September 6, 2015

Here we are at the beginning of another week.  Our service in the temple this week was great as usual.  The work by patrons was pretty slow most of the week, unfortunately.  It is interesting to run a temple endowment session with only three or four patrons.  Many of the weekday sessions are like that.  With that comes the problem of coordinators having to find temple workers to fill in for the prayer circle.  As I have reported in other posts, sometimes the shifts run on a skeleton crew so it can be difficult.  I (we) try to fill in where we can when we are not training workers.
Yesterday (Saturday) Larry and I were able to help with a couple of special occasions. It is wonderful to watch the looks of excitement and nervousness on these people who are coming to the temple for the first time.

This week, I want to do something a little different than other weeks.  Today as I sat in Sacrament meeting, during the sacrament, I decided to ponder all the blessings in my life and things I am grateful for.  I want to share those in this blog.  I plan to look back on these often just to remind myself how blessed I am.

• I was born to wonderful parents who loved me and were interested in the things that took place in my life.
• I grew up in a free country never really wanting for anything.  We were poor at times but I didn't know it.
• I had good friends throughout my childhood even though they were not all of my faith.
• I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
• I am blessed to have a testimony of my Savior and that He knows me loves me. 
• I was privileged to find a wonderful man and marry him for time and Eternity in Logan temple (Carl Bruce).
• We were blessed with five beautiful and healthy children whom we love so much.
• I have been blessed with great health throughout my life.  I have the normal aches and pains but that is part of the aging process
• I had the privilege of education.  I have a bachelors and a masters degree that helped me both in the home and in my career.
• I spent over 15 years in the school system teaching junior high students.  I loved that I could make a difference in the lives of those teens.  Some days were harder than others but I loved the things I taught and loved the interaction with other teachers and students.
• I have had trails and deep sorrow in my life and am even grateful for those because they helped me figure out who I really am and what I am capable of.  Heavenly Father is always trying to let us know what our potential is if we will just rise to the occasion.  
• I have 14 beautiful grandchildren that are the light of my life.
• I have been blessed in the last seven years to marry again after the tragic loss of my eternal companion.  Larry is so good to me and for me.  
• I am blessed to have good neighbors and friends who have been by my side through tough times.
• I am blessed at the present time to be serving a mission for my Heavenly Father in the Laie, Hawaii Temple.  It is interesting that I said "serving" my Heavenly Father because I am gaining way more from serving than Heavenly Father is getting in return, I'm afraid.
• I've had the blessing of being able to travel to a great many places across the world and have the means to do more of that in the future.

I know I could go on for a long time listing blessings but these were the ones that stood out as I pondered today.

Closing this blog for this week.