Harry's Mission Call

Harry finally got his Missionary Call Letter!

It arrived in the morning.

But he waited until 4:30pm to open it.

He wanted everyone to be there. So we all were.

Mark and Kelly had too join by phone.

Aaaaand... He's going to London!

This is me trying to catch his reaction. he was out of his chair so quickly I couldn't get him. He was/is thrilled to be going to an English speaking mission. And really England is just the perfect place for him. After all his name is Harry, his hair is red, his favorite brand of shoe is TUK, and his favorite clothing brand is Ben Sherman. Truly I believe the Prophet was inspired.

So, Harry will be serving a 2 year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We will miss him, but the people he meets in England will get to know this wonderfully smart, sweet, kind, and spiritual young man.

Miscellaneous Stuff

On Sundays I doodle on little scraps of paper. Sometimes I will post them on facebook. But most often they just sit around until I throw them away.

I came across a few that I decided to color and finish and share, along with what was going on in my head while I was drawing.

ONE JUMP AHEAD OF THE BREAD LINE

Harry played Aladdin in his school's muscial. I was really proud of him. Lots of kids came to see him and he was so sweet to take pictures with each. While thinking of him one Sunday, I doodled an Aladdin.

IF WISHES WERE VWs WE'D ALL DRIVE

I'd like to be able to draw cars and rockets, but I really can't. The cars always look like this one:

And the rockets almost always look like this one:

A HOPE FOR SUMMER

We had a really wet spring this year and it seemed as though Summer would never get here. We'd have a couple warm days and then it would pour. And the snails! They were every where. Waiting for warmer days and dead snails led to these Sunday doodles.

THE THICK AND THE THIN OF IT

One Sunday I was thinking about my continual battle with weight. I am round. I've tried to be skinny and managed it for a few weeks here and there during my life. But I always return to my plump self. Why is that? And then it hit me. It's about carrots and Fudgecicles. Which one would you choose?

OLLIEBOT

Kelly had her second baby last month. His name is Oliver. We call him Ollie. And sometimes Olliebot. I made him a cute romper to be blessed in and embroidered robots on it. Although two of the robots came from Stampin Up, I drew one and his little dog too.

CANNON BALL SPLASHES

And then summer was here with hot days filled with swimming and cannon balls. We've had some great parties so far. We've swum into the dark of night while the Tiki Torches blazed. There have been under water voyages and jungle cruises. And Andrew can do an AMAZING cannon ball!

THE BLACK CLOUD

If you read my previous post, you know that my life is not going the way I'd like. I'm mad at God, the Church, BYU, all the perfect people in sacrament meeting, and I have no intention of coming out from under my black cloud any time soon.

SO THERE!

This Sunday

Harry gave a talk.



Language

• Bishop found me at mutual this Thursday and told me I would be giving a talk today. I can’t tell you how excited I am :] but, the cool part about this was I got to pick my own topic out of the for the strength of youth pamphlet. So my topic for today is… language.
• I just thought this would be appropriate for a youth speaker such as myself because I experience language in all its colorful different forms, every day due to my being in high school.
• So the first thing one thinks about when discussing language in church is profanity. Profanity just isn’t that cool when you think about it. It’s totally disrespectful. No matter how you stretch it or how you justify it, profanity offends people; otherwise we wouldn’t call them “bad words.” In fact, if you look at the word profanity, it comes from the adjective profane which means irreverent. Also, profanity includes using the Lord’s name in vain. Using His name in vain is breaking a commandment; therefore, it’s a sin. When you’re swearing to God, it should be about something important; not about that guy who just cut you off on the freeway.
• But, my topic is “language” not “profanity.” Language includes everything you say not just the offensive stuff.
• The way you speak says a lot about who you are. When you’re constantly throwing around bad words and profanities, you’re giving the people around you a pretty bad first impression. However, if you can use kind, intelligent words you’re showing how smart you are and that you probably have something to offer the world other than a couple gross jokes. You can be an example to those around you, just by staying positive and clean when you speak.
• Kind words can mean the world to some people. If you’re having a bad day, not many things feel better than having someone compliment you on how nice you look today. Being nice in the way that you speak can make others feel better. You can bless others’ lives by keeping clean speech.
• Probably the most important, and the coolest, part of keeping your language clean is that it can make other people think. When everyone else seems to be saying vulgar, unclean things but you manage to keep yourself positive and uplifting in speech, it makes people wonder what’s different about you. When people notice that you don’t ever participate in vulgar jokes and when they notice that you don’t ever cuss, they automatically wonder why. This is where being an example comes in. Showing others how to be Christ-like by being Christ-like yourself is really effective. In Ephesians 4 verse 29, it says, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” This means that we can teach others just by how we communicate with them! We can bring others to know Christ with our speech. Not many people listen when you’re putting them down, but if you lift others up, you can show them Christ and they can listen.
• I’ve actually had people ask me, “Are you Mormon?” just because I don’t use bad words. It’s things as simple as this that show others


I bear testimony of this church. I know that this is the church of Christ and I know that the principles taught within it are true. I know that the language we use can testify of our faith and can be used to uplift those around us. We can be tools in the hands of our God by keeping our speech clean. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.



My Primary Class was especially helpful and reverent while practicing the Primary Sacrament Program today. I was and am so proud of them! It's hard being 10 & 11 in Primary. It's the last 2 years and you're lumped in with 5-9 year olds and you've heard everything before and you're just way too cool. So today, they were good examples and I was glad.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad.

Sacrament Meeting Doodle

So you know how I doodle when I'm supposed to be listening? Well today was no different. I doodled during Sacrament Meeting. Sister Rupe gave a great talk about the light of Christ. I doodled a little but I also tried to listen. Her talk was short.

Then Bro. Calvo got up to speak-I was uncomfortable. The Calvos went inactive a while back and announced that when we got a new Bishop they'd come back and sure enough when we got a new bishop they were back. Is it me or is that really weird? I wonder what our old bishop did to offend them and how did our new bishop manage to "un"offend them?
I don't understand the whole concept of, "We believe in the church and will live the gospel, but we don't like you so when you're gone we'll come back to meetings."
Enough on that subject.

Needless to say-I was doodling. Bro. Calvo read his talk and I don't really remember much because I was uncomfortable and I was doodling.



I don't know why, but when I go to draw a little boy it always turns out to be Andrew.

Anyway...

The rest of the morning was great so I have no other doodles to share. Both Sunday School and Relief Society were about Prophets.

I am so glad that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that he restored the gospel. I love reading about what he was like as a man, a friend, a father, as well as the prophet. I'm grateful to have a prophet who leads us today.
Yay! President Monson!