July 5th

Pictures of Maren's family and Kirsten waiting for the Kaysville Parade

We have church at 1:30 p.m. now so we have more time in the morning.  I let the alarm stay on 6:00 a.m. because we had slept so much but we turned it off until 7:00 a.m. and then turned over and hugged for another hour and a half.  We finally decided we would not wake up if we did not get in the shower.

After Showering we read scriptures and then Larry ate but I was fasting so I started to get dressed.  We were finally dressed by 10:30 a.m.  So I started on finishing the blog from yesterday that I had fallen asleep on.  Larry was deleting the 900 emails that he had in his inbox.

Cieli on the 4th of July

We finally left for church at about 10 minutes to 1:00 p.m.  We got there a few minutes early so we were able to talk to the missionaries and a few people in the congregation.

Sacrament was the bearing of testimonies and there were some good testimonies.  Nathan bore a testimony and included in it how it is hard to have people help him with things that he cannot do.  That is an understatement.  But still he seems to be accepting people doing things more and more.

Sunday School was about the Church that Jesus organized according to the scriptures and compared it somewhat to the church that we have today which is the same organization.

Hawaiian fireworks so we did not miss the fireworks

Relief Society had the Young Women come in and the Bishop read and explained the First Presidency's message on the church's stand on the recent ruling of the Supreme Court on Same Sex Marriage.  Then the Young Women went back to their classes and we had a lesson from the Bishop on the importance of Religious Freedom.  He took some of his remarks from Elder Hale's talk in April General Conference entitled "Preserving Agency, Protecting Religious Freedom"

Today they started a practice of having a break the fast linger longer after church because we are the last ward in the building.  That is where everyone brings a pot-luck dish and then everyone shares it.  It had a lot of good food and we were able to talk with several members of the ward more on a one on one basis.

Cieli Rose

When we got home we looked at Facebook and there were several more pictures that were posted of our children and grandchildren so we saved those to show you.

BJ, Cieli, and Holly on the 4th

After that we read scriptures and commentaries on John Chapter 1 in the New Testament and discussed it together.

Maren and Landon's family having fun waiting for the fireworks in Kaysville

Now I am finishing the blog.

This fast was a hard fast for me.  But I prayed to Heavenly Father to strengthen me and I could feel that strength come over the night.  I associate eating sometimes as a way to help my pain and so sometimes I eat just to feel better and emotionally it is very hard for me to fast and forget my food.  But I am proud of the fact that today I was able to complete a 24 hour fast with the help of the Spirit.  That is one thing that I have learned on this mission that I have to be willing to turn my problems over to the Lord and he will help me to feel better.  I have often had him help me overcome feelings of anger and dissipate them through the spirit.  The Lord truly can help us with all out problems and weaknesses and sins if we will only turn to him.