A wonderful Sabbath and pre-Halloween pictures

 I am starting to be engaged in my new calling with presidency meetings, stake correlation meetings, and even sports activities.  I finally got set apart this afternoon, and I am glad to finally have the mantle to help me in my call.  It was a spiritual experience to meet with the stake leaders and the other women in my presidency and be personally blessed to be able to serve in this capacity.  It has been a rewarding sabbath day.  I started out at Nick and Sara's ward to watch Ori in her primary program.  She was amazing.  Following the program I said to her, "Ori, you did so well. You sang every song and you knew every word."  Her response, "Well, Not really.  I just watched the teacher."  She didn't realize that was amazing, too--for a four year old to pay enough attention to the leader that it appeared she had memorized every song.  She even followed along with the sign language they used on "A Child's Prayer."

Following Ori's program, I hurried (late) to the YSA stake conference meeting at the regional center in Bountiful, where I enjoyed a few more inspiring messages. 
In the Saturday night meeting we were addressed by a couple of YSA's, and a couple of leaders.  The concluding speaker was President King (Michelle King's husband).  He spoke on obedience.  He said that obedience started in the Garden of Eden.  Adam was obedient to the commandment to offer sacrifice.  Why?  Because he had been asked to.  Adam was faithful and true because of what he did know. 
"[Christ] learned obedience by the things which he suffered." Hebrews 5:8.  Christ did not put himself above the laws of his father.  We are required to be subject to someone Always, starting with our parents (honor thy father and thy mother...), and always our God.  Don't think you can escape being subject to someone.  It is part of the eternal plan. 
Being obedient is what the Mosaic law taught--Strict obedience is the higher, celestial law.  Elder Bednar cautioned us:
We must be careful because pharisaical focus upon checklists can divert us from drawing closer to the Lord. See Elder Bednar's talk
President King reminded us that we are a covenant making people and that our covenants protect us.  Being obedient needs to be less of an irritant and become our quest.  President King promised us that as we are obedient to God's commandments, laws and promises, our lives will be blessed.  I know this is true because my life is so blessed from striving to live the laws of God. 
We also had the opportunity to go to a temple session on Saturday, making for a wonderful weekend, filled with the spirit of God. 

Adrienne and AJ attended a U of U game in California.  I tended the boys for half the time the were away as a gift for AJ's birthday.  The boys were good.  Gunnar loves it when I give him sewing projects.  Finn and I spent some time in the hot tub together while the other two were at school.  All in all it was a pretty good 24 hours.  Jennie got the hard job of getting them ready for bed because Roy and I both had church meetings.  I didn't get a picture of the boys, but I stole a cute one off Instagram of Adrienne, AJ and Ila at the game

Halloween is coming up and I received some cute pictures from Elise's family.  I also stole a few family pictures off Instagram.

Andy and Max

Bevy and Elise

Maverick

 Sara sent this cute picture of Avie enjoying the cool outdoors

Jennie--Red Riding Hood

Max, Mav, and Bevy

Crista and Matt at their annual
Malouf Halloween Party (Did you win a prize?)

Elise won "Most Creative Trunk" award
Her trunk was decorated like a shark

Jennie had a Halloween party Saturday night
Here she is with Mahala Pederson (Sara's sister).

Some birthdays, a play, and a business trip, etc.

Daniel turned 35 on Tuesday. and Jieun invited Roy and I over to dinner to celebrate.  Jieun cooked a delicious Korean dinner complete with spicy pork and tofu.  It was excellent.  I really loved Dan's birthday cake.  It was a chocolate Korean roll cake!  Dan is allergic to dairy, and it definitely had dairy in it, but he had some anyway.  Hopefully he didn't have to pay too big a price for that indulgence.
Roy had another business trip this week.  He had to be in Ashville, NC by 1:00 on Thursday.  We have had plans for 6 or 8 months to go to The Scarlet Pimpernel at the Hale Center Theater with our financial adviser and his wife on Wednesday evening. To work all this out, Roy planned a red eye flight--leaving the Salt Lake airport at 12:30 am Thursday morning.  So, after enjoying the play, we had the Doxeys drop Roy off at the airport.  I think he got maybe 3 hours of sleep on the plane.  It was worth it for me, and I hope he felt it was worth it, too.  I did feel sorry for him as I enjoyed 7 hours of sleep in my own bed.
Caitlyn was down on Thursday/Friday for her Fall break from school.  I enjoyed spending time with her..  I also spent a couple of hours with Gunnar on Thursday, giving Adrienne a short break from all 3 of her boys on Fall break.  I taught Gunnar a few things about my sewing machine and he figured out how to make a small bag.  He loves things that challenge his mind.
Friday was Doyeon's birthday.  I picked her up and let her pick out her present.  She was pretty determined to get a toy, even though I had several other suggestions.  She picked out a toy parakeet--the best type of pet.  Even though she was largely uninterested, I also bought her a skirt and top.  I offered for her to stay with me for a couple of other errands, but she was anxious to show her siblings her present and wanted to go right home.

At Dan's birthday dinner Dojin was showing off:

I was worried he'd get hurt, but he's pretty tough.

He got some sort of insect bite on Saturday and Dan took him to Instacare to make sure it wasn't a big deal.  They put him on antibiotic to be safe.

We love to touch base with our Texas grand kids even though they're far away.  Elise sent these pictures:

Mav--the Hulk

Mav and Bev

We Facetimed with the Jacksons Sunday night and saw Beverly walking all over.  All three of them were being pretty crazy.

A few days in St. George

Gunnar James Green
Baptized on
October 13, 2018

As you can see from the picture, we were able to witness the baptism of Gunnar James Green into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints.  We are so proud of you, Gunnar, for this decision that will affect your whole life.  Stay true to the covenants you have made with your Heavenly Father and it will bring you much happiness and many blessings.

Gunnar let me choose which picture I wanted, and I couldn't resist this one because it shows his little personality.  A friend of Adrienne's offered to do a photo shoot of Gunnar for his baptism and there were many to choose from.

Roy and I had a busy and wonderful week down in St. George.  We stayed with Gloria and Mike Toomey (Roy's aunt and uncle).  They moved from Amelia Island, Florida just a few months ago and are enjoying the dry weather and they especially appreciate living away from the hurricanes this season.  The last hurricane put a tree through their roof and they are grateful not to go through that worry again.
They were gracious and wonderful hosts and we enjoyed our time with them.  We attended 4 plays:
Matilda, Prince of Egypt, Liar (in Cedar City), and Cinderella.  Prince of Egypt (about Moses) was the best, hands down.  It was spectacular when Tuachan used their water features at the end of the show for the parting of the Red Sea.  It was a powerful show that really made me think about how Moses might have felt while fulfilling his prophetic calling.
Our original tickets were for next week, but when an unplanned business trip materialized, Roy changed all the tickets.  After they were all changed we were reminded about Gunnar's baptism, so we had to change the Saturday night play to Wednesday night.  We also forgot that Gloria had bought tickets to go to Prince of Egypt with us (I guess they spent a fortune getting closing night tickets, so she wasn't willing to trade in her seats, so they will go next week as planned).  The changes cost us $50 which is better than being out the total of all the tickets combined.  It also enabled us to add the Cedar City play because the Shakespeare festival is now officially over.  Friday was busy and tiring because we woke up in St. George, drove to Cedar City for the matinee, returned to St. George for Cinderella, (we fit in the 45 minute hike right before the play) then drove back to Cedar City so we'd be an hour closer to home for the Saturday morning drive to make it to Gunnar's baptism on time.

Rhode Runner near Gloria's home

Gloria, Mike, Catharine and Roy in front of the
St. George Tabernacle

 Roy and Catharine--we managed to get one hike in while we were in St. George.




I learned a lot teaching DUP for the first time this past week.  I taught about the Wilford Woodruff family.  I was able to get through the story of WW's 5th great grandfather, his father, and much of WW's story, too.  However, I ran out of time before I got to the wive's stories (he had 5--and 33 children).  His 5th great grandfather's name was John Lothrop.  He was a minister for the Church of England.  He left the church when he realized he did not believe in the doctrines that were being taught and took some followers with him.  They were all arrested by an opposing bishop.  After a while, all were released but John, who was deemed to dangerous to release.  He was able to leave to attend to his dying wife by promising that he would return to prison when he could.  True to his word, he returned after his wife died, but in so doing he left his children destitute.  They finally appealed to the bishop to release their father.  His heart was somewhat softened, and he released him on condition that he leave the country and never return.  He took his children and 32 of his followers and went to America where he settled among the Puritans where he was accepted and loved.  He was also the 5th great grandfather to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.  It was interesting to see how the Lord worked with a righteous man preparing for the restoration of the gospel many generations previous to these men who were so pivotal in the work.  I was told that I could continue my lesson when I teach next time, which is great because I'll already be mostly prepared.

Dan and Jieun went to Boston this week for Jieun's mother's wedding.  He sent a few pictures:

Jieun's mom and her new husband

Doyeon

Doyeon, Hyeji, Dojin, Dan, Yuna and Jieun

Ruby and Greta and their parents came for the baptism.  Greta took to the idea of putting stickers on her face:

Nick and Sara came over Sunday night for a visit.

Another wonderful Conference Weekend!

We are so incredibly blessed to be able to spend 2 days listening to prophets and apostles.  My favorite was women's conference.  It was amazing.  I loved it when the young sisters sang, "We'll Bring the World His Truth."  Usually you picture young men singing "We are as the army of Helaman. We have been taught in our youth..."  And it was wonderful to feel the love the prophet expressed to the sisters.  We all laughed as he told of calling himself a mother in one of his talks.  He said, "As the mother of 10 children..." The interpreter corrected it while translating, so President Nelson didn't even realize his "freudian slip" until his wife told him later.  I also got chills on Sunday afternoon while hearing about the 12 temples being built.  There was a lot of wonderful counsel to take to heart and I have a lot of reading to do to get the Book of Mormon read by Dec. 31.  I'll have more time though, as I need to fast from my phone as much as possible for 10 days.  Social media is not my weakness, but... I do know where my weaknesses lie.
Roy's stake had a wonderful opportunity this weekend.  They were assigned to take dinner to the 200 sister missionaries on Temple Square.  He said that when the temples were announced, there were sisters that were cheering because they were from those areas.  He said they were also cheering them for bringing them dinner.  I guess this hasn't been done before.  Usually they just bring a packed lunch and dinner from home, but they are so busy that they hardly have time to stop and eat.  I helped from 12 to 2, rubbing the roasts with seasonings and peeling potatoes and carrots.  Roy stayed on for all of the afternoon to help carry water and food to the kitchens (we cooked at the Times and Seasons restaurant in NSL) and then serve all the sisters.  He said there was a sister from Uganda who asked if there was extra she could take.  Someone told Roy that this missionary had a hollow leg--where she's from they never have enough to eat, so she can eat.  Roy made sure to bring her an extra plate to take home.

Peeling vegetables at Times and Seasons Restuarant

The mission president and the sisters waiting for dinner

They served in 4 separate shifts of about 50 sister missionaries per shift

Some of the High Council from the stake along with YSA volunteers

We also had a spiritual evening prior to conference at the Cook O Rama.  Elder Rulon Stacey spoke to a group of about 50 descendants of Phineas Wolcott Cook.  He shared his testimony of the prophet and the apostles.  Nan and Christine came and supported and I think they were well fed--both spiritually and physically.
I was able to spend a little time with almost all my family this week.  Everyone but the Jackson's.  I went over to Ollie's birthday dinner (Roy was on business in Rhode Island).  Following the dinner I dropped by and visited with Nick and Sara and girls (I got to hold Avie 😊),  Then this weekend Caitlyn came down with her roommate, and Crista and Matt came with their girls to stay for conference. Jieun and Dan and family and Adrienne and AJ and family came over for dinner (Saturday since we were busy with the sister missionaries on Sunday). And Jennie was home.  Unfortunately, Nick was sick and Sara went to her uncle's funeral, so they didn't make it.

Cape Cod, Rhode Island

Mav

Mav

We didn't get to see Elise's family, but she sent pictures.  She said Mav loves the extra attention while Max is at school (all day kindergarten), but both he and Bevy are so excited to see Max when he gets home.

Beverly

I also got this cute picture of Effie.  They've had
some runny noses this week at their house.