* Ben's 11th Birthday!!!!
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| Ben's birthday breakfast was french toast with strawberries and donuts! |
* Flying out to Nebraska on March 21st and returning on March 29th to take photos with Hope at Motions Dance Academy. The week started off slow but by the end of it all, we brought in over $11K for the week! After paying back our out-of-pocket expenses and buying all of the prints, we each profitted $4,200. We both were very pleased!! While there, I was also able to see mom and dad (yay!) and JR, Lori and family and of course Jared, Hope and family :) We literally worked close to 18 hour days and so I didn't get to spend as much time with family as I would have liked - but I guess I was there to work... and work I certainly did!! The highlight of the trip was getting to go shopping solo with grandma carlson! We had a blast using my GPS on the phone to take us from one shopping excursion to the next! We were able to find all sorts of deals on new clothes for Easter for all of the kids and then all of the girls Birthday shopping!!
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| Kathryn and Leo came down from South Dakota! She came and helped out at the Ordering Table for Tuesday and Wednesday night. It was super fun seeing her! and we really appreciated all of her help! We thought it'd be fun to have Hope take a picture of the 2 of us together :) |
* Mom getting back home from Nebraska just in time for the Easter Bunny to arrive the next morning! We changed things up and thought it would be best to have the Bunny bring their goodies on Saturday so that on Sunday, we could solely focus on the Savior and his priceless gift of the Atonement...
and then all of the kids looking cute heading to church...
* Nathan started T-Ball
* And a few additional things to remember from the last little bit...
In Our Homeschool... well, we had a 2 week SPRING BREAK that we're just coming off of and I know I'm excited to get back to the grind!! While not a whole of "formal" lessons were happening, lots of fun and learning definitely was :) August and Seth even went on a field trip with about 40 other Homeschooled High Schoolers down to the Court House and met with a Federal Judge and some attorneys. They then were able to put on a mock trial to see how the whole system works :)
Spiritually Speaking... This weekend has been General Conference and so I have loads of wonderful thoughts and quotes from the weekend running through my mind. However, I really wanted to get down the talk that Seth gave in Sacrament Meeting on Easter about the Atonement. He did a REALLY good job and I was super proud of him. Especially since he wrote and prepared for his talk 100% by himself! He also took the initiative to invite Grandma and Grandpa Vogt to come listen to him. While grandpa wasn't able to come, grandma made it and stayed the entire Sacrament meeting with us - that was so wonderful to have her there! Here is the talk that Seth gave...
Hello My
name is Seth Vogt and I've been asked to give a talk to you on the atonement.
I've been asked to speak with some reference from the talk Is there a point of
no return given by Dieter F Ukdorf and this can be found in the June 2010 New
era.(if you want to read more on it you can go to LDS.org
and search
this talk Is there a point of no return)
To start off I would like to ask you
Is there a point of no return in our lives as we strive to get to the celestial
kingdom.
To answer this I will tell you about
the talk that I told you about earlier.To start off this talk elder Ukdorf
talks about pilots and how when they fly long distances that there is a point
of no return. How when they wouldn't have enough fuel to make it back to the original
airport that they took off of.
He then precedes to state that in
our lives there is no point of no return. This is due to the divine gift of the
atonement. Through the atonement we can all be forgiven of our sins, no matter
how big or small that they may be. Christ came to this world to save us from
sin, he is also there to give us assurance that sin is not a point of no return
and that a safe return is possible if we follow gods plan for our salvation.
The atonement causes each of us to
be accountable for their sins. It also provides a way to overcome the
consequences of sin by depending on the blessings and benefits of this gift.
For true repentance we need to feel
a deep remorse or godly sorrow for our sins. This mean we need to confess our
sins with our father in heaven, and if the sin is serious enough, meet with the
proper priesthood leader who can help with this. One example is you could meet
with the bishop.
The outcome of using the atonement
other than the obvious result of being forgiven is that you will have a deep
feeling of peace and a true joy that you have repented. Once we have repented Christ
will also take away the burden of guilt that builds up due to our sins. We can
know that we have been forgiven and have been made clean through the holy
ghost.
Satan will try to make us believe
that because we remember our sins that they are not forgiven. This is just not
true. The reason that we remember our sins is that we won't repeat them in the
future. Alma the younger the ancient prophet in the Americas testified that
after he received forgiveness from his sins, he could still remember them but
they no longer distressed and tortured him because he knew he had been
forgiven. (this can be found in Alma
chapter 36 verses 17-19).
The gift of the atonement of Jesus Christ
provides us at all times and all places with the blessings of repentance and forgiveness.
Because of this wonderful gift, the opportunity and ability to make a safe
return from sin is available to all of us and at all times.
I Challenge all of you to be ready
to use the divine gift of the atonement and be able to repent at all times and
know that you can be forgiven and make it to the celestial kingdom to live with
our heavenly father.
I say these things in the name of Jesus
Christ amen.
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