Hurricane Sandy Service and Gratitude

Today I am grateful for service, for being part of a church that serves.

I saw this beautiful video this morning on my friend, Naomi's blog. I hope you will take the time to watch.  To quote Naomi, "It is a beautiful video of some of the recovery efforts put on in NYC by members of our faith.  I'm not sharing this video to promote my faith in your face or discredit any others who have been helping night and day the past few weeks to rebuild what Sandy destroyed, but I found this film to be so inspirational, it brought tears to my eyes. Whether you are of our faith or think we are complete crazies (hey now!), this is what it's all about, people.  A huge thank you from the bottom of my heart to all those who have selflessly served during this time of need." 

When Hurricane Ike struck the coast of Texas and Louisiana a few years ago, my son Easton was serving his mission for our church in the Galveston area. Galveston was one of the hardest struck areas by Ike. Easton spent several weeks and months being part of this "Helping Hands" effort. That service was one of his most favorite parts of his 2-year mission. This video brought tears to my eyes as I not only felt gratitude for being part of a church who cares, but as I felt gratitude to a son who serves!

Grab some kleenex! You'll need it!




Mormon Helping Hands :: Hurricane Sandy :: Rockaways, NY from Joshua Brown on Vimeo.

My Tannon

Tannon is now half way through his 2-year mission for our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints...the "Mormons") in Malaga, Spain. He was recently transferred to San Fernando (in the province of Cadiz, along the southern coast of Spain) and made a Zone Leader. We are so proud of him and the sacrifice he has made to serve the Lord for 2 years of his life. We miss him so much and are so happy that we get to see him again in ONE MORE YEAR!

The picture at the top is of a recent Zone Leader meeting he attended. Can you find him? Hint: count 8 from the left and there is my handsome boy!

Here is another photo of Tannon and several other missionaries working in the city of Malaga (Tannon is the one on the far left).

And, lastly, I thought I'd share a little excerpt from a recent letter. We live for our weekly email letters. We only get to talk to him twice a year (on Christmas and Mother's Day) so those weekly emails are precious to us.

Tannon said, "Missionary work is where it's AT! Nothing is cooler (except maybe football...just kidding). I've never been happier in my life. It's just awesome to work hand-in-hand with the Lord to bring the gospel to others. We work so hard every day and I love it!"

Oh, how I miss this kiddo!

Missing my Missionary

It's hard to believe that Tannon has been out for about 6 months now on his 2-year church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) mission to Spain. While we are at home thinking, "6 down, 18 to go," he is thinking, "6 gone already? I only have 18 left!" He is loving what he is doing and we are so very proud of him.

As we are moving this week I have been packing boxes of Tannon's trophies from high school sports and photos of him playing QB and shooting hoops. Oh, how I miss this athletically gifted child. How I miss his goofy sense of humor and zest for life!

Here is an exerpt from a recent letter we got,

"Gosh, it was a great week. I love it! Being a missionary is unreal. Even though sometimes I miss you guys and home and wish I was playing ball with Easton and watching Dawson become the next unreal all-state athlete in Utah, I just remember I’m doing what the Lord wants and I wouldn’t change that for anything. I love missionary life! I love teaching people the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s just so legit!"

And that is why we are so willing to send our boys away for 2 years at 19 years of age. That is why missing them is so worth it!

2 of My Favorite Things

Two of my favorite things are General Conference and Easter. How cool is it that they happened together this weekend?

I'm pretty sure you all know what Easter is, but maybe not General Conference. In a nutshell: twice per year the leaders of our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints..."The Mormons") broadcast meetings over a 2 day period (the first Saturday and Sunday in April and October). Each day there are 2 general meetings that last 2 hours each. I love them!

I feel filled with happiness and remembrance of what is most important in life as I listen to these wonderful leaders share their testimonies of their Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, as they give us wise counsel, and as they tell us the things we need to know. If you go here, you can see a brief description of what General Conference is. If you go here, you can view some of the talks from yesterday. My very favorite was a talk on the difference between love and lust given by Elder Jeffrey. R. Holland. You can scroll through the speakers and listen to him if you'd like. On Saturday night, there is also a meeting for the men (12 and up) called General Priesthood Meeting. The guys all get dressed up in their suits and ties and go to our local church building to see the satellite broadcast of this meeting. That means 2 full hours of a house void of testosterone. Woo hoo! Not that I don't love testosterone, but a break every now and then is nice! I decided to fill my home with as much estrogen as possible during those two hours. I invited my daughter, Kori and granddaughter, Daci (see photo. Unfortunately I got so busy when everyone arrived I forgot to take pictures. Darn!), Easton's girlfriend, Daysha, my sister-in-law, Cindy and her two daughters, Paige and Katie over for a girls dinner and evening of fun.

You can see a photo here of one of the place settings at the table. I had fun making and decorating a sugar cookie for each of my guests, and also gave each of them a little notebook to use to take notes during General Conference. I thought it turned out nicely.

We started out with a delicious "girls' food" dinner of Chicken/Broccoli soup, green salad and breadsticks. As the food settled we played a little game. I had each of the attendees let me know something that no one at the gathering would know about them ahead of time. I turned it in to a matching game and we had fun laughing and telling stories as we figure out which thing fit which person. Here were the 'adventures' on the list:

• Over 100 people have seen my bare tush.
• I won a best legs contest
• I broke into a baseball field at 4 am with my friends.
• When I was a little girl I secretly brought home a stray cat and kept him in my dresser drawer for months with no one knowing.
• In high school, I beat our quarterback in a push up contest in front of the whole school.
• I have a recurring dream of being the pink Power Ranger.

Hilarious! After guessing the 'culprits' we finished with a scrumptious eclair cake. It was a fun evening. The boys came home just in time to help with the dishes. Perfect!

Today, as we celebrate Easter, I am especially grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ and the gift of His infinite atonement. I know that He has felt my pains, sorrows, and sins. I know He loves me in spite of my short comings. I am grateful for this knowledge and try to live my life according to it. The painting of Jesus Christ that you see here today is a favorite of mine by Simon Dewey (you can see lots of his gorgeous paintings and purchase prints here). Happy Easter, everyone!

Board Meeting Invitations

Some of you know that I am the president of the Women's Organization at our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as "The Mormons." I LOVE these women. Twice a year we have a board meeting. There are over 30 women on the board who make our organization tick. I appreciate so much the service that they each give to make our Relief Society so wonderful. There are countless women and families in our area whose lives have been touched by the time and energy and love of the women on the board of this organization. Just this past two weeks alone we had births of 3 babies and a funeral. Food was provided for each of the families of the new babies for 3 days each and a family luncheon after the graveside service was provided for the family that lost a dear family member. These are the kinds of things the Relief Society does. I'm so proud to be part of such a wonderful organization.

I spent the morning today making reminder invitations for the members of the board for our meeting. This is the invitation I came up with. It's pretty simple, as I needed to not only get over 30 done today (that's what I get for procrastinating) but also delivered. As simple as they are, I still think they came out pretty. How can I miss with the wonderful products that CTMH provides?

Close To My Heart products used: Silhouette Creative Basics Collection (retired), Black Cardstock (1386), Colonial White Cardstock (1388), Black Stamp Pad (Z2105), Hollyhock Stamp Pad (Z2128), Heartfelt Stamp Set (B1297), Autumn Garden Mini-Medley Collection (Z1119), Designer Ribbon Rounds Hollyhock Collection (Z1122).

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