Pinatas and Promises

See that cute little bear pinata?  It changed my whole life.  This was about 1977.  We had been married about 4 years and still did not have kids.  It was a very difficult time.  I know you won't believe this, but I was actually quite shy during this time.  I felt alone.  All of our friends had kids or a job and I had neither.  I don't remember if I even had a church calling.  I was kind of on "hold".

One day, a member of the Relief Society presidency called and asked me if I would make a pinata for an activity.  I remember giving her every excuse I could think of to not do it.  At one point, I remember "listening" to myself.  What a whiner I was! I didn't like that about me so I said yes.  Not only that, I promised myself that I would say yes whenever I was asked to do something.  I have tried to do that for these past 40 years.  It has made me a better person.  I have served in callings that were way above me.  I was a ward YW president at 24 and Stake YW president at 25; Ward Primary President twice and Stake Primary President; Relief Society President and in many other presidencies.  I don't say that to brag, but in thankfulness for that one tiny decision to say yes.  Every calling I have had has had difficult aspects to it.  But once the decision is made to just do it, every thing else falls in to place.  I have had the honor of working with some amazing people!  Women and men.  I am so grateful for that small decision so many years ago.  Just say yes.

Christmas 2014

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t73SNi94I2Tga_y2mZ1O5p-82qS3Nvfa/view?usp=sharing

Trying to figure out how to get a PDF of our past Christmas letters on here.  Can you see it?

Choose Love

A few weeks ago we went to church in Steve and Heidi's ward.  A woman spoke and her words have left a lasting impression on me.  She told a little about herself.  She was a single mom with one child when she met her now husband.  She told the story of how they got together.  They now have 6 more children.  (And she's one of those women who looks like a teenager herself!)  She talked about some of the trials they have had.  She told about the theme they had as a family.  It was simply "Choose Love".  That really hit home to me.

I don't know if you know this about me, but every year I try to choose a word that symbolizes what I want for the coming year.  Most of the time the word is "Less".  Less stuff, less stress, less negativity.  Once it was "Idaho" because I really want to move there!  This year I decided to use two words: "Choose Love".  It packs a wallop!  When someone has really annoyed me, choose love.  When someone has let me down, choose love.  When I am asked for the 12th time in a day where his car keys are, choose love.

The picture above mostly relates to parents dealing with children.  But choosing love is also important at work, in our church callings and with family and friends.

So those are my words for this year.  I will choose love.  And I hope you all feel it!

43 Years Together!

Today is our 43rd anniversary.  We celebrated it in a special way.  We worked in the temple!  Our shift coordinators were very kind to us.  First, Reed and I got to do sealings.  It was awesome to kneel across the alter from each other and try to remember what it was like 43 years ago. It felt so "right" to be there doing that.

Then we got to take a couple going through the temple for the first  time through initiatory.  Turns out it was John Clark and his wife!  That was so awesome!  I guess it's not very often that we get "live" patrons on our shift.  Because it's a Wednesday morning.  Many people who have worked there for years have not had that opportunity.  And then to have it be someone we know made it extra special!

After that, Reed and I got to have lunch together and then we were both #3 in the session.  That was cool, too.  It was a great day!  

Reed got to ride in the back of a police car!

This is a journal entry from a year ago, but I like what it says so I am sharing here:

OK, OK.  No big deal.  We had to run some errands this morning and he dropped me off so I could go inside an office.  When he turned around, he backed into a car.  It made a little dent.  He didn't want to leave his number in the windshield so he took the license plate number down and thought he would just go to the police station and report it.  So then we went to the police station.

I was waiting in the car.  It took a long time!  I was getting very concerned.  Then I see him come out with two police officers!  He walks over to me and tells me he has to go with the officers!  They wanted to see where the "accident" took place.  (!)  They told him that they would bring him back to the office and I could drive the truck myself.  (!!!!!!!!)  This was the first time I had driven the truck and I was on my own!  I watched as they took my husband away in the back of a police car!  (I wish I had taken a picture!)  Then I had to back out of a very tight spot and drive across traffic on a blind corner to get to the side of the road I needed to be on.  Stress!

They finally brought him back to the office safe and sound.  A funny thing is that the police ran the license plate number through the system to see if they could come up with a name.  It said it was registered to a white, 4 door car.  He hit a car that was a blue hatchback.  Hmmmm.....  The policeman said the person whose car was hit would probably not be reporting it to the police.

Anyway, that stressed us both out so we went home and had lunch.  Reed got on his swim suit and took a dip in the pool and then laid on a lawn chair for an hour reading his conference talk notes.  I rested on the bed, but I kept getting phone calls so I didn't get a lot of rest.
We came back to the office and will work late to make up for lost time.

In other news, I had strange dreams last night.  One was that I was mad at Doug for using all of my mascara.  I needed it to last until the end of my mission.  I found him touching up his beard and hair with it;  covering up the gray.  Weird!

The other dream wasn't weird at all.  It was wonderful.  I dreamed I saw the Savior.  He was a baby.  Just lying there with a beautiful glow about him.  I wanted it to last forever.  I have been reading a book called the infinite atonement and it is really impacting me.  I love it.  I am learning lots about the atonement.

And it still other news, we went shopping at Cost U Less and I found a bag of potatoes from Aberdeen, Idaho!  So cool!  I posted it on Facebook and someone commented that it was a little hug from my Mom.  I had not thought of that but it certainly could be!  Today is two weeks to the day of her birthday and her first funeral.  I sure miss her.

It's been a pretty good day.

True Love

Beware!  This is going to be mushy!

The other day, we went to the airport to pick up a Sr Sister who had gone to California for two weeks to help her daughter.  Her flight arrived and we waited over an hour and a half but she never came through the gate.

I knew something was wrong, so I called airport immigration.  Sure enough, they had her in the "blue chairs".  You don't ever want to have to go to the blue chairs.  That means they are detaining you and can even deny you entry.  I asked what the problem was and they said that she didn't have a return ticket back to the US so they were going to make her stay overnight in the airport and send her back in the morning!  I told them that I could help her buy a ticket back to the US if that would satisfy them and then would they let her in?  They said, yes, they would allow that.  They had to send a guard out front to get me.  I had to go through security and sign my life away.  I had to promise that I would not try to talk them out of buying a ticket.  I was only allowed to buy the ticket, show them and then (maybe) we could all leave.

I went back there and saw Sister Goddard.  She had been awake for 36 hours.  She is the kindest, most non threatening person you could ever meet.  And yet there she was, sitting on the blue chairs.  We chatted for a moment and then they led us to a computer where I could purchase a ticket.

I quickly bought the cheapest ticket I could find and showed the officer.  He kept asking me if I really paid for it.  I kept pointing to the place that said it was confirmed, so, yes, I had.  He finally wrote all the information down and let us go.

Since it was the Sr Confernece the next day, her husband was flying in from St Vincent in an hour so we just waited outside the airport for him to come.  Sister Goddard had told the Airport immigration about this and they told her he would also have to have a ticket to the US.  That worried us but we decided to just wait and see what would happen.

After a while, we see Elder Goddard walking through the gate!  Happy Day!  Sister Goddard jumped up and ran to him.  It was the sweetest thing!

I thought of how I would react if put in the same situation and I would have done the same thing.  I thought I knew what love was when I got married.  I was not even close.  Love grows and grows and grows as you share years and years and years.  As you have hopes and dreams and even nightmares together.  As you work together to raise a family, to stay faithful in the gospel, to grow old together.  Love grows deep and strong.

I have been thinking about how lucky Reed and I are to have each other.  The past 6 months have been especially difficult, but it has drawn the two of us together so much!  At the end of a long day, we can still laugh and talk and enjoy each other's company.  I am so grateful, not only for the love that Reed and I share, but the example of countless others who have stayed together through the good times and the bad.

Some days are hard.  Some weeks and months are hard!  But keeping the committment of being together forever is such a blessing and a joy.  We pray that each of our family will be able to feel that same joy.

We love YOU!

I didn't know I was tall until...

I didn't know I was tall until one day I was in the little department store in Aberdeen with Mom.  I was about 16.  We were just looking around and a sales lady, Mrs. Satterfield, came up and started chatting with Mom.  I was just kind of standing there.  At one point, Mrs. Satterfield looked at me and then asked my Mom, "Does it bother her that she is so tall?"  Two thoughts came to my mind.  One was, am I really that tall?!!  And the other was, does she think I am deaf as well as too tall?!!

I went home that day wondering if it was a bad thing that I was tall.  I had never looked at it in a bad way, but the way she said it made me have to stop and think about it.

Since we have been on our mission, I have noticed similar things happening to people who are being taught.  They go along with their lives thinking that everything they do is OK.  They don't know that it's wrong to smoke or drink or any number of other sins.  They don't know until someone points it out to them.  Then they have to analyze it and figure out if what they were told is true.

In my case of being too tall, I had to decide if that was a good or a bad thing.  There was a period of time after that that I was very self concious.  I even considered a surgery that you could have that would cut bone out of your legs and make you shorter.  After a while, I realized that God made me this tall and I really didn't want to be any other way!  There have been moments when I wished I was just a tad shorter, but then I wouldn't be me.  I am happy with how God made me.

As for those who have things pointed out to them about things that are possible to change, they, too, must decide if this is what they need to do.  We see this all the time as missionaries.  Some will say that they want to join the church, but they don't want the "surgery".  They don't want to change, so they won't.  Others try to change.  It is a very slow, painful process.  Some make it.  Some don't.  We have been working with Michael for quite some time.  He comes to church more often than many members!  But, he has been a Rastifarian for many years and smokes both cigarettes and marijuana.  He is having a very difficult time stopping.  He is trying, so hard!  We pray he will continue to try.

The other day, Reed showed me a tie.  It had ink marks all over it.  He didn't know how they got there but he couldn't wear it the way it was.  We had two choices.  We could just throw it away, or try to clean it.  We decided to try and clean it because even if the cleaning didn't work, we would have lost nothing.

I got some hand sanitizer and worked it into the ink spots.  In a matter of seconds, the ink was gone!  I then rinsed it in water and let it dry.

It worked!  That which we thought was lost, was saved.  It was sanitized and cleansed.  The same happens all the time in our lives and in those around us.  The cleansing power of the Atonement works every time.  It's worth the effort.  And we have nothing to lose.

We love YOU!

Sea Roaches!

Who knew they existed?  Certainly not I!!!  As we were walking along the beach the other day, we saw a man who was doing something we had never seen before.  We walked over to him and asked what he was doing.  He had two sardines staked out like this:

The waves would come up and wash over the fish and then he would dig in the sand under the fish and pull out these little white bugs...sea roaches!  He showed us how he caught them.  He used the fish as bait.  When the water receded from the fish, you could actually see the fish moving!  It was dead but it was moving because the sea roaches were just below the fish, eating it!  He would reach under the fish and pull up a handful.

They did look a lot like roaches.  We asked him what he used them for.  He said that he uses them for bait.  It's interesting that he had to use a fish as bait to get more bait to get fish!

Even though I am not a fan of fish or sea roaches, I have to admit that there is a lesson in his process. As a fisherman, he takes something that he values and uses it to bring him something that will allow him to get more of what he values.

This is a parallel to the way the Lord works with us, the weak things of the earth. We are not much like him, far from perfect, and not always even wanting to serve him, but He works with us as we are, bringing us in and using us in whatever ways He can to further his work, to spread his gospel and bring people to him.

We may even look like sea roaches to him, but we are so grateful he loves us just the way we are.

And we love YOU!