Family History Presentations, Church Lessons, and Seminary Council

Janelle got called to meet with a member of the Stake Presidency this morning along with her parents. So we went and she was called to the Seminary Council for next year! She is very excited! She knows a few of the others who have been called and they all happen to be in her friend group. She has a great group of friends!

Today Rick had the Come Follow Me lesson. He assigned each of the kids a chapter from today's lesson and said that some time today they had to come up with an art project depicting that chapter. He assigned it as follows: Jaiden -- Mosiah 25, Janelle -- Mosiah 26, Jenna -- Mosiah 27, and Josh -- Mosiah 28. They came up with some great work! Here is a picture of each of their art work:

Jaiden (Mosiah 25): 

Janelle (Mosiah 26):

Jenna (Mosiah 27): (The angel appearing to Alma and the four sons of Mosiah)

Alma with his parents...

Josh (Mosiah 28): (The sons of Mosiah refusing the throne and then preaching to the Lamanites)

The other homework they had for today (the kids had a busy day today) was a "Family History Presentation" for Memorial Day. Each of the kids were asked to research an ancestor and present it to the family Sunday night. They looked up pictures and histories on Family Search and put together a Power Point presentation on Google Slides. In between all of this we skyped Janika and Brandon and had a delicious dinner of barbequed salmon, squash, broccoli, beans, rice and salad with ice cream for dessert!

We then had the presentations! Jenna did her presentation on my Grandma, Lucille Erskine Westra Burgener. Josh did his on my grandpa, Joseph Ate Westra. Jaiden did hers on Grandpa Jensen's Grandma and Janelle did hers on Louelle Mcgee, my mom's grandma. We decided to invite Grandma and Grandpa Westra to join us through a zoom call for the presentations. They turned out great and even Grandma and Grandpa learned a few new things about their parents/grandparents! It was also nice that my mom and dad could clarify and correct any missing or ambiguous information. It was a fun activity and nice to be able to see and visit with Grandma and Grandpa!

Then we watched all of the Mother's Day Tea and Father's Day Flee videos through the years since Rick has been working on them all and adding them to our YouTube Channel. So it was really a "family filled" day!

Day of Fasting and Prayer

Today we all joined in fasting and prayer for relief from the devastating effects of Covid-19. I have a strong testimony of both fasting and prayer and was honored to have our family participate in such a cause! It is awe inspiring to see not only members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints participating in a day of fasting and prayer, but people from all denominations joining together.

Today was our third Sunday of "Stay-at-Home Church." It was my turn to give the lesson and with General Conference coming up this weekend I decided to focus on the restoration and how we can receive personal revelation like Joseph Smith did. We had a wonderful spirit filled discussion. We then had sacrament meeting with our family. Again, I am so grateful for a Prophet of God and am grateful for the Priesthood in my home!

After church we skyped with Janika and Brandon to catch up with them. Janika and Brandon are now working from home. They are grateful that they still have their jobs! Brandon will be graduating  from USU in May, but the graduation ceremony is being postponed until August. However, Janika and Brandon have a cruise to Europe planned that week and so Brandon won't be able to "walk" for graduation. 

The Relief Society Presidency stopped by and dropped off some cupcakes and we visited outside -- six feet apart. I was happy to update them on the wedding and on Jared's missionary service. Our RS President's missionary is still in Peru on lock down. They are hoping he can return home in a couple of weeks.

Seeing all of the missionaries returning this week has brought mixed feelings of sadness and joy -- sadness that their service is being cut short and that God's work seems to be temporarily halted, but joy in seeing so many glorious reunions posted all over social media as family members are finally able to see and hug their missionaries! Here is a picture that was posted on social media of a flight filled with missionaries. There were also many awe inspiring pictures and videos of missionaries flying home and singing "Called to Serve" in different languages. God is in charge and has a plan for all of us -- including these amazing missionaries!

After fasting today we had a delicious feast of marinated chicken, steak, green salad, fruit salad, tater tots (just for fun), cottage cheese, tomato salad and apple crisp and vanilla ice-cream for dessert! Jenna and Josh played soccer and made chalk drawings outside and then we all played "Balderdash" (I won, ha ha!) and the girls and I watched "I Can Only Imagine," a movie I have been wanting to see for ages! It was a glorious day!

Book of Mormon: Keystone...or Trapezoid!

Janika (age 8) is really growing up and sometimes she says things that just sound so mature (of course we still have periodic temper tantrums from her too though!)  The other day our home teachers were over and explaining about how the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion.  He was explaining what a keystone was and Janika asked, “…kind of like a trapezoid?”  Rick paused for a minute and then said, “What’s a trapezoid?” 

A little later Janika was getting out a treat and Janelle was watching from her high chair seat.  Janika said, “Janelle is looking at this like….there’s my destiny!!”