What I learned this weekend!

This weekend was a very full one, which both Darin and I are greatful for, this time of year can be tough for both of us being so far away from our children. At any rate our weekends generally start after we get off work on Thursday morning since we work 4-10 hour graves a week, I actually work 7, but I don't really count my last 3 because I can get some rest during those graves, but this week on Friday I had to work an extra shift pulling in an 18 hour shift at that job, so I will start my weekend with Saturday morning. When I got home from work on Saturday morning we hurried and got ready for the Temple, we have been trying to get there every week and since we had been assigned to volunteer at the Grand Opening of the new Deseret Industeries from 12:30 to 4:30 we knew we would have to go in the morning. I had also realized that I had forgotten about a baby shower for Darin's cousin when we had signed up for the volunteer work, so we decided if we went to the Bountiful Temple then stopped on our way home at his cousin's to drop off a present we could still get back to Layton to do our shift at DI, so that was our plan.

We arrived at the Temple at about 10am, we had decided that we really enjoyed doing Initatories and renewing that experience so that is what we did this day, it was a very special experience doing the work for those who have gone on before us without the gospel, many times I have felt the spirit of the indiviual I am doing the work for there with us, especially when I take the time to fimiliarize myself with the person, their name and where they are from, before I do their work. We were done and to Darin's cousin's house by 11:00 and had a very nice time visiting with their family for about an hour before we had to rush off for home and then to the DI. Then new DI is great, big and very nice, we could not believe the amount of people that were there during the Grand Opening (Thurs, Fri, and Sat)it was seriously worse then Christmas. When we got there to help, I was assignned to pass out helium balloons and Darin was assigned to work the floor. It was great, I must have passed out about 300 or so balloons and later when we were grocery shopping a mother had to stop me and ask if wasn't I just at the DI passing out balloons, cuz her kids were like look mom there's the balloon lady! It truly was a great experience to help out.

Today after work we headed down to Lehi for Darin's cousin Karlin's sons talk after his mission. The thing about Rodney is his family were never really active and so when he was in High School even though he wasn't active at that time, his wrestling coach kept telling him that he was going to go on a mission and continued to encourage him, finally somewhere along the way of his re-activity he read the Book of Mormon and recieved a testimony of his own and decided that he was going on a mission. He gave a powerful talk and was and is a great example to his family and I believe someday will be the key to bringing them back to activity in the church. While at this ward though, I learned a few other things that touched my heart. First when the Sacrament was blessed and passed there was a Priest who had some speaking handicaps (not sure what, maybe autisim or some other disability) at any rate one of the other Priests slowly said the prayer and this young man followed after him saying the sacrament prayer, what a great loving service this Priest did to help give this other young man an opportunity to experience his role in the Priesthool, I also realized once again how very much our Heavenly Father loves ALL of his children. I realized during Rodney's talk what a great opportunity we have to bless the lives of our friends and families by our example if we but follow God's plan for us. Then finally the talk given after Rodney's, the sister talked about our trials and tribulations in our lives and how we decide whether to use them to make us better or worse, I think I always knew this, but something that both Darin and I have been feeling in our lives lately as we face our trails is that we are not alone and that there is someone who really does know exactly how we are feeling as we face these trails and that is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and to realize that he had a choice and chose to go through these experiences just so that we would not have to go through them alone is the most incredible gift that we could ever be given. So with that said I would like to share with you my gratitude for these things from this weekend:

1. Temples

2. Family

3. Service

4. Being a Child of God

5. Good Examples

6. Trials

7. A loving Savior who has shared all my trails with me