A Sweet Marriage\ Sealing

Ken has had the opportunity to perform several marriage/ sealings, including four from our ward.  He married this precious couple this month.

I wanted to post about it because of the connections we have with them and their family.

• Ken's father and the bride's great-grandfather served in a stake presidency together many years ago.

• The bride's grandmother and Ken went to high school together in Hurricane.  She and their family moved into our ward a few years after we did  We raised our families together..
•  So the bride's mom grew up in this ward.  She was an impressive, sweet girl.  She grew up and went on a mission speaking ASL.  She came home, married, and lived out of state while they had their children.
• Later, she and her family moved here and bought a home in this ward, so the bride grew up here, too. 
• The bride was one of my Mia Maids.  
• Ken and the bride's father served in an elders quorum presidency together and we have been close.
• The groom is our stake president's son. 
• The groom's father worked for Ken years ago.

Ken did a beautiful job in the sealing.  It was a very special experience.  There was such a strong spirit there.  We love these people.

  Sometimes family extends beyond blood relatives.

I've Been Heart Attacked!

I was released on Sunday.  On Tuesday, there was a loud knock on the door and we went out to find I had been heart attacked by the Mia Maids.  

And in the light of day.

Thank you, sweet Mia Maids!  I will miss you!!!!

Released From Young Women and a New Calling

This post is a hard one to write.  On Sunday, February 24th, I was released from serving in the Young Women organization in our ward.  Actually, the entire presidency and staff were released.  And the entire presidency and staff of the young men (except the scoutmaster who is irreplaceable!) were released.  And the presidency of the Relief Society was released.  It was a big day in our ward, and personally, a sad day for me.
I have loved serving in the young women program.  I have loved being in the presidency with sisters who I love and admire.  I have loved each and every young woman.  I have thought about them and worried about them and prayed for them and loved them.
When Ken and I were on the airplane flying home from our mission to Japan, I turned to him and asked, "Now that we're heading home, what calling would you like to have?"  He answered that he was willing to do whatever he was called to, but then he named a calling he had always wanted to have.  Within a couple of weeks, he was given that calling- a thank you note from Heavenly Father.  The calling didn't last long, but he held it and enjoyed it for a few months.

Then he asked me the same question.  My answer was that I would like to teach.  I had been in a place where I couldn't even talk, let alone teach.  Teaching sounded fun.  But then I added that I mostly just didn't want to be put out to pasture.  I wanted to serve.  Well, I would have never dreamed that that would be with the young women.  I thought I was too old for that.  But it was perfect for me.  It stretched me and kept me young and active.  And it introduced many people into my life that truly blessed me.
Working in the young women is pretty demanding.  You have Sunday classes and weekly activities.  We also take our young women to the temple for baptisms once a month.
There are young women presidency meetings.  And Mia Maid class presidency meetings to prepare for and hold monthly.  But really, I loved it all.  Well, maybe all except the all- youth, once a month Mutual activities.  Those were too loud and crazy for me.
So I'm sad.  But I feel like the timing is good.  I just got new, wonderful Mia Maids, so it's a good time for them to get a new leader.  I just finished my personal progress award.  I feel like I served well and faithfully and, mostly I loved.  I truly loved these precious young women.  I feel like I did what I was called to do.
In that same appointment with the bishop, I was given a new calling- that of Gospel Doctrine Teacher.  This will stretch me and help me to grow and learn more and to serve adults in my ward.  I am grateful for the opportunity.  I taught my first lesson last week.  It went well.  I was so grateful to wonderful ward members who made such great comments and blessed all with their wisdom.
Though I have for many, many years read my scriptures every day, having to teach made me really study the scriptures.  It was a whole new level of study.  That will be good for me.  I am grateful for the opportunity to teach and am humbly grateful for the 1 1/2 years I got to serve in young women.  I loved it!

We went out to dinner to celebrate our time as a presidency the other night.

Kim-2nd counselor, Me-1st counselor, Charmaine-President, Kayla- Beehive Advisor

How I love these ladies!

Young Women New Beginnings

On February 12th, we had our young women New Beginnings program.  One of our Beehives, Abigail, planned and prepared it for a value project for her personal progress.  She did such a wonderful job. (Her mom is the 2nd counselor in young women's and helped her a lot!)

A lot of hours are represented in this picture.  They made frosted sugar cookies, and prepared those sweet necklaces for each girl with this years' theme, "If you love me keep my commandments."  Abby and her mom untangled chains (ordered from China), put the necklaces together, made cute stickers to close each bag, and bagged them.  

The decorations were so cute.

Our laurel president, Aubrey, conducted.  She is such an awesome young woman.

Seva, the Beehive President,  talked about Beehives

Kristen ,my awesome Mia Maid president talked about Mia Maids

And Emma (my recently released Mia Maid president, moved onto Laurels) talked about Laurels.

Abby is at the microphone (the one who did this for her project)  She is introducing the three new Beehives.

Sister Gerth, our stake young women president gave a beautiful talk on personal progress.

Our bishop also gave remarks

It was a beautiful evening.  I was so proud of these girls!

Mia Maid Christmas/ Farewell Party

The Mia Maid party was on the 18^th of December and was oh, so fun.  We started by my showing them the video of their attribute white boards that we did several weeks ago.  Then we had lots of treats, then played the cellophane ball game.  They LOVED it!  They were so cute and had so much fun.  Then we did Christmas at the Rights to determine which gift they got to take home.  I think everyone had fun.

I made fudge, raspberry white chocolate scones, cheese ball and cracker, punch, and Karey brought pizza and caramel corn.

Prizes wrapped in cellophane and packing tape. One girl can work on unwrapping the ball until doubles are rolled, then it's the next girls' turn.

These pictures don't really show it, but the girls had a blast playing this game.  They were so cute!

When I planned the Christmas party, I didn't know it would also be a farewell party for the Mia Maids moving on to Laurels.  I lose seven very special girls and keep only two .  I don’t think there is a better calling in the church, where you can watch these precious girls grow right before your eyes.  I compare how they were a year ago, and I am just brought to tears at how they have blossomed and grown.  I will miss those seven, but get five new Mia Maids who I am sure I will come to love just as much.

Meet the Mia Maids

We had a fun Mia Maid class activity where we set up a white board, had each girl sit in front of it, then everyone else wrote on the board attributes they love about that girl.  We will have an activity where we show a slideshow of the pictures we took. They haven't seen their boards yet.  So meet my wonderful Mia Maids:

Abby

Kristen

Katelin

Anaya

Emma- our Mia Miad President

Kandice

Three of the girls weren't there, but we did a board for each of them, too.

Corie

Eliza

Angelina

I love these precious girls!

Our Church Callings

A big part of our lives is our callings in our church.  We both serve in the temple.  I serve as 1st counselor in the young women organization and Ken serves as 1st counselor in the elder's quorum presidency.  All of the above are a big part of our lives, but I realized I don't ever post about them or take many pictures.  When I am with the youth, I am busy and rarely remember to take out my camera and take pictures.  I am determined to try to do better.  I love the girls and grow to love them more and more all the time.  I will also try to get a picture of the elders quorum presidency.  They are, as I write, meeting in our living room.  I would run in a take a picture right now, but I am not presentable!  For history's sake, I'll post a potpourri of pictures that I have, then occasionally post more:

One day, after serving in the temple, I was waiting for Ken.  The flowers in front of the temple were just glorious, so I took a few pictures.  One of my favorite colors!

We feel so grateful to serve in this sacred place each week.

We had youth conference in Morley's(friends) cabin in Brian Head.  My responsibility was Friday night's dinner.  I forgot to take pictures of the dinner: sloppy joes, chips, veggies and dip, and creamy jello salad.

Our friends, the Burdicks had just come home from their mission in Florida.  They did a great presentation for the youth on preparing for a mission.

The service project the next day was to deep clean the Morley's cabin.

The next Tuesday, I was in charge of the all-youth activity.  We had pizza, then went to the temple to do baptisms for the dead.

For a recent class activity, we went to the St. George Family History center.  Only three came, but we had a great time.

The family history center is a great place to spend an evening.  They have so many fun things for the youth to do and explore.

One of my Mia Maid claimed she had the best chocolate cookie recipe in the world.  So for a recent Mia Maid activity we tried them.  I think she may be right.  In case you're interested, here is the recipe.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Katelin Nordfelt

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons hot water

½ teaspoon salt

2 cups chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven.0 to 350.  Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.  Dissolve the baking soda in hot water.  Add to the batter along with the salt.  Stir in the flour, chocolate chips, and nuts.  Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.  Bake for about 10 minutes, or until edges are nicely browned.

Our fundraiser for camp this year was to do a ward cookbook.  We did make a lot of money.  But it really was a leader project.  I did a lot of it.  

July's all-youth activity was group games.  This is human battleship.

And bunny/rabbit

The very next week, we, the Mia Maids were in charge of the all-girl activity.  It looked like we were copy catting as we also planned to do group games.  But we had planned it a couple of months before.  We did all different games and really had a fun time.

And finally, now a couple of weeks later, I did get that picture of the elder's quorum presidency.  They meet at our house every Wednesday evening:

Ken, 1st counselor, Rob Marshall, 2nd counselor, Samuel Roth, secretary, and Terry Walker, president.