Thanksgiving

"This is a wonderful time to be living here on earth. Our opportunities are limitless. While there are some things wrong in the world today, there are many things right, such as teachers who teach, ministers who minister, marriages that make it, parents who sacrifice, and friends who help.

"We can lift ourselves, and others as well, when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues" (Thomas S. Monson)

Our original plan had been to go to Calgary or have one of the sets of parents come and visit for thanksgiving, but I am ever so grateful that we ended up changing our plans.  I had the opportunity to take what I had learned as a child and make my very own thanksgiving dinner with the full meal deal. We had turkey, stuffing, homemade cranberries, candied yams, mashed potatoes and gravy along with a salad.  I was proud of my work as my home filled with the smell of home and the days of when I was younger when we visited my grandma.  The aroma brought back lots of memories of the time I had helped my grandma and mom in the kitchen and also just of the times we had together.  I loved my grandma dearly and even though her life was hard she always showed us an increased outpouring of love and I loved her for it.

As I started to reflect on my life and my blessings I became ever grateful for a mom who set the example for me to always think of others without family.  Recently we started a friendship with a family who has a little girl 2 weeks younger than Jessa.  The husband is in the army and the dear wife stays at home to care for the little one.  They were without family nearby so we thought they would be the perfect candidates to come for thanksgiving to be in on my experimental thanksgiving dinner.  Just joking!  Truly we did it because we know what it is like to be far from family and alone.  Our first two years of marriage away from family was a very lonely and depressing time.

The Smith family arrived at 5:00 and everything was done except for the gravy; the turkey was golden and the rest of the food was warmed and waiting to be eaten.   But poor J couldn't figure out how to carve the turkey... note to self for future boys teach them how to carve roasts, chickens, turkeys, etc.  So we ended up getting it figured out but I also made my gravy crazy with veloutine because I didn't realize the gravy thickened when boiling so I kept adding to it so by the time that the gravy cooled and we put it in the fridge it was like Jello!  Haha but it was so fun.  The Smiths were so wonederful and Jessa really loved hanging out and interacting with Guinevere.

After supper we had the wonderful opportunity to be blessed to see the Northern Lights across the sky and it was so beautiful.  I am so grateful for the wonderful friendships we developed last night :)

In the arms of a father

One of my favorite pictures of Jessa is the one that sits on my desktop as the wallpaper for whenever I turn on my computer which is not regular or often with Jessa awake but usually after she has gone down to bed so I can study Spanish.  The picture is one that I specifically requested of the photographer when I found out I was pregnant.  It is one that reminds me ever so quietly of the tender love a father has for his child, more specifically the love Heavenly Father has for his children and each of us specifically.  Here is the photo:

Each day I come to recognize the little ways in which Heavenly Father shows His love for me.  Often I have been praying for an understanding to be a better wife and mother and He always encourages me to press on.  He listens to my pleas, my broken heart, my trials, my misunderstandings, and my frustrations but after I pour out my heart to Him, He always comes back to teach me about the Saviour, His Son.  The one who redeemed us from our problems and sufferings of this world.  I am forever grateful for a loving God who is so willing to teach us in our challenges.  My heart has become full this conference time as I have listened to the various speakers who have often taught me of the love of God.

As my prayers have been answered and my heart has been full and I am reminded of God's love, this picture of my teeny baby Jessa pops into my head.  My beautiful baby placed in the tender care of her daddy who holds her in his hand.  That is the strength that God has to continually carry us ever so carefully through our trials and give us the love and encouragement we need to press on.  I have learned that it is not my place to judge, scold, or point fingers at my husband but to stand as a quiet beacon of light and lead by example.  I have been taught that as a mother I need to reprove and then show an increase of love but always remember that Jessa is NOT mine, she IS His.  His beautiful princess, entrusted in my care for her to gain a body and experience and live her life so that she can be guided back to His loving home above.

The words from the Book of Mormon ring ever true in my heart as I have come to place my faith in reading the scriptures and praying daily it will change your heart.  Because the more I read and pray the more I can say that, "And we ^atalk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we ^bprophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our ^cchildren may know to what source they may look for a ^dremission of their sins."

I keep receiving the prompting to share my testimony on my blog about Jesus Christ and I will say the words in one conference talk.  I am a Mormon. I know it. I live it. I love it.  The Book of Mormon was translated by the prophet Joseph Smith through the power of God.  We have a living prophet Thomas S Monson on the earth today who leads the church through the promptings of God.  Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world and came to succor His people in their time of need.  I know that we can be with our family forever through the temples that we have here on earth; and it is only through baptism and making the covenants in the temple that we can gain the highest blessings of exaltation.  

I invite all who read my blog to feel free to ask me any questions about my beliefs and learn for themselves that what I say is true.  You can also go to mormon.org or lds.org.  

The prophet of God is not just for the members of the LDS church but ring true for all that inhabit the earth that want to know of God's will for them.  I just keep getting the prompting that someone reading my blog needs to know that the Lord loves you and knows the desires of your heart.  You are important to Him and He never forgets you for you are not just a person here on this earth.  You are His Child a precious gem.  Continue on in faith and remember that He will not forsake you.  

... and now I am off to a crying baby who requires my love and care.  

Calgary Temple Invitation

Are you interested in learning more about the Calgary Temple?  The Calgary Temple located in Royal Oak is having an open house.  If you are interested please visit this website to book a reservation.  

Come Listen to a Prophet's Voice

Our family would like to personally invite you to come listen to a prophet's voice and learn more about our beliefs please come join us in watching General Conference.

182nd Semi-Annual Conference

Keep the faith

One thing that amazed me about Heavenly Father is how aware He is of each of us and places so many opportunities and people in our past to help us be the people he needs us to be.  Often I have found it a struggle in some of the relationships I have been having and at times I feel so discouraged.  When I was young I often thought of the day where I would be old and have a family and live a very happy life with no fights with my husband and best friends with my in-laws but that doesn't seem to always be the case.  But something miraculous has happened with this disappointment in my life because the spirit has filled me with the opportunities to learn.  On Saturday I was feeling overly discouraged at some of the relationships that seemed to be failing and straying from how I had expected them to be.  

So in my heartbroken state I marched Jessa and myself off to the Relief Society broadcast.  I got there and something amazing happened.  Jessa was babbling too much for anyone to hear anything and so I left the meeting at the beginning to take her into the mother's lounge.  There I met another mother nursing her baby boy a day younger than Jessa and twice as big.  But she said to me, "sometimes I think to myself what was the point to even come?"  and I felt myself agreeing.  I could have stayed home and watched the conference later but as Jessa finally settled and quieted and I was able to walk back in the meeting for the last ten minutes of President. Eyering's talk.  Heavenly Father filled me with the lesson that I needed to hear so that I could continue on.  It was such a simple message in my midst of heartache.  "Keep the faith."  President. Eyering continued on to say, 

"With all your differences in personal circumstances and past experiences, I can tell you something of what lies ahead for you. As you keep the faith, you will find yourself invited by the Lord often to serve someone in need when it will not seem convenient. It may appear to be an unpleasant and perhaps even impossible task. When the call comes, it may seem you are not needed or that someone else could easily give the succor.

Remember that when the Lord lets us encounter someone in distress, we honor the good Samaritan for what he did not do as much as for what he did. He did not pass by on the other side even though the beaten traveler on the road was a stranger and perhaps an enemy. He did what he could for the beaten man and then put in place a specific plan for others to do more. He did that because he understood that helping may require more than what one person can do.

Lessons in that story can guide you in whatever your future holds. Those same lessons were available in your own childhood and recent experiences."

And this quote has encouraged me ever since.  Keep the faith it sounds like something so simple and yet the meaning of the words is so profound and important.  I realized that as I walked into the door of my home that night I knew how to be a better wife and mother and the lessons Heavenly Father has taught me are such simple ones.  "Just love them" and "remember, she is a daughter of God.  She is a daughter of a king."  

So many times when I don't know how to stop Jessa's inconsolable crying I just remember that she needs love and patience because she is a daughter of a king.  It has helped me to keep my cool when I feel panicked inside and upset when Jessa bites me repeatedly that day when she nurses.  Or chomps down and pulls back with laughter in her eyes thinking it is a game to see mommy make a mad face but then as I feel a wave of anger wash over me.  I remember to keep the faith.  Remember to keep calm and know who is in charge and there for me always.  

And still the lesson does not stop there.  On Sunday, the bishop said a comment that hit home to me as if he had dropped a ton of bricks in my lap.  The dream is to have a white picket fence, with a mom and a dad, a wife who stays home while the father works and children running around the yard chasing after the fun loving puppy.  That my friends, he stated, is a dream not a reality.  Admist the dreams we have families who have only one parent, couples who are not able to have children grace their home, families who need both parents to work to make ends meet and we have been counselled to keep the faith and endure to the end.  We must find joy in the journey.  It has been an interesting week as I have pondered on this lesson.  

My blessings after these simple lessons have become unfathomable; for I realize that I have that dream.  I have a hard working husband and a beautiful baby who I love and adore with all my heart.  He allows me to stay home and care for my little one and teach her in the ways that we find are in favour with God.  What an absolute joy and blessing it is to be a part of that and to know that Heavenly Father is so ever aware of our presence.  So my dear children who will read this in the future remember to keep the faith.