He Lives!

Since today is Good Friday, I would like to share portions of The Living Christ. It is the written testimony of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"He was the Great Jehovah of the Old Testament, the Messiah of the New. Under the direction of His Father, He was the creator of the earth. 'All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made' (John 1:3)."

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 "Though sinless, He was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. He 'went about doing good' (Acts 10:38), yet was despised for it. His gospel was a message of peace and goodwill. He entreated all to follow His example. He walked the roads of Palestine, healing the sick, causing the blind to see, and raising the dead. He taught the truths of eternity, the reality of our premortal existence, the purpose of our life on earth, and the potential for the sons and daughters of God in the life to come."

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"He instituted the sacrament as a reminder of His great atoning sacrifice. He was arrested and condemned on spurious charges, convicted to satisfy a mob, and sentenced to die on Calvary’s cross. He gave His life to atone for the sins of all mankind. His was a great vicarious gift in behalf of all who would ever live upon the earth."

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"We solemnly testify that His life, which is central to all human history, neither began in Bethlehem nor concluded on Calvary. He was the Firstborn of the Father, the Only Begotten Son in the flesh, the Redeemer of the world."

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"He rose from the grave to 'become the firstfruits of them that slept' (1 Corinthians 15:20). As Risen Lord, He visited among those He had loved in life. He also ministered among His 'other sheep' (John 10:16) in ancient America."

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"In the modern world, He and His Father appeared to the boy Joseph Smith, ushering in the long-promised 'dispensation of the fulness of times' (Ephesians 1:10)."

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"Of the Living Christ, the Prophet Joseph wrote: 'His eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his countenance shone above the brightness of the sun; and his voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters, even the voice of Jehovah, saying: "I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father" ' (D&C 110:3–4). Of Him the Prophet also declared: 'And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father— That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God' (D&C 76:22–24)."

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"We testify that He will someday return to earth. 'And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together' (Isaiah 40:5). He will rule as King of Kings and reign as Lord of Lords, and every knee shall bend and every tongue shall speak in worship before Him. Each of us will stand to be judged of Him according to our works and the desires of our hearts."

I know that Christ was with our Heavenly Father before the earth was created. He was born of Mary. He suffered in the garden of Gethsemane for my sins and weaknesses as well as yours. He allowed himself to be killed. He died. Three days later, He rose from the tomb. He truly lives! He loves each and everyone of us. That is why He did all that was required of Him. He wants us to be happy and He knows that true and lasting happiness comes from following God's plan.

Need A Laugh?

News is spreading about this next season of Downton Abbey being the final season. Honestly, I'm ready for it to wrap up. Anyway, I want to share the Downton Abbey Rap.

I have watched this many times and it is still funny!

It's Starting!

Tomorrow night starts the first session of General Conference! I am looking forward to another wonderful Conference filled with uplifting messages. The first session is the General Women's session. {You can watch it here!}

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I love the Women's session. It is filled with messages that help strengthen me in my role as a woman. The messages are timely and filled with the spirit. Next weekend will include the 4 General Sessions that are for everyone.

Last October, my mom came out and we were able to attend the Saturday morning session. It was a wonderful experience. One of these times, my mom and I will be able to either attend or watch the General Women's session!

I challenge you, along with myself, to prepare for this conference by coming up with questions that you need answers to. I know that they will be answered.

S-P-R-I-N-G

My nephew, Tyler, read this amazing poem he wrote about spring for his class on St. Patrick's Day.

Seems like flowers are starting to bloom...
Perhaps I need to buy spring clothes,
Ready to sneez, I know I am,
It seems like there are pop corn trees everywhere!
No more stopping my allergies now,
Get ready for spring!

By Tyler

My mom said it was so funny because he read it with so much expression.

To say I miss this kid, is an understatement.

Confetti

Ever since we took down our paper Christmas tree, our wall has been naked and it's been driving me crazy.

I finally found a project that sounded perfect! A giant confetti wall!

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Jonathan grabbed a huge stack of Pantone paint samples from Lowe's and I was ready to go!

I used my two and half inch circle punch to make the confetti because it is so much easier than cutting out the circles myself.

I was lucky enough to have Jonathan to help me put them up.

It is so nice to have color up on our wall again!

My Best Friend

I know a lot of people say that they married their best friend, but Jonathan is legitimately my best friend. I still love spending time with him.

This is before I cut the holes in his TMNT mask.

Honestly, I wish I could spend all of my time with him. We are so similar in so many ways it's crazy.

Clara didn't want to wear any bows in her hair, so we had Jonathan try it on.

On our way home from our last trip in Idaho, we were shocked when we realized that we had already been in the car for 2 hours. We had been talking that entire time and didn't even notice that we were well over half way done.

I still don't know how I got lucky enough to marry my best friend, but I'll take it!

Moving Offices

Back in November, I found out that our office was moving up to Lehi. It took awhile, but by the end of January it finally started looking like we were moving.

On our last day at the old office, all of the office chairs were corralled in the lobby.

I really miss the amazing view I had of Mount Timpanogos.

After living in California, the commute to Lehi is a breeze. Especially since the speed limit is now 70 on the freeway. Though, it was rather slow when it snowed, but I made it to work in one piece!

A couple of weeks ago, we had a fire drill for our building. It totally felt like I was back in high school. Sure, we didn't have to line up, but the weather reminded me of Roseville.

Overall, I'm liking the new office. It actually feels like we are part of the company now that we aren't tucked away in a tiny room.

Family History We Are Doing It!

Both Jonathan and I caught the spirit of Elijah bug this last summer. (Thankfully, it doesn't look like it's going away!)

Here's a short video explaining the spirit of Elijah.

As we started out, it looked differently for each of us. I am blessed to be a third generation member of the church on my dad's side of the family. That means I have a lot of ancestors that need to go to the temple.

I feel responsible to make sure my family members get to the temple in a timely manner after I find them. They are the real reason I make it to the temple every week. There have been Saturday mornings that I am wide awake at 7am and I am in no way a morning person. They will not let me forget or get too busy to make it to the temple. Our ancestors are still very much alive, even without their bodies. 

Jonathan is blessed with pioneer heritage on both sides of his family. He has been doing more research about his great-great-great-great grandfather Anson Call. As he was looking at more information, he found the address to the house he built after settling in Utah.

Jonathan was curious to see what was there now. He pulled on Google Street View and it was a "newer" (but still old) house. He clicked further down the block and there was a really old house. It turns out that Anson's house was still there in Bountiful well over 100 years later!

It was such a neat experience for us to go and see the amazing workmanship Anson put into his home. I'll share some of our more recent Family History adventures another day!

Our Mini Valentines

This winter has been so mild that we decided to head up to Idaho for the weekend.

Ruby has grown up so much in the past three months. She is such a sweet and happy baby.

We gave Clara her late birthday present. Since it was Elsa's crown, she needed to put on her dress.

Idaho has seriously beautiful sunsets!

After the big kids went to bed, Annie and Chris ran some errands while we cuddled with sleepy Ruby.

Before Church, the boys did some important reading about Lego Star Wars.

After Church, Clara needed to put on another princess dress to twirl around.

Ruby loves playing with Uncle Jonathan.

Seth thought it would be a good idea to climb on us when we were relaxing on the couch. He just ended up getting squished.

After we got home from Idaho, we hung up all the Valentines we brought home and even got more from California.

It was so nice having so many Valentines this year!

Our True Identity

I can't hide it any longer, Jonathan and I are super heroes. We are having so much fun planning and adding special effects to our pictures for our nieces and nephews! For at least the past year, Jonathan has been doing all sorts of 3D graphics and has started getting more into the animating side of things. This is his creative outlet when homework gets tedious and he just keeps getting better!

In case you haven't seen the latest creation here it is.

Jonathan got really into this photo shoot because he could visualize how he could make them come to life with the special effects. He's the one who makes these pictures amazing. I just tell him what it is that I want and he runs with it.

January Temple Visits

So far this year, Jonathan and I have gone to the temple once a week. Honestly, I don't know if we'll be able to keep that up for the entire year. Life has the tendency of getting in the way. I have 2 goals in regard with temples this year. First, I want to go to the two remaining Utah temples we haven't been to yet. Ogden and Brigham City, though later this year we'll have to add Payson to the list! (Sorry Monticello, you are just too far for us to realistically make it out there.) Second, each time we go to the temple I want to take at least one of our own family names. It has been such a wonderful experience being able to take my ancestors to my absolute favorite place on earth. If you haven't taken your family to the temple, do it! It is such a powerful experience and they need you to take them.

Our first temple of the year was the Salt Lake Temple. It offers a unique experience because it is a live session format and you can enjoy the original pioneer craftsmanship that went into the construction of the temple. I love how it feels like you are transported into another era.

Our second temple was Mount Timpanogos. This is the temple we are assigned to go to. I love it because there are some similarities to the Sacramento Temple which I seriously miss. The Utah temples are all beautiful, but they are also huge and I rarely know where anything is. I miss my cute little Sacramento Temple. Anyway, I was having a particularly hard day and needed to feel loved. As you may know, there are 3 different video presentations that they use in the temple. It has literally been over a year since I saw the first one. That night there was a lot of people at the temple, so we missed the 7:40 session and were instead in the 8:00 session. The session started and it was the first video. I felt so loved and that Heavenly Father notices me as an individual.

Our third temple trip was to the Provo Temple. This choice in temple happened accidentally. We had actually planned and driven the entire 15 minutes to the Mount Timpanogos Temple just for me to realize that I had forgotten my temple recommend. I got a little too focused on making sure I had our family names... We drove back home and decided to go the 7 minute drive to Provo instead. (Seriously, people in Utah complain about how long it takes to get to the temple. I have a hard time taking them seriously.) Anyway, we got to seal all of these wonderful ancestors to their parents. In the mix was a pair of brothers born in the 1680s, two brothers and a sister born in the early 1700s, two sisters born in the 1780s, and Theodore born in 1840. When I was making sure that everyone was ready to be sealed to their parents, I realized that I could have been doing the temple work for Theodore's wife as well. I try to take family members and spouses to the temple together, so I was shocked with myself when I saw that she needed to got to the temple as well. I'm not too worried though because she is in the next group of family to take to the temple!

Our fourth temple trip was an especially exciting one. It was the first time Jonathan had names from his own family! I may or may not have been the one who actually found them, but that doesn't even matter. As I've been finding our family, I feel personally responsible to make sure they get to the temple.

Last week, our schedules prevented us from going to the temple together. I enjoy going to the temple with Jonathan, but it was kind of nice to have the opportunity to be there by myself. I used to go to the temple by myself all the time before we were married. It was nice to have the time for me to just ponder about my goals and challenges. I feel so blessed that we live so close to so many temples and that I have the time to find my ancestors that need me to take them to the temple.