What Love is

From a college essay Lindsey wrote:
A year after graduation I learned what love is while living in Quito, Ecuador for three months working in orphanages. One particular experience was a major paradigm shift in my life. It was late one night when another volunteer and I were trying to get ten babies at the orphanage to fall asleep. For one reason or another they were all crying and not sleeping. We were trying all that we could do to calm them down but it was a wild night.
Finally we decided to sing church songs. I knelt down between two cribs holding two small hands in mine and began the song “I see my mother kneeling, with her family each day…” As I sang tears filled my eyes as I realized how blessed I was just to have a family. Then I looked into the faces of those babies and felt so much love for them as I realized that at that moment I was the only person, besides God, who cared or was even thinking about those babies at that time. I felt humbled, and realized the important responsibility it was to care for those children. I learned to appreciate my own family so much more and my hearts capacity to love expanded largely. This experience also instilled a great desire within me to give service where possible and to look for ways to show compassion.

On becoming...

In Marcus Steed's mission farewell he addressed the action verbs that are part of the Priesthood purpose: Become converted, serve faithfully, prepare to serve, give respect,and become worthy. I love the word becoming. We may not be perfect in this life but we can become better each day!

Dawson Flake Fan Club

Not many people have an official fan club; but Dawson's friends made a Fan Club page for Dawson on Facebook and he has a lot of fans! It appears to me that Dawson knows how to be a good friend. http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=25650254783&ref=ts

(Marcus in England on his mission)

In his farewell speech today, Marcus Steed, who is heading to England on his mission told two stories about Dawson. In the first one, he told how his friends, Ty and Dawson were talking about what it takes to be a good missionary. Dawson told what he thought and then Ty told Dawson that he already is a good missionary because of the way he acts and treats people.
The next story was about when Marcus and Dawson went to Denny's for one their free breakfast specials. As they pulled in Marcus's car died. They worked on it for a bit and then gave up and went inside and ate. When they came out they tried it again but nothing. They then got in the car and Dawson offered a simple prayer to bless the car so it would start and that they could get back home. Marcus turned the key and it started right up and they made it home. A simple prayer offered by a humble young man with great faith. I'm glad to be the original founding member of the Dawson Flake fan club! Dawson flies out to San Jose to begin his mission in two days...

It is an Honor to be the Mother of my Kids!

Sis. Lisa Johnson shared in her testimony today the fact that she feels it is an honor to be the mother of such great kids. I feel the same way.
She is going to the funeral tomorrow of the one of the Elders who recently died while on his mission, in Romania by being asphyxiated in his sleep. Being a mother of a son on a mission, my heart has ached for the parents of these two boys this past week. Lisa danced with the mother of the Elder from Logandale, NV while at BYU. She called her this week and got a little more of the story. His sister had left on her mission recently, but had some illness and was sent home to remedy it before she could go. This was a real trial for them but it turned out to be a real tender mercy for their family. The daughter has been a real strength for the family during this death.
The mother said that she has gone through a dark time with this but now realizes that it is a great honor to have had the chance to be the mother of this outstanding young man who was taken while serving the Lord on a mission. Lisa then went on to share her thoughts on what an honor it is to be a mother to her great kids. Dan and I had teared up at this point as she talked about having a son serve a mission and a daughter about to leave and be married. In fact Dan went up to her after and tried to talk to her, but was overcome with emotion as he related so much to her feelings. Dan and I called her tonight and we discussed how honored we all feel to have the opportunity to parent such wonderful children.
I also had to tell her about a tender mercy that Lindsey experienced this week. While in high school, Lindsey had asked a young man, Justin Peterson, to a girl’s choice dance. He was a loner, a stoner, and pretty much a nobody. Everyone wondered why such a cute girl as Lindsey would invite him to the dance. It turned out to be a disaster. He actually had drugs on him and ditched Lindsey at the dance and went off with his stoner friends. I had to call his mother at midnight and tell her that Justin was not with Lindsey so she wouldn’t wonder what was going on if he didn’t show up at home. We hadn’t heard anything about this boy for years.
Well, Lindsey was at the MTC on Friday with her cousin Rebecca. They were volunteering at the TRC, where the missionaries practice giving the discussions to real people. While Lindsey was waiting there, suddenly an Elder walked by that she recognized. It was Justin Peterson from high school! He has been called to Everett, Washington and is leaving in a few days to serve. He would be 22 or 23 years old.
I used to be friends with his mother so I called her tonight to get the story. She said that two years ago he returned to Florida where they used to live, to work and earn money. He become reactivated and decided to serve a mission. He has actually been influential in helping several people already become baptized. His mother is happy with his decision and was thrilled to know that Lindsey has recently returned from her mission and she wants Lindsey and I to come into her restaurant, Benja’s, and have lunch with us. What a tender mercy of the Lord for Lindsey to get a chance to see him and know that her good example years ago, may have played a part in this young man changing his life around.
Now, that is not the only tender mercy that occurred in the MTC that day. The next elder that Lindsey ran into, was her brother, Elder Flake! She only got a minute to say hello and he got a chance to congratulate her on her engagement and then he was encouraged to hurry along by an MTC teacher.
I count my blessings to have the opportunity to parent my amazing children! What an honor it is.

We Have a Loving Heavenly Father

I had a great experience in Relief Society today. We are starting to study the Gospel Principles book and as we looked at the first Chapter it was only two pages long and we were all kind of wondering what we were going to get out of such a simplified gospel study. Well, it was the best RS lesson I have been to in a long time.

We simple talked about the wonder of this earth and the beauty of it and how there is no way that it could have just happened. I wanted to share my story about God’s manifestation to me while on the beach in Maui that I have included in a previous blog on gratitude. Every time that I am out in nature I am amazed at the beauty and majesty of the earth. I always try and offer a prayer of gratitude to the Lord for this marvelous creation.

Then we went on and talked about the Nature of God and then continued with Coming to Know God. I shared the scripture that I have been pondering all week:
Mosiah 5: 13
“For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?” I expressed that in order to know God, we must serve him. I am personally working on the “intents of my heart”.
(This scripture was brought to mind because a young man that Lindsey is dating had it on his Facebook page as his favorite quote. Now what mother would not want her daughter dating a young man whose focus seems to be to serve others and know God?)

I wanted to make another comment about what Lindsey had experienced on her mission but time didn’t allow. I had sat next to a woman who has been investigating the church for six months but this was her first visit to Relief Society. Dan had been the ward mission leader so we had worked with her for a small time. The current mission leader’s wife sat on the other side of her.

I put my arm around her and asked how she was doing. She expressed that it was hard. Then I told her about Lindsey’s mission experience of the joy of being able to tell someone that there is a God and that they have a loving Heavenly Father who is always there. For many people, they have never known this fact and the feeling and spirit that came when told this simple gospel principal would overcome them. Lindsey wrote home several times telling us about sharing God with people on the street and having them cry with the spirit of knowing it is true and that they are loved; many for the first time.

I choked up and we all three cried as I bore witness to her that if nothing else she knows that Heavenly Father loves her and will always be there for her and that yes there is a God. I felt so much love for her and for our Heavenly Father. This simple two page lesson was perfect. I felt a strong testimony that this manual will be wonderful for our gospel study this year.

Missionary work is so powerful! The only other time that I have felt the love of God so strong was when I was on splits with the sisters and bore witness to a drugy lady in the middle of a huge apartment complex on a Saturday afternoon that her Heavenly Father knows and loves her and wants her to be happy. We prayed, hugged and cried and felt the Lord’s spirit manifest so strongly.
I am so glad for the knowledge that I have a Loving Heavenly Father.

After the Manner of the Lord

Dan had to give the 5th Sunday lesson in churh on Nov. 29. It just so happened that it was the day of our Homecoming and Farewell so I was home feeding a house full of people and didn't get to hear him. Danielle had helped him create a nice handout and develop his subject of developing strong families and marriages. She shared a scripture reference that she had pondered while on her misison found in the first verses of Mosiah 18:

1 And it came to pass that they did worship the Lord, and did go forth with me; and we did work timbers of curious workmanship. And the Lord did show me from time to time after what manner I should work the timbers of the ship.
2 Now I, Nephi, did not work the timbers after the manner which was learned by men, neither did I build the ship after the manner of men; but I did build it after the manner which the Lord had shown unto me; wherefore, it was not after the manner of men.
3 And I, Nephi, did go into the mount oft, and I did pray oft unto the Lord; wherefore the Lord showed unto me great things.
4 And it came to pass that after I had finished the ship, according to the word of the Lord, my brethren beheld that it was good, and that the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine; wherefore, they did humble themselves again before the Lord.

He made the connection that in raising our families we should not do it after the manner of men, but after the manner that the Lord has shown us. How do we get those blue prints of parenting? By following the words of the prophets and His word in His holy scriptures.

We are often asked how we have raised such great kids. I believe that the best answer I can give is that we have tried to raise them after the manner of God, not following the ways of the world. We are far from perfect, but we have a strong testimony that if we follow the commandments and promises of the Lord and his mouthpieces upon this latter-day earth, we will be blessed.

Some of our "secrets to raising great kids":

1. Hold daily family prayer
2. Read the scriptures daily as a family and individually
3. Hold regular Family Home Evening
4. Eat dinner as a family every night gathered around the table
5. Get all the education that you can
6. Exercise
7. Serve others
8. Learn from the mistakes of others so you don't have to go through the pain and suffering yourself
9. Go to church and worship every Sunday
10. Attend the temple often
11. Cherish your family roots and history

A few other things that we have done as parents that are different from the ways of men:

We do not have cable TV and watch very little TV (basically just the news occasionally).
We have never owned a gaming system for the TV.
We very seldom go out to the movies because we usually find questionable material.
If we watch movies at home, we do it as a family event.

So what do we do with our time instead? See numbers 1-11 above!

Consider on the blessed and happy...

I went for an early morning walk around my neighborhood and was pondering the fact that my daughter had just returned from a successful 18 month mission and that my son was preparing to depart on a two year mission and I felt extremely happy and blessed and tears rolled down my eyes. I kept thinking of the words of a scripture "Consider on the blessed and happy state". I couldn't recall how the rest of the scripture went, but I felt such peace as I considered how blessed and happy I was right then at that very moment! Life is good.

Later, I shared that thought with my family at family prayer time and and started to recite it and both Justin and Lindsey our returned missionaries piped right up and finished quoting the scripture and its reference:
Mosiah 2: 41

41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

I am grateful that my children have chosen to keep the commandments. I, in no way, feel so qualified but the blessings promised in this verse are amazing. It certainly makes me want to try a little harder to be a little better. Knowing what great joy that I feel in this moment it makes me desire to have the promised blessing to "dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness!"

Consider...