What the World Needs

On Sundays, I teach a group of 14-15 year old girls. Here's what we'll be talking about today.

Semi-Annual Words of Wisdom

If you've been reading my blog for long, you know how much I love my church's semi-annual General Conferences. Every April and October, our church leaders gather in Salt Lake City, UT and their messages are broadcast around the world. Which means we get to stay home and watch church on television.

But that's not the main reason I love it....although there is something to be said for attending church in your pajamas with a bowl of popcorn and M&M's beside you. I love it because of all of the uplifting messages.

These are a few of my favorite snippets from our conference this past weekend:

(LDS Printables)

Some of my favorite talks are by the women who speak. Probably because I feel like they can relate.

(All Things Bright and Beautiful)

(All Things Bright and Beautiful)

The quote above was from an incredible message about dealing with depression and mental illness. I can only imagine what hope it gave to people who are struggling with those things.

Which is one of the other things I love about General Conference. We hear speeches on a wide variety of topics and it's a pretty sure thing that no matter what you are dealing with in life at the moment, you will find hope and encouragement for your particular challenges.

(LDS Printables)

(All Things Bright and Beautiful)

Sunday Inspiration

We could certainly use a little inspiration in Colorado today....this is from a hymn we sang in church this weekend.

Sunday Inspiration

Sunday Inspiration

Temple Groundbreaking

Saturday was an exciting day for Mormons across Northern Colorado and Southern Wyoming. I think there may have even been a few excited non-Mormons, to tell you the truth. After being announced over 2 years ago, ground was finally broken for our temple here in Fort Collins.

This is how it will look when it's finished. Beautiful!

If you've ever seen a Mormon temple, you know they are impeccably designed and executed, down to the last detail. We even use golden shovels at the groundbreaking. And everyone gets a change to turn the soil--church leaders, government leaders, even the kids!

This will be the second Mormon temple in Colorado. You can read all about the groundbreaking ceremony here (and see pictures of all those cute kids shoveling). We didn't attend the actual ceremony on the temple grounds, but attended a live broadcast at our church building.

One of the big concerns for the people who live near the temple site is traffic. It's a common--but generally unfounded-- concern. Our temples differ from our chapels, where members meet for weekly Sunday worship services. Temples are used for marriages, baptisms for deceased ancestors and ordinances intended to provide eternal family relationships. Temples are open throughout the week and closed Sundays.

So you don't really have large congregations visiting a temple all at once, but smaller groups and individuals who visit throughout the week.  However, if all the Mormons in the area showed up for the groundbreaking ceremony, there would have been thousands of us. So out of respect for the neighbors, there was a small group invited to the site, while the rest of us watched from our church buildings around the area.

Worldwide, there are currently 171 Mormon temples either in operation, under construction or announced. The Fort Collins temple is slated to be completed in late 2015 or early 2016, and be the 155th operating temple.  You can see photos of all of our worldwide temples here, and learn more about why we build them.

170 YEARS OF SERVICE

I belong to the oldest and largest women's organization in the world.  The Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  American historian Wallace Stegner, author of The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail, said:

  "That I do not accept the faith that possessed them does not mean I doubt their frequent devotion and heroism in its service. Especially their women. Their women were incredible."

I might be biased, but I think these women are still incredible.

Yesterday, to celebrate the 170th anniversary of this great organization, I joined with over 200 other women to serve people and organizations in our community and beyond.  We've been working for over 2 months, collecting diapers, women's care products, food, fleece for blankets, eyeglasses, and socks. 

Our goal, because it's our 170th anniversary, was to collect 170 of everything.

How did we do?

Eyeglasses for the Lion's Club: 221 pairs

Diapers for a local children's charity: 184 packages

Diaper Wipes:  385 packages

Socks for a local homeless organization:  391 pairs

Women's care products for a local shelter:  More than we could count!  We assembled all of the shampoo, deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste, lotion etc. into 100 kits to be given away to women who have to leave home at a moments notice because of domestic violence and abuse.

And the fleece?  It was used to make blankets for orphans in Tibet.  Their families are so poor, their parents bring them to the orphanage because they think they'll have a better life there.  They live at 14,000 feet and sleep on straw mats with no covers.  And it's cold. 

One of the members of our organization has been to the very orphanage where our blankets will be sent, and took this photo.  Do you notice what I noticed about these boys?  They are all smiling.  I don't know about you, but it makes me feel a lot less like complaining about the things I complain about.  When I left our gathering yesterday, we had 129 blankets, and people were still sewing!

We also made these adorable little dolls.

They will also go to the women's shelter.  Because the women who go there often bring children.  And their children have left everything behind too.

And while all of this was going on, their were women and men giving blood. 

Our church has been hosting this blood drive for the last five years.  It's the biggest drive of the year for our local blood bank. 

And that's just one local chapter of the Relief Society organization.  Imagine what we're accomplishing all over the world.  And we've been doing it for 170 years. 

A gathering of Relief Society women, 1893.

In the early 1900's,  the Relief Society owned livestock, real estate, and dress shops, the proceeds of which helped the needy. Wheat, which had been stored since 1876, was sent to survivors of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and to World War I victims.  The Relief Society even  sold 200,000 bushels to the U.S. government.

Relief Society sisters in California preserving food, about 1940.

During World War II, sisters sewed and donated thousands of pieces of clothing and quilts.  They sewed hospital gowns in work meetings, taught Red Cross classes, and assembled first-aid kits. After the war, they donated, sorted, sized, mended, and packed more than 500,000 articles of clothing for distribution in Europe.

It's an organization I'm proud to be a part of. 

Henry B. Eyring summed it up best, "The history of Relief Society is recorded in words and numbers, but the heritage is passed heart to heart."

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS AT TEMPLE SQUARE

I promised to share more about the Christmas lights at the Salt Lake Temple.  I don't think I've been to see the lights since I was in college, which was almost 20 years ago.  I knew it would be crowded, since we were there on the day after Thanksgiving--the first day they turn the lights on for the season.  But I really wanted to share this with my kids. 

There are over 700,000 LED lights on display at Temple Square during the Christmas season.  Workers start putting up the lights on August 1 and finish taking them down by March 31.

There are also beautiful lanterns and luminaries lining the walkways and fountains, along with several child sized nativity sets. The sets were made especially for children who came to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. There are sets from Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, and Poland.

The Salt Lake Temple was begun on February 14, 1843. It wasn't finished until April 6, 1893. It took 40 years to complete.  The excavation for the basement required trenches twenty feet wide and sixteen feet deep, much of it through solid gravel. Just digging for the foundation alone required nine thousand man days of labor.

The granite selected for the construction material was twenty miles away in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Oxen proved to be the only viable means of transportation. The precise design and dimensions of every one of the thousands of stones to be used in the temple had to be marked out individually in the architect's office and shaped accordingly. To put one layer of the six hundred hand-sketched, individually squared, and precisely cut stones around the building took nearly three years.

John Rowe Moyle was a master of stonework who came west with the earliest Mormon handcart companies in 1846. He settled in Alpine Utah, which was nearly 22 miles away from downtown Salt Lake City. He was called to work as a stone mason on the Salt Lake Temple. To be to work by 8:00 in the morning, every Monday John Moyle would wake up at 2:00 a.m. and walk to Salt Lake.

He would spend the week in Salt Lake, working on the temple, and then on Friday, at 5:00 p.m., he would start the long walk home, where he would tend to the duties of his farm over the weekend.

One weekend, he was kicked by one of his cows, resulting in a compound fracture to his leg. With no sophisticated medical help available at the time, the only available solution for his injury was amputation. His family and friends removed a door from its hinges, strapped him onto it, and removed his leg with a hacksaw.

When he was able to sit up in bed, he took a piece of wood and using his carving skills, he carved an artificial limb for himself. As soon as he was able to stand the pain from walking on his stub leg, he again began walking to the temple to do his work, which he did for many years to come.  Among other stone work he did, John Moyle carved the “Holiness to the Lord” stone on the east side of the temple

Around a million people visit Temple Square at during the Christmas season.  I think half of them were there on the same night we were.  Which made it hard to get pictures that really do justice to the spectacular display. 

So watch this video to see everything I wasn't able to capture with  my camera.

A BOOK OF MORMON STORY

If you've been reading my blog for very long, you know that I'll share a video from my church from time to time.  I love listening to this young man (well, he's young compared to me) share the story of his religious journey, but it's worth watching just for the beautiful artwork, and the creative way it was filmed.  And if you're curious about The Book of Mormon, which we use as a companion to the Bible, you might find it interesting in that regard too. 

I really, really love it.

I'M A MORMON.....AND I'M A CHRISTIAN

There's something I want you know about me.  It's important to me that you know.

I'm a Mormon.  And I'm a Christian.  I know you may have heard otherwise.  You may have even heard I belong to a cult.....I don't.  The words to a song from our children's hymnbook best sum up what I'd like to tell you.

I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I know who I am.

I know God's plan.

I'll follow Him in faith.

I believe in the Savior, Jesus Christ.

I'll honor his name.

I'll do what is right.

I'll follow His light.

His truth I will proclaim.

You can learn more about what I believe at mormon.org.

GENERAL CONFERENCE: THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR

One of my favorite weekend's of the year is just around the corner.  It's called General Conference, and it happens every 6 months on the first weekend of April and October. 

Right now you are probably asking yourself, "What in the world is General Conference?"  It's a conference of leaders and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, held in the 21,000-seat Conference Center in Salt Lake City and reaching a global audience estimated to be in the millions. The proceedings are available in 92 languages via television, radio, satellite and Internet broadcasts. 

http://www.lds.org/

Which means we get to stay at home and watch church on television.  In our pajamas!  The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings while we eat breakfast and play with Legos.  We've discovered that Legos and food help attract children to the proceedings.  Okay, the food is actually for me, but the Legos are for the children.

But that's not why I love General Conference.  I love it because I get to hear inspirational messages like these from the men and women who speak.

If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly.  Stresses in our lives come regardless of our circumstances. We must deal with them the best we can. But we should not let them get in the way of what is most important—and what is most important almost always involves the people around us. Often we assume that they must know how much we love them. But we should never assume; we should let them know. ~ Thomas S. Monson

In many of the uncertainties and challenges we encounter in our lives, God requires us to do our best.....and to trust in Him. We frequently may press forward hoping and praying—but without absolute assurance—that we are acting in accordance with God’s will. But as we honor our covenants and keep the commandments, as we strive ever more consistently to do good and to become better, we can walk with the confidence that God will guide our steps. ~ David A. Bednar

The work of a mother is hard, too often unheralded work.  Do the best you can through these years, but whatever else you do, cherish that role that is so uniquely yours and for which heaven itself sends angels to watch over you and your little ones. ~ Jeffrey R. Holland

If life and its rushed pace and many stresses have made it difficult for you to feel like rejoicing, then perhaps now is a good time to refocus on what matters most. Strength comes not from frantic activity but from being settled on a firm foundation of truth and light. It comes from placing our attention and efforts on the basics of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It comes from paying attention to the divine things that matter most. ~ Dieter F. Uchtdorf

If you trust God enough to listen for His message in every sermon, song, and prayer in this conference, you will find it. And if you then go and do what He would have you do, your power to trust Him will grow, and in time you will be overwhelmed with gratitude to find that He has come to trust you. ~ Henry B. Eyring

I can't wait to hear more!

MEET LARRY GELWIX, HIGHLAND RUGBY COACH

Maybe you've noticed the cute button over on my sidebar that says "I'm a Mormon."  I know, people think we're weird.  Okay, I am a little weird, but that's not why! People don't know much about us, and what they hear or read on the Internet  isn't always true.  They don't realize that we believe in Jesus Christ and try to follow his example in our daily lives.  We're misunderstood.  But we're trying to change that by introducing you to some of the incredible and diverse people that are part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Meet Larry Gelwix.  He's a husband.  He's a father.  He's a rugby coach.  And he's a Mormon.