Temple To Temple Trip

 The first week in May we took a overnight trip with the youth.. It was a lot of planning, work, temple work, and FUN. I'm so glad I got the opportunity to be apart of this awesome trip.

Youth Conference 2016

Youth Conference 2016 up at the Price's place by Cherry Creek.. To be honest I didn't want to go to Youth Conference. I had my mind made up a week before that I really didn't want to go. I was going to be returning from Florida the day before Youth Conference which I was gone a whole week. A whole week not in my bed, at a hotel, had been eating out, and I just wanted to be home. But I put on my big girl leader pants and got up the next morning with a good attitude. I am so glad that I did because it really was a good experience. So to start we did a service project to pay for our stay! The people that owned the place were so nice to let us stay there. 

 So they cut up a bunch of wood for fire wood!

Then our theme for the couple days was to "Press Forward" and so we all received a burden. They were all real life burdens that people go through everyday such as depression, thoughts of suicide, diabetes, loss of a parent, loss of a foot or hand, deaf, learning disability, loss of an eye, and things like that... Well each of the youth got a brick that represented their burden and they were required to carry it with them the next little bit. So they found a way to make a handle or some way to tie it to them. 

Jaycee with her cute eye patch :)

After they had a little free time to set up their tents, go fishing, or just hang out! Some of the girls were "tired" and got in the car and turned the AC on little stinkers.

From there we played a couple team bonding activities to teach them a couple life lessons!  The first one was called "water drip" they split into two teams and had a bucket in the front and a bucket in the back. They then each had cups and had to dump water behind their head into the cup behind them. First to empty the bucket ended the game, and whoever had the most water won. We played a couple different ways, they could talk, they couldn't talk and they had to stand. Each way was different and they learned something each time. Whether it was easier because they could say when they were ready for the one in front to dump, or move to the right, or to the left, " or just simply say "WAIT." 

Shawna was "Missing a Foot" She was such a good sport and really tried to go without it. 

This one just makes me laugh because you can see all the water getting ALL over Jaycee.  

I also really love this one because everyone on the left is screaming 

After that the next game was the plate game.. Everyone had to stand on a plate and mark and X, from there you could only go left, right, front or back(and mark an X) until there was no where else for you to go. Last person standing won! We had life lessons on this as well.. They could work alone, work together or even allow everyone to win! They didn't think of the last one until they had a little help, but it was set up if they all went straight down they would all win. 

After we played some volleyball for fun! 

That night Carol (our 2nd counselor) cooked some delicious dutch over chicken, pork, rolls, salad, and cornbread for dinner! It was wayyy better than all those meals eating out in Flordia :) and anything I would have made if I skipped ;) Then we had a speaker come and speak to us. He was so inspiring and is such an example.. One day after coming home from the gym he went completely paralyzed from the neck down. He spent months doing labs and different tests to figure out what had happened with no answer. He was told he'd never walk again and that night he came walking. He is a tough guy and withstood many trials but came to testify to us about Faith. The spirit was there and we learned a lot from his example. 

I don't remember what they are doing here but I think this is when they had to sing a "Solo" because they forgot their burdens. 

After the speaker we played glow in the dark capture the flag! I love games like that and I may or may not of been a little competitive.. Sorry kids :/ 

After everyone went to bed, some slept in trailers, some slept out under the stars, some slept on the tramp... (I might of went home and slept in my own bed, but only because Adi was sick)

The next morning we got up had breakfast and played a couple more games.. The first game was a spiderweb. Each person had to go through a hole and they couldn't use the same one until all of them had been used. They really had to work together to make it through, some were upset and didn't want to at first, some wanted to go through the big easy holes, and some were just being great supporters. At first they almost split up into boys and girls and then after they finally all started helping each other. Once they did that it all went a lot faster and smoother.

 Our last game was "Mouse Trap" which everyone seemed to really enjoy! We set up a square with all their burdens in it and mouse traps. Each person was blind folded and they had a partner to lead them through, pick up there burden and get out of the square. The whole time people were screaming don't step there, ahh there is a trap, and so forth. It made it really hard for them to know which was right and which was wrong, but they learned there partner wouldn't lead them astray. They had many life lessons from that activity and it was quite amusing. :)

After that our last activity was to hike to the Temple! We had a temple up on a rock the whole time (at night it even glowed, at least partially) and the whole purpose was to leave our burdens at the temple and with Christ. The hike there was really hard for some people, harder than the preparation, and some it was the opposite. But it was represented real life and how Satan tries so hard to burden these youth, and to make it difficult for them to get to the temple. It was a great activity and I hope that the youth learned something from it. By the time it was time to be done they were so over their burdens and glad to get rid of them, while some wanted to keep them. Overall it was a great experience. Kade and Robyn really worked hard and did so much in order to have this youth conference go this way. Thank you!

Logan Temple

This sweet lady here in the middle went through the temple today. She looked so cute and happy! I truly love the temple and the fact that we can go to the temple and learn of God. The Logan Temple is veryyy verryy pretty! I loved it!

Sunday Talk

Thursday evening we got a phone call asking to speak in Sacrament, Kooper said let me talk to the wife and I’ll call ya back. Right when he told me, my response was with a serious face. NO! He can’t give us 3 days. Kooper thought I was being serious and went to call back surly I was kidding I'd never say no. It  couldn’t of been a better day to talk. We were asked to talk about General Conference. Which I thought would be extremely easy because there is so many talks I liked.  Looking back at some of the notes I took I realized that I like almost every talk, but which do I pick? I love general conference, I love hearing what the prophet, and apostles of God have to say to us. I used to always think of conference as naptime, the elder brethren have such peaceful voices that can put me to sleep so fast.  However, I have grown to truly love conference. There are so many questions that can be answered and so many lessons to learn. I thought that for Sunday I would share my talk and what I learned from preparing it.

For my talk I wanted to share points I loved from Elder Hamilton’s talk on Continually holding fast, we have many choices to make as to how we observe the Sabbath day. There will always be some “good” activity that can and should be sacrificed for the better choice of church meeting attendance. Don’t let Sunday church be “just an option” once we make that choice it will be easier to fall away and become less active. Even to add to that sometimes we get in the habit of running late or skipping out on some of our church meetings. Elder Hamilton briefly described why we have each meeting. Sacrament is for providing the opportunity to participate in the ordinance of the sacrament. Sunday School allows us to “teach one another the doctrines of the kingdom”, Priesthood meetings are a time for men and young men to learn their duty and to be instructed more perfectly, and Relief Society provides the women an opportunity to increase their faith, strengthen their families and homes, and help those in need. Each meeting is just as important as the other. Attend church, attend all three meetings, and arrive on time, you have no idea the importance your attendance will have on your posterity. If you stop going, it will affect every generation after you, or it will set the wrong examples to those surrounding you. Teach and learn from those around us, we are a ward family and have so much to share with each other.  As we take Christ’s name upon us, it is expected that we strive to emulate his attributes and change our character to become more like him.  Christ-like attributes are gifts from God, as we use our agency righteously. How do we become more like Christ? Well we can start by becoming humble. D&C 112:10 “Be thou humble; and the Lord they God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers.

I am going to switch talks to Elder Ballard’s now about putting your trust in the Lord. There seemed to be a few themes for this conference and one of them was sharing the gospel. We want to give the world a chance to hear and accept the gospel.  We are asked to quicken our pace, working together to build up the church and kingdom of God. The Lord wants his gospel to be spread, and he is trying to do that at a quick pace, as you’ve seen from the numbers of new missionaries. Don’t be scared! Pray for opportunities to share the gospel, anyone is capable of doing it. Elder Ballard stated” It is impossible for us to fail when we do our best when we are on the Lord’s errand.” How could we possibly fail with that great promise? The key to missionary work is that you be inspired of God, ask him for direction and then go and do as the spirit prompts you to. The Lord has provided us with so many resources to spread the gospel; lets take advantage of them and use them! The greatest part about missionary work is that you don’t have to be a full time missionary to share the gospel anyone can do it. When I was 9 years old I had an activities day leader who had my name on her roll. She went out of her comfort zone and came to my house over and over to invite me to church. There were days she would come planning on me coming and I never did but she didn’t get discouraged, she kept coming! And through it all I ended up getting baptized, just because she had faith in me and never gave up. Shortly after getting baptized I moved and once again had no one to go to church with. Heavenly Father blessed me with a best friend that invited me to church when I was 10 years old. How much courage does it take for a 10 year old to ask someone to come to church with her? For the next few years I got a phone call every Sunday from a member of her family asking if I wanted to go to church with them. I was on and off and went through phases, but that didn’t matter to them. They never gave up on me either! Soon I found my testimony and what I loved so much about the church. I was lucky enough to have those people in my life; I know that missionary work is universal. Whoever thought you had to be a missionary to share the gospel was wrong.  The first step is to find someone.  

Going off missionary work, let us be the ones to comfort those that feel alone, to be there for a brother or sister in the ward, to help a struggling family member or neighbor. Just remember that others can be having a hard trial in their life.. I wanted to share a story that President Monson shared a couple weeks ago in the Relief Society Broadcast. One day this lady made her homemade bread and for some reason she was prompted to make two instead of one. After she made one loaf she still didn't know what to do with it, on her way into town she brought it with her. She had a strange feeling to take the second loaf across town to a lady she hardly knew. Acting on this prompting she listened to the spirit and dropped it off. Little did she know that was all this lady was desperately wanting. It became an obvious sign to the lady that her Heavenly Father was aware of her needs and loved her enough to send help, and respond to her cries for relief. To read the full version you can go to here. Will we rely on the spirit to guide us to them and to be a light for them? Remember that your Heavenly Father loves each of you, that love never changes, its not influenced by your appearance, your possessions, its not changed by your talents and abilities, its simply there. 

We are able to do missionary work ourselves at this time. It can be as simple as posting something on Facebook, you never know who is needed to hear those words or who is reading. My dad and both brothers in my family are not members of the church and I still love them. I know that if I continue to live as an example one day they will learn of the gospel. The other day I mentioned to one of my brothers when they have a baby if Kooper would be able to bless them, and they said what is a blessing. That was just a great experience to me and maybe it didn't mean anything to him but I was able to share a little more with him.  I know this gospel is the truth, I love it and I live it with all my heart :)

Happy Sunday I hope you enjoy this! 

Happy Happy Happppy!

Sometimes people ask, Why are you so happy? You've have became a great person. You're doing so much with your life. How?

Well... The truth is folks I am happy because I am a member of the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I've became a good person because that's what my savior would want from me. I'm creating a good life because I know who I am and what my potential is. 

People think their happy, but until you have the true gospel your missing something. My life wouldn't be complete if I wasn't a member. It strengthens me everyday. 

If someone told you that you could have true happiness would you take the chance to listen? With an open heart and an open mind. Listen once or twice or however many times you like but promise to be open about anything they might tell you? This is something that makes me have so much joy in life, and it could possibly give you that much joy as well. I challenge you to listen to this short message at least. 

What makes me so happy is knowing there is life after death. Knowing that I will be able to be those members of my family again. 

What makes me happy is knowing that I can be sealed to my family for time and all eternity. Families are more than just something here on this Earth, you get to be together forever. Especially knowing I am sealed to my wonderful hubby for EVER!

What makes me so happy is every 6 months when conference comes and we get to hear the words of the apostles, and the prophets and just learn from them.

What makes me happy is feeling the spirit warm my heart.

What makes me happy is going to church and seeing everyone dressed up, seeing everyone so humble, seeing everyone making good choices. 

What makes me so happy is knowing your bishop, relief society and ward would do anything for you if you needed something. 

What makes me happy is having a ward family when miles away from my own family. 

"You're never too far gone. There is no single mistake that can't be overcome through the Savior. You always have a fighting chance."-Spencer Hadley

This gospel makes me so happy I just want to share it with everyone else. There is so much I could talk about, and so many things that make me happy.  I want my family and friends to have this happiness. To make the changes in their lives and to come closer to Christ. If you take the chance to listen and ask I know you will feel the spirit and understand. There are so many people with the answers to any of the questions you might have such as Kooper, Myself, and or the missionaries. Please ask. Just take a second to search www.lds.org Who knows what you might find.

I love to see the Temple

Temples!

We love to go to the temple!

We have made it our goal to go at least once each month!

I just wanted to show you the beautiful temples we have on this earth today!

 

Here Is our Journey on going to the temple!

1.This was my first experience in the temple! (besides baptisms) I received my endowments January 5th, 2013
Bountiful Utah Temple

2.This temple was where Kooper and I got married for time and all eternity! January 11th, 2013 Brigham City Temple

3.Went to the temple for Jess's Endowments March 1st, 2013

This temple, is currently the closest temple and most available for us up at school! We can see this temple every night out our window! Our goal is to go as often as possible!

4. March 26th, 2013(WC)

5.March 27, 2013 (Kyle and Nicole and did baptism)

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.(have to think about this)

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6. August 3rd. Nicole, Krichele, Teresa and I all went to the Logan Temple and did baptisms! So FUN!

There are so many beautiful temples, and our goal is to go to as many as we can! Hopefully this page will be full of different temples one day!