Guess Who Would Be In My Ward??

We went to the ward that we may be in if we get the house (below...) and right away the bishopric member came and greeted us. That impressed me...and also the ward choir got up and sang and that made me SO happy because I LOVE choir and the ward we are in now has an awesome choir, but many of the wards we have been in have lacked in that dept. So I was hoping there would be a choir & there was & they sounded amazing!

Then we took the kids to primary and nursery & looks like the ward has a big group of kids ;o). Ben even got situated quickly & we didn't have to go with him!! That right there was a good sign! :o) Chris & I went to a gospel doctrine class and we learned about how to share with our friends about Joseph Smith and how he brought about the glory of Christ in these latter days (or something like that LOL ;o)). And a lady raised her hand & the teacher said, "Sister Gifford..." Now I knew that my Aunt Katherine could possibly be in this area of Nampa...IT WAS HER!!!! I gasped and she looked at me & I said, "Katherine??" And she said, "Yeah?" (in whispers...) and I said, "I am Harriet Bakly's daugher!!" She nodded in recognition! Anyway we sat in the class & the whole time I am anticipating talking with her! I haven't seen her in SO long...I don't even know when the last time was! The teacher had asked how the scriptures were important in our lives & I raised my hand...I said, "I understand now why they tell us to read the scriptures ALL the time...because at different stages in our lives different things in the scriptures pop out at us & we have a new understanding of it. For example now that I have a family the family scriptures pop out to me, but when I was single other scriptures popped out like: God will send down justice upon those who seek your destruction..." The whole class laughed and liked my examples haha! Chris leaned over to me and said, "You can never just sit and be quiet..." He wasn't being mean he thinks it's funny how I join in even if it isn't "my" ward...I like to offer stories and things I know how it really helps the teacher ;o). And the teacher noted that, "yeah like we know how Alma feels with his son and the teenagers etc..." After class I gave Katherine a big hug & we just talked about how long it's been and what was going on in our lives...why we were there... Katherine asked how my mom was doing and I told her I thought she was better (it had maybe been a week since I called so I wasn't positive...) Katherine took me to relief society and there were a lot of older women, but I knew our ward had a lot of younger people because as we were leaving the last class TONS of youth spilled into the room. The relief society leaders were SO sweet and when they asked Katherine about her guest we stood up and she introduced me and said it was a suprise visit as well to her...I explained how we put an offer on a house in their area and how we wanted to check the ward out and that we just found out my Aunt Katerine was in the ward! WAY COOL.

The lesson we had today was how to be of good cheer. I wrote down what we all came up with and awesome answers by all! It made me think yeah maybe I am doing something right... ;o) Here is the list:

Smile
Count your blessings
Pray

Sense of Humor (a lady shared a story of how a wife asked and asked her husband to mow the lawn and he wouldn't...then she went out and took her scissors and started clipping the lawn with them...her husband came out and asked what she was doing and she told him she was tired of waiting for him to mow the lawn so she was getting his attention...so he went back in the house and got a toothbrush and brought it to her and said, "If you sweep the hall with this I will mow the lawn..." And they had a good laugh ;o)). I liked that story haha!

Serve
Positive
Dress/clean clothes
Be a Friend
(I said don't watch the news...it just brings you down...everything is about despair)

I liked what the teacher said,
"The Savior sacrificed all so we can live with our families again.
Be of good cheer!"

The person that taught the lesson was so cute & Katherine leaned over to me and told me that the lady was her best friend. Katherine had also told me that her & Joyce were best friends and she was so devestaded with her death. :o( I hear that Joyce was truly a blessed soul! (If you look in my past posts she is my mom's sister and died when she was 11-ruptured appendix). Katherine is my mom's step sister, but they are family all in the same. Katherine told me that after church they have fresh veggies from people's garden surplus and we can go get them for our families...I thought that was really cool. This ward also does their own dry packing for food storage. Chris told me later today that the ward has a planned trip to a peach orchard to pick peaches. I am REALLY liking the ward & I got this feeling in my heart that said, "Heavenly Father I REALLY want this house more than anything!" We will see. I am now getting my hopes up and we find out tomorrow! I told my mom tonight about it and she said she would pray for us! Her prayers always seem to get answered ;o). She did tell me though that if the Lord wants it to be so he will make it happen. When I got home from church I put on my facebook status that I went to my Aunt Katherine's ward & her daugther and son, Mona and Kevin, both commented saying that was their mom and my cousin Kristina commented at how small a world this is...the my sister-in-law, Shannon, commented and said that it sure was a small world because Kevin was in her ward! I didn't know he lived in Kuna! So it was an amazing day and I had the best feelings!

I made peach & raspberry cobbler tonight. It SUPER sweet! Almost TOO sweet. I think I will take it to Brandi's house tomorrow.