Laurel Advisor

Aug. 29, 2016

Dear Sister Kristina,

Well, I taught my first lessons to the Laurels yesterday so I guess I’m officially a part of the Young Women’s program. I was a little nervous because I really didn’t know what to expect from a room full of girls that I don’t know very well. There are 17 Laurels on the rolls now and 16 regularly come. That’s quite a room full. I was worried that I might find myself focusing all my comments towards Leah, but that wasn’t the case at all, so I was really happy. I’m excited to get to know the girls. My lesson was on how men and women complement each other in their roles in the family. Most of them thought I had spelled the word wrong on the board so I was happy to introduce a new word to them. Here’s what google says it means “a thing that competes or brings to perfection. Add to in a way that enhances or improves it; make perfect.”

We had a nice discussion on how we as women should complement the man we marry and how he will do the same for us and that’s what makes an awesome marriage. I talked about how our different roles are part of Heavenly Father’s divine design and it was not by mistake that He made man and woman and made them differently. I came up with a phrase:

Different roles, same goals. My main point was that if we are each putting Heavenly Father first in our lives, then we will be able to deal with any other challenges, trials or obstacles that come into the marriage. Heavenly Father will help us see each other through His eyes and those eyes are always filled with unconditional love. I also had a couple come in and talk about how their different roles have complemented each other in their marriage. They did a great job. Here’s kind of what my handout looked like, but not quite as cute, haha Sarah and I actually taught the exact same lesson yesterday so it was fun exchanging ideas with her.

After the lesson Allie Peery asked me for a quote that I had given from grandpa. I shared an article that was written about them in the Orange County Register back in 2004 when grandma was just diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Here’s the picture that was in the paper:

Here’s the quote from my dad when they asked him how they felt about this challenge that was in their lives: “Actually, we don’t think much about it. We’ve always lived our life on a philosophy that yesterday is past and there’s nothing we can do about it, today is here and there’s a lot we can do about it, and tomorrow has too many uncertainties to worry about it.”

Also yesterday was Ren and Abbey Hansen’s farewell. They both sound so ready to go and it’s great that they get to leave together. Ren is going to Arkansas and Abbey is going to Texas, Spanish speaking. There was quite a crowd of friends at church. Also one of the sister missionaries in our ward sang “I Believe in Christ” and it was beautiful. She is leaving to go back home in 1 1/2 weeks and near the end of the song, she became very emotional. The spirit was strong. 

We had the sisters over for dinner last week. Dad was at work and I thought I had to cancel our appt, then remembered I could have sister missionaries over!! Yippee. We tried a new recipe that Nikki had had while in California. It’s now one of our favorites and we even had it again yesterday. It’s called Diablo Chicken. It’s kind of a sweet curry chicken. Yum One of the missionaries (on the right) even asked for the recipe so she could make it when she got home. :)

Last night we went to the Rhoton’s for a get together for their son, Mitch, who’s leaving on his mission. They were in the 9th ward, but now in the 1st ward. Dr. Rhoton is Leah counselor, so we are getting to know him and his family quite well now. Found out last night that his wife is an avid quilter, so now I have a new friend. You should see her quilt room. I have a little quilt room envy. The girls even think I should redo my room. She takes her girls on this sewing retreat in June to Cascade where they stay in a hotel, swim, eat, sew, repeat for a couple days and they want us girls to come with them next year. It was also fun seeing so many from the 1st ward last night that I haven’t seen in a while.

The girls both wanted to wear lava lava's to church and Leah even took her fan. We noticed when we go to the Samoan ward in Utah, a lot of the ladies carry fans.

Haylee had a big week. She started rolling over and she’s not even 3 months old yet. Not only did she roll over on her own, but then she rolled right back over and repeated it over and over. Kirk says she can roll all across the room. I’ll have them send you the video. Here’s a pic they sent me this week too:

Oh man I miss having her here and holding her!! I don’t get to see her again until October.

You’ll laugh at this, but I’ve made a new deal with the girls to try and get them out of bed in the mornings on their own. The deal is they have to be up on their own without my help and upstairs ready to go by 6:40am or else they have to go to one class of Taekwondo for each time they don’t do that. Leah has stopped going to Taekwondo, refused to go in fact. It’s mainly because she has been out of it so long with her broken leg and now weight gain that it’s extremely difficult and not fun for her. Nikki now doesn’t like to go because Leah isn’t there, but I’ve insisted with Nikki that she go 2 times a week. So if they don’t get up on their own, Nikki will go 3 times in one week and Leah will have to go to a class. They have miraculously been up on their own ever since!! I told them that either they will learn how to get themselves up in the morning or they will be a blackbelt in taekwondo, either way its a win/win situation. They were not happy about it, but it’s working for now.

Leah has been sticking with her new exercise goal. Dr. Rhoton is helping her ramp it up and makes her report in after she’s done. Last night Dr. Rhoton got Nikki to commit to going to Taekwondo 3 times a week and exercising with Leah. I don’t know how he does it, but I love it. They both want to start playing rugby in the spring, so they have a lot of work to do. Not only is Dr. Rhoton a double blackbelt, but he’s a huge fan of rugby because his son Mitch played for 4 years and he has 6 adopted kids. It is not just by chance that he is in our lives.

I got a fun text from Michelle Ray last night that she had just face timed you!! I told her I was jealous, but so happy that you’re able to feel at home in your new ward. If her sister is anything like her, you probably had a fun dinner. Can’t wait to hear about your week.

We had our home teachers over yesterday (Ken Tanner and Dave Pattee) and they left us with a nice message. I really liked one part of it so I’ll leave that with you. When I was in RS and working with the women I could see that so many were worried about how their families would be together forever when members of their families were making poor choices in life. Here’s the quote from Pres. Eyring:

"For some, that eternal joy may seem a faint or even a fading hope. Parents, children, brothers and sisters may have made choices that seem to disqualify them from eternal life. You may even wonder whether you have yet been qualified through the atonement of Jesus Christ. A prophet of God once offered me counsel that gives me peace. I was worried that the choices of others might make it impossible for our family to be together forever. He said, “You are worrying about the wrong problem. You just live worthy of the celestial kingdom and the family arrangements will be more wonderful than you can imagine.” 

I loved hearing that yesterday. It’s such a great message of hope and love and I appreciated home teachers being there to share it with us. I’m going visit teaching today and I think I will share that same message.

I hope you have a week of thoughts of the Savior as you are His hands and mouthpiece to the people you come in contact with.

Love you forever,

Mom xxoo