Sabbath Day

    Had to scrape the ice off the car this morning. Forgot to bring in the clean laundry, will get it later, it is in the car.

     Bruce had a ham, egg and cheese croissant sandwich, bacon on the side (my side) with an orange smoothie.

   I helped him with his tie, his left hand was stiff this morning. He has taught all our sons to tie their ties. 

   He had been up since 6:30 getting ready for our church meeting. It is a bathing, bowel care day and it takes longer. We got to church an hour early and all the handicapped parking places are gone. I dropped Bruce off and found a spot to park the car. Our friend saved us a place on the end of one of the shortened pews. I sat behind him with the Rasmassusin's they made room for me. Bro Todd Rasmassusin will be going to La Grande this afternoon to conduct a Ward Council training.

   Elder Nelson is here doing training for the Boise coordinating counsel and decided to stay for two Stake conferences. 

    We were sitting on the side of the chapel that is by the Stake president's office, Elder Nelson entered the chapel by that door, everyone stood in respect. He came over to Bruce, stuck out his hand and said "hi, I'm Elder Russell Nelson." Bruce shook his hand and replied, "I am Bruce Kevan". Elder Nelson looked me in the eye and smiled and his wife, Wendy made eye contact and smiled too. I could feel the spirit, that means something has touched your heart and the feeling of peace and calm comes out of your eyes. Men weep too and that is okay.

       The first speaker stake president Brent D. Carr was asked what are the things that have brought you great joy. He said there were four things, the first was just meeting with the saints, the second was the youth, spending time with them, they make me feel young he said. The third thing is the missionaries and getting to interview them before they go on their mission. The final way he feels joy is to meet with the saints that are making changes in their lives, to see the atonement in their lives and how it effects them. He read from Alma 5, have you received his image in your countenance? A mighty change of heart is the way to have great joy.

   Sister Brinkerhoff, the temple presidents wife spoke next. She told us a story about a grandson that said "you don't always get what you want". Do we choose God and his kingdom? Do we choose to help others on the way?

     President Brinkerhoff, Boise temple president, spoke of coming to the temple with a heavy heart. We all have challenges. Matt 5: 48 We are to be perfect and become like Heavenly Father. We don't have to feel the pressure to become perfect because of the atonement. He talked about tears of joy. A sister from Argentina was in the temple and after a couple weeks decided she didn't need a translator. She forgot the words of the temple ceremony and there was a temple worker that spoke Portuguese that could help her. 

     Sister Wendy Nelson said she had been here for 40 hours and it felt like a month. She said don't just feed the missionaries, find someone they can teach. She said they got to see the Meridian temple and saw the heavy duty rebar about 3 inches around, she said we needed that In our lives instead of the wussy stuff they put in our homes. 

     A key that works for her is to increase time in family history work. She said her grandmother gave her boxes of genealogy and said now she could die. Sis Nelson said "this will kill me." Elder Scott talk, 2012 the joy of redeeming the dead. What can I do to make family history spiritual? Are you yearning to do something fulfilling? Do you want to be involved in something worthwhile? Do genealogy. She said she was willing to give up her Scrabble game playing time, what we are going to give up to do family history? She was a delightful, fun speaker. 

         Elder Russell M. Nelson was the concluding speaker. He and his wife met with 200 missionaries, then 16 Stake leaders yesterday and some young single adults, who he said didn't look young or single. He had the young primary children stand and wave their hands like french fries and stretch, he asked them to sing a primary song. They sang the first verse of  "I Am a Child of God". He quoted from Isaiah "all thy children will be taught of the Lord". They are all created in God's image. He said he was a father of 10 children. He said we need to communicate with the Father day and night through prayer. He said we need to teach the children about prophets; Adam, Noah and Moses.  

       He said to read the scriptures to the children. He said their family decided to read scriptures in the morning. Now his children are teaching their children to read the scriptures. 

      He went really fast and covered a lot of things, my notes are disjointed but his talk was good. He spoke for 40 minutes without notes. He an enthusiastic speaker! 

      Help your children get all the education they can get then they will be able to help other people. Be good citizens, part of the solution and not the problem in our communities. 

   He concluded with an Apostolic Blessing he told us to know the words of Jesus Christ, be exemplary citizens, he gave us a blessing of healing, health and strength. (that's when my tears flowed) Sustain your leaders, home teachers and visiting teachers. Go to the temple the ultimate destiny, there we can find the promises of Isaac, Jacob. 

    We were exhausted after the meeting, it was a two Kleenex meeting for me. I need the spiritual cleansing, it was a spiritual feast!

      I took Bruce back to the hospital and we had lunch, The nurses put him to bed and I kissed him good bye 3 times and headed to La Grande. I had to pull over twice and try to sleep. I have had a bit of insomnia. 

    Made it home and got some nice bear hugs from my sons. Not a side hug, some nice manly squeezes like the bros give. They must have missed me. A Bro hug

     Returned home to find the house a mess, dust everywhere, a large trash can in my living room, a toilet in my front yard, it is handicapped accessible but not very private... The clothes from the closet are on the bed, they had to do rewiring. No door on the bathroom, does that stop the boys from using it? What a zoo. 

     I started putting things away. Will have to take things out of the bedroom, they are going to put laminate on the floor. Duncan and ?Andrew said they would help move things around. 

     I have a dentist appointment on Monday. The bottom half of a tooth fell off. Will probably have to get a cap. It does not hurt. Bruce says it looks black, that is the filling. I look like a person that needs to see the dentist. 

    The Huntmans invited us over for dinner. We had meatloaf, smashed taters, homemade rolls, yummy, corn, green salad, red juice to drink, which nobody spilled. We had a pleasant conversation with the delightful little girls and the adults. 

      It was an appropriate ending to a Sabbath day.