Sunday, April 24, 2016

We had Ward Conference today.  I learned two principles I wanted to write down.  Sis. Lisa Saunders taught out of Mosiah.  She went away from her prepared talk.  She reminded us about Limhi and the problems they were facing.  She read from Mosiah 24:14 about how the Lord will visit his people in their affliction.  He does not remove the affliction or use from the burden but he promises to make it light.  the affliction sometimes is necessary to make us who Father wants us to be.  It can be hard sometimes.  It is supposed to be hard.

Pres. Saunders taught us many things.  He told a baseball story about not living up to commitments.  He was a pitcher and was told he would not be needed to bat anymore.  he told the coach that he would be ready to bat if called upon.  He forgot about his promise and deep int he season the coach turned to him to bat and he struck out.  the coach reminded him of his promise and they he didnt deliver what he promised.  The principle that he taught that stuck out to me was how when we look back on our lives and are grateful for people who are patient with us.  They dont get frustrated about who we are currently as we struggle to become who our Father intends us to be.  When he was called to be Bishop his father told him to see people as who they are rather than who they will become less you add to the damnation of their soul.  We are grateful for those who have mercy on us as we struggle to learn what they already know.
Mari's baptism was a wonderful experience.  It is always a special privilege to baptism my children.  Iwas wanting to make sure I savored everything I could about this one.  I've told the kids that if they marry right this would be the last baptism I perform.  The Spirit was strong.  Grandma Mildred gave a great talk about Baptism.  She covered the covenants we make.  She has Kits Kats to hand out to the kids.  Mari felt the Spirit and began to cry.  It was as perfect as it could be.  Mari invited everyone she knows.  Most could not come but many did.  It has been a challenge to see by baby girl grow older.  I want to keep her small for as long as possible.  She doesn't quite fit on the lap like she used to.

I have great kids.  They try hard and seem to be making decisions that will provide them happiness.  Emma has had a string off rough outcomes.  She went to DECA state as a Finance competitor instead of marketing.  I think she did this do to a cute boy with a great smile.  She did not place high enough with State to go to the National competition.  I tried to suggest she play to her strengths but she was pretty determined to try something new.  She went to Drama State and did very well.  She did a Comical piece as a crazy Cheerleading Coach.  We went as family and watched her compete at Bingham High.  I thought she did very well.  She was easily one of the better performers.  The judge we witnessed judging her gave her a lower mark than Superior which kept her from medaling.  She took this hard.  To make it worse she and one other act where the only performers from the school who did not medal.  In the past Riverton and Lone Peak have tied for first place as the top school for Drama.  Riverton missed being the top school by one medal.  Emma felt like she should try to be an SBO for her Senior year.  She did not get that either. She is due for a win somewhere.  She wanted to compete for Miss Riverton.  I feel like she has been too busy trying to be everything that she had not been able to be her best for these things she has been trying.  She has been coping well.  She has had a great attitude and I have been very proud about how she has been handling it all.  She will be OK.

It might not have helped that eve has had some unique success.  She has been selected in being part of a Mormon Message.  She will be playing her cello in an inspirational message. We went to Provo for her audition an shortly after Tiffany got a call that she had been selected to be the cello girl.  tiffany took her to Provo a few days later to shoot the scenes.  They called a few days after that to have her do the voice overs.  They did this at the conference center.  Tiffany and I both went to that appointment.  They took us to a small recording studio.  I was impressed with all the buttons that were on the sound board.  Their were two women who where asking Eve to say many lines over and over in slightly different ways.  There was a man who was starting the recordings.  It took less than 30 min.  They let us know that the recording studio is used for many things by many important people. They recently had Elder Christopherson record his Conference talks.  He is fluent in Spanish and can do OK in Portuguese.  He prerecords his Conference talks so those who want to listen in their native tongue can do so with his voice.  They try to prerecord most of the foreign languages.  I think they said they record the messages in 77 different languages.  It could have been 44.  I remember ti was a big number.  They said the Elder Holland caused them some concern with he talks.  he likes to provide some ad-lib to the beginning of his talks.  it keeps them on their toes.  when they have a talk that is done in the "native" language they have a small army of translators who translate as the talk is happening.  This last Conference they did not have any native speaker which made them happy. 

Monday, April 4, 2016

I sometimes forget I have this as a way to keep a journal.  A lot has happened.  Regular season church basketball is over.  We are still in Region play.  We had a  change to the Region sports leadership and they are struggling to get a schedule together.  They had the Region championship during Spring Break/Easter Weekend.  they changed the last weekend to be a month later in April.  Allowed some stakes to attempt to reschedule games so all their players could attend.  It was a Deacons game against our ward and a Ward that had 5 players that play on super league teams.  I think they thought they were going to win big.  Kyle Chandler and Jared Medina played very well and by themselves won by a big margin.  My obligation is done.  Now on to Dodgeball.   We dont have a Region date for dodgeball yet.

We went to Disneyland over Spring Break.  We went with the Chandlers.  It was fun.  I don;t like amusement parks or crowds.  Easter weekend is the busiest time to be at Disneyland.  Melissa found a way to use fast passes so we got on all the rides we wanted to before the park got too crowded.  The weather was great.  We rented a home closer to the park so we could get out of the park and swim when the park got too crowded.  We went to the beach after two days at the park.  It was a fun lazy day.  We discovered that most of the kids need a tutorial on how to apply sunscreen.  Emma and Hyrum has very bad sunburns.  Emma had handprints on the back of her legs that we ok but the rest of was bad burn.  hyrum normally swims with a short but took it off for the beach.  He attempted to apply sunscreen on wet skin and it did not work.  We spent most of the night applying cold compresses.  I had my hands in ice water ringing out whatever rags we had to put on the burned skin.  We did it again Sunday night for the boys who where still struggling.  Mason had a bad burn too.  IT was a trip taht was fun but we were glad to be home.  I took the day off after we got home to sleep and recover.  The rest of the kids are still not right with their sleep.  Mari falls asleep on the way to school.  Emma can't focus and tries to get to bed early. 

Friday was the BYU alumni day for BYU Football Spring camp.  Keith gets us into a practice where we can watch what the team is doing and eventually intertact witht he players.  they always make me feel small.  Fred Warner made me feel like a little boy.  I got to meet Ty Detmer who has always been a sports hero of mine.  Since the Miami game in 1990 I have not been the same.  I told that I have two sports heroes in my life that if I hear they have done something bad it would destroy me.  He can;t mess up.  If he does it can;t make the news.  Hyrum always runs around and gets the players to sing a shirt for him.  we ran to Walmart on our way to the event to get him a shirt.  Eve came and got a few pictures with the players.  They served us JDawgs after the practice.  It was good times.  After the alumni event we got to watch the BYU rugby team beat up on Utah.  Ryan plays for the B Team.  Utah does not have a B Team due to sanctions that has depleted their team. 

While we were in Provo we went to an audition for Eve.  She was asked to auditor again for a mormon message.  They had her play her  cello trying to show different emotions.  She says it went well.  She was very nervous but felt good about the outcome.

We had a great General Conference this last weekend.  It is great to hear what has been prepared for us.  hyrum came to Priesthood session for the first time.  He and Jacob did great.  Pres. Uchtdorf made a Star Wars reference.  He thought it was awesome.  We built a tent like we always do.  We did not have as many of the traditons that we normally have due to our trip and Mari's baptism next week.  We didn't buy the baby food and make butter.  That is a weird tradition anyways.  Tiffany brought that one into the family.  I don't understand it and I don't participate.  It is always sad to see Conference end.

We had a good FHE tonight.  Tiffany has been weeding to get the home ready for Mari's baptism.  We planted some flowers as a family and we had a lesson on baptism.  We reviewed what the baptismal commitment is.  We reviewed KATS, CC, MM, SAW.  We reviewed how to stand in the baptismal font.  I asked the kids to share a memory from the baptism and Mari shared her testimony.  It is a special privilege to baptize my children.  It is a challenge to have them get bigger and not be my little kids anymore.  The next stage is fun too but it is different.  Whenever I think that I still want very little kids all I need to do is be around really little kids for a few minutes and remember the noise and smells that come with the cuteness.

Eve provided a sweet experience that made me very proud.  There was a new girl in one of her classes.  the way the room is set up the girl had to sit by herself at the back of the class.  Eve asked if she could go back and sit with the new girl and ended up eating lunch with her.  We used it as an example of how to fulfill your baptismal covenants.  Super proud of Eve.