Another Sunday Six on Saturday and a Give-Away

Well here I am doing my Sunday Six on Saturday again. Perhaps I should just rename it "My Saturday Six." Oh well, I guess that it is better to be early than late.
...
The truth is that my tummy is acting up a bit today and I don't feel like doing much....so....I thought while I am down I might as well be blogging. I will get this post done and it is a good excuse for not doing housework today....it works for me.

...

But before I get to my "Saturday Six" Marie told me about a great give-away you can get in on. Susan at Not Quite June Cleaver is having a book and apron give-away. Hop over to her blog and get in on it.

...

Now here is what I am smiling about....
I still have so many smiles to tell you about from when all our kids were here. I will continue to do that but I also want to add in some new smiles I had this week.
...

1. I got my purse back! It was a miracle!

This may look like a plain black leather purse to you but it looks like
a miracle to me!
...
Last weekend I carelessly left my purse in my shopping cart while I was looking for material to start making Easter dresses for my grand-daughters. The fabric store was almost empty.
...

I was not concerned that someone would take it.... but they did. It was gone. One of my former students is a clerk there. He was upset for me and got everyone to search everywhere....to no avail.

...

I didn't have a lot of money in my purse but I did have :

*3 credit cards

* my camera Erin and Patrick had given me with all my Christmas and New year pictures in it

*the charger for the camera and the extra battery

*the pink and blue wooden pen John had carved and made for me

*my house keys

*both of our car's keys, including the "smart" key for my Prius which costs $300 to replace

*my driver's license

*my temple recommend

* gift cards I got for Christmas

*my cell phone with all of my contacts

*etc

After going to the police dept. to make a report, the cell phone store to cancel my phone and Toyota to see about getting another key I came home and cancelled all my credit cards.

...

I was sick.... and worried since the person who took my purse had my address and the keys to my house and our cars. I was afraid that they would come into our house or take our cars before we could get the locks changed the next day. I asked our neighbors to keep a watch on our house for any strange people out front. I was afraid to go to bed.

...

I prayed.

I prayed for forgiveness for being so careless.

I prayed for forgiveness for placing temptation in front of someone who could not resist it. By me leaving my purse unattended it caused someone else to sin.

I prayed that God would touch the heart of the person who took it that they would ditch my purse somewhere that it would be found and I would get my papers back.

...

I dared not pray or hope that I would get everything back....except the cash and some gift cards....

but I did!!!

Just before the store closed I got a call that they had found my purse hidden behind some fabric bolts. The camera, cash and gift cards were missing but everything else was there.

I was sad about the camera but grateful about everything else.

The next morning I got a call that they had found the camera too.
...

What a blessing! It really was a miracle and I am thankful that the person who took it had a change of heart. Smile...smile...smile

...

2. Marie and my blog friends make me smile.

I made a comment to Marie late Fri. night telling her about my purse. That comment was seen by Holly, Jan and Tracy. Each of them expressed their concern for me. Then after I got everything back both Marie and Jan listed my good news in their own "Sunday Six reasons to smile" I was so touched by the outpouring of concern and kindness. You blog friends are very real and dear to me...even those of you that I've never been blessed to meet in real life.

Thank you for caring about me.

3. Marie makes me smile (part two)

Marie has so much talent and has a whole collection of darling little people for sale on her cards and pictures. You should check out her blog and go to her Etsy shop.

...

Last week she painted this precious little dancer. I told her that I loved it.... and except for the brown hair she reminded me of my little Lonica grand-daughter dancer.

...

The next day Marie sent me this little dancer with blond streaked hair. What a sweet thing for her to do.

...

She also called me twice. One time to wish me a Merry Christmas and another time the day after all my kids went home. She knew that I was sad and the house was really really empty with them all gone. She called to cheer me up....and it did. I had a smile on my face and in my heart the whole rest of the day....and I still do every time I think of it.

Thank you Marie.

...

The next two smile makers are left overs from our kids visit over the holidays.

4. Family night made me smile.

All Mormons are asked to set aside Monday night as "Family Night".
We are asked to join together with our family, have a spiritual message, talk about family plans, play a game or do something fun together and end with a prayer ....and... a dessert or treat if desired. We tried to do this regularly as our kids were growing up.
...
It has been years since all of our kids have been together for family night.
...
John took advantage of this time and planned a special family night on the Monday after Christmas when we were all together again.
John worked hard for weeks before the event, doing genealogy and finding out stories about his ancestors. He found pictures of these ancestors and brought in some of the antique tools that where passed on to him when his dad died.

Lynell video taped John as he told some of the stories. All of the children were so good and attentive. There were 19 of us together. We wished that Dathan and Jordan could have gotten off work and been there too, but we were very thankful that everyone else could be with us.

John showed the children the old tools and asked them if they could guess what the tool was used for.

They did a pretty good job figuring it out.

Earlier in the day John made these little wooden spinner toys for each child.

Grampy wanted them to have the kind of toys their pioneer ancestors had to play with.
Gracee said "What is this, Grampy"???

Everyone had a great time making them spin and work.
...
Each child also got a nail puzzle.


Patrick helped John earlier that day by making little nail puzzles. Each child had to figure out how to take them apart and then put back together.
...
It was a great evening and a wonderful family night.... a real smile maker.
...

Thank you Grampy for helping us get to know our ancestors better and love and appreciate them more.
...
Thank you family for being so sweet and attentive and making it such a special evening.
...
6. Going to the temple with our family made me smile.

This is our little Redland's LDS "Mormon" Temple.
It is smaller than many of the temples around the world but it is lovely in every detail.

It is dedicated as a house of the Lord.

It is a sacred place.

John and I are blessed to be temple ordinance workers.
We work there every Thursday.
...
While our children were here John and I got to officiate at the temple while they were in attendance.

It was one of the highlights of our lives.


Before our temples are dedicated to the Lord they are open to the public and everyone is invited to go through them. After they are dedicated, because of their sacred nature, only those with temple recommends can attend. To get a recommend a person must be interviewed by their bishop and stake president. They must be morally clean, pay a full tithing, faithfully living the gospel of Jesus Christ, attending their meetings regularly and obeying the word of wisdom which states what we should eat and drink to be healthy and what we should not partake of.

...
We feel blessed and thankful that all of my children and their spouses are worthy to attend the temple
...
They have remained true to the principles we taught them as children. This gives us the greatest reason of all to smile.
...
I know that some of you wonder about what goes on in our temples.

Unfortunately, through the years, I have been asked questions by my non member friends about all sorts of weird things they have heard that go on in our temples.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Our temples are sacred houses dedicated for the purpose of doing the Lord's work.

Members attend sessions where we learn more about God and His plan for us.

We make covenants to live as Jesus taught us....
to follow His example...
to be charitable...
and morally clean...
and giving...
and loving.
...
We are also married there for time and all eternity.

In Matthew chapter 18 verse 18 Jesus says

"Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

This scripture gives us great comfort knowing that we can be bound to our family forever. When we are married in one of our holy temples we are bound or sealed, by one having the authority, to our mate and our children "for time and all eternity" and not "until death do ye part" .

What a beautiful doctrine to know that marriage and family does not have to end with death. They can be eternal ...never ending....forever and ever.

...
Of course much of humanity has not had the opportunity to go to the temples and be bound or sealed for eternity. After we go through the temple for ourselves, we go though by proxy for others who have passed on. We do extensive genealogy researching family lines so we can take their names to the temple and do their work.

We take Elijah's charge ,as stated in Malachi 4:6 on the last page of the Old Testament, to turn the hearts of the children to their fathers, seriously. We feel duty bound to do this work for our forefathers.

...

I know that to some of you this seems like a strange thing to do.

However, doing temple work for our ancestors is not a new thing.

It was done during Jesus' time.

The apostle Paul talked about it when he was preaching about the resurrection to Sadducees, who did not believe in life after death.

Paul said to them in I Corinthians 15:29 "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they baptized for the dead?" Paul was teaching about eternal life but this scripture shows that doing sacred ordinances for our dead ancestors was a common practice in his day.

...
We took the names of our ancestors to the temple that day and had a family day at the temple together. Even three of our grandsons who are 12 or older where able to go with us to do some of the work that morning. To be there with our children and and grandsons and see them all dressed in white was a beautiful sight. They looked like angels to me.... and I felt like I was in a bit of heaven.

It also made me smile that our good friends, Sil and Ron joined us at the temple and shared this special time with us.

Later that evening we all went out and had a lovely dinner together.

It was a wonderful day... both our spirits and our tummies were well fed.

...

Thanks for sharing these reasons to smile with me.

Thank you for reading my blog and being my friends.

I hope you have had a good week too.....and lots to smile about.

Love, Grammy Lura