Celebrating Easter

We had dinner at Heeyoung's house about a week and a half ago.  Her husband, Jun, always leaves when we're coming now.  Heeyoung says it's because he doesn't want to pretend that everything's great.  They are really struggling in their marriage.  What could be a wonderful experience--living in a foreign country for a year, is turning out to be very difficult because they are together too much. I know there is a lot more wrong than just too much time together, but this has magnified their difficulties.   Heeyoung told us that the missionaries had come by, but she had to turn them away because her husband was home.  She had talked with missionaries in Australia before (I'm not sure when she was there) and really enjoyed visiting with them.  I told her she could listen to the missionaries at my home if she wanted.  She kind of brushed that away, she didn't want a "teaching experience." So, I said, "Well, the missionaries are coming to my house for dinner Tuesday night, you could just come, too."  She agreed to that.  I gave the missionaries a heads up and told them that I didn't think she'd want a discussion, maybe just a thought.
After dinner on Tuesday night.  We went into the family room for a "thought." The missionary read a scripture and told us why it was an important scripture to him, and he was done--trying to be respectful of Heeyoung's desires.  Heeyoung said, "That was so short..." So, we ended up having a discussion on the restoration.  The first thing the missionary brought up was how we have a loving Heavenly Father and he sends us to families so that we can learn and grow.  I wasn't sure this was a good way for the discussion to go because she's having such a hard time with all of her family relationships.  The restoration was also difficult because she has absolutely no religious background.  I don't think  she even knows much about Jesus Christ.  However, the spirit was there and the missionaries had a Korean Book of Mormon that they had found in their apartment, which they gave to her.  I texted her yesterday asking how she was doing and she didn't answer me, which concerns me. (She answered me late tonight--she'd been to Antelope Canyon, Monument Valley and Natural Bridges.  She said she was done with rocks :).  She hadn't had phone service to see my text).

I had another class on the Atonement this week.  The speakers were Elder and Sister Klebingat (of the Seventy).  Elder Klebingat began his talk asking, "What makes the Lord angry?"  The two points he made were that it displeases the Lord when we "confess not His hand in all things," and when we "receive not the gift." D&C 88:33 For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift (we don't allow the gift to penetrate our spirit).  The greatest gift being the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
He said something I found interesting.  He said that he had no doubt that he and his wife would receive exaltation.  He said that because they had chosen their path, that he had no doubt they would continue on this path, and there was no reason to doubt that they would reach their goal  I appreciated this thought because we have chosen our paths.  We need to be consistently repenting and striving, but we are on the path. We know where the path leads. We are sometimes so hard on ourselves that I think it is good to remind ourselves of this.
Sister Klebingat asked "What brings us to repentance?"  The answer is "The word of God."  She quoted a couple of scriptures. Jared 1:12 And it came to pass that by so doing they kept them from being destroyed upon the face of the land; for they did prick their hearts with the word, continually stirring them up unto repentance.  And Helaman 6:36  And thus we see that the Lord began to pour out his Spirit upon the Lamanites, because of their easiness and willingness to believe in his words.
Continually listening to, reading, and hearing the word of God keeps us striving to repent and keeps us on the path to exaltation.
Sister K also talked to us about our treasures.  We all know the scripture Matthew 6:19-21

19 ¶ Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

She emphasized that we can choose our treasures.  If we want the Sabbath Day to be a treasure, we will work to make it so.  If we want the scriptures to be our treasure, we will study them.  If you want a specific relationship  to be better, start to treasure it, and so on.  The gospel is all about change--and the atonement of Christ can truly change us. 

[Just a little correction from last week's newsletter.  I labeled the child on the swing as Maverick and mistook the beautiful skies as good weather in Texas.  That picture was Dojin and was taken in Utah.] 

I'm a lucky grandma because not many weeks go by without a visit from at least some of my children and grandchildren.  I tended Ori and Effie while Sara and Nick went to an ultrasound appointment.  I had asked Ori if she wanted grandma time or if she wanted Yuna to come over.  She chose Yuna.  So, Yuna came over and together they tried out our new swing set.  

Effie, Ori and Yuna

Ori and Effie
Note Effie's 'new look' with
her cool black framed glasses!

 We have also been able to enjoy a visit from Crista and her family--who, by the way, turned 25 this past week (Happy birthday!)

Caitlyn and Greta snuggling

1. 
   
    Ruby, chilling on the couch. (I can't delete that # 1.  I don't know how it got there)

 As you can probably surmise from reading all of my newsletters.  One of my greatest treasures is my family.  I am so blessed to have come from "goodly parents."  Doubly blessed to have a spouse that treats me as his queen.  And now, continually blessed with Roy's and my posterity.  

Elise sent me some notes on the Atonement that her mission president sent her.  In it he (then President Gessel) said, "Because bringing to pass our immortality and eternal life is His [God's] full time job, He applies Himself eternally and tirelessly and perfectly to the task of providing us with everything we need in order to fill the measure of our creation.  As we do so, He is able to have joy in His posterity, which is the ultimate meaning of human existence. 

I also loved this paragraph from President Gessel  (He quotes Tad Callister and others).

1. One of the problems with the Christian world’s view of Eden is that they see it as the ideal state for humanity. Eden for them is the Great and Spacious Cruise Ship, a place where all your needs are taken care of, where there is no struggle or trial, where all your cares can be forgotten, where you just lie back and allow others to feed and fan and entertain you. The only problem with this view of Eden as the Great and Spacious Cruise Ship is that it never reaches port. It never goes anywhere. There is no progression in the journey. Time and space and growth are all suspended as you float giddily on the ocean. Having to leave the Cruise Ship is the most horridly unimaginable nightmare. That’s why the Christian world sees it as a place that we would have loved to stay in forever, if it hadn’t been for that awful sin that Adam and Eve committed.
2. The problem with this attitude is that it totally misses the point that “heaven” is not an eternal pass to Club Med. It has created the widely accepted belief that earth life is terrible and heaven is a great escape to clouds and harps and no work and no responsibilities of any kind.
3. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of this concept of heaven is that it also requires that we be freed from all the “entanglements” of mortal life, including family ties, spouses, children, friends—because, after all, we can’t have anything in our lives that might cause us to have to get up from our lounge chairs and exert ourselves to do something worldly like have a conversation. Apparently the clouds in heaven are lonely, isolated little wisps of fluffy ice crystals that separate us from everything we came to know and love in mortality. UGH!
4. Eden, of course, was not a Cruise Ship or a Club Med, any more than heaven is. Instead, Eden was a transit lounge, a germ-free passageway leading from the perfections of God’s realm and preparing us to descend into the grime and mess of an imperfect mortal world.
5. The details of the fall are not clear; the snake and some other elements of the story are likely symbolic, but we have to make sure that we don’t make the mistake that others made in the past without the benefit of revelation. We must not conclude that there was some kind of violation of the Law of Chastity that resulted in all the posterity of Adam and Eve being born in original sin. “Such a doctrine,” in the words of Elder James E. Talmage, “is an abomination.”
6. part of God’s master-plan; “not a tragic step backward; to the contrary, it was a painful but nonetheless giant step forward in our eternal journey. It was the springboard to our ascent.” (Callister, p. 41)

We had our Easter dinner Sunday night because Roy and I will be out of town the next 2 weekends.  Below are pictures from the evening.

Easter egg hunt

Matt with Greta, Jennie on floor

Dojin knows that many hands make
light work!!

Greta had fun with the Easter eggs, too.

Being funny with the phone:

Earlier in the week Sara and Jieun took the girls to the zoo.

Ori and Ruby after swimming at the Rec Center 
(She took a really great nap when she got home)

We miss Elise and Andy, Max, Mav and Bev when we have these big family events. 

Phil's letter this week included this paragraph from my dad.  My dad told me that he had a firm testimony of the truth of the gospel, but there were 3 times in his life when he had "an epiphany" or an experience that confirmed his testimony in an extraordinary manner.  This was one of those 3.  I hope I can remember the other 2.
“I had one of the most significant moments of inspiration in my life. The pavilion was set out in the form of a + arrangement. The bottom area was the entry and counter. The displays then went east and back to the center, where there was a central display of the prophet, Joseph Smith, looking upwards towards a light; then displays went north and back, then west and back. After I had completed the circuit, I arrived again at the counter. I reached out to put my hand on the counter, and when I did, I was overwhelmed with a special feeling, an unusual inspirational event, and the words crossed my mind clearly, Vernon, this church is the true church. Although I knew this already, I had a most inspiring spiritual confirmation of this truth. While these words were crossing my mind, I was completely oblivious as to where I was. When I again gained my equilibrium, I knew I had been favored with an inspired message of assurance.”

I pray that each member of my family will have spiritual experiences in their lives that will continue to confirm to them the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ (and when you do, write them down so you will 'remember'). Sherri Dew said, "The best way I know to strengthen our personal testimonies and protect ourselves from evil is to seek to have as many experiences with the Lord as possible"