Stake Conference

 I really loved our Stake Conference talks and was so glad President sent us the links to watch from home or I would have missed it.  President talked about No Excuse Discipleship and gave us 4 that he hears often. 1) I have never gotten a pillar of light moment.  He said that it is more like rays.  I love when I record the rays that I receive and I try and share those with the YW so that they can see that God is in the details and it is often small ways that He shows up but we have to be aware to notice it. 

2) How I am treated in the ward.   He said do not let pride, hurt or anything keep you away from drawing close to the Lord.  More love and more forgiveness 

3) Everyone is doing it,  Mosiah 3:19. The natural man is an enemy to God so you can surmise that if everyone is doing it it might not be a good thing.  

4) I am too busy to serve.  Service brings blessings and when we serve the Lord helps us in the other parts of our lives.  

Elder Gottfredson shared a story which I loved.  It was about a couple who were members but had not been active their adult lives.  The woman had five kids with four different men and had never married.  The guy had some substance abuse problems but they had a child together and were living together.  She got accepted to a music program in Massachusetts so they left four of the kids with family and drove their old car to Massachusetts and had the baby with them.  They had very little money and as they got into Massachusetts they ran out of gas and. pushed their car into a parking lot.  The security guard came and told them they couldn't park there.  He explained that he had not money for gas.  The security guard was not very sympathetic and told him he didn't care how but he needed to move the car.  A worker was leaving and saw the commotion.  He gave the guy some money for gas and he was able to run to the gas station and fill up a jug.  They thought that if they could find an LDS church building they wouldn't mind if they parked and stayed the night there.  So they pulled into the building and pitched their tent on the front lawn with the baby.  They were hungry and tired. But during the night he had a dream and in it they were sitting down to a thanksgiving meal.  He could see everything so vividly. The lady went to sit down and she said Oh if forgot the cranberry sauce and she got up and ran in the kitchen.  He tells the lady the next morning how vivid and real the dream was. She said well we are so hungry I am sure that it why

The next morning was Sunday and they had some coffee and a little camp stove so he filled up using the church spigot and they were making some coffee when members started to pull in for ward council.  He asked us what would we have done if we saw a disheveled couple with a tent brewing coffee on the grounds of the church building?  Brother Hitten saw them and went over and talked to them.  He invited them to attend church and then to have dinner at his home that afternoon.  They accepted and were a little embarrassed attending church with their dirty clothes but they did and then they went to dinner at the Hittens.  He was shocked to see that it was the room and the dinner from his dream even to the point that when they went to sit down ,Sis Hitten jumped up because she had forgotten the cranberry sauce.  He knew in that moment that God knew him.  He shared the quote from Elder Holland that we can never travel to far that God's love cannot reach us.  He also said God knew that he could trust Brother Kitten to reach out to this man and be the angel that he needed.  They ended up getting married and became active in the church.  He challenged us to pray to know who we could be an angel for.  

He is not loving this taking it easy but he did enjoy laying by the pool.  He cannot submerge his wound or let it get sun so he wore my bandana from camp!

Lexi sent these cute pics of the kiddos to cheer up Rick in the hospital.  Ivy is such a corker!~