Feb 4
I bore my testimony and went to a stake RS presidency mtg. Ross taught gospel doctrine and made chicken fried rice for dinner. I got the koolaid guessed right the first time -- tropical punch blue raspberry lemonade. Jill got a cool bom liahona cookie. Emma taught cfm and we did a race and made chains of Satan's temptations. Jill and I won! It's super windy outside. My coworker in Rocklin lost power.
Two ward conferences (both two hours -- my current ward and old ward), two Relief Society lessons to teach in, pass a handout out and play closing song. Stake camp meeting and level leader (I'm 5th level asst), meeting prior. Ross stayed after church with kids for Sunday Study. He made cashew chicken for dinner. Jill gave our Come Follow Me lesson (all by herself) and bore her testimony at the end. We watched the Line Upon Line episode and the season 3 finale of the Chosen. The girls and I baked sugar gems to get ready for Valentine's Day. Now off to bed. I'm loving these antibiotics!! Feeling so much better!
Stake council meeting, Abby gave her Sacrament meeting talk (2nd youth speaker, spoke 7 min), rain in the pool, Emma taught Come Follow Me (one question per person from John 1 and passed out candy), Pay Day game as a family (Abby won), Jane prepped lemons for lemonade, Ross and Allen went on a ministering visit, chicken salad on croissants and soft tacos and Chinese leftovers. Watched episode 6 of The Chosen.
After church and the after-church singing practice we went home and in the afternoon I had the opportunity to eat with a date at Emma's restaurant "The Food That Makes You Go Mmm".
SUNDAY (22nd)
Study plans
Youth musical number
After church family history meeting
Come Follow Me, lesson with Jill
Sunday Study -- journals, scriptures, family history
Summer calendar planning
walk around the block
FAMILY HISTORY ON YOUR PHONE: Using the Family Tree & Get Involved apps
(Log in with your Family Search account.)
1. Get Involved – Correcting what the computer guesses for names in records. Click on Match, Edit, Unsure, or FLAG symbol (“Not a person” or “Incorrect highlight”).
2. Family Tree fan chart - See 4-7 generations of your family on one screen. Shows record hints, temple work needed, and more.
3. Tasks - This is Family Search’s “HOMEWORK” for you. The green temple symbol means a name is ready for temple work (Green = Go!). The orange temple means more information is needed. The blue rectangle means there is a record that may need to be attached.
4. Temple. The Ordinances Ready button will find temple names in your family line for a particular ordinance. Print them from your phone or your laptop, or take them to the temple office for printing. You can also reserve family names and check your reservations.
5. Improve Place Names - This is like Get Involved for places. The computer suggests how to standardize a place name and you pick the best option.
6. Relatives Around Me – A fun way to see who you are related to in the room. To use, everyone needs to turn on your phone’s device location/GPS and run the feature at the same time.
Need more help? Contact Ross Tucker, 801-374-2994, rwt999@yahoo.com
We took two cars to church. Allen, Emma and I rode in the first car so Allen could help with Sacrament, Emma could sit up on the stand and I could put primary pictures up on the board.
Missionary Work
My name is Emma Tucker and I’m eleven years old. I was asked to talk about missionary work. Missionary work is something that is very important and something Jesus asked us to do. In Matthew 24:14 Jesus says, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world”. CLOSE QUOTE
There are some people in the world who don’t know about the gospel, and so it’s a missionary’s job to teach people about it. However, you don’t have to be a missionary to teach people about the gospel.
In the primary song “I Want to Be a Missionary Now”, the words say “I want to be a missionary now. I don't want to wait until I’m grown. I want to share the gospel while I'm young for I have a testimony of my own” and in the 3rd verse the song ends with “I’ll live each day the best that I know how, And they’ll see I have a testimony of my own…” That means that people are watching my actions. I can be a good example to others and I can invite them to church activities and I can be their friend. That’s one way to be a member missionary.
In a recent conference talk by Elder Gary E Stevenson he encourages us to do three things in regards to missionary work: love, share and invite.
He says QUOTE “I invite you to consider ways you can love, share, and invite. These three things are merely an extension of who we already are as disciples of Jesus Christ. No name badge or letter is required. No formal calling is needed.
As these three things become a natural part of who we are and how we live, they will become an automatic, unforced expression of genuine love. As we love, share, and invite, we take part in that great and glorious work that prepares the earth for the return of its Messiah.” CLOSE QUOTE
You never know who might be interested in the Gospel. We should always offer it as we would a glass of orange juice. Elder Robert C Oaks once compared the gospel to orange juice: QUOTE “Consider that you are invited to a friend’s house for breakfast. On the table you see a large pitcher of freshly squeezed orange juice from which your host fills his glass. But he offers you none. Finally, you ask, “Could I have a glass of orange juice?” He replies, “Oh, I am sorry. I was afraid you might not like orange juice, and I didn’t want to offend you by offering you something you didn’t desire.’” Now, that sounds absurd, but it is not too different from the way we hesitate to offer up something far sweeter than orange juice.” CLOSE QUOTE
When you teach the gospel you feel joyful. Also when you teach the gospel, it makes you feel warm inside, in Elder David A. Bednar’s talk, “Come and See”, he shares a story about watching his two boys in the kitchen getting out band aids and ointment after an injury in the backyard. The younger boy feels the relief the ointment gives him and wants to share that “good feeling” with others. Elder Bednar tells the story: QUOTE “The injured brother gathered up the remaining bandages and the tube of ointment, and he went back outside. He quickly sought out his friends and began to put ointment and bandages on their arms. He immediately wanted to give to his friends the very thing that had helped him when he was hurt. That little boy did not have to be urged, challenged, or prompted to act. His desire to share was the natural consequence of a beneficial personal experience. Sharing with other people things that are most meaningful to us or have helped us is not unusual at all.” CLOSE QUOTE
It wasn't hard for this young boy to share the ointment because it helped him. He wasn’t worried he might offend someone and he wasn’t afraid to offer.
If the gospel is something we love and if it’s important to us we can share it in natural ways with others. We can love, share and invite as Elder Stevenson talked about in the recent General Conference.
I know that the church is true and we should share the gospel because it makes our heart feel warm. Jesus asked us to share His gospel with others. When we do what He has asked, we are blessed. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Another day of conference. It's nice that the kids are older and can do more quiet activities and not fight. I was crocheting a blanket for Jane. Some worked on puzzles or other crafts. Ross made dinner -- exciting noodles and broccoli and mystery Kool-Aid (grape, black cherry --which I guessed), we went for a walk and worked on merging duplicates of Robin Tucker on family search. I made waffles and eggs for breakfast. We had leftovers for lunch. We did some calendar planning for October. Hold on, it's gonna be busy!
Emma gave a talk in primary and wrote it herself that morning...
"As you grow older more and more people use bad language. There's swearing at school and in movies. When people swear the best way to handle that is to ask them not to swear in front of you. If that doesn't work just ignore them and walk away. One of the primary gospel standards says: "I will use the names of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ reverently. I will not swear or use crude words." I know we are blessed when we use clean language and we are more happy. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."
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#SpiritualSharingSunday
She wrote her own primary talk. I got a side view since I was up front ready to do the singing time after her. I enjoyed listening to her testimony 🥰
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This morning when I came downstairs I smelled smoke from outside. We were in the 250+ range. Allen drove in the smoke from nearby forest fires.
The kids worked on indexing and journals before church...
After church Ross coached Allen how to tie a tie ...
and after our 260+ Air quality and smoky 103 degree walk around the block, we picked up a free arm chair from our neighbor Frank's driveway. We put it in the corner :) Kids say it's their new favorite spot for reading...
Our ministering brothers came to visit (it's been a few years), we had pizza-salad-bread for dinner, people easily guessed Kool-aid flavor (grape orange), we played a round of sardines after Jill's and Ross's CFM lesson (chasten, map of Kirtland, how the Lord feels about the Temple, Zion) and kids had ice cream before bed. We got to bed before ten.
I got a FB message from someone I didn't know, but was a friend is friends. He was asking about a Book of Mormon March Madness schedule...
Tomorrow starts that challenge and I will highlighting what the Lord promises His people Israel.
I made waffles, scrambled eggs (Jane helped) and sausage for breakfast. Kids were served breakfast after they worked with dad on their chore charts, created new ones for this week, received allowance and paid tithing.
We have zoom Church this morning. We already had Come Follow Me lesson and sacrament. The youth have a youth lesson in the chapel following zoom church. Ross is going to ward chicago, has a Temple prep class and we'll watch the Chosen, ep 7.
Posters up to help us learn a new song this week 🎵 #ComeFollowMe2021
Here's our board by the door, helping the kids remember what they need to have before they get in the car and reminding them of what they need to do now that they're in the house.
Tonight is date night. Ross is in charge. Food & chk. I told them I want to play his billiard game he got for Christmas. Lol!
Happy Sabbath! I feel uplifted after reading the September 2020 #EnsignMagazine this morning. I liked its focus on families and the article titled "Moving Closer: Loving as the Savior Did." We can learn a lot from the Savior's example of interacting with others. 💕
Ross had an EQ zoom meeting, the girls made animal school (and they put the animals in different school classes with different teachers), we wrote in journals, read BOMs, indexed, had family home church--Allen and I did the lesson, had "dunch", visited the temple grounds and now we are playing games and eating chips and drinking soda. I smiled earlier when my friend Amanda called asking where those hot pads were I packed in her kitchen yesterday. I remembered and described the perfect box and she found them. Now she won't burn her fingers when cooking. 🙂
