Merry Christmas!

So Christmas was a definite success this year!

First we started things off Friday evening(Christmas Eve) by going to Daniel and Carly's stake center for a big Erickson dinner and a nativity put on by the children, and a piñata later on.  The dinner was awesome!  We had ham, funeral potatoes, salad, rolls, green-been casserole and more!  The beverage was the Erickson party beverage of choice: apple juice, and 7-up!  It really is a brilliant combination!  We all chowed down as the little ones watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and then Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  Then we did the little ones nativity!  Jacob was designated as the donkey that Mary had ridden on to Bethlehem but he had had a slight operation that morning due to a cist near his knee.  So I filled in for him and played the part of the donkey!  I think I did a decent job especially on very short notice!  Mary was played by Kaitlynn and J.D. played Joseph!  All the others filled in as wise men, shepherds, or sheep!  It was very cute and definitely memorable.  Then the others watched The Nativity film put on by the church, but Kristen and I had to jet in order to make it to my parents place for the rest of the proceedings that evening.

We arrived at the McLaws residence to find everyone watching Jingle All the Way and cleaning up dinner and putting out desserts!  Kristen and I were in charge of the program that evening and so we had put together quite an arrangement of performances and stories and such!  We started things off with the candy bar game!  A silly game where you all gather in a circle and everyone has a wrapped candy bar.  When the narrator says the word "right", everyone passes their bar one to the right.  When the narrator says the word "left", everyone passes their bar one to the left.  It was fun and started things off nicely!  Then Dad told a few memories of Christmas as a child.  He talked about one Christmas where his Dad had asked him to help fix up a go-kart for his brother Andrew, in exchange for getting a cool old truck that he and Aaron would work on and fix up. He said that was a great memory and probably one of the most memorable.  Then I shared the story of the littlest jingle bell!  If you haven't heard that one before, I guess you will have to come to our activities next Christmas eve to hear it for yourself.  It is a fun story that involves the participation of many to help jingle the jingle bell props.  Then Esther shared a story of Christmas that she had borrowed from the library and it was really good and she bore her testimony about how she believes that part of the reason the Shepherds were sent to Mary and Joseph was so that they could have the much needed supplies that they didn't have because they had traveled such a great distance.  Faith shared a tissue paper cut out design that she made of the stable and Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus.  It was really nice!  J.R. played "What Child is This?" on the guitar and he did an excellent job!  Kristen and Julia performed the song "Mary did you Know?"  Kristen sang it as Julia played it on the piano.  Kristen did an excellent job of singing it and it sounded great!  Julia played wonderfully on the piano and I am very proud and impressed that she has progressed so much on the piano.  Then Mom shared a spiritual thought/testimony on gratitude and the importance of always being thankful for what the Heavenly Father has given us.  She gave us all a little pack of thank you cards so that we can make sure to send out thank yous to those who gave us gifts and also to others as the Holy Ghost impresses it on our minds.  We then watched The Nativity with the song of "Breath of Heaven" done by Amy Grant.  It was wonderful and it was a great way to spend Christmas Eve!

 Then we opened up our sibling present: I gave to Cheryl and she loved getting her fashion bug gift card and her Eclipse(from the Twilight saga) board game!  J.R. gave to me for our sibling exchange.  He gave me a box of Andes mints as well as a homemade knife from old files and a real wooden hammer!  It really is a cool gift and definitely something very unique and special!  Cheryl then introduced the desserts she had made and we dug in!  Then we drove home through some neighborhoods with a lot of Christmas lights on display!  Great evening!

Christmas morning, Kristen and I opened up our presents to each other and then drove to my parents place for a Christmas breakfast that Cheryl had prepared and then opened up presents with everybody!  All the gifts we got were awesome and many were very needed!  It was fun to see Barbara and baby John having so much fun opening gifts and helping others open their gifts!  Barbara loved both of her pink presents that she got from us, and played with them so much that one of them was broken after just about an hour or so.  Baby John gave us all lots of hugs and brightened the atmosphere the whole day!  He really is such a blessing!

Then we headed over to Mom Erickson and the clan to open presents and talk with Robert who was making his Christmas call from Uruguay!  That was fun to talk to him in Spanish and he seems to be picking up a very good accent and it sounds like things are going fantastic for him!  We got to see all the Erickson side of the family again and then opened up presents with everyone!  The main present we got from Mom Erickson was the Christus statue that we will have to find a place for!  It is very beautiful and it's kind of a tradition of hers to give it to all the couples when they are newly married.  It was fun to see all the nieces and nephews as well as Stephen!  He seems to be doing well and I'm sure it helped to have so much loving family around!  Robert we love and miss you!  You are serving where you are needed most!

The rest of the day was just kind of laziness and playing games and watching movies and going to visit grandma and grandpa McLaws.  It was a great Christmas!

Today being Sunday we went to church, and then I went out with Mike Joslin to be substitute companions and stop by a bunch of less active people on our home teaching lists to wish them a Merry Christmas!  That was a good experience and I'm glad we made that effort!  Then in the evening we went to visit Mom Erickson and Suzanne and Mark who had driven up from Sahuarita!  All the family was over and we ate a delicious lasagna meal and hung out and saw them open their presents and played family feud!  It truly was a great weekend, vacation, celebration, and remembrance!  And it was great to spend so much time with my lovely wife!  Happy Birthday Jesus! :)

The Christmas Season is upon Us!

So a few eventful things happened to us this week!
The biggest most eventful thing was that Kristen got her wisdom teeth out and that was most definitely a lot less hectic of a situation than we had imagined!
Kristen and I were a bit worried about the operation and so she asked me to give her a blessing the morning of, before going in for her operation.  The blessing seemed to calm her down quite a bit and give her the strength to have the operation without being nervous.  Dr. Porter who performed the operation was guided to do his work correctly and he was able to completely pull all four of Kristen's wisdom teeth in just about a half an hour!

Once the job was done, the assistant came out to get me from the waiting room.  She told me to pull my car around to the patient pick-up location and then opened that door for me.  She gave me a packet of information which also had the rinsing syringe and the ice packs for swelling.  Once my wife was ready, we helped her out to the car and then headed over to Mom Erickson's to get a few more movies that we wanted to borrow.  She let Kristen borrow Eclipse even though Mom had not yet watched it!

From there we headed home, where I made a smoothie for us both.  After that Kristen took her first dose of medicine, and then we climbed back into bed to sleep a little more.  Kristen seems to have recovered from the operation very well and without many problems.  She has only been a little swollen and rosy cheeked, she hasn't had to take stronger medication than just her ibuprofen to kill the pain and her amoxicillin for protection from bacteria.

The other eventful thing was that today we went and had our annual McLaws extended family Christmas program!  The dinner was an awesome feast!  It was awesome to see Christian and Sterling Priday as well as all of the other uncles, aunts, cousins, and grandma and grandpa!  And of course the highlight of the evening was when we did the white elephant gift exchange game!  Kristen and I ended up scoring!  I ended up with the Harkins loyalty t-shirt which entitles the wearer to a free medium popcorn for the full year of 2011!  And Kristen got an ab work out set: DVD's and an AB balance board.  Great presents!  Can't wait for Christmas to really start this coming Saturday!

Well that about wraps up things for this week!  It was a good and eventful one to be sure!  This coming week I only have to work Monday-Thursday and work has given me Friday off as well as Saturday and Sunday!  So that will be nice to have a shorter work week and just get to enjoy the time with family and friends and of course my lovely wife!  :)

Finals are done with!

So this week I took my last final and finished up my last paper of the semester!  And now I am enjoying a well deserved break and am very happy about my vacation!

Friday was cool because in the morning I helped one of the brethren that I home teach to pack up his U-haul truck and move farther east into Mesa.  Then in the evening we got to go to our Christmas Party and eat of the delicious food storage meal: fake potatoes, gravy, canned green beans, delicious roast beef, and lemon water.  The best thing was that we sat next to J.R. and Esther and family.  Barbara and Baby John helped make it a great occasion!  It was awesome to see baby John's face after he tasted the lemon slice lol!

They had a nice Christmas program as well and did some musical numbers.  The primary kids did the whole Jesus nativity and that was awesome.  The Cisco family(Investigators) was there and the 3 kids got to be in the nativity program as: sheep, angel, and shepherd.  The funniest was the wise men because one of them looked like Drew Carey and he had a huge turban on his head!

Then to finish the night we went to the Mesa Temple lights with the Missionaries: Elder Corbett and Elder Christopherson.  While there Elder Corbett ran into an old friend of his who he knew from BYU.  That Elder is serving in the Mesa mission while Elder Corbett serves in the Tempe mission.  It was fun to walk around with the missionaries and at the very end because I wanted to embarrass them and act like I was an investigator; i said loudly "ok, I walked around the whole thing, and you guys promised me a Book of Mormon if I did so!" lol

Saturday was a busy day as we went to do sealings and then got Blizzards from Dairy Queen which we also got for Cheryl and Katy and then sat and ate them at Cheryl's house as we talked about movies that have recently come out.  We also gave Cheryl her pre-present which is a nice ornament of sand and sea shells that talks about how Christ walked along the shores of Galilee and called out to his disciples and said he would make them fishers of men, and likewise has called us to share the gospel.  We had fun making those ornaments.

Then we stopped by and saw Stephen, Bella, Rachel and kids before going to my parents house to say hello and have Kristen practice her song with Julia.  Julia has gotten very good on the piano and I was very impressed with the skill she now possesses.  Kristen and her sounded great together and I'm sure that they will do wonderfully when they present it at our Christmas Eve party.

Following that we went to see the Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  It was AWESOME! We really liked to see the new characters and old favorites that have now grown up quite a bit.  The story was cool and it was especially enjoyable to be taught from Aslan, the Lion God who is the creator of the Narnian world.  He really symbolizes Christ in just about every single way and much of what he says can be internalized to improve oneself!  :)  Then I decided that with my free time over the holidays I am going to read the whole 7 book Narnia set and so we went back and borrowed it from my mother and I have already finished 2 of them!  :)

It was a great week and I love documenting about my many memories!

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving was an eventful day!  We went over early to Mom Ericksons so as to prepare for the bike ride/turkey trot!  I'm not entirely sure why we call it the turkey trot, we don't ever see a turkey and there is no one trotting!  But all the same I suppose it is a good tradition and justifies pigging out on all of the turkey and it's trimmins'.

After the bike ride we went to the nearby park to play, watch Bella, and celebrate Chloe's 1st birthday party!  As you can tell from the pictures Chloe was very aware of what was going on(sarcastic grin), and she was so nice towards her gifts that upon receiving a stuffed toy dog from Mom Erickson she straightway threw it on the ground. lol

Following the park, we walked Bella to the McLaws' home and Barbara thought that she was really fun and hesitated to pet her...it was actually quite funny because every time that she reached out to touch Bella she would uncontrollably start giggling and blinking her eyes, such that she never touched Bella more than once, and only on the back.
Then we returned to Mom Erickson's and set up for the food!  I fell asleep for a quick snooze while watching the Football game: Lyons vs. Patriots.  Kristen kind of dozed off as well.  Then everyone finally arrived and we dug in to all the food!  Oh what a feast!  And I got to say I am a big fan of that apple juice/7 up mix that seems to be the usual beverage of choice!

We said our goodbye's and headed over to the McLaws clan!  Dinner was pretty much over with when we arrived and everyone was making plans to go blow up the turkey!  It has become something of a tradition now and even has it's own name: The McLaws annual butt(Blowin' up turkey tribute)!  lol!

We drove way out of town nearly to florence to find a good deserty spot of land!  We took some pictures with the family and blew the heck out of that turkey!  There were turkey chunks on the windshields and sides and tops of both cars!  And the air rank with the smell of rotten turkey!  lol  One really cool thing was that there was this random construction stuff and it looks like Julia and I are giants visiting ancient Jerusalem!

We drove home and finished up the night with the McLaws family playing the game of LIFE(version 1982), ate delicious chocolate pie and icecream, and took off with a good amount of left-overs!  We also stopped at Michaels to take advantage of their holiday sales and pick up these little additions to our garden(the turtle and chipmunk).

Christmas decorations

So today what we did was start decorating for Christmas!

I just want to tell you about our cool decorating that we did here in our apartment:

We set up our fake, pre-lit tree and then put additional lights on it(colored, and red-green multi tipped).  We put a red garland on it, and we hung the ornaments with care.

We put christmas lights around our front door on the outside!  Which is actually really cool and then the rest of the lights trail off to the left of our door.  We put a wreath on our door as well!

We then put up lights on the ceiling around our bedroom and that about finished things up!

Kristen also put the silver garland on our T.V and over our movie collection.  She did a good job of tying everything all together!  Now we just need to set up our nativity scenes!

Oh the joys of Christmas!

I know that this time of year is such a special time as we celebrate the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ and everything that he has done for us and continues to do!  How blessed we are to share in this season with our Father in Heaven as we celebrate the birth of his only begotten Son! :)

Groundbreaking of the Gilbert Temple!

For those of you who may not have had the opportunity to go to the groundbreaking of the temple...I thoughtfully took notes and thought you might enjoy reading about what was said there.

The proceedings were conducted by Elder Walker!  He took time to announce all the dignitaries that were seated there.  The mayor of Gilbert was there as well as many others within Gilbert's and Mesa's municipal government.  I thought it was very thoughtful of those men and women to take time out of there Saturday to come and accept the invitation to feel the Holy Spirit at the dedication of the Gilbert temple.

The congregation sung "The Spirit of God" which I felt was also very meaningful since I know that  W. W. Phelps wrote the song for the dedication of the temple in his day.  Elder David E. Leseur then offered the invocation.

President Daryl H. Garn of the Mesa temple then spoke:

He mentioned that he and Sister Garn moved to Arizona in 1968.  At that time there were only 4 stakes in all of Arizona.  There was: Maricopa, Mesa, Mesa East, and Mesa South.  He said that they could never have imagined the tremendous growth and number of stakes that exist now.  He said that in 1975 the first Gilbert stake was organized, in 1976 the first Tempe stake was organized and Chandler received it's first stake in 1978.  There are now over 76 stakes in the Mesa Temple district, which entails almost all of the stakes of Arizona.  He said that the new Gilbert temple district when it iscompleted will contain more than 20 stakes.

Sister Garn then spoke:
she urged the members to volunteer to attend the open house and bring freinds and families to learn of Christ at such an occasion.  She urged all members to prepare for the changeds that come along with the completion of a new temple.

Elder Walker then spoke:
he said that many have prayed and prepared for this day.  He said that many church members there in attendance come from righteous ancestry within the church.
he explained the significance of having a new temple built.  He talked about as a child his Primary President urged the children to memorize the 13 articles of Faith and the 9 temples that at that time dotted the earth.  He said that today we have more than 20,000 meeting houses throughout the world and there are 134 temples upon the earth.  When all that have been anounced are completedt there will be 157 temples.
He shared how he grew up in southern Alberta Canada and how their dear Cardston temple is very similar to the Mesa temple.  Both were constructed at nearly the same time.  He said that for this reason he had always felt a special connection to the saints in Arizona.  He said that while traveling with President Monson to an assignment, President Monson had shared that while he was a mission president in Canada he noticed that the best missionaries were those from Southern Alberta and Mesa, Arizona.
Elder Walker said that everyone within the church knows that saints here are wonderful dedicated members of the church.  He quoted President Monson "come to the temple and place your burdens before the Lord..."
I thought it was particularly powerful when Elder Walker said that Elder Costa will bless this land and it will remain a special land into the eternities.

Sis Costa spoke:
She said 41 years ago she was 14 years old and lived in Brazil.  At that time there were no temples in South America.  To go to the temple meant going to Salt Lake City and it would be very expensive.  But she had a dream ever since she was a  little girl that she would be sealed in teh tempmle.  Her dream was realized thanks to the Lord.  Her husband Elder Costa had the opportunity to oversee much of the development of the first temple in Brazil.  She said it was a great blessing for all of them.

Elder Claudio M. Costa:
He told a story about how 20 years ago he presided over a mission in the Amazon region in Brazil.  For the members to receive the blessings of the temple they had to take a 7 1/2 day journey by boat and bus to the temple.  So it was a long and difficult journey 15 days round trip.  Members would get charlie horses because of the crampled spaces in which they would be for such a long time.
He said at that time that there was 1 stake and 1 ward in 2 million square miles.  The temperature is often about 127 degrees farenheit and the humidity is nearly 100%.  The church members would stay positive throughout the journey by watching church movies, and singing church songs.  They would hold church meetings, sunday school, priesthood/relief society, and sacrament meeting upon the boats and buses.  Many had such powerful emotions and feelings on such trips that they knew it was worth it.    He said they now have a temple in the area where he presided for so long.

Before offering the dedicatory prayer he said twice:
"I feel very humbled to receive this assignment"


I would like to add my testimony to these heartfelt testimonies.  I know that the temple is an enormous blessing and one that we must take full advantage of.  I have seen so many blessings and received so many answers to my prayers because of the temple.  I know that President Monson is a prophet of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I know that we are about a great work and on that has eternal significance!
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen!

The Lord and his blessings!

Wow what a day!

So let me tell you about a wonderful Saturday that was very busy and fulfilling!  

First to start off the day we woke up and I didn't quite want to get out of bed so I turned on TV and started watching an interesting cartoon that had all British voices!  It reminded me of Chicken Run or Wallace and Gromet!

My wife kept telling me to get out of bed, so I finally did!  We got dressed, ate breakfast and then left the home.  We first drove by a home that we are thinking about looking at this coming week(I won't tell you where it's at, just to keep you all guessing!)

Then we drove out to see Mom Erickson and Stephen and Bella!  That was good to see everybody and Bella loved me as usual!  Mom kept saying how Kristen and I are the only ones that love that little doggy!  Because I guess most everyone else doesn't play with her that much!  But we sure do love that little Bella! :)

Then we headed over to Jaimie's for her not very garage sale like garage sale!  lol  What a joke!  We pulled up to her house and it was clear that she was not having a garage sale, so we knocked on the door and nobody answered.  So we walked over to the backyard to look over and see if we could see anybody and still nobody was to be seen!  Then we walked back to the front door and Kristen gave it a nice Rap!  Jaimie came to the door and laughed and told us the garage sale was inside.  It was very overpriced but Kristen ended up buying a bottle of "lovespell" perfume to support Jaimie.

Following that we went to the groundbreaking of the Gilbert temple!  It was very very very crowded but so worth the experience to see so many Mormons and hear such wonderful messages.  I will put up another post specifically about that experience.  

Then we went to Costa Vida Mexican food and we sure did love that!  Kristen got some awesome gift certificates from my Mom for her birthday(thanks Mom! :))

Then we went to the Church leadership training where the new church handbooks were introduced and explained.  I think the most interesting part of the training was where a fake Ward Council went through and incorporated many of the principles.  Very interesting to see perfect church members incorporate perfect principles.  Even the ladies' hair was perfect!  lol  Oh to live in a perfect world!  Can't wait for that Celestial kingdom! :)

Following the meeting we went to Fry's electronics to seek out a small converter box that I have been wanting to allow me to connect my laptop to the T.V.  Since I don't have new HDTV's I knew that it would require a small converter box from VGA signal to RCA.  We found the perfect box and also a really nice wireless keyboard and mouse!  And yes I am typing this blog out while kicking back on my bed and using the wireless keyboard as I watch the letters I type scroll across my TV screen.  Technology is great and luckily we were able to figure out a way to do it without spending tons of money!

Then we went to the Stake Conference adult session where we learned all about Courageous living!  Many powerful testimonies were shared by members of the Stake and I particularly enjoyed the testimony of the Book of Mormon that was shared by a brother who had recently lost his wife to Lung Cancer.  His testimony was particularly powerful as he echoed the words of the prophet Joseph Smith that "a man would come closer to God by abiding by it's precepts than by any other book!"

Then we came home ate dinner, hooked up the new fun toys I got, and are now preparing for bed!

What a Saturday!  Oh the blessings of the Lord! :)

Oh and Kristen...I sure love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The best husband ever!

Although this is Steven's blog, I thought I could share a little bit of it for a minute and leave him a note! Steven, you are so awesome and the best husband I could have ever asked for! It has been a wonderful year of getting to know, dating, being engaged to, and marrying you, and there's still eternity to come! Five months in counting, and you made my birthday so awesome too! What a guy:). Just thought I would leave you a little surprise!
Love, Kristen

Letter to the Boys!

Hola Elder Erickson

Como estas elder??  Yo estoy bien, tranquilo no mas. Ayer celebrabamos el cumpleanos de tu hermana Kristen.  Fuimos nosotros primeramente a un bautismo aqui en nuestro barrio por un joven se llama Joseph Black.  Creo que el tiene unos 14 anos o algo asi.  El es un gigante espiritual de veras!  Fue un placer sentir el espiritu alli en el bautismo y cuando llegamos no hubo nadie que toco el piano...entonces fue Kristen que toco el piano para el bautismo!

Pues despues del bautismo regresamos al apartamento para comer un sandwich de queso y pavo.  Despues de eso fuimos al mall para compar una bolsa especial para Kristen...buscabamos en casi un millon de tienditas para la perfecta!  En el fin encontramos la bolsa perfecta...despues de eso fuimos a un tienda de mascotes para jugar con los animales y ver todos los tipos alli.  Es una gran tienda en Tempe y tiene muchisimos animales.  Hubo acuarios y jaulas de todos!

Para terminar el dia regresamos a la casa para mirar el ironman 2 y comer burritos del restaurante Costa Vida, tambien comimos pastel de chocolate con hielo de caramelo.  Que Delicioso!

Hoy en la guardia Kristen tuvo que ensenar y cuidar los ninos sin mucha ayuda, yo tenia varias obligaciones con las ESP(Entrevistas del Sacerdocio Personal) que hice con los lideres del distrito en la organizacion de los maestros orientadores.  Hubo una opurtunidad de conversar con ellos y ver como les puedo ayudar.

Quisiera decirles que cuando lei en el libro de san lucas vi que algunos versiculos fueron traducidos por el profeta Jose Smith y me gusta cuando dice en el capitulo 12 que no solo debemos buscar al reino de Dios pero debemos tratar de llegar a cabo el reino de Dios.  Hay una diferencia alli....debemos hacer todo lo posible para ayudar al reino de dios para que todo sea en la voluntad de Dios.  Que Magnifico

Adelante, Siempre Adelante!

tu hermano Steven

English Translation via Google Chrome(Rather Silly)

Hi Elder Erickson

Elder how are you? I'm good, quiet no more. Yesterday we celebrated the birthday of your sister Kristen. We were the first to a baptism here in our neighborhood for a young man named Joseph Black. I think that is about 14 years or something. He is truly a spiritual giant! It was a pleasure to feel the spirit there in baptism and when we arrived there was no one to play the piano ... then it was Kristen who played the piano for baptism! 
Then after baptism back to the apartment to eat a cheese sandwich and turkey. After that we went to the mall to share a special bag to Kristen ... were looking at almost a million little shops for the perfect! In order to find the perfect bag ... after that we went to a pet store to play with animals and see all types there.It's a great store in Tempe and has a lot animals. There were tanks and cages of all!
To end the day went home to watch the Ironman 2 and eating burritos Costa Vida restaurant, also ate chocolate cake with caramel ice. What a treat!

Today in the guard Kristen had to teach and care for children without much help, I had several obligations to the ESP (Personal Priesthood Interviews) I did with the district leaders in the organization of the teachers. There was an oppurtunity to talk with them and see how I can help.
I say that when I read in the book of Luke saw that some verses were translated by the prophet Joseph Smith and I like when he says in chapter 12 that we should not only seek the kingdom of God but we must seek to bring forth the kingdom of God. There is a difference .... we must do everything possible to help the kingdom of God so that everything is in God's will. That Magnifico

Adelante, Siempre Adelante!
your brother Steven

Car Trouble!

So do you want the long or short story.....

Well I already typed the long story but blogger unfortunately erased it...

So you get the short story:

Kristen's car broke down...it wouldn't start...so we towed it to Bishop Whitneys so he can give it a blessing(he's a mechanic so he'll give it what it needs.)

We'll keep you posted as we find things out!

Oh Chevy...Chevy...You Cavalier!

Friday evening I arrived home after filling up my pontiac sunfire's gas tank and it's tires.  I was in the mood to get a good jump on things for the weekend so I ran my lunch box inside and said hello to my beautiful wife and then grabbed her car keys to head out and do the same maintenance for her car.

I swung open the car door, and sat down on the seat, and then I put the key and turned the ignition just to hear....no I heard something alright...it just wasn't the car starting.  All I could hear was the engine turning over and over and over again.  I wanted the car to start but it wouldn't kick over!

So after running the battery completely down and then hooking my jumper cables up to my Pontiac and recharging the battery and then running it all the way down again.  We said a prayer and I called it a night.

The following morning after doing some research, I went out to check on the ignition and the different components of it.  After buying a small spark tester from Auto Zone for $6.57 I found out that the engine was indeed giving a spark.  So after a while I came to realize that it probably had to do with the fuel injector and that's when we called up Bishop Whitney and called up Progressive and got a tow truck.  Progressive gave me a quote of 15 miles for free and Google Maps said that Bishop Whitney's was 15.6 miles away!  So we were close but the truck driver ended up giving us the extra .6 miles for free!  What a Saint!

Well that was our big event for the weekend and we will find out the damages come tuesday!

Another opportunity to share the gospel!

So the LDSSA (Church supported Educational Club) on ASU campus decided to heighten missionary efforts by  inviting non-members to watch and enjoy General Conference in the Institute building.  So they had little bottles of water that you could give out and they had a scripture on it about how Christ is the living water and his servants speak his words unto us today.  So I decided to take the challenge and share my bottle of water with a young man in my Spanish 314 class by the name of Cameron.  He has become a pretty good acquaintance as of late and I figured he would at least be open to a free bottle of water!
Well it turned out to be better than I expected!  He ended up having a decent exposure to the church and we talked for nearly 40 minutes as I walked back to my car.  We had a great talk and he agreed to watch General Conference admitting that he was actually excited to watch it!  So I will have to follow up with him and see how he liked it and what he thought! :)

So let me just tell you all what has gone down these last few days!

Friday I arrived at home feeling a little worn out and less than my normal self...it got worse into saturday.  After we went to do baptisms at the Mesa, AZ temple we went grocery shopping at Wal-Mart.  Well I should say that my wife was the one that went grocery shopping!  You see I was feeling sicker and sicker by the moment and opted to just stay in the car, kick the seat back, and listen to some tunes.  It was a good choice because as the day went on I got worse...I felt ok after a nap but then it started to hit me again towards the end of our meeting with Brother Don Crandell(He is a financial managment assistant and we wanted to meet with him and get the ball rolling on our financial decisions.  We had a great meeting with him, Sister Crandell made us a delicious salad and then we went to a friends wedding reception(Rob Bentley and Liz Higby).  I opted not to have any cake and stuck with the lemon water.

We went to visit Bella(My mother-in-law's crazy poodle who seems to be obsessed with me everytime we go), and my mother in law.  It was a good visit we talked about the boys on their missions and how much that they are learning and preparing themselves to serve in Argentina and Uruguay!  I keep forgetting that since Steve is in the MTC in provo, he is still going to his mission outside the U.S. as soon as his 9 weeks are up!  I keep hoping he will stay state-side spanish so that I can give him all sorts of advice and enjoy his letters even more!  But oh well, I'm sure he is super excited to get down to Argentina in a week and preach the gospel amongst the natives there! :)

Anyways we then headed home and my sickness started to come back so Kristen drove and I read scriptures to her(Helaman 14 which by the way was an awesome doctrinally packed scripture) all about the 1st coming of Christ and the spiritual and physical death!  It was a great scripture and though I've read it dozens of times I was in a weak bodily frame at the moment that the Spirit nearly overwhelmed me!  How grateful I am for the gospel in my life!

Saturday evening took a while to fall asleep...I was cold, I mean really shivering cold underneath my blankets!  And my stomach kept making weird noises but it didn't seem like I would be able to eat anything!  I finally ate a bowl of rice checks, and popped a few ibuprofen and was out.

We prayed I would be well for today(sunday) as there was a lot at stake!  I was being called and set-apart as the 1st counselor in the Elders Quorum and we had planned as much as 2 weeks before to have the missionaries over for dinner and one of the brothers I home-teach(Matt Elliott), and his girlfriend Delia(who is not a member and Matt is becoming more active!)...So we wanted that to happen and when I woke up on sunday I felt great, I didn't have any pain, and I felt ready to go to church.  We went and I was set apart!  And it was a great experience to receive the blessing that I did and the sustaining by the other Elders in the Quorum.  But that experience didn't even compare to the experience that happened tonight.

We came home, the wife and I did our Visiting Teaching and Home Teaching respectively to finish the month strong and then we came home and started preparing dinner.  At 5pm the Elders and Matt and Delia arrived we had a great time conversing there over dinner, there was plenty of food and it was very well enjoyed by all.  After dinner and cleanup we moved things to the Living Room where we could hear a lesson from the Elders.  They taught the Restoration first by showing how easy it is to be confused about who is a false prophet and who is not.  Then they taught the lesson perfectly just like it is in Preach My Gospel.  The spirit was so strong, Delia had tons of questions, and taught us all by sharing her personal experiences and what has helped her to develop faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.  There wasn't a dry eye in the room for the whole lesson and the spirit was particularly strong at the end when we all shared our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and how it is an expression of God's love for us!  She accepted Elder Christopherson's challenge to be baptized once she knows for sure it is true, agreed to read together and as a family from the Book of Mormon and to pray about the truthfulness of it and of the prophet Joseph Smith.  Then she offered the most sweet and exquisite closing prayer! :)  We invited them to come on over next saturday/sunday to watch General Conference with us and they accepted.

Then everyone left and I immediately started feeling sick again!  It was such a testimony to me of how the Lord had answered our prayers to allow us to have this sacred sweet experience and help the Missionaries in the work!  I was shivering again and sick and Kristen suggested I call someone for a blessing.  2 of the brethren in our same apartment complex came over and administered a blessing to me.  And I immediately felt 90 percent better!  Wow what a multitude of sweet experiences and Joy that I feel for my father in heaven and for how he has blessed us to know that there is a prophet!  I felt such joy today it was almost like I was on my mission back in sweet Iowa/Nebraska!

The church is true and that's all that there is to it!

Good Weekend!

Well this weekend we went to see Jaimie take out her endowments in the Mesa temple.  It was great!  And there were a lot of people there!  Afterwards her family took Kristen and I out to sweet-cakes which is a little restaurant right by the temple!  The food was pretty good but Kristen quickly got sick of the buffalo chicken sandwich she was eating because of the spicy mayo.  And she doesn't really like mayo anyways so who can blame her!

We went and did some quick shopping for picture frames and other odds and ends we needed around the apartment.  It was a good time though!  Then we came home and moved some things around and cleaned(well Kristen cleaned as I had fallen asleep on the couch watching mighty ducks!  We were preparing for our date with Jaimie which didn't actually happen :p

Then we went to get some mexican food, and invited Sether (Seth and Heather) over for Nintendo and a movie.  We watched Princess Bride!  :)  Classic!

Sunday we went to two primary programs instead of  our home ward.  Both programs were great and since each used practically the same songs they are now all stuck in our heads.  The funniest thing was that in the 2nd program there was a little red headed girl who was getting way into the songs!  And when Kaitlynn and her partner went up to sing their solo of Follow the Prophet...Kaitlynn's partner hummed along with the piano in anticipation of her part.  HILARIOUS!!!!

Then we ended the night with mexican sonoran style hotdogs at my folks place!  Good weekend and now it's back to the books and work!

The Garden of Steven(not Eden)

So about 3 weeks ago I mentioned to Kristen that if it wasn't gonna be too much work, I would like to start up a little garden out on our nice patio.  It usually has shade and we don't have anything out there so it seemed like the perfect spot for a nice little garden.  I talked to my mother about it and asked her what advice she had.  She told me to go down to one of the garden nursery's and talk to someone about what would be the best to plant at this time of year and get specific instructions from them!

So that is exactly what I did!  And the result: 3 pots, bagonias, dianthus, irish moss, basil, and mint as well as a myriad of beautiful flowers!  So check out the pics and be jealous!