Like a child at home

This morning greeted us with bright cheerful sunshine, perfect for Easter Sunday and full of the promise of spring. We had a lovely church service today that was both powerful and peaceful. It was all about Christ, His resurrection, and His atonement. I especially enjoyed singing with the choir.

I joined our church choir about two years ago. Growing up I always thought I was terrible at singing, and always avoided it. But through the years I've come to peace with it, and have actually enjoyed singing hymns in the congregation. I still don't sound 'great' but I sing passably well, especially when there are others around me to blend in with. I've found that singing with the choir has been surprisingly rewarding.

Today we sang three songs. One that was particularly poignant was "My Shepherd Will Provide My Need," by Isaac Watts which is based on the 23rd Psalm. We were accompanied by a young oboist and flautist who played beautifully. These are the lyrics to this piece:

My Shepherd will supply my need,
Jehovah is His name.
In pastures fresh He makes me feed,
Beside the living stream.

He brings my wand’ring spirit back,
When I forsake His ways.
And leads me for His mercy’s sake
In paths of truth and grace.

When I walk through the shades of death
Thy presence is my stay.
One word of Thy supporting breath
Drives all my fears away.

Thy hand in sight of all my foes,
Doth still my table spread.
My cup with blessings overflows,
Thine oil anoints my head.

The sure provisions of my God
Attend me all my days.
O may Thy house be my abode,
And all my work be praise.

There would I find a settled rest,
While others go and come.
No more a stranger nor a guest,
But like a child at home.

I really fell in love with this piece as we learned during practice this last 3 weeks. I especially love the last stanza and the imagery it invokes; of being where you truly belong, loved and safe. Jesus offers us that love; when we come to Him we can feel like a child at home.

Christmas choir and Lorraine's birthday

I sang in the choir for our church Christmas program. I don't have a great voice, but I have learned to sing better, and I've really enjoyed participating in choir. It was nice sitting up on the stand with the other choir members (and ever-faithful Ian) and listening to the words of Christ and singing about his birth during the Christmas season. It was a very peaceful and joyful experience. We sang the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah and the very end. I love the power, praise, and joy in that song.

The Christmas hymns never fail to move me. The whole congregation met together again for the third hour and we sang all the Christmas songs in the hymn book, from page 201-214. Jesus came into the world and lived so simple and humbly. It kind of makes the Santa materialistic thing look pretty shabby in comparison.

Later in the afternoon I took Lisette, Miles, and Ian to the nursing home which is near our neighborhood. The primary children sang Christmas songs to the residents. It was really beautiful to hear the innocent children sing of Christ. I'm sure those are the voices He loves to hear best.

The kids also came with me and we gave out some yummy chocolate mint cookies that Melinda had baked. They seemed to have so much fun. I don't know if it was just entertaining to them, but just maybe they felt joy in serving others.

In the evening we went to Annette's house to celebrate Lorraine's birthday. Scott felt very loved because everyone went out of their way to make non-dairy dishes that he could eat (Scott has milk allergies.) Everyone had fun catching up and the boys loved playing with all of Matthew's Nerf weapons. He has quite the arsenal.

Here are some photos of the festivities. Notice that Ian so helpfully blew out most of the candles for his grandma.

Sing all hell

Today in church we sang the hymn "We'll Sing All Hail To Jesus' Name," which is a hymn I really love. However here in Utah we usually pronounce 'ai' the same as a soft e. Thus the following words usually sound the same: hail/hell, fail/fell, sail/sell and whale/well. So I have to try to suppress a smile everything we sing that first line. It's also very noticeable because the second verse actually has a 'hell' in it.

Regional accents and and unique speech patterns are always fascinating, and I don't see that we should change them. I'd like to thing that those details make life more interesting and I hope I didn't spoil that hymn for anyone.

Scott's mission report

Melinda's brother, Scott, came home from his mission on Thursday. He spent 2 years teaching the gospel to the Spanish speaking residents of Ft. Lauderdale Florida. We went to his ward to hear him speak today.

He started out directly with his testimony of Jesus Christ and of His Atonement. Wow. Scott used to be this precocious, opinionated kid, and now he is a man who during 2 years of service really gets the heart of the gospel. Through his blood (bicycle accidents), sweat (Miami heat), and tears (this one I'm just assuming) he has seen the hand of the Lord in his life and in the lives of those he has served.

I liked his mission stories, but seeing his love and gratitude for Jesus Christ is what was really moving. He has changed in 2 years, and all for the better. Is their anything better a nineteen year-old could be doing with 2 years than serving Jesus and getting to know Him?

Get Me To The Church On Time

The past two months we've been having a hard time getting to church on time. Not really late, but over 5 minutes. I think a lot of people in our congregation must be having the same problem, because as we were walking in the building the bishop announced something to the effect of "get here on time because you're detracting from the spirit by arriving late." Of course he was preaching to the choir, all except for us. Oh well. Someone mentioned in Elders quorom today that his Grandma says that you go to church "to show what team you're on." So even if we're sometimes a little late, at least we're on the Lord's team.

We also just barely got Saffron's Minnie Mouse hat off before we went inside. Lisette was looking at a Disneyland photo album this morning, so it must have inspired her little sister to wear her hat. She was pretty cute, though. I'm sure everyone would have smiled to see her march in with her mouse ears.


We ate dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Ashton's house tonight, like we usually do. Brian and Wendy both had friends over for dessert and a cousin came over too, so it was a lot of fun with such a big group. Then they got started talking about personality tests, and before they were through, there were 5 laptops on the table with everyone taking tests and laughing together.

Miles and Ian made elaborate Lego worlds downstairs, Saffron sat on the doll chairs, and Lisette hung out with her aunts and uncles. We picked some of their tomatoes and apples. We called it a night and the kids took their Otter Pops and gave sweet goodbye kisses.

You can pick your nose, but you can't pick your Primary teacher

I went to Ian's Primary class today. Some of his Primary teachers have mentioned that he looks really mad or depressed during sharing time. Supposedly he covers his ears during singing time, he scowls, he puts his face to the wall, and he won't talk. So today I went and sat with his class to see how he's doing. I suppose it was a good thing I did because his teacher didn't show up and so I taught his class.

His class was quite fun and quite funny. I was teaching "How We Show Jesus We Love Him." The lesson had me give 6 clues to guess who someone was. The first clue was, "He loves you." Jesus!, they all replied. That kind of made the other clues extraneous. After I kept going until the 4th clue, one astute girl said, "Jesus is the answer to everything."

The kids have pretty good ideas about how you show your love to Jesus, but somehow they got sidetracked about picking your nose. They they procceed to discuss where you shouldn't put your boogers: under your tongue, on your elbow, in your ear, back in your nose, on your shoe, on your eyeball, etc...

Anyway, I thought about Ian and his participation problem in Primary sharing time. I think he's fine. Obviously he could use a little coaching and some more church social skills, but I'm not too worried about him. I had my fair share of church behavioral problems when I was a kid; his don't seem too bad.

I remember my dad marching me over to my Sunday School teacher's house to apologize for my outrageous behavior. But what was weird about that was that I thought I was acting better that day. Anyway, I think Ian is just fine. Maybe we'll work and have him learn some songs at home and maybe I'll go to his class for a while. But as long as he goes and soaks up a few gospel messages without burning anything down, I'm perfectly happy.

Immersion

Saturday we all went to my nephew Brenton's baptism. He had just turned eight and he was one very happy boy to have so much family visiting on his account. We had a lunch at his hous and he blessed the food. He especially gave thanks that all his cousins could come. He's had a few speech issues in the past where he was a little hard to understand, but he seems to be coming along swimmingly.

We went over to the chapel a little early and he was seated on the front bench, all in white. I waved to him as we sat down, and he ran over and gave me a big hug. Then as soon as he appeared he was gone again, back on the front row with a mile-wide smile.

When it came to his turn to be baptized he could hardly contain his excitement. It was so cute watching him going into the water with his dad. He left the font very clean and very content. It was a priceless moment.

In 1991 when I was a missionary in Chile, I had a long discussion with a woman about being baptized as an adult vs. being baptized as an infant. She had pointed out that I was only eight when I was baptized so how much choice did I have in making that decision and how much was just "going with the flow?" When I went home that night I sat on my bunk and tried to remember everything I could about my baptism.

I remembered sitting in white and someone telling me about this book that we had received before (what book?) and that we had written in it and scribbled on it (what book!?) and that we would be getting a new clean white book after we got baptized. I waited for my new book and wondered why I never got it! I guess nobody had ever explained metaphors to me before. I remembered Dad forgetting which arm to put up and which one to hold my arm with. I remember some kid from my elementary school (who I didn't like) who was in the changing room (what was HE doing there?) I remember coming home and seeing all my younger siblings sitting at the kitchen table scarfing down Wheaties. That was it. I didn't remember pondering whether or not I should be baptized. I considered calling home, but I didn't think that would help much.

So I then consigned myself to the fact that I might never know if I had made that decision for myself. In that very moment I felt the Holy Spirit distinctly and vividly inside me. I knew that I had made the right decision and it was me who had made it. It was very comforting in a time when I felt my faith was a little lacking. Also the knowledge that I had the Gift of the Holy Ghost with me from a young age to guide me was reassuring.

So to Brenton, I salute you! Eight is a great age to be baptized.