Showing posts with label gospel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gospel. Show all posts
Saturday, January 4, 2020
Monday, December 16, 2019
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Saturday, July 27, 2019
Sunday, April 21, 2019
Saturday, March 3, 2018
Dave and Seki and Seki Kim's Baptism
In December 2016 each person in our family decided to share a Book of Mormon with someone.
That is 10 Books!
I shared mine with Seki Kim at the kids' Taekwondo studio.
A year later (!) she contacted me wanting to learn more.
After a few discussions with the missionaries, they chose to be baptized.
They are a wonderful and sweet family!
Dave has now been ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood to the office of priest,
and they are looking forward to going to the temple in a year!
(Not pictured below are their adorable kids, Bella and Sebastian)
Monday, February 5, 2018
Leslie's Mission Call.....
Saturday, August 26, 2017
Reuben's Baptism! August 26, 2017
On August 26, 2017, Reuben Leland Bush
was baptized and confirmed a member of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
We are so pleased with his excellent choices
and have noticed he tries so hard to be helpful and happy.
He is such a sweet and good boy!
Friday, December 16, 2016
Monday, November 28, 2016
White Friday
Ever since our kids started being able to go to the temple, we've celebrated White Friday the day after Thanksgiving. Some of the things we are most thankful for are temples and eternal families.
We went to The Gila Valley Temple and spent the day driving, doing baptisms and initiatories and driving home again!
We went to The Gila Valley Temple and spent the day driving, doing baptisms and initiatories and driving home again!
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Conference t-shirts
One thing our family likes to do is to make t-shirts with our favorite conference quotes on them! This month we've enjoyed watching a talk each day from this past April 2016 conference and we each found quotes to decorate our shirts with. We made one for Elder Bush and his companion Elder Farnes as well.
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Happy National Scrabble Day!
The board game Scrabble is a lot of
fun to play. Just like any game, it can
be frustrating at times. Each person
gets 7 tiles with different letters on them, for example, A, E, O, Y, L, T, and
P. Each letter has points assigned to
them, and each player takes turns forming their letters into a word that can
reward them with the maximum amount of points.
The Scrabble board has some extra incentives that can boost a player’s
points such as Triple Word Score, or Double Letter Points.
It takes a certain amount of skill to spell a word
correctly, and to also merge your letters with the other players’ words, since
one rule is that you have to use the board words to create your own.
As I played Scrabble one evening
during a difficult and trying time in my life, I realized how similar the game
Scrabble is to life and the trials that can be given to us.
We all get 7 letters in Scrabble,
and we all get trials. Some letters are
assigned more points, but they are also usually the harder letters to make
words with. Some trials seem harder than
others, but trials can also be the way learn and grow. We are given the agency needed to choose our
response and our learning options in every adversity. Someone once said, “Adversity is mandatory,
misery is optional.” Elder Orson F. Whitney said:
“No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. … All that we
suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds
up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more
tender and charitable. … It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and
tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire.”
The Scrabble board does have
incentive spaces for Triple Scores, etc. and sometimes in life, our trials seem
to elevate us in other’s eyes with feelings and expressions like, “Wow, you
will certainly be rewarded in heaven for this one!” However, Heavenly Father knows our own
efforts and the letters or trials we are using in our growing process. We do not need to compare our own issues and
trials with others’ problems. Just as
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf counseled us to “not judge because we sin
differently”, we also need to not judge because we are going through different
adversities. The pioneers endured losing
their homes and walking across the plains, and that is putting it mildly. Today, we are in danger of losing our
families and surfing the Internet, and that is putting it mildly as well! If we adapt an old adage, “one man’s trials
may be another’s treasure.”
Elder Neil L. Anderson said this in the 2012
October General Conference, “By definition, trials will be trying. There may be anguish,
confusion, sleepless nights, and pillows wet with tears. But our trials need
not be spiritually fatal. They need not take us from our covenants or from the
household of God.” He then added,
“Like the intense fire
that transforms iron into steel, as we remain faithful during the fiery trial
of our faith, we are spiritually refined and strengthened.”
We are not playing the Scrabble
game or the game of life alone. Each
player takes turns putting their words on the board, and sometimes that means
we have a spot that is taken or a letter that helps us find a better word for
more points. It obviously varies in
hurting or helping in the Scrabble game.
The difference is that we really do need each other in the game of
life. We cannot progress in or through
our trials without the assistance of family, friends, church leaders, and the
righteous world around us. Elder Robert
D. Hales said, “I …
learned that I would not be left alone to meet these trials and tribulations
but that guardian angels would attend me. There were some that were near angels
in the form of doctors, nurses, and most of all my sweet companion, Mary. And
on occasion, when the Lord so desired, I was to be comforted with visitations
of heavenly hosts that brought comfort and eternal reassurances in my time of
need.” We certainly cannot
succeed in overcoming trials without our Heavenly Father’s help or our Savior’s
help. In John 16:33, the Savior is
quoted as saying, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might
have peace. In the world ye shall have
tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Because our Savior descended below us all
(Doctrine and Covenants 122:8), He knows us intimately and eternally. He knows everything about us, including our
weaknesses, trials, and struggles. He knows
our joys as well, and He knows how to help us find joy in our jumbled journeys. When we turn to Him, really turn to Him, we
find the true help that we need.
In the game Scrabble, you can
choose to turn in all your tiles for a new set of 7 tiles. In doing so, you skip a turn. It is a risk, because you might get 7 new
tiles that you don’t like! Can we ever
turn in our trials? No, we can’t just
get rid of them that quickly. Instead,
if we ask God in humility for the strength we need to either continue in our
trials or to be delivered from them, He will help us. He helped Nephi as he was bound with
cords. Nephi prayed aloud with faith for
deliverance and strength to burst through the bands. When he said these words, “behold, the bands
were loosed from off [his] hands and feet, and [he] stood…” (1 Nephi 7:17-18). Our Father in Heaven knows what lessons we
need to learn, what characteristics we need to acquire, and who we need to
become. Therefore, He will allow us
deliverance if it is the right time, or He will allow us strength to continue
to climb up through our trials.
There is a pretty big bonus point
awarded for using all the tiles in our ownership. 50 points are given to the player who can use
every tile in one turn. This makes
everyone during the course of the game try different variations of their tiles
and hope for that one special word to appear.
This can be likened to learning all that we can from the trial we are
enduring. If we use every experience we can to help us along our life, then we can move
on from this tumultuous time to a time of peace and H-A-R-M-O-N-Y (65 points!). Even if the trial does not
abate, the peace that comes from accepting God’s will is a deliverance from the
anguish that oftentimes we add in and include in the difficult circumstances in
our lives. As I mentioned earlier, “adversity
is mandatory, misery is optional.” We
will all have trials, but we will never give up. Sister Julie B. Beck quoted a pioneer sister
who said, “The kingdom of heaven, or nothing!”
We will not fail, we will not falter.
We do not have to sink into misery, despair, or delusions that it is not
worth it. Heavenly Father is
loving. He loves each one of us. He is worth it. Being with Him and being like Him is worth
every effort we can give to obtain that sweet, peaceful, and loving eternal
gift. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Monday, March 28, 2016
Easter 2016
Coloring eggs....
The Egg Hunt!
On Sunday, Gideon wanted a snack so he grabbed an apple and opened a kitchen drawer for the apple slicer. He "got distracted" and started running around the house with two spatulas, acting out the part of a very fierce ninja. When he ran back into the kitchen, he ran straight into the open drawer and crashed his forehead into the corner. He fell to the ground bleeding. After cleaning Gideon up, Bob borrowed some superglue from the Peñas and put "Humpty Dumpty" together again.
The very sweet moment happened during Gideon's prayer for lunch.
He thanked Heavenly Father for Easter and for Jesus and that we can be healed.
He put the two events together - his pain, and the Savior's ability to heal us because of Easter.
I'm thankful for the sweetness of the Savior's love this Easter.
Our beautiful/handsome kids waiting for Easter dinner....
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