Rejoice in the Blessings of the Temple

Have I mentioned how much I love my calling at church. There are so many things I enjoy doing in conjuction with this opportunity. One of the more stressful, yet very fulfilling is helping with the Stake Women's Conference. This year we were inspired to use a line from the Relief Society Declaration and focus on the blessings of the temple, especially since the Kansas City Temple is being built now. It is such an exciting time for the people in this area.

For the Women's Conference we offered workshops all centered around the temple. The following pictures are from the conference. I was able to get some from every class except the one held in the chapel for obvious reasons.







Who's really watching those kids?











The Chef and one of her helpers.

The spread.

That Charlie has some mad button pushing skills.

Recently I started a new project. As you may or may not remember I have been working on a doll house for CTR sr. but was getting a little bored with it. I was at a good stopping point so I decided to start something new. It's a counted cross-stitch picture of Greg Olsen's picture called "Light of the World". What I didn't realize when I bought the kit is that it is done on an even weave fabric. I've never done anything on this kind of material before so I wasn't to sure whether or not I wanted to start it. I decided to go ahead and proceeded to get it organized. It took a day just to sort all the embroidery floss. Some of the colors are so close together in hue that I had to sort them by the window during daytime and even then it was difficult. Not an auspicious beginning don't you know. This is definitely the hardest cross-stitch I have ever done.


Here is another Greg Olsen painting that has been adapted to counted cross-stitch. O Jerusalem is my absolutely most favorite painting ever. I think it's because of the symbolism that I see in it. I've done it as well and gave it to a dear friend as a house warming gift. She was kind enough to take a picture of it for me.


I've done one more of Greg Olsen's pictures. (Can you tell I really like Greg Olsen's artwork?) I don't have a picture of the final product since I gave it away to a coworker for her birthday, so I will just include the painting. It's called "Lost No More"


I think I have done one more of his, but my memory is failing me at the moment and since I give these away almost as fast as I make them, I don't have a picture of the finished project. It's called "In His Light" This is what the painting looks like.

I'm like 90% sure I have done this one, but if I haven't, I would like to.

Here are some other things I have done in the past 20+ years.

I made this for my dad to put in his office.


Can you tell I like Precious Moments too?


Teddy Bears waiting to be loved.


This is one of my favorites that I've done. The pattern showed 2 ways of doing it; with or without Joseph in the background. Obviously as you can see I chose to include Joseph.


The words say it all


I remember the first time I saw this pattern, I immediately thought of my mom. She is a very accomplished seamstress. Of course it's hanging in her sewing room. Kind fits huh.


This one originally was three separate pieces, but they fit so well together, my mother decided to make it one.
I hope you enjoy viewing these as much as I enjoyed making them.

Missionary Mom's

By the end of March 2011 there will be 12 full time missionaries serving from my ward. Now maybe in Utah that is a common occurrence, but here in the good ole midwest, it's kind of rare. I am grateful to be the mom of one of these missionaries. Most of these missionaries are young men that have grown up together for many years. With this many it almost seems like we have our own little "Helaman's Stripling Warriors", but instead of fighting for freedom, they are fighting for the souls of Heavenly Father's children.


From left to right Stephanie Bishop, Darci Evans, Chris Manning, MaryEllen Naylor, and me with all the goodies going in the box.

Some of us moms decided to get together and pool our resources and make care packages for our Elders for Valentine's Day. It was a lot of fun and I think we're going to do it again for some of the other holidays throughout the year.


Assembling the boxes. Even Stephanie's husband Brad helped with the festivities.

We also did some smaller boxes for some other missionaries we know. Gotta support those missionaries. They're doing hardwork.

KC Temple Pics

Pictures of the Kansas City Temple as of 2-9-2011



Facing east


Facing south

Surprise Visitor

This weekend brought a surprise visitor to our ward. Elder Donald L. Hallstrom from the Presidency of the Seventy presided in Fast and Testimony meeting. I wasn't able to take notes since I didn't have any paper and didn't think of using my phone until it's too late. Luckily Bishop Staggs took great notes and sent them to the ward members, so I'm going to copy them here.
"Two things from Elder Hallstrom's remarks that stood out to me were reverence and the importance of temple ordinances. He taught us that the principle of reverence is more than just "sitting still and being quiet," but it really is more the principle of having profound love and respect for Deity. He said that we should exercise that type of reverence in our public, family, and private worship. Choices, he added, oftentimes aren't as much an issue of choosing between good and bad, but rather choosing between good and better.

He challenged us to qualify for a temple recommend now in preparation for the Kansas City Temple. Ordinances in the Lord's church connect us with Heaven. Some, he taught, are to comfort us and others are essential to attaining eternal life. I hope that each member of the ward will prepare themselves now for the blessings that come from qualifying for and holding a current temple recommend"

In his talk Elder Hallstrom mentioned living in Hawaii in 1978 when the temple was remodeled and then rededicated. It brought back some fond memories for me. I too was in Hawaii at that time and was able to attend a session of the dedication. I was able to tour the temple before the dedication during the open house also. One of the best part about that trip was a special fireside in which President Kimball spoke to the youth.


Another thing that made this weekend a little special, is that I had the opportunity to serve dinner to Elder Hallstrom and the different Stake Presidents and their wives. That's just one of the blessings that I receive because of my calling in the church. I like to think of it as a tender mercy from the Lord.