Prophet

I'm starting to get afraid that every other post I have on here starts with, "I've fallen off the blog bandwagon lately (across all my blogs)." But, as for a post!!

Today was ward conference. The part I heard, being sacrament meeting because I teach second hour, was fabulous! I love our bishop and stake leaders! During second hour they handed out a copy of the For The Strength of Youth booklet for everyone to take home. I wasn't in the meeting, but apparently, they are encouraging us to read the booklet and really try to live by the standards. Well, the booklet was sitting at eye-level of the kids and Daniel noticed it. Immediately, he pointed and said, "Temple!" (there's a picture of the Salt Lake Temple on the front.) It made me smile that he recognizes and is happy about temples.

Later in the evening, Ally had gotten a hold of the booklet and wanted to flip through the pages and talk about the pictures. The first page is a message from the First Presidency without any pictures. She asked me what it was and I told her it was a letter from Pres. Monson. Before bedtime, Ally asked if we could read a book and I told her she could pick any book she wanted. She didn't hesitate at all and answered, "I want to read the letter from Pres. Monson." I love that she has a desire to hear from and a love for our prophet. One thing that I have noticed again and again with our kids is that they are completely happy to see and comfortable around those members of the Church that have been called to serve in full-time positions or are our leaders. It's amazing to me. It must be that the spirit conveys feelings of love to Ally and Daniel. I don't know why else they would love people they only see once a week or have never met (in the case of Pres. Monson) because they are both extremely shy. I'm grateful for our prophet and that Ally loves him.

Prophet

Pretty much every evening, I put a movie on for the kids so that I can cook dinner. Today, I asked Ally what she wanted to watch. She immediately said, "Rapunzel!" I started flipping through our DVD binder than heard her say, "No, Mom. I want to listen to President Monson." So, I flipped past Tangled and found our Conference section. She sat down on the floor and intently listened to what our prophet had to say. After a few minutes I asked her if she wanted to watch something else to which she replied, "No. I want to watch Pres. Monson!" And she continued to sit and listen to him for the remainder of his talk. Afterwards, she told me, "Pres. Monson tells us things from Heavenly Father that he hears at the temple!" I'm not sure where she learned that because I don't recall having that conversation with her, but she's pretty correct.

Amos 3:7 reads, "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." Whether she knows the meaning of what she was saying or not, the prophet is the one with the authority to give us direction as a Church. And he will guide us according to Heavenly Father's will.

Praying for the prophet

Tonight for family prayer Viana said she didn't like praying because she never knows what to say. So we talked about things we could pray for, Jimmy's lung, Charina's cold, Orion's mission and Pres. Monson. So, in her prayer she said, "Please bless our prophet that he can sleep good tonight, and that he can get smarter, and that he will stay healthy." I can't be positive, but I think the reason she prayed for him to get smarter is because we are always telling her that Jesus is the smartest person and that he knows everything, and she knows the prophet is his mouthpiece, so naturally she would want a smarter prophet. And I am quite certain that with the faith of this little child, Pres. Monson will have a fine night of slumber.

Prophets

As a re-cap to General Conference we asked each family member to share something they learned at family prayer last night. Earlier in the day Viana had sat and listened to President Monson speak and she giggled and laughed at his story right along with the audience. So when it was her turn to answer she said, "I learned that our prophet is silly!" Admittedly I had been hoping for something like, 'God loves me' or 'I can have my prayers answered', but isn't this a much better answer? For Viana to feel like she has a personal connection with the prophet I hope will lead her to be more obedient to his teachings (when she does start to internalize them more). Because she understands his nature she will be able to learn from him sooner.

Testimony

First of all, I wanted to post on Viana's testimony of prophets, so how fun to see that Jamie had just posted about prophets yesterday!
Eric wanted to film Viana and Brooke singing "I am a Child of God" to use in his lesson today. When they had finished singing Viana said she wanted to film something cute. So we pushed play and she started bearing her testimony. She bore her testimony about temples and the church and then she said, "This is my testimony about prophets. I know God has his prophets on the earth today and that they are his voice and they say unto us what God would say to us." (She totally said 'unto'-presh!) Then she bore her testimony about God and how he is "very, very important" and that he sends the Holy Ghost to us to fill us with light, "just like Buzz Lightyear". I love that Viana is already formulating her own testimony and that she has such good understanding!

Prophet

We love President Monson in our house (not actually in our house, just we as a family love him), but who doesn't? LaDon has been reading Pres. Monson's biography and Ally has identified Pres. Monson as LaDon's friend because he's taking to time to learn more about him. She knows who our prophet is and gets excited to see his picture or hear him talk.

Tonight, we were able to enjoy a nice dinner with a family in the ward. Ally had a wonderful time there, and as is usual lately (a terrible phase actually), starts screaming and throwing an all out fit when we leave places. I hate it and am starting to figure out how to handle it. Well, tonight was just over the top and non-stop crying hysterics. After getting home and sitting in time-out for a few minutes and having a sit down about being polite, showing gratitude, being obedient quickly, etc. Ally saw that the TV had been left on. (We were watching Special Witnesses of Christ earlier). Ally saw Pres. Monson's picture and said, "I want to listen to Pres. Monson. He is daddy's friend." I pressed play, Ally curled up on the couch and listened to our prophet's testimony. Moroni 7:23 states, "And God also declared unto prophets, by his own mouth, that Christ should come." This still applies to our modern day prophets. Christ shall come again. As long as Ally is still so excited and desirous to listen to our prophet, then she will know that they speak the truth concerning Christ. Ally loves Pres. Monson although she's never met him. And she really doesn't understand most of the things he talks about, but will one day. She does understand her feelings though, and became very calm and happy while listening to his testimony.