August update

The big thing going down this summer has been morning, afternoon, and evening sickness. :) I am looking forward to having another little baby in our home, but have to admit that the pregnancy hasn’t been too much fun so far. I'm feeling a little better though, and we will find out on August 25th if it is a boy or a girl. Amazing!

Our little Personal Progress leader in Young Women's challenged all of us leaders to work on getting the new Young Women's medallion. So, I am trying to get my Individual Worth ribbon earned, and the last thing I need to do is write a little bit about how some scriptures I read taught me about God’s love for me. One of the scriptures was Jeremiah 1:5 where God tells Jeremiah that before he formed him in the belly, God knew him and had given him the calling to be a prophet. One of the other scriptures that was related was Abraham 3:22-23 where Abraham sees all of us little intelligences before the world was formed. God tells him that amongst them were some of the noble and great ones, and then tells Abraham that he was chosen before he was born. Out of the scriptures I read, these two in particular touched me. There is such comfort in knowing that we are eternal beings. Even though we don’t remember, we know that God loved us and knew us. There is part of me that feels kind of anxious to remember that time. Wouldn’t that be fun to have the memories again of that sacred teaching and growing time with our Heavenly Father?

I guess that doesn’t have to feel so far away or unattainable. If we seek God out, He will teach us and help us grow in a very personal way in this life too. I would still like to work on letting God into my life in a stronger, more powerful way, but feel like the past six years have smoothed out some of my edges and helped me grow up a little bit? Losing Mom was so hard. It seems to me that going through that intensely difficult experience changed me some. I have also been so grateful for extended family and for the example of the neighbors we live around. I have wanted to be better because you/they are so good to our family.

I feel so grateful to have a testimony of the gospel. I’m grateful for good parents who taught me by example what it meant to serve in the church, to do one’s duty, and to love learning from the scriptures. I’m grateful for the hard things we dealt with growing up. Michael’s passing and being a part of Nathan’s struggle after he was hit by the car, shaped us. I remember as a 15-year-old girl thinking that I needed to do what was right and follow God’s plan because I wanted so much to see Michael and be with him again.

Anyway, there you go. Will that satisfy those of you who have been bugging me about my infrequent blog posts? :)

Scott and Em in Hawaii

Scott and I had such a great time in Hawaii last month! It made January go by fast because we were looking forward to our little vacation. :) Scott found out in mid-December that he had been selected to attend Novell's President's Club in Kauai. He has been just so excited, and I was too, but I was also pretty nervous about leaving the kids for a full week. It turned out just fine though. Cute Katrina came down and spent four 1/2 days here at the house with them, then the other three days they went up to South Weber and had some fun cousin time with the Soderquists and Matthew and Kimberly's kids because they were in Hawaii with us. When we got home, Katrina seemed to still have all of her hair, and Alison and Quin seemed to have survived the inundation okay too. :)

My favorite part of the trip was having so much time just to be with Scott. He is so nice. As the years go on, I am more and more grateful for him. I married someone who is so patient with my quirks, someone who makes me want to be better, someone who lets me be myself, and someone who loves me and makes me feel good. I hope I do the same for him. Anyway, it was so fun to have that time with just the two of us. It is wonderful to be parents, and nice to remember how much we liked being together before we had kids too.

We did some fun things - hiked the Na Pali coast on the north shore of Kauai, explored the shops a little in Hanalei, sat on Shipwreck Beach and watched the surfers and the sunset one night, explored some trails around the resort and found some turtles to watch! We also had a really nice time visiting with Matthew and Kimberly at the Awards Gala and Scott enjoyed learning how to scuba dive in one of the resort's pools with them too. We saw Spouting Horn near Poipu Beach, found a "Puka Dog" stand in a shopping village - it was the yummiest hot dog ever! They grilled a polish dog, put it in a big, fresh bun, then covered it in Hawaiian mustard and mango relish. Yummy. Scott and I were so grown up during our trip! Neither one of us really enjoy seafood, but we tried all sorts of loster, crab, mahi mahi, and fresh shrimp off of a truck near the Polynesian Cultural Center. :)

The group we went there with was so diverse! There were people from India, Boston, San Diego, Provo, Korea, Japan, Germany, South Africa, Denmark, Italy, and more. Anyway, the trip was quite a treat. Novell served us a beautiful breakfast every morning, had a couple of nights where they served sandwiches and appetizers, and had a big, wonderful seafood dinner for the Award Gala. They also left us a gift every night in our hotel room. It ranged from Hawaiian snacks one night to an Amazon Kindle our last night.

Having the time with Scott was my favorite thing, and my next favorite was getting a taste of what the church is like in Hawaii. A bunch of the couples from Novell went to a church meeting in the Kalaheo Ward about twenty minutes away from the resort. What a nice experience. One of the Polynesian sister in the ward started making leis out of yarn for visitors in Relief Society years ago, and they have just kept it up. Kimberly and I talked with one of the counselors after the meeting and she said they usually have five visitors every week in Relief Society! There were close to twenty the Sunday we were there - probably because it was Valentine's Day and a lot of people were celebrating in Hawaii? The Polynesian people just seem relaxed and happy.

Our last two days, Scott and I flew over to Oahu and visited the Polynesian Cultural Center run by the church, BYU Hawaii, and the Laie temple for a few minutes. We learned that the Laie temple was built in 1919! It was the first one completed after the Salt Lake Temple because they had such a nice group of converts in the area, the church wanted the Polynesian people to have access to a temple. The siter missionaries we visited with told us that the Laie area is 90% LDS. When the early Polynesian church members were converted, church leaders encouraged them to gather in that area. The church bought the land the PCC, the temple, and the university is on today. As they recognized a need for the people to be educated, they started the school there and President McKay dedicated it as BYU Hawaii while he was the prophet. A lot of the performers in the PCC are on talent scholarships so perform there at the center to help pay for schooling.

Anyway, it was a really nice trip. We might even go back someday. :)