Election Day

"Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, in the months and years ahead, events are likely to require each member to decide whether or not he will follow the First Presidency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions. President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, that he had 'never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional or political life.'

"This is hard doctrine, but it is particularly vital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked. In short, brothers and sisters, not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ includes not being ashamed of the prophets of Jesus Christ. . . . Your discipleship may see the time when such religious convictions are discounted. . . . This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions.

"Resistance to abortion will be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened.... Before the ultimate victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost. Even in these, however, let us leave a record so that the choices are clear, letting others do as they will in the face of prophetic counsel. There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, but others will step forward, having been rallied to rightness by what we do. We will know the joy, on occasion, of having awakened a slumbering majority of the decent people of all races and creeds which was, till then, unconscious of itself. Jesus said that when the fig trees put forth their leaves, 'summer is nigh.' Thus warned that summer is upon us, let us not then complain of the heat." ~Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Halloween

Jon has been wanting to make this costume forever, so Halloween was a perfect time for us to actually do it.

Bear Valley

Apple Picking

This past weekend we went up to Bear Valley to visit my Mom.


We went apple picking at a local farm. I had never been apple picking before and when we entered the "Apple Store" there was a barrel filled with plastic bags and a sign that read, "Pick Your Own Apples" so we grabbed the plastic bags and started out the door but I got confused and wasn't sure exactly what to do, so I stopped the worker in the store and asked her how we go about picking our apples and she looked at me like I was crazy and said, "You go outside to the orchards and pick the apples you want." Hmmm...I thought there was more to it, like certain rules you had to abide by, but I guess not.


The fruits of our labor. Too bad I don't really care for apples. They have just been sitting in our fridge all week.

Fall Tradition

Every year since childhood, my family would visit Lombardi's Ranch in October. It signified the start of Fall and the holiday season. I love to walk through the scarecrow alley, select my pumpkin and purchase their sweet corn and fresh tomatoes.

Family From The Netherlands

In this picture: Jon, Mercedes, Thierry, Vanessa, Hahn, Edit and my Dad.

A couple of weeks ago my cousins, Hahn and Edit, came to visit from Holland. Even though there is an apparent age difference, they are in fact my cousins; my Father's niece and nephew...even though my Dad and Edit were more like brother and sister growing up in Amsterdam. They came down to visit Los Angeles, San Diego, Zions, Grand Canyon and San Francisco. We were fortunate to spend an evening with them. While in Los Angeles they visited Venice (I don't imagine it being too different from Amsterdam...both those places smell like incense and pot) and they bought a surfboard clock...a total California souvenir...kind of like when we would go to Amsterdam and come home with wooden shoe key chains, magnets or even actual wooden shoes.