MaeLyn's Musings

 When a member of the bishopric sent a message to my husband several weeks ago asking if we both could meet with him, I was mystified. Usually that kind of invite suggests a major calling, but we both currently have stake callings, so that wasn't likely. The call ended up being an invitation to plan the ward Easter party, and they wanted something more Christ focused than bunnies and egg hunts. A week later, we found out that it would be a combined activity with another ward, and that a representative from their ward would assist us.  I'm not usually a party planner - one of my kids got one birthday party growing up. Thank goodness that Steven loves to plan and organize. He was the one who came up with our overarching theme. In the end, I think the activity turned out really well. Here are some of the features: The Garden of Eden This area was a reminder of how the Savior created the world, with an opportunity to create a simple banner that people could bring home and use to...

(Here is the talk that I gave today in church.) Image by ChatGPT, a person using instructions to build a model airplane. I love to make things. I like to sew, knit, crochet, bake bread, put together puzzles and LEGO sets. Some of you may like to do similar things. Maybe you like to do carpentry or make fly fishing lures, or build models or whatever. Something that I have learned over the years is that when I make something new and complicated for the very first time, it is a good idea to follow the instructions. Some instructions, patterns, recipes, blueprints, and tutorials are better and easier to follow than others.… but the best instructions are made by an expert: someone who has experience. They’ve done it before, they’ve done the measuring, they know what materials and tools are needed, they’ve experimented with different ingredients to get the best flavors and textures. They’ve figured out the best way to get the best result. And then these experts kindly made the instructions t...

 How long is the ideal length of time between when you are asked to give a talk in church, and the day that you give the talk?  3 days? 5 days? A week? Two weeks? A month? On Tuesday evening I received a text from a member of the bishopric asking if I would be willing to give a talk in church this Sunday. I said yes. I don't mind giving talks, and our ward has so few active members that those of us who are willing get asked about once a year. What I do mind, however, is the short notice. For me, the ideal amount of time is closer to two weeks than the 5 days or less that I've been given the last few times I've been asked to speak.  Imagine a world famous chef is asked to cater a dinner party. Imagine the exquisite meal he could prepare - the freshest vegetables, the tenderest meats, everything perfectly seasoned, and each dish complimenting the others in a feast for the eyes as well as the palette.  Now imagine that same chef is asked to cater a dinner party - that e...

I have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints all my life. At first, I believed because that was what I was raised to believe. My parents believed it and taught it, and that was what I was used to. Last week , I wrote about personal experiences that I had which helped me to come to know for myself that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. Is it important for people to figure out for themselves about what is true? If we just blindly obey what we are told is right, will we end up in the same place as those who search and struggle to learn for themselves? I don't believe so. I believe we must each find out for ourselves what is truth and right. In the Beginning... Before we came to this earth, we lived with our Heavenly Father and all our spiritual siblings. Our Father presented a plan that would give us experiences that would help us to progress and become more like him. He knew that we would make mistakes while we were learning, so he called for a volun...

I just got home from dropping Hannah off at the airport. She is flying to Salt Lake, where my sister Lindy will pick her up and take her to the MTC in Provo. She enters the MTC at 12:30 this afternoon, and will officially be Sister Hiatt, missionary. I don't know how I feel about this yet. It doesn't seem real that I'm not going to see her for eighteen months, that she'll spend most of that time *hopefully* on the other side of the world. I am grateful that she made the decision to serve a mission, and I think she will be amazing. She seems so self-confident and grown up - much more so than I felt when I left to serve, and I was a couple years older than she is now. Last Friday, we received an email from our stake president to inform us that Hannah's visa hadn't arrived yet, so she was being reassigned to the Provo MTC. It was a bit disappointing that she wasn't heading to Brazil immediately, but this gives her a little more time to learn some Portuguese...

I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting on Easter Sunday. Here is my talk, as I wrote it out (which is always slightly different from how I actually give it): I. The Plan   Once upon a time, we lived with our loving Father in Heaven. There was nothing we wanted more than to be like our Father. Not only did he know everything there was to know, not only was he perfectly good, not only did he love all his children totally and unconditionally, but he also had a perfect body – one that would never get sick or injured, one that would live forever. And we, well, we didn’t have bodies at all yet. We were just little spirit children, and we didn’t have much experience yet. But we loved our wonderful Father dearly and we wanted to grow up to become like him. Father, being wise and loving, made it his work to help us obtain what we desired – bodies that would live forever, and also a chance to gain experience, to learn and grow so we could eventually have the kind of life that our F...

I was asked to speak in sacrament meeting yesterday. I spoke using just a brief outline, but here is the draft that outline was created from: In a 1993 Conference talk , Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin quoted a woman who described her feelings about a winter storm in Canada. She said, ““I love a winter storm. … When the wind starts to blow and the snow begins to fall, a feeling of excitement starts to build. … When I can’t see the trees at the neighbor’s farmyard, … I phone my husband! … He then picks up the children who are at school. … It is hard to describe the feelings I experience as our family is gathered home, and the storm rages outside. … And I love it! Everyone is safe; we are together. We have lots of food and water. The longer it lasts, the better. … We are shut off from the world. … We bask in the warmth of our home and in the warmth of our love. My heart is full, and I am at peace. Sometimes, I wish I could just stay like that forever, with my family gathered around me, pro...

Yesterday I taught Relief Society, Chapter 1 of Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Fielding Smith, entitled Our Father in Heaven . There is a lot of awesome stuff in this lesson, so I had to pick and choose which things I went over to make sure I would have enough time to get through to the end. I like the teaching help at the end of Chapter 2: "[Avoid] the temptation to cover too much material. . . . We are teaching people, not subject matter per se; and . . . every lesson outline that I have ever seen will inevitably have more in it than we can possibly cover in the allotted time" (Jeffrey R. Holland, "Teaching and Learning in the Church," Ensign , June 2007, 91). So my Relief Society got a condensed version. But here I don't have as many constraints (or discussion) so here are the thoughts I had on the lesson. Since this was the first lesson we had from this book, I began by showing a picture of the prophet Joseph Fielding Smith, and briefly...