This year has been particularly fun because of so many exciting things happening for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It's exciting to work so closely with the youth. It's exciting to have a prophet who is excited to receive revelation and let go of some things in the past and embrace the pure and simple truths of the gospel.
Life generally is very good. I'm beginning to love our home. I love the people in Texas but my heart still aches for so many in Oregon. I will say though, that so many people have moved from Oregon that if we were still there, I think I'd be pretty sad at how people have moved away.
Last week was a good week. I felt like we had some time to slow down and transition back into our normal life after our break which was awesome. Monday, Evelyn had gymnastics which she absolutely loves. She's very good at everything she's learning. I love that she's so happy while she's there and practicing at home. Hallie had VB practice. The two little girls and I started watching Anne with and E which is a darling little show that's a spin off of Anne of Green Gables. Hallie had volleyball practice. She's such an incredible athlete. It's amazing watching her pick up new sports so quickly. Taylor has been doing tons of babysitting this week. She babysits very regularly for the Rich family in the other ward. She's really grown fond of them. Rendell is sick. He's been sick for about 2 weeks with a yucky cold. That type of sickness hits him hard. McKenzie has had some fun soccer games to watch. Her little team just gets better and better all the time.
On Thursday, January 10th we took the youth to the temple as a ward. They did 133 temple baptisms. 130 of the names were family file names. We had 31 Young Men and Young Women there. They were so reverent and respectful while we were there. While this ward hasn't been an easy landing for me, I feel like I've really come to love and be thankful for so much that has come from this ward. The young people are teachable. That is very refreshing.
Friday, Taylor was able to cheer at the JV Boys game. They are a decent team so it was fun to watch the boys play. After the game we came home and at the request of the kids had a little movie night. We watched "Swiss Family Robinson." Evelyn had never seen it. It was nice to all be together. We used to really enjoy family movie nights on Friday nights. I'm happy the kids are wanting to do them again.
Saturday McKenzie spent the day with her amazing teacher Kathy Black. Kathy has breast cancer and is still pretty sick but McKenzie and her really bonded last year. We had a brief lunch with her at Maria's and then Kenzie and Kathy went and had mani pedis. This woman is incredible. She has gone above and beyond and we are so thankful.
Taylor invited kids from all over the Stake over for dinner and a little predance party. It's so fun that she's got friends from all over. I love that they gather and then go together to these dances. I hope this group stays together and strong for a very long time. They will love their time at the BYUs if they continue these incredible friendships. Hallie opted out of the dance for a babysitting gig. I can't say I blame her. She babysat for the Burminghams and they pay $20-$25 an hour so its a nice thing when she can go babysit for them.
Church was officially 2 hours on Sunday! It was amazing. Rather than being about endurance, it was about edification. I loved it. Sacrament Meeting was so good. Hallie spoke. Here is her talk.
"2 Nephi 2:27 Wherefore, men are
free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men,
or to choose captivity and death.
Heavenly
Father has given us agency, the ability to choose right from wrong and to act
for ourselves. Next to the giving us life, the right to make our own decisions
is one of God’s greatest gifts. While we
are here on earth, we are being tested to see if we will use our agency to show
our love for God by keeping His commandments. The Holy Ghost guides us and
helps us to make good choices.
We
are responsible for the choices we make.
For
the Strength of youth encourages us to “have the moral courage to stand firm in
obeying God’s will, even if you have to stand alone. As you do this, you set an
example for others to follow…
While
you are free to choose your course of action, you are not free to choose the
consequences. Whether for good or bad, consequences follow as a natural result
of the choices you make. Some sinful behavior may bring temporary, worldly
pleasure, but such choices delay your progress and lead to heartache and
misery. Righteous choices lead to lasting happiness and eternal life. Remember,
true freedom comes from using your agency to choose obedience; loss of freedom
comes from choosing disobedience.”
I
would like to share a personal experience about agency and accountability.
As
I have spoken about before, I play soccer on a pretty good team. A few months ago, I had a tough decision to
make. At the end of our season, we were
invited to play in what is called the Tournament of Champions. We were expected to do alright but no one had
any expectation that we would play more than 2 or 3 games before we were
eliminated. We played a lot of games
over the weekend and we kept winning the games.
We won to the point that on Saturday night we realized we would be
playing in the semifinal game on Sunday morning. We were super excited as a team to have done
so well but then we realized that we were the first team from McKinney to make
it that far in this tournament since 1982 and we were the first girls team from
McKinney to ever make it that far in the tournament we were even more EXCITED! The excitement was suddenly replaced with
major disappointment because we realized I wouldn’t be playing in the game
because it was on Sunday.
Typically
my coach has told me that if I showed up for a Sunday game he wouldn’t play me
because he knew my parents wanted me to be at church with our family. This time however, he said that if I came to
the game he would for sure play me. I
had a tough decision to make. I cried, I
prayed, I talked to my parents and to some teammates. Eventually, I decided not to play in the
early morning Sunday game.
I
thought I was ok with my decision until we won that game and were going to the
finals. Our team has won lots of games
and gone to lots of final games and done well in lots of tournaments but this
was a HUGE deal for our team.
This
time when the decision for me to make a choice as to whether or not I should
play in the final game on Sunday (just a few hours after the semifinal game I
had decided not to play in) the choice was much harder to make. It got to the point that I reached out to my
siblings, parents, grandparents and aunts and uncles and my YW leaders to pray
for me because I didn’t think I would have the strength to say no and stick
with it. I felt very torn. After a lot of thinking and deliberating, I
decided not to play in the game. I wish
I could tell you that my choice to not play in the game led my team to victory
and that we won the tournament. Well,
that’s not what happened. Instead, our
team tied with the other team and we went into double overtime. I play goalie or keeper and we lost by a
simple mistake in the goal. As much as I
was devastated that my team didn’t win and as much as I would have liked to have
been with my teammates when they received their medals for 2nd place
achievement, looking back, I am thankful I chose not to play on Sunday. I kept telling myself that if I chose to play
in this tournament, on this particular Sunday my team would ask me to play in
every game on Sunday for the rest of the time I play with them. Right now, they respect my decision to be at
church and at home with my family on Sunday instead of at games.
I’m
glad we have agency. I’m also glad that
a few years ago we memorized this quote from President Monson, “May we ever
choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong.” In
the name of Jesus Christ, amen."She did so great. All the Young Men and Young Women sang "Peace in Christ." The Spirit was tangible. The bishopric was crying, parents were crying. I think they even surprised themselves. The Bishop took the remainder of the time. His talk was good too.
We went right to Young Women and it was strange not all meeting together (I'm not sure how I feel about that yet) but it was so nice to have the girls fresh from Sacrament Meeting that was only an hour. They were ready to learn and we had a great lesson.
We enjoyed naps and our Family Come Follow Me about Jesus as a child when we returned from church. These Sundays are glorious.
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