HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!! I love you my Mothers! I love you Grandma
I am speaking in church today, and since I called my Dad, my Grandma and my Great Uncle yesterday with help I wanted to post my talk. I
hope it is okay. I hope that I got all the information correct and did honor to the one whom I spoke of. (Is that the correct usage of whom?) I'm a little nervous letting you read it. I am not a natural writer or speaker, like my husband. I really have to prepare and even in preparing I think my writing is found wanting. (Is that the phrase? I'm always getting things mixed up.)
President Hinkley quoted E. T. Sullivan saying “When God wants a great work done in the world or a great wrong righted, he goes about it in a very unusual way. He doesn’t stir up his earthquakes or send forth his thunderbolts. Instead, he has a helpless baby born, perhaps in a simple home and of some obscure mother. And then God puts the idea into the mother’s heart, and she puts it into the baby’s mind. And then God waits. The greatest forces in the world are not the earthquakes and the thunderbolts. The greatest forces in the world are babies.”1
And those babies, I should like to add, will become forces for good or ill, depending in large measure on how they are reared. The Lord, without equivocation, has declared, “I have commanded you to bring up your children in light and truth” (D&C 93:40).
In the Teachings of Joseph Smith it says, "A mother’s influence extends from generation to generation. Upon you depend the training and the direction of the thoughts and the inspiration of the hearts of your children, for they drink into the spirit of their mothers, and the influence of the mother over the children is the most enduring impression that can be made.
My Great Grandmother was an incredible woman. Speaking of my Great- Grandmother, my grandmother said this, "She was the smartest woman I ever knew. She always knew just what was appropriate in every situation and new just what to say in every situation. She was very active in her church, she gave many sermons and in fact was great orater and was a sought after speaker in her woman's group. She was a reader, my grandmother said she gave marvelous book reports to her woman's group of the things she read and learned in them.
My father grew up in a very rough family of boys. One of the memories my dad treasures is the times his Grandmother would come and stay with his family. My Father would go to her bedroom and find her reading her scriptures She would move over for him and he would climb in with her. She would then read aloud from the Holy Bible. This was a place of peace, of snuggling with his Grandma and feeling the peace that comes when reading the Holy scriptures in a confusing world. My uncle when asked to right an essay in grade school wrote that he knew God lived because his Grandmother knew him personally. Her great presence and her strong testimony of God helped her family know that there is a god and that he loves them.
President Monson quotes the Savior when he gave a talk about the three goals that should guide women.
“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
He goes on to say, "A study of the scriptures will help our testimonies and the testimonies of our family members
I think the most influential story comes from my Uncle Howard. I had heard my Grandmother tell this story that she had just heard about a year of so ago and wanted to get all the details right. I called my Great Uncle Howard yesterday he is very old and is very sick with cancer. He was in great pain, and it took a while for him to know who I was. He had his wife get on the phone so he could get the details straight.
In the winter of 1944 My Uncle participated in the Battle of the Bulge. This was Hitler's last offensive on the Western Front. My uncle and his outfit had been fighting for 2-3 days without rest. My uncle said the fighting was intense there was constant fire dropping all around them. It was bitterly cold, being that it was winter. There were many that were hurt or dead all around. At the end of the three days they were released to go and rest. My uncle said he always wanted to be alone. He did not want to be around the other men's nasty language. He wanted to be alone to read his Bible which he always had on him while fighting. He found a quiet corner to sit and started opening up his Bible. He said there was one man in particular who's name was Shermy, he was the foulest loud mouth of them all. This man thought nothing of using the Lord's name in vain and constantly cursed violently. This man approached my uncle and said loudly, "Read Newt, read." (Newt was my Uncle's nickname.) My Uncle protested loudly, "GO AWAY Shermy, Go Away." Again Shermy called for him to read. My Uncle in desperation wanting to be alone with the scriptures yelled, "If you don't get away from me I'll break this rifle right over your head!"
Shermy stepped back, and yelled in anguish, " Look at you, you goody goody God's looking at you and saying he's one of the good guys." And then Shermy turned to his out fit and said," He has something that this squad needs, and we need it bad and he won't share." In a split second my Uncle looked straight at the ceiling, and prayed, Lord you pick it." And what happens with so many situations, he opened the Bible and read the 91st psalm.
such great words of comfort to the battle torn men.
(Isaiah 54:13) says, “All thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children” .
Now these men never met my Great-Grandmother, but they felt her influence through my Uncle. The scriptures spoke peace to their hearts. And all because a mother taught her son where to find peace in a world full of mayhem and destruction while he was a boy safe at home in those quiet, and not so quiet moments of a busy household.
Quoting President Hinkley "And those babies, will become forces for good or ill, depending in large measure on how they are reared"
T his is the greatest gift that I think my grandmother gave her children and my father and his brothers, she gave them the gift in believing that God is real. Her hand has reached far into the future to influence me and my children, her example and love for her Savior is a beacon in my life.
I am sure that as you enjoy your day that you too will remember those women before you, who exerted a great influence upon your life for good.
A girl and her horse* 
A girl and her dog*
A boy and his big brother
A boy and his new big boy bed 
The back is actually cuter than it looks in the picture. I have plns make this again. I've already thought of several new variations.
Lettuce! You can't really see it in the picture, but we have a couple of red lettuces coming up.
Peas! My favorite garden vegetable. Mmmmmm!!!
Spinach! Don't they look good in those perfect rows?
