'Rona Requires Home Church

This week marked the 8th week that we have been having church at home.  When the Corona Pandemic shut down the entire world, it included church.  Large groups can not gather, and of course, church is a large group. Luckily, the President of our church was inspired a while ago to start home centered church supported church programs called, Come, Follow Me.  When church was announced cancelled, we already knew exactly how to continue with our home church services.  I am so grateful for modern day revelation, and for church leaders who are inspired by God.  

Every Sunday, we get ready just as if we were leaving the house to go to church.  All the kids are in their Sunday best, minus shoes.  We either sit in the living room on the couch or in the kitchen around the table.  The best part is that Kevin is worthy and has the authority to bless and pass the sacrament. It has been wonderful to still have the ability to partake of the sacrament each week to renew our baptismal covenants.  We even had some super nice sacrament cloths made and sent to us by my sister, Lisa.  Before her cloths, we were just using paper towels, because that is all we had.  

Our Sunday home church has usually been about an hour.  We take turns preparing a talk and talking about different things from the scriptures or about gospel principles.  We also take the time to listen or watch a conference talk and then take time to talk about it and apply it to our family.  We always have an opening prayer and song, and a closing song and prayer.  Some of the Sundays, Big Sis or M&M has even played a church song on their cello and violin for us.  It has been a very sacred and uplifting experience for us.  After our church services, we will either learn a primary song as a family, or talk about the weeks scripture reading. One of our most favorite things to do after our home church is to watch Drawn In.  I have a subscription for the redheadedhostess, and part of her subscription includes weekly videos by artist David Bowman as he draws and describes the weeks scripture readings for Come, Follow Me.  David Bowman takes the scriptures and makes it so even our Little Monster can understand the material.  We love watching Drawn In.  

A few weeks after the world shut down and church was closed until further notice, I reached out to my family to see if they wanted to do a family church service together.  Every week at 6pm our time, the family gets together on a zoom meeting to be spiritually uplifted together.  It has been so great to see family every week.  The kids have loved seeing their cousins and Aunts and Uncles.  It has been great to feel their spirits and feel my spirit be strengthened by them. We can't commit to every Sunday, because 6pm is awful late for our two littles, and Monster especially is on crazy mode by that time, but we join when we can.  I think my kids have seen family more during this time of COVID than they have the past 3 years.

This Sunday was a special Sunday because it was Mother's Day.  Kevin had all the girls prepare a talk on Mothers.  It was such a joy to hear all my girls and their sweet words.  Lucky for me, they all wrote down their talks, so I am going to include all of their talks.  It made me feel such joy to be learning from my little ladies.

Little A's talk on Mothers for Mother’s Day 2020:

God gave us mothers because if we did not have a mother then how will we be born?  Who will watch over you when your dad is gone and no one will do everything?  If we did not have a mother, who will do cooking, shopping, cleaning?  No one would give us  attention. So, God gave us mothers so we can be born.  He also gave them to us so we can be taken care of.  I am grateful that I have a mother of my own.  So the real reason I am talking about mothers is that they can be with us all the time and also that dad can not be alone all the time.  Also they can help each other and I love my mom. 

Big Sis's talk for Mother's Day 2020: 

Good morning to you all. So the topic that we all were given is “Why did Heavenly Father give us mothers?” 

In the October 2001 general conference, Sister Sheri L. Dew gave a wonderful talk called “Are we not all mothers?” She explains many great things about the role of mothers, and why Heavenly Father gave us mothers. She says, “This summer four teenage nieces and I shared a tense Sunday evening when we set out walking from a downtown hotel in a city we were visiting to a nearby chapel where I was to speak. I had made that walk many times, but that evening we suddenly found ourselves engulfed by an enormous mob of drunken parade-goers. It was no place for four teenage girls, or their aunt, I might add. But with the streets closed to traffic, we had no choice but to keep walking. Over the din, I shouted to the girls, “Stay right with me.” As we maneuvered through the crush of humanity, the only thing on my mind was my nieces’ safety.

Thankfully, we finally made it to the chapel. But for one unnerving hour, I better understood how mothers who forgo their own safety to protect a child must feel. My siblings had entrusted me with their daughters, whom I love, and I would have done anything to lead them to safety. Likewise, our Father has entrusted us as women with His children, and He has asked us to love them and help lead them safely past the dangers of mortality back home.” 

There are two words that really sum up why we have mothers. Leading and loving are those two words. Mothers roles are not only to care for and look out for her or other children, but to also lead them, and love them. Sister Dew really touched on this and I highly recommend reading the rest of her talk. She also says that Heavenly Father gave us mothers so that they will help him love and lead and care for his children that are here on earth. Mom has done such a wonderful job at doing this. I am so grateful that there is a day that we get to celebrate mom because she definitely deserves it. Mom has led us through so many situations, both easy and hard ones. She has taught us all new things and has given us the love that no other person could give us. 

The influence of mothers on their children have been seen and recorded throughout all of the Book of Mormon history. One of the most easiest ones to see is the story of the 2000 stripling warriors. The warriors' mothers taught them to truth and have faith in the lord, and because they did, not a single one of those mothers' sons were lost through the battle in which they served in. 

Elder Jeffery R. Holland, in the October 2015 general conference, gave a talk called, “Behold Thy Mother.” He says so many wonderful things in this talk. He says, “...no love in mortality comes closer to approximating the pure love of Jesus Christ than the selfless love a devoted mother has for her child…”

I am so grateful that countless times that mom has simply come up to me and gave me a hug or said, “I love you” because elder Holland is right, and no love is great then the love of God then the love given by a mother. I love my mom and for all the many wonderful blessings that she has given to me and to everyone else in this family. I know that God gave us mothers so we can also learn to be just like them and that we all will have a chance to give our love and guidance to others as well. 

M&M Talk on Mother’s Day 2020:

Hi! I prepared a talk dedicated to Mothers and my mom on this very special Mother’s Day. Mothers have been around for so long. They are mentioned in the scriptures a lot. One of my most favorite scripture story about mothers in in Alma 56 verses 47 and 48. In these verses, Helaman takes his army of two thousand and he takes them to war. They are all boys and men and they fought with the power of the lord. They also believed in the words that their mothers taught them. They were told by their mothers that god would deliver them and they trusted their mothers. After the battle, Helaman counted his men and he found out. That not one had fallen to the Earth and not one of them had been killed. They fought with the strength of the lord and trusted the words of their mothers. 

Mom, you have taught me many things that have kept me from hitting rock bottom. You cheer me up when I am having a bad day and you even take time from doing things that you want to do to helping all of us. You always put us before yourself and we are so thankful that we have a mom like you. You have taught me to never give up and to keep trying my hardest. 

Elder Ballard says “There is no one perfect way to be a mother, each situation is unique. Each mother has different challenges, different skills and abilities, and certainly different children. Elder Ballard acknowledges that some women are “ able to be full time moms “ and that some may divide their lives into periods of home and family and work, but “ what matters is that a mother loves her children deeply and , in keeping devotion she has for God and her husband, prioritizes them above all. “ 

Elder Ballard also said that “because our mothers love us, we learn, or more accurately remember, that God also loves us. “Mothers give us time, love, happiness, and so much more things that they can’t all be listed. My mom is amazing and I am so lucky to have a mom like her. You have taught me so much mom and I have learned so many things from you. I love you so much. 

Big Sis at Europe International FSY

Hi. I'm big sis and boy what a full week I just had. I had the opportunity to got to the European FSY for my first time, just 1 day after we got back from Girls Camp. But I must warn you, if you read this, be prepared to be reading for a while because I've got lots of good things to tell you about.

Day 1:
All of the youth from all of the wards meet up at our church and so we could all get onto the buses together. I am so glad that Girls Camp came first because I got the chance to already know half of the youth that were going. It was so much fun seeing all the people I recognized. Addy is one of my friends from girls camp and she was riding in the same bus as me and so it was nice to have friends to sit next to on the ride up.

The bus ride was about 4 hours long and everyone was pretty much just sleeping since it was so early in the morning. When we finally get to the campus, there are already people dancing and welcoming us. We were in an area that was kind of in the middle of nowhere, but it was still very beautiful.
We had to check in and then we got to meet our councilors who were going to be with us the entire week. Our councilors showed us to our rooms, and I got even more excited when I saw who was sharing a room with me. I had Corynn, Katie, Addison, Tessa, Maddison, Alana, and then there were 4 other girls that I didn't know, Sofia, Tina, Maleyna, and Aseneth. Me, Alana, Maddie, Addie, Aseneth, Maleyna, and Tessa are sharing a room and the 4 other girls had a separate room.

We all get together and play get to know you games with our councilor, Elena.

Then after while, we meet up with our guy half of the group. There councilor's name is David. Every company had 10 boys and 10 girls and the group was called a company. we played more fun get to know you games. After learning everyones names and having a little free time, we go to our very first devotional.

We are introduced to our FSY head leaders, and all of the councilors.

Afterwards, there is a sign up for a variety show. I brought my violin with me, and so I decided to sign up. I already had butterflies in my stomach as I was signing up. I did a little bit of exploring around the huge campus and I found this big map that you can put pins as to where you gave been or lived before. It was really neat to see how many places so much people have been.

The cafeteria is sort of set up as a circus tent, same design and everything, and that was where we have all of our meals. They are always serving really good things to eat. After dinner, everyone gathers and we have a FHE lesson. Then our individual companies have a FHE. We learn some really important principals in these lesson that they give us. After the lesson, our company plots up and we got to our individual dorms. We stay up and talk with our councilor some more and then finally get tired enough to sleep. Such a full day.

Day 2:
There are 2 girls in my room that wanted to get up super early to go running. They set an alarm on one of there watches for 5 am. The only person that it woke up was me, not them. It was so hot in our room, and we couldn't open our window, so the room was like a sauna. After 5 minutes of that alarm going off they finally woke up and left. Everyone else gets up eventually and we have our room morning devotional and then we got to breakfast. It was a very good breakfast in my opinion. We have a company scripture study session. It was really nice because they allowed us to do it outside which made it super peaceful.

We have a morning side devotional next were they introduce our lesson teachers for that day. Me and Addie go to the lessons together. We could only attend 3.5 of the 4 lessons. We had to leave early because we had to try-out for the variety show. I think we did really good. At dinnertime, it was so hot in the tent that almost everyone was eating outside. It felt really nice outside, the hot sun with a cool breeze. After dinner, we had the casual dance. It was out in the tiny courtyard and so it was super crowded. The dance was from 5:45 to 8:45 which is a little too long, but still so much fun.

After the dance, all to boys where shewed away to their dorms so the girls could have girls night. There was a really funny lip singing preformed by some of the boy councilors, which made it even more funny.

We danced for a little longer and then went to our dorms. I was so tired that the other girls said that I was the first one asleep. Haha. Anyways, it was such a fun day and I learned a lot of really important things.

Day 3:
I was super tired this morning because we went to bed late and woke up early. Also my feet are a little sore from the dance. I got to do our morning devotional in our room, and then we got down to breakfast. It was the same thing as yesterday, but it was still good. We have another morning side devotional, and then we have the chance to go to different classes again. We have a great lesson about Christ and the Word of Wisdom, then we have a lesson about how to teach like a missionary. It was an interesting way of looking at the Preach My Gospel book.

We have lunch and lots of free time after the lessons. I got the sudden thought to go and do family history, and so I went to the main hall, and did indexing. It was so much fun to do. I did indexing for about an hour and then we have dinner.  Afterwards, we gather as a company again and we use a scripture verse to give our company a name, "The Righteous Ones". We make up a cheer and create a banner.

 After we are done, we present it in front of everybody. We get 3rd place overall for the best banner and cheer. Super cool.

After everyone had finished presenting their banner and cheers, us girls are the ones that are shewed out of the room this time. We go to our dorms and have a little midnight snack. We talked about girly things and had fun joking around. After we finished talking, we went to our dorms. Our room had fun playing around some more. Tomorrow I know if I get into the show or not.

Day 4:
We had our normal morning routine, devotional, breakfast and stuff like that, but today was a little different, we had to wear Sunday wear all day today. So us girls got ourselves all pretty and things like that. Before we go into the morning lesson, I got told that I did get into the Variety Show, and that we are preforming this afternoon. Yay!!! We have a great lesson about Christ-like attributes and then all of the people that were chosen go to the great hall to do dress rehearsals.

We do rehearsal and then it is time for the real show. Everyone comes in and then we start. I was third to preform. the first person goes, then the second, then before I know it, I'm the one on the stage. I was so nervous I actually started playing another song, but I was able to transition back to my actual song. Then people started to clap to the beat which threw me off a little. Finally, my song was finished. The rest of the show went on. I asked my friends afterwards if I sounded ok, they said that I was so awesome and that they didn't even realize that I changed songs in the middle. I was so relieved.

Then everybody goes outside to do our tradition FSY group picture. It took about 20 minutes to get everybody just right, but then they took the picture and we go back inside.
(1st one)

(Better one)

Dinner was a German dumpling. I thought it was dessert because a German dumpling is a bread roll with jelly in the middle and vanilla pudding and cinnamon on the top. Can you see how I thought that it was dessert? Anyways, it was my most favorite dinner by far, and then we listen to the FSY choir. I twisted my foot in my heels on the way to listen to them. Note to all those who wear heels, don't put them on halfway and then walk, it will not feel very good in the end. My bad. The choir did so good and then we have our company testimony meeting. It was super spiritual. All of us girls go back to our dorms and go to bed. It was a very long day and I felt really good that I got to share my talent with 400 other people. It made me very happy.

Day 5:
For the first time this entire week, it was actually cold at night. It felt so good at the time, that was until we had to go outside. We have the usually morning routine. We eat breakfast as a company for once, then have a morning side devotional again. Afterwards, we got to 4 separate classes. Me and Addie and Tessa go to our classes together. It was fun learning about so many great things. I went to the classes about Family, Service, repentance, agency, accountability, honesty, integrity, dating, and friends. Most of the lesson doubled. No way I could learn all of these things one by one. After these lesson, we have the FSY service project. The project this year was that we got to hand decorate shirts for orphanages in Georgia (not the Georgia in the USA). They asked us to create and draw  something super unique and different for each individual kid. I  decorated my shirt to be hundreds of tiny hearts shaped as 1 big heart with the words "We love you" in the Georgian language. It felt really good while I did this. After I finished, our company played some games together. I learned some games that our councilor grew up knowing in Switzerland. Yeah she is from Switzerland. I definitely will teach them to M&M and Little A. When everybody was done, they announced that we had over 600 shirts to donate to the orphanages. We were all so proud of everyone. We have some free time afterwards. Us girls used that time to get ready for the formal dance. We go as a company to the dance and then the fun begins.

The dance wasn't one of those boring ones, when everybody just sits and does nothing, every single person was up and having fun. I had so much fun dancing with my friends and company. We took some fun company pictures.

Me and a couple of my friends also had fun at the Photo Booth. 

One of our company goals was for all of the guys to ask a girls to dance. I, at least, danced with 7 out of the 10 boys in our group. It was so much fun. After the dance was over, they showed a slideshow of all the pictures they have of the entire week. It was so much fun seeing all the funny moments we had together. It really was a great week. After the slideshow finished, we have our very last company devotional, then our last goodbyes. There was lots of crying and tears. It was a really dumb idea to wear mascara, but then again, all the girls were wearing some too. We have our last laughs and goodbyes, then we got back to our rooms. It rained and some of our stuff got wet, and so we stayed up extra late trying to dry everything with the hair dryer. Poor Addy had to get a new mattress put in because the other one was completely wet, but everything was dried and packed up after an extremely long time. We got to bed at around 12:10. I was so tired. Tomorrow we go back home.
Day 6:
We brought down all of our things and put them down in the great hall. We have our last breakfast together, and then we get onto the buses. Everyone was crying when we had to say good bye to our councilors. Even I was crying. We said our last good-byes and set of on the drive back home.

All of us were so excited to get home that we were almost tracking the church to see how far away we were. When we hit the 30 minute away mark, the bus all of the sudden jolted to a super slow pace. It was because a police car came and stopped us. Of course we all were a bit naughty and so nobody was wearing their seatbelt, or sitting in there chairs, and so when we stopped, everyone was yelling, "Quick, sit down and put on your seat belts!" Lol. We get escorted to a bus maintenance shop and we sit there for about 30 minutes. Then we drive to another shop and sit there. Everyone is confused and our only legal guardians were three 18 year olds that didn't know any German and didn't know what's going on. After a really long time, we finally are told that the bus was leaning to one side which means that the bus was no longer safe to drive. I personally think that it was because there was hundreds of luggages that was only put on one side of the bus, but I don't actually know.

We finally are allowed to get off the bus and get fresh air. We sit at that dealership for 3 more hours and then we finally get told that the second bus that was driving to the same place as us in coming to get all of us who were stuck in the broken bus.

After 30 more minutes of waiting, we see the bus and we all get on it. We finally get to the church parking lot. I felt really bad for some of the other kids because some had their luggage put into our bus even though they were riding in the other bus. Anyways, I finally see my family for the first time in almost 2 weeks and we drive home. I had such an amazing experience and I absolutely can't wait to go to my next FSY here in Germany. And now, to this day, I still see almost all of my friends from my company weekly at either swim practice, at school, at church, or at stake dances. We still have monthly get togethers to play games and hangout. We are great friends and I am so grateful that I have FSY friends close by.