View from Ensign Peak Sept 20. 2008

Marty and I went on another little photosafari on Saturday night for our date night. We were exploring our hometown of Salt Lake City, Utah. Salt Lake is a beautiful city, and one of the most spectacular scenes is the view from any mountainside from the mountains that surround the valley. No matter what time of day or night or what time of year, our mountains provide a spectacular place to see nature's beauty which brings into relief the growth and development of the Salt Lake Valley.

This is the view from Ensign Peak just after sunset looking down over downtown Salt Lake City.

Click the photo to see my other photos. If you are family or friends and have a flickr profile, add me as a contact and I will enable you to see more pics of the kiddos.

Go Out Into the Darkness

"And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year,
Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown'
And he replied:. Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand Of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way'
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night."

This is a set of lines composed by British poet Minnie Louise Haskins in 1908. It was made famous when King George VI of England read it in a radio address at Christmastime as the British entered World War II. President Monsen quoted these lines in his Stake Conference address (which I wrote about in my last entry). These lines express to me the value of faith. Faith is what the Lord requires of us, and is one of the many things that we strive to give him, that derives and sustains itself in him-- his goodness, his love, his caring, these are the things that bring us faith.

I loved the way President Monsen phrased it. After extending his personal love to each member of the congregation, he admonished all of us to love the Lord and love our neighbors. He said, "the Lord's Gospel is a law of love and encouragement. .. 'Follow thou me,' is the Savior's beckoning call."

President Monsen counseled the congregation to model ourselves after the scripture D&C 88:119, " Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;" This scripture was given in context of building a temple, and President Monsen reminded us that the Lord has said, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?" In this talk, he asked us to, "be sincere with God, fair with others, and honest with ourselves." In our "Houses of God" we should have, "clean hearts, noble purposes, and willing hands."

If we are striving to build ourselves into a place where God can dwell, we have access to his power. The Lord makes this promise as recorded in Moroni 7:33, "If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me."

President Monsen of course is very in tune with the Spirit, notwithstanding his inability to cook for himself or use simple household appliances (see his Conference talk from last April's conference). He told a story that was a perfect example of being on the Lord's errand and being led to do what the Lord desires even when you have no idea what it is.

He described making a stop on the way home from his work day to attend the viewing of a female friend. At the funeral home, he walked in the wrong direction and showed up at the viewing of a gentleman. He walked through the line and up to the viewing area and to his chagrin, realized he did not recognize the person in the coffin. However, he graciously proclaimed, "He was a good man!" He turned around only to notice that he was in the midst of a grieving family that exclaimed, "Thank you President Monsen for coming! Thank you for remembering our son!" It turned out the that man who had passed away was the son-in-law of a brother who was a counselor to President Monsen in a former responsibility he had as a Bishop. President Monsen testified, "The Lord knew where I needed to be that night."

This story was a counterpoint to Elder Ballard who shared that as a Bishop he had a prompting to visit an ailing sister in his ward, but he put it off a couple of hours, just missing her passing. Elder Ballard's story hit home for me as he said (quoting Pres. Monsen), "The Lord is not far from us-- the Spirit will direct us. Never have the regret of ignoring a prompting." I have this regret as I had several promptings to visit my grandmother in the weeks leading up to her death a couple of years ago and did not go visit her. I have a lot of reasons, but not one of them seems very important now. I wish that I could have that chance back again and do it differently so that I could have talked with her one more time before she went.

This conference was a joy to me as it reinforced my love for our Heavenly Father, for the Saviour, and for the Holy Ghost. I have a deep and abiding love for the Gift of the Holy Ghost and have in the past few years come to realize what a profound gift that is. It was wonderful to hear again the importance of using this gift to find our own unique missions and to learn truth from the ultimate teacher of truth. Indeed the guidance of the Holy Ghost is, "better than light and safer than a known way."

"The Finest Thing I Have Ever Done"-- Gordon B. Hinckley

On Sunday, my family attended a huge multi-stake conference. My stake, the Salt Lake Bonneville Stake, was invited to attend at the conference center in downtown Salt Lake City.

Although it was a challenge to accomplish attending this conference, we made the effort after a very firm plea from our Bishop, Terry Smith, in the Sacrament Meeting the week before. He said, "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity." That was enough to hook Joop and Cricket, Mom was already on board, and Marty was working on his list of reasons it never going to work. However, we got Dad on board successfully, and we made it in plenty of time to get a great seat. Marty was so great and took care of Henk so we could listen to the conference. And because of my new calling in YW, I wanted to journal about it since that can count for my Personal Progress! (I already earned the Young Womanhood Acheivement Award, when I was a Young Woman myself, but I can earn it again as a leader.)

This was in a conference that focused on two primary issues-- first, following the Spirit's promptings as a guide in life, and second, building and protecting ourselves and our families as spiritual temples. The speakers were Richard G. Hinckley, Melvin J. Ballard, Cheryl Lant, and Thomas S. Monsen.

President Hinckley is the son of THE President Hinckley and the brother of my Stake President Clark Hinckley. I've known him since high school as the father of my friend J. My mom has known him since college, and says she is amazed at how much he is growing to look like his Dad. (I agree). She said he was one of the most handsome guys at the U when she was there. Anyway, he spoke about his deep gratitude for the Lord's generous and loving promises to us as children of God and members of families. He stated, "the family is the fundamental unit of God's Kingdom." He spoke of the keys of sealing power and how that power was on the earth at different times throughout the ages and in our time. Then he shared a very tender story from a recent family experience.

He described being present at a sealing of a Hinckley granddaughter in the Salt Lake Temple. His father, President Gordon B. Hinckley conducted the sealing. As is customary, President Hinckley made some remarks at the sealing. After his remarks, he said (in a low voice, almost to himself), " It has just occured to me that I have sealed all five of my children and all 24 of my married grandchildren in this temple....and I think it is the finest thing I have ever done."

What a tender moment to share with us, and what a wonderful expression of President Hinckley. With all of his accomplishments, to speak so highly of this duty shows how important it is that we honor those covenants and seek to help others accomplish them.

President Hinckley was a hero of mine, and I just reveled in hearing this story. I also loved the story that President Monsen told. He chuckled to be sitting to the right of another President Hinckley and mentioned that when he was called to be first counselor to President Hinckley, the prophet asked him to tap him when he started to doze off during conference. President Faust asked for the same favor. President Monsen said, "You better believe you don't fall asleep if you're conducting." President Monsen said, "I don't know how you tap the President of the Church for falling asleep." When it happened, he started to panic, until he noticed that President Faust had dozed off too. He lightly touched President Hinckley on the shoulder and said, "Look at Jim," pointing at him. President Hinckley reached over with his cane and bopped President Faust, saying, "Wake Up Jim!" That story made me just chuckle!

August is so much fun

There have been so many fun things going on in our lives these days.

First, we had Marty's birthday. Can you believe I'm married to such an old man? He's getting a little salty around the temples these days. For his birthday he asked for a camera so he can go on photo-safari with me (usually the only wildlife we ever spot is our kids though). He told me that he likes the fact that we can do the hobby together and that I can teach him about it. And he actually listens when I try to explain, although I must not be too good at it because we keep going over it again. "Okay now remind me, what is shutter speed?" He wants to learn how to do everything manually, which is admirable. I usually use the auto settings myself because I'm too lazy and it takes to long to adjust everything so you miss the shot.

Then we had our anniversary. 18 years we've been married now. To celebrate, we went out to shoot some photos in Millcreek Canyon and Garden Park Ward. It was a really nice way to spend some quiet time together.



Then we had Joseph's birthday. He and I headed to Cedar City for the Shakespeare Festival. We had a lovely time, just the two of us. We saw three plays and ate at Subway three separate times! I think that the Subway was a bigger hit than the plays, but Joe took it all in stride. I had enough alone time with him to last for a while, and decided that if he continues in the path he is on, both of us will be ready for him to go on his mission and I won't need to tag along with him after all. Although, the jury's still out on Henry. Don't get me wrong, he is a joy to be with and he was a gentleman for the whole trip, but there's a limit to how much ten-year old boy a grown woman can take.





When we came back home, Marty, Caroline, and Henry were practicing skateboarding. Marty can still skateboard despite the fact that he hasn't done it since before his mission. I think he'll wear out his new board before Joseph does (they both got boards for Joseph's birthday).



And the crowning event of August-- the kids went back to school! Independence day and financial relief for the parents (because paying for daycare for 3 kids everyday costs a mid-sized fortune). Marty was so enjoying his first day of freedom from children (he is a working-at-home Dad). Now he only has to babysit his co-workers!

September is here and has brought with it cool weather. We celebrated by having a backyard fire with S'mores on Sunday night. That had to be a highlight for me as we had an ad-hoc family night, sharing our testimonies with the kids. Of course, they responded by sharing their Descartian hermenuetics, "Mom, sometimes do you wonder if we are all a dream and we are not real?" You have to hope that something is sinking in.