Like a Lamb to the Slaughter

I have now been serving as an ordinance worker in the Los Angeles Temple for over 5 years and this service has truly been a huge blessing in my life. I have met and have been able to work with so many wonderful Saints who I otherwise would never have known. They have each touched my life in ways that will impact me forever. 

For the past two years, I have had the privilege of serving as one of the assistant coordinators on our shift. My responsibilities consisted mostly of overseeing the activities on the 1st floor - meaning the locker room, Initiatory area, and the Name Issue Booth. I have loved serving in this capacity and have enjoyed my association with all of the sisters as they went about fulfilling their own specific duties and responsibilities in the 1st floor areas.

My "like a lamb to the slaughter" title for this post is because of an event that took place yesterday morning. I was summoned to the Temple Presidency's office where I met with President Clark (1st Counselor in the Temple Presidency). He issued a calling for me to be the new shift coordinator. I was well aware that a change was going to take place. Sister Matweyew, our current coordinator, lost her husband last December and she has been making preparations to sell her house and move. Even so, I was really hoping that I wouldn't be the one they asked to fill her shoes.  Two weeks ago, I met with President Reynolds, as did a few other sisters on our shift, for a short interview. He said he wanted to get to know some of us before deciding who the Lord wanted to be the new coordinator. As I was walking down the hallway towards the President's Office yesterday, I felt like a lamb going to the slaughter. I knew I was going to be asked to be the new coordinator. It didn't take long for my suspicion to surface and become a reality.

The duties of the coordinator are many and will require a lot of time, patience, organization, and inspiration. Sister Matweyew told me that she puts about 30 hrs. per week into the calling. That amazes me. How many other church callings require that much time? On top of that, I will continue to be a Gospel Doctrine teacher in our ward, which requires a lot of preparation time for each lesson. I have my work cut out for me, but I know that with the Lord's help I will be able to find the time to get everything done that I need to. He is at the helm.

God has been stretching me in many new ways lately, which is helping me to overcome some of my biggest fears.  Sometimes I ask myself "why me" when confronted with a new challenge. But then, I ask myself "why not me?"  I know that by facing my fears, I can grow beyond what I think I am capable of. With God by my side, I know I can accomplish great things in spite of my physical, social, or spiritual limitations. God qualifies those whom he calls. I know that to be true for I have seen it many times in my past callings.

An inspiring scripture is found in Moroni 7:33 - "And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me."

I do have faith in Him and appreciate His trust in me. He has never left me comfortless nor abandoned me when I most needed him. For that, I am truly grateful!

The Staircase

I just got back from attending Stake Conference. We had a visiting general authority, Elder Enrique R. Falabella, who inspired me to write in here. I am going to try to paraphrase what he said (or what I heard and felt while he spoke). During his talk he asked us to visualize a staircase...

and at the top of this staircase is a sign that says "BLESSINGS". How are you going to get those blessings? Blessings don't have feet so they cannot come to you. You will have to do the work to get to where those blessings are, little by little, one step at a time. It will take work, but eventually you will be at the top of the staircase ready to receive all the blessings our Heavenly Father has promised you and has waiting for you. You just need to show up in person to receive them.

I love this analogy because it seems that many members want the blessings without having to do the work. That is how society in general is right now. Many have the entitlement mentality where privileges are rights and do not need to be earned or worked for. Are we entitled to something simply because we want it or need it? This is not how Heavenly Father works. He desperately wants to give us the promised blessings, but he will not reward us for bad behavior or for being idle when it comes to our participation and service in the church. It is only through our righteous actions that the reward will be realized. We will get exactly what we deserve...nothing more, nothing less. God is just!

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I liked another story that Elder Falabella shared with us. Again, I will be paraphrasing what I remember. He told of a time when he was living in Guatemala and he was the Stake President. The church announced that they would be building a temple in Guatemala and each stake was asked to earn $10,000 to donate to the construction fund. This might not seem like a lot to American members, but the members in Guatemala were very poor. Most families were living on only about $120/month! The Stake Presidency there decided to commit themselves to donate one month's worth of wages. They then asked the Bishops to do likewise, which they committed to do. The Bishops then personally asked each ward or branch member to do the same. Because of their faith and a desire to have a temple, the members exercised their faith, dug deep, and donated generously. Elder Falabella's stake ended up accumulating $27,000...well above the $10,000 that was asked of them. 

Guatemala Temple

Interestingly, before the donations were made, only about 4-5 people in the stake owned cars (mostly stake leaders) and had to walk, rely on public transportation, or ride bicycles to get where they needed to go. A few years later, when Elder Falabella returned to Guatemala after living in Costa Rica for a time, it amazed him to see how many cars there were in the parking lot at the church. The Lord had poured out his blessings upon the members for their sacrifice in donating funds for the temple.

The Lord will bless us, too, if we exercise our faith and do what is required of us. I plan to climb that staircase. How about you?

SCORE!!!

I purchased a Hoverboard for Christmas last year for my family to use when visiting. I found out later that they are unsafe and can potentially start on fire while charging or while riding. With permission, I returned it. I was told that they would credit my credit card once they received the package. After waiting about three weeks, today I received a credit to my credit card for the amount of the Hoverboard. Yesterday, this showed up at my door:

It says "refused" - return to sender.

SCORE!!! I not only got a refund, but I get to keep the Hoverboard. They didn't even want it back!

Truthfully, my family used it last Christmas and it didn't seem that dangerous. Ethan and Ella were very good at it once they caught on to how it was done. 

 Ella's first try.

Jared got it down quickly

I can see how dangerous it can be, though. Hopefully it can be used with caution and safety. I don't want to be responsible for any broken bones!

April's Year of Dates

Once again, we were able to open another "gift of the month". 

For April, it looks like we will be heading to the beach again with our beach bikes. We received a $10 gift card to Stater Brothers so we could get some food to take with us. Riding our bikes on the beach is one of our favorite outings together. We just did it at our sister's retreat and really enjoyed it.

Speaking of the beach, Cheryl and I went to Sunset Beach last Friday so she could try on some wedding dresses at a place called Illume Gowns. When we saw the beach house we would be entering, we could hardly believe it. It is huge!!! It is 3 stories and is gorgeous inside and out.

It is literally right on the beach.

The woman we met there is LDS and has been living in her parents "vacation home" for a couple of years. The parents live in St. George. They want to be able to rent it out so this woman and her husband bought a house that they will be moving into in two weeks. How lucky that they got to stay in this gorgeous house for two years!

This is what you see from the entry if you look up.

 This is from the 2nd floor looking down. 

The bathroom was gorgeous! I love gray and white bathrooms.

The floor tile was beautiful.

So was the shower.

Cheryl actually fell in love with one of the dresses she tried on here and bought it (after we checked out another place). She is going to be one beautiful bride!

Sisters Retreat 2016

Normally when my sisters and I have a sister's retreat, we meet in Utah, but this year I talked them into coming to California. Not only did we have it in California, we also invited our husbands to join in the fun. It turned out great!

Our first day of fun happened to be Jane and Ken's 40th Wedding Anniversary (March 26th). Ken surprised Jane with 40 (actually 48) red roses. They were beautiful and smelled heavenly.

After a delicious breakfast of Blueberry French Toast Casserole (YUM!), 

we headed to the Ronald Reagan Library. Alan and I have been there before, but none of them had. Cheryl and Parker joined us there. The grounds are so beautiful!

Airforce One

Replica of the Oval Office

Janice Riding with Reagan

Gayle delivering her speech with the use of a teleprompter.

Portrait of Reagan using jelly beans

After the Library and a picnic lunch, we headed to Santa Monica Beach. We brought our beach cruisers, so we took turns riding to the pier and back.

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On Monday, we dressed in our cool t-shirts and went to a taping of The Price is Right.


Waiting in line. So many lines to wait in!

Even though we had the best t-shirts in the audience (people complimented us a lot), none of us were chosen to be a contestant. I guess we didn't act lively enough or look needy enough, but we still had a lot of fun. The episode we watched will air on June 9, 2016. I am sure we will be seen in the audience...especially since a man behind me who was called to be a contestant practically fell on top of me as he headed down the aisle. I was seated on the aisle.

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The next day, we dressed a little more upscale in order to attend a taping of America's Got Talent. They have a dress code for the audience. We are asked to dress in solid dark colors (black, gray, maroon, or blue) and the clothing is supposed to be hip and upscale. I think we dressed the part nicely.

 A group rehearsing before the taping started.

Cheryl can't be seen in this theater shot, but she did join us. She was on Spring Break this week so she had some spare time and really wanted to see the show.

There were a wide variety of acts and some of them were magnificent. I can't wait for the show to air.
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On Wednesday, we decided to stay close to home since we had been doing so much traveling down below. After Jane & Ken got some dental work done, we decided to go down to Vasquez Rocks. I had never been before. Alan was the only one who had. It was really enjoyable and the weather was very nice.

The first thing Ken, Scott, Jan, and Len did was climb to the top of this rock formation. They said it wasn't hard and wasn't scary, but it sure looked scary to those of us who didn't attempt it.

 My man...the rock climber!

Sisters (Jane, Gayle, Janice, Joan)

We found this cool rock formation and each couple took a turn being photographed.

Alan & I

Janice & Leonard

Ken & Jane

Gayle & Scott

Our Sister's Retreat came to an end the next morning when they had to leave to drive back to Utah. I sure wish I lived closer to them. I can't wait until we can retire in Utah so we can do more fun things like this together. I am convinced that sisters are a gift from the Lord to a woman.

Struggling With Shingles

A few weeks ago I had a prompting to get a shingles vaccine but I ignored that prompting. Now I regret that decision. Although they are almost gone now, I got shingles a couple of weeks ago. Shingles can be very painful and usually last between 2-4 weeks, but some people have continuing nerve pain that can last for months or years.

Shingles is a viral disease presenting as a rash with blisters. Basically, the chicken pox virus remains in the body and reactivates at a later date as shingles due to age, poor immune function, etc. My rash started near my left arm pit and then developed down my left arm as pictured here:

Two weeks ago

Seeking medical help is important with shingles. The medication and ointment I was issued was helpful in making shingles more manageable.

Even after two weeks, the one near my armpit is still not healed and a little sore. It might even be infected. The ones on my arm are still visible and painful too.

Fortunately, I had a mild case. Although they have been a nuisance and painful, it hasn't stopped me from enjoying life...especially our sister's retreat. I know one can get shingles more than once so I am hoping that in my case there won't be a repeat.