I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.---C. S. Lewis
As a rule, man's a fool.
When it's hot, he wants it cool.
When it's cool, he wants it hot.
Always wanting what is not. (Don't know author. But Mom quoted it a lot. :)
10 Davis Smith, Katie Baker McKeown, Hyrum Webber (Cara's) 2012
12 Timm Smith
14 Allie Baker, Flag Day
16 Carol Smith Baker, Skjelse Smith, Father's Day, Stuart and Shar married in the Salt Lake temple in 1977, MaryAnne and Van married in the Oquirrh Mountain temple in 2012
17 Matt Bailey, Cortney Smith, William Montana Timmins and Mary Brighton Timmins married in the Salt Lake temple 1920.
19 Dan Smith
24 Marston Smith (Trent's) 2011
25 Dave Blake
28 Greg Hyatt
PHEW! What a list! Hope I didnt miss anyone/thing. If I did, let me know!
BIG NEWS
First, David Smith was called into the stake presidency. The apostle, Neal Anderson visited their stake conference, and split the stake. Dave was called to serve in the new stake. Mom and Dad would be proud of him. (In a non-pride cycle sort of way..). I figure it will keep him out of trouble, since he has so much free time. Full time job, going to school to get his Doctorate, writing his dissertation, and taking care of both his family, and all of our kids who are in the Provo/Orem area, wasn't enough. He needed more to do. :)
Second, Cara Smith Webber had another article published in the Ensign magazine. Look in the July 2013 issue. Hers is titled "Singing while Washing Dishes." It is very good. In RS today, our teacher used the story in her lesson. Ahhh we were all so proud!
NOTE TO EVERYONE!! If your last name begins with the letters A-F, you are required to send me some sort of information on your family sometime in the month of July.
anyone else can as well, but A-F are REQUIRED to do so.
So I'm trying to pretend that life has calmed down. :). I am in a car heading to Kirtland Ohio. The youth from our stake are going for youth conference. We have about 230 kids going and only about 215 seats, so most adults need to drive, and some have to geek some youth. We are driving the bishop and wife from our neighboring ward, and three YW. We call our mini-van Bus#5, the party van. It is about 7 hours each way. The conference should be amazing. We are touring all the sites there, including the temple and the Johnson farm.
While we are gone....Molly will return from her Freshman year at BYU and Natalie, Kenny and Addie arrive in Virginia.
Mom used to say it took her most of the day to write the family newsletter. I couldn't believe how long it took her! But it takes me at least 3-4 hours, so I will see what I can get done while trapped in a car traveling west!
Missionary updates--three emails each from four missionaries. A TON of great stories, testimonies and experiences. It will be very hard to choose....
Robbie in Colorado- "after a year and a half I finally get to go back to the temple this upcoming Wednesday (the 6:30 am session, blah) but I'm still way excited." He is serving the last part of his mission in the inner city of Denver. It is quite different from being in the countryside, where he served most of his mission. While out on his mission, Robbie decided he would like to go to college. His mother, father and sister haven't gone, so he is quite the pioneer. I am super proud of him. I have been helping him apply to LDS Business College, and his FAFSA, etc. His mission president has super supportive, allowing Robbie to access the Internet and websites necessary to apply.
Cameron in California-- "We got to go to the San Diego Temple today and that was really cool, it gives you such great feelings of peace." He has a new companion. His previous companion finished his mission and went home. His new companion is 18 years old, is from Texas, and has already gone to college for about 2 years. Pretty impressive! He has had a lot of varied experiences lately. One is...
"This week we tore apart a wall with a pick and hammers. It was made of concrete, rebar and cinder blocks. That was a lot of fun, but I was sore and my hands hurt for days."
Easton in Canada.-"Saturday was a real test of our strength. We got rejected again and again. The whole day was just bad. But unfazed by the hail and storm of the adversary we soldiered through to Sunday, were 100% Obedient and got 100% blessed. We were walking down the street heading to drop by an old investigator and some guy waiting to turn at the light just started honking. I am pretty used to this and even better at ignoring it. He persisted and just waited at the light until we looked over. I made eye contact with the driver (waving frantically to get my attention) and when he knew he had my attention he pointed at me and pointed at the side of the road and then pulled over. He got out of his car and asked, "Are you with the Church?!" We said yes and he said something to the affect of, "Oh good. I want to go to church and stay on the path to God. Can we meet sometime and you can teach me more?" We were in shock. Usually we pull teeth to get numbers but this guy handed us his business card and asked when we would be calling. Supa sweet. We are calling him tonight and so I guess you'll hear about it next week.
Before I left on my mission Melissa gave me some good advice. She said, "If you aren't tired as a missionary, you're doing something wrong."
I'm not saying I am the best missionary ever but I am exhausted. Like really. But I don't think I've ever had as much fun. Weird how that works out eh?"
Liam in Madagascar--"A... man we contacted into is named Mohammed. He is actually part Comorian, but Malagasy is his first language. His father is muslim, but his mom is protestant so he was raised protestant. He said he would really like to learn from us and so we had a return appointment. In the return appointment we taught him and his wife Paula. It was a really nice lesson. During the lesson I had these thoughts come to my head. I saw him dressed in a white shirt and tie, he was a priesthood holder. He was leading his family to church. And I looked around their room and I saw (imagined) the very common picture of Christ in a red robe and other church artwork. I also imagined him and Paula dressed in temple white and saw them happily walking into the temple. It was a super amazing experience. I see so much potential and wonderful change that could come to this little family. It is so hopeful to think about them like that. I feel so full of joy to imagine them like that. It is such a wonderful possibility. I really hope it will be transformed in to reality. We will do all we can to do so." He asks for prayers for his investigators. They really need some additional prayers right now....
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So, it is a few days later and I am home from Kirtland, so I can finish the letter and post it. The conference was amazing to say the least. For those who have not gone there, Kirtland was the most significant era in church history. Revelations that comprise of 2/3 of the D&C were given here. The firsts...first presidency was formed, quorum of the 12 apostles and the 70, first patriarch, bishop, high priests, stake, MTC, temple, bishops storehouse, etc all during the Kirtland period.
In addition, the school of the prophets, the second edition of the BOM and 1st edition of the D&C were published. Significant priesthood keys were restored, the Word of Wisdom was given, the vision of the 3 degrees of glory, etc. God the Father and the Son appeared together 5 times total. Once in the Sacred Grove in New York, and the other four were in Kirtland.
Our group of about 250 visited all the traditional sites. We were able to hold a sacrament meeting on Friday night, in the Kirtland Temple. That was truly an experience the youth will never forget. And a special thing for me is that I was asked to speak. A lot of pressure, but quite an opportunity as well. I hope the points in my talk were able to touch the heart of someone. I was nervous but happy to have the experience.....
Plan a family trip there. It is amazing!
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updates from blogs and letters....
Boston writes, I am teaching a beginning sewing class for youth during the month of June. I sent out an email to my ward and my neighborhood and got a huge response. I teach on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons (while my kids are napping), with 8 girls in each class. I do a project for each class. Last week we made a pillowcase, and for this and following weeks we will make a bag/tote, a skirt, and an apron. I am so excited that so many girls want to learn to sew. I really enjoyed my first week of teaching.
My mom, Monta, and I are doing a lazy Ironman this month (maybe Rachel too?). That means we do the equivalent of an Ironman race in one month instead of in one day. We will swim 2.4 miles (about 80 laps), bike 112 miles, and run a marathon (26.2 miles). It has been tough! But it definitely gets me out exercising. I'm using this as training for the Spudman triathlon I am doing in July when I am in Burley visiting my family. I bought a nice road bike with birthday money and money I had saved from teaching piano lessons. I absolutely LOVE my bike!
I spend a lot of time in my garden--mostly I am harvesting now. We planted by seed, and had our most successful garden this year that we have ever had in Arizona. The kids love our garden and are a huge help to me (most of the time!). I am including a picture of our garden and a picture of a sunflower we have in our garden, because it makes me so happy.
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Cara, as usual, sends me little posts on a regular basis. (Folks, it doesn't need to be a long detailed letter. A couple of sentences would be great.....) I love Cara's little posts complete with photos. Here are a few.
Hyrum turned 1! Amazing how time flies. Hyrum enjoyed his cake. :)
As a family celebration that Barry is finally finished working on Saturdays (hurray!), we went on a family adventure on Saturday morning. It's so nice to have him around! Lauritzen Gardens was having a really cool lego exhibit that we had to check out...
This butterfly was so cool! We especially loved the curling tongue.
Hallie had a couple pieces of art that were chosen to represent her school in an art display. She was so flattered!
This piece was also chosen to compete in an art competition and ended up getting 2nd place! She was so proud! The piece started as a photograph of her, and then she had to choose 4 mediums to cover it with. She chose oil pastel, colored pencil, ripped magazines, and paint. Turned out looking pretty cool! Good job Hallie!
and finally,
We had an extra fun Easter because my mom and my brother Trent and his wife Lyndi and their five kids came for a visit. The kids had a great time!
Carol side note...This kind of thing (above) would always make Mom choke up a little. She loved it when family made the effort to get together. This would have made her so happy, along with Cara and other relatives opening their homes to each other. (Cara and Dan/Val opened their doors to Katie as she moved west, and to Natalie as she moved east.)
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Now some old family pictures I found. These are gems. Enjoy them. :o)
Dad, Mom, Candy, Monta, Catie, Rob, Carol, Karen, Dave and Dan.
Personally, I think I am quite a fox in this picture. Don't be jealous of my beauty!
To close, I will leave two thoughts from my Kirtland Temple talk.
--Often I hear youth say that living the gospel is soooo hard! I want to tell you that living the gospel is not really hard. Life is hard! LIFE is hard! “We have two choices. We can either follow the Lord and be endowed with His power and have peace, light, strength, knowledge, confidence, love and joy. OR we can go another way and go it alone--without His support, without his power, without guidance-- in darkness, turmoil, stress, doubt, grief and despair. And I ask, “Which way is easier?" There isn't a problem that God cannot solve, including the problems you are facing!!
--We all know the story of the Brother of Jared. The solution to no light in the barges was to have The Lord touch stones to make them produce light. The key here is that the stones were just stones until The Lord touched them. When the Lord touched them, they became powerful. In your life story, let God touch your life. You will be made powerful.
Work Hard, Study Hard, Pray Hard,
Carol
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