Week 18 - Eternal Love
Dearest Children, Grandchildren, Family and Friends!!
I am writing this on our anniversary and it is fitting that I have been contemplating LOVE this week. I am so grateful for my missionary....and eternal....companion. I am totally convinced that my first full-time missionary experience has been so much better because of my beloved companion!! I am grateful for his love and support and for these 43 years with ALL of their ups and downs. I am grateful to have been able to walk by his side through thick and thin. We have learned and grown together and...probably the BEST....have been able to raise six wonderful children, welcome their beloved spouses into our family, and greet 22, soon to be 23, precious grandchildren. I am the most blessed among women!!!
The tragic love tale of the Boldt Castle (Grandad told you) brought home to me how blessed we are to have the saving and binding ordinances of the temple. Each of the couples in our little temple group had a couple picture taken in front of the castle to remind us of our eternal love. I won't share all of the couples' pics but I have put them into our "album". (Anyone who wants a bbboooorrrriiiiinnnnggg few hours is welcome to wade through all the pics we DIDN'T post on our blog but that we wanted to remember for ourselves!!) Here is our love picture and flower picture.
BFF
All of the gardens had a heart motif
So many other things made me think of love this week. On Monday, we were able to assist in a sealing session where a living spouse was sealed to her deceased spouse as well as a deceased daughter. Richard has already talked about how the husband had appeared to her after he died and said that he wanted to be married to her for forever. She was so happy to have this work done. So sweet. There are so many times in the temple that I feel love when we do work for those who were not able to receive these ordinances in this life. I feel the love of the patrons as they do work. There is such a feeling of love in the temple. I was able to help a sister who was receiving her own endowment also on Monday. Her daughter was her escort and they were so happy. You could feel their love for one another.
Also on Monday we had to say goodbye to one of the workers. She was a young sister who just returned from her mission and is returning to school in Utah. She is our Mission President's daughter and she has been an angelic addition to our Monday shift. This is the first of our goodbyes. We have grown to love the missionaries and local ordinance workers at the temple. What a precious summer this has been!!! One of the year missionaries said that we have had a "Celestial summer" and I couldn't have put it better myself. On Saturday we had a potluck get-together because one of sister missionaries is going home on Monday. Her husband will stay here for a couple more weeks but she has some family stuff that she needs to go home for. I think if we weren't working in the temple, he wouldn't be able to stay either. Anyway, at our potluck we all got t-shirts and had a pic taken. This is all the missionary couples, both year and 6-month, except for the Haucks who had conflicting plans. The couple in the center in the aprons is our Temple President and his angel wife, President and Sister Black. (Sister Riggs also has an apron because she didn't want a t-shirt) How I love these amazing people that we serve with!!!! Two couples will be going home in three weeks and two more will go home the middle of October. Then, all the 6-month missionaries will be going home the end of October.
We will never have another experience like this one, even when we serve another full-time mission. The sister who put this together asked us to share some of our most memorable moments from this summer. I can't even begin to share the things I have learned, experienced and felt. I know that I am a different person than the one who arrived here in April. I feel guilty sometimes that I am learning and growing so much when I came here to SERVE others! But, I am grateful!! Grandad and I have made a goal that we are going to continue studying and growing when we return home...and look for ways to serve!! One thing that particularly touched me this week was a scripture that we read together during our companion study. It was D&C 88:63-68. I will let you read it all but the part I want to share here is that the Lord says: "Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Later it also talks about His voice being Spirit and I finally understood that. He speaks to us through the Holy Ghost and if we listen carefully, we will hear His voice speaking to us. I reflected on what I learned last week in the temple as a result of reading in "The Infinite Atonement" and I decided that I needed to redouble my efforts to "draw near, seek and ask" my Heavenly Father to teach me....in the temple, through my gospel and scripture study, and in prayer. One thing I thought about as I was studying my scriptures in the temple on Friday was the concept of pride. I was reading about Nehor and priestcraft. In my study of the cross references, I remembered that priestcraft was accompanied by the desire for gain and power and realized that underlying all of that was pride. As false doctrine begins to be taught, the person, I am sure, feels that he is right but pride is what prevents him from seeking the truth and from listening to his leaders. That is a lesson to us all....as we are being taught by the Spirit we MUST beware lest we begin to think that those things came to us because of anything WE did, or how smart we are, or how spiritual, or anything like that. It was a precious gift from a loving Father because we HUMBLED ourselves enough to listen!!
The rest of the week in the temple was great!!! I have had so many opportunities to serve. I had two more own endowments that I was able to help on Saturday as well as helping three Spanish sisters at the veil. Sweet experience to help them in their native tongue. I love serving there and will be eternally grateful for the opportunity I have been given to come here to the "cradle of the restoration".
We had fun on our little excursion but I won't add anything here except for a picture that Grandad didn't put in.
Isn't he cute?!?
And with that....I will quite before you all fall asleep. Until next week....
Love you and miss you!!!
Grandma/Mom/Sandy
I am writing this on our anniversary and it is fitting that I have been contemplating LOVE this week. I am so grateful for my missionary....and eternal....companion. I am totally convinced that my first full-time missionary experience has been so much better because of my beloved companion!! I am grateful for his love and support and for these 43 years with ALL of their ups and downs. I am grateful to have been able to walk by his side through thick and thin. We have learned and grown together and...probably the BEST....have been able to raise six wonderful children, welcome their beloved spouses into our family, and greet 22, soon to be 23, precious grandchildren. I am the most blessed among women!!!
The tragic love tale of the Boldt Castle (Grandad told you) brought home to me how blessed we are to have the saving and binding ordinances of the temple. Each of the couples in our little temple group had a couple picture taken in front of the castle to remind us of our eternal love. I won't share all of the couples' pics but I have put them into our "album". (Anyone who wants a bbboooorrrriiiiinnnnggg few hours is welcome to wade through all the pics we DIDN'T post on our blog but that we wanted to remember for ourselves!!) Here is our love picture and flower picture.
So many other things made me think of love this week. On Monday, we were able to assist in a sealing session where a living spouse was sealed to her deceased spouse as well as a deceased daughter. Richard has already talked about how the husband had appeared to her after he died and said that he wanted to be married to her for forever. She was so happy to have this work done. So sweet. There are so many times in the temple that I feel love when we do work for those who were not able to receive these ordinances in this life. I feel the love of the patrons as they do work. There is such a feeling of love in the temple. I was able to help a sister who was receiving her own endowment also on Monday. Her daughter was her escort and they were so happy. You could feel their love for one another.
Also on Monday we had to say goodbye to one of the workers. She was a young sister who just returned from her mission and is returning to school in Utah. She is our Mission President's daughter and she has been an angelic addition to our Monday shift. This is the first of our goodbyes. We have grown to love the missionaries and local ordinance workers at the temple. What a precious summer this has been!!! One of the year missionaries said that we have had a "Celestial summer" and I couldn't have put it better myself. On Saturday we had a potluck get-together because one of sister missionaries is going home on Monday. Her husband will stay here for a couple more weeks but she has some family stuff that she needs to go home for. I think if we weren't working in the temple, he wouldn't be able to stay either. Anyway, at our potluck we all got t-shirts and had a pic taken. This is all the missionary couples, both year and 6-month, except for the Haucks who had conflicting plans. The couple in the center in the aprons is our Temple President and his angel wife, President and Sister Black. (Sister Riggs also has an apron because she didn't want a t-shirt) How I love these amazing people that we serve with!!!! Two couples will be going home in three weeks and two more will go home the middle of October. Then, all the 6-month missionaries will be going home the end of October.
We will never have another experience like this one, even when we serve another full-time mission. The sister who put this together asked us to share some of our most memorable moments from this summer. I can't even begin to share the things I have learned, experienced and felt. I know that I am a different person than the one who arrived here in April. I feel guilty sometimes that I am learning and growing so much when I came here to SERVE others! But, I am grateful!! Grandad and I have made a goal that we are going to continue studying and growing when we return home...and look for ways to serve!! One thing that particularly touched me this week was a scripture that we read together during our companion study. It was D&C 88:63-68. I will let you read it all but the part I want to share here is that the Lord says: "Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Later it also talks about His voice being Spirit and I finally understood that. He speaks to us through the Holy Ghost and if we listen carefully, we will hear His voice speaking to us. I reflected on what I learned last week in the temple as a result of reading in "The Infinite Atonement" and I decided that I needed to redouble my efforts to "draw near, seek and ask" my Heavenly Father to teach me....in the temple, through my gospel and scripture study, and in prayer. One thing I thought about as I was studying my scriptures in the temple on Friday was the concept of pride. I was reading about Nehor and priestcraft. In my study of the cross references, I remembered that priestcraft was accompanied by the desire for gain and power and realized that underlying all of that was pride. As false doctrine begins to be taught, the person, I am sure, feels that he is right but pride is what prevents him from seeking the truth and from listening to his leaders. That is a lesson to us all....as we are being taught by the Spirit we MUST beware lest we begin to think that those things came to us because of anything WE did, or how smart we are, or how spiritual, or anything like that. It was a precious gift from a loving Father because we HUMBLED ourselves enough to listen!!
The rest of the week in the temple was great!!! I have had so many opportunities to serve. I had two more own endowments that I was able to help on Saturday as well as helping three Spanish sisters at the veil. Sweet experience to help them in their native tongue. I love serving there and will be eternally grateful for the opportunity I have been given to come here to the "cradle of the restoration".
We had fun on our little excursion but I won't add anything here except for a picture that Grandad didn't put in.
And with that....I will quite before you all fall asleep. Until next week....
Love you and miss you!!!
Grandma/Mom/Sandy
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