Bounteous Blessings

This weekend I have been so thankful for the bounteous blessing our Heavenly Father bestows upon us in every aspect of our lives. This weekend we went to Mesa Falls and Yellowstone National Park with our friends, the Diaz's. It was so nice to just get away for the day and to take time to reflect on the beauties of the earth. Heavenly Father blessed us to live in such a beautiful world. As I'm ou in nature it always strenthens my testimony of God and his great creations. The last couple weeks have been rough, a rollercoaster of emotions, which leave me physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually drained most days. But as we spent time this weekend in a good atmosphere with good friends, I couldn't help but count the blessing that I have and not focus on what I don't have.

Mesa Falls

All the kids, they had a great time!

Little Hank was a trooper!

Dewey had quite the time with his chocolate chip cookie.

I was again reminded today of how aware Heavenly Father is of our needs. He knows just how to implement things in your life, to help you along the way, to remind you of your purpose, and to remind you of His love. The lesson I taught today in Young Womens dealt with Sacrifice. We talked about the Sacrifices of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and we talked about what we have to sacrifice today. And really in the scheme of things, I think the sacrifices we are expected to make are do-able. We often are asked to sacrifice our time and our means, sometimes our sacrifices seem harder, but we have to keep in mind that sacrifices wouldn't be hard if they didn't mean so much to us, and also that we will find greater blessings for our sacrifices. I was listening to Graham's graveside service this week and Bishop Keller gave a thought from Brigham Young that has stuck in my mind all week. Brigham Young said that when we suffer trials and give sacrifices that are extremely hard, we are blessed with superior blessings. And Bishop Keller made a good point that we all like just good old blessings, and we really would like superior blessings, but those come with learning and growth. Those superior blessings are great, but aren't usually all experienced immediatly. We experience many now, and many in the future. And as I tried to tie everything together today for my girls, I told them that so far in my life, my greatest sacrifice has been that of giving Graham back to Heavenly Father, sending him on another mission away from us, but that the blessings we have experienced have been ten-fold what we probably would have received if he were here, so hard to say, but true. My family and I are truly blessed and I'm so grateful.