This last weekend, a member of my family died. I was never all that close to him, despite how closely related we are (grandparent-grandchild). Part of it was moving from place to place as I was growing up and, once I was a teenager, my unwillingness to get close to him (amongst other members of my family but for different reasons). The sad part is, he was the only grandfather I ever really knew (reasons why on that will not be mentioned here). Since I lived in a state clear across the country from him and even though I only saw him every couple of years, I could see how he was deteriorating into what he was before he died. By the time I was 18, I knew he wasn't going to live long enough to see me through my 20's. I just didn't think that he would die this soon into my 20's. From what I heard, things were looking fairly bad for him and now that he's gone, I'm glad his suffering in this life is over.
In a way, his dieing makes me more grateful for the LDS church. There's comfort in knowing that he's just on the other side of the veil and that he'll be given a second chance on the other side of the veil and that I can give him that second chance by proxy baptism in the temple and any other ordinance that I can do for him. In this way, hopefully I can get to know him better in the only way I can before I cross the veil myself. I already have a small list of people's names that I want to take to the temple in hopes of being able to do their work for them and my grandfather's name has been now added to this list.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Teaching
I'm pretty sure that I have a love/hate relationship with teaching Relief Society (or even Sunday School, at that, when I was asked to sub a couple of times for a friend when she wasn't going to be there for whatever reason). I love teaching, which is why I loved being a tutor when I was attending school (that and I didn't ever have to prepare lessons -- I just supplemented what the professor had taught through the last week and I was never exactly sure where each student was since they all had different professors who moved at different paces). I just hate the nerves that decide to show up the morning of the day I teach.
Today was my Sunday to teach at the branch. I don't like procrastinating on getting my lesson done, so I made myself sit down on Wednesday and got it planned out. Unfortunately for me, by the time I was ready to start planning, Bruce Almighty was starting the minute I sat down. So guess who got distracted while trying to plan her lesson? If you guessed me, you'd be right. So planning my lesson took about twice as long as it should have. Sad day. Going through the lesson today, it was a lot shorter than I thought it would be. As a result, Relief Society got out about 10-15 minutes before the priesthood did. Which isn't normal for us at all. The guys always get out before we do. Although for me, it was a nice change of pace to be out before them.
Today was my Sunday to teach at the branch. I don't like procrastinating on getting my lesson done, so I made myself sit down on Wednesday and got it planned out. Unfortunately for me, by the time I was ready to start planning, Bruce Almighty was starting the minute I sat down. So guess who got distracted while trying to plan her lesson? If you guessed me, you'd be right. So planning my lesson took about twice as long as it should have. Sad day. Going through the lesson today, it was a lot shorter than I thought it would be. As a result, Relief Society got out about 10-15 minutes before the priesthood did. Which isn't normal for us at all. The guys always get out before we do. Although for me, it was a nice change of pace to be out before them.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
General Conference
The LDS 181st Semi Annual General Conference was this last weekend and it was absolutely amazing! I definitely got the answers to the things that had been running around in my head the week before, which I'm grateful for. One of the things that I had been thinking about a lot before conference was prayer (of all things) and it just wouldn't go away. So when Elder J. Devn Cornish talked about prayer, I couldn't help but think of how this talk was meant just for me. Elder Boyd K. Packer's talk in some places stuck out for me as well and I learned quite a bit from him as well. I didn't get as much out of President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk as I usually do (I got a few things out of it, don't get me wrong, just not as much), which disappointed me since he's one of my favorite people to listen to speak. I think I got more out of his talk at the General Relief Society conference about the Forget Me Not flowers. I really wish I could show my own father Elaine S. Dalton's talk as she talks about fathers. But he'll never listen. Elder Mattew O. Richardson's talk hit me in so many ways that I could have sworn he was talking about some of the situations in my life, especially with the teaching comments he made.
I'm surprised at how much of conference sounded like it was just for me. But since none of the speakers know me personally, there's no way they could have known what was going on in my life and what questions I needed answered but they were answered this last weekend. Looking at all the links and knowing that there was way more that caught my attention, you can only imagine the amount of notes I wrote down during each sessions.
I'm surprised at how much of conference sounded like it was just for me. But since none of the speakers know me personally, there's no way they could have known what was going on in my life and what questions I needed answered but they were answered this last weekend. Looking at all the links and knowing that there was way more that caught my attention, you can only imagine the amount of notes I wrote down during each sessions.
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