Let Us All Press On

I love Hymns, and they work so well for blog Titles.  :)

Mary is recovering slowly but surely from her car accident.

Joseph and I went down to Utah this past week.  I went down for the Healer's Blueprint Workshop, which was really great.  I'm so glad I went!  I have a whole new set of tools to work with and I am so excited to get to work.  We stayed at Josh and Rachel's and had a great time talking with them.  Harper thought Joseph was snuggle material.

I am now almost as cool as Rachel!

Joseph got to visit his old mission hangouts in Ogden.

And one night he went to a reunion with his MTC District.  Fun!

He so got to hang out with two of his favorite mission buddies, Evan and Beans.

Joseph and I thoroughly enjoyed a session at the Salt Lake Temple!

 Wow - it is amazing to be there.

They had 80 weddings that day, and we got to witness a lot of them sitting together in the Celestial Room, waiting to be called to the Sealing Room.  It was really something!  Joseph handled it pretty well.  Jesse would have lasted 5 minutes and been done, if that long!  Ha ha!  I was filled with joy at the wonder of what we now enjoy in Temples and what lies ahead.  In the ceiling of the Celestial Room, there is a border all around the ceiling of grapes and flowers.  The scriptures are full of the promises of the feast that the Lord has prepared for us.  And he gives us even now, enough and to spare.  When we see his hand in all things, we are more able to leave all things in his hands.

I gave a Gospel Doctrine lesson today on Acts 1-5, and we talked about the early saints and how they were blessed with the Holy Ghost, and having all things in common and worshiping together in fellowship.  I had a wonderful witness of the fact that more than just history, these chapters are prophecy for us - a vision about what is ahead for us.  It was so powerful when I was studying the lesson.  We will go through tribulations, and yet the Spirit of the Lord will be poured out upon us, and we will worship together and be happy!

Bruce did all sorts of productive things while I was gone.  He found a recipe for beef jerkey, and he made some!  It tastes great, and we vacuum sealed it and stored it away for future use.  That will be a true blessing in time of need.  He also built a stanchion for Lilly, our goat, so Libby could milk her.  They milked her once, and got about 1/3 of a cup!  We will work on that and build up production.

Peter made the JV Boys Soccer team!  It was a grueling try out, and he was limping around with sore muscles (even with OrthoSport!), but he pushed through and made it!  He starts practices this week.

And school!  Peter and Libby start school this week too!  Goodness gracious where has the summer gone?  I am quite surprised by that fact.  But it's all good.  They are excited to get going!

On Tuesday night, Joseph came in and said, "Have you seen Mordor over there?"  Earlier in the day, we had seen smoke filling the western sky, and I assumed it was a fire over in the mountains west of us, but I had no idea it was so huge.  We went up on the roof and you could SEE it, miles and miles away, a huge wall of fire and smoke on the ridge of the mountains.  It was really something to see.

Idaho now has 12 fires going.

I posted today on FB to pray for Idaho Firefighters.  When Joseph and I drove home, from the border all the way home, there was haze and smoke in the sky like I've never seen it before.

The fires came within 1/2 mile of Nic's home, and we're so grateful he's safe.

Mary, Nic and Becca.