Blessings

I am grateful to know that I have a loving Heavenly Father who loves me. I am grateful for the gospel. I am grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ. I know that Christ loved us so much that he willingly gave up his life so that when I make mistakes I can repent of them. That knowledge gives me hope everyday. I know that we have a prophet today on this earth. I know that we are blessed to have the priesthood. I am very thankful for the priesthood, it has blessed my life and our children lives on numerous occasions. I am thankful for prayer, for prayers of children, how they know Heavenly Father will hear them. I can remember numerous times when Rachel prayed for something it was answered. Each of our children have been blessed by the gospel.

World Congress V on families

Families are very important to us all. As I have read, listened to others and thought about families I came across these articles speakers at the World Congress on Families, just and interesting note to look at the speakers the website www.worldcongress.nl/en/home/. There were many prominent speakers. I liked this article written about Sheri Dew
'Resurgence of moral virtue' is necessary
AMSTERDAM

"We all know that every nation is ultimately at the mercy of its families," she said. "If families are riddled with problems, society eventually collapses under the weight of problems too vast for any government to meet. If families are strong, society is strong."

Further, she said, "A virtuous life is an easier, more fulfilling life. And it is one of the most powerful keys to strengthening families and therefore to strengthening our world."


Sister Dew began her address by answering the question of why a woman with no nuclear family of her own is qualified to speak at a congress about families.

"I am not married and have not had the privilege of bearing children — which are, candidly, the heartbreaks of my life," she said. "This isn't by choice. My dream was to marry and have a house full of children. The answer to why I haven't yet married is simple: No one has ever asked me. So you may wonder why am I here, and why do I care so much about the family.

"I care in part, precisely because I haven't yet been blessed with a husband or family of my own. I know firsthand that the passage in Genesis is true: It is not good for man or woman to be alone (see Genesis 2:18). This is not just good theology; it's terrific sociology. As grateful as I am for many things, I am painfully aware that I am not complete without a faithful husband."

The world tries mightily to uncover secular solutions for societal ills, but in the end there is no substitute for morality and virtue.

"We tend to focus on policies, legislation and court opinions related to family," Sister Dew said. "But today I invite you to consider that the single most pervasive threat to the stability and future of the family is sexual immorality in all its forms. Nothing would do more to strengthen the families of the world than a resurgence of moral virtue, particularly sexual purity."

According to Sister Dew, many men and women would follow a path of sexual purity if they only knew the truth. Therefore, it's imperative for those who know the merits of virtue to boldly share that truth in its unadorned simplicity.

"The world is filled with good people who may not know that virtue would transform their lives and who only need to be shown the way," she said. "If defending virtue requires sacrifice and discipline, then so be it. We have a choice to make. We can either watch our societies crumble under the weight of moral impurity, or we can lead out in the cause of virtue.

"May we go forward, determined to make this world better by making it more clean. May we champion virtue as a key to building strong families. God will help us. No one cares more about our families than He does. As we honor Him by embracing the virtue He has ordained, He will help us preserve the foundational unit of every society, the family."
— Jamshid Askar

Our Young Womens theme this year added virtue, I can see that moral virtue is becoming harder and harder for youth and young adults, satan is working double time in this area. The world does not see anything wrong with it, but it is so damanging to our souls.

Reading

Sister Tan reminded me that we needed to have our virtue value done by the September Auxiliary training meeting. I had done the goals just not the project. The project for virtue is reading the Book of Mormon. I decided that since our training meeting is September 10 I would make the goal to finish reading by the 3rd when we go to the temple. It has been really good for me. The last time I read form cover to cover is with the young women. That was an awesome experience for me. I hope that the girls will always remember it. The parents of those girls were very supportive, they would bring the girls, leave them and come back in an hour. I know that for some it was not always easy, but what a testimony builder to me. They were very faithful. I am grateful for the Book of Mormon. I have really enjoyed reading. There are some faith building stories in there for me, and I realize how many in the Book of Mormon would not keep holding on to the iron rod. They just would not stay faithful. I see how in this life there are so many that will stay faithful only when it is easy, or if its fun. I had a Young Women's President tell me about a family who has been members all their life and since their daughters want to do other things they have to justify not coming to church. They have chosen to attend another church. I realize that enduring to the end is going to get harder and harder. I think about young women who want to be married but will not put themselves in the right place often so that they might be able to find the right person. I remember and young women who had a child out of wedlock and one night kissed him goodbye and told him"I'm going to find you a daddy" She did she meet and married this wonderful man, who loves her and her son. She put herself in the right place to find the right kind of young man. Listening to some young women at camp concerns me in what they are thinking now. Satan is real and he will seek to tempt and destroy us. He want us to be miserable like him, what better way then to help us let go of the iron rod. He is pretty good at what he does. Its not all bad or I can repent later. That may not always be the case. A little bit of dog poop is still dog poop. It would ruin a batch of cookies in a minute. As Satan will work on all of us, we need to be helpful and supportive to one another.

Missing You

Today Meridith I am missing you. I have thought about you alot lately. I meet a girl in the singles ward about your same age she will turn 23 in the next couple of weeks. She reminds me of you, she has that same wit about her. She says whats on her mind and I appreciate that. She told me about a friend of hers that, that died similar to the way you did, it was her twin sister that was driving. I guess Heavenly Father needed a bunch of strong faithful young women back home. She is leaving for BYU-I and a couple of weeks. She asked me about you, and we talked about our going to the Nauvoo for your work. I know you are where you are suppose to be, but some days its hard to not have you here. Haylee is a doll we love her so much. I know you would have loved her too. We talk to her about you, she knows she has a Aunt Mer-Mer and that you are in heaven and now tippi is there with you. When I see little girls at the airport in pink converse I think of you. Haylee has had them. Brett and Brittany bought her a pair last year for Christmas, she wore them alot. You would love Brittany she is a wonderful young woman, she is a great wife for Brett and a wonderful mom to Calan. Calan is so cute, we miss them not living close. but it has been good for them to live away. Aaron and Kim finally got married and it was nice. I hope that someday it will be for forever. Im just missing you, but you help keep me strong. I love you.

Make A Wish

This morning at work I had a flight to Orlando Florida. On this particular flight, Natalie my supervisor came and told me that I had a 4 yr old boy who was traveling with Make A Wish. For those of you who may not know- Make a Wish is for terminally ill children and their families. This little boy turned 4 on Aug 1st, he has twin brothers that looked to be about 5-6 years old. I had the privilege of trying to make it a special flight for them. We had the fire department at the airport there and this is a list of things that transpired for this little boy. He and his family came in from Coppel Tx on a fire engine. How exciting is that. We sang Happy Birthday to him. They had a cake for him compliments from Sam's the mayor of Coppel was at the airport to see him off and so were several friends with their children. Before we began boarding everyone we had his family to go down so that he and his brothers to see the cockpit and meet the captain. I had the brothers Zachary and Josh make an announcement to all the people and tell then to have fun at Disney World. It has made me a little more melancholy, Rick and I have talked about which way would be easier to lose a child. Knowing that they are going to die and seeing them suffer like this little boy Caden is, or by an accident in which it happens quickly. I would have liked to have been able to Meridith one time time that I love her and tell her bye. But on the other hand this mother is having a very difficult time with knowing that her son is dying and there is nothing that she can do to stop it. I feel for her, I know the road that lies ahead and its a tough one. There is no book to help you deal there is only Heavenly Father and knowing that the plan of salvation is real. For me, that keeps me going. I want to see her again and hold her. This time of the year is hard for me, her birthday will be here soon and I miss her. This birthday will be a good one, we are taking her name through the temple, what a blessing. Last year when Rick and I decided to do this, Brett said that we needed to wait a year to let those who might want to be there to have that chance. So we have, I had hoped that Rachel and Aaron would have wanted to be there. It was 11 years ago when Meridith first came into young women's, and we did baptisms, that was the only time all 4 kids were in the temple together. I am grateful for temples and the ordinances that binds families together.