A Special Sunday... A Tale of Two Stories

Well, this Sunday (yesterday) we found out ward was being "split". Our stake received permission from the First Presidency of the church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), to create a branch (smaller congregation) for the members that live in Rochelle (30 minute drive west).

This is a great thing as well as a sad thing. Sad because we will miss a few friends, but great because now they won't be driving so far on Sundays and for activities.

I wanted to share a few things that happened in Relief Society that really made me feel happy. We spoke about recognizing the Spirit, or Holy Ghost (LDS church member believe that the Holy Ghost is one of the three members of the Godhead).

Story One: The Power of Respect, and Inviting the Spirit into Your Life

Ever Sunday I've been to in Sycamore, Sister Evans seems to say something worth writing down :) and she didn't fail me this Sunday (I keep my notes in Evernote, but I'll share this one here). I can't remember exactly what we were talking about but she was asking for people to share experiences with the feeling the Holy Ghost. So I shared the following story:

"It was Saturday night, two weeks ago, when I was sitting down to prepare my lesson. I've been trying really hard not to plan my lessons on Saturday night (aka procrastinate) but I just did. I felt bad, but I was going to fight the fatigue and do my best to plan. I was sitting on our little couch in our hotel room with my computer on my lap. I thought to myself, "You should say a prayer to ask for help in planning your lesson". Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. So I sat there are started a silent prayer to my Heavenly Father that I could have the Spirit with me as I prepared and as I taught. Well as I started praying I had another thought, "Get on your knees".

Boy am I glad I chose not to be lazy. I put the laptop to my side, got off the couch and knelt in prayer. A calm feeling, a feeling of respect came over me. I knew that by kneeling I was showing respect to the Lord.

Well he must have heard my prayer, because the next day class went amazing. I have literally never taught a lesson where the boys (or any other of my classes) were so respectful and reverent. I honestly believe the reason why is because I made just a small effort to show respect, as well as had an honest, sincere desire to teach by the Spirit, that I was guided in what I should say, the questions I should ask, and the stories I told. "

As I finished (aka tried to hold back tears) telling this story, trying to share how powerfully I felt the Lord bless my life, Sister Evans had a few tears run down her face. She thanked me for sharing, as well as thanked me for being her son's teacher.

After class she hugged me and thanked me again, saying she was happy we were in the ward. I feel so loved and blessed here. I am going to miss it so badly when we leave. It's amazing how fast these people have taken a place in my heart.

Which is a perfect segway into my next story....

Story Two: Feeling Christ-like Love for Your Fellow Man
Now a lot of this is hard for me to explain (it's hard to explain emotion and feelings in a way that translate to the reader) but I'll do my best.

The first Fast-Sunday we were in Sycamore (June) a sister in our congregation got up to bear her testimony. I won't share her name, but let's call her Maria. Maria is from Honduras, and does not speak very much English. When she got up to bear her testimony, she did so in Spanish. It had been a while since I'd had an experience like this. The last time I was in a testimony meeting where multiple languages were being spoken, I was in Brazil, bearing my testimony to the same ward that my husband served as a missionary in.

I remembered the anxious excitement I felt in Brazil. I remembered being nervous and asking, "should I even do this?"

So after Maria sat down, I decided I was going to get up and bear my testimony. I spoke in English, but I also bore my testimony in ever spanish word I knew that related to the gospel. I thanked Maria for her beautiful testimony and for her courage.

Well, that experience has led to a HUGE chain of events that literally has changed my life.

Because of Maria, the Spanish-speaking sister missionaries (the Hermanas) approached me about going on visits with them.

Because of Maria, I've gone out with the Hermana missionaries and have had so many faith-building experiences that confirm my commitment and belief that I belong to the restored church of Jesus Christ, the son of the one true living God.

Because of Maria, on Sunday (yesterday) I was able to have a very unique, nearly unexplainable experience with understand the love the Lord has for us. It is this experience I wanted to share.

First, I think providing a bit of background on my relationship with Maria would be helpful. Because there's actually not much. I've only interacted with her a handful of times, and to be honest I didn't learn (remember) her name until Sunday. I've only ever seen her on Sunday. We've spoken I think three times, and two of which were just in passing in the little Spanish I know. I do happen to know a bit more about her background, which I hope its OK to share. She is from Honduras, and having a hard time getting her work card/visa (?) so she can legally work in the United States. She had been working at a restaurant, washing dishes working 50+ hours/week for only $200/month. What?! When I found this out I was very frustrated. She sends the money home to her family in Honduras and barely has a bill left for her and her husband when she is done. I asked a friend I made at the hotel we are staying at if there is a possibility that they hire housekeepers in Maria's situation. I just felt like I had to do something to help this woman.

Well, on Sunday after Relief Society I went to speak with Maria, since she would no longer be attending my ward, but the newly established Rochelle Branch.

I tried to tell her that I hope she would be happy, and that I hoped to see her again. I thanked her for her testimony and told her that she gave me the courage to bear my testimony in Spanish, which has led to so many blessing in my life. I don't know how many times we hugged, or how many minutes the hugs lasted. But honestly, I have never felt the way I did when I was hugging her. It was like the genuine love and care for another person just because I knew she was important. She is important to the Lord, and the Lord loves her and that is good enough for me. I felt like we connected and had moment in our lives that just connected us, something that I wouldn't ever forget. She said (in English), "We are sisters. You are my sister."

I know, if you're reading this and not feeling the same emotion that I am writing with then this may sound silly. But for me it was a very real experience in getting a glimpse of the pure love of Christ. It was like for those few moments as we hugged that we knew exactly who were were, why were are here on this earth, and that it strengthened our resolve to be Christ-like. I am so grateful for my friend Maria.

Well I doubt most of you have gotten to this part, so I'll wrap things up. I hope its ok to share such personal stories here on the internet. It's a little nerve-wracking, but I wanted to share experiences that have helped me become a more loving and happy person.

Otter Cove Water Park

For the 4th of July we went to this really cool water park called: Otter Cove Aquatic Park.

Um, it was AWESOME! It had a lazy river, diving boards, three amazing spash-pads, a kiddle pool, a normal pool, slides, food and fun!

We spent nearly 5 hours there and just had a blast. It was so fun because Blakely LOVES the water and just goes crazy over it! There was a "frog slide" for Blakely where she would slide down its tongue into about a foot of water. I don't think we can count how many times we went on that slide. It was a great temperature, beautiful and so much fun. We were happy to have a family day together.

We headed back, ate dinner and then went to Dekalb Park for 4th of July music and fireworks. We parked about a mile away (traffic was bad... and we showed up after the party started). We didn't mind walking. We came to this super cool amphitheater, where a live orchestra was playing music. It was so quaint, and felt like a real small American town experience. They played music from Frozen, some classics and more. Loved it!

Well as the orchestra played, about 100 years away they set off a few test fire works.

Are you kidding me, we all about went deaf!! I covered Blakely's ears till they were done and then we booked it out of there. I can't believe people stayed! It was ridiculous how loud it was. So we walked back to the car to watch from our back seat/trunk. On the walk back we saw fireflies for the first time!! Wow they are cool!

The fireworks were great, and we could see them just fine. It was a great night. Just lots of fun. I love my family, I love this country, and I am so grateful for the sacrifice of others for my freedom. God Bless America!

I Married Superman

If you don't know, Brock is awesome. Like seriously. Good looking, great cook, kind, patient, loving... let's me get away with my bag obsessions (tee hee). But today we went and found the set where they filmed Smallville in the movie "Man of Steel".

We also went and found THE farmhouse they used in the movie. It was so funny, we went to this little town hall building where they had the "museum" a 20ft square room with "stuff' from the movie, signed cape and set pieces. We spoke to a woman there who was the quintessential mid-western kind ol' small-town lady. She gave us instructions to the house (which were very descriptive and did not fail us!). My favorite direction from her was... "you're going to come up to a building you think is an ice cream shop, but it's not. Don't let it fool you". Haha... well she was right, there was a 6ft ice cream cone next to some building and we figured it was the place she was talking about.

She also gave us directions to dinner. We ate a Gramma's place. No literally, like I think Gramma fed us. Haha, it was really good burger/diner food.

So here are a few pictures from our fun finding Super Hero houses and towns just 40 minutes from where we live!

Yep, this is where they filmed the fight scene in "Man of Steel"

Lots of businesses have just left these stickers on their doors and windows still. 

Superman signed this cape!! Oooo.. and we touched it!

UFO sighting... if its in the news it MUST be true!

Oh THAT'S where the 7-11 went!

Wow. Need I say more?

Happy baby at dinner!

Yup, I see the resemblance. Except Brock is cuter. 

Last Sunday and Fast Sunday

So I wanted to write about last Sunday, as well as today (Fast Sunday). For those of you that don't know what "Fast Sunday" means... it's not shorter meetings :) It's the Sunday where church members fast (don't eat or drink).

LAST SUNDAY (Our first Sunday in Sycamore)

We knew about a week or two before we arrived, that we had callings in our new ward. I am responsible for teaching the 12, 13, 14, 15 year old boys. 

Boys? Umm... Ok I don't know if I had ever even met a 12 year old boy before (obviously an exaggeration but you can understand my willing admittance to knowing nothing about this particular species of human).

When Bishop Malley called us that two weeks prior, and offered us callings, I felt the Holy Ghost tell me that I was needed. There is a reason I'm called to be their teacher. I felt so strongly that this was the right path the Lord wanted us on, it nearly brought me to tears. So immediately my mind thought about this first lesson I'd be teaching. Heck, I didn't know when I was going to have time to plan it out. But it went, perfect.

When we arrived at church, we were called as new members and then sustained with our callings. I felt the sprit so strongly, like it was wrapping its arms around our family and trying to tell us "thank you for being here".

So after sacrament meeting, I met a few new people that welcomed us, then I made my way to my new classroom. Brother Binham, from the bishopric, came with me and basically told the boys they better behave.

So 1...2...3...4...5...6... (gulp)...7...8...9... boys. Yes. There were 9 boys in my class. Awesome! My attitude toward this calling is *fist pump* bring it on - let's do this, have fun and learn lots. I have always felt very ready, and honestly it didn't take much time (if any) for me to start loving these kids. They are fun, energetic, silly, weird, handsome, strong Aaronic Priesthood holders who have great testimonies.

I made sure I asked four get to know you questions to each of the boys, not only so I could remember their names but to learn something about them. I genuinely want to get to know them better.

After having fun with asking them questions, and letting them ask me any questions they wanted we got into the lesson.

Part of me wants to write lots of details about how the lesson went, but instead I think I'm going to share one very personal, and touching experience that happened that day.

My lesson was about what we can learn from the President of our church, Thomas S. Monson, about following the promoting of the Holy Ghost. I decided to show this very very touching and person experience that President Monson tells in this video (try this link if the video link doesn't work).

I turned the video on on my MacBook then turned off the lights. My laptop was on the table, and since there were nine boys, I thought they might be able to see easier if I held the laptop on my lap. So I quietly grabbed the laptop, put it on my lap and crouched down. I was not very comfortable, but I figured it was better to be slightly uncomfortable for 3 minutes than for the boys not to be able to see.

Then something amazing happened, as we all watched in silence, President Monson revealed his story of a very sad, depressed and suicidal friend who had become partially paralyzed due to an illness. As President Monson immediately followed the prompting that he needed to immediately visit his friend, it was that very moment he arrived that his friend was contemplating an alternative to life. (Honestly... just watch the video. It is an amazing story).

As I listened to the story, I noticed the boys around me leaning in to see, I noticed them watching and listening to the story and I felt the Holy Ghost in our classroom testify of what President Monson was saying.

At that moment when President Monson says, "Never, never, never postpone a prompting." I looked up and noticed the only light in the room, the rectangular window of white light among the dark classroom. President Monson's message to "Never, never, never postpost a prompting" sunk deep into my heart.

There's a bit more to the story that's a little personal, so I won't share it online. But I guess the takeaways' are this:

• I feel like the Lord is watching over us, and we are on the right path
• I am going to commit to never ever postponing a prompting

Fast Sunday (Today)

(Gee this post is long... I'll try to shorten it up). 

Well, in continuation of last Sunday's lesson, I decided to follow a few impressions I had. I got up and bore my testimony in church. I did so after a woman in our ward bore her testimony in Spanish (she is from Honduras, does not speak English) and I thought I'd tell her thank you for bearing her testimony in the little spanish I do know, "Yo no tengo mucho palabras, perro gracius para to testimonio. Que linda!". 

Well, after church the sister missionaries in our ward (las hermanas) came up to me asking if I'd be willing to go on visits with them. 

Um... of course I said YES! But I have no idea if that means I'll be needing to bust out any more Spanish or what. Whatever it is, I'm up for it. 

We'll keep today's story short and sweet (since it's also getting late for me). This summer is a summer of YES's. Lot's of adventures, and just living life. Experiencing new things. And getting outside of my comfort zone. 

Love you all, and thanks for reading. 

Natalee

Here's a picture from our weekend adventures... more to come! 

Brock's First Day & Some Time to Myself...

Well, we drove back from St. Paul, Minnesota today. Now a five hour drive is no big deal to Brock and I, it's like a walk in the park. Ha, we've been driving so much lately. I'm glad we're finally "home" for a bit.

So Brock had orientation at 3M headquarters yesterday. It went really well. Really, really well. Apparently quite a few of the other interns are "jealous" of Brock because he's the "lucky one that got the Dekalb, IL location". Sounds like Brock is definitely with the best team (Nora and Mike) and the more we learn about 3M the more we like it. They are constantly innovating and have a great company culture. Some cool things Brock learned/saw yesterday:

• 3M designed the rubber on the bottom of Neil Armstrong's moon boots. They said the only mistake they made was not putting the 3M logo on the boot so that it would be imprinted on the moon. 
• 3M has designed a tape to be used when a patient gets an IV that doesn't pull your or skin when it comes off, and it will stick for days
• the story of how scotch tape came to be 
• 3M is like Google, in the fact that they require their employee's to work 15% in another department/something creative/do something they don't typically do 
• a lot of other cool and innovative stuff

I'm excited for Brock. I think he will do really well and I hope he's found something he is passionate about and can see himself being happy doing. 

Now that we're "home" I think this is the first time i've found myself with time alone. Blakely went to bed at about 9PM and Brock took a bath. It was SO nice to just be able to think for a second. I got caught up on some work (yes, i'm still working full time while i'm out here... lots to do... I get all my planning done in the summer, I love it. The more I do in the summer, the easier my life is during the school year), and just had time to relax, eat without worry about feeding another human, or keeping her out of trouble haha. 

It'll be a good summer.

Thanks for reading. Hope you like the updates.

The Mall of America

OK. Seriously.

I love shopping.

You'll be proud (you Brock, if you're reading this). I didn't buy anything except food, an aquarium pass which I got for $5 off, and a pony for Blakely from Build-A-Bear.

The first 15 min or so of being in the mall I was seriously giddy. This was a moment in history. A "first" in my life. I have now visited THE Mall of America. Well, at least I visited 1/2 the shops on first floor... so more like I've visited 1/16 of mall but ya know :-)

Today was fun. We walked though Nickelodeon World where all the rides and roller coasters are, saw giant Lego's at the Lego store, saw the Peeps Candy store, American Girl Doll store, lots of new restaurants, and went to the aquarium. The aquarium was SO cool. I think that was mine and Blakely's favorite part. Here... why don't I show ya some pictures from the day:

Oh, and of course! Today was Brock's official first day as a 3M intern (yes, we do get a discount on sticky notes now!). It went really well. Apparently everyone is jealous that he got the Dekalb location because his boss is the best and is known for really accelerating people's careers. Everything he learned about made this experience just seem that much cooler!

Well, I better head to bed. I drove us all the way here (5.5 hours) and I'm thinking Brock will want me to drive us all the way back :-)

Love and hugs from St Paul, Minnesota!

We've decided not to be "Mormons" any more...

Well, it only took one Sunday for us outside of Utah for us to decide that we don't want to be "Mormons" anymore. Yep. You read that correctly. We've decided we're going to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Okay, okay.... I know. That was mean.

Let me clarify. No, no we are not changing religions. But we did learn a lesson in the importance of using the full name of the Church as we've been asked by apostles including Boyd K. Packer in a 2011 General Conference talk:

SKIP TO GREEN IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ THE QUOTE FROM ELDER PACKER'S TALK:

Obedient to revelation, we call ourselves The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rather than the Mormon Church. It is one thing for others to refer to the Church as the Mormon Church or to us as Mormons; it is quite another for us to do so.

The First Presidency stated:

“The use of the revealed name, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (D&C 115:4), is increasingly important in our responsibility to proclaim the name of the Savior throughout all the world. Accordingly, we ask that when we refer to the Church we use its full name wherever possible."

“When referring to Church members, we suggest ‘members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.’ As a shortened reference, ‘Latter-day Saints’ is preferred.”"

THE STORY STARTS HERE

So here's what happened that provoked this blog post:

Saturday (May 24) we took a drive with Brock's boss, Nora. She showed us all the 3M buildings as well as downtown Dekalb and Sycamore. She helping us find things to do and get somewhat settled/welcomed and the topic of religion came up. We told her we were "LDS" or "Mormons"which (to me) she seemed to politely nod and tried to discretely hide the fact she didn't understand what we just said.

We then went to lunch where we met up with another "3M'er" and Nora's husband. While at lunch her husband (Mike Vanploeg otherwise known as Ploegger... pronounced like plug) saw a friend (Mark Aug) walk by and he stopped by the table to say hi and chat. Well guess what? Mark was a member!! When Nora asked Mark what religion he was he said, "I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" and she looked at Brock and said, "Is that the same as you?".

Well, it was at that moment that my heart kind of sank and I thought, "there should have been no doubt in her mind that we were members of the same religion". I feel like I learned a valuable lesson, which is:

Always use the full name of the Church. Do what the apostles ask, because they receive direction from the Lord and the Lord knows all things. 

It's been a good Sunday. I'm guessing a lot of you (well, OK at least the ones of you that know) are wondering how my Sunday School lesson went today. I taught nine 12-15 year old's today. Haha. I already love those kids. We'll leave that for a separate blog post so this one doesn't get too much longer. Let's just say it was energetic, yet perfect.

Life is good. The Lord is in control and thank goodness for faith, prayer and family relationships.

XOXOXO

Thanks for reading!