Monday, May 14, 2012

Mama Rika Update


I thought it was time for a little disclaimer again... Disclaimer.. It is still my plan to get back to writing about various topics.  When that finally happens, you will notice a difference since all of my blog characters (that are me) will regularly take turns writing about education, family stuff, music, cooking, silly things, sports and other miscellaneous things.  I shall not attempt to give you a time frame as to when this may happen.  Please feel free to read what interests  you on the blog and disregard the rest.  My feelings will not be hurt if you don't read every word I write.  LOL :) 

Mini Family Update...
On Mother's Day we got to have all ten of us together.  Well, sort of.  I guess we could say all our sound waves mingled in one room.  Patchy, Nan and Bub all called the house at once and the other seven of us sat huddled around all the phones and had a nice chat.  Love Bug even put in his two cents worth.  

Mini Product Update...
A special sale is going on from now until June 1st!  You can get the game Storyoni for about 25% off!  Regular price for this product is $3.99.  If you click on the following link (not the picture) you can get it for only $2.99!  

Storyoni
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Description:

We have a hard time getting the family to quit playing this game! Sometimes we all get laughing so hard that tears are shed. Storyoni is hilarious, great fun! This is a game you can play with people of all ages. Anyone with an imagination and the ability to speak and/or write can play! {Writing down things preschoolers say can enhance the game with more laughs.}  (Suggested age range is from 2 to 100+)

Teenagers love this game as well. It can even be a great party game. You can really get a look into the minds of your fellow players. It can also be used as a getting-to-know-you type of game.


Regular Missionary Update...

So it was great to hear from all of ya! I really enjoyed the time we had to talk. Sorry I don't have a voice recording for this week, but I figured it wouldn't be too big of a deal since since we talked for a while before. Here's my week this week.
 
Monday:
 
We had another over-the-phone lesson with K. She agreed finally to meet with us in person later on in the week.
 
Tuesday:
 
Had a Zone Conference basically all day. It was awesome! We talked about a myriad of different things,  but one of the coolest things we talked about was on the Positiveness of Repentance. President Pitt pointed out how, far too often, we associate repentance with pain and sorrow, the negative aspects tend to be highlighted more than the positive. But he showed us how we needed to change our thinking and make repentance a positive thing in our own minds. Repentance is really nothing more than changing to be more like Christ. We are improving our lives and ourselves for the better whenever we repent. It was a really great lesson on Repentance. I can't really do it justice over email though, It was much better when President Pitt presented it.
 
The Zone conference was really, really great as always.
 
Later that day, I also read a really cool talk by Brad Wilcox on grace vs. works. It interested me especially since that is a really prominent topic around here. In his talk, Bro. Wilcox relates grace to a Mother paying for her child's piano lessons. The mother never expects the child to pay her back for her generous deed, nor does the child have the capacity to do so. The child is only encouraged by the mother to practice and learn to play the piano. She doesn't expect perfection right away, nor would it be reasonable to do so. The only thing the Mother wants for her child is that they utilize the gift they've been given and practice. 
 
Christ, like the Mother, has paid for us. Rather than paying for piano lessons, he is paying for life lessons. He has given us a time period to learn and grow on this earth and to work at becoming like him. He doesn't ask us to immediately be able to perform at Carnegie hall, but he expects us to practice until we can. That way, when we had our grand recital in the next life, we'll be able to perform to our best capacity.  We are saved by grace because Christ paid the price, now he expects us to use the gift he's given us. We utilize that gift by "practicing" what he's asked us to do, or in other words by doing works.
 
It was a cool way to think of it that I never had thought of before.
 
Wednesday:
 
We helped a member with a desk she was trying to set up. There's a lot of service opportunities out here.
 
Thursday;
 
Normally we would have our weekly planning on Thursday, but that just didn't happen. We had appointments booked literally all day, and never got around to it. I guess if the biggest problem we run into is having too many people to see, then I guess we're doing quite well. It's a good problem to have.
 
Friday;
 
We were pretty booked with appointments all day on Friday as well. We taught K in person for the first time, rather than over the phone. The lesson was probably one of the least effective ones we've had as a companionship. We just went about things the wrong way even from the beginning. We'll study back through Preach My Gospel and see what things will help us improve. The rest of the day went pretty well.
 
Saturday;
 
Most of the morning was spent helping some investigators with their new trailer. My shorts almost got stuck to the floor from the linoleum glue. That would've been embarrassing. Thankfully we didn't have any major problems.
 
Sunday:
 
Mother's Day! YES! In church, we had a special musical number and I was the soloist with the choir backing me up. We sang 'Joseph's First Prayer" Hymn 26, but to the tune of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing". It ended up going really well.
 
Afterwards, we went to Rod's house, and he let us use his phone to call home. It was great to hear from the family! It's weird to hear the different things that are going on. Voice changes, youngins talking, people moving, different jobs, good golf games, family missionary work, There were a lot of changes. It was a great!
 
 
Love ya!

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