Give Thanks

 Now thank we all our God

With hearts and hands and voices,

Who wondrous things hath done,

In whom his earth rejoices;

Who, from our mothers’ arms,

Hath blessed us on our way

With countless gifts of love

And still is ours today.

Oh, may our bounteous God

Through all our life be near us,

With ever-joyful hearts

And blessed peace to cheer us,

And keep us in his love,

And guide us day and night,

And free us from all ills,

Protect us by his might.

"Verily I Say unto You . . . Speak the Thoughts that I Shall Put into Your Hearts" D&C 100:5

Kevin and I spoke in sacrament meeting today. In the past I’ve gotten kind of stressed out about speaking at church, but this time was different. When we were asked to speak and given the conference talks on which we would be speaking, Kev let me choose which one I wanted to cover, just like he always does. I listened to both talks that evening, hopped in the shower, and by the time I got out, not only did I know which talk I would be covering, but I had the entire outline of the talk in my head. The shower is the place where the Spirit speaks to me which I know is funny, but it’s true. It’s my quiet time when I can ponder and commune with the Lord without interruptions. And with the water running, I can’t hear the general cacophony of the rest of the family. Anyway, over the next several days, each evening’s shower brought new insights and fleshed out each section of the talk. When I sat down to actually write the talk, it simply felt like a mad dash to remember everything I’d been given. Seriously, it was the easiest talk I’ve ever written. I hope it helped someone because the Lord told me exactly what to say.

Since this talk chronicles some of my family’s experiences during the Covid shutdown, Kev suggested that I include it in my own record of our family history, which is the blog, of course. So here it is. Just as I was directed to give it.

Today I have been asked to speak on Elder Pina’s talk, “Let Doing Good Be Our Normal.” Elder Pina begins by saying:

We all have customs and traditions that are personal, from our family, or from the community in which we live, and we hope to keep all those that align with the principles of the gospel. Edifying customs and traditions are fundamental to our efforts to stay on the covenant path, and those that are an obstacle, we ought to reject.

A custom is the practice or the frequent and habitual way of thinking for a person, culture, or tradition. Frequently, the things we think and do in a habitual way we recognize as normal.

He then goes on to describe several situations where he and his wife were served familiar foods in unfamiliar ways-coconut sprinkled with chili and avocado dusted with sugar. This anecdote really resonated with me because my Chinese mother taught me to eat some things that are not exactly considered normal around here. Some of it my kids like, some they think is weird. My kids harass me about some of my food choices that they deem strange, but in my defense, I’m only half Chinese so I only eat half of the weird stuff that my mom does.

Anyway, Elder Pina then explains that what is normal to some people may be unusual for others and he poses the question, “Which customs and traditions are normal in our lives?”

 

In November of 2020, President Russell M. Nelson said: 

Today we often hear about ‘a new normal.’ If you really want to embrace a new normal, I invite you to turn your heart, mind, and soul increasingly to our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. Let that be your new normal” (“A New Normal,”  Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2020, 118).

Elder Pina extends an invitation to think about what is normal for us and our families regarding our membership in the church. He shares four habits that should be normal for all of us. I’m going to discuss those four and add several more that have been important in my family’s spiritual development. In order to do so, I’m going to share with you some of the experiences my family and I had during the Covid-19 shutdown.

With no church meetings being held and the opportunity that we had to partake of the sacrament in our homes, our Sundays in 2020 were markedly different from what they would normally be. We weren’t attending church but with the inclusion of the sacrament it wasn’t just family home evening or scripture study and as we settled into a Sabbath day routine, we found ourselves saying things like, “It’s time for the sacrament, Come Follow Me, FHE, Sunday…stuff.” To simplify, we came up with an acronym for our Sunday at home worship: SCONES.

S-The first ‘S’ in SCONES stands for Sacrament. During the shutdown, we were blessed to be able to prepare and take the sacrament in our homes. Participating in this weekly ordinance in our home brought an increased amount of the Spirit into our home and showed me with clarity that as taught in the Bible Dictionary, “only the home can compare with the temple in sacredness.”

Elder Pina lists attending sacrament meeting and partaking of the sacrament as one of the good things that should be normal for us. He explains that:

We do so to remember Jesus Christ as we take the sacrament. In this ordinance the members of the Church renew their covenant of taking upon themselves the name of the Savior, of always remembering Him, and of keeping His commandments.  

An increased focus on the sacrament is just one of the many ways I can see that the Lord helped prepare all of us for the difficulties that accompanied Covid. We spent an entire year focusing on the importance of the sacrament and during the course of that year, I came to have a deeper understanding of its significance in my life. I was reminded often that the opportunity to partake of the sacrament was a blessing and an opportunity to recommit to keep the covenants I have made with the Lord. Elder Neil L. Anderson has taught:

Our weekly taking of the sacrament is so important—to come meekly, humbly before the Lord, acknowledging our dependence upon Him, asking Him to forgive and to renew us, and promising to always remember Him.

So what does the sacrament mean to each of us? Do we humbly prepare for the sacrament before attending our meetings each Sunday or has it become a routine that we do without really thinking about it? Is the sacrament, as described by Ronald A. Rasband, “the centerpiece of our Sunday worship” or a speedbump on our way to the next meeting or activity? D&C 59:9 says:

And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and 

offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day.

The Lord himself, has commanded us to partake of the sacrament on the Sabbath day. Are we willing to obey his word?

C-The ‘C’ in SCONES stands for “Come Follow Me.” With the shutdown and the resulting cancellation of all church meetings, the “Come Follow Me” program suddenly became a vital part of our Sundays. Elder Pina says:

To become converted to the Lord Jesus Christ, each person is responsible for learning the gospel. Parents are responsible for teaching the gospel to their children.

Many years ago, when I was serving in the Relief Society presidency in my student ward at BYU, I attended a Relief Society Leadership meeting. One of the speakers spoke about the scriptures and encouraged us to become “sister scriptorians.” Although I was consistent in daily reading of the Book of Mormon and knew it to be true, I most definitely did not consider myself a scriptorian. If asked, I could not recite ten scripture references about a given topic. I did not always understand the figurative language used. And the Bible as a whole seemed so hard to understand, so beyond my comprehension. I had read the gospels, but I had never read all the way through the remainder of the Bible. As the meeting proceeded, I was reminded time and again of my shortcomings where knowledge of the scriptures was concerned, and I felt that I was never going to be the scriptural powerhouse we were being encouraged to become. 

Now let’s fast forward twenty-five years.

In 2018 when the shift to a home centered church supported church was announced, I felt an enormous increase in the weight of responsibility on my shoulders. I knew that living up to those responsibilities was going to require increased effort on my part, and so I dug into the “Come Follow Me” manual and worked to learn myself so I could teach my children. 

Sometime late in that year, I came to a realization. With my new dedication to studying and understanding the scriptures and with the help of the “Come Follow Me” program, I realized that for the first time in my life, I honestly considered myself a “sister scriptorian.” That doesn’t mean that I can memorize loads of references or quote whole sections of scripture, because I’m still not good at that, but what it does mean is that I have developed a deep and abiding love of the scriptures. I have learned that gospel knowledge comes line upon line and that not understanding every single verse with a single reading is to be expected. I have gained a firmer testimony of the plan of salvation and my place in it. And my relationship with the Savior has been strengthened. 

There is power in the scriptures and setting aside time to study them can and will change our lives if we make that study time a priority in our lives. That doesn’t mean we have to spend hours each day reading because it seems that life rarely allows us to do so, but it does mean that our lives can and should be enriched every single day as we study the scriptures, even if it is just a verse or two. 

Pres. Nelson has spoken frequently about the need for daily study of the scriptures. In April 2020 general conference, held just weeks after Covid changed the world as we know it, he said:

Daily immersion in the word of God is crucial for spiritual survival, especially in these days of increasing upheaval. As we feast on the words of Christ daily, the words of Christ will tell us how to respond to difficulties we never thought we would face.

Our prophet was giving us the tools we needed not just to survive, but thrive, during our times of trial. In October 2020 he said:

…It takes both faith and courage to let God prevail. It takes persistent, rigorous spiritual work to repent and to put off the natural man through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It takes consistent, daily effort to develop personal habits to study the gospel, to learn more about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and to seek and respond to personal revelation.

In April 2021, he encouraged us to increase our faith in Jesus Christ and counseled us to:

Become an engaged learner. Immerse yourself in the scriptures to understand better Christ’s mission and ministry. Know the doctrine of Christ so that you understand its power for your life. Internalize the truth that the Atonement of Jesus Christ applies to you.

He gave us further nuggets of wisdom when he spoke in October 2021:

If most of the information you get comes from social or other media, your ability to hear the whisperings of the Spirit will be diminished. If you are not also seeking the Lord through daily prayer and gospel study, you leave yourself vulnerable to philosophies that may be intriguing but are not true.

Time and again our living prophet has pleaded with us to make scripture study a daily occurrence. He has promised it will change our lives. Are we willing to put in the work to allow those promises to be realized in our own lives?

O-Is for organization. We always take a few minutes on Sundays to discuss our schedules for the upcoming week and though our calendar was mostly empty during 2020, we still took time to make sure we were all aware of any important upcoming events. Organization is not one of Elder Pina’s points, but it is one that has proved vital in my own efforts to do more of the good things that we are counseled to do. In terms of making doing good our normal, I have found that I never just accidentally study my scriptures or find myself driving around town and just happen to have time to stop in at the temple for a session. I need to make these good things a priority and set aside time in my schedule for them. I have learned that I do better if I work the many other responsibilities in my life around these foundational gospel practices. But that doesn’t mean that I have a perfect track record or that I don’t sometimes struggle to find time to fit everything in. It just means that these practices are vital to my spiritual well-being, and I recognize that I am happier and better able to juggle the multitude of other things that life throws at me if I set aside or consecrate time for these good things.

N-was normal Family Home Evening. Due to work schedules, we held our family home evening on Sundays in 2020. We had lessons on a variety of topics, including the temple and family history work. Elder Pina counsels us to participate frequently in temple and family history work as it is “the means of uniting and sealing families for eternity.” 

I’ll be the first to admit that family history work was nowhere near the top of my to do list during the shutdown. And with temples closed for a while and then open only for ordinances for the living, temple attendance was not an option either. But even during those trying times, my children were setting an amazing example and bringing the temple and the ordinances that are done there into our home.

While Daniel was serving his mission in Oregon, his mission president requested that each missionary dedicate one hour each week to family history work. The ward in which he was serving at that time had an amazing family history leader who worked with the missionaries each week to help them and teach them the many ins and outs of searching for family names. Even after the missionaries were confined to their apartments due to Covid, this sister continued to meet with them via video chat. When Daniel came home having been tagged as high risk for Covid, he continued to meet with her weekly. It was important to him, and he made those meetings a priority in his schedule. He met with her for just under a year and to date he has found approximately 1200 names that are ready for temple work.

In 2021 when temples had reopened for living ordinances, Nathan was preparing to go to the temple for his own endowment. His desire to be as prepared as possible meant that we talked often about the temple. His gospel study time was focused on the temple, and I found that much of my study was also on the temple so that I could help him in his preparation. Kevin and I had been blessed to attend an endowment session in the fall of 2020 as one of his nieces went for the first time in preparation for her mission, but other than that, it had been nearly a year and a half since we had been able to attend regularly so there was great anticipation for multiple reasons as Nathan’s temple date approached. 

I don’t know about all of you, but not being able to attend the temple for so long has changed the way I feel about the temple. I find myself more grateful for the many temples that surround us and the many opportunities that gives us to attend. I don’t think I will take that for granted like I might have in the past. I feel richly blessed and have seen miracles happen in my life in relation to the temple and the vital eternal work we are blessed to do there.

E-stood for evaluation. This is another of my own additions. During the shutdown we took time to evaluate how we were doing individually as well as a family. We talked about not just our spiritual wellbeing, but our emotional and mental wellbeing. We checked in with each of our children to make sure that we were doing what we could to help them through that trying time. And as we talked openly and honestly about how each of us were doing, we made course corrections and focused on different needs as they arose.

Being honest with ourselves and the Lord about how we are doing is an important part of becoming more Christlike. It is seldom easy, but as we humble ourselves and sincerely ask the Lord to help us overcome our weaknesses, he will always do so. The Lord knows where I am along the covenant path. He knows where every one of us is. He knows we all have different circumstances, different challenges. He knows what step we need to take next. And he will help us take each step no matter how difficult it may seem.  When the task of reaching for perfection seems daunting, it always helps me to remember that, as Pres. Nelson has said, “The Lord loves effort, because effort brings rewards that can’t come without it.” We don’t have to be perfect right now; we just need to be moving forward. And taking time to evaluate how we are doing is an important part of our journey towards eternal life.

S-The final ‘S’ in SCONES was singing. D&C 25:12 says, “For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me.” Anyone who knows my family well knows that music is a very important part of our lives. So it will be no surprise that during our Sunday worship, we sang. And we also prayed. 

Elder Pina reminds us that we should “pray always.” For many years I have had a quote by Boyd K. Packer taped to the wall next to my mirror. It says:

Learn to pray. Pray often. Pray in your mind, in your heart. Pray on your knees. Prayer is your personal key to heaven. The lock is on your side of the veil.

Prayer is the way we communicate with our Heavenly Father and personal revelation is the way he responds. He wants to talk to us, wants to guide us, but he won’t do so if we don’t first invite him into our lives by turning to him in humble, sincere prayer. I have also learned that when I least feel like praying, that is when I need to pray the most. Pres. Packer also taught that:

One of the adversary’s sharpest tools is to convince us that we are no longer worthy to pray. No matter who you are or what you may have done, you can always pray. 

And while the answers we seek rarely come when and how we expect, they will come as we earnestly seek to communicate with our Father through fervent prayer. I have also found great reassurance through the recent teachings of Pres. Nelson:

One of the things the Spirit has repeatedly impressed upon my mind since my new calling as President of the Church is how willing the Lord is to reveal His mind and will. The privilege of receiving revelation is one of the greatest gifts of God to His children.

Through the manifestations of the Holy Ghost, the Lord will assist us in all our righteous pursuits. . . Does God really want to speak to you? Yes!

In my own life, prayer has become an indispensable part of my day. As I have worked to make my prayer not only more consistent, but more sincere, I have been blessed time and again with answers, guidance, and much needed solace.

Elder Pina concludes by saying:

I pray that our normality may allow us to experience that state of “never-ending happiness” (Mosiah 2:41) that is promised to those who keep the commandments of God and that, while doing so, we may be able to say, “And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness” (2 Nephi 5:27). 

So that’s the big take away from making doing good normal. Joy. And not just the fleeting earthly happiness that so many seek endlessly to find, but the true joy that comes from living our lives so that we will qualify for the many blessings the Lord has promised us now and in the eternities. 

To that end, I hope that rather than simply making doing good our “new normal,” we can make it our “eternal normal.”

Let the Baking Begin!

As soon as I’m done with my Halloween hijinks, I get to jump right into the holiday baking season. Or maybe the holiday baking season never ends…the holidays just rotate. Either way, I love it! Our inaugural flavor this year is the ever-popular dairy free banana cream pie. We love this recipe. In fact, I was never a fan of banana cream pie until I found this recipe. But the creamy coconut milk pudding atop the golden Oreo crust adorned with oat milk whipped cream is absolutely delightful. (I know it’s not standard, but you should really try a banana cream pie with a golden cookie crumb crust. It is an amazing flavor match.) 

Next week will bring more pie and I’m not the only one in this house looking forward to that!

“Here’s the Season in 13 Pictures”

Throughout the marching band season, Matthew has been creating collages of pictures to use as his phone lock screen. Most of them have been selfies he has taken with his band buddies sprinkled with a few of him taken by other people. He has created quite a few collages, rotating them as new pictures are taken at each competition. Today he shared a new one, one that includes his favorite pictures of himself taken throughout the season. Many of them have been featured in other posts, but these are the ones he has handpicked as his most iconic photos. He has had a great time and has a plethora of pictures to help him remember his first marching season!

A Weekend Away

This weekend Kevin, Malia and I were in St. George. The state high school marching band finals were this weekend and we drove down to watch the competition and to act as Matthew’s food related emergency backup plan. This is the first time he has done any kind of an overnight trip without us. When he was twelve, he had planned to go on the yearly summer scout camp out, but as the dates got closer and closer, he got more and more uneasy, and he and Kevin decided together that going was not the right thing. The year after that was when Covid hit, and all such activities were cancelled for so long that he really hasn’t had many opportunities. But band is important to him, very important, so making this trip work was a necessity for him. In fact, he felt like this three-night jaunt would be a trial run for their longer and further away full band tour in the spring.

We have been talking and planning for months and while Matthew had a food plan and wanted very much to handle everything on his own, he did ask if we could be his emergency back-up just in case something went sideways. Well, nothing went wrong. He did great and had great support from the band teacher and the boosters. In fact, he felt so confident after several successfully managed days that the rest of us came home yesterday instead of staying until this morning like the band did.

While Matthew was busy living it up with his band cronies, Kev, Malia and I were having a mini vacation. We did attend the competition on Friday night though. The finals are held in St. George each year so that the weather is more temperate, but there has been an unusual cold snap and it was cold, so very cold outside. I think Malia and I were nearly frozen to the bleachers by the time the performance was over. At least we were smart enough to bring our coats and Kev brought the stadium blankets that he uses when BYU football games are played in inclement weather, so we were reasonably well prepared for the frigid temperatures.

The three of us spent the morning on Friday visiting some church historical sites in the St. George area. We visited the St. George temple and spent some time with the missionaries serving in the visitor’s center and got a peek at the current state of the temple renovations. We also took a tour of the St. George Tabernacle. I’m always terribly impressed with the quality of the pioneer workmanship that went into creating these amazing buildings, and this tabernacle was no exception. It was absolutely beautiful, and we heard some pretty neat stories about the history of St. George and the tabernacle itself. 

We visited Brigham Young’s winter home as well and learned a bit more about this particular prophet. I think my favorite story was about the building of the St. George Temple. Brigham Young knew the temple should be topped by a dome. The original plans had a steeple, but since the tabernacle had a spire, he wanted the temple to be different and knew a dome was just the thing. Plans were adjusted and there was a dome built. But when Brigham Young saw it, he declared that it was too short. The dome needed to be taller, and he wanted them to fix it. Not long after that, Brigham Young passed away, so those working on the temple just left the short dome in place. But to their chagrin, within a year of Brigham Young’s death, lightning struck the temple and the dome was destroyed by the resulting fire. The rest of the temple was unaffected. At that point, the decision was made to make the dome tower taller, just as Brigham had told them it needed to be.

Yesterday morning we went on a hunt for some petroglyphs. I found a site that was not far away, just over the border into Arizona, so we decided to head out and see the sites. We followed the directions we found on the internet, and it only took us a few minutes to realize that the website had neglected to provide the information that you really needed a truck or 4-wheel drive off roading vehicle to get to the site. We quickly decided to abort that mission and set to work finding some petroglyphs elsewhere. We ended up driving to a giant rock covered in petroglyphs that was located in the middle of the neighborhood. Obviously, the rock was there long before the houses, but the developers had designed the neighborhood around the existing rock and made the area into a small park. The fully paved roads in a calm, residential area were a much better match for our vehicle! And we still got to see some cool petroglyphs. 

After the petroglyphs, we took a tour of the Jacob Hamblin home, another church historic site, but it was underwhelming after our time in the tabernacle and Brigham Young’s home the previous day. Many of the stories told were the same and our interest was waning at that point. We did see a roadrunner while we were in the parking lot though. None of us had ever seen a roadrunner in person, so that was neat!

As I said earlier, Matthew felt comfortable enough in his ability to feed himself safely that after conferring with him, we decided to head home mid-day yesterday rather than stay until this morning. We arrived home last night, slept in our own beds, and awaited Matthew’s return. He got home midday today and despite the disappointment over the judging, he had a great time. He feels like he can handle the upcoming tour and that with some advanced planning and continued support from the band director and the parent chaperones, he can make it work. I think he can too. It ended up being a very successful weekend. Not only did we all have fun, but Matthew has gained some real confidence in this ability to feed himself safely on a school sponsored trip.