* The youth in our ward held a Service Auction for their fundraiser. They sold tickets to a BBQ dinner, cooked and served the dinner and then they all donated services and auctioned them off. It was highly successful and the ward raised over $4K! Our goal was $2500. Nathan auctioned off 4 weeks of lawn mowing and the girls each auctioned off several things. They both did babysitting and house cleaning and then Aubrie made a 4 layer chocolate and vanilla cake and also a dozen cupcakes with homemade buttercream and white chocolate candied bark. She also framed a watercolor piece she did. Lexi worked hard on a Puppy Acrylic painting.
* Nathan went to another Stake Dance with the other boys in his Teachers Quorum and really looks forward to these - it's a good thing they're every other week!
* Aunt Heidy had her baby shower at a restaurant downtown. Mom, the girls and McKendra all went and enjoyed watching her open the gifts for her upcoming baby girl.
* BSU has brought back Baseball (it's been gone from BSU for 40 years!) and they had their first Home game so mom and dad went on a double date with Bill and Jill Belau to watch it. Mom froze but everyone had a good time.
* Maggie is growing each day. She has really taken to her kennel and crate training has been a good fit! She is still LOTS of work and she has to be supervised every second that she's out of the kennel but everyone is pitching in and making it work. Dad is still soooooo grateful and happy that he has a puppy to love!
* Mom and Stephanie Perry went to see BYU's A Capella choir - Vocal Point. It was uplifting and they put on a fun show!
* The kids all had Dental appointments. The girls came away with 0 cavities but the Boys didn't fair as well... Ben had 2 and Nathan had 3!
* Just our regular routine of schooling each day and attending co-op on Fridays! The kids love it and our lessons have been going well.
* Aubrie and Lexi's friend, Lauren (from Nampa) had her birthday and turned 13! Unfortunately her dad was in the hospital over her birthday and so we went and picked her up and the girls put on a little party for her! They decorated the house, made her a fancy checkered cake and we also took her out to Marco's for pizza and then to Sonic for a 1/2 price slush! I think the girl's service really lifted her spirits!
Spiritually Speaking...
* We've been to the Temple several times the past 2 weeks. We took the kids to do Baptisms, Mom and Dad did their regular weekly Temple trip, they also filled in for a couple and cleaned the Temple (from 9:30-midnight) one night, and then mom went with another YW leader and took a few of the girls from their 14-15 age class to do Baptisms. We happened to go on a day that (public) school was out and many people had the same idea of going to the Temple that day! We waited in line forever and it took close to 3 hours after arriving before the girls even got baptized! They limited each youth to only 4 names so you can imagine how many youth were there! I just thought about how many ordinances were getting done that day! It was pretty awesome!
* I listened to a short devotional about "Embracing the Awkwardness When You Receive an Uncomfortable Prompting" and it really resonated with me! I thought back to a couple of instances when I had definitely been given a prompting that took me out of my comfort zone and were a bit awkward! However, I want the Lord to know that He can count on me and ask me to do things and have the assurance that I will do it! Sometimes we get close (like the time I was prompted to write a very specific testimony and give it to a stranger from Craigslist that I was donating some boy clothes to. I did inconspicuously include a Book of Mormon (half way down the box in between layers of clothes!) that had a generic testimony on it - not the one that I was prompted to write. After this gal found the book, she reached out to me via email and shared how she had actually been baptized as a teen but had since left the church because of how hard her life had been and she felt abandoned by Heavenly Father. It was at this point that I repented and wrote back to her the testimony and words that Heavenly Father wanted (and needed!) her to hear! I'm sure she was still grateful for them, but how much more powerful would it have been if I had obeyed 100%. This is like when we ask our kids to "Do the Dishes" and they only get them to the sink. They've done part of it and given it some effort - but it falls short of the original request. We need Heavenly Father to know he can trust us!
The speaker then gave 2 challenges that can help us become more comfortable with the Awkwardness. She challenged us to go into situations with a prayer in our hearts of "What would thou have me say to this person?" We can ease into this by practicing when we go Ministering or when we're at church or at the Temple.
The second challenge was to turn this question onto ourselves and when praying ask Heavenly Father "What would thou say to me?" This really piqued my interest and I think I'm going to take her up on this challenge!
The Lord is aware of us and will use us (and others) to show his hand in our lives. Sometimes the Lord is going to ask us to do something that catches us off guard but as we step forward in Faith and listen to the Holy Ghost and the Promptings of the Spirit, we will find so much joy!
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