We finished reading the Book of Mormon again!

Boy, it took us a much longer time to read through the Book of Mormon again as a family, but we finished it tonight by reading the last 5 pages together as one of our New Year's Eve activities.

What a great way to end the year and start fresh!

I'm grateful for the peace that comes when I read the Book of Mormon, and the strength to face life's ups and downs when I read it faithfully and consistently.  Personally it's one of my big goals for 2018 to read from the Book of Mormon every day.  And I can't wait to start it again as a family.

A special stake conference!

Last Sunday we had a special 90-minute stake conference with an important visitor, the Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Bishop Gerald Causse.  It was a great meeting, and I appreciated his message about being witnesses and being instruments in the hand of the Lord to bless the lives of others, simply by loving people and being close to the Spirit.

Rhiannon and Wade were "strongly encouraged" by their mother to participate in the youth choir for this meeting.  They practiced for several Sunday nights in a row, and, in the end, it was a great experience for them and they did a fantastic job, not just with their singing but by inviting the Spirit into the meeting with their music.  We were so proud and happy for them!

Another fun, crazy thing was that Rhiannon was asked last-minute to share her testimony.  Bishop Causse was given a list of youth from our stake and picked her from the list.  She got up and shared about how she knows Heavenly Father answers prayers because she'd prayed for ways to give service and had seen that happen again and again that week at school.   She also got the whole room to laugh, telling them how that very morning at breakfast she'd been complaining about being in the choir, how she'd rather speak in stake conference any day than sing, and, well, there she was, doing both!   This marks the third time Rhiannon has spoken in stake conference--pretty amazing!

A very memorable family temple trip

Memorial Day weekend was a special one for us.

That Friday afternoon we drove down to the Los Angeles temple, stopped for dinner at In 'N Out on the way and stayed the night in the temple patron apartments for the first time.  Many of our friends make family trips this way and said the temple apartments were the way to go--they were right.  The apartment was simply furnished and a little snug, but it was inexpensive, clean, and had a great shower.  We smiled at the giant picture of the Savior in the kitchenette and the Family Proclamation posted in the apartment complex elevator.  It was peaceful and perfect.

The next morning we woke up very early and started in the temple baptistry at 6 am.  It was the first time we had family names to do work for, that Jason and I had found on our own.  (Next step:  encourage the kids in this endeavor!)

After some time there, the kids went back to the apartment, and then Jason and I did initiatories and then an endowment session together, followed by several sealings.  We both agreed it was a neat experience to do that--we hadn't done initiatories and sealings in a very long time.  Rhiannon and Wade said they had a fun time together, too, hanging out in the apartment, walking the temple grounds, taking pictures, and checking out the visitor's center.

We were all finished before noon!  And our family was able to do temple ordinance work of some sort for 13 family names (plus several more in the baptistry and sealing room).  It was a lovely day, finished off with a pleasant drive home and lunch at El Torito in Palmdale.

Will we do it again?  Yes!

I've had a goal for a really long time to personally find a family name to take to the temple.  We're talking years.  Each year would go by and I'd say, "Well, maybe next year."  Over the past few months things came together for me--I felt urged on at some stake meetings, there was an article in the Ensign magazine about what to do if all your family history work seems "done," and a cute Laurel in our ward also gave me some hints.  So one day in February I just started clicking around and there it was.

That one name.  Martha Handford.  With only one single temple ordinance left, to be sealed to her parents.  Jason was also very successful that morning--I was encouraged to give it a try after he'd found several names in a matter of minutes.

I was pretty excited when I found that name.  Really, I was more than excited--I felt a jolt of electricity and happiness when I found it!  But that feeling was nothing compared to how it felt to be in the temple a few months later completing the work for Martha Handford.  It was a powerful, exhilarating, and emotional moment.  I felt profoundly happy and honored to be there for her, to do the work with Jason, and thankful to the other people in the sealing room helping us make it happen.

It was awesome.

Happy Easter 2016!

We've all had the day off on this Good Friday--it's been nice.  Rhiannon has been the busiest of us all, taking on a babysitting job and now partying up at a friend's 5-hour birthday party (whew!).  Both the kids pulled lots of weeds for me today, too, which I really appreciated.  Wade's Scout camp-out got cancelled, so he's enjoyed a lot of video game time!

Our Easter baskets are very simple this year.  We have a tradition of doing the baskets on Saturday morning, to be able to focus more on the Savior on Sunday, instead of candy, candy, candy.

Instead of buying gobs of candy like I've usually done, I just bought a couple things and then filled plastic eggs with little strips of paper on which I wrote either love notes, coupons for fun things or acts of service, and a favorite Easter scripture (Matthew 28:6).

I even gave myself a few love notes, such as "Remember to enjoy the magic of ordinary days!"  I feel really good about the baskets and hope they will be received well, haha! :)   Idea for the Easter love notes here:  http://growingupgabel.com/easter-baskets-idea-for-kids/

Jason was out of town Monday thru Thursday this week and got back yesterday afternoon.  He is still not 100%, but feeling a little better each day.  Tuesday was an absolutely crazy insane day (Wade gone to Disneyland from 5am to almost 1am the next morning), drumline for Rhiannon, institute class and a sub job for me....but we made it through!

Institute class was magical this week.  I came prepared to teach several highlights from the whole book of Deuteronomy, but we spent almost half the class time talking about temple marriage.  In fact, the class joked that it was a "Face-to-Face Event with Sister Cushing."  One of our class members said something to the effect of, "Well, here we are talking about temple marriage and there's only one person in the room who's been married in the temple.  So, Sister Cushing, mind if we ask you some questions?"

It was an incredible experience for me.  Everyone appreciated that I set my lesson notes aside and just rolled with it.  They asked me how a temple marriage had blessed us, what Jason and I did to strengthen our marriage, etc, and then they all thanked me for taking that time with them.  There was an amazing spirit in the room, a feeling of openness and hope and love for each other and our potential.  I can't remember half of the things I shared, but I do know I came home and texted Jason about what had happened, told him I loved him, and appreciated all he did for me!

Not every lesson is like that.  This one was special, and, I felt, particularly guided by the Spirit, Usually I glaze over anything having to do with "marriage" because these young single adults hear it over and over and over, ya know?  But it was meant to be that night, and we were all blessed by it!

Rhiannon speaks in Stake Conference!

For her second time in just over 5 years, Rhiannon spoke in stake conference early this month.  She did a PHENOMENAL job in front of almost 700 people.  We are so proud of her!!!

Here's her talk:

December 6th, 2015~ Stake Conference Talk by Rhiannon Cushing

Topic: Feeling Joy, Awe, and Excitement in Living the Gospel

Choose one:
-A tiny part of me cries when they lower the stand.
-Hello everyone!

I’m honored to talk to you all today and I hope everyone can hear me alright.

My topic today is Feeling Joy, Awe, and Excitement in Living the Gospel. First, I decided to simplify and get down to the basics—how do you truly live the Gospel?

The first thought I had was attending church meetings and activities regularly. Going to these bring me a lot of joy (especially when I don’t think it will that day); and my church activities like Mutual bring me joy as well. But living the Gospel is not just attending sacrament meeting and other church activities. True, this is essential and important; but it’s just one step.

I found a talk online from April 1993, from Elder L. Tom Perry, entitled—“Back to Gospel Basics”. He talked about visiting Peru and how all the saints located there were struggling. They started to practice basic teachings of the Gospel at home, and Elder Perry said this about the saints; “The blessings that have come to the Peruvian Saints from practicing these two basic gospel principles, daily prayer and scripture study, have been most remarkable. It soon became evident that faith and testimony were increasing among members of the Church…—daily prayer and scripture study—created a dramatic change and offered increased spirituality and works among the Saints there.”
My simplified version of living the Gospel is going to church meetings but then practicing the principles of the Gospel at home and representing our Savior to the best of our abilities.

The first part of my topic is feeling Joy in living the gospel. I believe this is one of the easiest feelings to have as a member of the church. President Utchdorf, my favorite speaker, gave an address in October of last year, titled, “Living the Gospel Joyful”. Instead of reading the entire talk, I’ll summarize. He explained how the “promised blessings of God to the faithful are glorious and inspiring…” and even though following commandments can be tough, it is all worth it. God is constantly raining down blessings and we only need to remove our umbrellas to receive them.

I’ve had a lot of experiences this year that have given me a lot of joy, and the more I’ve thought about these experiences, most of them have had to do with living the Gospel. This Thanksgiving Break my family and I went up to Utah, and we had the opportunity to do baptisms together in the Bountiful Temple. It was my brother Wade’s first time and my parents were married in Bountiful Temple so the whole thing was even more special than usual. I’m grateful we could do that together.
Then there’s the joy I get from going to Seminary each school morning. It can be quite a sacrifice, I’m not going to lie, but I’ve learned a lot and I’ve had fun with my friends there. It has also helped me tremendously with my personal scripture study. I used to only read my scriptures at church, but now I make it a habit of reading them every night. I’m grateful for Seminary and all my friends there, and for my wonderful teachers I’ve had. You are amazing.

Next is Feeling Awe from living the Gospel. We are all very lucky to have the Gospel in our lives and sometimes I think we forget how special it is and how people went through so many things for us to have it. Jesus Christ, our Savior, sacrificed so much for us. The Atonement was excruciatingly painful, but necessary, and He went through it all just for us, because He loves us. That is awe-inspiring to me.

Then there are the many pioneers who were chased from their homes, who traveled huge distances for their lives and for us. That is also awe-inspiring to me. I had the opportunity to go on our Stake’s pioneer Trek this past summer. I was very nervous but I am so glad I went. Over the space of three days the Kimbler Company traveled over 12 miles (which doesn’t sound like a lot but we were pulling a handcart the whole way haha) My testimony grew, and so did my friendships with my Trek family and others. Trek also deepened my understanding of how hard the trials of the pioneers were. They traveled hundreds of miles, sometimes in the dead of winter, and most lost family and friends along the road as well. I’m thankful for the pioneer’s example, for all the experiences I had on Trek, and for all the people I made those memories with. Trek is something I will never forget.

Last on the list is Feeling Excitement from living the Gospel. I get excitement from going to Mutual activities; they are always a lot of fun. Recently, my MiaMaid class put together some “blessing bags” to hand out to people less fortunate. I ended up giving one to a man in Salt Lake City. I thought it was hilarious because he said something along the lines of, “Oh, I get a lot of these! Thanks!”  ☺ He seemed grateful and it was exciting to see his reaction and give service that way.

Another exciting experience I’ve had, fairly recently was working on a missionary Open House for our ward. The youth in my ward put most of it together, with help from our leaders, and it was very successful. There were lots of people there that we taught different principles of the Gospel to, and it was a faith strengthening experience for me.

While writing this talk, I thought about why I’m a Mormon. And it’s that it makes me happy; I know it, I live it, I love it. It can be tough at times, especially with how much the world is deteriorating around us, but it’s so worth it.

For some reason, this past week was just spectacular. Noting huge happened, I think just all of the little everyday things made me happy; I started to recognize all the blessings that God was raining down on me. In particular, I had a really cool experience at my orthodontist appointment. Yeah; out of all the places, my orthodontist appointment. One of the really sweet ladies helping surprised me. She said something along the lines of, “I remember you! You are just free-spirited and you have a good outlook on life.” Of course, I couldn’t really say anything, because she was already working on my braces. I ended up giving her an awkward thumbs-up, which didn’t give the compliment any justice, but that made my week.

Our Savior loves us very much. We make mistakes but we will never be alone because He is with us always. I hope we will all remember what this month is really about and try our best to honor Him.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Our first family temple trip--2015 Highlight of the Year

In January we set a family goal to go to the temple together to do baptisms for Wade's first time once he turned 12.

During our Utah trip, we took off to the LDS Bountiful temple one morning and had an amazing experience serving in the temple together.  It was so sweet to be back in the temple where Jason and I were sealed, and even sweeter to have both our kids with us there.

We did many cool things this year, but this trip made it to the top of our 2015 family moments.  We were so happy to be there together.  And it was cool to see Wade do 42 baptisms in a row, haha!

Families are forever!

Billboard

Sometimes I get pointed out publicly in our Sunday congregation.  I'll just be sitting there, smiling at the speaker, enjoying what they're saying, and then that person will start talking about me in a very positive way, for the ENTIRE room to hear.  This has happened at least 4 times in the past year that I can remember.   It is so nice and so embarrassing at the same time.  Because, really, I'm not looking for that kind of attention and I'm N-O-T perfect (ask my family).  There are more deserving members in the congregation who are humbly, quietly living their religion every day, serving more, and following the Savior more diligently than I am.  Those are the people I'm trying to emulate.

This past Sunday I gave a short testimony and then a friend of ours, Bryce Perry, got up and talked about how he and his wife had bumped into me at the DMV and I was a "ray of sunshine," (we all laughed at that).  And then he said I was a "billboard for the Church."  We all laughed at that, too.  Boy, it was embarrassing and kind at the same time, for the reasons I mentioned earlier.

I am grateful for the gospel, though, and for my ward family, a group of imperfect people trying every day to be better, a ward family that supports our little family in all that we do.  So I guess I will stop complaining about their kindness and recognition and strive harder to be the person that they think they see.  This talk is a great place to start:  What Lack I Yet?

If I appear to be a "ray of sunshine," I have the Savior to thank for that.  For His Atonement and all that means.  It is everything.  I have my husband and kids to thank for that--our home is a happy place and I love my place in it, even on stressful, crazy up-and-down days.  And I have friends and family to thank for that, people who lift me up, make me smile, and encourage me.  Life is good!

A thoughtful text

I've been teaching an institute class for young single adults for almost a year and a half now and I absolutely love this assignment, in case I haven't mentioned that before. :)  Every week we have a good time learning together, but there is something special about the brand-new course Jesus Christ and His Everlasting Gospel.  We feel the Spirit in a powerful, consistent way every single week because of our focus on the Savior.  It is fantastic.

Last night was no exception.  We spent almost 45 minutes sharing our favorite General Conference moments and talks, and then we learned about Jesus Christ calling the twelve Apostles and proclaiming His mission as the Messiah.

When I got home there was a text on my phone from a friend in the class--it made my day and my heart filled with gratitude.  The Spirit is the true teacher, and I'm always thankful when it is there in abundance, comforting and helping us individually.

Last Friday--highlights and frights

Friday, September 11th, was a busy day!

Wade and some other Boy Scouts helped with a special flag ceremony at school that morning.  (Thanks to friends Chris and Tami for the picture!  Wade is in the red shorts.)

That night we went to the high school football game and enjoyed watching Rhiannon play in the band.  She's on the end of the mallets.  (Many thanks to the Murphree family for letting me post this!)  During a second performance, one of Rhiannon's sticks broke--she just kept right on playing with her other hand, haha!  What a trooper!

I personally didn't take any videos because I was distracted by these...  Those are seed bugs, folks, and they were at the game in abundance.  It was crazy!

Despite the bugs, we had a great time and enjoyed being there.  The 9/11 ceremony at halftime was nice, too.  

Two other special events occurred that weekend.  On Saturday, Rhiannon and I went to her friend Nik's baptism.  He is the drum major for the high school band and has a lot of Mormon friends.  A few weeks ago Nik had attended the missionary open house that Rhiannon helped with, and he sought out the missionaries after that.  Rhiannon played the piano at the well-attended baptism and did a great job!  My favorite thing was that the whole front row at Nik's baptism was taken by high school friends, there to support him. 

The next day we snuck out of church after Jason's Sunday School lesson and drove down to California City for a missionary open house/luncheon.  Our friends the Okerlunds (of New Year's Eve party fame) are sending their son Brighton off to the MTC today to serve in the Philippines.  After he got his mission call, he and his family had just 3 WEEKS to get him on his way, but they made it!  He will be a great missionary!

Symbols

It's bedtime around here after a very long, productive day.  I need to play catch-up badly on the past few weeks!

Tonight I just want to express gratitude for my institute class that I get to meet with each week.  We started a new course, Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel, this fall semester, and it is fantastic.  Every week we focus on the Savior and learn something new through the scriptures and modern revelation.  At the close of class tonight, several shared their favorite symbols, ideas, and even people that remind them of the Savior.  Family, lighthouses, the moon, special items, the temple, sunlight...the list went on and on.  There was a strong spirit there and I was glad to be a part of it!

These young single adults are wonderful examples to me.  They are helpful, fun, funny, smart, and FULL of faith and hope. It's very inspiring to be with them!

Missionary Open House

Over the past couple years our ward has done open houses at our church building, where we invite friends and neighbors in the community to come on by, tour the building, and find out more about what we believe.  Last weekend another one was carried out, but this time the teenagers in our congregation did much of the teaching and organization.

Rhiannon put a lot of time into this, easily 10 hours (enough for a Personal Progress project--yay!).  Her class was asked to do a presentation on the Book of Mormon, and she organized their portion and got help from the other girls in her church class.  Other rotations that the youth taught included the family, Christ's Atonement and the plan of salvation, Joseph Smith and the First Vision, priesthood ordinances, and modern-day prophets.  Jason and I helped the Beehive class and prepared presentations centered around the Family Proclamation.

After a summer of planning, we showed up at the church on Saturday, got our areas ready, and waited.  Our bishop, Bishop Washburn, and our full-time sister missionaries met with all the presenters in the chapel before it started for a short meeting, where they encouraged the youth to be courageous, let the Holy Ghost teach, and not fear.  It was cool!

So at 4:00 pm we began and didn't stop for almost 2 hours.  We had 8 groups come through!  It was a very positive experience, even though we felt a little silly saying much of the same things over and over again.  Initially, we'd been a little grumpy about how much time this activity was taking up, but I'm glad we had the chance to do it and got over our grumpiness quickly!

The gospel is true!  God loves His children!

Light of the World, by Brent Borup

I was looking around on our church website for a nice picture of the Savior to copy/paste onto the new fall semester syllabus for the YSA institute class I get to teach every week.  This picture, called Light of the World, by artist Brent Borup, stopped me in my tracks.  It's my new favorite!

My Pioneer Trek experience (Rhiannon)

Hey it's Rhiannon! :) I don't normally do the blog posts, but Mom practically begged me to write this one. So I obliged and here we are.

Trek was absolutely amazing, in every way. My faith grew, my muscles grew, and I have a greater appreciation for what those pioneers had to go through all those years ago. I had no idea what to expect when I first got to our Trek site, but I can tell you I wasn't expecting the trail to be as difficult as it was. SO HARD.

The good thing was I didn't do any of it alone. Our small Ridgecrest Stake got divided into five families with about twelve people in each, including our "Ma and Pa's. Everyone thought they had the best family but I know I had the best one. I was part of the MacGregor family, with my old seminary teacher as my dad and his wife as my mom. They are great and definitely made Trek that much better. Same with my "siblings". I already thought I knew most of my family pretty well, but I learned even more about them, and strengthened some friendships for sure.

To be honest, most of Trek went by in a blur. The first day was very strange and hard. Getting into our families was fun, but hiking 8 miles with a handcart, in one day..not too fun. We got POURED on with rain and one of my good friends (and sibling) Tamara sprained her ankle pretty badly on the first mile. She was a trooper, and started helping again afterwards, but I bet that was hard.

Our Stake was pretty lucky. I think Tamara's ankle and various people with blisters were the only casualties. We were definitely blessed! I was (happily) surprised that my feet did alright. I didn't get a single blister and my bunion didn't bother me at all. I did have a moment on the last day where I think I was getting dehydrated. But I felt well enough to keep going so it was fine.

There were a lot of people on the Trek. From our tiny stake there was fifty or so, but a stake from Las Vegas came as well and there were about two hundred of them. We had meals alongside them, and the dance was combined but besides that we were just pulling our carts in a line. Speaking of meals, the food was super yummy. I probably would have eaten anything but the food was REAL good. There was lots of tex-mex type food, and chicken. Mmm, mmm good.

For sleeping the first night, the boys slept in tents and the girls slept in this huge barn. It was fun and the barn was very cozy. Needless to say I passed out when it was time for bed. The second night was more "real" because everyone slept under the stars. No tents, just sleeping bags. The boys had one side of the field and the girls had the other. I didn't sleep as great that night but there were hardly any bugs and more fun that the barn.

There were lots of random speakers that impersonated people from the pioneer times. We had a Brigham Young speak to us multiple times and a Porter Robinson. I can't remember any of the other names, but I liked all of the speeches.

One of the most worrisome things of the whole Trek was crossing the river. (insert Jaws music here) It really wasn't that bad, and it was actually quite refreshing considering the water was cold and we had been sweating like beasts the whole time. I took my shoes off, hiked up my skirts and away we went. It really wasn't that hard, as the water barely went past my knee. The pioneers had to go through much worse than that.

The second day was probably the funnest. All of the days were, but we had more activities that day than anything else. We played a few fun games as a stake. My favorite game was "Grab-your-Gal" which is really hard to explain, but there was some winking and partnering up involved. You would think playing games like that would be super awkward and weird, but it really wasn't as awkward as it sounds--promise.
Also on the second day was the dance. It was incredibly crazy and disorganized but it was still pretty fun. If I could change anything about it, I would have the dance be in our own stakes. I was a lot more comfortable dancing with people I knew, rather than random people I had never met before. It was still great though, and I got my pioneer dance moves on for sure.

The third day was HARD. It consisted of 2 miles (easy, right?) where we had the Women's Pull, and steepsteepsteep hills that went almost straight up. The Women's Pull really wasn't that bad, because we were smart and the ladies in my family were buff (did I mention I grew some muscles on Trek?) On the hard parts we planned ahead and had families team up, so that each cart had twelve girls instead of six. We would take turns running carts up the hill. One cart would go first and then we would ocme back for the second cart. It was still tough but we were fine. As we met up with the boys again (who had been doing a Mormon Batallion reenactment) they sang for us and tried to get us to stop pulling the cart but we wouldn't let them.

The last mile and  half was incredibly hard and even more steep than the Women's Pull which is definitely saying something, but our families worked hard, and we made it. BARELY.

At the end, I was super close with my family, with God and my ancestors. If I could do Trek again, which I can't because I will be aged out next time, I would go in a heartbeat., It was amazing!

Our new stake presidency

Our stake presidency was changed a few weeks back.  Our friend Megan Hall did a really nice write-up about it.  It was a neat meeting and we all felt good about these men and appreciate the sacrifices and service that they and their families make for our stake!  We are in good hands!

ps.  Pres Bull, is one of Jason's golfing buddies, Pres Kimbler is a good friend and a Ragnar buddy, and Pres Anderson is also a good friend who just finished serving for 5 years as his ward's bishop.  I share carpooling with his wife--and Jason guessed correctly that he'd be one of the new presidency members. :)

Institute Party

I follow the local community college's schedule when it comes to teaching my Institute class.  Last class for the fall semester was on December 9th, and we don't start back up again until January 20th.  I really enjoy rubbing shoulders with these young adults--they are fun, kind, respectful, and full of good ideas and experiences.  We have a good time together!

Here we are having a mini Christmas party after class--everyone brought goodies to share and then we played quite a few rounds of Reverse Charades.  It was awesome!

General Conference weekend

We

Love

General 

Conference

weekends.

The speakers, the messages, the company, the relaxation, and the food.  It was a fun weekend!  I'm looking forward to going back and reading the messages again.  We felt happy inside as we listened, and we also felt inspired to do better and be better!

Here are a few fun random pictures of the weekend.

Rhiannon took this with my phone.  It is classic Oscar. :)