January 2018

Time to blog about the beginning of 2018 before 2018 is over!  Whew, it's just flown by, right?  A few noteworthy things from January:

 For National Pharmacist Day, Husband and the other employees he works with were treated to a fun cake, as well as an article in the Salt Lake Tribune by none other than Mr. Robert Kirby.  A little recognition for your hard work is always a nice thing!

 (photo shared by someone else on Facebook)

 We had Stake Conference at the end of January.  In the adult session Saturday night, our Stake President was very specific in inviting everyone there to be there in the stake center the next day.  Seemed a little odd to be that specific when we always have to broadcast to the other building in order to accomodate everyone.  We got there and took our customary seat on the very back row.  We prefer this for many reasons.  1 - The kids can't push chairs back into other people's knees if there's nobody behind us.  2 - Mommy's crowd phobia deals with the back so much better than the front.  3 - It makes for a quicker getaway.  Someone from the high council invited us to sit closer and said we had an important visitor.  We were thinking an apostle maybe, but for all of the reasons listed we were perfectly happy to stay where we were.  After a short time, we noticed everyone by the back chapel doors stand up and a hush fell over the whole place.  I couldn't see, but I knew it was our new prophet, Russell M. Nelson.  I looked at Husband and he said "It's the prophet!"  It was the very first Stake Conference he attended as the prohet.  It was amazing to be in the same room, even in the vey back.  People immediately started sending out texts to everyone they knew.  By the time the Prophet got up to speak, it was standing room only and we were no longer the back row.   Our Stake Presidency asked us to record our feelings from this very special experience.  Here's what oiur family wrote:

For Family Home Evening last Monday we decided that as a family we needed to write down our individual experiences from Stake Conference.  I'm just going to type what everyone wrote here.

Little Brother(age 6)

I felt the Spirit when the Prophet had me and the other children sing I Am a Child of  God to him and his wife.  The spirit helped me learn that he is the Prophet when we sustained him.

Big Brother (age 8)

It was cool when the prophet walked in and we all stood up.  I liked singing I Am a Child of God.  I felt happy inside.  The spirit helped me know that he is the true prophet

Little Sister (age 10)

I felt the Spirit.  It was very strong.  I felt that I was special because he asked all the primary children to sing I Am a Child of God.  I felt like crying tears of joy because I knew he was the prophet.  He told me that I am a child of God, and I know that that is a miracle.

Big Sister (age 13)

What I felt at Stake Conference:

-It was very cool when President Nelson walked in and we all stood up.  That's when a strong spirit came into the room.

-The Spirit was also very strong when we all sustained him as our prophet.

-When he was speaking, the Spirit testified to me that this is a true prophet of God.

-When the kids sang I Am a Child of God, the Spirit strongly testified to me that Heavenly Father loves us.

-It was at this meeting I felt that I should not get a Patriarchal blessing yet.  (Brynn has been praying about this for several months now, and hadn't felt an answer until this meeting.)

Mom

I felt the Spirit bear a powerful witness to me that I was standing in the presence of the prophet of God.  I loved the amazing feeling that filled the room as he spoke, and especially as he had the children sing I am a child of God.  The Spirit bore witness of the truth he was speaking to us.  As he spoke, I could feel how much Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us.

Dad

I felt excitement and an overwhelming outpouring of the Spirit as President Nelson first walked into the chapel of our stake center.  I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to sustain him as the prophet and president of the church for the first time while he was present with us.  I loved listening to him testify of Jesus Christ and issue his blessings upon those of us in attendance that we might read and understand the scriptures, and that we might be healed according to the will of the Lord.  I have a renewed desire to continue to read from the Book of Mormon out loud to my children every day as the prophet challenged all the men in our stake to do so.

Little sister got braces!  Woohoo!  We went in for our typical 6 month appointment, and her teeth had finally made enough progress to put braces on.  They had an opening for the next day, so we jumped on it.  She was very excited and VERY nervous.  She ended up crying so uncontrollably that I finally had to threaten to leave the room if she couldn't calm down enough for them to put the braces on.  We finally got the braces on and she was all smiles after that.  She really like picking out the color of teal and kept smiling into mirrors to see how it looked.  She was a little sore later that day and for the next couple of days, but she's thrilled to be on the path to straight teeth.