Visiting Teaching

Do you ever wonder why you visit teach? I think I was on my mission when I gained my testimony of visiting teaching. Like any principal of the gospel you have to live it, in order to gain a testimony of it. I have visited many different sisters over my 35 years or so from all facets of life. Many times I'm the one learning from them. I have become friends with women I never would have, if I had not been their VT. Let me share one example with you.

Last March I was in RS and noticed a young mother I hadn't met before. They had been in the ward several months, but I had been attending all of our Stake's Ward Conferences and hadn't met her yet. She had just had a new baby and when I questioned her if anyone had brought her dinner she said, "no." I immediately told her I wanted to bring her dinner and she kept saying, "no I live too far." I told her I was going to bring it anyway. To make a long story short Russ drove out to her house with me. She was right, I had no idea our ward boundaries even went that far. It was an 82 mile round trip on a two lane highway on curvy roads. It took an hour each way to get to her house. Upon visiting with her she told us this was her 5th child, her oldest being 6!! Her husband does maintenance on a damn up on a lake out in the middle of no where. I asked her if she had a VT & she said no one had been there to visit her. After I returned home I talked to the RS President and felt very strong that I should volunteer to be her VT. If anyone needed one it was Jessica living out there all by herself. Every time I go visit her, her kids are so excited to see me and so cute. I had her to my house in October to teach her how to make applesauce. She brought her 5 year old daughter, Heidi & her 8 month old daughter. The week after we made applesauce was our Primary program at church. Heidi, the 5 year old got up to do her part and right in the middle of it she spotted me sitting in the audience. Her eyes lit up and she started waving at me. Everyone got a good chuckle out of it & didn't know who she was waving at. I was missing my grandkids Primary program that day and feeling bad about that and when Heidi waved to me it MADE my whole day. When I saw Jessica in RS she told me Heidi had said, " I saw her mom, the lady that taught you how to make applesauce."

Sometimes it can be frustrating to try and get all your visits in, but when I have experiences like I did with Heidi it makes it all worth it!!

Barbara Thompson said: The beauty of visiting teaching is not to see 100 percent on the monthly report; the beauty of visiting teaching is seeing lives changed, tears wiped away, testimonies growing, people loved, families strengthened, people cheered, the hungry fed, the sick visited, and those who are mourning comforted. Actually, visiting teaching is never done because we watch over and strengthen always.

Jessica and her kids on one of my visits.

Heidi is the one below in the blue shirt. They had picked dandelions for me.

Stake Conference

I really want to write about our past weekend, but I feel like Moroni in Ether 12:23 ….but thou hast not made us mighty in writing…

Saturday morning Elder Hamula of the First Quorum of the Seventy arrived at our home around 10:00 am to preside at our Stake Conference. His wife was going to come with him, but they are moving this week and she had a lot to do to get ready. He went on a few home visits with Russ and then at 3:00 at the church we had Stake leadership meetings. He talked with all the R.S., YW and Primary Presidencies of our Stake for about 15 minutes before he went in with the Priesthood. He explained the whole process of calling a new Stake President and it brought back a lot of sweet memories of when Russ was called four years ago. He said when they call in the wife and ask her several questions, one of which is can you support your husband if he is called to a significant calling? He said (his main point of this whole story) that if the wife says, "no" they don't call him…."that's what kind of veto power you have." He related another story about a ward Primary President that through a ward Halloween party help bring MANY people into the church. He talked about the power and influence we have as women.

After our leadership meetings we had a dinner in the High Council room with 17 of us, which I was grateful to be able to make. Next was our evening session of conference. Russ spoke on "Hastening the Work" and did a great job. He challenged everyone to pray daily for a missionary experience.  Elder Hamula spoke on the Sacrament and the significance of it (he spoke on this in the Sunday morning session of General Conference in October also). He said, "the way to rescue ourselves is to rescue others and that we need to keep our eye more fixed on the Savior."  After the evening session we came back to the house and Elder Hamula sat around and talked with us for a couple of hours. It was such a sweet experience as he shared some personal stories with us about his family and some of the apostles. He is so down to earth and so gracious and appreciative of everything you do. One thing I can tell you is he LOVES chocolate chip cookies. I was so glad I had made some!

The Sunday morning session of conference was so good! Russ gave an excellent talk on parents teaching their children the gospel, setting a good example for them and teaching them to work hard. Many members said it was a "timely" talk for them. Elder Hamula shared with us how he gained his testimony of the gospel and then what the call of someone in the "seventy" does. He called a few people up to bare their testimony, one of which was me. I was grateful to publicly tell my Savior how much I love Him and thanked Him for how much he has blessed me in my life. He has given me EVERYTHING  and all He asks me to do is keep His commandments. I had just went to the temple and ask the members, "how many of us really keep that last covenant we make in the temple?"

Probably the person who "stole" the show was a little nine year old girl who spoke. She spoke on love and sang, "My Heavenly Father Loves Me." Russ and Elder Hamula said they looked out at the audience and EVERY eye was glued to her. She was adorable!!  We had some other youth speakers also. Many members said it was one of the best Stake Conferences they could remember. The sad thing was that our attendance was way down. I feel so bad for members who missed out on a "spiritual high" weekend.

The icing on the cake was having Elder Hamula for dinner one more time in our home and then driving him to Federal Way where he will be touring a mission for a few days. Our home and lives were truly blessed this weekend by a servant of the Lord.

Nepal Disaster

This past week I have felt so bad hearing about all the trekkers and Nepalese people who were killed in a horrific snow storm in Nepal around the Annapurna Circuit. Thus far they have recovered 43 people, 21 foreigners and 22 Nepalese. This is the exact time we were there last year, but did a different route (we were going to do that one). After spending over six weeks there the past two years we really feel for all those involved! Our first concern was for the guides and porters we had had, but after emailing them have learned they are fine. This is such a devastating event for the people of this country. They are such a poor country and events like this really effect their economy. We learned first hand how humble and how hard working they are, especially along the trails in the Himalayas. I wanted to include a few pictures of some of these people and how they have touched our lives.

The Nepalese are very religious people with Hinduism being about 90%. However, members of the Buddhist faith are often so closely linked to those of the Hindu faith that it can be difficult to tell them apart. Here is a young girl praying close to one of the large Stupas (temples).

Around the Stupas you see many youth that are Monks. These two below are girls.

All of them shave their heads.

This person is throwing paint onto the Stupa in remembrance of a beloved ancestor.

There are lots of open markets in Kathmandu. It amazes me how they can squat like that for hours!

These are our faithful porters and guide.

Amrit, Ram (guide), Kumar & Min

Behind them is Dhaulagiri 26,795 Ft. 

We would trek right through these small villages and stop and eat at one of the local tea houses.

Makes you appreciate your stove!

Dal Bhat is pretty much what all the locals eat. It is basically rice and lentils with some kind of sauce. They mix it all together and eat it with their hands. They will eat 2 or 3 plates of this.

We were surprised when we arrived here to spend the night and they were cutting up a yak they had killed that day. Guess what we had for dinner? Yak momo's.

These were carried by porters who would be delivering food or other things to the locals in various villages, not for trekkers.

They were fluffing up the cotton for bedding here.

Ram was our guide and normally didn't carry a pack, but sometimes he would relieve one of the other porters to keep in shape.

Amrit and Min washing their clothes.

We saw soooo many women harvesting crops in the fields.

I could never make it to places like this without those faithful guides and porters.

Annapurna Base Camp

I just want to say God bless all those humble, happy Nepalese who lost their lives the past week.

We have grown to love Nepal, the people and the mountains.  That's what keeps calling us back and why Russ and I keep talking about going again! We love you!!

This and That

   The last couple of weeks has been just a bunch of "this and that." Russ had 5 days off over General Conference weekend so we decided to drive down to Salt Lake. I really wasn't thrilled about sitting in the car that long, but who better to visit with for 28 hours than my sweetie. We drove across Washington and then down through Montana into Idaho so we could stop and see Jacob at school and see Lindsey and her family. Even though it was just a couple of hours I got some smooching time in with two of my grandsons!!

    Friday was a fun day. We met up with the Weavers who just moved back to Salt Lake after serving here for three years as mission President. They are dear friends and we miss them a lot.

 After lunch Russ and I went and did some shopping since we had the truck and didn't have to worry about fitting everything into our suitcase. We arrived at John and Jan's house late that night and had a nice visit with them. Its so nice to have them back from their mission and feel of their love.
   Saturday we watched conference with Jared, Jacob, Jan and John. Russ was able to go to the Conference Center with the boys to the Priesthood session so I got some one on one time with Jan.
   Sunday we had tickets to the morning session at the Conference Center so Jared, Christina, Jacob, Russ and I went. Its always pretty crazy down there with over 25,000 people trying to park and get in their seats. Its always worth it though to be there and feel the spirit of the brethren. On our way home on I-15 we witnessed a car accident. Two people tried to go into the same lane and when one lady realized it she over corrected to get back in her lane and did a 360 in the middle of I-15. Next she flew over and smashed into the cement wall at the side of the freeway. From there she bounced off and car parts were flying in the air. It was a miracle no one else was hit or anyone hurt. Some of the car parts barely missed us. We pulled right over to make sure the lady was O.K. and she was, but was pretty shook up. I'm grateful for someone watching over us!

We went and watched the afternoon session with Grandma Larsen and then took her to Jan's house for dinner. While we were there Sherrie and Dave showed up. They look great and are so excited about their mission.

 

We had a special treat of Jan playing us a couple songs she performed while in Israel. She has really excelled in her talent and was amazing!!!

On our way home we stopped at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center outside of Baker City, Oregon. We've never been there before and it was our half way point of driving home so decided to stop. It is a really nice center and a great place to take kids too. 

Saturday we were excited to go to the new movie, "Meet the Mormons" so we got a group of us together and carpooled to Olympia. All of us LOVED it!! We came back to our house and had soup, rolls and chocolate cake. It was a fun "mini" ward outing.

Today Russ was off work so we did a bunch of yard work. I love all the Fall leaves and wanted to take this picture of our lane before Russ blew them all off.  I love them all over the lane, but he likes them blown off. It starting raining now and is suppose to for the next ten days:(

I can't believe all the flowers I still have in bloom in the middle of October.

Sister Trip

Several months ago my sisters and I decided it would be fun to take a trip to San Francisco together so last week we fulfilled our dream. Delina drove over from Spokane and we flew down together while Christine met us there from Salt Lake. We flew into Oakland so had to haul our luggage onto the Bart and then walk several blocks to our Hotel. We were only a couple of blocks from Union Square so stayed in a good area to see a variety of things. It was also nice to be close to many different types of transportation. I do have to say that we walked a TON though!! Here's a few highlights from our trip.

                                       
                                                           Golden Gate Bridge

Chinatown

Alcatraz

I'm reading a book right now I purchased at Alcatraz called,  "Alcatraz From Inside." It was written by a former inmate and is very interesting. He contributes his crime to his tragic childhood and talks about his life in Alcatraz and his hard road that eventually led him back to freedom.

The front building was to house employees and their families. The upper building is where they housed the inmates. Alcatraz was a federal prison from 1933-1963.

Typical cell

Three floors of cells

It was mentioned in the book that when the inmates went outside and saw the "free world" it was a stark reminder of what they gave up to be there.

Of course no trip to San Francisco is complete without going to Pier 39 and having sourdough bread with clam chowder!!

The produce was beautiful, but at $15.00 lb. for strawberries we just enjoyed looking at them.

Lots of people and lots of shops!!

With ALL the calories we walked off we couldn't turn down a sundae at Ghirardelli Square.

Golden State Park

Notice how small Delina & Christine are standing in front of this tree.

Japanese Gardens

Botanical Gardens

Good times with GREAT sisters who love me no matter what!

When we left to fly home I was quite confident I knew exactly where to go. In the end, what was suppose to be a half hour Bart ride ended up being a 2 hour Bart ride!! The Lord knows how to humble us fast. We ended up at the SF airport & realized we were suppose to be at the Oakland Airport. Needless to say we were a little stressed when we came to this realization. Delina and I checked in our bags 20 minutes before our flight was suppose to leave. It was a VERY close call and in the end our luggage didn't make it. We ended up waiting 4 1/2 more hours (two more flights) at the Portland Airport before we got our luggage.