Hey ya'll.
I don't know why I said ya'll... I never say ya'll.
I guess I'm feeling pretty happy today. Last night we put our swim suits on and went to the Highland Glenn Park in American Fork and SWAM in the little lake. It was SO MUCH FUN! Even Parker loved it. Then this morning we went hiking with the cub scouts at Battle Creek Falls here in PG. There's something about being outside with your family that is magical. I feel so... content. I feel like content is too wimpy of a word though. Tranquil is more like it. I feel at peace. This is good because tomorrow is Sunday and that's been the HARDEST day of the week lately. Church is right during Parker's nap time and half of the time we end up coming home early from church to put her to bed, and the other half we stay at church and almost have a nervous breakdown. Last week there were tears. Many tears and ugly crying.
It's funny that lately we've been thinking about having another baby and sometimes we think, "Yeah we can do this. It would be great having another baby!" And then Sunday rolls around and it's so horrendous that we think, "Nevermind!! Not having another baby right now!" Which is silly because Parker is an angel baby and most of the time she's amazing!
This is all a deviation from what I actually wanted to share. So we're really bad at having Family Home Evenings. Like we don't do it ever. And I really want to start.
Here are my thoughts:
1. It needs to be planned in advance or else we won't do it.
2. It needs to be simple. I'm thinking a song, prayer, story (from general conference or the scriptures), a scripture, and a treat? Something like that.
3. The goal of FHE is to bring us together, invite healthy conversation, and help us be unified. If we don't have a long spiritual lesson that's okay. I just want some good quality time with my family, and anything is better than we're doing right now.
Here is my first Family Home Evening plan that we are going to do on Monday, July 20th. I thought I would share it (and subsequent plans) in case any of you need a little help too.
Theme: President Thomas S. Monson
Song: We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet
What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.
Quote (I just like it, okay?):
“If you are still in the process of raising children be aware the the piles and piles of laundry will disappear all too soon and that you will, to your surprise, miss them profoundly.”
Story:
Brother Edwin Q. Cannon Jr., we call him Ted, was a missionary to Germany in 1938. He loved the people and served faithfully. At the conclusion of his mission, he returned home to Salt Lake City. He married and commenced his own business.
Forty years passed by. One day Brother Cannon came to my office and said he had been pruning his missionary photographs. (That’s a good word. You go through all of them, throw two away, and keep all rest.) Among those photographs he had kept since his mission were several which he could not specifically identify. Every time he had planned to discard them, he had been impressed to keep them, although he was at a loss as to why. They were photographs taken by Brother Cannon during his mission when he served in Stettin, Germany, and were of a family—a mother, a father, a small girl, and a small boy. He knew their surname was Berndt but could remember nothing more about them. He indicated that he understood there was a Berndt who was a Church leader in Germany, and he thought, although the possibility was remote, that this Berndt might have some connection with the Berndts who had lived in Stettin and who were depicted in the photographs. Before disposing of the photos, he thought he would check with me.
I told Brother Cannon I was leaving shortly for Berlin, where I anticipated that I would see Dieter Berndt, the Church leader, and that I would show the photographs to him to see if there was any relationship and if he wanted them. There was a possibility I would also see Brother Berndt’s sister, who was married to Dietmar Matern, a stake president in Hamburg.
The Lord didn’t even let me get to Berlin before His purposes were accomplished. I was in Zurich, Switzerland, boarding the flight to Berlin, when who should also board the plane but Dieter Berndt. He sat next to me, and I told him I had some old photos of people named Berndt from Stettin. I handed them to him and asked if he could identify those shown in the photographs. As he looked at them carefully, he began to weep. He said, “Our family lived in Stettin during the war. My father was killed when an Allied bomb struck the plant where he worked. Not long afterward, the Russians invaded Poland and the area of Stettin. My mother took my sister and me and fled from the approaching enemy. Everything had to be left behind, including any photographs we had. Brother Monson, I am the little boy pictured in these photographs, and my sister is the little girl. The man and woman are our dear parents. Until today, I had no photographs of our childhood in Stettin or of my father.”
Wiping away my own tears, I told Brother Berndt the photographs were his. He placed them carefully and lovingly in his briefcase.
At the next general conference, when Dieter Berndt visited Salt Lake City, he paid a visit to Brother and Sister Edwin Cannon Jr. so that he might express in person his gratitude for the inspiration that came to Brother Cannon to retain these precious photographs and for the fact that he followed that inspiration in keeping them for 40 years.
