Visit with Uncle Gary and Aunt Val

Uncle Gary and Aunt Val were in town this weekend on Church business.  Uncle Gary is serving as first counselor in the North America West area of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  They were kind enough to take time out of their busy schedule to come visit us for a few hours yesterday afternoon.  They also attended our Ward Sacrament Meeting in the morning.  Uncle Gary gave a wonderful talk to our Ward.

One of my favorite parts of his talk was when he said that we all have angels round about us to bear us up to help us through mortality.  I often think of Mom and Dad helping me as my angels from the other side.  Along with other loved ones who have crossed through the veil.  Heaven knows we can all use some help from the other side to navigate through our mortal journey.

He also told a story about his grandson Eric who when he was younger was visiting and Aunt Val was making pancakes.  Uncle Gary said he added chocolate chips to them to enhance them.  Well little Eric wanted nothing to do with the pancakes with "burnt spots".  After much encouragement, Uncle Gary finally convinced Eric to take one bite and made sure that there was a chocolate chip in that bite.  Naturally, Eric loved it and said they were the best pancakes ever.  Then Uncle Gary compared the pancakes to life.  Often times we see only "burnt spots" when in reality the burnt spots are actually chocolate chips.

Rex, Lisa,  Aunt Val, Uncle Gary
Tammy

We had a lovely visit catching up with family members, sharing stories, learning a little bit more about the apostles, and just enjoying each other's company.  Uncle Gary and Aunt Val are wonderful people who epitomize charity – the pure love of Christ.  Uncle Gary was released as a General Authority Seventy this past General Conference and will complete his service on August 1 and receive emeritus status.  They have served valiantly for many years.

Being a General Authority is a demanding call to serve the Lord.  I am thankful for Uncle Gary and Aunt Val for their dedicated service and sacrifice to the Lord and His Church.  I appreciate their effort to make time to come visit us.  I am blessed to call them family.

That's my two cents.

The Path

I read a portion of this quote in the Liahona this morning.  I really liked it, so I went to the source and found the full quote.  I'm not going to elaborate because I just want to get this posted today.  But I really love this quote by Elder Renland.

"No matter how long we have been off the path or how far away we have wandered, the moment we decide to change, God helps us return. From God’s perspective, through sincere repentance and pressing forward with a steadfastness in Christ, once back on the path, it will be as if we were never off. The Savior pays for our sins and frees us from the looming decrease in happiness and blessings. This is referred to in the scriptures as forgiveness. After baptism, all members slip off the path—some of us even dive off. Therefore, exercising faith in Jesus Christ, repenting, receiving help from Him, and being forgiven are not onetime events but lifelong processes, processes that are repetitive and iterative. This is how we “endure to the end.”

"We need to choose whom we will serve. The magnitude of our eternal happiness depends on choosing the living God and joining Him in His work."  – Elder Dale G. Renlund, "Choose You This Day", October 2018 General Conference

I love this quote so much because so many people feel like they've been off the covenant path so long that there is no hope for them to return.  But this is not true!  There is hope for everyone.  No matter how far off the path we wander or for how long we've been gone.  That's the beauty of our Savior's atonement.

I really like the part that says that once we are back on the path it was like we never left.  I love that.  So beautiful. 

So if you've wandered off the path, please choose to come back.  The magnitude of our eternal happiness depends on whom we choose to serve.  Please choose to serve God on His covenant path.

That's my two cents.

Happy 100th Birthday Grandma Stone

Today would have been my paternal grandmother's 100th birthday.  She was born April 17, 1924.  My memories of her include riding horses, her playing honky-tonk music by ear on the piano, and feeding cattle.  She died on October 28, 2016 at the age of 92.

Grandma Stone and Tammy
Stone Ranch – Clearlake Oaks, California
Early 1971

Happy 100th birthday Grandma Stone!

We Are Doomed

We are doomed.  I know that the younger generation – Millennials/Gen Z – are lazy, entitled, and selfish.  But I had no idea how bad it really is.  It is much worse than I ever thought.

They are addicted to their phones to the point of thinking they will lose their life if they can't stare at their cell phone like a zombie all day. All the while ignoring real life going on around them.  What is with people in the same room text messaging each other?  It makes no sense to me.  Apparently the younger generation doesn't know how to communicate verbally.  It's pathetic.

These young parents don't want to parent.  They have kids and then expect their parents to raise their kids for them.  I know several examples of whole families moving in with their parents/in-laws to have them raise their children for them.  While the young parents selfishly sleep or stare at their cell phones all day, just doing what they want – totally ignoring their children.  All the while the grandparents are chasing the kids around all day, keeping an eye on them because the parents won't.  And having to feed them because the parents won't.  Trying to teach them so they will grow up to be good, productive members of society.  And just giving them the love that they crave – because the parents don't.  It's pretty sad.

Or the parents will drop the kids off all day while they work so that the grandparents will raise the kids for them.  Because going to work is a lot easier than raising children.  The poor worn out grandparents willingly raise their grandkids because they love their grandchildren and don't want them to be neglected, ignored, or abused.

Numerous times I've seen little ones going up to mommy and daddy trying to get their attention while the parent is staring at their cell phone yelling at the kid to go away or ignoring them completely.  I'm surprised these poor kids survive physically let alone emotionally.  They are not fed either way.  The poor kids today have no hope.

These kids are going to grow up not knowing how to function in society because they were never taught the basics of life by their parents.  All they are going to learn is what they are indoctrinated with at school.  Schools don't even teach reading, writing, and arithmetic anymore.  Not even basic skills.  But they do teach liberalism, transgenderism, LGBTQ, DEI, racism, false history, pseudoscience, nonsensical math, and all manner of lies. So not only do kids nowadays not learn the 3Rs, they are being destroyed by evil lies of leftist indoctrination.  And Millennial parents don't seem to care, they just want the kids out of their hair.

What baffles me is these Millennials who were raised by good parents, who taught them how to be good parents, yet themselves are terrible parents.

These Millennials think everybody owes them everything.  They move into their parents' house to have them raise their kids for them while acting as if they are doing their parents a favor by gracing them with their presence.  This is how prideful, conceited, egotistical, and selfish they are.  It's all about me.  They take over the house as if they own the joint,, yet contribute nothing.  Always taking, never giving.  They are easily offended at every little thing, and are always negative and angry.  It's a sad life.

And heaven forbid you ask a Millennial to work.  Perish the thought!  How could they stare at their phones or sleep all day if they had to work?  They wouldn't have time to go play or do what they want to do if they had to work.  They exist, therefore they should get everything handed to them on a silver platter.

I guess this is, in part, the result of being raised in an environment where everybody gets a prize for everything, even losing.  There are many reasons to explain what's going wrong with Millennials and the younger generation.  I would put turning away from God and religion at the top of the list.  Which goes hand-in-hand with moral degradation.  But regardless of the causes, the degradation of society for future generations is in a downward spiral.  We are doomed.

That's my two cents.

Uncle Holland

General Conference just ended.  It was another wonderful weekend of inspiration, counsel, and encouragement.  I just love General Conference weekend.  Before I give my summary of what stood out to me, I want to share a story about what happened yesterday morning.

Yesterday morning while Lisa was getting me ready we were talking about how trying counts.  Lisa mentioned that a lot of people lose hope because they think they are too far gone and there is no saving them.  But they are mistaken because trying counts.  I was trying to say that Elder Holland said in a recent talk that we shouldn't get discouraged because trying counts.  But what came out was, "Uncle Holland said…".  

Lisa and I had a big laugh about that.  I later said that I hoped we get to hear from "Uncle Holland" today (in General Conference).  Then Lisa mentioned "Uncle Holland" in her breakfast prayer.  And guess what?  "Uncle Holland" was the first speaker in the Saturday morning session.  It was awesome!  Because of illness, "Uncle Holland" missed speaking in the last two conferences (April and October 2023).  So, it was the first time he had spoken in General Conference since October 2022.

"Uncle Holland" gave an amazing talk as usual.  He talked a lot about prayer.  He mentioned that Heavenly Father hears and answers every prayer – although not always in the way we want.  He talked about his wife, Pat, and how many people were praying for her to live, but she died.  So those prayers were not answered in the way everyone wanted.  But, even though we don't understand, Heavenly Father in his infinite wisdom knows what's best.  Then he talked about how 48 hours after he buried his wife, he had a medical crisis and was in the hospital for six weeks, mostly in ICU.  He mentioned that his memory is vague of being in the hospital but he does have a memory of being in the Spirit World.  But those experiences are too sacred to mention in General Conference.  He did talk about all the people that prayed for him while he was ill and that those prayers were answered in the way we were all hoping for, because he made a full recovery from the brink of death.  He mentioned how grateful he was to everyone who prayed for him.  Like "Uncle Holland", I too know that Heavenly Father hears every prayer and answers in a way that is for our eternal benefit – even though we may not fully understand His reasoning.  With Elder Holland being an apostle for most of my adult life, I can honestly say that he is like an uncle to me.

Now, I just want to summarize my take on General Conference while it's still fresh in my mind.  Some of the things that stuck out to me are prayer, temples and temple worship, trials and keeping covenants.

There were a handful of talks about prayer.  Which, in this evil, wicked world is vitally important in keeping our communication open with God.  As I just mentioned, God hears and answers every prayer.

Several talks on temples and temple worship.  In fact that was our prophet, President Russell M. Nelson's, main message was about the importance of temple worship and the blessings we receive from it.

There were a few talks about trials and how trials are part of our mortal journey.  We can't grow and progress without them.  They are necessary for our spiritual development and progress.  We are never alone in our trials.

A few talks on keeping covenants and staying on the covenant path.  Enduring to the end.  We need to feed our spirits every day like we feed our bodies.  Only feeding our spirits once a week on Sundays is not enough to survive spiritually. 

Those are just a few of my thoughts.  I'm excited to rewatch conference, in the coming weeks, to be able to glean more from all the wonderful talks.  It was truly a wonderful conference.  Always edifying and uplifting.

Just an aside, Uncle Gary – my actual, biological uncle :-) – A.K.A. Elder Gary B Sabin, was released as a General Authority Seventy effective August 1.  He will receive emeritus status on that date as he turns 70 this year.  His birthday is actually today!  Happy Birthday Uncle Gary!  General Authority Seventies, unlike prophets and apostles, only serve until their 70th year.  Then they are given emeritus status.

If you didn't take the opportunity to watch General Conference this weekend, I would highly recommend you do so.  The transcripts will be out in a few days but I believe you can watch the talks immediately.  Here is a link to the Saturday morning session . From that link you can find the other sessions.

I am so thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, and His true church.  I'm thankful for living prophets and apostles that lead and guide His Church.  I'm grateful that we get to hear from the Lord through His living prophets and apostles every six months via General Conference.  I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the joy, happiness, and peace it brings to me.

That's my two cents.

Fifth Annual Myron Hampton Stone Memorial 2 Mile Awards

We just got the awards for this year's race.  Here are some photos:

The trophies aren't quite as nice as the past couple of years but they were discontinued so these will have to do.

I hope you're all getting excited for the race in July.  Should be fun!

That's my two cents.