Gospel Doctrine: Rough & Rewarding

For the past year I've taught the Old Testament class at church. We have people from all walks of life, that contribute all kinds of perspective. It always makes for an interesting hour, and I almost always walk away saying to myself, that's definitely not what I prepared, but it's what the people needed to discuss!

There are a few frequent contributors that at first I had difficulty figuring out how to handle the comments for. All of them are older (70 - 80's), and are pretty set in their ways. Some are crazy funny scientific comments about how there was a layer of water circling the atmosphere before the flood which is why it could rain for so long during the 40 day flood.

One gentleman in particular always asks very blunt extreme questions. I've had such a hard time trying to figure out how to answer him, and not end up being offended when he asked on my second week "What's the point of this lesson? It seems like you're just giving a history." (sometimes you can't understand the true depth of the doctrine until you understand the history behind it)

Sunday I finely got to the point where I could say "it doesn't matter what he thinks, if I'm testifying of the truth and backing it up with Scripture and doctrine, that's the best I can do." He had several questions this Sunday, I answered to the best of my ability and class members chimed in to back me up. The lesson was an over all success.

After class this gentleman took me aside and thanked me for such a great lesson. He continued to tell me he always appreciates how I take time to answer his questions and don't just shoot him down. He then explained about his years of inactivity and how he's only come back to church recently when his wife passed away. 

This conversation really made me think! I had no idea the struggles he had gone through, nor did I realize his questions were genuine. Although week after week it felt like he was playing the devil's advocate and just giving me a rough time, he was truly looking for answers. I'm grateful for the patience I was given until I was given the understanding. I hope I can always be patient with those around me. 

Baby's first Glamor Shots!

My sisters and I got a little carried away at the family dinner on Sunday with our niece, Andrea. She was so mellow with all her costume changes!

Oh man! We thought we were just hilarious... hopefully she thinks so too when she's old enough to look at these!

Reflections on the After-life

My Aunt Debbie (Dad's side) died this morning. She wasn't really old, nor was she in particularly bad health. She just went to sleep the night prior feeling under the weather, and didn't wake up in the morning. I suppose it's a peaceful way to go, but it's still a big surprise and hard on the family.

She was always kind to me as a child, crocheting Barbie clothes that matched the ones she had made for her daughter, buying us nail polish and lipstick (my first tube and it was candy apple red). She would take us shopping and didn't care if we completely destroyed the bedroom with toys and games.

I didn't really have a relationship with her as an adult, although she did make it out to my wedding two years ago and met Dave. I know she went through some tough times, and she made it through. It makes me wish Dave and I would have driven the 5 hours to visit her when we were in North Carolina a few weeks ago, and build some sort of adult relationship.

My Dad's side of the family is communicational-ly challenged. They're the kind of people that speak their minds, see their opinion as the truth, and are easily taken in offense. Some of them are manipulative, even though they don't see themselves as such. Although I never knew Debbie to cause any drama, I'm sure she experienced it, being a member of the family.

My Aunt's death has brought all kinds of questions to my mind. Does she see everything clearly now that she's dead (free of drama, manipulation, etc)? Will she have to work through forgiving her family for the drama, or will it all be wiped clean by the atonement? If she learns new info about family members previous manipulation or drama, will it upset her? Or will she be completely at a different level of mentality that it won't even offend her.

I know in the resurrection we still have our attributes and tendencies, and we are still learning and growing. But... do we have to work through this kind of situation? Not that it's important to my eternal salvation, but what I've been thinking about today.

Christmas in October: our Outer Banks Trip

Dave had last week off of school for Fall Break. Since we found super cheap air fair to North Carolina, we decided to celebrate Christmas early and splurge on a trip. Dave called it his last trip of freedom (ie, the last big trip we'll take before we start having kids). We've been anticipating this trip since we found the tickets a few months ago, and were so excited to get to relax and enjoy a new region of the country together.

A minimum of a few hours every day in the ocean! Monday we drove down to Ocracoke Island, and camped on the beach for two nights. We swam, boogie boarded, surfed (not very well on my part), collected sea shells, had a bonfire on the beach... it was just all around great! Wednesday we woke up early to watch the sun rise yet again over the ocean, packed up and headed north. We slowly wound our way back up the coast stopping wherever we were inspired to stop.

We stopped at four light houses on our way back to Kathryn's Currituck, Bodie Island, Cape Hatteras, and Ocracoke. All were impressive, and I'm glad we got to see them. Cape Hatteras was moved in 1999, so it was weird for me to see it not on the beach but further inland. but I'm glad they moved it instead of loosing it to the ocean.

Shipwreck was on the list of must do's. Although it was WAY more ghetto than I remember it being as a kid, they sold some really cool shells super cheap. They still sold all the same trinkets that I bought as a kid (from the shell jewelry boxes, to the unicorns Heather would always purchase, to the weapons Mike always wanted). It was fun to relive that part of my childhood, and I'm pretty sure we will be decorating our bathroom in ocean theme now. The $10 I spent on shells will look great on our neutral tan bathroom walls.

We also got to go to Busch Gardens (no lines + nice weather = better than I expected) and on the only rainy day of our trip the VA aquarium. Both were a little pricy for my taste, but you only go on a real vacation once a year, so it was worth it.

We also stopped by Jockey's Ridge and the Wright Brother's National Monument, which was tons of fun to check out.

One of the highlights of the trip was getting to know Kathryn, Emil and the family. We would return to their house between 5 and 7 each night, eat dinner and either play games, watch a show, or just chat with the family. Because I've lived out west for the past 10 years, I haven't really had the opportunity to get to know this side of the family as well, and I was really glad for the opportunity to become friends with them.

The dangerous part of the trip... Kathryn is a great baker. She made doughnuts, bread, cakes, brownies and cookies for us! I now have this insane desire to bake everything under the sun, and buy absolutely everything from a website she introduced me to, kingaurthurflour.com. Since I got home I've made sun-dried tomato bread, english muffins, have a recipe for apple pie filling to try out and I just want to make some cookies so bad!

It was a great trip! Great Christmas Present! Fabulous way to spend Dave's fall break.

The Basement has Officially Paid for itself!

We've officially come to the point where renting the basement has paid for all the renovations we've had to do to make the basement a usable apartment! We thought we would reach this point a lot sooner, but the kitchen ended up costing us twice as much as we planned for (oh the naive calculations of someone that has never before paid for construction). Then we added on a bedroom with a closet and a storage closet which pushed back the break-even day a few more months out.

I'm so glad it's all done! The place looks so much more attractive and updated than it did when we moved in. No more wood panel walls! No more pink wheat-like textured wallpaper! No more super long living room! No more laundry room with ghetto tile left over from the 60's! No more dimmer switch that causes a quick death for energy efficient bulbs! No more not working golden intercom from the library upstairs to the living room downstairs (although due to Dave's fascination with it, we still have it)! No more peach ceilings!!!

We really didn't mind most of it, but it's nice to have everything more up to date. Our upstairs area was updated and completely renovated by the previous owner a year or so prior to our moving in. So it's like we now have a brand new house. We probably wouldn't have made these changes for another 10+ years if we didn't find family to rent to, so that was a blessing!