Today I am very grateful for the safety of my family. In particular, I am grateful for an answer to prayers that has saved the life of one of my sons.
I often hear families pray for blessings of protection and my family does the same. The Doctrine and Covenants teaches us that the priesthood authority has the keys to the administering of angels and in my personal prayers I have often prayed for the protection and safety of each person in my family. Something very scary happened on Sunday after church and luckily, or with divine providence, Wes was miraculously saved from being hit by a car.
We've had lots of trouble with keeping track of Wes after Sunday meetings. We spend more time tracking that boy down in the church building! He's like a little leprechaun. You can stare at him for ten minutes without blinking and the second you take your eyes off him, bam!, he's gone. This Sunday we tried something different. It was a nice day and people were hanging out on the sidewalk. Nobody wanted to get in their car and drive home so we decided to stick around. There was a group of kids on the lawn away from parents and they were at least 15 feet from the road. The kids were old enough to know to stay away from the road.
Enter Mr. Wes.
He wanted to go over with those kids and I watched to see what he would do. He plopped right down beside the other children and had a great time (and sat in place) for quite a while. Some kids came and went. I looked over at him often to make sure he was ok.
Here's the scary part. Avert your eyes now if you have a queasy stomach.
The last time I looked over at the group of kids, I saw Wes standing up a few steps away from them. He was staring at the road, probably 20 feet away from it. I honestly thought to myself, "Is this what it's like to be a parent and see their kid for the last time?" There were no cars around. The road by our church doesn't have much traffic on it or I would have been by his side the whole time. Well, he suddenly bolted straight for the road. And two cars appeared out of thin air, heading on a collision course with disaster.
I ran toward him, but there was no way I was going to get there first. The cars were going fast. They didn't show any signs of slowing down. The first car had no reason to slow down because he wasn't going to hit Wes. The second car was so close to the car in front of it that it probably couldn't see Wes. Whatever the case, they sped on their way and Wes ran right into the road, just feet away from being hit. He was laughing hard because he loves to run. I got to him right after he got into the road, sat down and turned to face me. I had already looked to make sure no more cars were coming. Then I reached down to hold his hand, which he took, and then he followed me off the road and I took him to the car.
I was pretty calm at the time. Since then, I've replayed it in my head lots of times and have gotten pretty scared. I think Skyler might have gotten the worst of it. He was there with the other kids and watched Wes running toward the road. He started screaming for me, paralyzed where he stood. And he was on the verge of tears after the fact.
Crazy times. And I know that my Heavenly Father has given us a miracle. For days I thought, "Our life could be very different right now. We could either be at the cemetery or in the hospital with a critically injured boy. Big sigh!
We have been giving our thanks in prayer to our Father in Heaven for his safety and that he is still with us.
We sure do love that silly boy. We love having him in our family. He brightens up our day with his smiles, his laughter and his testimony. I know that the Lord put him in our family and now I know he has been preserved to stay with us. I hope it's for a good, long time.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Sharing the gospel, planting a seed
Each week at church, the brethren of the priesthood (ages 12 and above) meet together for announcements before going to our classes. During this short meeting, each quorum and group reports and announces their own business and events. Part of the time is also given to the full-time missionaries serving in our ward. They remind us of our responsibility to share the gospel and I love the saying, "every member a missionary". I try to make the sharing of the gospel a part of my life by speaking to people around me about my beliefs and answering questions. Sometimes it makes me nervous. Sometimes I fail to follow promptings. I'm sorry for those times.
Angie and I eat at a favorite Mexican restaurant. We love Mexican food.
A lot.
We frequent our favorite Mexican spots wherever we live. Well, there is a manager at this place that we go to that I've wanted to share a Book of Mormon with. We asked our full-time missionaries in the area if we could use a copy of El Libro de Mormon to give away. They were more than happy to provide us with one.
A few weeks later, when I remembered El Libro de Mormon on my office shelf, we took it down with us on date night and hoped this manager would be there.
He was.
And I got nervous during dinner. I recognized that nervous feeling as, "I'm nervous, but I'm going to do this anyway. I feel the Lord is near to help me."
You know me, I'd rather get it over and done with so that I don't have to feel nervous any more. I would have even talked to him during dinner - because he likes to make the rounds and see how patrons are doing. It turns out that his rounds were in another part of the restaurant and I was nervous that I wouldn't get the chance to see him before we left.
Well, I'll just jump to the end. I started wondering if I should give El Libro de Mormon to our waiter. He's a really nice guy that we've seen there a lot of times over the year and a half or so that the place has been open. But I decided that I'd give it to the man I intended it for from the beginning. On our way to check out I was just going to meander up to the cashier and hopefully catch his attention. It worked. When he saw me, I smiled and walked over to him. We shook hands and then I asked him if he had ever heard of The Book of Mormon. I held it out so he could read the title. "No," he said. He held it with one hand, but wanted to let go of it. So I just told him that I wanted to give him this book and that it was about Jesus Christ. He was very grateful (I think) and he accepted it. I told him I can answer any questions that he has the next time I eat there. That will be soon enough!
Back to our church meeting and announcements. After I shared that story, the full-time missionaries said, "Oh, ya. We met that guy this week and he told us about that." How cool! I wanted to find out from them what happened before going home, but I didn't get a chance to. I guess I know who I'm calling tonight. :)
I love sharing the gospel and bask in the warmth of the Spirit and the love of God for reaching out to his sons and daughters. We are part of the gathering of the House of Israel in these, the latter days. The Book of Mormon is the standard of this work and His people are being brought in, one by one. It is a miracle. I'm so glad to be part of it.
"So the last shall be first" (Matt 20:16). I have seen that firsthand throughout my life as the gentiles are being gathered and joining the House of Israel. I saw it on my mission in Bahia, Brazil and see it again every time I open my mouth to share the gospel and every time I see a person get baptized into our ward. How awesome is that!
Very.
Angie and I eat at a favorite Mexican restaurant. We love Mexican food.
A lot.
We frequent our favorite Mexican spots wherever we live. Well, there is a manager at this place that we go to that I've wanted to share a Book of Mormon with. We asked our full-time missionaries in the area if we could use a copy of El Libro de Mormon to give away. They were more than happy to provide us with one.
A few weeks later, when I remembered El Libro de Mormon on my office shelf, we took it down with us on date night and hoped this manager would be there.
He was.
And I got nervous during dinner. I recognized that nervous feeling as, "I'm nervous, but I'm going to do this anyway. I feel the Lord is near to help me."
You know me, I'd rather get it over and done with so that I don't have to feel nervous any more. I would have even talked to him during dinner - because he likes to make the rounds and see how patrons are doing. It turns out that his rounds were in another part of the restaurant and I was nervous that I wouldn't get the chance to see him before we left.
Well, I'll just jump to the end. I started wondering if I should give El Libro de Mormon to our waiter. He's a really nice guy that we've seen there a lot of times over the year and a half or so that the place has been open. But I decided that I'd give it to the man I intended it for from the beginning. On our way to check out I was just going to meander up to the cashier and hopefully catch his attention. It worked. When he saw me, I smiled and walked over to him. We shook hands and then I asked him if he had ever heard of The Book of Mormon. I held it out so he could read the title. "No," he said. He held it with one hand, but wanted to let go of it. So I just told him that I wanted to give him this book and that it was about Jesus Christ. He was very grateful (I think) and he accepted it. I told him I can answer any questions that he has the next time I eat there. That will be soon enough!
Back to our church meeting and announcements. After I shared that story, the full-time missionaries said, "Oh, ya. We met that guy this week and he told us about that." How cool! I wanted to find out from them what happened before going home, but I didn't get a chance to. I guess I know who I'm calling tonight. :)
I love sharing the gospel and bask in the warmth of the Spirit and the love of God for reaching out to his sons and daughters. We are part of the gathering of the House of Israel in these, the latter days. The Book of Mormon is the standard of this work and His people are being brought in, one by one. It is a miracle. I'm so glad to be part of it.
"So the last shall be first" (Matt 20:16). I have seen that firsthand throughout my life as the gentiles are being gathered and joining the House of Israel. I saw it on my mission in Bahia, Brazil and see it again every time I open my mouth to share the gospel and every time I see a person get baptized into our ward. How awesome is that!
Very.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
The feeling of "General Conference" is in the air
I love General Conference. The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints assembles two weekends a year,
in April and October, to listen to church leaders and get a full dose
of Spirit for the next six months. I look forward to conference
weekend for several weeks before it actually arrives. I’ve been
thinking about it for a few weeks now.
I like to listen to talks in my car
from the previous conference. I have made some attempt to keep a
growing list of my favorite talks and listen to them in the car too.
We used to have to buy the CDs from ldsdistribution.org, but now they
put the mp3s on lds.org and I download them within hours or days and
burn them to CD. I didn’t want my several years’ worth of sets to
go to waste so I gave them to other people to listen to. I was happy
to get back so many “thank you”s. The warm fuzzies made it all
worth it!
The new signin on the church’s web
site allows users to keep notes online. I’ve been marking
conference talks mainly, but also making some notes in the
scriptures. That came in handy one Sunday in particular. I can’t
remember if I blogged about it or not, but I’ve told the story many
times. One Sunday there was a mix up with the elders quorum
instructor and nobody had prepared the lesson. I borrowed an iPad,
accessed my notes on the conference talk and we had a nice lesson.
I love technology.
I also love that song from Naponeon
Dynamite, where I got those words/lyrics.
One silly thing about scheduling
General Conference is that it’s not on “the first weekend of
April/October”. It’s actually on the first Sunday and the
Saturday preceding it. The “numbers guy” inside of me has been
looking forward to this happening for a long time. I’m sure it’s
happened in my life, but I don’t remember when. I’m happy to see
that it’s happening this month. Conference starts on Saturday,
March 31. Woo!
Our family has a tradition for watching
General Conference that we started to get the kids excited to watch
it. We talk about this tradition leading up to it and Skyler has
already been talking about it. What do we do? We make peanut butter
popcorn and chow down as soon as the first session starts. We have
usually made a double batch, but found that it’s way too much for
us. That was enough popcorn to give us a treat during several of the
sessions and still have some left over after Conference weekend. We
have trimmed down our consumption to one batch.
Here’s the recipe. It's from our friends, T&L.
2 poppers popped popcorn, remove unpopped kernels
1/2 cup white karo syrup
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
Cook the sugar, honey and syrup for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add the vanilla, salt and peanut butter. Drizzle over the popcorn and stir. (This is the end of the recipe. Try it. And enjoy. Thank me later! :) )
1/2 cup white karo syrup
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
Cook the sugar, honey and syrup for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add the vanilla, salt and peanut butter. Drizzle over the popcorn and stir. (This is the end of the recipe. Try it. And enjoy. Thank me later! :) )
The peanut butter really stands out in
this recipe. It’s probably all the sugar and corn syrup. We
actually halved the sugar in the recipe and I think it’s tastier
now. It was too sweet before. (The recipe listed here has the amount
of sugar we use.)
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Bearing testimony in word and deed
There are so many exciting things going on in life right now! Family stuff, work, research is moving along, graduation gets closer every single day, employment ideas, recruiter phone calls and job interviews, and some game development that is going very well right now. This blog is for spiritual matters. When I talk about non-spiritual matters I for sure want to talk about how it relates to seeking the guidance of the Lord and receiving answers to prayers.
Well, today is the first Sunday of the month and that means we had fast and testimony meeting today. I share my testimony often at church. Part of it is to overcome fear, but I try to feel when the Spirit tells me to bear my witness of the Savior. When I feel it most strongly, it is a feeling that starts the day or night before. I just know ahead of time that I'm going to do it so I am usually the first one up. That helps my nerves too, to be the first one up. I don't like being nervous so I'd rather act quickly and enjoy the rest of the meeting while I listen to other people's testimonies.
Another reason for sharing my testimony so often started many years ago when I learned that my sins can be forgiven by bearing testimony to others. That's in Doctrine and Covenants 62:3.
There are days that I really feel the Spirit (or lack of it) telling me not to bear my testimony that day. Those fast and testimony meetings tend to have lots of other people bearing testimony. Maybe I'm just being told ahead of time to not worry about it. I don't know. But what I do know is that when I feel like I should do something, it's always better to follow the promptings of the Spirit than to follow my own way.
I shared my testimony today about how much I love the beginning books in the Book of Mormon. I'm not sure if it's just Nephi's (and Jacob's) writing style. I think it's because they are bearing their own witness of Jesus Christ and that touches my soul. Most of what is in the 1st and 2nd books of Nephi is pure doctrine. A lot of what comes in later books includes mundane topics like history and war, speckled with doctrine. The last few chapters of the Book of Mormon really focus on the Spirit again and I really like those parts. Then, when I start reading the Book of Mormon over again, I bask in the testimony of one of my favorite prophets ever. I just feel so happy reading the testimony that others have of my Savior. It's a huge strength and blessing to me. One day I'll meet Nephi and tell him thanks (if that's how it works in heaven).
I enjoyed hearing everyone else's testimony today. The one I'll mention is a friend of ours who bore her testimony about a scripture that I have been telling Angie about a lot lately. When this friend quoted it, Angie and I looked at each other. It was awesome.
The scripture that she quoted can be found in Psalms 46:10 and D&C 101:16. "Be still and know that I am God." I have had a lot of things on my mind that are important (or that I make more important than they should be, like looking for work and my game development hobbies). "[Being] still" has saved my sanity lots of days over the past several months, ever since I began preparing for my interview with Google.
Our friend said, "This scripture has meant different things to me during my life," and that is true for me too. But the recurring theme for me is that I bring too much upon myself and try to handle it all. I love working on ideas and accomplishing big things (or what I think are big). In reality, I just need to calm myself down and understand the Lord's plan for me and "...know that [He] is God."
I'm holding back on exploring new job opportunities right now. The main reason is because I've been told way too many times by recruiters and employers that I need to call back when I'm about to graduate and can move on short notice. This is a good problem to have, but it hasn't stopped me from applying for more jobs that sound too awesome to pass up. Looking back, I just started looking for jobs too soon. The other reason that I'm not looking for jobs right now is that I found something at a recent astronomy conference that might work out and they will wait for me until the summer. Even without that, I wouldn't be looking for work right now like I have been. It takes a lot of time and there are many software development job openings right now.
My testimony is that the Lord knows all. His ways are higher than my ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). When He tells me something and I feel and recognize His voice, I know that obeying will be the best thing for my life. Hands down. No complaining. Just do it.
One more thing that I want to say is that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are among the nicest and most charitable people I know. A friend of mine that I play a lot of board games with fell off a ladder a couple days ago. Long story short, he landed on his heels and broke them in a big way. He'll be off his feet for months. Several willing people at church volunteered to go build a wheelchair ramp at their home. It's an emergency situation for this family. I love seeing people reach out and serve.
I love being a member of this church.
Well, today is the first Sunday of the month and that means we had fast and testimony meeting today. I share my testimony often at church. Part of it is to overcome fear, but I try to feel when the Spirit tells me to bear my witness of the Savior. When I feel it most strongly, it is a feeling that starts the day or night before. I just know ahead of time that I'm going to do it so I am usually the first one up. That helps my nerves too, to be the first one up. I don't like being nervous so I'd rather act quickly and enjoy the rest of the meeting while I listen to other people's testimonies.
Another reason for sharing my testimony so often started many years ago when I learned that my sins can be forgiven by bearing testimony to others. That's in Doctrine and Covenants 62:3.
There are days that I really feel the Spirit (or lack of it) telling me not to bear my testimony that day. Those fast and testimony meetings tend to have lots of other people bearing testimony. Maybe I'm just being told ahead of time to not worry about it. I don't know. But what I do know is that when I feel like I should do something, it's always better to follow the promptings of the Spirit than to follow my own way.
I shared my testimony today about how much I love the beginning books in the Book of Mormon. I'm not sure if it's just Nephi's (and Jacob's) writing style. I think it's because they are bearing their own witness of Jesus Christ and that touches my soul. Most of what is in the 1st and 2nd books of Nephi is pure doctrine. A lot of what comes in later books includes mundane topics like history and war, speckled with doctrine. The last few chapters of the Book of Mormon really focus on the Spirit again and I really like those parts. Then, when I start reading the Book of Mormon over again, I bask in the testimony of one of my favorite prophets ever. I just feel so happy reading the testimony that others have of my Savior. It's a huge strength and blessing to me. One day I'll meet Nephi and tell him thanks (if that's how it works in heaven).
I enjoyed hearing everyone else's testimony today. The one I'll mention is a friend of ours who bore her testimony about a scripture that I have been telling Angie about a lot lately. When this friend quoted it, Angie and I looked at each other. It was awesome.
The scripture that she quoted can be found in Psalms 46:10 and D&C 101:16. "Be still and know that I am God." I have had a lot of things on my mind that are important (or that I make more important than they should be, like looking for work and my game development hobbies). "[Being] still" has saved my sanity lots of days over the past several months, ever since I began preparing for my interview with Google.
Our friend said, "This scripture has meant different things to me during my life," and that is true for me too. But the recurring theme for me is that I bring too much upon myself and try to handle it all. I love working on ideas and accomplishing big things (or what I think are big). In reality, I just need to calm myself down and understand the Lord's plan for me and "...know that [He] is God."
I'm holding back on exploring new job opportunities right now. The main reason is because I've been told way too many times by recruiters and employers that I need to call back when I'm about to graduate and can move on short notice. This is a good problem to have, but it hasn't stopped me from applying for more jobs that sound too awesome to pass up. Looking back, I just started looking for jobs too soon. The other reason that I'm not looking for jobs right now is that I found something at a recent astronomy conference that might work out and they will wait for me until the summer. Even without that, I wouldn't be looking for work right now like I have been. It takes a lot of time and there are many software development job openings right now.
My testimony is that the Lord knows all. His ways are higher than my ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). When He tells me something and I feel and recognize His voice, I know that obeying will be the best thing for my life. Hands down. No complaining. Just do it.
One more thing that I want to say is that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are among the nicest and most charitable people I know. A friend of mine that I play a lot of board games with fell off a ladder a couple days ago. Long story short, he landed on his heels and broke them in a big way. He'll be off his feet for months. Several willing people at church volunteered to go build a wheelchair ramp at their home. It's an emergency situation for this family. I love seeing people reach out and serve.
I love being a member of this church.
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