

We had a talk with our daughters last night about what it means to be worthy to go to the temple. (For those of you who aren’t Mormon and are curious as to what it means to be worthy to go to the temple, I suggest you read this.) Here’s the conversation.
Me: “So girls do you know what you have to do to be able to go to the temple someday?”
Abigail: “Yeah, we have to keep the commandments?”
Me: “So, what exactly are you not supposed to do if you want to be able to go in the temple someday?”
Abigail: “What?”
Me: “Well, dad is about to tell you.”
LG: “You have to keep the Word of Wisdom, The Law of Chastity, pay your tithing, have a testimony.”
Abigail: “What is the law of chastity again?”
LG: You know, it’s the law that says you can’t have sex until you get married.”
Abigail: (embarrassed) “Oh yeah.”
LG: “So girls, just don’t have sex and no drinking Budweiser, and you’ll be worthy to go to the temple someday. Got it?”
Abigail: “What’s butt weiser?”
Abigail: “Yeah, that’s because you have all these kids now.”
Last Sunday was our Stake Conference.
Elder David A. Bednar was presiding. I felt so humbled and privileged to be in the presence of a modern day Apostle.
I wished I would have invited all of Knoxville to attend the meetings with me. I also wished that all of Knoxville was willing to believe that there really are modern day Apostles who speak as the prophets of old.
I cannot even begin to describe the feelings of my heart.
The message Elder Bednar delivered made me realize so strongly that the messages given by the leaders of the church are not about the man who is delivering the message. But, the messages are really about the Savior Jesus Christ, who Apostles are privileged to be a special witness for.
One of the most touching moments of the conference for me was the message of receiving power through the atonement of Christ.
Many people consider the atonement as only a sanctification through forgiveness of sins, but Elder Bednar instructed so profoundly that the atonement is also the way which each of us individually gains the strength of God.
With God, all things are possible.
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. ~ Philipians 4:13
And, it’s Wednesday, so here is a video that I thought was inspiring.
It illustrates that we have got to push ourselves and trust in something beyond our limited vision and we can accomplish more than we ever thought was possible.
And, there should be no other perfect person to place that trust in except for God himself.
We recently saw some friends that we haven’t seen in about six years. We used to go to church together in Utah. Marie reminded me of a funny thing that I did once. I’ve told you before that I am such an idiot. Marie says that the following is a story that she shares often about her crazy friend who worries people constantly…you never know what might come out of my mouth.
So, Marie and I were at church choir practice. And after the practice it was typical for everyone to visit and eat delicious refreshments provided by the perfect Mormon hostess/choir director, Nancy. After a perfect hour of music, Nancy asked me to say the closing prayer and to bless the refreshments. I gladly obliged.
During the middle of the prayer, I realized that the typical Mormon phrase of “bless this food to nourish and strengthen our bodies” wasn’t going to work…they were desserts for heaven sakes! So, I improvised with, “please bless the refreshments, that they”…..um…think fast, Alice!….no, you can’t say not make us fat!…that may really offend that fellow Weight Watcher friend….um….think…think…fast. “Please bless the refreshments, that they won’t make us …. sick!”
That’s the best I could come up with. Needless to say, after the Amens, and everyone lifted their chins and opened their eyes, all eyes were on me and all jaws were dropped. Nancy (being the perfect Mormon that she was) showed great restrain and didn’t kick me out of her house. She was perfectly composed and ignored me all together. I hadn’t even thought about offending her by alluding to the fact that I thought her food would make us sick.
I quickly tried to make it right, “Nancy, I am so sorry, you know I love your food…it’s some of the best ever….I just couldn’t think that fast…they’re refreshments, they aren’t going to nourish us and I thought sick was a better choice than fat.”
Nancy didn’t react at all. I don’t thinks she ever cared for me much after that. My Weight Watcher friend, on the other hand, said, “You should have said fat!”
And who knew that I had a comic routine on my hands. Here’s a clip to prove the point.
I recently read this post about some local youth ministers being charged with the sexual misconduct towards the girls they had been entrusted to minister.
I just couldn’t help but think about something our Bishop recently said.
He told us of a story where a church leader went to visit a Stake Conference far away. The Stake leaders showed up at the airport in jeans and t-shirts and it went downhill from there.
On the leaders way out the Stake President asked him why he obviously wasn’t impressed by his stake. The general church leader responded with, “I knew we were in trouble, the minute we got off the plane and couldn’t decipher you and the other leaders from the rest of the crowd. You don’t go down to the level of the youth to help them, you stand strong where you are at and they will want to reach up.” Something like that…don’t know if the story is even true; it was just repeated by our Bishop and things could have been added or taken away or tweaked along the way.
But, even if it wasn’t true. I am a believer now of the fictional or non-fictional story. Look at these two Youth ministers. And, I had typed a few more sentences here, but I will just leave the post at this. I pray for the victims and the perpetrators.
And, I also pray for the leaders who wear suit and ties in public yet still manage to hurt children behind closed doors. I believe strongly in following my gut as a parent and being very careful with whom I trust. And by golly, if I ever find out that any one of the people that I chose to trust has hurt my child for life, I hope they have a very very good pillow for their cell.
It means you are the same kind and you love each other.
They just stand by each other and love each other.
And we put the spider and the pig together because we only have one spider and one pig.
Mom, you think you are so funny.
You’re not.
I know I’m not funny. To you. Ha ha.
Dad thinks I’m funny.
That’s only because he’s your love pair.
(And I totally just took literary liberty here with this last sentence)
So, what kind of love pair is this?
Oh the butterfly and caterpillar aren’t a love pair.
The caterpillar is too little.
And, they aren’t married yet, right?
Right.

Thanks to an old friend, Jen Guthrie, for a really funny piece of entertainment.
I was really happy to find Jen’s new blog.
I haven’t talked to her in years. And her and Paul are crazy funny.
I know that I am going to be in trouble for dissing on the South again, but I have to tell you something that I noticed on our vacation out west.
The customer service in Utah was just so much better than what we get here.
Do you think it’s because Mormons aim to please?
Or maybe because today’s kids just don’t really care?
Next time I am going to keep my order simple and see if I can get some service with a smile.
LG: “Alice, we have to have a garden this year so that we can teach the kids how to work. And we can put up (that’s what they call canning in the south) some stuff and build our food storage.”
Me: “But, I am going to have to do everything, and I am already babysitting two kids this summer. And you are starting your practice, and we are already so busy. Can’t we just buy some canned goods and call it good this year? We did just buy our wheat and our emergency water buckets, doesn’t that count for the Stake’s goal of building our supply by one more month this year?”
LG: “No way. C’mon it will be really good for the kids. I will get out there and weed with them every Saturday.”
Me: “Alright, if you promise that you’ll get out there with them. I don’t need one more thing right now.”
LG: “I promise.”
Score: LG – no weeding Me – 3 weedings The kids – 10 minutes of weeding
The Garden – growing amazingly without enough weeding
And, I must add. LG did all of the rototiller, so he’s not in the doghouse because of the weeding. But, he better help me put some of this stuff up or he will be.
15 tomato plants
The raspberries are starting well.
It’s too bad we will probably move before they ever flower.