Talk

Last week ended my 2 and half years of good luck. :0) j/k... What really happened last week was I was asked to speak in church. I had dodged the bullet now for 2 1/2 years... Pretty good if I do say so myself. I only say that because I HATE, HATE, HATE public speaking. I get so nervous, feel like I never say what I meant to, and what does come out of my mouth makes no sense. So, with the loving support of my husband I endured this last week and the moments of giving my talk. I included my notes from it... if you want to look at them. Some of it is actual note, note... some of it is kind of written out of what I said. :0)

Intro.- originally fr om LV

moved to UT 6 years ago

attending nursing school, involved with scouts

Jared came about 10 years ago- originally from TX

majored in CS

working for ________ and also involved with scouts

meet Jared 4 ½ and started dating pretty soon after we meet

married 3 ½ years ago

we are currently hoping to adopt soon

grateful to talk, even though I'm much rather be hiding behind the piano

I was asked to talk about baptismal covenants and How they've helped me in my life

review of what the covenants are: always remember Him, take His name upon us, and to keep His commandments. I'd like to go threw and talk about each on individually for a min.

always remember Him

when we have a trial, think about Him- how is He feeling, seeing us suffer? what would He have us learn?

when we do have a decision to make- is it the path He'd have us be on?

going about our day, do we have a prayer in our heart, trying to follow the Spirit?

In Oct. 2007 general conference, Pres. Eyring gave his “O Remember, remember talk”; he's talking about a journal he started after his father-in-law did a service for him. His father-in-law said he's not doing the service for Pres. Eyring only.

“My point is to urge you to find ways to recognize and remember God’s kindness. It will build our testimonies. You may not keep a journal. You may not share whatever record you keep with those you love and serve. But you and they will be blessed as you remember what the Lord has done. You remember that song we sometimes sing: “Count your many blessings; name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.” It won’t be easy to remember. Living as we do with a veil over our eyes, we cannot remember what it was like to be with our Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, in the premortal world; nor can we see with our physical eyes or with reason alone the hand of God in our lives. Seeing such things takes the Holy Ghost.”

Like I mentioned we're adopting. This has been a blessing and trial both. I am going to talk about the trial end of adoption. In the adoption process you do not have much control. I often wish I could have some sort of 9 month warning that would let us know when we will be able to adopt. Unfortunately for me there is no such thing. Not knowing when the next stage of life will begin is very stressful for me. I like well defined plans. To bad life does not like any thing well defined. The hardest times in the adoption process is when I do not remember the Lord is near and is watching over me. I think of only myself and my desires. When I take the time to remember Him, remember His love for me, I am much more at peace about the situation. I Remember His love and awareness for me.

keep the commandments

obedience

Pres. Monson, in the Oct. 2009 Ensign gave talk on “Strength through obedience”:

quoted D&C 132:5 – For all who will have a blessing at my hands shall abide the law which was appointed for that blessing, and the conditions thereof, as were instituted from before the foundation of the world

“Obedience is a hallmark of prophets, but it should be realized that this source is of strength is available to us today”

freedom- seems like chains to be obedient, but it is definitely opposite

handful of LDS friends in h.s., non-LDS friends seem to choose to start drinking and be immoral while we were in h.s. To be honest, at first I was somewhat jealous. I wanted to go “have fun” too.

have the spirit with us

by keeping the commandments have had opportunities in my life I wouldn't have had if I had broken the commandments; IE. becoming endowed

take His name upon us

act as He would act

service

song “If the Savior stood beside me”

If the Savior stood beside me, would I do the things I do?
Would I think of His commandments and try harder to be true?
Would I follow His example? Would I live more righteously,
If I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me?

If the Savior stood beside me, would I say the things I say?
Would my words be true and kind if He were never far away?
Would I try to share the gospel? Would I speak more reverently
If I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me?

If the Savior stood beside me, would my thoughts be clean and pure?
Would His presence give me strength and hope, and courage to endure?
Would His counsel guide my actions? Would I choose more worthily
If I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me?

being an example to my friends growing up; helps me remember who I am, be the kind of person I want to be

more personal example would be Mel and Justin

A covenant is a two way promise. Heavenly Father promises to:

to always have His Spirit to be with us

it is a strengthening power to have His spirit with us always

it is a comfort to know that we're never alone in anything

think sometimes we do take it for granted and we need to acknowledge Him in ALL things

Elder Oaks, in his Oct. 1996 general conference address said this:

For faithful members of the Church of Jesus Christ, the companionship of the Holy Spirit should be so familiar that we must use care not to take it for granted. For example, that good feeling you have felt during the messages and music of this conference is a confirming witness of the Spirit, available to faithful members on a continuing basis. A member once asked me why he felt so good about the talks and music in a sacrament meeting, while a guest he had invited that day apparently experienced no such feeling. This is but one illustration of the contrast between one who has the gift of the Holy Ghost and is in tune with his promptings and one who has not, or is not.

He helps me (probably more than I deserve) through adoption struggle, with school, and in every single aspect of my life. Because of Him my trials are really blessings, and not that bad. We may not always see His hand in our life though. In fact, in my opinion when we think He has forgotten us is when He has the greatest blessing in store. Failing med/surg

like a chain reaction, if you keep the commandments, you'll always remember Him, when you always remember Him you taken His name upon you, when you take His name upon you have His spirit with you. By having His spirit with you, it is easier to keep the commandments.

bear my testimony

Scouting

As you all may know, scouting is a HUGE thing in our family. We are constantly doing something that has to do with scouts. Whether it's actually being involved in an activity, planning, or doing paperwork... Not a day in our lives pass by without doing something with scouts. Now to the point~ since scouting is so prevalent in our lives, I figured we need pictures of us involved with scouts. Fri. I had the opportunity to go on a hike with my younger cub scouts (8 and 9 year olds). It was a blast and so beautiful. Here's some pictures of our adventure. Hope you enjoy!

Along the trail

beautiful scene

playing in a pond

one of the scouts on a fallen tree trunk

Playing at the bottom of the waterfall

"The Lion King"

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go see the Broadway production of "The Lion King". AMAZING!! I loved every minute of it. The singing, dancing, acting, the special effects, the costumes... it was all wonderful. Definitely worth every penny and worth the time. Think maybe I can talk Jared into taking me again? :0) Here's some pictures I took on our way to the event.

Jared driving us... I think he was a little annoyed that I took this while he was driving. He still smiled though.

"We are lions! Hear us RRRRROOOOOAAAARRR!!!!"

This was taken from our sets. It doesn't look like they were great seats from the picture, but they actually weren't bad. The only complaint is because I'm so short I had to lean forward to see over that stupid bar (the gold on at the bottom of the picture). I was trying to get a picture to show how cool the backdrop was. Oh well.

Us waiting anxiously for the performance to begin.

If you go here you can see a little ad for it. I also found some youtube videos on how they made the play and all that good stuff if you're interested.

Once again... nothing new

Nothing so exciting going here. It's been a somewhat low key week. Our biggest excitement was car troubles. The engine light in our white car came on and the speedometer wasn't working! Some what long story short, an electric cable got ruined by rubbing up against something. You can ask Jared for more specifics :0) Cars aren't my thing. So after getting that taken care of, the car was making like a squeaky nose. The power steering tubing was rubbing against something now! lol Never ends. Luckily Jared caught it and fixed it. This problem is our mechanics fault and the tube will totally be replaced for free by him. So that's our big drama with the white car. Registration for both cars are due at the end of the month. I took them both in to get the necessary test and oil changes. Our green car failed one of the tests! It's muffler was going bad (once again, for more specifics talk to my husband). So we had to pay to get that fixed. I think we're done with car troubles though (*knock on wood*). Anyway~ other than that nothing to excited. Jared is still swamped at work. He probably will be for another two weeks or so. He's still loving the scouts. As for me, it's been nice not having to worry about school. I've been doing a little studying for my L.P.N. state board. I should be able to schedule a time to take it by Wed. or Thurs. Scouts for me has been... challenging. A lot of changes are being made (and hopefully soon) with my committee members. Until then, it's one day at a time with scouts, for me. That's about it for us. Hope every one is doing well and loving life!! We'd love to hear all of you are doing.

Buddy watches t.v.

So, the other day I put on "Bolt" to help me relax. Buddy was WAY into it. He started barking when Bolt was playing and barking. It was hilarious. We just put it on again to what he would do, and he did it again... all but the barking. He's some pictures of Buddy watching "Bolt".

Buddy watching "Bolt".

"Excuse me, do you mind? I'm watching 'Bolt' here".

4th of July... late

So I just realized I have these pictures of us doing fireworks on 4th of July. We celebrated with our sis.-in-law's family and Jared's sister and her family. We had a blast. Buddy did surprising well too... as long as he was by his "momma" :0)

Buddy getting comforted by Jared... most of the time it was me, but I guess I was too into the fireworks in this picture

Michelle (our sis.-in-law) lighting fireworks with her dad

Our cute little niece, Chelsea

Brian, our nephew, having fun with sparklers

Brian ready for the excitement to begin

Girls camp

These last few days we had the opportunity to go to girls camp with the 12-18 year old girls in our church. It was a blast!! Yes, we both went. I was there more than Jared, but he did come up as our priesthood leader for two days or so. It was so fun getting to know the girls and seeing how incredible of young women they are. I loved every minute of it. When they asked me to go as medical advisor I was so excited. I love girls camp and I don't see that changing any time soon!

3 of our cute 12 year old girls leading camp songs.

Some of our camp group... I think there was like 8 or 9 wards.

Some of the girls playing "Scum". So fun! Yes, we are in a lodge. The weather got so incredibly bad for two of the nights, so some of the girls slept in the lodge.

Our girls performing at skit night for the whole camp. They did an amazing job.

Playing twister with another ward. They did great! More importantly, they had fun.

Pictures

Pictures are up!! Take a look. Let me know what you all think!