Fire

 Grace and Blake made dinner tonight. It was really good.  They made honey garlic chicken and rice.  They used a lot of heat and my mouth is on fire.  I came upstairs and got four tums for dessert.

My day was spent doing school and cleaning things.  We are having our house packed next week and I had planned to do a lot throughout the week.  Now I am going to MD tomorrow for a quick couple of days and the prep time got condensed. I am bummed because it's time out for women this Saturday and I bought tickets a couple of months ago with plans to go with friends but the flights home on Saturday were way cheaper than Friday.

Yesterday was a good Sunday.  The talks at church were exceptional.  Ashley spoke about the Savior.  She did a very sweet job and I think everyone felt the spirit.  One thing she talked about was when the four friends took their paralytic friend to be blessed by Jesus and couldn't get to him because so many people were crowded around the home of Peter's mother in law. (which we saw in Israel). Of course we know that they opened the roof of the home and lowered him down and he was healed.  She talked about serving a mission and trying to be that kind of friend. She said sometimes the people they wanted to teach weren't interested.  Sometimes they didn't know that they were sick. Sometimes they didn't believe, and continued to suffer. Every once in a while she was blessed to reach out to someone who was sick and who wanted to be healed and then what a joy it was to participate in that process.  It was so heartfelt and I was very touched. 

The high counselor who spoke was a powerful speaker.  He talked about receiving personal revelation and it was highly engaging and interesting. In the afternoon I talked to Ethan about it and asked about his experiences giving blessings.  He told me that while he was on his mission he was serving in an area that wasn't a stake, it was a district, and the mission president presided over it.  He assigned his counselor that responsibility and so E got to know him quite well and one time asked him about blessings, seeking learning & guidance. That man said that the Lord never gives direction to a mouth that is closed.  When we have a task to do, or a question to answer, we have to step out in faith and start to do the thing we need to do, then we can be blessed and directed.  The speaker yesterday also talked about that principle. He said imagine when Nephi and his brothers were told to go back to Jerusalem for the plates if they had hopped into the tent and started to pray for guidance with the intention to wait until they got it before they took action. That would have been the end of the story. Action is a gospel principle. 

Sadly Tom has a health problem that brought him and Diana back to the states, cutting their long awaited trip short.  He is getting help and hopefully everything will be fine but in the meantime I wanted to do something so I doubled dinner and ran it over. Then Sandy, Kristina and I all went to mission prep to hear Blake speak.  He shared his conversion story and he did an amazing job!

Bishop Hansen, who is now a member of the mission presidency, also spoke and he did a wonderful job too.  It was an uplifting day.