Every member a missionary

I love missionary work. It's so cool. I am constantly amazed at how the gospel of Jesus Christ changes people's lives. I have a friend here at work who had been taking the missionary discussions, but stopped for some reason. She was talking to me about it, and we had a great discussion about the Church and some of the things she had learned. I asked if she had been to church yet, and she said no. I told her I would be happy to pick her up Sunday and bring her to my ward if she was interested, and she enthusiastically agreed.

Sunday morning I picked up her and her 4-year-old son, Jared. Sacrament meeting was long for him, but I had some books and Cheerios, so all was well. She joined us in Primary, and Jared had a ball. There's another Jared in Primary, and after watching him, my friend decided that there must be something in the name, because both boys were very energetic!

After Sharing Time, I offered to take Jared to class, which made him a little nervous, so I took him and his Mom down to Relief Society. Once he realized there were no kids there, he willingly went to class. He seemed to have a great time, and Norma enjoyed herself too. But that's not the end of the story. Norma had explained that the missionaries hadn't been by her house for weeks, and that she was considering calling them again. She had told me that Jared had been having night fevers, and I encouraged her to call the missionaries so they could give him a blessing. She agreed that that was a good idea.

After we dropped her off at home, the boys and I noticed the missionaries walking down the street not far from her home. I said a quick little prayer asking that they go by and visit her. We then went home and pretty much forgot all about it.

This morning Norma stopped in my office to tell me how crazy it was that the missionaries happened to stop by her house that afternoon. I grinned and told her she didn't know the half of it. I explained how we had seen them and about my prayer. She broke out in goosebumps.

She and her husband will be attending the ward in their neighborhood this Sunday. Her only "negative" comment about church? She didn't like Sacrament meeting too much because she wanted them to talk about the "Mormon book" more. :) I told her to go to Sunday School, specifically Gospel Essentials, if her ward has that class.

Gotta run. Peace out.

Ed's Jewish?

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I was just reading Brenna's blog, and she put up a hilarious quote by Madison, and it made me think of an exchange among my family recently.

Those of you who know Ed probably know that he was born in a small town about 40 miles outside Richmond, VA, called "Amelia." It's a really cool place, and one that I hope to visit with him again sometime.

About a year ago or more, Lennon said something about his Dad (Ed) being Jewish. We were stumped. I told him that Daddy doesn't subscribe to any religion in particular, and we kind of left it at that.

For some reason, it came up again the other night. We realized that Lennon's old enough now to probably know why he thought that, so we asked. His reply? "Because he was born in that place. Y'know, Julia."

How do you deal with stress/crises?

We had two of the busiest weeks at my work, which just ended. I'm utterly and completely exhausted. I've learned about myself that when there's a crisis, a lot of stress, pressure, or some huge thing that needs to be taken care of, I'm cool as a cucumber throughout, but once the crisis is over, I fall apart. I think I'm crashing now...

How do you deal with these things? Are you the type to get hysterical when your child needs stitches, or do you stay calm and in control until after the fact? Do you stay numb? I'm interested to know.

I really do like taking pictures

Taking pictures. Sigh. What was once a fun-filled, lovely pastime has become a necessity and drudgery. It's not entirely unpleasant, but when I'm required to do something, it tends to not be as fun. Sometimes. Like in the case of taking photos.

Today, however, I went out to the new expansion of the Garden Park at my work and took some pictures. And I enjoyed myself! I'm sure it was in part because it wasn't raining, which is huge news. I feel like a duck, but that's beside the point.

So here for your enjoyment (or not) are some of the pictures I took. I hope you have as much fun viewing them as I had taking them, but I kinda doubt you will. I really enjoyed myself. :)