Tori's Charity Talk

This winter we moved to a new ward and they asked us to speak in Sacrament meeting. None of us were very thrilled with it since we were still living in the hotel and didn't have any of our church books, not much space to work on it, and just plain being stubborn. But we did it and now I'm sharing these talks with you.

Here's Tori's...

(copied directly from her notes)

(In the beginning of Ether 12) Faith, hope, and charity are essential to salvation.  1 Corinthians 16:14 says "Let all your things be done with Charity."

Now what is charity exactly?  Like my brother Henry said, 'it is the highest, noblest, strongest kind of love, not merely affection but the pure love of Christ."  1 Corinthians 13:13 says "And now abideth faith, hop, and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."

If we don't have Charity we have nothing.  When we don't have charity, we can not have salvation and return to the kingdom of heaven.  When we have the pure love of Christ, we are closer to Him and have more spiritual moments because we also prove we know what our Father asks of us.

For some, it's hard to have un-challengeable love for Christ and our Heavenly Father, but why I don't understand.    Because of Christ's sacrifices for us and how Heavenly Father was able to sacrifice his only begotten son.  When you hear the story of how Christ bled for our sins and died on the cross, how could you not love him for all he did for us imperfect beings?

He didn't have to do anything, he volunteered and did it because he loves us.  So why could we not return that unconditional love?

Deuteronomy 6:5 says "And thou shalt love the Lord they God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all they might."  Do you have charity in all that you do?  Do you love the Lord with all your heart?  With all your soul?  Along with all your might?

In Ether 12:37 it says "And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me: If they have not charity, it mattereth not unto thee, thou has been faithful; wherefore, thy garments shall be made clean.  And because thous has seen they weakness thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father."

I want to end with that so you all shall know that if you have charity, you see your weaknesses.  And if you have complete and utter faith, along with keeping the commandments, we are all so many steps closer to our Heavenly Father and being with Him in his kingdom.

Henry's Charity Talk

This winter we moved to a new ward and they asked us to speak in Sacrament meeting.  None of us were very thrilled with it since we were still living in the hotel and didn't have any of our church books, not much space to work on it, and just plain being stubborn.  But we did it and now I'm sharing these talks with you.

Here's Henry's... 

(copied directly from his notes)

So because I'm only a youth speaker, I only have to speak for 5 minutes, so ....(talk slow,) ummmm..... (look at clock.)

My name is Henry Elliot and I'm a freshman at Canon City high school and patiently waiting for Track and field to start.  I think we moved here about 2-3 months ago.  I've gotten to know a lot of the youth so far and I'm glad we are such good friends already.  (grin) 

Or some of them are at least (just kidding and smile.)  So this past Monday, I along with some of my family, as you can tell, were asked to give a talk.  Now that's what you call a warm welcome. (grin)  I tried to give an excuse like "oh, well, that's just too bad because we aren't actually in your ward yet..."  As you can tell, it didn't work in the very least. (grin.)

But that's okay I enjoy writing talks.  It's fun for one thing and I usually learn something new about my topic.  The worst part is right before you get up, and they say your name to everyone.  yeah, that's when the butterflies are the worst. (grin)  So please bear with me as I stutter through my talk. (grin.)

(Deep breath and smile)

What is Charity?  Charity in the Bible Dictionary is defined as "the highest, noblest, strongest kind of love, not merely affection; the pure love of Christ."  And in Moroni 7:47 it states "but charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him."  I think that is an awesome scripture; knowing that Charity can endure forever no mater what (grin.)  In Moroni 8:17 it refers to Charity as the perfect love and again is everlasting.  Finally, charity is a commandment.  All men should have Charity and except they who have charity they were nothing.

Charity is very important.  It is stressed throughout the scriptures.  In 1 Corinthians 13:1-5 Paul stresses the extreme importance of charity and what it is and isn't.  "Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing."  Meaning to me, I could live the very best life in every way, shape, and form; that I could be the best man in the world...but if I don't have charity, it will have done me no good in the next life.  I have to not only have love, but show it.  Moroni 10:21 backs me up fairly well when it says "except ye have Charity ye can in nowise be saved in the kingdom of God..."

Now that I have presented you with new or renewed tools, it is our job to apply it in our lives.  And hopefully when we practice it, it will be second nature to us and that we will be drawn closer to our Heavenly Father.  That it will be well with us in the last day.  This doesn't just apply to all the grown ups.  You kids out there can practice it too. (grin.)  You can invite someone you don't know or someone not having a good day to come play a game with you and your friends, or say something nice to them.  Parents and other adults, you are always being watched.  You set an example to others around you and are often role models and don't even know it. (grin)

Text? List? Or Facebook?

While planning Tori's birthday party, I asked her to make me a list of items she would like to have to eat at her party so I could figure out what to buy at the store the next day.

In true, Tori fashion, she quickly and without thinking replies....

"Do you want me to text, list, or facebook you?"

Good thing I'm not too technology challenged to live with my daughter!

What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

Mom, do you know what I want to be when I grow up?

No Zach, what?

A marine.  A marine that paints things.

How's that going to work for you?

I'll paint the bad guys faces when they get close to me so they run away crying.

(pause)

But I might die.  Becuase it takes me so long to get into my thing with my paintbrushes.

It's Cookie Friday

With it being Good Friday, the kids are home from school today.

We decided to make cookies.

First I made some chocolate covered oreos for Easter. 

I'm so excited about these, because although my painting technique leaves ALOT to be desired, this is the first time the painted chocolate hasn't melted and ruined the design when I poured the main section.

YEA ME!

Then, we made sugar cookies.

I wanted to try out decorating them using Sweet Sugar Bells instructions.

Tori and Zach helped.

Okay, they really ended up doing it all...I'm a cool mom that way.

(Yea, right.)

We weren't really patient on the designs and didn't wait the 20 minutes between layers like we were supposed to, but we had fun anyway.

Zach went with more abstract designs.

While Tori tried to paint intracit designs,

and ended up hating them so much she had to eat them.

And mine were rather boring

But we had a good time and now have some yummy cookies.

I Stand All Amazed....

Okay, so again I stand amazed by the little things that give me hope to keep carrying on with the trials in life.  The stress over the house and other financial matters keeps building.  I've been trying to figure out what we are supposed to do.  We didn't get the rental house that we thought might be the answer to our prayers, and although I've applied at several places in town, I haven't even gotten one call back.

Things have been slightly stressed.

So we decided to get away for a few days and go on vacation.

We went home.

We spent a lot of time with family and at the family store The Chocolate Box.

One day when we were there, Hank started talking to a young man that he had known when he was in our church's young men's program several years ago.  The young man had gone on a mission for our church and while there had suffered terrible carbon monoxide poisoning.  He had been sent home early and fought hard to get back to a normal life despite some terrible health issues.

When we returned from vacation, Hank sent a letter to the mission leader of this young man's mission.  Apparently the man was a warden at one of the prisons with which Hank works.  He wanted him to know that this young man was doing well and recovering.

The mission leader responded almost immediately thanking Hank for the information and the two struck up an email "conversation".  Hank was excited to know that an LDS member could indeed succeed in the strange prison system we find ourselves working for.  The warden said he was actually just getting ready to move next week to another prison complex where he would advance and there was hope.  Hank was told to "keep in touch."

Immediately Hank went and looked up the new prison area.  Funny to find out, it was one of the prisons that had just pulled his paperwork for consideration on a paid move to a lieutenant's position.  I'm not saying anything will happen.  It could all just be an interesting "HUH" moment....but I still stand amazed by the little things in life.

“Behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.  (Alma 37:6.)

I truly stand amazed and again have hope that the Lord is truly looking out for me and my little family through the stupid mistakes that we make each day.

You Don't Understand....

Zach's been pretty sick lately.

I got a call from the school nurse Wednesday and she said he wasn't feeling well and wanted to take a breathing treatment.  He had started coughing with the change of seasons, and I told him to go see her if he felt he needed. 

By the end of the day, he was not feeling well and on Thursday, had had a very low grade fever.  He stayed home from school and I dosed him with cough syrup (a big no, no I know, but you should have heard him!) and ibuprofen.  He still wasn't better Friday morning, so he stayed home then too.

His fever broke Friday afternoon, but he still wasn't feeling better Saturday.  So I mentioned that I was going to take him to the doctor.  Apparently he really must not have felt good because that's all he wanted to do all day.  Finally that afternoon, I took him over to Ambucare.

The doc wasn't totally sure what was wrong with him.  He wasn't sure if he had some kind of whooping type cough that was manifesting in adults, or if it was just his asthma rearing up.  So he went ahead and put him on an antibiotic, an anti-inflammatory, and some steroids.  He said Zach should probably start feeling better by Sunday afternoon.

Well, Sunday morning came, and he must not have been feeling better.  When I woke him to get ready for church, he starts sobbing....

"You don't understand what I'm going through."

"I can't handle this Mom."

Is it bad that I just rolled my eyes and kicked him out of bed?  Son....you have no idea how much I understand.

I can't handle this either.