Elder Perry

Yes, we saw Elder L Tom Perry this weekend... But let me start this weekend's blog a little earlier.

Fri:  Sharon is starting a fabric store at the Redwood Road intersection on the way out to Eagle Mountain and the Ranches.  I'm so excited for her. I want to volunteer to do everything... I went over to help with some stuff and we ended up taking a quick shopping trip.  Thanks Seth for watching kids, I NEVER go shopping without them so it was a novel experience.

Friday was also my baby girl's 2nd birthday. I can't believe my baby is not a baby anymore. I love all the fun things She does and learns all the time... But she's definitely not a baby anymore.

Sat:  My brother, Seth, invited us to do good company 5k with him. We made him late so he missed friends, but I thoroughly enjoyed doing it with him. We just talked the whole time and kept kids from getting run over with bikes. Evelyn wanted Seth to carry her a long time, I wouldn't be surprised if he was sore from carrying her for about a mile or so... She's not light. The kids now want to ride their bikes on that trail.  Thanks Seth, it was so fun!

After the 5k, I left Jer to do his training run and took the kids to the splash pad at the Riverwoods mall. They played, I lounged, then we got Milawi's pizza for lunch. 

After naps we bought Ada a new bike. We looked at a few stores and she decided on a purple one. The first one we saw was just plain white. I told the salesman that she probably wanted a girly girl bike... And ironic, the one she chose says Girly Girl right down the side of it. Jer took three hours to put it together and tune up a couple other ones in our garage and we were out till 10pm riding around the neighborhood. It was really kind of funny.  It was like a scene out of some touchy feely movie... Parents out late playing with kids on bikes as they learn how to use the new one... I had fun.  And we forgot about Stake Conference while we were at it...

Sun: and now to Elder Perry...

He talked to us about learning to set in our own minds the things that are important to us, having the power to decide what's right and what's wrong, and influencing our children when we have their attention.  He just touched on the first two and spent the bulk of his talk on the third.  He said, "Teach your children independence."  Straighten out what kids learn at school at play through the day.  Teach "these" young men delayed gratification.  Work is expected.  He said that children need to help home be a better place, including picking up a paint brush, a lawn mower, or doing other chores.  Children need to know the value of money and know "wants vs. needs".  We need to teach them to be self-reliant.  They need an education, and he talked about how many resources for information that we have today.  He also said how easy it was to get rid of bad things on electronic devices... "if there is anything that comes up, it's only one push of the button to get rid of it."  He talked about how we need discipline to seek after eternal truths first and attend the temple often.  He talked about how he knew that his parents had gone to the temple because he'd see his dad holding his mom's hand (he wasn't one that easily shows physical affection.)  We need to consider the contributions we are making in the spiritual lives of our fellow men.  He also talked about how we should teach our kids to be creative, to love the Lord and to grow as strong as the wheat to live among the tares.  He also gave a direct challenge to the kids.  He leaned over the pulpit and challenged them to read 3 pgs in the Book of Mormon everyday this summer to finish the entire book before the beginning of school.  He promised strength in your faith if you did it.

My memories of the kids during the conference....  Evelyn took every crayon she could get her hands on and for over an hour she stripped the paper off and broke them in half saying, "Uh-oh, broke!"  Ada brought a sticker book and spent a lot of her time sticking the stickers all over herself, Evelyn and Mom.  Sam colored, and colored, and colored...  Too cute.