A Masterpiece

"But trailing clouds of glory we come,

from God, who is our home"

Last March, we commissioned this painting from a very talented artist, Annie Henrie.  I wanted something depicting our daughters, OUR masterpieces, looking down upon the earth from their pre-mortal home, and contemplating the beauties and soon-to-be experiences of their earthly existence.  More importantly, every time they look at this painting I want my daughters to remember that they were sisters then and that they chose to be sisters now. Families ARE forever.  We ARE sons and daughters of loving heavenly parents.  We have a divine nature and we have the inner strength, abilities and capabilities to accomplish great and marvelous things.

Y be fit

Today was Kelsey's day off from school and her internship (at YbeFit) and so Markelle and I drove down to Provo to hang out with her for the day.  I've been wanting to hike the Y for some time now, so when we arrived I told Kelsey to get her gear on and off we went to the trail head.  We took Jesse along with us, and it was a good hard, steep climb that set our hearts beating. The temperature was perfect for this type of hike, the jagged mountains majestic in their autumnal colors and the view was fantastic.  When we reached the snowy colored Y, we sat and talked about life, family and friends, marriage...all the good, girly kind of talk.  I love my Utah mountains, and it was fun to hike a trail that I haven't hiked since my childhood days of living in Orem.

Afterwards, we showered and changed, then enjoyed a day of shopping at Cherry Lane, Deseret Industries (Halloween Costumes!) and JoAnn's and eating yummy pizza from SLAB.  What a fun day with two of my favorite girls!

"To mourn with those that mourn..."

And comfort those who stand in need of comfort."

Beautiful words,

Part of the covenant we make at Baptism.

How do we "mourn for those that mourn, comfort those who stand in need of comfort?"

I witnessed many examples of people who did this very thing for Spencer and Kim and their family this past week.  All of us who love this family, and grieve with them for the loss of their little girl, have been compelled to offer comfort in our own individual ways:

* Buying/wearing pink ties
* Rushing to Spencer and Kim's side from North Salt Lake, Bountiful, California, Italy, Arizona, the Book Cliffs, and the Divorce court

* Catching up and keeping up the laundry of a grieving family

* Bleach, wash, and press the white shirts of four brothers who just lost their sister
* Clean and vacuum Lily's room, put away her clean clothes, put sheets on her bed

* Sewing a dress for Lily

* Making bead bracelets with Lily's name to give to family members to wear

* Dinners

* Coolers full of drinks

* Flowers, letters, notes

* Framed pencil sketch of Lily

* Framed photos of Lily

* Lovely display tables 

* Video of Lily's life

* Singing for Lily

* Prepared luncheon for the family, which included a lot of Kim's favorite dishes

* White Balloons and sidewalk chalk

* Silver Lily flower tie tacks for the boys, pendant for Kim

* Handmade pink bows for all the girl cousins, matching ones for Lily and Gemma

* A potted Lily plant delivered to the house in the early morning hours

* Donated money

* Lots of hugs, whispers of love, support, prayers

* Attendance at viewing and funeral
* Careful explanations to the children, beautiful presentation of God's Plan of Salvation
* Powerful testimony of God's love and knowledge of each of His children

* Cleaning the kitchen, vacuuming the floors

* Floral spray for Lily's casket

* Floral arrangements for the family dinner

* Cute table cloths and beautiful arrangement of food at family dinner
* Beautifully prepared program for the funeral service
* Recording the funeral program and documenting with pictures
* Cards, letters, emails, facebook posts
* Handmade cards from classmates
* Handling of business affairs/insurance
* Rolling down the hill with the little cousins during the viewing
* Pink ribbons tied to the front yard trees

These are just a small sample of comfort I saw being offered.  Everything was done with love and with hearts turned to the Spencer Mordue family.

I discovered a very interesting fact:  we all have talents and abilities that we have been blessed with that we in turn can use to bless others.

Which in turn comes right back to bless us and help bring us peace.

As quoted from Yogi Berra at Lily's funeral:

"The main thing is to keep the MAIN thing the main thing."