Do you remember...I didn't.

So this weekend I reviewed the Conference opening address given by President Monson and also his closing remarks...I was reminded of what he had asked us as a church to do. My question is how many of you remembered...?

Opening remarks... (quoting President Monson)

"As did President Spencer W. Kimball over 32 years ago, I urge you to pray for the opening of those areas, that we might share with them the joy of the gospel. As we prayed then in response to President Kimball’s pleadings, we saw miracles unfold as country after country, formerly closed to the Church, was opened. Such will transpire again as we pray with faith."

Closing remarks... (quoting President Monson)

"May we long remember what we have heard during this general conference. The messages which have been given will be printed in next month’s Ensign and Liahona magazines. I urge you to study them and to ponder their teachings."

"There are those throughout the world who are hungry; there are those who are destitute. Working together, we can alleviate suffering and provide for those in need. In addition to the service you give as you care for one another, your contributions to the funds of the Church enable us to respond almost immediately when disasters occur anywhere in the world. We are nearly always among the first on the scene to provide whatever assistance we can. We thank you for your generosity.
There are other difficulties in the lives of some. Particularly among the young, there are those who are tragically involved in such things as drugs, immorality, gangs, and all the serious problems that go with them. In addition, there are those who are lonely, including widows and widowers, who long for the company and the concern of others. May we ever be mindful of the needs of those around us and be ready to extend a helping hand and a loving heart."

I was resolved to do all of this when conference was over...but I have to admit I have not been as good as I had hoped. Luckily I still have my Ensign and there is still time until the next conference to study. I plan to do just that.

Educational Weekend…

This last weekend I was down in Tucson visiting a couple of educational sites. First thing we went to the Titan Missile Museum (http://www.titanmissilemuseum.org/) it is the only one of 54 missiles that the US had during the Cold War that is still intact. Actually the missile during that time is no longer there but they have a training missile that was never fueled that is housed at the museum. A few highlights were walking through the crew area, the missile launch simulation and the facts that I learned. Top speed of the missile was 13,000 miles an hour, and within 2 minutes of being launched the missile was 47 miles straight up. Fascinating.

After viewing the missile we went over to the Pima Air museum (http://www.pimaair.org/) there we saw many historic and modern planes…B-17, B-24, B-25, F-14, F-15, just to name a few. You are even able to walk through one of the old Air Force One planes, which Kennedy flew on. They have a black bird, fastest plane ever built (it has no defense system because it could out run any missile that was shot at it), and many other planes. I do however recommend taking the 1 hour tram ride, the driver will give you a good back ground on all of the planes that are there then you can walk around and view after and know what you are looking at or what you want to look at. After the tram ride I knew that I wanted to go in to the Space hanger and see the piece of moon rock that they have there…about the size of ½ a peanut, but still it was from the moon!

A few complaints...then I will stop

OK so 2009 has been interesting so far...2 complaints is all.

1 - On Monday morning I tried to make a deposit in the bank...the ATM froze and wouldn't let me complete the deposit or get my card back. After calling the 800 number I had to cancel all ATM cards since there was one in the machine with my pin number all keyed in. Now I am still trying to find time to make it to the bank to complete my deposit.

2 - This morning as I was leaving for work I walked into the garage and the ceiling (below the upstairs bathroom) was leaking and dripped right on my head. Good thing I have a cousin who is a general contractor and he is on his way over this morning to check it out!

...I am done now~

In true form...

Well...my last post was titled time flies. And as a matter of fact it does! Seems like I just posted that and in reality it was over a month ago!!

OK so let me see if I can catch up - a little

I love Christmas and the Christmas season, all of the lights and decorations, the music and spending time with family and friends. But mostly I love the way that everyone seems to turn their hearts outward instead of inward. There are so many people and so many things that we can do all year and it seems as though our society makes it easy to ignore that all year long until December and then we try really really hard to catch up on being kind to our fellow men. But either way I love December for all that it is.

I don't normally set New Years Resolutions - mainly because I know they will not get done. I generally set goals as needed all year long instead. But since it is so close to the beginning of the year I am going set a goal ~ not to be confused with a resolution :-)

As I was thinking about the wonderful feeling of December and how wonderful it feels, I was thinking that I would set a goal to keep the "fire" of December alive all year long. I would love to have anyone reading this to try the same. Try to constantly be thinking of others and what we can do to make them happy. To keep the outward thinking and shed the inward. As I go throughout the year I will try to touch back on this topic and let you know how things are going. In the meantime Matthew 25:40 - And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Time Flies!!!

So I was getting ready to go visiting teaching tonight and I was reading through the conference talk given by President Monson. I talked about it in my last posting. Anyway there was a quote today that I find very fitting that I want to blog about. First check out these pictures...

The one on the top is a picture of me when I was about 2. My mother made the Halloween costume. The one on the bottom is my nephew "D" this last month at Halloween. Yes he is wearing the exact same outfit that I wore nearly 30 years ago.

I don't have children...but I can attest to how quickly life passes...so I think that we can all relate to the following quote from President Monson "If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will - to your surprise - miss them profoundly."

After finding this picture of me tonight I thought how fast time must have flown by for my mother. So really this post is for her benefit...Enjoy Mom!

I want to be like you~

For all of those who are truly young at heart!

So I have been told over the years that I have very young parents. Well...they are, but in more ways than just the year that they were born. I mean just look at them! This picture is actually just under 2 years ago, but they were in Hawaii livin' it up touring the island on a Harley. Not a place that you would generally find your parents, but what a great model to follow.

I say don't think you are too old (unless otherwise advised by a medical doctor) to get on out there and live your life. Make every moment count. It makes me think about this past General Conference when President Monson spoke on Sunday morning encouraging us all to enjoy the journey (talk can be found on http://www.lds.org/).