We dont need FEMA when we have YSA'S!

Last night for Branch Family Home Evening, our wonderful young single adults came to the rescue of our 1st counselor in the branch presidency and his wife. The accumulated snow that built up around their house melted at such a rapid rate with temperatures getting in the lower 50's. The ground is still pretty much frozen so the melt had nowhere to go, except through a window and in their basement. The impact actually broke their window and water went everywhere....about 3 inches! About 16 young people went over and after accessing the situation, immediately set up a "bucket brigade" of people from downstairs up to the garage to carry stuff from the basement rooms and went to work.(Collette is at the bottom of the stairs.) Boxes and boxes of storage, toys, crafts, furniture, etc. were taken out and they were glad to have lots of helping hands and strong muscles.Service Master Carpets was there steadily pumping water out as our YSA's got everything else out that needed to be removed. The pictures really don't show all the horrendous damage of bark, leaves, broken glass, etc. in the smaller bedrooms.

Our girls gave out the message that hey...don't mess with us! (Collette, far right, in a favorite attitude pose of hers!) Our great YSA's certainly know how to give service, work hard, play, and have fun together. We love and appreciate all they did to help the Lott's in their time of need.

Weekend Update

Another fun weekend to blog about, probably dull to most, but fun for us. Friday night found us with no basketball games to announce, we are officially done for the season. So, I talked Dale into going to Walmart...whoopee... to do some much needed shopping for the weekend. He is a good sport and he actually bought a movie he was looking for. I was telling him about the new chocolate individual serving dessert snacks that they now feature in the stores to satisfy your cravings with only the touch of your microwave. We didn't buy any, however, but he came up with his own decadent chocolate pudding cake delight that was probably better than what the store offers and it made watching the 10 o'clock news definately more exciting! On the Saturday mornings that we are home, Dale always fixes me some healthy wholegrain wheat pancakes for breakfast with sugar free syrup and they are yummy (we have to do something in the name of good health after our Friday night treats). After breakfast, we finished up some shopping in Twin Falls so that we would be home for a visit from Jef's famly after lunch. Sarah's sister, Wendy, had her baby and they were coming to Jerome to see her new little girl, Kady K. We were glad to see our Kuna family again, even if just for a few hours. We headed to Hazelton to our Stake Valentine dinner and enjoyed visiting with some of our 5th ward friends that we don't see much. They had a fantastic program, a musical family from Buhl with 11 children, most adopted from Haiti, that sang and performed with numerous instruments. It was impressive to see the talent of these children and what they had been taught from their musical parents...not only singing and performing, but love and togetherness. When we got home, I noticed that the Halmark channel had a movie on that I haven't seen yet from a series that I love, the Sarah, Plain and Tall movies with Glenn Close and Christopher Walken. They had what I assume was the third one??... "Sarah, Plain and Tall: Winter's End." We were enjoying it when all of a sudden at around 11:30pm the power went out and we were sitting in the dark. We scrambled to get our flashlights and candles lit. When Collette got home from her evening out, we were sitting talking and waiting for the power to be restored and heard a strange noise. Dale thought it was probably the dairy's generator coming on down the road, but it kept getting louder and louder. I joked that maybe we were being invaded as we figured out that it was a helicopter, but sad to realize it was the life flight helicopter. We noticed looking out our back window that there was a terrible accident involving hitting a power pole a mile north as we saw numerous cop car lights flashing and the ones from the helicopter. We figured the power wouldn't be coming on anytime soon and went to bed. Sunday was a great day, Collette sang a solo in sacrament meeting and Chad came around supper time from Pocatello. We haven't seen Chad since Christmas. He went with us to a Young Single Adult Root Beer Float Game night at the Branch's 1st counselor's home. We laughed and played fun games, such as Tabu and Mad Gab with 13 young singles. And it's always fun when Chad and Collette are together on a team! Monday, Chad visited the dentist and then he and Collette went to lunch before he had to leave in the afternoon. Jerome schools have a three day break, so Collette headed to Pocatello to visit Jeremy, Sarah, and Isaak and her good friend, Celestia for a couple of days. So, it is quiet at the home front once again...for a few days, anyway.

Weekend in Kuna

I finally got the chance to get away…yay! Yes, get out of the house, where I’ve sort of been cooped up, mainly by choice, on account of snowy and icy roads, further than a trip to town or Twin for a short shopping binge. Dale and I traveled to Kuna on Friday afternoon to Jef and Sarah’s for a Habby Too business meeting and playtime with the grandkids. And of course I forgot my camera and Sarah’s wasn’t working, but I can still blog without pictures! We were so happy to see them and catch up on that has been going on up their way since Christmas. Logan played two piano pieces for us that he has memorized for his upcoming music festival next month. He is becoming quite the piano player and has his Dad’s rhythm. Jef has been working hard on his guitar and we talked him into playing it for us. I was very impressed with his Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues”, especially the single note solo parts. He certainly is my “guitar hero”. Mason showed us the books he got at a fun book exchange, so I read some great stories to the boys before dinner. One was a book about lightening and thunder and how you can create your own sparks by shuffling your feet on the carpet and then touching metal. Grandpa demonstrated this very well and was shocking their fingers, they almost thought he was magic! Cole was very interested in a book about a dinosaur and he told me all about it several times after dinner during the business meeting and while the other boys were watching a movie.
Saturday morning, we went with Sarah to their stake center to watch the Church’s Worldwide Training meeting. I loved it and especially liked the fact that they presented perspective to the young single adults on how they can build up a righteous posterity. It was a thrill to listen to our prophet, President Monson, address the adults of the church for the first time since he was sustained as the prophet.
After the meeting, we ate lunch and then played some fun games on their intendo Wii. I was fascinated with the interaction play and had a blast bowling. I hadn’t bowled in years! Logan beat me, I think about 120 to 95. Jef beat Dale by three pins in a close one. Jef was the baseball winner, but Mason and Logan really know how to play these games. I tried tennis, but hey…I admit that I am a spectator there. Jef programmed some favorite music of mine on a mini mp3 player that he had so that I could take it to the gym and really rock out. He also gave me an arm band to wear and a cable to access it to the computer for future programming. (*I wore it this morning and it was so cool to have my hands free for ALL of the workout… Again, a big thanks, Jef)
We hated to say goodbye after such a short visit, but we needed to get to the temple and then home. It was such a beautiful, sunny day in Boise…58 degrees…“balmy” enough to run around without a coat. The temple was beautiful and I got to sit by Dale because the session was completely full. We decided on our way home to text some of our young single adults to see if any of them would like to meet us at Appleby’s in Twin Falls for dinner. Collette got off work at 7:00 and she met us there, along with 4 others. It is always fun times hanging out with those young singles.
Such a fun weekend, packed full of great things that reminded me of what is important in my life and what I am very thankful for.

Our Beloved Prophet

I was so glad and felt very blessed to be able to watch the funeral proceedings of President Gordon B. Hinckley broadcast on BYU-TV. It was such a spiritual and uplifting funeral and so many things touched me that I heard and saw throughout the services. I hope you don't mind a lengthy blog here with my feelings about it.
It was a joy for me to see and hear Jane Clayson Johnson as one of the commentators for the funeral. As you remember, she was a successful news anchor that received a lot of worldly criticism when she left her career as she married to raise a family. I was one of her faithful fans and enjoyed watching her when she was on The Early Show on CBS. I thought then what a great example she was of the church. Just like at President’s Faust’s funeral, the apostles lined up on both sides of the entryway where the family and casket came into the Conference Center. It was such a powerful thing to see those great men who loved and served President Hinckley all stand together in reverence for him and his family. I felt their strength and love.
I was touched when President Monson, at the beginning of the funeral, recognized President Hinckley’s bishop and stake president sitting on the stand. I wondered what that would be like, to be the bishop of the Prophet of God. It really strengthened my testimony of how church organization functions the same everywhere. Ever since I watched an entertaining and quite humorous Education Week presentation by Sister Marjorie Hinckley and her daughters at a Relief Society retreat years ago, I have admired and appreciated President’s Hinckley’s daughters. They have truly honored and taken care of their parents in their advancing years and more so since their mother died. I was so touched with daughter Virginia Pearce’s talk about her father and how, after the death of his wife and his deep grief and mourning, President Hinckley took the added compassion and faith deeply carved in his heart, put on his shoes, and went to work. He did so two years later after his diagnosis with cancer…mourned the loss of his good health and then put on his shoes and went to work. That gave me courage to commit everyday to put on my shoes every morning and go to work! I was touched when H. David’s Burton mentioned in his talk that within minutes of the announcement of the death of President Hinckley how the airwaves were full of text messages around the globe from the youth of the church. How he loved the youth! I do, too, and instantly remembered how many texts we received that Sunday evening from our young single adult branch members within minutes of when we heard the sad news.
I was touched by Earl C. Tingey’s talk that focused on the footprints on the sand of President Hinckley. One that I especially appreciated was the prophet’s sense of humor. I have always loved President Hinckley’s humor and wit and recalled how many times he taught others that a sense of humor is what gets you through life. How very true that is because I have had to rely on humor in many troubled and hard times.
I was touched when Boyd K. Packer reminded us of how the succession of the church works and remembered that Dale taught that very thing at branch FHE last Monday night. He also asked the young single adults to pray for three things : for the Hinckley family; for strength for President Monson; and for the testimony that President Monson is the Lord’s choice for the next prophet. I took his counsel and was blessed with powerful spiritual impressions. I was touched when Henry B.Eyring reminded us that President Hinckley always optimistically counseled, ”things will work out” and, from encouragement from his own father in the mission field, to “forget yourself and go to work”. Elder Eyring told us that President Hinckley had been doing that ever since and had put the gospel of Jesus Christ "down in his heart" and encouraged Elder Eyring when he served in the Church Education System to teach seminary and youth leaders to teach the youth to get the gospel down in their hearts. I remembered that I received that counsel from Elder Eyring as a seminary teacher in a training session. Difficult task, but certainly worth it! President Hinckley taught us all to not only give our best, but our very best and there is not a better way to do that than to put the gospel of Jesus Christ down in our hearts and to teach our beloved youth to do the same. Elder Eyring told us that President Hinckley wanted to be in Rexsburg for the dedication of the new temple there and I was a little saddened to realize that President Hinckley would not be at our temple dedication this summer. But I know he will be there in spirit and can I hope that President Monson will be there?
I felt the sweet, yet powerful witness that President Monson was indeed the next prophet of the church as I listened to his tribute to President Hinckley. Again, he lovingly spoke of the humorous side of the prophet and I loved his account of how his doctor, the same as President Hincklely, tried to get President Monson to tell the prophet how important it was that he use his cane to walk with instead of doing things with it like waving it and tapping people on the shoulder. President Monson then told the doctor that he was President Hinckley’s counselor and that he was his doctor, and that he tell him! I laughed and was reassured that our next prophet, President Monson, was obedient and had apparently taken the counsel of his beloved prophet and friend… to have a sense of humor to get you through the difficult times. I was touched when he quoted the scripture and gave counsel to President Hinckley’s posterity and that he gave to President Faust’s family at his funeral: New Testament - 3 John verse 4: "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." That is the same wish for all of us parents and I am thankful that my children have given me such great joy.
When President Monson quoted the words of the hymn, “God Be With You” that President Hinckley recently gave himself in a conference session and then bid tender farewell by saying, “Gordon, God be with you,” I wept. And never stopped as we watched the poignant pictures of President Hinckley’s legacy shown as the choir sang the beautiful closing song, “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need”. My testimony of the Savior’s resurrection and gift of eternal life was strengthened.
Again, I was so touched to see the apostles line up when the casket and family left the center, especially when one reached out and touched the casket in a loving gesture. To see many audience members wave white handkerchiefs reminded me of how President Hinckley and the saints worldwide did that very thing while parting.
At the graveside service, I smiled when President Monson lovingly reminded us that 2 out of the 3 in their former presidency were on the other side. He told of President Hinckley’s wish to have a box of dirt from England where he served his mission placed in his grave so that he could be buried on not only American soil, but also his beloved England’s soil. I, too, felt like I should leave “nothing undone” in my life and continue to keep going strong. I was mesmerized with the striking bagpipe player as he marched around and played a medley of some of President Hinckley’s favorite songs, (and mine) “O Danny Boy”, “Amazing Grace” and “Praise to the Man”. Such feelings of gratitude and love for our beloved President Hinckley were overwhelming and I wanted to “stand a little taller” and have the deep abiding faith that “it will work out” no matter what comes my way. I have no doubt in my mind that he is a prophet of God and that he rests with Him and with his cherished Marjorie. May we all support and sustain President Monson as he continues to love and guide the church.