Blessing Beatrix

On Sunday, December 30, 2012, Beatrix was given a name and a blessing at church by her father.  It was a beautiful blessing and Bea didn't make a peep throughout.  She did spit up quite a bit during the rest of the meeting, though.  My mom wrote in shorthand the blessing as it was being said and then transcribed it for us.

l to r: Alton, Aanja, Milaka, Roderic, Ambrose, Hyrum, Sabrina, Leo, Ryan, Me, Beatrix, Grandpa C, Grandma C.

My parents flew up from Texas and the Stringhams (minus Doug) drove over from Portland for the occasion.  Due to a snow storm and the freeway being closed at LeGrande, OR (a charter bus slid and crashed and rolled down an embankment, leaving 9 dead and 30 more injured), Milaka decided to stay overnight.  My kids were happy with that development because it meant they got to play more games with their cousins!  They played several games of Fluxx and Settlers of Catan (Aanja, playing for the first time, won).

The Ludlows were planning to attend, but they had to replace their van battery instead.  Colter was going to ride with the Ludlows, since his only other means of transport is a motorcycle.  Ryan's parents had also planned on attending, but Dorothy was sick with a cold/laryngitis.

Boise Idaho Temple

Last July, our temple closed for renovations.  Oh how I've missed it.  I've written about it here.  The temple is right next to the interstate, quite a sight - especially at night when the lights are on.  But during the construction phase the exterior lights were off.  I was so happy to see them turn on again at the beginning of October!

Now we are in the Open House phase - until November 10.  Last Friday I got to take the tour twice - in the morning with my husband and children and in the afternoon with a friend from chorus and her children.  Can I just say how beautiful it is!

The Entry, with 2 Carl Bloch paintings (there are many of his paintings throughout the temple).

 The Baptismal Font, with stained glass 

and murals depicting Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery being baptized and confirmed.

 The Sealing Room, with eternity mirrors.  

Sabrina says this is the most beautiful room in the entire temple.

The Celestial Room

On the 26th of October, Sabrina and 3 of her friends (the Mad for Music String Serenaders Quartet) had the opportunity to play at the open house in the reception hall.  The had weekly practices for a month before hand to prepare 30 minutes of church and classical music.  We invited Ryan's parents to come and tour the temple and hear them play, so that day Ryan, Roderic and Hyrum got to tour the temple as well.  Leo was really sad when he learned that he missed going to the temple with them (it was during nap time).  Just imagine his exuberance at being able to go to the temple the next week!  "I going temple? Hurray!" complete with jumping.

The cultural celebration will be held on November 17 in the Taco Bell Arena on BSU campus and the temple will be dedicated by President Monson on November 18.  The temple will reopen on November 20 and I have plans to go twice that week because there is no school for the children so Sabrina will be able to babysit for me!  My goal is to attend the temple at least 3 times before Beatrix is born.

Overheard at Church

Here are a couple of quotes from church today:

During Sacrament Meeting
"Dad, when I'm a missionary, I'm going to take all my Legos with me. So my Legos can serve a mission, too." -Roderic

Sabrina gave an awesome talk on Honoring your Parents. She used the POTATO method of planning a talk that I had conveniently shared with my Sunday School class (which she is a member of) last week. I did not advise the counselor in the bishopric that I had prepared my class to give talks in Sacrament Meeting, he was inspired - two of my students gave talks today. Bethany said the first thing that came to her mind when Brother Larson asked her to speak was "Potato".

In Sunday School
"Are you going to draw the picture today?" My class asks this one every week. The picture is of the Plan of Salvation, you know, the one with circles and lines. Pretty much every week, the manual (Preparing for Exaltation) suggests drawing or showing it during the lesson.

In Relief Society
"Next year we'll be canning chocolate, if they take our suggestion." -Sister Kelley, encouraging the sisters to sign up to work at the cannery this year.

"You don't have to attend every argument that you're invited to." -Sister Habben

What I missed hearing firsthand in Primary
"I want to choose the left." -Hyrum's reply when his teacher asked if he would choose the right.

Temple Attendance

photo courtesy Adam Williams

I think it is very important to attend the Temple regularly. When Ryan and I were contemplating where to get a job after graduation, we wanted to make sure there was a temple nearby so we could attend regularly, especially while raising small children. The Boise Temple is 15 minutes away from our house. From 2005 to 2009 I was a part of several temple playgroups and I went about twice a month. With a kindergartner, the timing is a little off, so I've been a little more sporadic since, but still averaging once a month.

In July, the Boise Temple was closed for extensive renovation. Likely, it will be closed for 18 months. Now, our closest temple is in Twin Falls - about a 2 hour drive away. Sessions start every 90 minutes, appointments are required. This has made it a bit tricky to attend the temple often. And yet, attending the temple is very important to us, so we are being creative in our attempts to go. When we're on a trip, we plan to attend the temple. And at home, we take turns gathering carpools to head to the temple with us.

July: Nauvoo (both), Sacramento (Malauna)
August: Twin Falls (Malauna with 1 other)
September: none
October: Houston (Malauna)
November: Twin Falls (Ryan with 3 others), Salt Lake (both)

I've also discussed with our neighbor, taking a day trip to Twin Falls, and trading babysitting with them there so we can each attend the temple with our spouses. Sabrina got to attend the temple with the youth of our ward on the first Saturday of November to do Baptisms for the Dead. The next day, our testimony meeting was full of youth and adults saying how amazing it is to sacrifice a bit more to attend the temple. I'm looking forward to having the temple again 15 minutes from my house, but in the meantime, I'll be thankful that I can sacrifice.

General Conference Weekend

On Friday night, Ryan and I went to his mission reunion celebrating 20 years of missionaries in the Kiev Ukraine Mission (although I think they now spell it Kyiv Ukraine Mission - difference of Russian vs. Ukrainian). All of the former Mission Presidents and their wives were there and there was a fair number of returned missionaries, though just a handful of those who had served when Ryan was there.

He did get to reconnect with Isaacson (his MTC companion), Whipple (who was serving in the office when Ryan had to leave the country with Visa troubles - he gave a pretty good explanation on why Ryan had to go, but Isaacson didn't), Roylance (who went to the temple dedication with him last year), Lunt (also went to Ukraine last year) and Osipenko (Ukrainian now living in Utah). It was a great evening. I enjoyed talking with the wives of these former missionaries and listening to Ryan talk with them. There were a few cool decorations that I took pictures of as well.

I really like the nesting dolls with the latter-day prophets on them. And the quilt was charming.


We stayed with our friends the Harmon's overnight. When telling the kids who we'd be staying with, I told them, "If you're a 12-year old, they have a 12-year old girl. If you're 7 they have a 7-year old boy. If you're 4, they have a 4-year old boy. If you're 1, they have a 1 year-old girl." They were so excited! And they played very well together.


Sabrina and I got tickets to attend the Saturday afternoon session in the conference center. We arrived fairly early, and were able to sit on the front row of the balcony. Sabrina counted the number of seats set up for the General Authorities (136). When President Monson came in, we stood up with the rest of those in attendance and the room was silent. We knew there would be no new members of the Seventy called because there were no empty chairs. Elder Oaks, Elder Hales and Elder Cook were not in attendance.


We also had opportunity to see family while there. Ryan picked grapes at his parent's house (which have now been turned into 10 quarts of concord grape juice). He went to Priesthood Session [at 3 different church buildings due to freshly re-done basketball court at the first and technical difficulties at the second] with brother Daniel, and Ethan, while the kids and I played with Michelle and kids. They introduced us to Kid History on YouTube. Sunday morning we went to Heather's for breakfast and the morning session of conference. It was a delicious feast (food and conference talks). We stopped in on the newlyweds at Ryan's parents house, and on Shanda to see the painting she's been doing at her new house.


About an hour into our drive home (coincidentally an hour into the last session of conference), we could no longer pick up KSL on the radio, so we listened to the rest of it via Ryan's droid on the Mormon Channel. It was better than nothing, although we did miss out on the end of President Monson's talk.


We then stopped at Malad Gorge State Park. It was beautiful scenery. There were hundreds of dead lady bugs in the bathrooms. The playground had a small merry-go-round. There was quite a bit of water still flowing into the canyon.

I feel like I took some decent notes from the conference speakers. I still need to print pages 23-25 of the April 2011 Junior Primary Conference Packet from sugardoodle.net to put in our quiet book for the next six months of remembering what the Prophet and Apostles spoke about this time.

More Changes

Church callings come and go at no set interval, yet it still can catch you off guard when you're released. For instance, at the beginning of August, I had an appointment with the Bishop where he released me from being the Ward Choir Director. I was relieved as it is coming up to the time where I'd be planning the Christmas program, which would have been my fourth. The Bishop told me that they didn't have a new calling for me then, but would keep me in mind when others came up. I reminded him that I was also serving as Visiting Teaching Coordinator, so there was no need to hurry and give me another calling. Two weeks later, I was called in for another appointment with the Bishop, this time with Ryan. Now I was feeling a little nervous, because usually when your spouse is invited to the appointment, that means you're going to get a high profile calling. I was wrong. I was called as a Gospel Doctrine Sunday School Teacher (for the 14 year olds). The reason Ryan came along was to be released as Scout Master, a calling he's had since March 2009 (and he was Assistant Scout Master from October 2005-March 2009; and Webelos leader for about a year before that). The new calling he received is Nursery Worker. As a result, Leo got to start attending Nursery one month early. I've taught the Sunday School class twice now, and I am going to enjoy that class. The students are well behaved and share experiences/give answers when appropriate.

Hyrum waited patiently impatiently for Joy School to start. It was especially hard when Roderic and Sabrina started school a whole week and a half earlier than him! He is so glad to see his friends again and even got to meet a new one (Zach)! There are 5 Joyschoolers this year, so I'll teach every 5 weeks.

This is the view of our house from Highway 21 on September 1. Yesterday, even more demolition occurred. (And some patching of holes in the ceiling where a stray board fell and a circular saw slid off the roof.) The pounding is even louder now, because the work is over our living area.

Ukraine

One Sunday when Leo was too young to go to church, I sent Ryan this email:

On Apr 25, 2010 12:57 PM, "Malauna Gibby" wrote:

Dedication and Open House Dates Announced for the Kyiv Ukraine Temple

The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced dates for the public open house and dedication of the nearly completed Kyiv Ukraine Temple. The public will be invited to visit the Kyiv Ukraine Temple during an open house that will run from Saturday, August 7, 2010, through Saturday, August 21, 2010. The temple will be formally dedicated on Sunday, August 29, 2010.

Do YOU want to go?

Love, Malauna

Ryan sent this reply:
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2010 15:32
Subject: Re: UKRAINE!!!

I believe that I do, but I will need to study and pray.

And I sent this one back to him:

From:	Malauna Gibby
Sent:	Sun 4/25/10 3:45 PM

What are you doing sending email during church? I Love YOU!

And that set the ball rolling...he contacted former mission companions and members that he worked with as a missionary in 1993-94. He bought a plane ticket, train tickets, reserved an apartment, and reserved a driver to meet them at the airport.

Returning to the bus stop after the temple dedication.

Now he has returned, so I can blog about his trip with pictures (and his help)!

The View from Sunday

Sabrina and 2 of her friends played "Faith of Our Fathers" in Sacrament Meeting today - a violin piano trio. It sounded great, although a little soft. They were more used to the acoustics in my music room compared with the chapel.

Hyrum learned a very important lesson in church today:

He can be a friend to both his Dad AND Darth Vader!

After taking Toto on a long walk around our neighborhood, Roderic grabs an apple, climbs up into a stack of 4 chairs, puts his feet up on the table and says, "Ah, this is the life!"

Indeed, it is the life!

And in case you're wondering, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints now has 134 operating temples in the world. The newest is in Kyiv Ukraine!

Ryan Gibby and Gordon Roylance: at the Kyiv Temple to attend the Cornerstone Ceremony.

Praying for Missionaries

For the past 2 years, my children have been praying, "And bless Uncle Colter on his mission." Every. Single. Prayer. That has been a hard habit for Hyrum and Roderic to break since my brother returned from his mission to Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 9. They are still praying for him daily! (Although now it is "And bless Uncle Colter that he can drive home safe" because he recently went on a road trip with my parents.)


They will soon be praying for Grandma and Grandpa Gibby and Aunt Meggan who will be serving a mission in Rochester, New York. They enter the MTC on August 30. They're really excited about praying for them because we get to take care of their dog, Toto!

picture from May 2007 - Roderic loves Toto

What would you do?

What would you do if you were teaching the Sunbeam class (3 & 4 year olds) and one of them had to use the toilet, really, really bad?

A Would you send the 4 year old to the bathroom by himself (not thinking about the ultra heavy doors he would have to open in order to get in and out of the bathroom)?

B Would you wander the halls of the church with the 4 Sunbeams looking for the dad (the mom teaches a different class), hoping that you'd find the dad with plenty of time for them to make it to the bathroom?

C Would you take the whole class to the bathroom (with another child saying that they also needed to use the toilet on the way there) while carrying your 2.5 month-old sleeping baby in a sling? And then when they enter the cavernous room and start shrieking, because it is an echo chamber (and what 3 or 4 year old doesn't like the sound of their own voice), would you start laughing as you try to quiet them and hurry them along on their business, knowing full well that this bathroom is separated by a thin accordion wall and a baptismal font from the Relief Society room and a lesson about Jesus Christ?

I went with option C yesterday as I substituted in Hyrum's class. When I was talking it over with Ryan, I told him that I had always pictured the scene in the new testament (Mark 10:13-16) when his disciples turned away the little children, that the children were walking quietly, with their arms folded towards the Savior. After my experience yesterday, I think they may have been running, boisterous, shrieking (because their voices sound cool bouncing off the walls), laughing children and the Savior wanted to enjoy their enthusiasm. (And remind us that it is OK to be like them.)

Enjoy a picture of my smiling baby!

TWO!

(and a bonus surprise!)








My baby is two!
















We got him a shopping cart for a present. And he had to try out all of the condiments that came with it.




We invited 3 neighbor families over to eat cake with us. I made it with cream cheese frosting and put homemade raspberry jam as a filling. Delicious! Roderic was trying to convince all of the kids that the filling was really tomatoes - not raspberry jam. Susie's 3 year-old was trying to convince me that she needed more cake because she didn't like the jam that was the filling. Apparently she only likes jam on PB&J sandwiches.




TWO theme songs Hyrum hums:
1. Star Wars
2. Wallace and Gromit

TWO favorite foods:
1. bananas
2. ice cream

TWO favorite characters:
1. Thomas the Tank Engine
2. Elmo

TWO games he plays:
1. Bouncy-ball (with Sabrina and Roderic)
2. airplane (with Dad)



TWO toys he loves:
1. Trains
2. Doll Strollers (really anything he can push or pull around)

TWO things he's giving up:
1. naps
2. falling asleep at night without the help of a parent

TWO things I want him to give up:
1. sucking his thumb
2. falling asleep at night with the help of a parent



And here is something that would make every parent proud. Sunday was our ward's Primary Program, where all the children aged 3-11 sing and have small speaking parts during Sacrament Meeting. Roderic is in the Sunbeam class, which means he is one of the smallest children and needs to be on the front row in order to be seen. His teacher talked about how everyone is a child of God and then passed the microphone down the line of the children. They all said, "My name is _____ and I am a child of God." Roderic was the last Sunbeam to get the microphone. As he was finishing his part, he went down to his knees, being hidden by the short wall of the podium. Small laughter filled the congregation. The couple behind us, leaned forward and congratulated us on the comedic timing of our son. Tears of joy welled up in my eyes. I had him recreate his part for the video after church for your watching enjoyment. Just imagine him going completely out of sight.





I should have invited all the grandparents to come and see our Sunbeam perform!

Time Out for Sisters

Earlier this summer, either while I had 7 children under my care, or shortly after, I received a catalog from Deseret Book that had all of their dates listed for "Time Out for Women." I had so much fun attending with Stacy last year in Boise. And I really wanted to share it with my sisters. This got me to thinking that I'd want to go again this year. They offered "Time Out for Couples" in Boise, but it was for the weekend when Ryan was planning to be on his hike to the Sawtooths. I looked at Sacramento, to go with my sister there, but it was for the same weekend. Then I saw "Time Out for Women" was going to Portland -- and the wheels started moving in my head.

Right after Ryan came back from Scout Camp, I bought my plane ticket. Thursday afternoon through Sunday evening. Milaka had school until noon on Friday (but ended up ditching her class beginning at 10:30 am on Friday). Keturah booked her flight for Friday morning. I'm glad that Shanda decided to leave SLC early on Thursday, so we could wander around downtown Portland, and wander we did! A whole lot of walking! We went to Powell's Book World. They aren't kidding with a name like that - a multi floor store with bookshelves that go up to the ceiling. I swear the children's book area has more square footage than my entire house. This is an excerpt from their website: "Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books."


We ate some good food with some lousy table service. Rose's Bakery and Restaurant, Stanford's Seafood Grill, Red Robin, Shari's. The Onion Rings at Stanford's were huge! Definitely needed a fork and knife to get through those.



We went on a relaxing river cruise on the Willamette River. It was a 2-hour lunch cruise operated by Portland Spirit. The food was delicious. The atmosphere was great. The scenery was beautiful. The company was amazing. The price seemed reasonable to me ($36 for the cruise with lunch - it was $26 if you didn't want lunch).


And then, we were fed: spiritually and emotionally. "Time Out for Women." Wow. The theme of the entire event was "Joyful Life." On Friday night we listened to Cheiko Okazaki. She related that we can have a joyful life by following the Prophet Joseph Smith when he explained to a member of the Illinois Senate how he was able to keep the peace in such a large group of people: "Teach them correct principles and let them govern themselves." Then she went through a few conflicting principles that we are teaching our children, i.e. President Hinckley's charge of "Move Forward" versus the 2008 YM/YW theme "Be Steadfast and Immovable."


Saturday morning, we got to listen to Emily Watts. She shared with us one of her unfavorite Scriptures: 2 Nephi 10:23 "Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves—to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life." Reminding us that we don't get to control our children's reactions. And then she said something that I want cross-stitched on my wall, or at least done up on a plaque with vinyl letters: "The gospel of Jesus Christ is not insurance against pain; it is resource in event of pain." She also gave us 3 tips for having more joy with our children. 1) Refuse to engage - when a child storms off to their room and slams the door, instead of shouting or following after them with cross words, say sweetly "That will never alter my undying love for you!" 2) Repent - explain to your children "I am an imperfect mother to let you go into marriage without unrealistic expectations." 3) Don't let the straws pile up -to explode when the last straw drops on the pile. And then after she had us laughing so hard, she reminded us that being a mother gives us the opportunity to provide for "the least of these." (Matthew 25:34-40) Beautiful.

Camille Fronk Olson is now my favorite Professor of Religion at BYU. I want to search out the talks and lessons that she has given and listen to them all! She talked about the women in the old testament. The majority of the women named were barren. When you look at the Hebrew word for barren, it means lacking something. If their stories were just about not having children and then having children, the only thing we'd need to take from them was that all joy in life comes from having children. Whereas really, these women were lacking something and they went to the source, the Lord, and through Him, they were able to have their joy made full. [On my flight home, I got to sit next to a Catholic woman named Pam who was on her way home from a women's retreat. I shared this message with her.] She also likened Hannah (of 1 Samuel fame) to us as we prepare our children to serve the Lord as full-time missionaries.

Elia Gourgouris talked about what relationships need: Trust, Love, Communication, Listen, Forgiveness (do you want to be RIGHT or do you want to be HAPPY?). He also talked about Love Languages. The 5 love languages are:

1. Physical Touch
2. Words of Appreciation
3. Quality Time
4. Acts of Service
5. Gifts

I've decided that mine is Quality Time. What is yours?

Mary Ellen Edmonds is so cheerful and goofy! "Finding JOY in spite of trials." She taught us that we will find joy as we try to be budding peacemakers. She taught us some Indonesian words. To say Good Morning, you would say Selamat Pagi, which directly translated means 'Peace to you in the morning.' Juru Selamat means an Expert of Peace, and is also the name for Jesus Christ. I love that people, in their friendly greetings, are saying a part of Christ's name, what beautiful imagery that brings to mind!

We also had some good music by Kenneth Cope, The Nashville Tribute Band and Cheri Call. My favorite songs of the weekend were Believe, He Gives Flowers to Everyone, and Names by Cheri Call; With His Name and His Name is Love by Kenneth Cope; and Come, Come Ye Saints performed by Dan Truman and the Nashville Tribute Band. You can download the singles of these songs at Deseret Book Downloads.

I've been blessed with some pretty amazing parents. When Shanda discovered that all the flights from Portland to Salt Lake were sold out on Sunday evening (and she was flying on a standby pass), she made plans to leave on a Sunday morning flight, missing singing in Milaka's ward. My dad had the idea that if the flights in the evening were open to Boise, he would drive up here to pick up Shanda and then drive her home. YES, my parents drove 10 hours on Sunday, just so my sisters and I could sing "Nearer, My God to Thee" in Milaka's ward Relief Society. The musical number was amazing. The spirit was so strong. Women wanted to clap when we were done. Some of Milaka's friends who work in the primary, snuck in to hear us. Several men were outside looking in the window as we sang. I LOVE SINGING WITH MY SISTERS! Lets do another recording! I wasn't joking when I suggested that we take our music to street corners when we do another one of these outings!

Sisters Weekend

I had the most amazing time with my sisters this weekend! I feel like I came home with my cup full-to-overflowing with joy. I'm ready again to be the best wife/mom/daughter/sister/friend I can be. Do expect more on the "Time Out for Women" conference as well as our excursions around Portland. It's good to be home!

A Broken Heart

Yesterday in Relief Society, the lesson was given by our Relief Society President. I always enjoy her lessons and this one was no different. It was titled "Broken Heart and Contrite Spirit." When Jesus Christ was crucified, that stopped sacrifice by the shedding of blood. Today, we are to offer a different kind of sacrifice to the Lord. Doctrine and Covenants 59:8 "Thou shalt offer a sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in righteousness, even that of a broken heart and a contrite spirit." She shared with us a conversation she had with her son about what having a broken heart means. Her son suggested that having a broken heart was not having your heart so sad that it is in pieces, but rather that it is more like the term "breaking in a horse." That is to say, having a broken heart means that we are more willing to follow the Master. That we are more connected to His ways. That we will do His will. And how do we do this? It's a daily process. Some days are going to be better than others. We're never going to get to the point where we can just glide along, though. If we think we can start to glide, that's pride entering in again. And pride is a sin. "When you think you can do something on your own - that's pride."

Have you ever thought of the human heart as a symbol of Christ? Well, she did. Our heart pumps the healing blood throughout our bodies, just as Jesus Christ, our spiritual heart, pumps healing throughout our spirits.

She showed us a picture of a painting that the artist intentionally put a razor slash through the canvas. The artist was revered with his foresight that what was inside the canvas was just as important as what was on it. And that got her to thinking, "The stuff that we go through in our pains is how we grow." The hurt we feel is what gets us to come back to Jesus. We need humility.

And I totally agree with her. The first time in my life when I felt the healing impact of the atonement in my life was when I mourned for the loss of my baby Xadie. In March of 2003 I was ecstatic. My braces came off - after 5.5 years. My crowns and bridges were installed in my mouth. And we found out that I was pregnant for a second time! I felt my pregnancy was going well, although I kept measuring small at the appointments and had some terrible back aches. At 18 weeks, my midwife was beginning to doubt my surety of when I got pregnant and said that if I didn't grow by the next appointment, we'd have to do an ultrasound. At 22 weeks, she couldn't detect a heartbeat using the dop-tone. After searching my abdomen for several minutes, she left to get the doctor who would help in doing the ultrasound. I was at this appointment alone - Sabrina was at a friend's house and Ryan was working - it was supposed to be a routine 15 minute appointment. I said a prayer in the exam room, asking for courage to be able to handle whatever I was about to be told. The ultrasound showed that the baby's heart had stopped beating. My midwife commented to me how calm I was with this news. I told her that I had faith in Jesus Christ. Through his atonement, I could be made whole. Even at the follow up appointments I had with her, she said how impressed she was with my outlook and demeanor. I had the hardest time singing the sacrament hymns for months afterward, even though I shortly afterward got pregnant with Roderic, because I was crying about the love Jesus has for me. Those hymns so beautifully portray the love of our Savior. And without the pain of losing baby Xadie, I would have missed out.

Our Relief Society President ended her lesson with a poem by Jane Mead, titled "Passing a Truck Full of Chickens at Night on Highway Eighty." Since I haven't contacted the author to ask permission to post it on my blog, I'm going to send you here to read it.

I Love to See the Temple

On our way home from Utah this past week, we stopped at the Twin Falls Temple Open House. It was well organized and executed. We didn't have tickets, which I remember being completely necessary for the Bountiful and Mt Timpanogos open houses, but no tickets were being collected. The tour started at the Stake Center next door. We waited for all of 3 minutes in the chapel for a tour, and that was only because Ryan had to run back to the car to put away our camera. The tour started with a movie about temples and LDS history in the Twin Falls area. That kept my children's interest. Then we got to see the grounds of the temple. It was beautiful, native plants, water fountains. We all got the white shoe coverings put on. They had to use rubber bands to keep them on Roderic's feet. Tonight, Roderic told his Grandpa on the phone, “we put shoe paper things to walk on the floor” in the temple. (Which is an interesting memory, because the only thing I remember about going to the Jordan River Utah Open House is putting on blue furry slippers and walking down a long hallway. I was about 4 when we went to that Open House.) We got to go throughout the whole temple, with our tour guide telling about each room. Except the Celestial room. In there, he was silent. Beautiful. Wonderful to feel the spirit of that room even before the temple dedication. I liked sitting in the Celestial Room with my whole family. I look forward to doing that again in the future. Afterwards, when talking with Sabrina about her thoughts of the temple, she said that it wasn't as magnificent as her imagination. Until the Celestial Room, where it was majestic. She was expecting it to be all white throughout the temple. In one of the endowment rooms, there is an awesome panorama of the Snake River Canyon and Shoshone Falls. Happily, my boys were pretty decently reverent throughout the whole tour. Only once did Roderic slug Sabrina in the arm. Hyrum spent the tour in Ryan's arms, and I got to carry Roderic a lot of the time. Of course, no church function is complete without refreshments. We got our choice of homemade cookies in the cultural hall, peanut butter, lemon sugar, oatmeal raisin or white chocolate macadamia nut. The Twin Falls Temple is the 128^th operating temple in the world. They had a large map of the world on one wall of the cultural hall with pins marking all of the temples of the church, in operation and under construction. They literally dot the earth. I think I'm going to try to recreate the map in my house. Using different colors to show the ones I've been to, and the ones under construction. I love temples. I'd really love to be in Ukraine in 2010 when the Kiev Temple is dedicated (that is where Ryan served his mission and we went on a trip there in 1998). I've got to be saving my money now.

Next Sunday is the dedication and they are going to broadcast it to our Stake Center. Ryan, Sabrina and I got our dedication recommends today after church, so we'll be attending it. Thanks to my awesome VT Companion for being willing to watch my boys during the dedication!

Travelling Family, part 2

Getting 6 children and 4 adults dressed and out the door for 9am church is not an easy task. We arrived shortly after 9am, while the opening hymn was being sung, #64 On This Day of Joy and Gladness. We didn't pay attention to what verse was being sung, so Milaka led our group into the chapel. The hymn ended. The person saying the prayer waited at the pulpit while we all finished filing into the row, climbing over Ambrose who wanted to sit on the side. Talk about a dramatic entrance. We had a lot of people notice we were visitors. I was surprised at how many said I looked like Milaka, but agreed with them none-the-less.

Every week, Roderic tells us how much he doesn't want to go to church. How he wants to go to Nursery instead of Sunbeams. This week was no different. When we get to church, though, he is happy and running off to his class. This week was no different. Ryan took him down to the primary room, asking where the sunbeams go. Then Roderic happily took the sister's hand and walked with her until he was dropped off in the sunbeam classroom. She asked him what his name was and he said "Wodewic." She turned to Ryan for translation and then Roderic said, "My name is Wodewic Wyan Gibby." Apparently the sunbeam teachers also had a problem understanding his name. As we were putting him to bed, he told us, "Them called me Wobert. My name isn't Wobert, its Wodewic Wyan Gibby." When I picked him up from Sunbeams, the teachers told me he told them that he would be back at Thanksgiving. News to me. Perhaps we'll get Milaka to host the Christensen Thanksgiving dinner at her house this year.

I Love to See the Temple

About 3.5 years ago our stake Relief Society challenged the sisters in our stake to increase our personal temple attendance. I sat at that meeting with baby Roderic in my arms thinking to myself that surely they were not talking to me. I kept that thought in my head for the next 6 months and then I had an epiphany on how I could regularly attend the temple.
I organized a Temple Playgroup. That first group consisted of 6 ladies, me included. Combined we had 13 children, the oldest being 5. During the summer, we met twice a month and then when school started, we met weekly. Three women would go to the temple each time and three women would stay and watch all the children at one house. It worked amazingly well. The children were pleasant, as if they knew that their moms were doing temple work. As Enrichment leader, I opened it up to the entire Relief Society and we had several groups form. Now fast forward to today. Our ward currently has one Temple Playgroup. We meet every other Wednesday. We have 7 ladies in the group, so four will attend the temple each time and 3 will watch the 11 children.

I got to attend the temple this morning. I had amazing things come to me while there. A friend shared her insights with me. It was wonderful. I am so glad that the Lord inspired me to create these Temple Playgroups.

President Hinckley

I remember in the 8th grade telling some of my friends, during Algebra class, that I could hardly wait to have President Monson be the prophet because I loved all the stories he told during his General Conference talks. I know, what a silly thing to say, but I did say it. Looking back, I have really enjoyed these past 19 years of President Benson, President Hunter and President Hinckley.

President Benson died a few days before I graduated from Seminary. Even though his signature was on the diploma, the graduation service was under the direction of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

President Hunter died during my Freshman year at Weber State University. During that quarter of school, I was taking "Presidents of the Church" at the Ogden LDS Institute of Religion. He died near the end of the quarter, right when it was time for our class to talk about "How a new Prophet is chosen."

I have a testimony of living prophets. For these past almost 13 years, President Hinckley has been God's mouthpiece on earth. He spoke with love. He spoke with authority. In Relief Society today, we had a lesson on his most recent General Conference talk "Slow to Anger." He had some very inspired counsel for me in that talk. Every time I heard him speak, I felt the Holy Ghost testify of the truth of his words. I heard his love for all of God's children. I loved hearing his sense of humor.

I decided a couple of weeks ago to have our ward choir sing "My Redeemer Lives" (1985 Hymnbook #135) next month (over President's Day Weekend). Now, with his passing, it makes that selection even more appropriate. And now his testimony, is my testimony.

I know that my Redeemer lives,
Triumphant Savior, Son of God,
Victorious over pain and death,
My King, my Leader, and my Lord.

He lives, my one sure rock of faith,
The one bright hope of men on earth,
The beacon to a better way,
The light beyond the veil of death.

Oh, give me thy sweet Spirit still,
The peace that comes alone from thee,
The faith to walk the lonely road
That leads to thine eternity.