How Great Thou Art

Today I got to play my cello for a musical number in my family's ward.  I played "How Great Thou Art," which was my preferred musical number whenever I was asked to play on my mission.  It went really well, and I got a lot of compliments.  I love being able to play my cello and feel the Spirit through music.  It was a delightful opportunity!

Hastening the Work

This morning I got up before the crack of dawn to go to the temple with my younger brother and sister.  It was the first time I had done baptisms for the dead in over a year and a half.  It was fun to take a trip down memory lane, doing something that I used to do every week all through high school and college.

But the best part of the process was the fact that, this time, we took our own family names with us!  For years we had never been able to find any family members in our family history lines that needed work done.  Nearly all of my ancestors were among the early pioneers of the Church, so there are so many members of the Church in my family that all of the work available to be done in my immediate family lines had already been done long ago.  My mother has worked many painstaking hours on our family history lines and only ever managed to shake out one or two names still to be done.

Then the Church came out with the new family history program, Puzzila, to accompany familysearch.org.  In Puzzila, you can branch out your family tree to include not only your direct grandparents, great-grandparents, and so forth, but also the siblings and other descendants of said ancestors, people who are distantly related to you, but not in your direct line.  Thanks to this new program, we have already succeeded in finding fifteen "cousins," and we took all of their names to the temple this morning to be baptized and confirmed in their behalf.  It was really cool to know that these people were receiving these saving ordinances because of work we have done to help them.

I'm grateful for these continued advances in technology and understanding that are allowing us to participate more and more in the hastening of the Lord's great work.  What a wonderful time to be alive!

Hooray for Less Pain!

So a week and a half ago, I was rear-ended while I was driving home from my grandmother's house.  It was a very mild accident, and no one was seriously hurt, for which I am very grateful.  But I suffered a great deal of whiplash, and my back and neck were in a lot of pain after that.  I could barely tolerate sitting in church for three hours the next day.  Thank heaven for chiropractors!

Since the person who hit me was at fault in the accident, her insurance is paying for my chiropractic visits, which is good because I've already had seven chiropractic visits since the accident.  But they are WORTH IT!  Oh man, I love chiropractics!  My back and neck still aren't totally back to normal, but they are so much better than they were, and I am so happy!  So yeah, hooray for less pain!  :)

I Love to See the Temple

Yesterday we had a lesson about the temple in Relief Society.  So for the opening song we sang the Primary song "I Love to See the Temple."  I have always loved that song.  However, the lyrics are targeted more toward children who are preparing to enter the temple, so they don't apply quite as well to adults who have already entered the temple.  So as I was listening to the lesson, I started thinking of lyrics that would apply more to how I feel about the temple now.  Here's the result.  Hope you like it.  :)

I love to see the temple,

So beautiful and bright.
There, I can feel the Spirit;
I'm filled with warmth and light.
For the temple is the house of God,
A place of sweet refreshing.
I've prepared myself for many years,
To have this sacred blessing.

I love to see the temple.
I go inside oft times
To covenant with my Father
In promises sublime.
I am grateful for this holy place,
A refuge like no other.
As I faithful stay, one day I'll reach
My home with Heav'nly Father.

Return of the Rel!

Hello everyone!

Well, here I am, back from my mission, with so many new experiences and so much new knowledge and appreciation for my life and the world around me.  I wasn't sure how long it would take me to get back into the blogging sphere, because life after the mission is pretty hectic, as any returned missionary will attest.  But in the past few days, I've had a lingering desire to start up again, so I guess it's time.  I don't know how many people will want to read it, but I guess if no one does, at least I can pretend I'm cool by having my own blog and all that.  :)  So I guess this is a post to say...I'm back!  :)