Love for Visiting Teaching

We have been refinishing our hard wood floors so I am behind with this blog (again, sigh).  But I want to remember and share an experience I had yesterday.  My visiting teachers Sister Bautista and Sister Potiker came to visit. They were so kind.  I felt that they cared about me and my family.  (info on what visiting teaching is here)  Basically, two women are given names of (at least) 2 other women that they can visit every month.  This visit is a way for them to reach out to other members in our church and to make sure they are cared for.

I believe this program is inspired.  I believe it is set up so that all of God's children feel loved and cared for.  I believe that some women think their visiting teaching assignment is something they need to check off of their list for the month.  I believe that some women actually really do love and care for the people they visit.  p.s. I get that no one is perfect (including myself) but to say that everyone cares for those they visit would not be the truth.

I've had both types of visiting teachers: ones that care and also ones that just want to check me off of their list.  I have had many strong impressions while serving as a visiting teacher that we need to be friends to the people we visit.  We need to share real Christlike love, not just offer warm bread and later a cold shoulder.  I loved the following Ensign article...

Marlin K. Jensen of the Quorum of the 70 said this, 

"...I learned a great lesson that day. No one wants to become a “project”; we all want spontaneously to be loved. And, if we are to have friends, we want them to be genuine and sincere, not “assigned.”

Brothers and sisters, my message today is very simple: if we truly want to be tools in the hands of our Heavenly Father in bringing to pass His eternal purposes, we need only to be a friend. Consider the power of each one of us, 10 million strong, of our own free will and choice reaching out to those not yet of our faith in unconditional friendship. We would no longer be accused of offering warm bread and a cold shoulder. Imagine the consequences for good if each active family in the Church offered consistent concern and genuine friendship to a less-active family or a new-member family. The power is in each one of us to be a friend. Old and young, rich and poor, educated and humble, in every language and country, we all have the capacity to be a friend.

Our Savior, shortly before His Crucifixion, said to His disciples: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends.”  Having been so richly blessed by Christ's friendship, I pray that we will now be to others what He is to us: a true friend. At no time will we be more Christlike than when we are a friend. I testify of the inestimable value of friends in my own life and express my gratitude  to all of them this morning. I know that when we offer ourselves in friendship, we make a most significant contribution to God’s work and to the happiness and progress of His children. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Before my visiting teachers left my house yesterday they offered a closing prayer.  In her closing prayer Sister Potiker said, "Please bless that we will be able to become closer.  That we will become good friends through this life and throughout the eternities."  I felt her love and God's love through those words and the many other kind things they shared while visiting me.  

Deserving

I loved the book, PEACEGIVER, by James L. Ferrell that I read this year.  I always go back and read my notes from it and I often think of the things I learned from reading it.  It is a book about Christ's atonement and it helped me to see Christ's love different than I ever have before and also helped me to understand the way we should truly love other people.

One of the points that this book made is that no one on this Earth is deserving of love and Salvation.  Harsh right?  I was taken back when I first read that and was kind of offended.  Here is the quote from the book...the story of Jonah is used to help illustrate this information...

pgs 96-98
"It is true that we are commanded to love and honor others, and it is likely true that Carol (a fictional character in the book) fails always to do that--just as you and I fail.  But what's false is this idea that you or I deserve that love and devotion--that we are somehow entitled to it.  The truth is that there is only one thing we truly deserve, and that's to be sent to hell--you, Carol, me, Jonah, Nineveh, all of us.  Love and salvation are gifts.  How grateful we should be to receive them in any measure!

Hell is all we could ever hope for if it weren't for the redeeming power of the Savior's atonement.  It is only his love, offered not because we deserve it but even though we do not, that saves us.  We don't want what we deserve, believe me.  Jonah is finding that out right now.  Our only hope is to receive what we don't deserve--the mercy that brings the gift of eternal life.  And Jonah is about to learn that as well." 

----Ok, there is more so bear with me.  It is just that good.  In fact, you all should read this book.  Really.  Go start reading it right now.  Here is more...---

"I understand that without the Savior, we are all equally lost--you, me, Carol, Jonah, Nineveh.  I understand that.  But the fact is we're not without the Savior.  And his atonement requires our righteousness--we are saved by grace 'after all we can do,' right?  So it does matter in Jonah's case, for example, that he is more righteous than the Ninevites, notwithstanding this ill-fated run to Tarshish.  Doesn't that mean something? said Rick. 

"Yes, but not what you think it does.  Whether or not Nineveh is righteous is critical, of course--but only for Nineveh.  It has nothing to do with Jonah.  And if he thinks it does--if he thinks he is more deserving because he is somehow better than Nineveh, then he in that moment becomes more 'Ninevitish' than the people he is blaming. " said Grandpa.

"But what if the Ninevites really are that bad?  What if Jonah really is better than they are? What if he really is more righteous? Why would it be a problem for Jonah to acknowledge the truth? said Rick.

"Because he wouldn't be acknowledging the truth, that's just the point.  If he really is more righteous than they are, it will not occur to him to think that he is more righteous than they are because he will understand fully and deeply that he is entitled to nothing but hell.  At least in one sense righteousness is simply a humble understanding of how unrighteous one is, coupled with a deep commitment to be better.  The truth leaves no room for feelings of superiority.  Such feelings are nothing but lying vanities."

Ok, there is so much more.  But I will leave it at that for now.  So good. 

Resurrection rolls

We made resurrection rolls for the Family Home Evening after Easter Sunday. The kids learned how to do it a few years ago from a primary teacher and we've done it in our house every year ever since. It's a fun way to teach the kids about the resurrection. These are step-by-step instructions

General Conference Box

I've started a new tradition for General Conference. A few days before each general conference, I'm going to break out the General Conference box (see below). I won't let the kids open it until the Saturday morning session. Inside will be all of our general conference supplies (i.e. Gospel bingo that I created, a matching game with the apostles faces and some crafts to do while general conference is on). We tried it for the first time just this past general conference and it was a hit. They are so excited for conference weekend.

Miracle

Speaking of MIRACLES. I had the neatest experience with Ashlyn. Let me share...

Ashlyn had two field trips in one week. One on Thursday and one on Friday. Since I still have Corbin at home it's a little tricky and I have to find a babysitter to go. Plus, I want to provide fun and education for Corbin too. So, I figured I would go to one of Ashlyn's field trips and use the other day to take Corbin to his Friday play date.

I got a babysitter for Thursday and made my way to Ashlyn's school for the field trip. When I got there they told me it had been cancelled. I was SO BUMMED.
And so was Ashlyn. She begged me to go to the field trip the next day. I was so sad. I didn't have a babysitter for Friday and I had already made plans to go to a play date for Corbin.

I thought about it all day. I didn't want to disappoint Ashlyn and I didn't want to disappoint Corbin as well. What to do?!! I seriously thought about the book, "Yearning for the Living God" all day and said a silent prayer throughout the day that a miracle would happen and that I would be able to give both kids love and attention.

After I put the kids to bed that night I went to a girls night at my friends house and found out that the play date the next day for Corbin (we have them scheduled a month in advance, I just hadn't looked at the list yet) was scheduled to be at the Cleveland Art Museum...THE SAME EXACT PLACE WHERE ASHLYN'S CLASS WAS SCHEDULED TO GO ON HER FIELD TRIP!!!
I was so excited! I couldn't wait to tell her when she woke up the next morning.

When Ashlyn woke up the next morning, the day of her field trip, she said, "Mom, I had a dream about you last night! I dreamt that you were able to go to my field trip today!"

I seriously had tears in my eyes. For one, that God had assured Ashlyn through her dreams and two, that I could indeed tell her she was right and that I could go to her field trip that day.





This might seem like a small coincidence but it was a really big deal to me and my children. I believe it was a small MIRACLE in my life.

The power of service

So, I have a really cool story. I wrote a post earlier about how my friend Emily collected blankets and other warm items to send to Afghanistan. Her family friend is still in Afghanistan and still ready and willing to receive items to give to the families in need there.

So, my friend Kellie got involved and started collecting items and sending them to Afghanistan herself. I offered to help and after Kellie gathered even more items that were donated, we went to the post office. We loaded 10 boxes (3 large and 7 medium and small boxes) into the post office one-by-one. As we did so, Kellie and I talked about what was donated and how many items there were. She collected over 500 items (blankets, mittens, hats, sweaters, jackets, socks).

A woman in line overheard us talking and stopped to ask us what we were doing. Kellie told her the whole story and by the end of it the woman asked if she could donate some money towards postage and said something to the effect that "God helps in mysterious ways".

This woman, a random stranger, wrote out a check right then and after she left we noticed that it was for $100.

I hope that I always take the time to stop and listen and then TAKE ACTION just like this woman did. She could have just walked away. She could have just said, "oh that's great" and walked right out of there. But she didn't. Her kind offer covered half of the postage that was necessary to send these items and brought tears to our eyes.

These are real pictures taken by my friends family friend (Dave Reid) living in Afghanistan after they received some of the items we shipped.

This is Dave Reid. He used to be my friend Emily's Bishop when she was younger and is now living in Afghanistan. He and his wife are collecting and distributing the blankets to those who need them.

Love this scripture

Doctrine and Covenants 109:8-9
8 Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;

9 That your incomings may be in the name of the Lord, that your outgoings may be in the name of the Lord, that all your salutations may be in the name of the Lord, with uplifted hands unto the Most High—

The Peacegiver quotes and information I love

Remember this book I read? Well, when I read it, I bookmarked almost every single page. Seriously. I knew that I needed to go back to some paragraphs to reread and internalize. So I did. And I'm glad I did. Here are some pearls of knowledge I gained:

• The Story of David and Abigail made an impression. Here's how--
• Abigail takes upon herself Nabal's sin and asks David to forgive her. (the same way Christ does for us) She tells David that she doesn't want him to go after Nabal for DAVID'S SAKE , because it will ruin all that David has ever made of himself up to that point. And up to that point, David's heart was good and right.
• Christ loves us despite everything we do
• "We sin when our hearts are sinful." We could do all the kind deeds in the world and be obedient outwardly to every commandment and it wouldn't matter if our hearts weren't right. ex: Pharisees
• "We sin when are hearts are sinful, no matter what we do on the surface." pg. 51
• The emphasized sinner in the story of Abigail and David, is David...not Nabal...because David's heart was about to turn evil and Nabal's heart was already evil.

more on this later...

Afghanistan

My friend, Emily, knows someone (through her mom's friend) that is living in Afghanistan right now. In Kabul to be exact. He found a need and he is filling it. And I am super impressed and humbled by his work. There are literally thousands of children living in freezing conditions there with no warm clothes and many have died because of it. My friend, Emily, has helped him by asking the members of our ward to collect blankets, socks, hats, sweaters and mittens. In just a couple of days she collected:

126 blankets
82 pairs of gloves
75 hats
60 pairs of socks
22 scarfs
a lot of baby clothes and other clothes
And
2 snuggies

These items will be delivered to the children within 2 days. I can't wait.
I keep thinking about this all day long and am so grateful someone
is out there taking ACTION and helping these children.

I love to see the Temple

The kids and I went to the Columbus Temple again last weekend. I love to go. Dave had to work. Bummer. I drove with a friend which made the 2 1/2 hour drive each way go by much more quickly!

We got to see our dear friends, the Rynearson's! I love them and miss them. They lived in Cleveland for a little while and then moved to Columbus. It's fun that we still get a chance to see them when we make it out to Columbus.

Ashlyn was in HEAVEN as she got to spend time with Maddie and Bella. She went to their house for a play date while I was at the Temple and then we all met up for ice cream at Graeter's afterwards along with other friends from our ward.



Me and Katie


Ashlyn saying goodbye to Maddie, Bella and Nathan

Quote

“Being mistreated is the most important condition of mortality, for eternity itself depends on how we view those who mistreat us.”

Just a little excerpt that I liked from the book I am reading this week. More on Monday...

CTR

The kids are learning about Choosing the Right in primary this month. Which is why when Ashlyn brought up this activity I thought it was perfect!

We have a subscription to the Friend magazine and as Ashlyn was reading through it she found this great idea for making CTR pretzels. So, that is what we did for Family Home Evening this week.

The focus of our Faith

There is an Ensign that is dedicated completely to teaching about Jesus Christ. I love it. It is from March 2008. I think everyone should have a
copy whether LDS or not. Here is an excerpt from one of the
articles from this Ensign.

By President Gordon B. Hinckley, We testify of Jesus Christ

"We know not all that lies ahead of us. We live in a world of uncertainty. For some, there will be great accomplishment. For others, disappointment. For some, much of rejoicing and gladness, good health, and gracious living. For others, perhaps sickness and a measure of sorrow. We do not know. But one thing we do know. Like the Polar Star in the heavens, regardless of what the future holds, there stands the Redeemer of the world, the Son of God,
certain and sure as the anchor of our immortal lives.
He is the rock of our salvation, our strength, our comfort, the very focus of our faith. In sunshine and in shadow we look to Him, and He is there to assure and smile upon us."

Nativities in Kirtland

We went to see the Nativity scenes from around the world at the Kirtland Historic site. The kids loved it and so did I. The missionaries pass out a scavenger hunt of items before the kids start looking at the Nativities and it is so fun for them to try to find what is on the list.

Book of Mormon

I have a friend from high school (more than 14 years ago!) that found the LDS church, met with the missionaries, read the Book of Mormon, prayed to know if it was true and then was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was lucky enough to speak at her baptism all of those years ago. I asked her to send me her conversion story, which I shared in a lesson in Relief Society at church, and wanted to put her testimony
of the Book of Mormon here.

From Melissa:
"I met with the missionaries at a friends house and they told me about God and Jesus Christ and their plan. They told me about Joseph Smith and his vision. They then told me about the Book of Mormon. I read a little bit of the Book of Mormon with them and an overwhelming feeling came over me that the book that I had in my hands was from God. I felt that this was the missing piece that I was searching for so many years ago. I knew that if this must be from God then the rest of the teachings and truths must be from God too.I wanted to learn more! But my mom and dad were not so excited about my new inquiry like I was. We debated a lot about the church. They had me talk to pastors and an ex-Mormon. Because they were so concerned, there were times when I thought that this was just a phase and I would find something to let me know that it wasn't right. It was also heart-breaking because I didn't understand how something so good and complete that was connected to God and his plan could be false. But no matter what the pastors and an ex-Mormon said they never were able to show me in the scriptures that the Book of Mormon was false. In fact, the scriptures that they gave me to look up further deepened my convincing that the church was true. I don't think that was the affect they wanted."

(melissa getting her mission call)

I love this girl! She is a woman of great faith and a great sense of humor. I too know that the Book of Mormon is from God and is another testament
of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Elder Richard G. Scott said this about
the Book of Mormon and Bible:
"Because scriptures are generated from inspired communication
through the Holy Ghost, they are pure truth. Scriptures are
like packets of light that illuminate our minds and give place to guidance and
inspiration from on high. They can become the key to open the channel to
communion with our Father in Heaven and His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
The scriptures provide the strength of authority to our declarations when they are cited correctly. They can become stalwart friends that are not limited by geography or calendar. They are always available when needed. Their use provides a foundation of truth that can be awakened by the Holy Ghost. Learning, pondering, searching, and memorizing scriptures is like filling a filing cabinet with friends, values, and truths that can be
called upon anytime, anywhere in the world."

For a free Book of Mormon send an email to me at thecollettes@gmail.com

TESTIMONY OF CHRIST

This is my most favorite written witness of Christ from an apostle.
I could read it a million times.

By Jeffrey R. Holland
"I testify that Jesus Christ is the literal, living Son of our literal, living God. This Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer who, under the guidance of the Father, was the Creator of heaven and earth and all things that in them are. I bear witness that He was born of a virgin mother, that in His lifetime He performed mighty miracles observed by legions of His disciples and by His enemies as well. I testify that He had power over death because He was divine but that He willingly subjected Himself to death for our sake because for a period of time He was also mortal. I declare that in His willing submission to death He took upon Himself the sins of the world, paying an infinite price for every sorrow and sickness, every heartache and unhappiness from Adam to the end of the world. In doing so He conquered both the grave physically and hell spiritually and set the human family free. I bear witness that He was literally resurrected from the tomb and, after ascending to His Father to complete the process of that Resurrection, He appeared, repeatedly, to hundreds of disciples in the Old World and in the New. I know He is the Holy One of Israel, the Messiah who will one day come again in final glory, to reign on earth as Lord of lords and King of kings. I know that there is no other name given under heaven whereby a man can be saved and that only by relying wholly upon His merits, mercy, and everlasting grace can we gain eternal life.

My additional testimony regarding this resplendent doctrine is that in preparation for His millennial latter-day reign, Jesus has already come, more than once, in embodied majestic glory. In the spring of 1820, a 14-year-old boy, confused by many of these very doctrines that still confuse much of Christendom, went into a grove of trees to pray. In answer to that earnest prayer offered at such a tender age, the Father and the Son appeared as embodied, glorified beings to the boy prophet Joseph Smith. That day marked the beginning of the return of the true, New Testament gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and the restoration of other prophetic truths offered from Adam down to the present day.

I testify that my witness of these things is true and that the heavens are open to all who seek the same confirmation. Through the Holy Spirit of Truth, may we all know “the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom [He has] sent.” Then may we live Their teachings and be true Christians in deed, as well as in word, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Thankful

We had a really nice Thanksgiving day. It was what you'd expect a good Thanksgiving to be. Good food, good friends, good fun. We all met at the church so that we'd have enough room for all of our families to be together and also to include anyone else who wanted/needed a place to come. (great idea, thanks Lisa!) We went around the table and said what we were thankful for. For some reason I thought about my response for the next two days. I said I was thankful for Jesus Christ. And, as I thought about it, I thought about the fact that I am blessed to actually have that knowledge that He lives. So, I am thankful for knowledge as well. Thankful that I know that we lived with Heavenly Father before we came to Earth; that I know that Jesus Christ made it possible to overcome sin and mistakes and even overcome pain from both; that I know that through Christ we can live with Heavenly Father again someday. I am thankful for knowledge.

OTHER THANKFUL FORS:
Trevor- LEGOS (seriously, he's an 8-year-old boy, what else would you expect?!)
Ashlyn- ANIMALS
Corbin- PIGS (he actually wouldn't say this at the table, but I asked him later and this is what he said! funny kid)
Dave- FAMILY

Emily, Lisa and I decorated for the event.



The Water coloring station was a hit!


I brought feathers and headbands for the kids to make Indian headdresses

What Thanksgiving would be complete without the Wii, Just Dance game?!

A little basketball...





The movie station