Murder Mystery

Our fun friends, Jared & Johanna Hughes invited us for a dinner date night this weekend. We each played a suspect in a murder mystery. David was Donald Brooks, a 1936 financial guru, and I played his ditsy fashion model wife. The night was full of scandal, intrigue and suspicions. Jared aka "Rog" was the murderer, although we all had good reason to conspire Sir Roger's death. Good friends Jessica and JT came as well as two new friends, Ben and Hilary. We had a great time!

Winter Wonderland

Our first snowman together.

David

Every day is like Christmas in our house. I receive the gift of kindness each morning as I wake up to an always-chipper husband singing around the house and preparing both breakfast and lunch for the two of us as we go about our day. I see the excitement of a child every afternoon as I walk in the door as if my mere presence is as good as all of Santa's reindeer landing on our roof. I am showered with daily service and compliments worth more than anything that comes beautifully wrapped in a box. And I am reminded of Christ in all that he strives to become and the pure goodness that shines from all of his actions. While it might not always be December, I have a year-round Christmas husband and I adore him.

Testimony

In Matthew 24:24 it reads, “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” President Harold B. Lee said that Joseph Smith’s Inspired Version of the bible added “who are the elect, according to the covenant.” President Lee said that unless we gain a testimony for ourselves we will be among those who are deceived. It is essential that we gain testimonies for ourselves. I like verse 37 of JS-Matt it says “And whoso treasureth up my word, shall not be deceived.” He didn’t say to hold the bible, to study it, or even to read it, but to treasure up his word. I believe this means that we take action based on his teachings. Obviously we’ll have to read the scriptures to know Christ’s word, but it’s more than that. We don’t need to know every detail of the scriptures, but we do need to learn the principles and live by them. We need to apply them to our daily lives. If we do that, we will not be deceived at the last day, because we will really know who Christ is, and we will now the truth. It will be engraved on our hearts.

To Be A Disciple of Christ

In John 13:34-35 we learn that if we are to be disciples or true followers of Jesus Christ, then we are to love one another just as Jesus Christ has loved us. By reading the New Testament or the Book of Mormon (Another Testament) we learn how loving our savior Jesus Christ really is. Many times Jesus heals the sick, causes the lame to walk, gives sight to the blind and forgives the sins of those that seek repentance through faith. Jesus never thinks of himself, but only his brothers and sisters. Jesus’ ultimate act of love was when he took upon himself the sins and afflictions of all of mankind so that through him we can receive mercy on our part at the last day. He has taught us that no unclean thing can enter into the presence of God and since we are all sinners we are unclean. But because of his atonement for us, each of us will live again and if we repent his sacrifice will heal us and make us clean before the Father.

Jesus Christ loves us and has done great things for everyone. He asks in return that each of us be his disciple which is done by following him and loving others as he has loved us. After pondering on the acts that he did to show love it may seem difficult to duplicate the love that he has shared with us but it can be done one act of kindness at a time. As disciples of Christ each of us should and can reach out to others with a helping hand and be thoughtful of the needs of others. Charity is the pure love of Christ and as we pray to be filled with that gift we are more able to serve others see them as Christ would see them.

Perhaps one person is making fun of another persons way of dress or speech, we, as disciples of Jesus Christ, can follow the example of Jesus Christ and stand up for that person. If someone is new at church, then we can reach out to the person and be their friend.

To be a disciple of Jesus Christ it is important to look outward in order to know what our brothers and sisters are in need of. As we are concerned about others needs we think less of our selves and strengthen our faith and become better disciples.

As I ponder my life, I realize there have been many moments were I have failed to be a disciple of Christ by the way I acted. It is my goal to pray for charity and think about the way I treat others despite the way they treat myself or those around them. I truly believe that as I strive to be a disciple of Jesus Christ I will feel the spirit more abundantly in my life, and I will be more in tune with the things that God is trying to tell me. I hope that those who read this will make it a goal for themselves to become disciples of Jesus Christ as well and treat others as Jesus would treat them.

Earthly vs Heavenly Rewards

Today, I had the opportunity to study in the New Testament about earthly and heavenly rewards. In Matthew 19 we learn about a young man who approaches Jesus and asks him, “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” Jesus answers him by listing some of the commandments. The young man answers him saying that he had done all of those things and asked what more he needed to do. Jesus then asked him to sell every worldly thing he had, give to the poor, and follow him. If the young man listened to Jesus’ counsel, then he would have treasure in heaven. Unfortunately the young man was discouraged and walked away because he treasured his earthly riches and didn’t want to give them up. This young man had turned down the treasured blessing of eternal life for treasures on earth. Jesus Christ has promised us that if our eye is single to him, we shall be full of his glory. If we treasure his gospel, then our heart will be set on eternal life and we will receive it.

I believe that if I remember God first in my life, I will be truly blessed. When I remember to pray and read my scriptures at the beginning of the day, I am full of life and the spirit. I believe in the eternal perspective that if we put God before our earthly wants and desires we will be able to feel his love for forever in his kingdom. I think it’s important to get further away from worldly things like TV, internet, magazines, movies, PDA’s, iPods, etc. because even though they can be really good for us, they aren’t the most important thing in our lives, God is. Sometimes we are more concerned about having a nice car or a nice house instead of worrying about whether or not our Neighbors have food. We need to leave the world behind just a little more and put God first. The heavenly rewards really are greater than the worldly rewards.

October Outings

October has been a delightful month full of fun activities. We were really excited to kick it off with conference weekend. We went down to Utah for my mission reunion and had a great time with the family watching conference. My new favorite part of Idaho is the annual "spud harvest" which gave me two weeks off of work so that my kids could go pick potatoes. Sweet deal if you ask me. Toward the end of the break, we were excited to have a visit from Amy and Chris and their kids. We ate a lot of yummy food, carved pumpkins with Spencer and Alyssa, and went up to my school to play in my classroom. Everyone helped make examples for my art lesson this week.
Right before heading back to school, Mom and Jim came to stay! We also ate fantastic food...including my favorite new homemade chicken nuggets and crap cake...I mean, dump cake! (It really was good, Jim!) Mom came to play with me at school while Jim tried to find Bambi. One night we had dinner and carved pumpkins with Jimmy and Vanessa and their too cute kids, Braden and the brand-new Brinley. While Mom and Jim were here visiting, we invited some friends to go to the Straw Maze.



David and I made it through the maze the first time in seven minutes flat. While we were pretty proud, we headed in for round two to get our money's worth. Sadly, we were not able to even find the end a second time! We wandered around and eventually made it back out the entrance! Afterward, we all headed back to our place for donuts and apple cider. It was an aMAZEing night. :)
David and I were also able to venture up to West Yellowstone thanks to our awesome cousins, Travis and Katrina who run Hibernation Station! They gave us a weekend at their adorable cabin resort for our wedding present and we went up before the snow came!
Of course we ate in style at the local 1950s diner...


We saw TONS of bison...




A bunch of bears...





And other interesting wildlife!





We are nerds, and we know it. We embrace it. :)