Utah Apostles

I couldn't wait for conference this time around. Three new apostles! I was so excited! The Saturday morning session started and I was disappointed because they didn't announce the new apostles right away. I'll be honest, I didn't listen to the talks much because my mind was on the exciting announcement on the new leaders.

Finally in the Saturday afternoon session they announced the three new apostles. I was waiting for one of them to have a foreign name - It just seems logical with most of the church membership to be outside of the US. 

They announced the new members; very, very, American.  My heart sank, I was so disappointed.  I wanted someone like King David to be called, a young "inexperienced" man only known by God.  But all these men were already part of the General leadership of the church. 

Sometime that Saturday night the Spirit chastised me. He told me that I shouldn't have been concerned about WHO was being called, but that I should have been listening to the word of the Lord. I became repentant immediately,  realizing my error. It is Jesus Christ who offers the healing balm of sin and affliction. Everyone else in the the church is just doing His work.

I know they are all from Utah as well. But this just proves to me that this Church is ran by God and not by a committee of people wanting to do the politically correct thing. The world would have us be diverse (I hoped for the same thing), but the Lord does things His way, even if it's not popular.

Cowpassion

This year I went to a beautiful place in Idaho to a girls camp. It was peaceful and beautiful. On the afternoon of the 2nd day some ranchers dropped off a herd of cows on the border of our camp land. The mooing from the cows was incredibly load. Our camp was situated in a bowl shaped valley. The noise carried as if we were in an amphitheater. By bedtime most of the cows had calmed down, but every once in a while one or two cows would bellow. These weren't average moo's, these were throat gurgling hollers. We all had a hard time sleeping. I was so angry with the cows, I just wanted to sleep!

The next morning I was talking to a sleep-deprived camp leader. We laughed about the annoying cows. As I was headed out of the room I jokingly exclaimed "What could they possibly be saying to each other!?!" I turned my back to walk out and I heard the leader say "You don't know?". Surprised, I turned and walked back to the leader. "No, I don't know" I said. She explained to me that the cows were mooing because their babies were just taken away from them when they were dropped off the day before. The momma cows were running all over the place frantically trying to find their lost babies. She said that after a few days they would stop trying to find their calves. This separation was necessary so that the moms milk supply would dry up in time to become pregnant again that fall.

My heart sank.  I walked out of the building bothered and sad. Then I heard a cow bellow. I could hear the despair in her voice. What once was annoying was now heartbreaking. All that day and through the next night I listened to those momma cows searching for their calves. I thought of my 2 year old son, I had compassion for these cows. I mourned with them.

Once I learned the reason behind the cows behavior my attitude changed. I thought about how we judge other people. If we took a moment to realize the reason of another's actions we would have compassion on the person. We may never know why some people act a certain way, but that doesn't mean there isn't a reason, it's just invisible to us. I believe this is why the Lord teaches us not to judge, but to love instead.

Thank you cows for your lesson. I'm sorry for your loss.

Eli's 2nd Birthday

Eli turned two. Can you believe it?

We had a family birthday party on his birthday which happened to be Mothers Day and is also his grandpa's birthday.

My mom was coming into town later that week so I had planned another party so my mom could take part in it. I invited tons of friends and some family (since he already had his "family birthday party") Well no friends ended up coming, so we had 2 family birthday parties, LOL. But we had a blast nevertheless.

At age two Eli is very active. His motor skills are very advanced. He can already climb the ladders in the playgrounds. He is obsessed about trains, trucks, cars, and tractors, but mostly trains. He can put the tracks together and hook all the train parts up by himself. He just got a new train-set that is magnetic and he knows to orient them to the right polarity. Very smart boy. 

His gives the sweetest hugs. Everyone feels so loved by him. People are delighted by his curly blonde hair and dimples. I get comments almost everyday about his hair, dimples, and people always ask me "Is he always this happy?".