J.R.R. Tolkien, in The Fellowship of the Rings  "The road must be trod,
but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far
upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the
strong. Yet it is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world:
Small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are
elsewhere."

Her missionary made the following comment about the quote:

"Mom, I love this! We are constantly tracting out ministers and pastors who
say we are too young to really know about Christ and proclaim Christianity.
This quote is a reminder to the protestant world that all through the Old
Testament God used weak things against strong things to show his power.... AND
HE STILL DOES!! I also like that it refers to our necessity to ALWAYS push
ourselves, ALWAYS lean on the Lord and ALWAYS rely on the spirit to do our
teaching, very awesome!!"

Mom: "Later after I shared this quote with an elder here in our stake he said
it made him think of Alma 37:6, by small and simple means the efforts of
these young elders and sisters really can "confound" the wise and help the
kingdom roll forth!"

Brian's plane was supposed to arrive at 2:30...we get there and check the 

schedule and learn that his flight is delayed....like he was still at the gate inLAX!! Ugh oh no!! Now what do we do??!!

family and friends have gathered to greet him...but we have 2 hours to wait...

nourishment is required...off to find something yummy to fill the void...

At least 12 Elders came down that escalator...to masses of family waiting 

anxiously at baggage claim...to claim their long 'lost' sons!!

watching, watching for "the suits with name tags" to appear at the top!

and there he is!!!

...and I really didnt think I'd do it...but I found myself hopping up and 

down and squealing with joy!! 

I got the first hug...AFTER 2 YEARS!!!  It felt so wonderful!! So, so happy!!

...and here we have Clark...'facetiming" or Skyping for Robby and Chelsea 

in St George!! Isnt modern day technology amazing!!!?

 hugs for dad!!

cant stop smiling and cant stop holding on to him!!

Best friend Blake...who just returned last month from his mission to 

Fort Worth, Texas!  Watch out world!!!

Checking out his newest nephew Ben...who couldnt be bothered to stay

awake for the party!!! (and yes..Im still holding on!)

still skyping...

and still holding on...

"oh mom"...(or maybe he's just dead on his feet??)

WELCOME HOME BRIAN!! Words cant express how very proud we all of you...and how 

thrilled we are to have you home!! LOVE YOU!!!

(and thank you Brindley's and cousins for showing up to celebrate with us!!)

Peace and Happiness!!!

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SUNDAY RAMBLINGS

Time is to clock as mind is to brain.  The clock

or watch somehow contains the time.  And yet

time refuses to be bottled up like a genie stuffed

in a lamp.  Whether it flows as sand or turns on

wheels within wheels, time escapes irretrievably, while we watch.

from: Longitude

by: Dava Sobel

(brian at the Grand Canyon...Toroweep to be exact. He says he'll take me with him next time.)

So yesterday was the very  last Saturday of Brian's mission...tomorrow will be his last Preparation Day, otherwise known as P-day.  Monday will be our last email transmition from his mission.  Today is his last Sunday, which will undoubtedly be spent saying good-byes at church- bidding a fond farewell to the leaders and friends and families that he has grown to love and appreciate.  I can imagine it being a very bitter-sweet experience for him. He has invested his heart and soul into the people of the California, Ventura Mission, for two years!!  And yet, my other missionary kids might not relate as well to his good-bye's; the difference being that Brian can and most likely will be seeing many of these folks again...for CA. is just an easy road trip away. My other kids had to say good-bye after their two years of service, understanding that they might not ever return...for there are great distances and expense involved in traveling back to those countries.
Brian has always loved California, and now he has even more reason to adore it...for he is leaving a piece of his heart there with the people he served and taught and 'grew up' with.
The reciprocal to this is.... two years is a LONG time for a vibrant young man to curtail his dreams and desires for the future. Im sure he is now ready to get back and begin the adventure of the rest of his life!!! Its now time to get on with the every day motions of someone young and promising; one who can choose to do just about anything in this life that he'd like to do.  He'll be happy to say good-bye to the cumbersome but necessary rules of a mission, that kept them in line. Now he can use his new-found wisdom, greater experience and hormones that will rule the days once again!!
Brian's mission has taught him  significant life lessons...about himself and others and about his God.  Powerful, good things that he could not have learned in any other way. That's why mommies can sacrifice these years, because we witness the changes that take place when service is rendered to the Lord in behalf of His children...complete and focused service, which is both grueling and full of grace.  We all know its a gift to the serveee and the served.  A win win by all counts.

  Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after
 me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 

 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and 
whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Matthew 16:24-25

 So these are my last days of longing.  There will be no more wondering what he's up to..or wishing to be a fly on the wall. No more just wishing I could hear his voice or listen to his laugh. Soon I'll be feeding him again...sharing a bowl of Wheaties in the morning and hearing the door squeak as he comes home at night after being out with his friends. No more just wishing for my hiking companion..soon I will have someone to explore some of these trails here in Logan. Soon My Builder will enjoy his company as they work together fixing ANYTHING that needs fixing.  Watching him play with his nieces and nephews will be a joy as well. (He has 3 of them that he hasnt even met yet!!!)
I told someone the other day that I "sacrificed" 91/2 yrs of my kids lives for this "missionary thing." Please be assured, I have NO regrets!! But I am glad...no ... ecstatic that this season of my life is now over. I now have other "hard things" to deal with.  I am thankful I can now check this  thing off my list. I realize I may sound like Im whining...which I know isnt called for..I want to sound only grateful.  Grateful that all the kids served missions, and that they came back safe and sound and better for it.
I am grateful
so very grateful
In 3 more days I'll be even more grateful!!

 And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, There is no

 man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, 

or children, for the kingdom of God's sake,  Who shall 

not receive manifold more in this present time, and in

 the world to come life everlasting. Luke 18:29-30

. 

Time.  The primordial concept so essential, so taken for granted,

so uncontrollable.  Time permeates every aspect of the human

experience.  What is time?  Time, after all, is "of the essence." Time

is...a great healer, time is money, time is ripe, time flies.  We have

me-time, downtime, timeout, time off.  We give the time of day and

do things when it's high time, just in time, or in the nick of time.

Although times may change, since the beginning of time, people have

taken time, wasted time, made up time, and spent time till they're

out of time.   Until their time comes.

from: Fizz

by Zvi Schreiber

Bri...2nd from left

HIS TIME ALMOST UP!!!
We get to talk on Mothers Day...
and then....
In 35 Days my handsome son is COMING HOME!!
730 days is a LONG time no matter how you look at it.
2920 days I've sacrificed without my boys... and an additional547 more when adding my daughters 18 months of service.
None of it went quickly...except for maybe the last month for each of them.

I have to remember for what purpose we moms sacrifice so much:

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
From the May, 2004 Ensign on Page 30

"First of all I would like to thank every missionary who has
ever labored in this transcendent latter-day undertaking we have been
given. The rolling forth of the restored gospel is a miracle in every
sense of the word, and not the least of the miracle is that a
significant portion of it rolls forward on the shoulders of
19-year-olds! As we have seen your sons and daughters, grandsons and
granddaughters, (and in some cases your parents and grandparents!)
faithfully laboring in Chile, I have pictured the tens of thousands
of others like them we have met all over the world. Clean, clear,
bright-eyed missionaries, laboring two-by-two, have become a living
symbol of this Church everywhere. They themselves are the first
gospel message their investigators encounter--and what a message that
is. Everyone knows who they are, and those of us who know them the
best, love them the most."

LOVE AND PEACE EVERYONE!!

A man filled with the love of God, is not

content with blessing his family alone, but

ranges through the whole world, anxious

to bless the whole human race.

-Joseph Smith

You remember this handsome face?
Well, his two years of service is up and Justus is HOME!!
Thats right!! Can you believe it!!!??
He has returned  from Chile and has found that home for him is now in Idaho.
We are waiting to hear when his homecoming is...for now that I live only minutes from the Idaho boarder...I plan on being there when he reports.  I Love that these good friends of Brian are starting to come home now...for it means that it wont be too long before Brian is home too!!
Well done thou good and faithful servant!!!
You are loved!!

"I believe there is nothing in all the world that can compare with the joy that a man feels when he realizes that he has been the instrument in the hands of the living God of reaching some honest heart, inspiring in it a love of God and the desire to serve Him."

Heber J. Grant

...she still had doubts...especially about how

to find her Higher Power. If she could only

find it, Lucky was pretty sure she'd be able

to figure out the difference between the things

she could change and the things she couldnt.

from: The Higher Power of Lucky

by: Susan Patron

Today is my baby's birthday!! He turns 21!!  Hes doing it in California, without us!!  He probably doesnt care a wit...I on the other hand am trying not to add this to the long list of things to be really sad about.   Hes happy where he's at.  I miss him.  He is a delightful child...and I been thinking about him a LOT lately.  Changes at home may not affect him immediately...but they do affect him....and I wonder what's in store for him when he returns in June.  Where will he land?  Logan is foreign territory...
Its all a mystery...
But my Love for him and my pride in him and the work he is doing is not!!

HAPPY 21 MY LOVE!!! 

This is the true joy in life--being used for a

purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one;

being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown

on the scrap heap; being a force of nature

instead of a feverish selfish little clod of

ailments and grievances complaining that the

world will not devote itself to making you happy.

quote by: George Bernard Shaw

from: Thunder Dog

by: Michael Hingson

So today's email brought exciting news for a mom of a missionary!!  Brian told us the unexpected news that he'll be released from his mission in California on June 13th!!!  That was happy news to us!! We were expecting  July!!  That date is within smelling distance...even for me!!!    Hes so happy, and confident and strong!!!  Im so proud of him!!

If men were duly to consider themselves, and turn their thoughts

and reflections to the operations of their own minds, they

would readily discover that it is faith, and faith only, which

is the moving cause of all action in them; that without it both

mind and body would be in a state of inactivity, and all their

exertions would cease,both physical and mental.

from: Lectures on Faith

Elder Stephenson LOVES his new area in Delano, California.  It farther north of Bakersfield, which was until now,  his favorite area.  I thought he'd miss the ocean...but he doesnt even mention it...his remarks were about loving being surrounded by vineyards and almond trees.  He loves the people and is busy here. He reported having 6 families show up at Church to 'check it out.'  A missionary's dream come true!!  He's happy, healthy, and working hard...a missionary mom's dream come true!!!  Go Bri!!!
We so love him and miss him!!!

.

You and I can only grow with stress and distress.

There is no muscle without strain, no character

without the fiery trials of action and conflict.

"There must needs be opposition" not only implies

an eternal resistance in the nature of things. It

implies that man need opposition in order to become

what he has it in him to become.

from: Human Anguish and Divine Love

by: Truman Madsen

 Bri and Elder Goudy...

 Connie and her family who live in Simi Valley.  Brian reports that this was the family that was hardest to leave with his last transfer.  "They made him cry."

 Elder and Brother Conrad...buds on the back porch...always an investgitor!!

Are those Bri's hairy knuckles!!! te he

Brian is in a new area now....I havent even had time to look it up on a map yet. He's in  Delano. He says its mostly a Spanish area. 75% of the people in the area are Spanish speaking and 60% of them dont 
 speak any English so knows now its  going to be a crazy journey. There is also a small percentage of 
 Philipino people in their area. The  ward is made up of  3 branches that
just combined into one big ward, so they  have to have translators. They 
have 4 investigators and all 4 are coming to church so they are very pleased with this development.
He  loves the people already!!

Go Brian!
 I am now to the point where I can count down...5 months and he's home!!!

Yay for me surviving with out him!!!

Every experience God gives us, every person

He puts in our lives is the perfect

preparation for the future that only He can see.

from: The Hiding Place

by: Corrie ten Boom

News from the Ventura California Mission via Elder Brian.


This weeks letter from Brian was down-right chatty!!!
What a pleasant unexpected surprise.


He confided that he's been having more problems with his feet.  He visited a doctor and was diagnosed with 'almost' having flat feet!!!  He's now the proud owner of a pair of insoles that he hopes will also remedy his chronic shin splits.  Keeping my fingers crossed.


He confesses that studying and reading from the Doctrine and Covenants is hard for him.  He needs to know that I feel exactly the same way!! (most times when I read from the D&C I feel like God is an angry God...which I know in my heart He is not.)
Brian in "into" the Book of Mormon, just like me!! (or the New Testament)
He also reports that he loves studying the Preach My Gospel manual and has made it all the way through...from cover to cover again!! Its such a great resource for him and for me.  
It looks as though Bri is turning into somewhat of a reader.  He also told us that for his evening reading he's wading through a book entitled The Cleansing of America.  I havent read this one.  I'll have to look into it.  He described it as "crazy stuff."


I have always known Brians deep attachment to the Temples.  He longs to attend more often than time allows as he serves his mission


Brian and his companion have been teaching 4 less active families lately.  It seems they have the opportunity to do this quite often in their area.


This week he also shared with us about some special experiences hes had with fasting.   First he fasted for personal strength and guidance; another for a young mother who was just diagnosed with cancer.   Brain has been touched often by witnesses from the Holy Ghost that the work he's doing for these last many months is exactly what he should be doing.


I Love my Boy!! I miss him so very much!! People tell me that the time will fly from here on out....well, I've done this before, and I can tell you, it doesnt fly it creeps.  (Just like waiting for Baby Ben here...tick tock, tick tock....and still no baby!!!!)

Preach My Gospel Lesson 1: God is our Loving Heavenly Father, and the Gospel Blesses Families - "God is our Heavenly Father. We are His children. He has a body of flesh and bone that is glorified and perfected. He loves us. He weeps with us when we suffer and rejoices when we do what is right. He wants to communicate with us, and we can communicate with Him through sincere prayer..."

Monday brings pictures from California!!!  Love my boy!! Miss him like crazy!!!

A man's character is like his house. If he tears

boards off his house and burns them to keep himself

warm and comfortable, his house soon becomes a ruin.

from: Little Britches

by: Ralph Moody

Isn't it only through laughter we can stay human?

from: Shogun

by: James Clavell

Elder Brian finally was able to visit the Reagan Library ....he's been in Simi Valley for 4 1/2 months now, and thinks he's being transferred out this week..so he was happy to have the chance to visit this historic place. Looks like great fun!!!
Brian looks so great!!
I am so grateful.
Work is hard there in the Valley...but he perseveres!!
LOVE HIM!!
And love to all of you who were so generous and kind in remembering him this Christmas season!! He is very appreciative and so are we!! Bless you all!!!


.

.

An Early Christmas Present

Self-control is strength. 

 Right thought is mastery.

Calmness is power.

from: As a Man Thinketh

by: James Allen

Email brought me a gift this morning. I was yearning  for photos of my missionary son. And now I have both photos and news of his happiness and joy in serving the Savior and his fellowman in sunny California!! (I think Bri enjoys looking like some sort of secret agent in his suit and dark glasses. Its a common theme in his photos.)
Knowing that all ones chicks are healthy, relatively  happy and functioning as reasonable adults is a wonderful thing.
Joy and Peace to you All this Christmas season!!!

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