In Our Family This Month...
* Ben turned 16! His birthday is on March 19th and he pretty much had an entire month of celebrating! He went out to the Pizza Ranch on THREE different occasions (once with mom, once with friends Cedric and Ramsey and last with his friend, Cale - all were in the name of "my birthday lunch")... To continue in his "birthday celebrations", he went to the movies, He went to the Skating Rink and also to the Trampoline Park, he hung out with the Missionaries and then went out to lunch with them, He got new a video games, clothes and money to fund all of the excursions he went on! He had a special birthday breakfast of French Toast bake and Waffles and then homemade pizza for dinner along with "Brownie Balls" and Ice cream that evening with dad. Wow! Talk about celebrations!
note: I had taken such cute pictures of him and the house decorated for his special day only to accidentally delete them! All.of.them! Luckily, dad had one picture of him from that evening when we sang to him for his birthday as a family.
* Since turning 16, Ben has had two dates with Ashley. The first was with mom and dad to the Temple to do Baptisms and the 2nd was a double date with Cale and Savannah. Mom was the chauffeur for their 6 hour date! They had an early lunch at the Chinese Buffet, then to the Indoor Water Park for most of the afternoon, then to dinner at McDonalds and finished up at Scheels.
* Ben also quit his job at McDonalds
* Mom and dad had a (paid for) work dinner with all of dads employees (and their spouses) to celebrate 3 years without any safety recordables. It was at a nice Mexican Restaurant where dad had the steak and mom had a taco salad.
*It was on the way home from this work dinner that we received a call that would set us on a roller coaster ride and shake up plans that we thought we had in place! We were asked if we'd be interested in taking a job in Boise and if so, there was a company who was very interested in pursuing dad. It didn't take long to say that we'd be interested in finding out more and seeing where that interest led. This was on a Thursday night and by Friday we had an interview set up for the following Wednesday (where they would travel here to Billings to interview dad). That interview went extremely well and 2 follow up ones were scheduled for the following week. Things were moving FAST and we felt joy and happiness about the prospect of being back in the Boise valley near family and friends.We were told that we'd hear something "within days not weeks" but here is where the story slows down a bit! haha...The HR gal that writes up the offers went on vacation for a week (aaack!) then she got back and got to work on it but then got sick and was out of the office (no!!!) and the last we heard was that yesterday (Friday, March 27th) she was back at work and finished the offer and has submitted it for approval and that we *should* receive it on Monday. While all of this waiting game was going on, the company did call John and tell him that he was being offered the job and told what pay and benefits were being written up in the offer - so at least we know what's coming! Part of the offer was more than we were expecting while another part of it was a little lower than what we were expecting/hoping for. Once the official offer arrives, we will counter and see what happens from there. However this has made for several weeks of an emotional roller coaster!
* Mom has started packing up the house! Regardless if we end up taking the job and moving to Boise or not we'll be moving out of this beautiful home! If we don't go to Boise, we still have plans to move into a cheaper rental in Laurel to save money, pay off debt faster and get closer to our ultimate goal of moving to Nicaragua! Luckily we saved ALL of the boxes that the moving company used to move us here to Billings and so we have all of the supplies needed to pack up! We've also been decluttering as we go and have taken MANY loads to the thrift store (and sold several things as well). At this point, we are about 65-70% completely packed -haha.. yes, I'm ready to leave one way or another!
* During all of this craziness, we also felt we needed to get the old 1979 Chevy truck (Josephina) up and running - by putting a brand new engine in it! An awesome employee of dads (Mason) is very knowledgeable when it comes to replacing engines so they have been spending their nights and weekend staying late at the shop working on it. They have already put about 40 hours into it and are just about finished! The engine is in, it starts up and now it's just several small items that need to get tuned up and finalized. They are taking this weekend off and have plans to be completely finished on Monday. We had budgeted $2,000 for the job and while it'll be close, we'll be a few hundred dollars over budget - I've been making up the difference with the money from the things I've sold and we'll be putting some of our Easter money towards it, but still need to sell some more! haha
* The girls had their St. Patrick's Day performance for Irish Dancing... they danced on a stage in downtown Billings during the parade. Of course they looked absolutely adorable!!! It was pretty cold that day but they did a great job!
* And all sorts of other "regular" things have happened throughout the month - weekly dance and piano lessons for the girls, Activity days, Scouts and Young Mens on Wednesdays, Presidency meeting for mom and other church meetings, the kids playing outside (particularly on the big mound of dirt in the back)and lots of Family History for mom (more on that later...), saying Goodbye to Elder Lainez (who has been here with us since last September!)
August has had quite the month of change!!
* After 5.5 years of being in a relationship with Cami, he realized that they just didn't make each other happy and had very different aspirations and goals in life and that it was time to end things. This was quite the shock to us!
* He received a calling in the Young Single Adult Ward - he is now the 1st Counselor in the Elders Quorum Presidency
* He started a 3rd job delivering Pizza's for Papa John's. He does this in the evenings
* He has met a great gal there in Kearney named McKendra Dinkle. He is quite taken with her and they spend most of their free time together!
Seth Spotlight...
A lot sure has happened to Seth in Nicaragua this month! Some of the highlights he wrote home about (along with some questions we asked) are:
* He was transferred to Managua and has a new companion - Elder Perez
* Had another Baptism (of Marta)
* Had a Multi-Mission Conference where Elder Quentin L Cook came and spoke and he said this about it: "Well Elder Cook was a really great speaker, 2 things from it that stood out to me were that there are lots of people ready and willing here to hear the gospel. Also, how compared to other countries the devil doesn't have quite as much of a hold here, and everyone still is Christ believing. Also he gave a great testimony saying He's heard the Saviors voice, and seen his face, and that he's a special witness of his reality and divinity. when he said that everyone was all like woah! and to close, he left a blessing on all of us that our Missions will bless the lives of everyone we love. Our brothers and sisters, parents, future spouses. Friends. Ourselves. And that we'll be able to see the impact of our missions in the lives of those we love for years to come." That was pretty neat and hey, maybe August and Cami breaking up is a direct result from my Mission! haha
* He is studying about the Life of Christ and shared this with us: "I am studying about the life of Jesus Christ. One thing that kinda stood out is just how he could inspire the faith in people. And it wasn't for the miracles or anything like that. But because of that faith that they had, they received all these miracles. So what we need to do is help people build their faith constantly in order to well receive the miracles."
* Finally got his Residence Card renewed (from when he lost his Wallet on the bus)
* Several Multi zone Conferences and fun times with other Missionaries during sleep overs and Divisions
* Has less than 5 months left until he gets home!
Spiritually Speaking...
This month has been absolutely BURSTING with Blessings, Tender Mercies and Miracles!! John and I are astounded with how much the Lord has been involved in our daily lives throughout the past few weeks! We also feel it is so important to record all of these instances for our posterity and also for us to reflect back upon in the upcoming years...
* So I know I've shared that my heart has recently turned more towards Family History lately, but I don't think I've shared WHY or WHAT brought upon that change... so here's the story. Back in November (2017) when we really made the commitment to get out of debt I kept thinking of what I could do to get us to our financial goals quicker and decided that I needed to get a job! I figured I had a few hours a week that I could devote to an online job so my quest to find the perfect one began! After researching my options, I decided that being a transcriptionist would fit with my talents, would be flexible and I would enjoy the work. So I applied at a company and soon was hired to transcribe interviews and podcasts - so they could have subtitles and such. However, I kept having a really "off" feeling about doing this and decided that I needed to pray about this decision (it was going to be very part time and only bringing in about $250/month - but I figured that would almost make an extra van payment each month and would be beneficial)... Anyway, so I go to pray about working at this job and I immediately get the answer to NOT take it! I then get very direct further inspiration that says if I take those few hours that I was planning on working at that job and apply those same hours to Family History work that we will be greatly blessed and John will be blessed at work and be able to bring in larger bonuses that would be "tenfold" of what I could potentially make. So this started me off on my journey of being better and more diligent about my Genealogy and Family History! I'd been waiting for the last quarter bonuses to be paid out (which was in March). I want to say that I had complete Faith that our Bonus would be the biggest yet but sadly, I still had doubts (wondering if I'd done "enough" or if I had really gotten that answer, etc) but when the Bonus came in, it knocked our socks off and was 3x's what we were *hoping* for (the largest we'd ever seen in the 5 years of working for Rain for Rent!) and definitely well beyond the "tenfold" of what I could have made working at transcribing podcasts! Not only did have we been blessed financially, but we have also been blessed in other ways - most specifically in Spiritual experiences that I've had as I've searched for our ancestors, found them, included them in our family tree and then done their Temple work! That is what really makes it all worth it! That is God's purpose - to bring to pass the Immortality and Eternal Life of Man and by doing Family History I am aligning my purposes with His! And it's another Faith building experience for me! He always delivers on his promises and I need to remember that and not doubt!
* So still going with Family History and Blessings, we had a really neat experience at the Temple last week when we went with Ben and Ashley to do Baptisms. So we were going for some super close relationships - we're talking Grandma and Grandpa Merrell (and then Grandpa Merrell's grandparents and great-grandparents) and also Grandma-Great (from next door on the farm) and her Grandpa. and Also Grandma Vogt's brother who died by a drunk driver when he was 21 (Daniel Merrell) and then siblings of the grandparents and such... so yeah, really close relationship wise! So we meet Ashley and head into the Temple. I had memorized the relationship that each of the names were (to me) so that when I heard their name, I would know exactly who it was. The Spirit was super strong in the baptistry and dad and I couldn't stop the tears from flowing (especially when doing his 2 grandmas). Something really cool happened when I was being baptized for a relative named Emma Young (she was dad's great-great-grandmother's sister) and as I was under the water, I heard her voice come into my mind saying "Thank you for finding me!" and just a wave of relief wash over me as she was so happy (and relieved) that she was finally baptized! It was super cool (I have since gone on a quest to find everything I could about her family! I'm happy to report that I found her husband along with his family and their child! yay! oh, I also found out that she was a school teacher working in Colorado while living with her Aunt and Uncle before she married).
Then when it was time for the confirmations and I could just feel the room BURSTING with the Spirit! It was like every one of those people (we had taken 19 family names) were all in there together and so excited about what was taking place. They all loved each other and they loved us! I had my eyes closed the entire time (again, really thinking of the names that were being confirmed) and then even though my eyes were closed, I could see/feel the room get brighter and I thought "whoever's name is being read next is right here ready to receive the Holy Ghost!" and then dad read his Uncle Daniel Merrell's name. It was super spiritual and such an amazing experience!
Thoughts from John: Our experience at the Temple was so amazing. I felt a different spirit all day as we prepared to enter into His Holy House. Any time I thought of my Uncle Dan, I started to choke up a bit. As we entered into the waters of Baptism, I baptized Ashley first for some distant relatives and then it was on to Benny. When I got to Grandpa Merrell, I felt such joy and happiness. I knew he was overjoyed! The next name was Uncle Dan. I could barely get the words at as I was overwhelmed and overcome with so much emotion. This is something that he has waited for for so long. I had a feeling of relief that washed over me as I drew Ben out of the water. Later, with Shandy, I again could barely get the words out for Grandma Merrell and Grandma Vogt. It's such a different experience completing ordinances for those you personally knew and loved.
* Another amazing Blessing that has come up this month is the whole job opportunity in Boise! Like seriously... furthest thing from our minds and then wa-bam! Job literally comes and finds us! Since leaving the Boise valley 5 years ago, I haven't had any desire to go back... like none whatsoever. But from the moment I heard about the possibility, my heart has been changed and I am eager to return! It would also significantly help us in reducing our debt of student loans, a personal loan and vehicle loans (by being able to sell John's truck since the job provides a truck as part of the benefits package, and then if we move ourselves, we can put the moving allowance towards the debt as well as the signing bonus that they're offering). I can't help but feel that Heavenly Father knows of our deep desire to be out of debt ASAP and he's providing a way! We also feel it's no coincidence that the exact same week August breaks up with Cami, this job presents itself. If we had an opportunity to move back to Idaho anytime sooner, I'm sure August would have certainly been on that moving truck with us back there to a very unhealthy relationship!
* And speaking of August, we feel another answered prayer was his heart being turned to seeing what others have been seeing for years - that he was not happy with Cami and not heading in the right direction with her. This is something that has concerned us for years and finally had to put it in the Lords hands. We feel so blessed!
* Another Tender Mercy is that we had a huge storm come through with super high winds that ended up blowing down 3 trees throughout the property (ok, that part is not the tender mercy! haha). One tree fell along the river in the backyard, another on the side yard and then one next to the drive way which *should* have fallen DIRECTLY onto dad's truck but somehow bent and went around the back bumper and didn't leave a scratch! We feel tremendously blessed about that one!
* Let's talk about Conference and the Spiritual experience that is!! This was a very special Conference as we were all able to participate in the Solemn Assembly on Saturday morning and sustain the new Prophet and Presidency of the church! The Spirit was strong in our living room and as dad stood with all of the Elders of the church throughout the world he had tears streaming down his cheeks! I remember looking at him and being so grateful for the righteous husband and father he is to our family! His conviction to the truth of the gospel is real and I felt honored to be his eternal companion! Then when Ben rose to stand with all of the other Aaronic Priesthood holders, I felt so much gratitude for what a wonderful son I have in him! He is truly a remarkable young warrior of God and disciple of Christ! He loves the gospel, he loves the Lord and he shares this love with those around him! And then when I was asked to stand with all of the other Relief Society Sisters throughout the world, I felt honored to be standing in unity with such a noble group of women! It was a pretty neat experience!
* More things with Conference are the many quotes and inspirational thoughts and truths that we have been taught!! Some of my favorites were:
"Repentance is not His backup plan. It is His plan." - Elder Lynn Robbins
"God sanctifies our most difficult days." - Brian K Taylor
"Casualness leads to casualties." - Elder Wakolo
"Use the time we have wisely." - Elder Taylor Godoy
"Latter Day Saints have an obligation to research and compile family histories...this is far more than an encouraged hobby because the ordinances of Salvation are necessary for all of God's children." - Elder Dale G Renlund
"When God directs us to do one thing, he often has many purposes in mind." - Dale G Renlund
"Don't fear failure, but learn from it." - Elder Lynn G Robbins
"A Prophet is like a Tower Watchman, he warns us of spiritual dangers that we may not see." - Elder Neil Anderson
"If we have Faith even as small as a mustard seed, the Lord can help us remove the mountains of discouragement and doubt." - M Russell Ballard
"Pray to know WHAT you can do in times of trouble." - Larry Y. Wilson
"As we express gratitude and honor the Lords' time table, we will be given the answers and blessings we seek." - Prophet, Russell M Nelson
"Choose to do the Spiritual work necessary to hear the Spirit's voice." - Prophet
"Look for ways to incorporate these talks into our daily lives, into our Family Home Evenings and into our associations with others." - Prophet
"Be motivated by the pure love of Christ! Labor side by side with the Lord." - Jeffery R. Holland
"Simple acts of service can have a profound effect on others." - Jean Bingham
So many talks referenced Family History and I loved that! I especially loved what our Apostle, Dale G. Renlund said about it and then he shared 11 PROMISES that are given to us from Prophets and Apostles when we do our Family History. They are:
1. Increased understanding of the Savior and His Atoning sacrifice
2. Increased influence of the Holy Ghost to feel strength and direction for our own lives
3. Increased Faith so that conversion to the Savior becomes deep and abiding
4. Increased ability and motivation to learn and repent because of an understanding of who we are, where we come from and a clear vision of where we're going
5. Increased refining, sanctifying and moderating influences in our hearts
6. Increased joy through an increased ability to feel the love of the Lord
7. Increased family blessings - no matter our current, past or future family situation
8. Increased love and appreciation for ancestors and living relatives
9. Increased power to discern that which needs healing and thus with the Lords help serve others
10. Increased protection from temptations and the intensifying influence of the adversary
11. Increased assistance to mend troubled, broken or anxious hearts and make the wounded whole
He finishes up with this thought: "If you have prayed for any of these blessings.. participate in Family History!"
I also REALLY enjoyed Larry Wilson's talk on receiving Personal Revelation (loved this one!) and also Elder Devin Durrant's talk all about Teaching our Children, Dallin H Oaks talk on "By Small and Simple Things", Quentin L Cooks talk and of course the Prophets' talks were inspiring, Revelatory and spirit filled! Mind is still blown with how historic this Conference has been with the announcement of so many new principles revealed!
Thoughts from John on Conference: I have been recharged and re-energized this conference weekend. President Nelson is a wonderful prophet and it is amazing to see the Lord's work move forward. I feel a sense of duty and urgency to be engaged in my duties as a priesthood holder and a patriarch of our family. One big change that has come this weekend is High Priest Groups being dissolved and reabsorbed by the Elder's Quorums. This will bring about a more efficient and effective arm of the Melchizedek Priesthood within the wards. I'm excited for this change and know we will be able to accomplish so much more. I have been grateful for the organization of our church and the knowledge that Jesus Christ lives and that his work continues on.
As I sit here writing after the conclusion of Conference, tears barely dried upon my cheeks, I am beyond humbled and amazed. President Nelson has announced the end of the home and visiting teaching programs as we know it and announced that a new program will take it's place. My thoughts have drifted to the law of Moses and how tedious it was. The Savior came and fulfilled the law ushering in an era of a new law. In some ways, this feels like this. I am excited to learn more of the ministering we will do to the members of our church.
The item that had me tearing up was the announcements of seven new temples. It is amazing to see the work that Gordon B. Hinckley started, carry on. Temples will now dot the land in such new areas as:
- Salta, Argentina
- Bengaluru, India (very amazing! One of the young men under me in North Dakota - Tyler Ringen is serving in India)
- Cagayan de Oro, Philippines
- Layton, Utah
- Richmond, Virginia (hooray for the saints in VA!)
- "A major city yet to be determined in Russia" (mind blowing on that!)
On a personal note, with our decision to move to Nicaragua, one thing I did worry about was the fact that we would only be able to attend the Temple once a year. I am so excited that we will get to play a role in establishing the House of the Lord there. Our plans still revolve around us moving there in approximately 2-3 years. If memory serves me right, a Temple is usually dedicated four to five years after it is announced. Perhaps with the smaller temples, the timeline is sped up a bit.
One of the things we have come to known about the reasons for us moving to Nica is not that it's all about us retiring and living the good life but more about us helping to build the kingdom and help the Saints spiritually and temporally. We are so excited for that chapter to begin!
* We were also recipient to multiple other blessings throughout the month, like finding things that were lost, having an amazing Bishop, finding groceries on sale, having a knowledgeable and willing friend to help dad on replacing the engine in Josephina! and having the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost - what a blessing that is! Seriously! Grandpa Carlson called me up recently and asked how I was doing and I could only answer that everything was GREAT! I felt happy, peace, joy and LOVED by Heavenly Father!
Closing thoughts from John: I have also been so humbled and grateful by the love that the Lord has shown us and how mindful he is of our needs. We have seen direct answers to prayers and so many blessings. We are so grateful for the new path that August is on. The Lord blesses us as we strive to get out of debt and ultimately make it down to Nicaragua and he is mindful of our needs. We are excited for the prospect of moving back home to Idaho for the next few years and all of the new adventures that await us. God is Good!
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