The Weak and the Simple

 Doctrine and Covenants section 1 is the Lord’s preface, or introduction, to these revelations. It clearly shows that even though the membership of the Church was small, there was nothing small about the message God wanted His Saints to share. It is a “voice of warning” for all “the inhabitants of the earth,” teaching them to repent and establish God’s “everlasting covenant” (verses 4, 8, 22). The servants carrying this message are “the weak and the simple.” But humble servants are just what God calls for—then and now—to bring His Church “out of obscurity and out of darkness” (verses 23, 30).

I love the Doctrine and Covenants and this touched my heart.  My favorite D&C January Scriptures are:

D&C 1:4: "And the voice of warning shall be unto all people, by the mouths of my disciples, whom I have chosen in these last days."  

We are continually being warned of by the disciples of things that are happening and going to happen.  I remember growing up how much food supply, emergency kits were discussed at length and now we are hearing from almost every leader about our covenants.  

D&C 1:14: "And the day cometh that they who will not hear the voice of the Lord, neither the voice of his servants, neither give heed to the words of the prophets and apostles, shall be cut off from among the people."

I certainly hope I am not one that will be cut off, but I know I need to work harder than I have been at hearing the voice of the Lord and all we are told to do.

D&C 2:1-2: "I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.  And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers."

I have not done completely well on my spiritual work, but I have done it and that is a start for me.  I really love the Come follow me book and each time my ministering Elders come, they ask how my study is going so I want to be able to answer positively and I can, but I have not listened to the conference talks much.  I will be better at that as I know it is helpful to my day being brightened and my burdens lifted.

I have a very strong testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I am ever so grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints.  I am continually given tender mercies by my Heavenly Father and I don't give back as much as I would like.  So much room for improvement. I am grateful for my testimony, for a wonderful Prophet and all leaders that give such wisdom so freely.

The big 40

I can't believe my baby is now a 40 year old.  Where does time go?  Ambur is such a special person.  She arrived a little unconventially, but none the less she made it right into my arms and I have been grateful for her beauty, kindness, laugh, sense of humor ever since.  

As a baby she was just a delight she smiled and laughed and she slept through the night and I cherished my moments with her.  Not a day in the past 40 years has gone by where I didn't thank my heavenly father for her in my life.

We have certainly had some rolling emotions along the journey, but she is obedient (to some that is a surprise) and loving.  She loves with a passion and she is giving and kind.  I can't really write about her without telling at least one story of some challenges.  She is smart that is for sure and she has also been a little sneaky throughout her years.  I celebrate her today by sharing one of my favorite stories about her.

We were living in Arizona and I came home from work one day and as I walked up the sidewalk to the front door, there were Barbie dolls everywhere.  (I am not a fan of the barbie doll, but Ambur had probably a hundred or more of them).  So, I went into the house and let her know that if I find them out there again, I am going to pick them up and throw them in the garbage.  She showed her pouty face (which she is good at) and said sorry and went into her room.  In my mind, I think, that was a great little learning lesson.  It turned out that it was a great learning lesson.  Not for her, but for me, I went home a week or so later and much to my surprise, there were barbie dolls all out by the front porch again.  I felt so badly that I was going to have to pick them up and her not have them.  But I did it, I think there were probably about 25 or so and I picked every one up and in the garbage it went.  Imagine the lesson I envisioned she was going to learn about as I entered the house.  I looked at her and she looked at me with a strange look and I said, "well, I am sorry, but I did warn you what would happen if you left your barbies in the front yard again,"  She looked at me and said, "yes, I thought it through and cut a bunch of my barbies hairs and then took the clothes and shoes off and left them out there because I knew you would pick them up and I didn't have to."  She outsmarted me.  There are many outsmarting stories about this girl because she is good at it.

I guess it is part of her charm.  She has gone through a lot with her eyes including surgeries, eye patches, not being able to drive, being made fun of, tripping, falling etc, etc. and she has learned to rise above it all.  She sometimes has to really work at it, but she does it and I am so proud of her.

For her birthday we headed to St. George.  We have been seeing advertisements for Olive Garden that appealed to us so we went and had an early lunch with some favorites that had returned and then we headed to mesquite for a little fun in the sun then we headed back to St. George and ordered the other items we wanted to go.  We picked them up and headed home and got there before dark and it was just great.

We had a really fun day together and it was great weather and got some warm sunshine in Mesquite and had fantastic food and some good treats.  I love this girl and am grateful for her in my life.  She is so helpful and supportive and she listens to me whine and complain and she just loves me anyhow.  I love how much she loves her friends, her companion, Gimlet, her nephews and nieces and her brother.  She is responsible and good to call her dad and speak to him often and keep up to date on her Grandma Davis and it makes me feel good that she does that.  She is an amazing woman and I love her and am blessed.

 

January Family Dinner

I just love our monthly family dinner.  Most months, it is the only time I get to see my grandchildren and I think about each month very carefully and plan for it hoping to plan an experience that will bring some fun memories.  I look so forward to each month and the day after one happens I start planning for the next month.

To start off January I planned a bowling outing.  The food there gets some of the best awards in Cedar City so I saved up and rented a room so we could eat, bowl and have a great time.  It didn't disappoint.  For dinner there were chicken strips, hamburgers, soda's and foot long hotdogs.  Everyone seemed to really enjoy the food.

After we ate we all got our bowling shoes.  That was fun, fortunately Blaine knew exactly what sized to get.  Then it came time to go down to our lanes and pick out our bowling balls.

We got two lanes.  The far right is a normal lane and it would be Blaine, Kinsley, and Ashlyn. The lane next to it had the protectors over the gutters so NO gutter balls and it had me (I am actually a fantastic bowler but I wanted to see the newbys doing it--haha!), Maddox, Jaxon, Tessa and Ambur (who although blind, should have gone on the normal lane).   

Blaine was in charge of entering the names for both lanes.  Once he finished we were all set to get rolling the ball.

We got a great start, Tessa, in the no gutter lane, actually got the ball in the the next lane over and went all the way through the gutter.  They were laughing thank heavens.

This was pretty funny, Tessa let go of her ball a little too soon and it cam flying backward. She got it together and was smiling away.

There were lots of high 5's and Jaxon decided to show how strong he is by holding two bowling balls.

The normal lane got done long before us and played their second game almost before we got done with our first game.  Next time, I think we will do two games for the normal lane and 1 game for the no gutter team.

Jaxon wouldn't pick up his ball on the left side so he would pick it up and then walk all the way around.  Sometimes you just have to roll with it-so to speak.

And here is GrannyT as Blaine put it on the list.  I haven't been bowling since I lived in Arizona where I used to go often with friends, and it certainly showed.  I did get one strike through the night though.  I actually think everyone had at least one strike.

Gimlet just sat down by the shoes and didn't move all night.  It is always funny to me how when we are leaving, and she gets her halter on to go to work, people will say, "oh my goodness there was a dog in here the whole time.  

I thought I got pictures of both lanes final scores, but couldn't see them in the group.  As you can see we had a lot of  fun in our lane.  Kinsley did like pointing out to Blaine that he was beaten by his sister. Next time Ambur will join them and see if that holds true.

What a blessing to be able to go and have such a fun time together.  I just love these family get togethers even though they are not that often, I will take what I can get and feel blessed to have these wonderful people in my life.