Mission Calls+Car Troubles+Cute Kids

While I was at TOFW, the rest of my fam was gathered in Utah for this guy opening his mission call! I missed the facebook live (Sheri Dew was talking) but I kept my phone on and so I knew right away he was called to Taipei, Taiwan. I am SO INCREDIBLY PROUD and EXCITED for this kid! He is incredibly smart (takes after his mom, who is the smartest of all the land) and has such a great sense of humor, and picks up instruments like it was no big deal, and is just such a great guy. On insta I wrote: Taiwan will love all 6 and half feet of you!!! I can't believe my little nephew, that I held in my arms(or didn't, because when he was one he was too stocky for my slight ten year old frame haha) and taught piano to and introduced to John Schmidt---he's going on a mission! And I'm also very excited that he gets to go to the reunion I'm planning this summer RIGHT before he heads out! Love you Myles!!

That picture is what I texted Sterling after I had a good cry at the side of the road. Lets back track. Our engine was having some issues, took it in, the nice people at the shop after running several tests said "hey, there's this problem your make and model is having and so they've extended the warranty on it allowing everyone to get it fixed, but you'll have to take it to the dealership" so gratefully, but a week of no van later, we took it to a dealership. Another week without a van, and they gave us a rental. For three weeks. We FINALLY got our van back (HUZZAH! And after seeing the bill of a rental for three weeks I was jumping for joy that it was all covered!) and I was being a nice person and noticed a parent pulling away from school pick-up without their kids backpack. So I pulled alongside them, rolled down the passenger side window and said "Hey! Your kids backpack is still back there on the side of the road!" Went on my way, started rolling it up, heard this awful sound and saw it start to slip downwards. I wanted to reach over and grab it but I was still driving, buckled in, on a pretty busy street full of tiny children leaving school, and couldn't do it fast enough. It never came back up. We drove that way for a couple days, but it rains here. A lot. So...back to the shop. Luckily, that was finished in two days. Meantime, I'm driving Sterling's car and getting up at 4:45am to get him to work in time to get the kids to school...and in the meantime my phone stopped working. It had been having issues with people being able to hear me--they just heard static---but it was really having issues. So one day we spent FOUR HOURS at the apple store. They said my phone was too archaic for their current tests (its three years old) so they weren't sure it was fixed, but it should be. And if not, my phone was toast. As far as people listening to me speak was concerned. The texting and internet still worked fine. Also in the meantime, our vacuum broke. With baking soda due to a pee accident sprinkled all over my bedroom floor. So I was taking Sterling's car to pick up the vacuum while my van was getting the window fixed. You see where this is going... Yup. All the sudden there was a loud popping sound, a huge gust of smoke came out from under the hood, and fluid rained down on me. I was on the 95--I trainwreck of a highway here in Palm Beach County. LUCKILY, there was an exit right ahead. I pulled off and onto a the first street I saw and pulled over onto the grass (they don't have curbs in south Florida). I tried calling Sterling. I tried calling my dad. I tried calling my mom. I tried calling Sterling--and he answered!!!! And he couldn't hear me, because my phone wasn't working. So I started sobbing. I mean, it's one thing to have one car problem. But when it's your third, and after your phone and your vacuum, I was just done. A guy working on the fence asked me if I needed help, and I was sobbing so good I just shook my head. Yup. It was full-on damsel in distress mode. I popped the hood, took a picture for Sterling to see. He said it was the radiator, and I couldn't drive it home because the engine was too hot. Luckily, texting worked. So I texted someone to pick up Ruthie. Texted someone to pick up Will. Texted Sterling to contact someone to pick up me and the babies. Sat on the side of the road while my baby consumed an entire apple--I didn't know he could do that, it was impressive--and a lovely lady from our ward rescued us with her minivan. We picked up Will and Sterling took an uber from work to where our van was (and finished! YAY!) and then he picked up Ruthie. Then him and his med school buddy went and replaced the radiator. Only something else was wrong (a propeller?) so we still had to take it to the shop and operate on one vehicle again for another week. While doing so, I dropped Sterling off at work at 6:30am after getting up at 4:45am, was heading to take Ruthie to school....and got a flat tire!!! ( I hate you 95 highway!!!) TENDER MERCIES it was literally RIGHT as I took the off-ramp and on that same corner was a repair shop. He was an absolute angel and put our little family before his other customers (they were just opening) and had us out of there in forty minutes with a repaired tire so it was only $22. Did I mention that I love him? We did get Sterling's car back. And it seems like we should be good. The crazy thing is that neither of our cars were due for any of these issues---they are both newer, respectable vehicles, it was just absolutely random issues. I am so glad that is all behind me. My phone is still broken, but Sterling changed out the sim card so I have his and he doesn't really call on his phone, mostly does email and text. So...for me it is working. It was a little wild there for a while people.

He makes this smile to get us to look at him and laugh and then he'll perform some other trick. It's adorable.

Her sweet Sunday school teacher got her these leggings from her surf shop.

TOFW

 

I was a little nervous about going all by myself. Not nervous, just hoping it would go okay. And when I pulled into the Convention Center massive parking lot on Friday evening in Orlando--a car pulled in directly beside me and we chatted about where we needed to go, and then spent the entire time together. And when standing in line to go in to the event, we talked to the lady behind us and she joined our 'group' and then she had invited someone who came on Friday--and so it was the four of us. HAHA. I saw a few people from Miami and a few people from our stake, but mostly it was these four wonderful ladies that I went around with and ate lunch with and we had a wonderful time! Actually, the fourth girl that came Saturday--we were introduced and finally a few hours later I said "You look really familiar" and she said "Oh yeah! We went to the same Dental Hygiene Continuing Education Conference in Utah and you ate dinner with me!" Yup--that was it! We are conference buddies apparently! She just got married and moved to Florida. It was hilarious!

I stayed at a beautiful hotel and didn't miss the kids at all. When I got home and Russ was still awake I was SOOOO sad that he looked bigger already! AHH! But luckily one night away was not too much to make me regret :) Sterling held the fort down no problem and we'd love to make this an ongoing tradition. Being able to just FOCUS on what is being taught--without the distractions of kids or errands or the usual list of things in my head---it was a beautiful thing.

I'm just going to copy and paste what I wrote on our family website, there was a lot more insight and beautiful things that happen, but I feel like it would take pages. And basically, I can sum up by saying it was an incredible spiritual experience that I would like to recreate and hopefully will help me be a better person for having gone. I loved every single minute of it!

 

GUYS--IT WAS AMAZING!!!!! I feel like I'm coming down from an EFY high. We definitely need this tradition in our family--I want to go back every single year!
SPOILER ALERT---I know you go every year Brooke, and while some speakers are different at each event, some are the same. And I just gave quick synopsis and it doesn't come close to bringing the real spirit that was there, but just in case you don't want to read---stop now!!!!
Kayli told me to tell her what the best talks were so she can listen to them online (although I heard they aren't available until December when the tour is over?) so here is a quick synopsis:
Friday Night
Tim Ballard- He was absolutely incredible. Brought the spirit in seconds and I bawled through the entire thing. I almost couldn't even stand to be there, I almost walked out. I am a complete sissy-but child sex trafficking is awful and too much for me to stomach. His stories were incredible--especially one about a bishop in Haiti and I want to adopt ALL THE KIDS now. He had some great stories about his wife and their kids. Definitely one to listen to.
Sheri Dew--obviously you cannot go wrong listening to Sheri Dew. I feel like she had a great talk, some exceptionally on point and powerful messages. She also did a lot of reminiscing about her and Wendy Watson and how SHE got Wendy to meet the prophet and marry him. Haha. It was cute. She talked a lot about orbits--how we all have a precise orbit set out by God and we need to be praying regularly if we are where we need to be. She said she wants to be in the Hall of Fame of Repenters.
Saturday
Tamu Smith and Zandra Vranes--these are the Sistas in Zion, mormon black sisters. They were absolutely HILARIOUS. And they'd also be laughing and joking and singing and then just hit you on the head with a strong message. It was a great presentation. They said their mom raised them saying that "Women are the heroes of humanity" and talked a lot about sisterhood relationships and keeping our covenants with God. "I learned to look to the WORD instead of the WORLD for sisterhood relationships." They imitated their mom a lot, and said, in her voice "Girl, you goin' learn today!" it was hysterical. I would listen to this again.
Mercy River was the music inbetween numbers on Saturday (Enoch Train was on Friday and their music was fabulous and their spiritual messages were also good) and they came out in the middle of the day with beards singing The Greatest Showman and it was hilarious! They also talked a lot about the recent conference talks that refer to all the angels helping us. And sang this song about Angels that was incredible and there was not a dry eye in the house.
They also talked about marriage a bit and how we're a 5,000 piece jigsaw puzzle...all sky. HAHA! But that the only way to make it work is with God, he's the missing puzzle piece.
Tom Christofferson--buy this talk!!!! He talked a lot about not knowing the why's of our trials, and being centered on Christ (the theme of the entire conference). He also said that Elder Todd Christofferson (his older brother) asked him a few days ago how his first Time Out For Women had gone (Orlando was his second) and he said "Really good. When you walk in a room, everyone is silent, but when I walk in a room-everyone cheers!" Haahaa. He said his mom said, referring to children/family members "Nothing they can ever do will take them outside the circle of our family's love." and that "It is better to know Him, than to know why." and he talked about going to listen to Elder Christofferson's talk at speeches.byu.edu called Daily Bread--that he listens to it regularly. He talked a lot about love, and he said "The greatest challenge in our life is love. When our greatest trials come, will we choose to love God above all else?"
Brad Wilcox-He was obviously amazing. He had some moving stories and great scriptural accounts. He talked a lot about visiting Israel and realizing the specifics of sheep and shepherding and what that entailed when he saw the terrain there. That there was little water and it was really rocky and so they had to spread out during the day to feed all the sheep, but the dangers at night were very real and threatening so they all congregated together at night. And often had these little fenced in areas where several shepherds would come to. The sheep would go in and one shepherd would stand at a narrow door and in the morning each shepherd would have their specific call to their sheep and count them as they went out. He then said SO many scriptures in the bible that referred to that. "By the narrow door" "They know my voice" "reassured by your staff" anyway...point of all of this was the Sheep are helpless creatures, without defenses. They are left vulnerable. It's a perfect type for humanity without the Lord. We cannot survive without the Savior. He is bound to love us because He is the Good Shepherd. Foreknowledge is a way for them to show their love and blief in our potential.
Emily Freeman--I would buy this one too! She is the author of a Christ-Centered Christmas, Christ-Centered Easter, and a few other LDS books. She talked about a tightrope walker who walked a tightrope across Niagra Falls over 300x when people said it couldn't be done. At one point, he pushed a wheelbarrow across it, and when he got to the other side he asks the spectators "Do you think I could push a person in this?" YES! YES OF COURSE! "Okay, who wants to get in?" and no one did. It's a lot like, I believe, Lord help thou my unbelief. She talked about visiting historical sites with a group of fellow seminary teachers and each teacher was supposed to learn and tell the story of each site they visited. When they were on the temple grounds a teacher asked her to lay down to play the part of the woman caught in adultery. She said it was awkward and isolating to lay in front of everyone. But the other teacher had studied so well, he tried to do what the Savior had done. And he crouched down beside her. Then stood to talk. Then crouched down beside her. She said it was incredible to think that the Savior was crouching down for the one. And it reminded her that the Lord doesn't have a certain amount of grace. You don't have to reach a certain point to obtain His grace. His grace reaches whatever point you are at. He gets down to your level. You cannot sink lower than grace can reach. Then she told an incredible story about when her 3 yr old was diagnosed with Diabetes and it was awful and sad and I bawled through the entire thing.
Yeah--I would definitely listen to this one!!
Also good things, on Friday night Brad Wilcox got up and asked for prayers because his granddaughter had just been born and was struggling and in the NICU, and Sheri Dew put her arm around him as he cried and said "You have come to the right place. This is exactly what a group of women like this was born to do." and then she proceeded to ask all of us to pray for London.
One lady talked about spirit animals (I guess thats a thing?) and they decided on a spirit animal for the conference. The female elephant. The only thing a lion is afraid of is a female elephant. When they sense danger they circle up, with their faces outward, and their young protected in the middle of the circle that they form. It is such a strong fortress, that not even the lion will attack. Which is what a group of women can be like--through the spirit and working together.
One talked about writing down your prayers, which I liked. I like writing things down. It helps your prayers stay focused and helps you look for answers that you might not notice during the day. And checking off answers as they come.
"God is the great multiplier. bring Him what you have and He will make it more. If God can do so much with one loaf, imagine what He can do with one life."
ANYWAY IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!