Sunday at Home

Well, there are lots of things happening! I went to the Jordan River temple yesterday morning -

I thought that to be prepared for the unknown events of the weeks ahead, being reminded of my covenants was surely atleast as important as toilet paper! So off I went. I left at 5:15 and was there for the 6:00 session. It was also important for me to go, because the temples are being temporarily closed after today.

My mom thought that maybe they were already/immediately closed so I thought I was risking making a trip for nothing, but I was glad that it was open. The 6:00 session was busier than usual, but when I was leaving the temple, the lobby was pretty vacant compared to other Saturday mornings. The mountains and skyline looked beautiful as I left the temple doors.

It's hard for pictures to do it justice. But the clouds and morning light were lovely. There is light enough to see even when there are dark clouds above. The light of Christ will help us see clearly, even when threatening storms loom ovehead.

I am grateful for temples! I am grateful for the United States of America.  

This is the land of the New Jerusalem. There is still more work to do before the Savior comes again. We will go forward with faith.

Today we had church at home. My mom is the Primary chorister in her ward and said she'd be sad if she wasn't able to sing the primary songs, and my dad's not that interested, so she asked if she could come sing with us. Of course! So we had singing time with my mom!

"I like to look for rainbows, whenever there is rain..."

The kids did pretty good singing along and were being good primary children, but soon enough things went back to normal with kids wrestling, bugging, and teasing.

After my mom left, we had sacrament at home which was a very special experience. We sang "There is a Green Hill" as our sacrament hymn. I am grateful for the Saviors love, "dearly dearly has he loved". Ethan blessed the sacrament and Wesley passed it to us. We were lucky that Ethan actually had sacrament trays from last Sunday when he took it to the bishop, so that was a blessing! I washed out the little plastic cups and we'll use them again next week. At 12:30, we had a virtual Sunday devotional with Corey's family, courtesy of zoom.

I shared a few verses from Mosiah 23:19-28. Now, this Alma that is mentioned and his people were the ones that had believed in the words of the prophet Abinadi! They were the good guys, the righteous ones! They had believed and obeyed, yet... we learn here that even though they were the good, they were not spared trials - verse 21-22:

21 Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith.

22 Nevertheless—whosoever putteth his trust in him the same shall be lifted up at the last day. Yea, and thus it was with this people.

Alma and his people were in Helam when they were discovered by an army of the Lamanites, who had been lost in the wilderness. They ran to the city in a panic, much like how people today might be in a panic over Coronavirus. But their prophet exhorted them (verse 27) to "not be frightened:

27 But Alma went forth and stood among them, and exhorted them that they should not be frightened, but that they should remember the Lord their God and he would deliver them.

28 Therefore they hushed their fears, and began to cry unto the Lord

Our prophet today has exhorted us with the same hope in this our trial - Look to God. During our zoom devotional, we watched President Nelson's message that he sent out last night.

The future is as bright at our faith!