training Center - MTC

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we have 405 missions throughout the world. Our young men and women volunteer to serve on these missions There are also many adult couples that serve. The young men can choose to go on a mission at the age of 18 years old. The young women can go on a mission when they are 19 years old. The young men serve for two years and the young women for 18 months.  You may have seen young men and young women walking, or riding bicycles around your area. The young men are typically in suits and the young women in dresses. They are usually just two of them that comprise a companionship. All of the missionaries pay for their own missions either from money they have earned, with their families help and or if the family can't pay for their mission there are funds to assist. Members of the church can donate money to their ward or general mission fund. Before leaving for a mission the missionaries go through one of our temples. There are 142 temples around the world.  Here you can learn why we build temples. 

Jackson our grandson received his Missionary call on January 15th to the Omaha, Nebraska mission; you can read about it here.   Jackson went through the Provo Temple on February 13th 2014.

Provo Temple~

 It was a very special occasion. You can read more about the Mission Training Centers here.
 Jackson entered the Provo Missionary Training Center yesterday on Wednesday, March 19th. Here he will be trained to be a missionary for three weeks. After the three weeks he will fly to his mission area in Omaha, Nebraska.We are so excited for him. He will be a great missionary. 

 This is a picture of Jackson just after he gave a talk in Sacrament meeting.

 We commonly call this a mission farewell talk. 

His message was on our Savior, Jesus Christ's Atonement.

 After Church we went to Jackson's home to celebrate this occasion~

 Friends and family gather together~

 Here is my dear husband, Jackson's grandfather~

 Our Granddaughter in law with her two sons; Baby Sagan and Jaden~

Jacob, our grandson~

Sean, Mary and their friend Tammy~

 Tammy and Mary~

Our grand daughter in law, Jessica and our grandson Jed.

On Tuesday night, Jackson was set apart by their Stake President. The Stake President through the priesthood gives him the rights and privileges of an Elder. This is when he officially starts his mission. He is now called Elder Williams.

The following are pictures taken just after he was set apart~

Pictures of our future missionaries~

 

 Joseph, age 15

 Jeffery, age 9~

 Joshua, age 7 - Note that he is sitting by the Bishop of their ward. 

He looks like a future Missionary and perhaps a Bishop someday. 

Grandmother, Virginia- Mary's mother, Mary, Jackson, Joseph,

 Grandfather, Roger and Grandmother, LeAnn

Jeffery and Joshua~

 Grandfather, Jackson and Grandmother~

Jackson's parents -
Mary, Jackson, and Sean

After the setting apart blessing, we took Jackson to dinner. When we dropped him off it was hard to say good-by. He will be gone for 2 years. We will be emailing, sending fun packages, and writing letters to him for the next two years. We are so pleased with his desire to serve a mission. 

 On Wednesday his parents took him out to lunch before entering the MTC. 

Jackson on the way to the MTC~

On this day there are a large number of Elders and Sisters that will come to the Provo MTC. This happens every Wednesday. Their are approx. 3,800 missionaries in the Provo MTC at it's capacity. If the missionaries are going on a foreign language mission, they are in the MTC for 6 to 8 weeks. The Provo MTC teaches 50 languages. There are 15 MTC's  throughout the world. There are over 80,000 missionaries serving  at this time.

You can learn more about church statistics here. 

Here you can learn all about being a missionary in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

What A Roller Coaster Ride~

These past few weeks have been like a Roller Coaster ride. There has been the slow climb to the top with the accelerating race to the bottom. Sometimes, it seems like I am up and down and swinging around. At times I am holding my breath and next I am screaming (crying) like I can't stop. To tell you the truth I don't like the Roller Coaster at all; but I do like life even with all of it's up's and downs. I am grateful for the the opportunity to be on this challenging ride called life.
On the way to Washington for our Grandson's baptism, we learned that my sweet Aunt Della had passed away.  We were in the Denver Airport at the time and it was a difficult moment. Some would say, why would you be upset; she was 100 years old and had a remarkable life? Or, it has been said that since she was in pain during the last several months of her life; it was a blessing she could go. I would agree with all of this but, she was such a dear aunt and along with my parents and brother who have gone before her; I will miss her more than mere words can express. She was like a second mother and I loved her. She had so many wonderful characteristics. She was delightful to be around. She was intelligent, wise, caring and just so much fun. She was such a good listener. She  knew my thoughts and feelings about my own life. She was  such a beautiful lady in every way. Although almost totally blind she would always dress up in a lovely pantsuit with her jewelry on. She loved the color pink and had saved out a pink pantsuit to be buried in. She looked so beautiful in this suit and she was adorned with special pearl earrings and necklace. I am sure she liked that.

Losing a loved one to death is  a poignant moment. I am grateful for the memories of all those I have lost in death. You don't ever forget them and the loss never goes away. It is part of life. It is part of the Roller Coaster ride that you said you would take when you left the pre-mortal life to come here. 
My Aunt had a lovely funeral and I am sure she was present in the spirit and I know she loved it. My lovely Aunt Della, I love you and I will miss you so much!

We arrived at my daughters home and enjoyed 4 wonderful days with their family. Little William age eight was baptized and confirmed by his father.

Dave and William

Tiffani, Dave and William

Roger and I with Dave and Tiffani's family along 
with Dave's Parents and his Sister's family~

 He is now a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On Sunday in their Sacrament meeting he was presented as one of the newest members in the ward. What a very choice little boy he is. During the entire hour of the Sacrament meeting he was sitting quietly holding his scriptures and listening to the testimonies of the gospel that were given by various members of the this ward in their Fast and Testimony meeting.

William

 Our days there went fast but we enjoyed being with this endearing family. Each of our four precious grandchildren were so much fun in each of their own individual ways. On Sunday evening my husband and son in law gave my dear daughter a priesthood blessing. She has a physical condition called EOE. Her father gave her a marvelous blessing; and it was a tearful moment for all. I will treasure the memories of this visit. 

We came home on Monday and the week was filled with many activities. I was blessed to be able to write my  Aunt Della's Obituary. Just doing this one thing was so sad but sweet too. 
I had completed  my Aunt's history for her 100th Birthday in September. We had worked on it for a long time. 
As I wrote her thoughts and feeling about her life experiences; my life was elevated by her truly remarkable journey. Just to hear her side of the many things she lived through was fascinating.  She lived when there was a flu epidemic in 1922 that took many lives. Her mother and two sisters and herself had the flu. My mother told me once that their ears were so infected that blood drained from them. Meanwhile, my grandfather was trying to help others in near by farms along with his own family who were ill. While doing this he became sick himself. Within a few days he died of complications from this vicious flu.  My Aunt was 8 years old, my mother 6 years old and my other Aunt Alene,14 months old.  This left my grandmother a widow at a very young age. Life was harsh for them.
Aunt Della also lived during the great Depression, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam, Deseret Storm, and other conflicts since then. Her only son served in the Vietnam War, Desert Storm and served with the Red Cross. She is well acquainted with the trauma of wars.
In her youth, she lived in a home without any modern conveniences.  There is nothing like an outhouse and not having inside water. We laughed together about some of the things that she had to do in this era. There were so many inventions through her 100 years of life. For instance, electricity, telephones, cars, airplanes, radio, television, computers, and many other items that make life easier for us. She thought the airplane was one of the greatest inventions. She said her father was an inventor of sorts and that he wanted to design an airplane. Oh, the fun stories she shared with me. My Aunt was not only beautiful, but spunky, stubborn and just delightful to be around. She loved to visit and wherever she went she was loved  by those who knew her. She had many that called her a friend. 
During these past few weeks I have witnessed beautiful moments of love and also sad moments of grief. Each of these experiences have left me with many thoughts to ponder upon.
This weekend has been  filled with a spirit of love. I soaked up the spirit during our temple shift. I have such a deep love for the temple. This is the one place that I can go to feel peace, love and to learn and grow in my understanding of The Great Plan Of Happiness. How beautiful are the thoughts that our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ provided the way for us to someday walk with them again. There are so many blessings that come from Temple service. 
Our Ward Conference today was so inspiring. I was deeply touched by the messages given.  Our ward choir sang the song: "In The Coming Day". It sums up my feeling of these past weeks. The up's and down's are all part of the plan for us all. My greatest desire is to someday see my Savior ( in the coming day.)