Put it in your calender

I found an interesting missionary tool!

I have a HUGE white board on the wall of my office at work. Some time ago, I put a calender on one side so that I could keep track of holidays and other time sensitive projects. I also put personal appointments and events so that I know if/when I have to leave early or take time off to prepare or attend. I like to draw pictures to represent the importance of the date. Sometimes they're funny, sometimes just something to give the calender a little life. There are people at work that make a point of checking the calender to see what I've got up there. This month I've got Cinco de Mayo, Friday the 13th (just 'cause I like to draw little black kitties), Mothers' Day, Memorial Day... but what's this on Saturday?

This Saturday Tim and I are joining other members of our Stake in the Solemn Assembly room of the Washington D.C. temple. I can't wait to go! I've never been above the third floor, but this time I get to go all the way up. So, I drew a little picture of the temple on May 7th.
My friend and coworker, Randy, stopped a day or two ago and asked about it. He first called it the Tabernacle and remembered seeing it as he was driving around the I-495 beltway; he also wanted to know if there were buildings inside the high marble walls and wished he could see inside. I was able to correct a few of the details and explained about recommends, open houses, dedications, the font, and the annex. We even talked about the temple grounds and the visitors center where I offered to give him a tour. :) Yeah, I'm so subtle. He was genuinely interested in it, and I was so happy to be able to talk to him about it.

BBQ Chips

We had the missionaries over for dinner last night. I love having those guys over! We had Elder Goodrich from our ward mission, and Elder Bowden on loan to us from the Martinsburg mission. After a filling meal of spaghetti with sausage, I thought it nice to play a game since we didn't have time last night during FHE. Turns out that it worked well with Elder Goodrich's lesson idea.

So the game was telephone and goes something like this: one person starts a message of one sentence around a circle, and it is passed in whispers around the circle to the person that started it. While the message is being passed, everyone else is making noise. When the last person receives the message, they say it aloud so that everyone can compare it to the message they heard and finally what the original message was.

Elder Goodrich gave his message to Dougie, Dougie to Tim, Tim to me, me to Audie, Audie to Chloie, Chloie to Elder Bowden, and Elder Bowden said the final message aloud...

"BBQ chips"

The original message was, "Elder Bowden's favorite game is dress up Barbie."

At least we got the BB (Barbie) right.

The point behind the exercise was that during the Apostasy, the Gospel was passed down through the generations and altered, mistaken, confused, and passed down again. With the Restoration and the institution of modern prophets, we receive the work directly through the Prophet from the Lord without distortion. I feel comforted knowing that we're receiving direction directly from the source that doesn't require interpretation. Sweet. Then again, I don't know how I would live without BBQ chips.

I'm constantly amazed at how much the kids have learned. They were able to intelligently answer questions about Joseph Smith, his famous prayer, the First Vision, and the Restoration. Even Dougie chimed in with relevant responses instead of some random blurb. Wow. I better hit the books hard to stay ahead of these guys!

I see a baptism in the future...

See? I'm trying to be prophetic, but I guess it doesn't work if I'm doing the planning for it.

A couple weeks ago I thought I had jumped the gun when I told the Missionaries that I needed to talk to the Mission President. I spent the next week trying to figure out how I would tell him that I had to wait a year or more if it came to that and that I didn't mean to get their hopes up. Luckily for them (and me) I didn't have to because the Council had other things to say.

My appointment was Tuesday after work (for me) and the Zone Missionary Lunch (for them). They said that dessert wasn't as good this time. :-) Traffic was a little interesting, so I pulled in the parking lot at the church at 5 pm on the nose. The Missionaries were waiting for me as if they thought I wasn't going to show. Going inside, they introduced me to President Moody, and I jokingly said that they followed me in and were blocking the door to keep me from running if I chickened out. He asked them if they still had the rope. Haha... no really, they had one in their bag.

We had a good lesson, reading from D&C20:37 and somewhere in Mosiah (I can't remember where) to show that the requirements for baptism were the same then as they are now. Then he dismissed the Missionaries so that we could talk. Yikes. I'm rather ashamed to admit that there are things in my past that prevented a traditional interview (hence the appointment with President Moody), but those things are over and done. I can honestly say that they are behind me, and I'm glad to say that I feel that the Lord thinks so as well. I can't say that I really want to go through that again, but the good news is I won't have to because...

I PASSED!!!

Yes, I passed, and if you're just now joining us I'll say it again... I passed! Can you tell I'm excited??? The best part is that Tim is going to baptize and confirm me when it is time. We're looking at a time frame of 3-4 months, but if the kids have already gone to Arkansas for the summer, then we'll do it in August when they come back so that they can be there and see it.

One more thing. Since I've been threatened for dear life if I don't have cake at the baptism, I've been inspired to make a temple baptismal font, complete with the 12 oxen. I can't wait to start planning that one! :-)

Women's Conference, May 2009

I have to tell you, I've been itching to do a cake in the likeness of one of the temples. I wasn't sure which one, but I loved the idea... itching I tell you, itching! I just couldn't think of an occasion to do one. I push the thought temporarily out of my mind...

Sunday I got the final word on the theme for Women's Conference this year... Joy and Happiness. I can work with that. Last year it was Hispanic themed, and it was a lot of fun! So, Joy and Happiness, what to do? Not putting two and two together...

Sunday evening we had the Richards family over for dinner and a movie; you know, good family/friend time. Rob and I were talking about his son's upcoming birthday, and being gleefully dubbed "the cake lady" at church has made me an apparent wealth of information. I can't wait to teach the class this Thursday!!! But anyway, we got on the subject of cake ideas and what I wanted to do in the future and that I couldn't figure out what to do for Women's Conference. Rob suggested.. get this... the Washington D.C. Temple.

We suddenly have four!

Lynnette, Rob, and I are going to work on planning out the size, assembly, and details of the temple for the cake. I haven't talked to them yet today, but they were going down to the temple on Monday and said they'd take pictures so that we can replicate the details as accurately as possible.

The more I think about it, the more I feel that this is the best idea. Consider this... where do you seal your family for eternity? in the temple. Where do you take the sacred steps toward your salvation? in the temple. Where do you work for the salvation of your past relatives? in the temple. Three major contributions towards... you guessed it, eternal happiness. What a better symbol of joy can be found? Even for those of us not ready to enter, the mere sight is awesome in the most fantastic sense of the word. I can't wait.

While looking for pictures and overhead photographs of the temple, I came across some nifty tidbits of information about the Washington D.C. Temple (you can go here for more info):

The Washington D.C. Temple was the first temple built in the East Coast of the United States.

The Washington D.C. Temple was the first temple to feature six spires since the construction of the Salt Lake Temple, which inspired the design.

Soaring to a height of 288 feet, the Washington D.C. Temple is the tallest temple in the Church.
The Washington D.C. Temple is the only temple outside of Utah to be built with six ordinance rooms. (The temples in Utah with six ordinance rooms are the Ogden Utah Temple, Provo Utah Temple, and Jordan River Utah Temple.)

The Washington D.C. Temple was originally named the Washington Temple.

The Washington D.C. Temple is one of five temples featuring an angel Moroni statue [18 feet tall!!!] holding the gold plates. (The other four temples are the Los Angeles California Temple, Jordan River Utah Temple, Seattle Washington Temple, and México City México Temple.)

The main lobby of the Washington D.C. Temple features a striking 30-foot-long mural depicting the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. An image of the temple was incorporated into the mural.
Following the completion ceremonies for the Washington D.C. Temple, in which a time capsule was placed in the northeast corner of the building, President Spencer W. Kimball conducted the largest press conference in the Church's history.

The highly successful public open house of the Washington D.C. Temple was attended by 758,328 guests including special guest Betty Ford—wife of then-U.S. President Gerald Ford. These tours resulted in over 75,000 missionary referrals.

During the ten dedicatory sessions of the Washington D.C. Temple, all but two of the Church's General Authorities delivered speeches.

Preach My Gospel

I thought this cake was so cool, I had to post it on both blogs...

For those familiar with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, you'll probably recognize this next image...I volunteered to make this cake for the Missionary Zone Luncheon on 2/5/09 where all of the missionaries from the tri-state area get together for lunch. The image is from the cover of the missionary handbook Preach My Gospel and depicts the Savior just before his baptism with John the Baptist.
Up until the night I decorated the cake I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I had an impression that it should be "Preach My Gospel" related, but I didn't know exactly what. I ended up painting the image onto rolled fondant with brown food coloring and a paint brush. The cake itself was a butter yellow recipe and it was iced with plain white butter cream.

I had to drop the cake off at Carolyn's house for transport to the luncheon. Believe me, I was disappointed that I couldn't be there (I have a day job *groan*), but Carolyn tells me that the missionaries loved their cake... they wouldn't let anyone cut it until they took pictures.

I thought this was an awesome opportunity to do something for the church (besides playing piano). It was a lot of fun, and I got to try out some new ideas for decorating. If nothing else, this is a tasty way of spreading the news!

And now for something a little more serious...

THE U IN JESUS

Before U were thought of or time had begun,
God stuck U in the name of His Son.
And each time U pray, you'll see it's true,
You can't spell out JesUs and not include U.
You're a pretty big part of His wonderful name,
For U, He was born; that's why He came.
And His great love for U is the reason He died.
It even takes U to spell crUcified.
Isn't it thrilling and splendidly grand
He rose from the dead, with U in His plan?
The stones split away, the gold trUmpet blew,
and this word resUrrection is spelled with a U.
When JesUs left earth at His upward ascension,
He felt there was one thing He just had to mention.
"Go into the world and tell them it's true
That I love them all - Just like I love U."
So many great people are spelled with a U,
Don't they have a right to know JesUs too?
It all depends now on what U will do,
He'd like them to know, But it all starts with U.