Week of August 22 - 28, 2016

Highlights:

Spiritual
Dad attended a session at the Idaho Falls Temple on Tuesday evening. Dad finished work early and we both attended a wonderful session at the temple on Friday evening.

Church on Sunday was wonderful and inspiring. We were told about an upcoming stake realignment in October. They will take our stake, Glendale North Stake, and Peoria North Stake and create a third stake. Nano had similar changes occur in her area last week. We had a wonderful message in Relief Society that was from  the April 2016 General Conference message by Jeffrey R. Holland entitled "Tomorrow The Lord Will Do Wonders Among You."https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/tomorrow-the-lord-will-do-wonders-among-you?lang=eng  
Elder Holland is a kind and loving apostle in our church. In this talk, he shared words of comfort and encouragement. I have included some here that particularly touched my heart

Please remember tomorrow, and all the days after that, that the Lord blesses those who want to improve, who accept the need for commandments and try to keep them, who cherish Christlike virtues and strive to the best of their ability to acquire them. If you stumble in that pursuit, so does everyone; the Savior is there to help you keep going. If you fall, summon His strength. Call out like Alma, “O Jesus, … have mercy on me.”⁷ He will help you get back up. He will help you repent, repair, fix whatever you have to fix, and keep going. Soon enough you will have the success you seek.

“As you desire of me so it shall be done unto you,” the Lord has declared.

“… Put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good—yea, to do justly, to walk humbly, to judge righteously. …

“… [Then] whatsoever you desire of me [in] righteousness, … you shall receive.”

I love that doctrine! It says again and again that we are going to be blessed for our desire to do good, even as we actually strive to be so. And it reminds us that to qualify for those blessings, we must make certain we do not deny them to others: we are to deal justly, never unjustly, never unfairly; we are to walk humbly, never arrogantly, never pridefully; we are to judge righteously, never self-righteously, never unrighteously.

I had lots of time to read, so I read the entire September Ensign Magazine this week. It was very beneficial to me, and some things that had been part of my prayers were answered.

President George Q. Cannon once taught: “No matter how serious the trial, how deep the distress, how great the affliction, [God] will never desert us. He never has, and He never will. He cannot do it. It is not His character [to do so]. … He will [always] stand by us. We may pass through the fiery furnace; we may pass through deep waters; but we shall not be consumed nor overwhelmed. We shall emerge from all these trials and difficulties the better and purer for them.”⁹

Now, with that majestic devotion ringing from heaven as the great constant in our lives, manifested most purely and perfectly in the life, death, and Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can escape the consequences of both sin and stupidity—our own or that of others—in whatever form they may come to us in the course of daily living. If we give our heart to God, if we love the Lord Jesus Christ, if we do the best we can to live the gospel, then tomorrow—and every other day—is ultimately going to be magnificent, even if we don’t always recognize it as such. Why? Because our Heavenly Father wants it to be! He wants to bless us. A rewarding, abundant, and eternal life is the very object of His merciful plan for His children! It is a plan predicated on the truth “that all things work together for good to them that love God.”¹⁰ So keep loving. Keep trying. Keep trusting. Keep believing. Keep growing. Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow, and forever.

A sister shared an experience where she literally felt many cheering her on, both on this side of the veil and on the other side of the veil, supporting her and sustaining her through her difficult times. It happens to each of us, whether we realize it or not.

I am so thankful for this knowledge.

I am in 2 Nephi 14  in the Book of Mormon.

I have indexed 25932  records so far this year. 

Family

The Wilkins Family
Good last week of Summer for this family! Grace again was an awesome Cub Reporter! On Wednesday, they enjoyed early morning bowling and then McDonalds. The new curtains for her room are being hung and she is so excited! She's is also excited for her birthday next week!

There was a youth Pokemon Go activity at mutual on Thursday that the whole family was invited to. Grace wasn't so happy because her friend wanted to play Pokemon Go rather than with her.

They are preparing for school to begin on Monday and Grace is so excited: School starting and her birthday all in one week!! And they hope for a family trip to St. George Utah next Friday.


The Ethan Rice Family
Cameo and Kaylee held down the fort and worked...

Ethan traveled to and from Phoenix during the week for a brief business trip. He and his associates attended a Diamondback game on Thursday night. They played against the Atlanta Braves. Not sure who Ethan was cheering for. He stopped by for a visit on Thursday morning before he picked up his work associate at the hotel and headed to the airport to go home.So very nice to see him!

Cameo met up with a cousin of hers on Wednesday...
 
And also made a new friend who was at their front door...


 It was fun to hear Kaylee's voice as she waited for Mommy to get done working. I bet she is so enjoying being home with her Mommy all the time!!!

Some other fun Southern experiences for the week:

Kaylee's grilled cheese sandwich came in this cool car box!

The family's first trip to a Publix grocery store.

The Doran Rice Family
This family is good. I received this on Tuesday

I truly think the detainees at Sheriff Joe's Jail are happier about their punishment "loaf" thank he was about this hot dog!

Morgan
No news from Morgan and Christy this week. Must be very busy working!

Kayty
Kayty had a good week, though her Monday started out pretty bad. Her endocrinologist wanted her to use a Continuous Glucose Monitor for a week to see what's going on. It was a very painful installation, with a large needle poked into her abdomen to insert a sensor. By the time she got home, the sensor had quit working, so she returned the next day to have the thing removed and wait till another one comes in. Other than that, Bachelor In Paradise was good, work went well.

Total saves this week: 1

The Nathan Rice Family
A picture from their trip to Utah

They spent the days after dad left just enjoying the last days of this break from school before it begins on September 12.

Work

Dad worked through his vacation, and had a full work day on Friday, full of meetings. He learned that the layoff that was to happen weeks ago had not happened yet. So much for feeling a bit of relief!

My work for the week included emptying a/c water buckets, feeding, watering, and cleaning up chicken bowls, gathering eggs, cooking, shopping, dusting, vacuuming, laundry, made visiting teaching appointment, mailed a package and two letters at the post office, kept the cat happy, searched for the unhappy cat, went through the games on the playroom shelf and tossed the incomplete, got some ready to sell and some ready to donate to d.i. , sold things from the playroom that I am not keeping on the swip swap, did a phone visit when the sister had to cancel our visiting teaching appointment, scooped a dead mouse from the bottom of the pool, scooped out gallons of water from the boat cover, took the trash cans down the road and brought them back, installed gutter drains, LOTS of weed pulling.


Dad's Garden
I harvested basil and kept peppers flourishing.

Dad's Truck
No truck work this week.

Year of the House
We found out what router bit is needed and dad ordered it.

Other highlights
Dad's Idaho Vacation continued on Monday

Dad and Nathan grocery shopped: a scary thing for those who might have to ingest what they bring home. He had menudo for brunch and a Korean dish for lunch and he made Chinese Kung Pao for them for dinner.

During the day, they toured BYU I

This is the entire Book of Mormon printed on one page. The magnifying glass is at the side.

A copy of the Rosetta Stone

Dad and Nathan had a good trip to and from Twin Falls on Tuesday. They visited a supplier of Dads and even were taken out to some pretty good Mexican food. They found an Asian market that had all the sauces Nate needs to make Chinese like Dad does. Dad went to the Pocatello Temple on Tuesday night.

They went fishing after enjoying the morning on the front porch of the apartment. Nathan has some beautiful tomatoes and basil growing on his porch! Annalee loves to help harvest...tomatoes as well
as leaves.

Fishing was great...

Idaho also has very brave cats!

On Thursday, they all ate breakfast out, had an adventure at Mesa Falls...

Look how beautiful this is!

And then on the airplane

We picked prickly pears from our front yard...

Jelly to come next week. 

Dad scored big at the yard sales this week. A neighbor is moving...selling his house (Sonny, the one that lives in Ernie Bunch's old house) sold dad a ton of tools, brand new boxes of nails, etc. for a great price.He also got an old war movie and a western. We watched part of the war movie about Rommell, one of Hitler's generals in World War II. It was interesting that the German officer spoke with a very British accent! It was a very old movie...black and white.

Kayty brought home "Zootopia" and we enjoyed watching that. Or, rather I liked it until I fell asleep and woke up at the very end. I "see" lots of movies that way!

Not so highlights