Tru Wuv

Of this be sure, you do not find the happy life, you make it.  Thomas S. Monson

The night he asked...

The engagement pictures...

"This is true love.  You think this happens every day?"  Westley- The Princess Bride

"True love is the greatest thing in the world, except for a nice MLT, mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich when the mutton is nice and lean, and the tomato is ripe."  Miracle Max- The Princess Bride

March 30 Brandi hosted a darling bridal shower for AmberLee Anderson- who was engaged to marry our grandson Josh.  We had the most wonderful "lemon" themed shower and AmberLee was darling and got so many fabulous gift to start off their new life together!   Here's a picture of just our side of the family-

We had flavored lemonades, salad with a lemon vinegrette, lemon bars and....Texas Sheetcake (because both of them served missions in Texas!)

The marriage-

"Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us together today. Mawage, that blesed awangement, that dweam wifin a dweam. And wuz, tru wuv, will fowow you foweva. So tweasure your wuv."  The Clergyman- Princess Bride

from my Facebook post- Married on April 2, 2021

 I remember when I was young and would try and cut out my first Valentines, free-hand. The edges were always out of sync- one side lopsided, the other side ballooned. Love can be that way sometimes. But how much easier, when you fold the paper in two, and cut both sides together. When the core is the same, how beautiful the result.

Yesterday we got to experience the first marriage of one of our grandkids! How I love Josh and am so happy that his bride, AmberLee- has his same beautiful, gentle and spiritual core. May they have a lifetime of joy! Josh Williams, we love you so much! You are such an outstanding young man and we welcome AmberLee into our hearts!

Missionary Boy

I just wanted to post a couple of portions of Joshua's letters from his mission.  It's hard.  It's crazy!  He bikes in the scalding heat about 40 miles a day.  Of course he gets called names, life threats, things thrown at him, crazy preachers in the park damning him to hell, etc.  But Josh is loving his mission.  He's an amazing boy and we love him so much!

First of all, I love how creative he is with his letter titles;

18 year old boy in dress clothes rides a bike in the hot sun
and

World's sketchiest bano, zucchini and baptisms :)
and

Tamales, Jesse and Catholics
 

Here are a few pictures with his companion, Elder Peterson from Morgan, Ut. and others-  He's such a beautiful boy!

_{So what had happened - my comp was on the phone and we had just finished teaching a dude (Luis from Cuba, who has disappeared😐) and Elton was driving by in his car, saw us and freaked out, waved me over and started saying "I know you guys, I know you guys!" And told me this long story about meeting with the missionaries in Zimbabwe, leaving Zimbabwe to work here, his family that is still in Zimbabwe, trying to find the missionaries here in Dallas, trying to quit drinking, how that was the only reason he wasn't baptized already, long addiction battle story, and a lot of repeating things he already said, SUPER enthusiastic and happy the whole time😄. We got his info and everything, and then he drove off. Elder Peterson came over halfway through and afterwards told me he didn't understand any of what Elton said. And Elton couldn't understand any of what E Peterson said. But they could both understand me and I could understand them just fine. It was weird. I'm used to translating for people, but this was different, 1- it wasn't Spanish-English, and 2- I was only speaking one language as far as I know but they could both (E Peterson and Elton) understood me. I suppose it's possible that Elton just has a really really thick Zimbabwean accent and I'm good at perceiving what accented English speakers are saying but that doesn't explain why Elton couldn't understand E Peterson when he would speak. And since I believe in miracles, I happen to think God gave me the "gift of tongues" so that we could communicate with his son Elton. It was really cool😊}

 

_{So, last week we had BUCKETS of blessings and found lots of awesome people to teach, this week we got to teach them, and we got to teach the Chavez family, again! There were some new family members present who wanted to listen to our message so we re-shared the restoration with them and it was better this time(we weren't soaking wet and freezing and could better express ourselves). (my note:  last week, it was pouring rain when the boys first biked to meet with the Chavez's.  They gave the boys towels to dry off with but they were still freezing and chattering!  )   We gave them a few more Books of Mormon and talked with them about missionary life, our church, Guatemala and other stuff for a very long time, basically just got to know each other some more, and Aydee (grandma Chavez-Lopez) made us the piña drink she made the first time we met them, inspired by and using the pineapple we bought them and showed up to our lesson with;) They invited us to eat dinner with them but it was like 8:50 and we still needed to bike a good ways home, so we asked if we could next time, they said absolutely, AND Aydee sent us home with a bunch of homemade tamales. We had them for breakfast the next day and I almost cried I was so happy. It was, in a very special way, just like Christmas:) I have never felt so much at home than with their family and eating those heavenly tamales. I love that family with all my heart. Also, Lorenzo, grandpa of the fam, was a sustainable ag farmer back in Guate, so we really get along well😁 (my note: what Josh wants to be when he grows up! lol)}

 

_{Tamales really are like a sweet God wink to him and were a special part of his Christmases growing up (mine too but in a different time.)}

_{Love, Love, Love this boy!}

 

Personal Revelation at Work

 

I have been thinking about the importance of personal revelation since I taught last month in RS.  It's such an important facet of my life.  I LOVE the Lord and I love the relationship I have with him- and his very personal communication with me.  Imagine how I felt when I read this part of Josh's first missionary letter.  (In the Mexico Language Training Center.  Had only been there a couple of weeks.)

 

Last Thursday we{everyone in my district, 13 of us total} were all assigned to write a 5-minute talk for Sunday about the great apostasy, and they'd pick one of us and let us know who when they announced it at the stand. Well, I prepared mine and then about halfway through the sacrament hymn I felt the Spirit telling me{very directly and bluntly, I didn't realize it could be that way, but it can I guess}, to trash my prepared talk and talk about something else, personal apostasy. 1, I didn't even know who was going to speak yet, and 2, why me, and 3, what the heck! Well guess what, I ended up speaking and don't even know what half of what I said was, but all our branch leaders loved it and were very impressed with my Spanish{somehow my grammar was perfect during my talk, and it never is, so it wasn't exactly me speaking but ok} and ya, that happened, crazy experience, but I felt very honored that God decided to use me to get that message out to whoever needed it. 

 

Just so grateful that Josh will be starting off his mission with a sure witness that God WILL speak to him, that God WILL direct him in his work (God's work.)  That experience will forever be a part of our family scriptures. Feeling overwhelmed by God's love and direction.