I loved the Thanksgiving hymns that we have been singing in our meetings this month, but it’s still hard to believe it will be Thanksgiving this week. Where has this year gone? We look forward to having Crismon and Danielle here with us. Our table will be small in numbers this year as the Vance’s are now in Orem with Gary’s family for the week and the Caudle’s will be with Brett’s family for Thanksgiving. We will have a missionary couple serving in our stake join us. We are thankful for the bounteous blessings that our Heavenly Father has showered upon us and on our family. We delight in His glorious gospel plan of happiness, and we’re so thankful for the power of the Atonement in our lives that He sacrificed for each one of us individually that we might enjoy the blessings of eternal life. We’re grateful for a faithful, enthusiastic missionary who is serving well in the Argentina Neuquen Mission.
We have been edified by the wonderful talks and the spirit that attended our meetings today. I’m grateful for Heavenly Father’s help in giving my RS lesson today, taken from Sis. Bonnie Oscarson’s General Conf. talk entitled “Be Ye Converted.” A few quotes from the lesson:
True conversion is more than merely having a knowledge of gospel principles and implies even more than just having a testimony of those principles. It is possible to have a testimony of the gospel without living it. Being truly converted means we are acting upon what we believe and allowing it to create “a mighty change in us, or in our hearts.”3
I asked the class what were the three things that Sis. Oscarson said were needed to become converted after we read this quote: You become converted as a result of … righteous efforts to follow the Savior.”4 It takes time, effort, and work.
Our RS Pres, Sis. Southworth, who is also a Seminary teacher said, “I think a lot in acronyms. She turned it around to : Work, Effort, Time. She said that she remembers it by “WET.” Get converted by getting your feet wet and then keep on swimming. I thought that was a great way to put it.
Immediately following our block meetings, I met Crismon and we drove together to the Portland Stake Center for a change made with the YSA wards in our area. Because of the dramatic increase in missionaries over the past year from 58,000 to 82,000+ and up to 90,000 missionaries by the end of the year, 58 new missions were created. In our area, the Vancouver Mission was organized and some of the wards in Gresham and Portland are in the new Vancouver Mission. This required a major change in the boundaries of the YSA wards as our Mt. Hood YSA ward was now in a different mission than our stake. Elder Risenmay, our Area Seventy presided. A new YSA ward was created, the Springwater YSA Ward, belonging to the Portland Stake was formed with Greg Brown, as the former Bishop of the Mt. Hood Ward was called as Bishop, with DeWin Harris as his 1st counselor and James Robinson, 2nd counselor. Some of the YSA’s from the Aldercreek Ward are now in the Springwater Ward and some of our YSA’s are in either the Aldercreek or Springwater Ward. It’s a bit confusing, but it comes down to the fact that we now only have 6 units in our stake and many of our YSA’s in our stake will be driving to Milwaukee for their meetings and activities. Change is always good, and we know that lives will be blessed as they attend the ward they are to assigned. Kirk Arnell was called as the 2nd counselor in the Aldercreek Ward, with Bro. Bevers as the Bishop. Elder Risenmay’s talk was very powerful and inspiring.
Some of the highlights of the past month have been tending the Caudle children overnight while Vivi & Brett enjoyed some time together. Sat. morning we took them to Vancouver to see Bryson’s flag football game.
We had a birthday celebration for Vivi, Ondalynn and Isaac here in our home.
We called Ruby and Norah on their 3rd birthday and we wished Happy Birthday to Addison who turns 10 this Tues thanks to FaceTime. It was fun hearing and seeing Preston play the violin and Addison and Jackson perform their piano recital pieces, along with seeing the updating of their 3 bathrooms.
Last weekend we tended the Vance children from Friday afternoon until early Saturday evening while Ondalynn & Gary went on a get-away overnight. We were glad to give them a break. The children were all so good. Sydney, Julia & Bryson were hard workers helping Grandpa to clean our building on Saturday morning. Then they were patient at our home while Grandpa met with a new distributor. I took the younger boys for a walk in their neighborhood in the morning, but it was cold and raining.
Last Friday night we tended the Caudle children so Vivi & Brett could go to dinner to celebrate their 8th wedding anniversary.
The Portland Stake was celebrating their 75th Anniversary this year. They have had four major events during this year of celebration. We were invited on Nov. 9th to a special dinner honoring all the Stake Presidents and their wives who have been split off from the original Portland Stake. From there we all traveled to the Colonial Heights Chapel (30th & Harrison-Larry also served as Bishop in this building) for a special program. The stories of the growth of the church in this area was fascinating. They presented each Stake Pres. a large, framed pencil drawing of their particular Stake Center, done by a member who is a professional artist. They were incredible! What a special evening, and we felt privileged to be there.
Other highlights with our family. Dallin had a paper that he had written published in the Scholarly Journal. He was recognized by the entire department for this outstanding accomplishment. Congratulations, Dallin!
Julia has joined Austin as temple workers on the early morning Sat. shift. They both love working in the temple and doing it together. Julia's trainer said to her the other day, after she had passed off all of the assignments, "Your mother would be so proud of you." I am!
Julia has joined Austin as temple workers on the early morning Sat. shift. They both love working in the temple and doing it together. Julia's trainer said to her the other day, after she had passed off all of the assignments, "Your mother would be so proud of you." I am!
Seth took Jackson on a trip last weekend to AZ to see Meredith’s family, the Grand Canyon and to visit Grandma Lewis and the Peases.’ Thank you all for hosting them. They had a terrific time. Grandma was strong through the entire visit.
Earlier in the month there was a training for the new Powell Valley Bishopric. The stake presidency wives have their own breakout session where we do a training with them. It’s always a special treat to get better acquainted with these good sisters and their husbands.
Back to the end of Oct. on the 28th, Crismon set apart Martha & Chuck Allen for their mission to Oslo, Norway. We will miss them!
The second weekend in November, we had a special Reliv event here in Portland where Ryan Schmidt, Pres. of Soy Labs in California and the Chairman of the Missouri Plant Science Center that has partnered with Reliv (in bringing about highly enriched soy with increased amounts of lunsin, the naturally occurring soy peptide responsible for the health benefits of soy,) was our special guest. It was a fascinating weekend. Along with the excellent training, and learning about some of the incredible studies done on the benefits of the LunaRich X capsules (it was voted best new consumer product of the year), we were surprised to receive two big bonuses from Reliv. There was a special promotion going on during August, September and October. We ended up being 1st in the nation for sales in August, 2nd in the nation for October and we took the overall 3-month bonus for being 1st in the nation for those three months combined. We were gone to General Conf. the first part of Oct., and then to St. Louis two weeks later so our time at home was shortened, but Heavenly Father blessed us greatly to earn those generous bonuses that helps us so much as we build our business.
We have enjoyed several days of sunshine, but bitter cold weather, especially with strong winds that bring the chill factor down. Despite the cold, we have savored the beautiful, bright glow of the sun, that is often hidden during the short, dark, winter days. This meant that Saturday Crismon was able to get a fair amount of yard work done in preparation for colder days ahead. We were thankful for a Sat. at home that we could push forward with household projects. Then a dinner with Reliv friends at Jim & Quila Buhler’s home in Oregon City.
We love being with our family, talking to them on the phone, communicating through emails, blogs and FaceTime and having opportunities to serve in the church and the blessing of a business to work from home. Life is wonderful.
