MaeLyn's Musings

 Peter gave a youth talk in sacrament meeting this last Sunday. Here are the notes he used to give his talk: The Importance of Temple Work (Introduction) I have been asked to give a talk on the importance of temple work. Obviously, temples are closed right now, but that doesn't mean we can't prepare for them to open again. So why are temples important? In the April 2020 general conference, Elder David A Bednar explained. "We do not build or enter holy temples solely to have a memorable individual or family experience. Rather the covenants received and the ordinances performed in temples are essential to the sanctifying of our hearts and for the ultimate exaltation of God's sons and daughters." This means that the things we do in the temple are important for us and the people we do the ordinances for. When we do baptisms for the dead, we give these people an opportunity they didn't have when they were alive. While temples are temporarily closed, we can still pr...

I attended my first LDS civil wedding on Saturday. The missionaries in our ward have been teaching a family for a while and they wanted to be baptized, but the parents needed to be married first. Our bishop officiated at the wedding, and there were several people in attendance - both their family and friends as well as many members of the ward. I think what struck me the most was the similarity between the words in the civil wedding ceremony and the temple wedding ceremony. It was like someone had taken the temple ceremony and crossed out all the good parts and just left bare bones.  "Kief, will you take Bridgette by the right hand?" "...before God and these witnesses... " "...enter into this state of matrimony..." As I listened, I felt the Spirit testifying to me that while the covenant of marriage between a man and woman is important, the temple ordinance really is a lot more wonderful. I am so grateful that I was able to receive those wonderful blessi...

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! The kids are all home from school today in honor of the occasion. They are supposed to be taking advantage of the occasion by cleaning their rooms, and while they got off to a good start, they seem to have run out of energy and will power and I don't know if anything has progressed in the last hour. Meanwhile, I cleaned my room, including cleaning the closet and changing the sheets on my bed. I feel like I've set my example for the kids, and now I can relax and play. Maybe I will work on my quilt. Hannah wants to have a picnic in the park if they get their rooms clean before lunch time. I don't see it happening, but they can try for it. On Thursday afternoon I took Peter to the doctor. He's had a blistery looking thing on his thumb for a week or so that seemed to be growing and crusting over. I didn't remember any injury to his finger that could have caused it, and since it was getting worse instead of better, I took him in. The d...