Mission Stories /Thoughts of Home

Tamara - Utah State University Young Alumna 2012 !!!

Congratulations!  We hated to miss being home for this honor, but were glad that Nathan could be there with his family to share the occasion.

Tam had to sing, ride in the homecoming parade, be honored at a reception, teach a master class, give a speech at a special luncheon, watch the homecoming game with the University President from his box, and and be presented at Half Time, and I don't know what else.  We are proud of your accomplishments Tamara, and mainly your life as a beautiful wife and mother.

Our Hyde Park Relief  Society newsletter offered this choice wisdom from President Kimball, offered in the Ensign in 1979, but still as applicable today:  "No greater recognition can come to you in the world than to be known as a woman of God.  No greater status can be conferred upon you than being a daughter of God who experiences true sisterhood, wifehood, motherhood, or other tasks which influence lives for good."

We love and admire all of you wonderful women, for your continuing striving in that direction.


New Families to Teach
One day last week, we found a family where the father said he grew up as a child in the church.  The wife doesn't really know anything about it.  She reads the bible and is interested in what we believe.  We briefly told her about two things that make our Church unique: we believe in prophets, and know that they have been given the authority to speak and act for God in each dispensation;  and that Heavenly Father has given us a wonderful plan for families to be together forever.  Our conversation was friendly and spiritual, but as we went to leave, she wanted to sit on the porch and talk some more.  She told me she had lost her mama in recent years, and would like to know more about our beliefs.

Our second visit on the porch,  gave Doug time to tour the workshops, and the land and visit a little more with the husband, who thinks that it is a good idea to open a religious discussion - says his people are all members of the church in Southern Georgia.  So - we are planning to go back and share some more about the church and why it is so important to us, and become better friends with these fine people.

There is also a daughter (27) who lives at home - is in nursing school, and who is interested in religion. She teaches the little children in Sunday School at the Lighthouse, a pentecostal church here in East Dublin.


Later, we met with a woman about our age whose husband passed away three years ago.  He was not a member of the church, and although she was active as a child, their family had not been raised in the church.  We met her daughter and two darling grandchildren and felt the love they had for each other.  After we left, we continued to think of them and the great blessing it would be for them to be united through Priesthood covenants to be together for Eternity and not just for this life.  We will be going back this next week, to talk to them about that, and see if they are prepared to take the next steps to add to what they already know and believe.

 It is such a joy to be able to share Heavenly Father's Plan, because it can bring so much direction to people's lives, and so much comfort at the loss of beloved family members, to know that they can be together again.  The part that is hard here, is that southerners believe that once they are baptized that is all that needs to happen.  They don't realize that it needs to be done with the proper authority and is only the beginning of a lifelong endeavor.

Women's Conference

Each year I wish you Canadian daughters were close enough to attend with us.  If you missed the Conference,  you can pick it up on: www.lds.org/broadcasts.  General Conference will also be available next weekend Oct 6th and 7th.

I was missing all you girls especially those who were sometimes close enough to attend with me over the years.  It helped to have two new friends to attend with this year in Georgia.

Two of the families we are working with each have a mom named Diane.  They both came with me to the conference tonight.  I love Women's Conference, and I was excited to share the evening with them as it is the first conference ever for either of them.  About 25 sisters met for dinner, then went to the Chapel for the conference and ice cream sundaes and visiting.  It was different to meet at 8:00 pm for the broadcast instead of 6:00 like in Utah, but the spirit of unity was the same.