Missionary Moment

Several months ago, my good friend and next-door-neighbor moved. She was the best neighbor ever...and I miss her terribly! But, with change, comes new opportunity. There was a man who moved in, and a few months later his wife, children, and his mother joined him. They are a nice family, from Detroit. He is in the air force, and his wife works in Salt Lake. His mother looks after his two daughters, who are 7 and almost 3-years-old. They were kind enough to accept all the zucchini I brought by this summer, as well as some other over-run vegetables I was growing.

One day, after school had started and life had settled down a bit for them, Elsa (the mother/grandmother) knocked on my door and said how lonely she was. She doesn't drive, and with everyone being at work and only the baby to look after, she had become lonely. I invited her in and chatted with her for a while. She indicated that she had always gone with a friend to a Baptist church. I told her there was a Baptist church nearby and that maybe she could go there. However, she had always gone with a friend, and I guess she didn't want to put her son out to take her and pick her up. So, figuring nothing would come of it, I said to her "You could come to church with me and meet some people in the area." I also told her there are activities the women do once a month that she would be welcome to attend with me. Mostly I just thought she needs Relief Society!

About a month after that, she asked if she could come to church with me. This was the day before stake conference, so I explained that it was a little different that day, but she was more than welcome to come. It was a typical stake conference, and I wondered if she would be totally turned off...but a couple weeks later she wanted to come again. This time she stayed for sacrament meeting and most of Sunday School, which was gospel doctrine. The teacher was awesome and gave her a warm welcome to class. He made quite an impression on her.

So, off and on, as she was able to (when her son and daughter-in-law weren't working) she came and said she would come to church with us. People began to get to know her and welcome her to class and say how glad they were she was coming. The missionaries in our stake were doing a big push around this same time, to get the youth involved in missionary work and sharing the gospel with their friends who may not be members or may not be active. One day we had them over for dinner and as they gave the message after dinner, asking us if we had any friends who were interested in hearing the gospel, etc, instead of giving my usual answer of "no, I can't think of anyone..." I was able to say "Yes! My next door neighbor has been coming to church with us!" They were so excited!

A few days later, they asked me to set up a time for her to come to dinner or a family home evening that they could come to. This was right around Christmas, and with all the busy-ness of the season, I didn't get an opportunity to invite her. And then, it was our wards' turn to feed the elders again. The ward mission leader (who was the gospel doctrine teacher at the time Elsa first came to Sunday School) asked me to feed them and invite her to dinner with us. The day before we were to feed them, the elders called and said they had 2 things to speak to us about...first, they would be by at 6:00 for dinner; and second, they wanted to invite us to Elsa's baptism on the 16th of February! They had visited with her and she had chosen a baptism date. Wow!

I started attending the discussions they were giving her, along with a few other ward members. She was very accepting of everything they taught. When they asked her to think of someone she wanted to baptize her, she knew right away...the gospel doctrine teacher who had taught her first Sunday School lesson. Yesterday she was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints, and today, during sacrament meeting she was confirmed and given the gift of the Holy Ghost. It has been a very special weekend! Her baptism was beautiful. The Spirit was strong!

It is so amazing to me, that by simply opening my mouth and inviting her to church, she has been baptized. That day I invited her, she noticed the pictures of Jesus and Joseph Smith I have hanging on my wall, and asked about Joseph Smith. I gave her a brief explanation of who he was and what he did. She is the first person I have been brave enough to invite to come to church with me. It is amazing what instruments we can be in the Lord's hands if we will follow the promptings of the Spirit. I love this church, and gospel and I love the Book of Mormon! I just had to share in my excitement and joy!

Looking back

I was looking at pictures on my computer and came across these oldies from 2007. And the quality is lacking...sorry about that. 

Kaden and Maren

Dallin and Liam

Our summer vacation consisted of a trip to Jackson, Wyoming and Yellowstone. We went in August, and it rained every day on us. We were cold, but had a great time!

Kaden, Me, Liam, and Maren in the covered wagon on the way to our chuckwagon dinner.

Erik

At the dinner...happy to be out of the rain! Dallin, Liam, Me, Kaden, Erik, and Maren.

The singing cowboys

More singing cowboys. They sang How Great Thou Art at the end, which was fitting given the beautiful surroundings we were in...in spite of the rain.

Some kids from the audience helping with a song...it may have been She'll Be Coming 'round the Mountain, but I can't remember for sure.

Maren and me with one of the cowboys.

Baby Blessing

This past summer seemed so busy. I made friends with my sewing room, and worked on a costume for a friend, and a baby blessing dress for another friend's baby. These projects were fun, and I really do love sewing. As much as I like making quilts and doing other little projects, I really do adore sewing clothing. It was a lot of fun doing both these projects.

The baby blessing dress was a request from a dear friend from high school. She couldn't find what she wanted, so my sister volunteered my services to her. She emailed me a couple of pictures and asked what kind of fabric I recommended. With that tucked skirt, I immediately thought of dupioni silk! But for a baby blessing? So, I took some pictures of different fabrics, sent them to my friend, and told her what I would love to do if cost and fabric-care weren't issues...and gave some nice, less-expensive, easy-wash options. Well, she went to the fabric store, and agreed on the silk!

So it was decided. I found a pattern that had the same little cap sleeves, but that was the only thing. I had to draft a pattern for the skirt and then figure out what to do for the rhinestones across the bodice. She also wanted rhinestones at each tuck in the skirt, instead of a pearl. I found some neat heat-applied rhinestones, but the lady at the craft store said she wasn't sure if they dry-cleaned. We decided to use them anyway. Here is how the dress turned out.

I missed the blessing, and I've been assured pictures of the baby in the dress are coming, but I don't have them yet. This blessed event was filled with a little sorrow, however. As I was in the middle of making the dress, the baby's grandmother passed away very unexpectedly. When I gave it to my friend, though, she cried and said how much her mother would have loved this. It was a pleasure to work on, and I was so pleased with how beautiful it turned out, and even more pleased that it made my friend so happy.

Canterbury Cathedral Choir Boys

Here is the video I promised, and forgot to post.

London temple and Canterbur

On our fourth day (I realize this is a bit backwards to the previous post, which was day 5), we drove to the temple. Which really isn't in London, but is out in the countryside. It was a beautiful drive...which I can say because I was not the one white-knuckling it behind the wheel...yet. We experienced a gas station, and gas station restroom...which is no different than in the states. I stood in front of an isle of chocolate and candy and had a hard time choosing something to try. I can't remember what I got (and unfortunately didn't take a pic of it), but I remember it was delicious! It was some sort of candy bar that will haunt my dreams in years to come.

This is, I believe, the mission home for the London mission. It was a beautiful building on the temple grounds.

Beautiful temple, although, after seeing lots of catholic churches already on our trip, it was a bit "plain". 

The gardens around the temple are breathtakingly beautiful. I took some pictures of a few of the beautiful flowers.

After a session, which we both had a hard time staying awake through, we drove on to Canterbury...which is the Catholic seat in England. And has so much history, with Thomas Becket, and all. I was a Wiki nerd for a couple of days before going. Thomas Becket was one person I looked up and read about.

I was in charge of finding accommodations for the places we stayed outside of London. I was afraid of finding places that looked good online, but were either in the wrong neighborhoods, or were total dives...or both. It took me forever to decide on, and then I had to look at the street-views on Google Earth of the places, just to be sure. This tower and arch was what I first saw from Google Earth when looking at the hotel in Canterbury. And as we drove into the city center, I saw this and was so excited--I felt like I knew exactly where we were! (One of the many conveniences of the internet!) 

It was getting later in the day, and all of England closes shop at 5pm, so we were in a hurry to find the cathedral and see what we wanted to see. We didn't even have time for the gift shop, but they have an online store that I will have to hit someday. This was the road on the other side of the arch that we set off up, looking for an old Gothic cathedral.

We got a glimpse of it down a side street.

Amazing and breathtaking.

This cathedral did not mind you taking pictures, so I went a little overboard. It was incredible to think of how old it is. And, I might add, the goths got the air-conditioning right in this place! Just joking, of course...naturally an old stone cathedral is going to be cold inside. It felt wonderful after 3 days of walking around London in 85* temperatures!

Another mouth-open-gawking-at-the-ceiling experience.

Amazing stained glass.

St. Thomas shrine

I don't know what this is called. (Maybe someone could enlighten me.) I believe it's a podium. The carving of it was so intricate!

In the quire. We stayed for Evensong...which is when the choir boys sing and worship. It is open to the public, and takes place every night. It was beautiful. We were not allowed to record any of it, but as they were practicing we were able to capture some of their singing...which was so beautiful. It sounded like a choir of 100 boys filling that huge cathedral with music, but it was only 14 young boys! They had amazing voices. I'll put the video I took at the end of this post.

More intricate carving.

Cloisters

Cloisters, again.

Another view of the cathedral. They are restoring it, in places, hence the scaffolding on the right.

Ruins of an old aqueduct right outside the cathedral.

After seeing the cathedral, we had dinner, moaned that a bakery was not open for us to grab an eclair (which eluded us the whole time we were there), and turned in. The next morning, I awoke early (thanks to the jet lag that had finally set in) and decided it was time for a run in England. I took my camera and off I went. 

I found a beautiful path alongside a river (or stream?).

Had to take a pic of a medial practice, for Ben's sake.

Early morning street in Canterbury.