Another Journal to my Angel. 11/09/2008

So I figured after I vented I would write a journal to my girl. This is a lot more warm and fuzzy for those of you who are sick of my ranting and raving about politics. Enjoy!

Journal to my Angel Madeline 11/09/2008

What a time we live in. So much to tell you; I don’t know where to start. I will start with how bummed I am that you are so sick right now. You have the flu, which is the sickest you’ve ever been. You have had a cold before, but never the flu. You’ve had a fever for about three days now and you have been throwing up quite a bit. Your Dad and I have been scared that you might not have anything inside of you. I absolutely hate it when you are sick, I feel so helpless. I must say however, I have never met a happier sick baby than you. You still want to play and everything. We can’t let you play too much though because you start coughing more and it makes things worse. I would do anything to alieve your pain. It is part of being a parent though. These are the times I am happy you will not remember, well kind of. Your Dad gave you a blessing today. I cannot describe what a blessing it is to be married to a worthy Priesthood holder. During the blessing you were so calm and sweet. I bet you knew that Heavenly Father was blessing you. He spoke about how Heavenly Father has blessed you with such a sweet spirit. It is so true; you have a gentle calmness about you that I know did not come from me. You have such a mature personality for a little baby. You are my little soldier. In the blessing he also stated that your sickness will bring our family closer together. Isn’t that ironic? Through sickness and pain we become closer to one another. It is so true though. He said that because you are sick it will cause us to take a step back and realize how fortunate we are to be together and have one another. Even though you have been sick I have cherished the alone time we as a family have had together this weekend. Your Dad loves you so much and is so good to you. He got all choked up as he gave you the blessing. I have to admit, I shed a few tears myself. What a blessing you are in our life!

Recently I got a new calling. I am now the assistant for activity days for the young women in the ward, ages 8-11. It is funny to me because as soon as we moved into this ward I have been silently praying that I would be called to work with the young women. It is so important that young women have strong examples and icons in their lives. By no means am I saying that I am an ideal example, but I can say that I am certainly trying to be. In the world we live in today it is not exactly cool to believe in abstinence, or modesty. Everywhere you go, everything you listen to; schools, entertainment, music, sports; media of any sort, there will be people teaching you otherwise. People rather teach you what is morally convenient than what is morally right. All I can teach you and these young women, is, to be true to yourself. My lesson was about faith and I based it off of Alma 32 (one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon). This chapter is about how Alma compares faith to a mustard seed. He explains that in order for the seed to grow it must be nourished. This is an analogy I am sure you already know. In order for our faith you grow we have to nourish it with the scriptures, prayer, attending church, service and much, much more. For the lesson I went and bought some pots that we could eventually use to plant something to emphasize the Alma 32 analogy. For now I printed a bunch of scriptures from the Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, D&C and Joseph Smith History, about faith. We cut them up and put them in our pots. The girls are supposed to read a scripture before they go to bed at night and before they leave the house in the morning. We decorated the pots with a turkey cut out. I wanted them to think of something they are grateful for every time they look at their pots, since we are closing in on Thanksgiving. After that we played “Faith Bingo.” This was a lot of fun. I had them write down words on a bingo board that made them think of the meaning of faith. Once their boards were filled I read them a recent Conference talk about faith. Every time I read a word on their board they put a skittle on it until they got four skittles in a row. They are the sweetest girls as well. You would think that they look up to us as their leaders, however I think I look up to them even more. These girls, including you, were chosen to live in the last days. You were chosen because our Heavenly Father knew you were strong enough to live in the most difficult time that this world has ever experienced. We live in a world with some of the worst and greatest people that have ever existed. No wonder Elder Tome Perry (I am pretty sure it was him) said that in heaven those who lived in previous dispensations will gather around us with the up most anticipation to hear what it was like to live in the last days. This is why you are my little soldier, to stand up for what is true and right and fight against the adversary. What was even more adorable was how excited you were when the girls came over. You squealed with delight. You LOVE other children. I am sure you can sense their sweet, innocent spirits. You just sat and stared and laughed at every word these girls spoke. You are too precious.

So, your recent accomplishments; YOU ARE CLAPPING YOUR HANDS NOW! I can’t describe how adorable this is. It is not just any clap either. If I were on stage and someone clapped for me the way you do I would gleam with pride and happiness. Your clap is so big and hilarious. You are incredibly proud of yourself as well, which makes it even more entertaining. We are expected to say “YYYYYYEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHH every time you clap.” Oh the little things that are so much more entertaining when you have a child. You are not crawling yet, but you will stick your little bum in the air while you are on your stomach. You are still rolling quite a bit and doing your cute little pose with your head to the side. You now like to pat your hand over your mouth to make cute little noises. Also, there is a light at the top of the stairs that you think is so funny to laugh at when we take you down stairs in the morning and before you go down for bed at night. You and I stand under it and laugh for a couple of minutes with each passing. You are still in love with lights, trees, doorknobs and water bottles. Oh and your jumper as well.

So now I am going to return to the subject of politics. I know, sorry, it tends to be a repetitive subject in these journals. Barack Obama is now the President of the United States. This is another reason I know we are in the last days. If you can’t tell I am not too happy about him being our President. He is a VERY liberal Democrat and your Dad and I are very Conservative Republicans. The silver lining in this however is that Prop. 8 PASSED in California, Florida and Arizona. Our church does not get involved in politics pretty much ever. They never tell us who to vote for and they never donate money to any of the candidates running for office. Yet, we are obligated as members of the church to stand for what is morally right. Since Prop. 8 was a moral issue we were asked by the Prophet to vote YES on Prop. 8 and to do everything we could to promote and advertise our feelings about this Proposition. This Proposition was written to amend our Constitution to state that marriage is to be only “between a man and a woman.” Your Dad and I advertised our feelings on this Prop as much as we possibly could. We fasted and prayed for it to pass as well. If you do not know this already, California is a VERY liberal state to say the least. There was no question that CA was going to vote for Obama. So, the fact that Prop. 8 passed in CA is truly a miracle! This was divine intervention indeed. To those who think that their vote does not matter they are certainly mistaken. This was a very tight race and righteousness did triumph. There will be times that evil will triumph temporally, but it is righteousness that will reign in the end.

So, about Obama now. We went to my friend Kelly’s house to have our family pictures taken. I am so excited to see them by the way, she is an amazing photographer. Anyways, Kelly is a very political lady and I love it! I agree with her on basically every subject. She showed me a video about Obama’s view on abortion. I am going to post my view about him on my blog after I write this journal to you, but I wanted to mention this to you as well. He is in favor of 3rd term abortion. If the child does not die inside of the mother he is in favor of the mother having the child, then placing that child in a room, alone, and letting it die from neglect. I cried as I watched and listened to this video. I am sick to my stomach even writing this to you. I am sorry to end on such a depressing subject, but I want you to be aware of what and who is out there. This is just one of the many reasons I do not support Obama. I will respect his position as President of the US (as my friend Britney so eloquently put it), but I do not have to agree with his views and lack of morals.

I love you so much. I know there is a God, because the love I have for you is not of this world. It is the closest I can get to the love that God has for all of his children. You are our little angel and we thank Heavenly Father that you are our child.