Changes

Today we found out that our branch that we have attended for the past five years is to be no more. As of this afternoon, the Corry Branch is no longer in existence. So as you might guess, today was not an easy day. 

We received a phone call earlier in the week saying that today's scheduled branch council meeting was canceled and also that our meetings were to be in reverse order- I'd teach YW during first hour and then we'd have the Sacrament during third hour. All of which made my family rather suspicious that something would happen. I figured we'd either be getting a real branch president (we've been without one for a few months, with a member of the stake presidency filling in) or the branch would be closed. I guess I got my answer today.

After the Sacrament, President Miller made the announcement. I'm sure it was not an easy decision or an easy statement to have to say- he used to attend the branch and loved it. He said that like seven years ago, a visiting general authority had said that our stake couldn't support so many (9 at the time) units. I guess I should be thankful that we lasted this long, and weren't disbanded years ago. Another branch was disbanded right before we moved out here, so we always knew it was a possibility. Today, the only other branch besides us was disbanded as well.

After the announcement, we were asked to raise our right hands to sustain the decision, and I tell you that that was probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. But I did it. After that, he answered questions and we sang "Because I Have Been Given Much" (with me leading the music) and after the meeting was over, we hugged and cried and then cleaned out personal items from the building. Tomorrow the building will be re-keyed, so it was urgent to get our things. I had added quite a lot of things to the YW room over the years, and what with Mom and my sister also being RS and Primary presidents, there was a lot of stuff to take home. It would have been easy to be dishonest and take things that didn't really belong to me, but I resisted. It was sad having to clean out the YW room. 

Our branch members have been divided between four wards. Everyone will have to drive quite aways to get to their new ward. We will now have to drive an hour to get to our new ward. Some of my friends, upon hearing the news, were excited that I'd now be attending a ward, but the truth is that our new place is also struggling very much, despite being a "ward." They have low attendance (not much larger than our branch), problems having enough Priesthood members and no active YW. I am sure they are excited for the handful of us now going to this ward.

The aftermath has been interesting, seeing who was surprised, and who wasn't. I've been worrying about this for like the last year and a half, so today was disappointing but not unexpected, though I didn't think it would happen this soon. I figured it would happen when the several elderly people in our branch passed away. Some people didn't understand why, others who weren't there today asked me when exactly it was going to happen, as if it was scheduled on the calendar. Some were very shocked, even though they attend fairly regularly.

Today's experiences has made me think of Christ's Second Coming- we know he is coming and we know of the signs, but we don't know when it will happen. And we will all see the same signs and some will recognize the signs and some won't. Those of us who study and pay attention will be observant to the signs and it will not be a surprise. 

Life brings trials and this is no different. Being in a small branch had its challenges. Now we have different challenges. Will we still be obedient and faithful? Will we resist anger and judgement and disappointment? Will we choose to embrace our new path and be happy?

I'm reminded of an experience on my mission, many moons ago. Towards the end of my mission, we were losing sister missionaries and not getting replacements. Other sister areas had been handed over to elders as we got fewer and fewer in number. My companion and I were asked to add another companion, hers had gone home. For about two weeks, the three of us covered both her area and ours. And then we were told to leave our area and serve full time in the new area. We respectfully begged to continue to have both areas, but it was not to be. It was very hard to obey and to be cheerful about it, but we did as asked. Our area went to the elders and we stayed full time in the new area. It was a challenge, but I was glad to have met it. It was a lesson in having faith in God and in our leaders. 

It's hard not to feel bad. Did I give it my all? I especially feel bad for the elderly people in our branch, they were the pioneers of the area. They used to attend church in Erie and here and there in rented spaces, and then they finally got a building in Corry and now to see this happen. 

Well, Corry Branch, thank you for five good years. Thank you for showing us love and kindness. Thank you for good friends. Thank you for wonderful experiences. Thank you for growth. Thank you for 4 sweet years in YW. When Dad was scouting out places to live, he wanted to attend the branch. At first I resisted, but it turned out to be a good growth opportunity for me as well as my family. 

When the YW room was done being cleaned out, I shut the door and said a little prayer of thanks.

My YW room, several people told me it was their favorite room in the building. 

No more branch dinners in the chapel?

Our sweet little building, we'll miss you. 

We'll see what life has in store for us in our new unit. I'm sad to be released from YW and intrigued to see what new calling I receive. I'm glad I was able to bear my testimony a week ago on Fast Sunday- I didn't know that would be my last opportunity here.

Into each life a little rain must fall. Life goes on, I guess... 

Our Easter

How was your Easter? Hope it was wonderful. I had a really lovely weekend.

Saturday night my mom and sister and I dyed Easter eggs- normally Dad is in charge of this, but he's still in CA. Mom and I had to figure out how to do the dye!

We did our traditional eggs dyed with onion skins- they turned out dark and lovely this year!

Usually we're a little more creative with the colored eggs and use crayons and stuff but they still turned out well.  

Here's my three- I had fun layering dyes (I love color theory!)

Lime green= green and then yellow

Purple= pink and then green and then blue

Aqua=yellow and then green and then blue

The gray eggs in the basket were boiled in pickled beet juice, which turned the eggsells grayish (made me think of the goose eggs we used to get when I was a kid!) and they are pink inside!

And the pink goes all the way through!

Mom hid the eggs in the house and my sister and I found them. I love being a big kid!

I somehow had the urge to make a cake this weekend too. 

And like all good Easter eggs, it's chocolate inside. ;)

Church today was very nice. I am our branch chorister, so it was fun to pick out some lovely Easter hymns to sing. We had a lot of people attend today- 43 is pretty good for our little branch! It was so nice to have people visit, and some of my favorite little kids showed up today and it made me very happy. We had some nice talks and the Spirit was strong. I wound up drawing an olive tree on the blackboard for the Sunday School teacher- nice to know my years of art school were good for something! I had a nice YW lesson with my girl about the priesthood.

After we got home, we had our egg hunt and munched some eggs (after playing "points and butts"!) and chocolate (the Easter bunny was good to me and brought me several Cadbury eggs!) and I got a nice nap. We had a roast with potatoes, onions and carrots, it cracked me up to be eating bunny food today! I heard that my mom's cousin is also keeping the "points and butts" tradition alive with his little kids, that's great. Did some research with Mom and found out that that game came from my great great grandparents who were German Swiss. Fierce Easter egg competition is in our genes!

The only thing that would have made today better would be for my Dad to be with us.  I miss him. He sent me a really funny Easter card, it was very sweet of him to do since I know he's very busy. This Easter has had more meaning for me, what with my grandmothers and all. I'm so thankful for the gift of our Savior and what he did for us. He lives, and because He love, I can live in love with my family. Death has no sting.

"Our Savior lived again. The most glorious, comforting, and reassuring of all events of human history had taken place—the victory over death. The pain and agony of Gethsemane and Calvary had been wiped away. The salvation of mankind had been secured. The Fall of Adam had been reclaimed. The empty tomb that first Easter morning was the answer to Job’s question, 'If a man die, shall he live again?' To all within the sound of my voice, I declare, If a man die, he shall live again. We know, for we have the light of revealed truth."

—President Thomas S. Monson

Happy Easter. 

Youth Conference

A few days after I got home from CA it was time to get packed up again and head on up to Palmyra for Youth Conference! It was pretty funny having to unpack just to repack again. Theoretically I wouldn't have had any YW at this- Youth Conference is typically for those 14 and up and I don't have any girls that fall in that age range- but this conference was for all youth because it was taking place in Palmyra and the youth had the opportunity to do baptisms. 

So I had y 12 yr old YW with me and we survived the 3 and a half hour trip up! Friday night started with games for the Under 14 crowd and a dance for those 14+. Yep, life's not fair sometimes, I know those younger kids would have much rather been at the dance than playing silly get to know you games. I can't blame them! So there was a bit of refereeing involved to make sure that kids weren't where they didn't belong.

My YW wasn't interested in what was going on in the gym, and when we went outside for her to get a book she was admiring the beautiful lit up Palmyra temple down the street. We decided to drive over and see it all lit up for ourselves- why not?

We walked around the temple and enjoyed it's beauty- I've never taken photos of it at night and I usually don't see it like this. 

The windows were lit up and glowing so beautiful. My YW really enjoyed the experience and so did I. Temples are beautiful sacred places. Later that evening we had a Q&A session with the Palmyra Temple President (they asked good questions- phew!) and we figured out rides for the next day. Late night by the time that all of that happened- none of us females got to the hotel and to sleep til 12:30 am at the earliest!

The next day, breakfast started at the crack of dawn- 6:30 to be exact! Yeah, basically no sleep that night! We had breakfast and went to our designated areas, I believe we were split in 3 groups to do the tours and baptisms. Our group started off at the Joseph Smith farm. It was cold out and we got snowed on, but it was neat to see the farm and the Sacred Grove in a beautiful dusting of snow. 

Thankfully it warmed up a bit when we headed into the Sacred Grove- if you don't like the weather out here, just wait 5 minutes!

Here you can see the Smith farm barn:

From there we went to the temple- my girl got to do baptisms inside for the first time and it was so neat. She was so excited. I handed out towels. It was so great to see the youth perform these ordinances. 

From there it was our group's turn to go see the Grandin Press, where the Book of Mormon was first published. I've been there a couple of times now, and it still amazes me all the things that "just happened" so that the Book of Mormon could get published (wink wink) and all the work that was involved in making the books. 

I tried to show some different photos than I have in the past of this place- this marked the first time I photographed the Grandin Press with my DSLR so it was nice to get some better photos in the dim light. 

What it might have looked like where the plates were buried:

Our Sr missionary tourguide- she was great and I loved her skirt!

Inside the room where the pages were sewn together:

We ended our trip with a drive up the Hill Cumorah and a quick look at the church bookstore. Fun stuff!

Well it was a good weekend for my YW and a good one for me as well! 

It was very spiritual and very memorable for the both of us. 

We had a very large turnout of youth for this conference, it was great!

Forget Not

I always love the RS Broadcasts, and last Saturday was no exception. The women's talks were lovely and I enjoyed what Sister Allred had to say about charity. I need to find that quote. I was also quite uplifted by Elder Uchtdorf's talk and the symbolism of the Forget Me Not flower. I found myself rushing home to find the images I had taken of the sweet blue flowers by our stream.

And what do you know? Our Forget Me Nots have five petals too.

Forget Not to be patient with yourself.

Forget Not the difference between a good sacrifice and an unnecessary one.

Forget Not to be happy now.

Forget Not the "why" of the gospel.

Forget Not that the Lord loves you.

We all need those reminders, and I did as well. I already loved these sweet little flowers, I associate them with my orange cat who has since passed. Now when I look at them I will have a new reminder that I am of worth and that the Lord loves me. He loves you too.

We are not insignificant, but play a role in Heavenly Father's garden.

We should remember Him, because He doesn't forget about us.

I never was able to figure out what to submit to the Church's International Art Contest, so I submitted this just in time for the deadline. I would have liked to have done an oil painting of the resurrected Christ, but that was not in the works for this contest. I will have to do that on my own sometime.

The gospel is full of symbols, and it's exciting to have a new one.

Sunday Will Come

I thought I was already thankful for the blessings of Heavenly Father and His plan for us. I thought I was already thankful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us.

I was wrong.

Nothing has been happening to me personally, but in a very short span of time there has been a lot of heartache in the lives of those around me.

My friend's father died.
My friend will have a stillborn baby.
My friend's 7 year old son died very suddenly.

On top of all this, there are many who are very sick or needing surgery, including my jr field partner.

Don't even get me started on all the natural disasters that have happened lately. It's heartbreaking.

It's become rather overwhelming, especially when I can't be there to help.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend Gavin's funeral, he was 7 years old. Tomorrow would have been his 8th birthday. I didn't know him very well but I went to his funeral because I am friends with his mother and wanted to support the family in this hard time. His family says that it was just his time to go- he suddenly got sick and had cardiac arrest and then was brain dead and had to be taken off of life support. All totally out of the blue.

His funeral was the best and most touching that I've attended. Our stake president spoke very sweetly about the plan of salvation and eternal families. His father (a bishop) gave the eulogy and Gavin was just an amazing kid. He accomplished so much in his short time. He loved learning and going to school. He was an old soul in a young body. He had an amazing testimony. He was so looking forward to being baptized. Instead, he was buried in his baptismal clothes. So many touching and humorous stories.

The Primary children, including his two older brothers, sang "My Life Is A Gift". So sweet and touching. Another tender moment was watching Gavin's little cousin pat the coffin on the way up to the stand to sing.

Gavin was taken to the grave site in an antique firetruck, driven by a friend in the stake. He once got to ride that firetruck in a parade. I thought it was a sweet way to go. They also printed his testimony and put it in Books of Mormon to give out at the funeral to those who are not as familiar with our faith. It was nice to see that a lot were taken. A lot of people from his school came to the funeral, which was very sweet.

Gavin's tragedy gives several people the gift of life through organ donation. It's really a miracle that he could donate because he had cardiac arrest but when they tested his heart it showed no signs of damage. It went to a little girl who was going to die within a week if she did not receive a heart.

They say the only real tragedy is not death, but sin- it's hard for us to understand why Gavin was taken so young but we can rejoice that he was and is clean and perfect, and being a little child, he is without sin. He has been taken home to God.

Gavin did serve a mission- he touched many lives while on this earth and even in death he helped strengthen testimonies and share the gospel. I know that my testimony has been strengthened by attending his sweet funeral. I would not have been surprised if there were angels there in attendance. Gavin, thank you for being a force for good on this earth.

"Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.


But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come.


No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come."

-Joseph B. Wirthlin




I know that Jesus suffered for our sins so that we can through Him turn our hearts and repent of our sins and return to live with Heavenly Father. I know that Jesus willingly gave up His life and was resurrected so that we too can have the glorious gift of resurrection. His sacrifice makes it possible for us to live together forever as families and I am so thankful for the gift of our Savior and the peace that He brings. Someday Gavin and his family will be reunited in the eternities. Someday I will be reunited with the loved ones that I have lost. I am so thankful for temples and eternal families.

I am so very excited for Easter this year- while I do love chocolate, I am very excited to remember and celebrate what Jesus did for us. We celebrate Christmas because there was an Easter. Gavin's birthday falls on Good Friday this year, and I don't think that is a coincidence.

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter.

Elder Scott

February 18th and 19th was a super duper busy weekend.

For starters, there was Snow Conference for the youth:

 It's a yurt!

I was all set to have one of my girls attend, and then when I went to pick her up she bailed- she was sick. I sat in her driveway- what to do? Should I still go even if I didn't have any youth going? I was pretty tempted not to go- the prospect of sleeping in (and not in a room of chatty teenage girls) was looking really good. Really good.

But I decided to go anyhow. I'd said I was going and didn't really have a way to contact them. Plus I enjoy myself at these things. And my friends would be there. It was pretty mild weather, our snow was melting.

Snow Conference turned out great. It's always nice to be places where you can feel the spirit. The kids had a dance Friday night (one boy asked my 19 yr old YSA friend to dance and was mortified to find out she was a chaperone! What a cougar, lol.). My friend Kaitlyn and I found ourselves talking to another leader I'd never met before. She was my age, married a younger man a couple years ago. She said to us "Oh, does this take you back?" and I was like, "Um, we're YSA- we've never left! We go to dances every other month or so and they aren't much different then this!". It was funny. Yeah most people my age don't go to YSA dances. Ha ha.

After not getting much sleep (chatty girls and 8am breakfast) we had classes on Saturday. We rotated through 6 classes in three spots- the girls cabin, and two yurts. I've seen yurts at home shows before, they're fun. Good classes- anytime you get to watch a clip of the Cosby show for a church lesson, it's great.

Overnight we got snow- and the temp had totally dropped. Good thing I brought my big coat and ice cleats!

I left after lunch and jetted about 3 hours in the snow and wind up to Palmyra because....

...Elder Scott was speaking in person to the YSA!

I found myself changing into dress clothes at the Palmyra McD's. I am getting talented at that.

It was, of course, a great meeting.

Elder Jay Jensen of the Seventy was also there in attendance. The YSA choir was actually really good. And I found it interesting that Elder Scott got up and stood to the side up on the stand so that he could properly watch the choir instead of just staying in his chair like everyone else up there. What a sweet man.

Elder Jensen spoke first and it was a really nice talk. He talked about how we are duel beings with a spirit and body. When God gives us revelation, he sends it to our spirits to direct our bodies. When Satan tries to tempt us, he sends those messages to our bodies in an attempt to enslave our spirits. He said that we surely had lessons before we came to earth- and the most important topics in that "class manual" were 1)The Atonement and 2) the family. He encouraged us to be a covenant Israel.

Then Elder Scott spoke. Would you believe that he has a sense of humor? He was sweet and funny that evening. He said we all needed a sense of humor in life. Would you believe that he wound up in a police station twice while dating his future wife? How funny is that? One time he passed a police car on the wrong side, another time they had car problems and a cop picked them up. And then he said "And she still married me." He was so sweet about his wife, he misses her.

Yes, you can imagine a lot of the evening was about dating and marriage. All good stuff. He talked about hard times- he and his wife lost a little boy due to a heart defect.

He said some words that I needed to hear- I've been worrying lately about what I'm going to do after I graduate- and of course I want it all laid out for me easy peasy. Well, he gave a reminder that that's not how it works, we go one step at a time. We can have a happy life, we have to put our faith in the Lord. I swear he was talking only to me when he said all that.

He also had a question and answer session. Some good questions were asked, some I kindof had to roll my eyes at. It was interesting to hear his responses. One girl asked about the disparity in the number of worthy men vs the number of worthy women in the church- what are us girls to do? It was interesting for a General Authority to come out and say that a lot of the women's opportunities for marriage depends on the choices that the men make- that they need to be making good choices. I don't know if I've heard men get called on the carpet like that before.

I really wanted to ask a question, but didn't have the opportunity. I wanted to ask for advice for those of us who are soon leaving the YSA program due to age. I also wanted to ask what the church is doing for those of us in this age demographic- I can't help but feel shunned or put out to pasture at times.

When he ended the meeting, he invoked several blessings upon the congregation, it was very special to be a part of that and hear such sweet words come out of his mouth. He invoked a blessing that  we would have protection from being manipulated by Satan. He invoked a blessing that we would be able to identify the boundaries in which happiness can be obtained.

And he invoked a special blessing on us sisters in the audience- that we can feel the Savior's love in our lives and have peace and guidance in our lives.

Don't rationalize happiness away.

I drove home in a windstorm and didn't get home til 2 am! And somehow I made it to church the next morning. I was Zombie Liz, but I was there.

I was so glad for a nap.

Pre-Christmas Fun

I know it’s late showing these pictures, but I managed to squeak in some fun in December even though I was super busy with ending this semester.

Mom and Pop weren’t up for it, but Laura and I went and had fun in Corry (our neighboring town) on their Christmas celebration night early in December. In past years, the branch dinner is on the same night so we’ve never gotten to participate until this year. The park is lit up all month, but only on this night do they set up the luminaries, which were lovely.

The little downtown area is open late, and I had fun wandering antique stores and the local quilt shop. And Laura and I got to ride in a wagon pulled by big draft horses! It was cold but fun. It was snowing big fat flakes for most of the night. The local radio station was playing Christmas music outside, everything was very merry. Laura and I often butt heads, so it was good to have some bonding time.

Later in the month, our YSA group had an outing to Kirtland to see the lights and nativities at the church’s visitor’s center. We had 5 YSA and two of our advisor couples attend and we had a fun time. I had heard last year that the visitors center did this, but wasn’t able to go. I’m glad I got to go this year; it was a lot of fun to see the lights and all the amazing nativities. Two of the people that attended hadn't been to Kirtland before, so it was neat to be with them on the tour (gotta love sister missionaries!). One sister missionary was all interested in the camera strap cover that I'd made.
 

Large nativity statues outside (like the ones at the temples):

 In the little schoolhouse was a display of a whole bunch of nativities from all around the world, those were neat to see as well:

Can you believe that a teenager carved this from wood? It was amazing.

 I liked this copper tree with nativity stamps hanging off of it, I may need to make my own version someday:

This display of the Savior's life was neat:



There were hundreds of amazing ones, framed nativity Christmas cards, and upstairs there was a tall fake flocked tree with all white nativity ornaments on it, vey lovely. I may have to steal that idea.

Mom, being RS president, was in charge of the Christmas dinner. She opted for real tableclothes, plates, glasses and silverware, which meant some additional cleanup but looked nice. She made the greenery centerpieces using her silver bowl collection and stuck in some pinecones and glass ball ornaments that I owned. It was the first time the Corry branch had used real stuff for a dinner since we've been around and we got a lot of good feedback on it. I think it helped people feel special.

I designed my Christmas card in Photoshop and used my oranment painting from last year. Told you to act surprised! I got a good deal. Once again, not much is new with me on paper so I just wanted something to wish people Merry Christmas on.

I like how the back turned out:

December was busy as always, but fun!

Hope you had a good one too.