...as time goes by

Hi Everyone!
So, this week has gone by pretty fast. We spent some time on Saturday with our neighborhood at the Fall Festival.

Kids dressed up... some adults did too!








Kati is a "Celestial Sorceress"
(those are two words I never imagined using in a sentence together... go figure)












Halle is "Hannah Montana"















Lots of fun, lots of candy!!!



I spoke in Church on Sunday - I felt relieved when it was done. I had some really interesting thoughts about the topic/s... the overall topic was Truth & Conversion. My part was Finding Truth. Turns out that the direction I went was that Truth equates to Testimony. Testimony. A few months ago, Elder David Bednar was at our Stake Conference. In his talk on Saturday evening, he taught us from the New Testiment, Matthew 25, the parable of the 10 virgins, and substituting the Lamp as Testimony, and Oil as Conversion. The path from testimony to conversion is Obedience. I then drew from this talk given in the Priesthood Session of this most recent General Conference - WOW!!! (This is one of the excerpts that I used)




Elder James J. Hamula Of the Seventy

Now, you may wonder how to acquire the faith, testimony, and consecration of spirit necessary to overcome the adversary. Let me assure you that these qualities are already within you. You simply need to recover them. To that end, allow me to make three suggestions.
First, do as young Joseph Smith did. Find a quiet place and pray to your Father in Heaven.
Do so regularly and earnestly. Prayer is a precondition to revelation. The more regular and earnest the prayer, the more frequent the revelation. When received, revelation provides the evidence or assurance of things unseen, which is the foundation of faith.
Second, learn to hear the voice of the Lord. His is a still, small, and whisper-like voice.
It is one that is felt more than it is heard. It comes in the form of thoughts, feelings, and impressions. To hear such a voice, you must be still and quiet in your own soul, laying aside your excess laughter and light-mindedness. While it may not seem easy to so discipline your life, hearing the precious, loving voice of the Lord will sustain you in every circumstance and is therefore worth every effort.
Third, obey the word of the Lord as it is given to you. His word will not only love and comfort but invariably instruct and correct. Do as He bids you to do, no matter how hard it may seem to you, and do it now. It is in doing the will of the Lord that knowledge of Him and love for Him accrue to your soul, which leads you to be ever more willing to lay down your own life and follow Him.

I was very touched by that talk - that is the path from Testimony to Conversion. I have decided, too, that I need to read "Jesus The Christ" and strengthen my testimony and conversion of Jesus Christ.


After church, and a short nap, we went to Grandma & Grandpa's and took some Family Pictures. :) *CHEESE*



Halle, Mom, Kati, Dad








Kati,Halle, Mom










Kati

Halle



















Kati, Halle











We'll probably take some more this Sunday - before the Fall leaves are gone and the weather is too cold to be outside for more than 10 minutes!

We got our EOB's for our dentist visits last week - ouch... I think that hurts worse than the actual proceedure. What's worse? Kati needs braces - talk about OUCH!!! We have a few months to prepare for that - 6-8, depending on how fast her teeth grow in. Halle had the start of a cavity - I'm sure it's from her "sugar diet" that she's adopted -- just ask her about it sometime.

Halle had an eye dr. appointment today to see if there's some "validity" to her constant headaches. ("I have a headache" - I just thought it was because she didn't want to play with Kati!) Turns out that there IS validity to her headaches - yes, she needs reading glasses. That doesn't hurt as much as braces, but $200 is still an "ouch." Oh yeah, that's just our portion.

I guess that's enough blabbing for one night -- I've probably shared more than I need to with the whole wide world (www). I'm going to try and keep up with this as our family journal although I'm going to try not to divulge information that I don't want the entire world to see! :)

Ciao for Now... luv, Heidi