* Regular (if not daily!) Workouts at the Rec Center for the entire family!
* The kids all had friends over - and everyone is feeling better and back to being healthy!
* Our Ward had a Talent Show/Dinner on Saturday that we attended. Lexi was fearless and played a piano piece for it! Nathan did a skit with the Deacon's and Ben participated in a skit with the Priests.
* Mom scored 3 hours of Young Women Volleyball games on Saturday
* Dad and Nathan went to the Temple for Baptisms - yay!!
* Ben started rehearsals for this Shakespear play. They meet at the Co-op on Mondays and then they have an additional rehearsal each Thursday. After I dropped him off, I was able to do a session at the Temple and think this will work out perfectly with a "built in" convenient time for me to attend the Temple each week (especially since the Co-op location is only about 3 miles from the Temple!)
* August and McKendra switched to the Meridian Temple for their Sealing! It's been reserved and all set for April 13th at 10:30 in the morning! Exciting!
* Attended the Dave Ramsey FPU class on Thursday and left feeling inspired!
* Ben went on a YM Priest Campout (well, up to a cabin with a flatscreen and playstation! haha)
Spiritually Speaking...
Another fun and successful week of Come, Follow Me! We focused on John 1. Here are some of the things we did, learned, discussed...
* Since we're studying in John - we discussed WHO he was
* On a White board, we made 2 columns and labeled one "Jesus Christ" and the other one "John the Baptist". The we read John 1:4-10 together and wrote (or drew) everything we learned about Jesus in his column and the same for John the Baptist. We then turned off the lights and turned on a flashlight and talked about what light does for us and when we think one of Christs titles is "Light of the World". Everyone shared how the Savior has been a Light in their life. We finished up with a great analogy that dad gave. He had all of the lights turned off and when we were surrounded by darkness he said that this is when we've sinned (and removed ourselves from the Light - Jesus Christ). At first it seems harsh and we're disoriented and can't see a thing! But... then he had us all just sit there in the darkness (sin) and as our eyes adjusted and we could start making things out, he related that to how the longer we stay in sin (without repentance) the more "comfortable" we become and we start to justify that maybe the darkness isn't all that bad. I thought that was a great object lesson!
* I had the girls draw little paper dolls and then we used those to act out the story in John 1:35-46. We identified the doctrines and principles and discussed what we learned from the people in these verses (about HOW to share the gospel with others).
* Worked on memorizing John 1:36 (which is basically John the Baptist's testimony of Christ)
* Defined several words in the last few verses of the chapter so then we could understand what was going on (ie: guile, whence, fig tree and Rabbi)
* Discussed how whenever God has appeared to anyone - he always bears witness of his son, Jesus Christ
* Discussed what it means to "become the sons of God" and what we can do to become closer to our Heavenly Father
* Nathan got another calling this week! He is now the Deacon's Quorum President! He was soooo excited about this! He was instructed to pray about who he'd like to call as his counselors and he really took that task to heart! He had originally came up with who he wanted to call but when he prayed about them, he felt like that wasn't right... By the time he came back in (after he'd been praying) he had a huge smile on his face and he said "Ok, I know who I'm calling!" and when I asked who (and realized it was different than the original people he had told me he was going to pray about) I asked him how he knew who to call and he said his tummy got all fluttery and he KNEW that was it! He said he felt really happy and peaceful. It was so cute and we talked that that's how the Holy Ghost speaks to - he gives us feelings and helps us feel happy and good about our decisions.
* Heavenly Father delivers again on helping us with our STRONG desire to be 100% debt free!! We were originally told that dad hadn't qualified for a Bonus for the last quarter and while we didn't really dwell on that fact - we were both bummed! Well then just a few days before the Bonuses were to be paid out, dad was told that his boss went to the higher ups and fought for him to get one and... he did!! Here's the really incredible thing... after taxes and tithing (because let's face it, almost half goes to taxes - yuck!) but we were within $20 of being able to pay off our next debt and that's just what we did!! No waiting or letting that money sit - off it went and we are now officially on our last student loan amount! Isn't that so amazing!! We were also able to set aside the money that would have gone to the debt and put it into the wedding fund for August and McKendra. I was in the Temple and praying/thanking Heavenly Father with all my heart and I had the distinct thought come to my mind that He was very pleased with how much Family History I've been doing (both our own current family (ie. this blog!) and through Family Search but also with getting so many ordinances done in the Temple) and that the blessings would continue to come as we continued with our efforts. We have a goal of being completely debt free by summer and while the Math says that won't be the case - I KNOW it's going to happen! I don't know HOW but it WILL! I mean, the math for this entire journey said it'd be 6+ years!! and yet we've paid off $82,000 (that's 82 THOUSAND!) in 14 months and are down to the final $18K! Insane, right!? Yippee! There's no denying the huge blessings that have been given/seen!
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