Hello Family!
I was reading the scriptures this week (I know, right?) and in 3 Nephi 23:11, I read something important. It goes along nicely with Mom's post of their Saturday adventure. In this part of 3 Nephi, Jesus reminds the Nephites of a prophecy by Samuel the Lamanite. He prophesied that many of the saints would rise from the dead and minister to many when Jesus was resurrected. Jesus asks why they hadn't written this down yet. Nephi remembers that "this thing was not written."
So I got to thinking. "Why was it so important that this be written?" "What doctrine does this teach?"
I think that ONE important thing we can learn is to recognize the blessings of the Lord in our lives. The tender mercies that are fulfillment of prophecies. The way I see this in my life is in the opportunity to write in my journal the blessings that I have seen that day. It creates a grateful heart and a humble and diligent person. Someone who is willing to look every day for blessings from the Lord is humble and will rely on Him. They are also dedicated and diligent to be able to look every day.
As I was talking with one of the guys we home teach, He mentioned that President Eyring did that with his journal. Then (and this was the part that I didn't know) he said that President Eyring and his family continue to do this every day. They have a family email that they send around to everyone each day with a blessing that they have received. I feel like we do that with the emails and the blog as we share our spiritual experiences. We can continue to do that. We could even go every day! But how about we start every week? It doesn't have to be super long, just a paragraph is good. Would everyone post/email once a week and include one tender mercy that they have seen as a family that week?
Well??
We heard a good one from Mom and now Esther. I will tell you all a little secret. If you write a paragraph a week then you won't feel obligated to write a book every 2 months.
Anyway.
This week I did Pilates with Courtney Shill. It was pretty fun. I liked how it focuses a lot on the core. We made smoothies afterwards compliments of a nice, new (for me) blender I got from Rory Bluth. She is my old roommate's wife and coworker.
Last night I went country dancing with Alex Williams and her roommates and friends. These are the same people that I went to the concert with last week. That was pretty fun. I was learning a lot of moves and remembering some others. I feel like I need to go visit Omaha. Joseph should list country dance lessons as one of the things that Omaha offers.
We, Dad and the Erickson boys (minus Jared), put in for elk and deer tags, so we hope we get drawn.
Yesterday my roommate Nate got married in the Payson temple! We went to the reception. His wife's family is from mexico, so they had mexican dances performed, and he is from Hawaii. He isn't hawaiian, but they had some family and friends do hawaiian dances! It was the coolest reception ever! I think I am going to have everyone perform at my reception, so start getting some acts together. :)
https://youtu.be/rIhsPTu1vDU
https://youtu.be/BibG29zT92s
https://youtu.be/WIIZQsqVks4
https://youtu.be/OX3H-dmVYGk
Her grandma danced one of the dances. I should have taken a video of the boys dancing one of the Hawaiian dances. It was really, really cool. Made me want to learn to dance! The girls who danced hawaiian were being copied by a lot of little girls from the audience. It was the cutest thing ever!
I went frisbee golfing with McKenzi Davis on Thursday. As we were throwing, she hit the power line (hole #4 bicentennial park, for Joseph). We tried to throw it over a clump of trees to get to the hole, and her frisbee went right into the trees. We spent about 30 min looking before it got too dark. Then we came back the next morning. We just had 20 min to find the frisbee because she had class and I had work. So we looked and looked. A couple of times we went back to the pad and tried to remember how the frisbee flew into the trees. Then I decided that we had to find it fast otherwise we wouldn't find it that morning. I told her how, when I was younger, we would always pray as a family to find things we had lost like pacifiers. :) So we said a prayer and then she started to look. I stayed still for a few minutes and I thought about how McKenzi said that she thought it hadn't ever hit the ground... I looked over in the trees and There it WAS!! I said it so "nonchalantly" that Mckenzi didn't believe that I was serious. At first she thought I was joking and then she thought that I knew where it was the whole time... haha. She finally believed me in the end.
I also went on a frisbee golf date with Bobbe Graham, from the ward, on Friday evening. It was fun. And on hole #4.... We both tried to go around the trees (I had taken the elementary student (Jonathan) that I mentor through 4H to that park earlier that day, and we both lost our frisbees. We spent about 10 minutes looking before we found them). So I told Bobbe we should go around, but we both messed up (thinking too much about what not to do I guess) and we ended up in the trees. We found mine pretty quickly. It was starting to get dark and I knew that we had to find the other one soon or we would be in for a repeat of the last one. I suggested we pray. Haha. Seriously. After we prayed I quickly found a white frisbee that was new. I thought, "I have a replacement now, I guess that is a pretty straightforward answer." But then I was thinking of Jonathan's family and they have 5 people. I thought it would be nice to have another frisbee to take them all to the park one day. Jonathan really super enjoyed frisbee golf. When we finished, he looks over at me and says, "Again?" He really liked it. So I told him we could play with his whole family, but he had counted my discs and said, "There are five in my family." I told him we could easily share.
Anyhow, Bobbe and I were looking and we were just about to leave. At this point we were using my cell phone to light up the area and search for it. As we were leaving, I held the phone up behind us towards the trees and low and behold the frisbee was way up in the tree! I pointed it out to Bobbe (it was a, "let me show you how big of a fish I caught" situation) Then I climbed the tree and shook it down. Bobbe and I finished up the night with some custard and ice at Rita's - a really good place with tasty ice and custard.
Anywho. It was a fun time. I realized afterward that I hadn't said thank you, so I made sure to say a thank you prayer.
Love you all,
PS This week I am going to Grandpa and Grandma's to help them move the cattle on the forest (tuesday) and then I am going to run Ragnar with a girl from the ward, Hannah Cahoon, and her siblings and friends. Normally I am pretty confident in my running abilities, but I haven't exercised at all and the last leg that I am supposed to run is 10.5 miles which is farther than I have ever ran.
Also I was talking to a client this week and he told me that he was getting married and was going to be out of town for the honeymoon. I sent him a link for the Family Proclamation, and told him that this was something that has really benefited our family. (Right?) He said thanks, but I don't think he has read it yet....so we will see what happens. :)
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