Join Us In Worshiping Jesus Christ

 Easter General Conference 

Of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Sessions Streaming Live Saturday April 3, and Sunday April 4, 2021

General conferences of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints take place every six months.  The April 2021 conference (April 3-4,. 2021) is digital only and being broadcast from Temple Square in Salt Lake City.  

This page provides a summary of the conference's sermons, news and announcements.

Please join with us this Easter weekend for messages of hope and peace and inspiration.

President Russell M Nelson speaking at leadership meeting April 1, 2021

Photo source

Children

 I've always wanted to be a Mother! Among the greatest blessings God has given me are each one of my wonderful children.   In 2016 my A to Z challenge them was all about being Mom of Six to these amazing individuals.  God has blessed me in my life with six fairly uneventful pregnancies and six healthy birth stories, and six incredible people who are still one of the main focuses and greatest joys of my life.

Back in April 2018 I blogged about their growing years every day of the challenge:

Blogging from A to Z Mom of Six

The past 25 years have brought some real changes to our lives and each of these youngsters is now a successful amazing adult doing much good in this world with their own talents; showing love and kindness to others all around.  We haven't been all together since the summer of 2019, but enjoy gathering virtually every few weeks.  My children and my three going on four grandchildren bring me some of the greatest joys of my life!

Baptism, Book of Mormon

 

Baptism

"Except a man be born of the water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God"

 John 3:5

Shortly after my eighth birthday, I was baptized by immersion by my Daddy in the font in my local chapel.  After eight years of being taught about Jesus Christ in Sunday School and Primary classes at church, and by my Mom and Dad and other family members at home, I was excited to be baptized to show our Savior that I was willing to follow his example, keep his commandments, serve and help others, and become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Being baptized into Christ's church has given me a life long knowledge of who I am -- a daughter of my Heavenly Father who has a plan for me and my life.  Along with baptism, I was blessed with the gift of the Holy Ghost, a guide and a comfort to me throughout my life as I have faced difficult challenges and decisions.  I am very grateful to have had these blessings in my life now for many years.

Book of Mormon

One of the gifts that I received for my eighth birthday was a copy of The Book of Mormon, a gift from my grandma and grandpa that lived next door to us on the family farm.  I own quite a few different copies of The Book of Mormon now, but this copy will always be very special to me, with its personal inscription to my from my sweet grandmother.  She was only with us for four more years after my eighth birthday, but her life as a teacher, and then the hard work and service to her family in the home and on the farm and to others in the church and community and extended family will always be an example and an inspiration to me, as is the life of my dear grandfather.  I started studying that Book of Mormon with my family and on my own, and am grateful for the habit I have of reading from these sacred scriptures and teachings of Jesus Christ almost daily.  The Book Of Mormon is a blessing and a comfort to me and brings me peace and hope for a better, kinder, and happier world.  I'm grateful for the blessing of The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ.

Accident

 

 

When I was not yet three years old, I had an accident on the farm, that though not necessarily life threatening, had quite an impact on me.  My mother had a new baby and it was in the middle of canning season.  My father and older siblings were in the middle of haying season.  That morning it was decided that I would spend the day in the hayfield with my dad and brothers and sisters in order to give my mother a bit of time to work with the fruit that needed to be bottled.  With two older brothers and two older sisters to entertain me by the haystack, everything should turn out ok, right?  Well, at some point I decided that I wanted to be on the top of the haystack with my Daddy rather than down below with my brother, so climbed up onto the fork of the derrick that was used to lift loads of the loose meadow hay to the top of the stack.  I don't really remember the accident, so we can only assume that I had figured out that riding the forklift would get me up on top of the haystack.  Unfortunately, as the my brother started leading the horse that pulled the cable that lifted the forklift of the derrick, I grabbed hold of the metal cable with my little two year old right hand.  The cable sliced into the flesh of my palm and 3rd and 4th fingers, severing the tendons of those fingers. 

So why was this accident that caused several successive surgeries and hospitalizations on a little girl's right hand and fingers a tender mercy?  

For starters, the accident could have been much worse.  I could have suffered even worse injuries or even death that day.  

Probably the greatest tender mercy from that accident is the fact that the experiences I went through as a very young child, alone in the hospital for the first time ever away from loving parents and family learned to have faith in a loving God, a Heavenly Father.  I learned that he hears and answers our prayers and can provide us with comfort and peace.  Yes, I was alone and sad and afraid, and probably in pain, but my Mother had taught me that I could pray, even in a hospital crib far away from my family.  And my loving Heavenly Father brought me comfort and peace.

This may be the very hay derrick that I injured myself on . . . photo taken about 40 years after the accident.

Blogging from A to Z April Challenge 2021

As usual, I've missed the official A to Z Challenge Theme Reveal, but today I think I have my plans pretty much in place.  During the month of April 2021 I will be participating in the April A to Z blogging challenge and writing about some of the many specific personal tender mercies that God has shown me throughout my life.  I have much to be grateful for, and invite you to follow along starting on Thursday April 1, 2021.  

What is the A to Z Challenge?   Click on the link to the left and find out.  If you're a blogger, feel free to join in.  The sign up link goes live tomorrow, Monday March 29th, where you can add a link to your blog and follow others who are participating.  

See you on the A to Z Challenge!

 

Prayers in Troubled Times, And Always!

  Oh, what a week!  

I am so very grateful for prayer.   I was blessed to grow up in a family where family prayer was  a given, every morning and every evening my parents would kneel together, gathering whatever children were at home for family prayer before breakfast and then again in the evening before bed.   We were taught to offer our own individual prayers each morning and evening also.  We prayed for each other, for our extended family and loved ones, for the leaders of our church, and for the leaders of our nation.  Of course we didn't forget to thank God for our blessings too.  This is a tradition we have tried to continue with our own family throughout the hears, and  I know that many of you also gather your families together often to pray together, and kneel often to pray on your own.  

I know without a doubt that this past Wednesday, the congressional leaders of the country of the United States of America were protected by the hand of God.  They were protected, in part, by the prayers of many faithful people throughout this country.  I'm grateful that those prayers were answered.  

Thank you for your prayers.  Please don't lose faith.  Please continue to pray for our country and it's leaders in the coming days and weeks and months and years.  Please gather your families, ask your friends, and plead with God to continue to strengthen and bless not only this country, but nations throughout the world during these troubled times.  

A Nation of Prayer:

YouTube link

Two Another wonderful articles and videos:

Why Is Family Prayer Important?

Does God Really Answer Prayers?

New Year 2021

Many in our weary world have taken time to rejoice during the Christmas Season these past few weeks.  It has been nice for me to take some vacation/holiday time from the regular work from home routine, to relax, prepare fairly simple gifts and cards for family, neighbors and friends, enjoy a bit more cooking of meals and treats, decorations, family zoom gatherings, singing, reading from the scriptures, listening to Christmas music, sleeping in, reading, and just plain puttering around the house.  I hope that all of you have enjoyed a pleasant Christmas holiday, and that all of you and your loved ones may be blessed with light, hope, peace, and health; and that you will not want for your daily needs to be met.

When I awoke on New Year's Day 2021, I confess that my mood was not one of rejoicing and hope.   I normally take time on New Year's Day to review my thoughts and goals from the previous New Year's Day, but my heart was not in it that morning.  I didn't have the emotional energy to think about what my goals were for the year 2020, or to deal with new plans and goals for the year 2021.  After spending most of the day reading, I did end up taking a long walk under fairly nice skies here in the neighborhood.  We warmed up some leftovers for dinner, and after family scripture and prayer time, I finally pulled out my journal and reviewed what I had written on January 1, 2020, and I came to find that I actually had accomplished quite a few of my goals for the year 2020:

• Read The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ
• Pray for each of my children and their families every day
• Plan a reunion with my siblings
• Apply for a promotion  (and I now have the new job title!)
• Learn a new app for the software at work
• Teach and train staff to handle more of the software admin responsibilities at work
• Save money
• Donate more money to those less fortunate

I was pleasantly surprised at the number of things I was able to accomplish in this past year, in spite of the challenges of a world wide pandemic, earthquakes and other natural disasters, social distancing, closing of churches and temples, a very volatile political year here in the US, and my own many inadequacies.  

We were not able to travel and visit with family nor meet our newest grandson, but we have started having virtual family zoom meetings or google chats or jackbox.com game nights on a regular basis.

My sibling reunion was not nearly what was hoped for, but it did happen.

I wasn't able to attend the temple every month this year, but I did attend in January, February and March, and we have a new temple being constructed just a little over a mile from our home.

I did not memorize "The Living Christ", but I did study it extensively, and blogged about it every day during the month of April.  

I did not get my entire over-grown garden dug out, but I did spend  some quality time working parts of the garden, and we enjoyed some delicious peas and potatoes and green beans and peppers and tomatoes during the growing season.  I even made a batch of chili sauce and a batch of grape jelly!

I haven't completely decluttered this poor house, but with the help of several of our children, we have made some amazing progress.

So, now, what are my plans for 2021?  This year they are fairly simple.  

• Hang on!
• Continue to pray every day to learn God's will for me.
• Develop stronger Faith, Hope and Charity.
• Serve others.
• Declutter.
• Organize.
• Simplify.
• Create.

My hopes for 2021:

• Miracles
• Mercy
• God Will Prevail