FHE success!

So I printed out the first talk which happened to be by Elder Ballard on having faith in Jesus Christ.  Everyone received a printed copy to read and mark up their thoughts they had while reading.  Tonight, they came with their copies and after listening to the song The Miracle we opened the discussion.  That song just makes me cry and so I was teased a bit about that but that's okay.  I loved the different things that stood out to us and we discussed a bit about grace and how when things are difficult or we are having a hard time and do not feel that we can handle the trial, calling, task, we can ask for his grace to strengthen us and make us more than we can without Him.  We also discussed how we are refined in trials and also are able to be empathic to others.  We had a young sister in our ward lose a baby at full term.  I cannot even imagine what that is like, but others that have lost children could really succor and strengthen her and often that is one purpose for our trials.  Then I told them that Tyson posted a fireside video on Facebook and I loved one of the lines a man used in his testimony.  He said in life we are sometimes blessed with quite difficult hands.  Often you hear people say I was dealt a bad hand, or I have done good with the hand I was dealt and they have a negative connotation.  I love how he saw them as blessings.  I think that our trials can refine us like nothing else.  We acknowledge our dependence on the Savior and a refining happens.  Elder Ballard talked about JOY and I said that in our RS lesson they said if you want true Joy in your life than you put J(Jesus 1st) O (others 2nd) and Y (yourself last).  I challenged everyone to pray every day for opportunities to serve others and it can be as small as a smile or a compliment.

Today I went to the store and a young man that used to attend church when we first moved here was my bagger.  I recognized him and asked him "You are Jordan's brother aren't you?"  He looked at me shocked and said Yes, how do you know that.  I told him that when I first moved to the area six years ago, he came to church.  He hasn't been in several years and is now 20.  I told him how much I loved Jordan and what a wonderful girl she is.  He looked at me and said, well I have been thinking about coming back.  I told him that would be wonderful!  That didn't take any effort on my part, but I think it meant something to him that I remembered him.   I hope that as I pray to be of service to others, I will heed the promptings of the Spirit and be able to help others and also be filled with the JOY that service has a way of bringing into your life.

Also, we had a horrific thunderstorm Friday night while the priests were camping. I was a nervous wreck and was texting Caden every few minutes to make sure he was still alive.  The weather station said that the lightening was going to the ground and to get inside or in a car.  I was thinking it was not wise to be in a tent!  Finally, around midnight it stopped and he assured me he was still alive and I could finally go to sleep.  Then the next morning they had a slingshot paintball war which was the highlight.