I had the distinct honor to be taught by a Prophet of God this past weekend. I was invited to attend a regional Bishop's and Stake Presidency training session that was held at one of our local Stake Centers where half of the Bishop's and Stake Presidencies in our area were invited. The speakers were Elder Neal Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Steven Snow of the Presidency of the Seventy, and Elder Wilkinson of the Seventy.
What a special treat. The meeting was 4 hours long, but the time went by so fast that it didn't seem any longer than 1 1/2 hours. There was no special announcements or anything like that, they just wanted to remind us of the importance of the Bishops and wanted to know "what was keeping us up at night". We all put about 20 items on the board and began discussing each of them. I would bet the every Bishop in the room probably had concerns for about 18 of the 20 topics.
A couple of main topics of concern that always seem to pop up were...addictions...especially pornography, destruction of the family, YM/YW activity, and welfare issues. These all took the majority of our time.
It is important for us to understand these things as a family...to always keep them in mind. When we do so we can better protect ourselves from the adversary. Don't think for one minute that your family cannot be caught up in these things. I see families pulled apart almost on a weekly basis for one of these reasons or the other....good people....even great people....just like each of us. Let's always remember to put on the "armor of God".
It really was a great meeting. Elder Anderson wanted to make sure that they each had an opportunity to shake everyone's hand on the way out. I'll remember this conference always, and I'm sure that I will hold a special place in my heart for Elder Anderson. He was very pleasant and extremely intelligent, with a loving demeanor about him. There is no doubt in my mind that he has been prepared very well for this calling, and I know that he is definitely a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Great Anniversary Weekend
Happy 1st anniversary to Sue and I...we can't believe that it has been one year already...boy...has time flown by or what!
We decided to get out of town for a 3 day Vegas getaway. Now, how does a Mormon Bishop do a Vegas getaway without having to be released...well...it's easier than you might think (especially since neither one of us gambles, drinks, or chases men or women :o)) and not the least bit boring...at least to us.
We started our excursion on Saturday morning, which was our actual anniversary, by doing a temple session at the the Las Vegas Temple. It was really nice and special, especially since we were asked to be that "special couple" for the session. What a wonderful way for us to reflect on our marriage and other important family issues/events, as well as a great way to get our mini-vacation off to a great start.
After the session we were able to check in to our hotel on the extreme South part of the strip, at the South Point hotel. It is only about 6 years old, clean, with ample space in the rooms. It was kind of nice to be away from all of the hustle and bustle of the actual strip. We had tickets for the Donnie and Marie show, but before we went to it we ate at the Flamingo Hilton's upscale steakhouse, Steakhouse 46. The food was very good and we were even able to get a great anniversary photo of us. After dinner we went to the Donnie and Marie show...in one word it was ..."fantastic"...seriously...what great entertainers they are. The show was non-stop for about 90 minutes. They did songs together and seperately. They didin't just do their songs either. They were current and energetic. They were both great but Marie stole the show in our opinion. The back up dancers were great too. We would highly recommend this show to anyone who visits Vegas. Jermaine Jackson was in the audience and they spotlighted him for just a moment too...pretty cool actually.
On Sunday....after repenting ahead of time :) .... we headed out to see Hoover Dam, which neither of us had ever seen before. If you haven't gone there...go there the next time you have most of the day to kill...lots of great history and information and some pretty spectacular sights. We were actually able to go down 500 feet into the bowels of the dam itself...pretty cool.
After we returned to the hotel, Sue decided that she wanted to have her way with me....no silly...on the bowling alley. We bowled a couple of games at one of the hotel's 64 lanes. I can tell you this....that little lady still has some fire burning inside her as she put me on notice that she was going to "kick my butt"...and kick it she did....in the first game...it was ugly. After being extremely humbled, and with my ego now fully in check...I came back in the second game and recalimed my manhood. I was thinking about my sons and my sons-in law, and felt that I could not let them down. But in the end we called it a draw, as we ended our bowling excursion with 1 win each. I think Sue had been putting some extra time in on the Wii bowling game in preparation just for this day....the little stinker :)
On Sunday night we ventured downtown to show Sue old Las Vegas' Freemont Street with it's pretty cool light show. For the uninitiated, Freemont St. is definitley old, but refurbished. There are a lot more "street people" there, and the crowd is a little more "blue-collar" shall we say, but there is definitely a fun vibe there with street performers and lots of kiosks offering all sorts of useless junk. There was a pretty cool saxophonist and a Beatle's tribute band there for some free entertainment. All in all, I think we spent an hour or so there. On the way back to the car I was pointing out to Sue a makeshift bed under a tree along a fairly busy street, only to see that the "bed" was occupied....life in Vegas ain't all what it's "cracked" up to be sometimes.
We finished the evening off at P.F. Changs restaurant and called it a night/day.
We checked out of our hotel on Monday morning and headed down the street to the factory outlet stores that took us several hours to go through. We both like to shop and we found some pretty good deals. What better way to end our Vegas vacation than to stop in at Buffalo Wild Wings for some pretty good Buffalo wings before we headed back to St. George.
It was so good to get away and spend some much needed private time with Sue. She is a phenomenal lady that has truly blessed my life. I love her for the great women that she is and the great wife. I am so blessed to be married to her. I am also blessed to have her children be part of my life in addition to my chidren as well. Our first year together has been a tremendous growth experience for each of us and one that we would not change. We are so compatible with each other, I'm not even sure if we had more than a couple disagreements throughout the year. We look forward to our future together and all that it will bring. We love each other very much and our families too. We wish we could see everyone more often than we do.
I did take an extra day of vacation and Jimmy and I were able to play 27 holes of golf together at Sand Hollow Golf Course near our home. I love spending time wiht my boys when I can get a chance...pretty rare since everyone is so busy.
What a great weekend. Until next time....Happy Blogging!
We decided to get out of town for a 3 day Vegas getaway. Now, how does a Mormon Bishop do a Vegas getaway without having to be released...well...it's easier than you might think (especially since neither one of us gambles, drinks, or chases men or women :o)) and not the least bit boring...at least to us.
We started our excursion on Saturday morning, which was our actual anniversary, by doing a temple session at the the Las Vegas Temple. It was really nice and special, especially since we were asked to be that "special couple" for the session. What a wonderful way for us to reflect on our marriage and other important family issues/events, as well as a great way to get our mini-vacation off to a great start.
After the session we were able to check in to our hotel on the extreme South part of the strip, at the South Point hotel. It is only about 6 years old, clean, with ample space in the rooms. It was kind of nice to be away from all of the hustle and bustle of the actual strip. We had tickets for the Donnie and Marie show, but before we went to it we ate at the Flamingo Hilton's upscale steakhouse, Steakhouse 46. The food was very good and we were even able to get a great anniversary photo of us. After dinner we went to the Donnie and Marie show...in one word it was ..."fantastic"...seriously...what great entertainers they are. The show was non-stop for about 90 minutes. They did songs together and seperately. They didin't just do their songs either. They were current and energetic. They were both great but Marie stole the show in our opinion. The back up dancers were great too. We would highly recommend this show to anyone who visits Vegas. Jermaine Jackson was in the audience and they spotlighted him for just a moment too...pretty cool actually.
On Sunday....after repenting ahead of time :) .... we headed out to see Hoover Dam, which neither of us had ever seen before. If you haven't gone there...go there the next time you have most of the day to kill...lots of great history and information and some pretty spectacular sights. We were actually able to go down 500 feet into the bowels of the dam itself...pretty cool.
After we returned to the hotel, Sue decided that she wanted to have her way with me....no silly...on the bowling alley. We bowled a couple of games at one of the hotel's 64 lanes. I can tell you this....that little lady still has some fire burning inside her as she put me on notice that she was going to "kick my butt"...and kick it she did....in the first game...it was ugly. After being extremely humbled, and with my ego now fully in check...I came back in the second game and recalimed my manhood. I was thinking about my sons and my sons-in law, and felt that I could not let them down. But in the end we called it a draw, as we ended our bowling excursion with 1 win each. I think Sue had been putting some extra time in on the Wii bowling game in preparation just for this day....the little stinker :)
On Sunday night we ventured downtown to show Sue old Las Vegas' Freemont Street with it's pretty cool light show. For the uninitiated, Freemont St. is definitley old, but refurbished. There are a lot more "street people" there, and the crowd is a little more "blue-collar" shall we say, but there is definitely a fun vibe there with street performers and lots of kiosks offering all sorts of useless junk. There was a pretty cool saxophonist and a Beatle's tribute band there for some free entertainment. All in all, I think we spent an hour or so there. On the way back to the car I was pointing out to Sue a makeshift bed under a tree along a fairly busy street, only to see that the "bed" was occupied....life in Vegas ain't all what it's "cracked" up to be sometimes.
We finished the evening off at P.F. Changs restaurant and called it a night/day.
We checked out of our hotel on Monday morning and headed down the street to the factory outlet stores that took us several hours to go through. We both like to shop and we found some pretty good deals. What better way to end our Vegas vacation than to stop in at Buffalo Wild Wings for some pretty good Buffalo wings before we headed back to St. George.
It was so good to get away and spend some much needed private time with Sue. She is a phenomenal lady that has truly blessed my life. I love her for the great women that she is and the great wife. I am so blessed to be married to her. I am also blessed to have her children be part of my life in addition to my chidren as well. Our first year together has been a tremendous growth experience for each of us and one that we would not change. We are so compatible with each other, I'm not even sure if we had more than a couple disagreements throughout the year. We look forward to our future together and all that it will bring. We love each other very much and our families too. We wish we could see everyone more often than we do.
I did take an extra day of vacation and Jimmy and I were able to play 27 holes of golf together at Sand Hollow Golf Course near our home. I love spending time wiht my boys when I can get a chance...pretty rare since everyone is so busy.
What a great weekend. Until next time....Happy Blogging!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Southern Utah...Our little Paradise
Sue and I were reflecting the other day on just how blessed we are to live in such a great area of our nation, as well as how blessed we are to be able to do the amazing things we are able to do on a regular basis.
A few months ago, Sue and I began a little hobby called "geocaching". Geocaching is an activity that combines hiking and driving with treasure hunting. It has taken us to some pretty interesting places so far. One of the coolest places we have found was fairly close to home. We traveled up the road to Silver Reef, an old silver mining town with some cool history. Anyway, they have two very old pioneer graveyards there that look like old pioneer graveyards. We followed a dirt road about a mile and a half past them, down some semi-rugged roads until we found some remnants of an old ghost town. Along with the ghost town we found many old abandoned silver mines. They were all secured with rebar but you could still see inside them. We had a blast finding old tin cans and such and just exploring. We were done by 11:30 and it was almost 1:00 by then. We went back to the graveyards to look around and then went hiking into the desert scrub to find another cache. We had lots of fun.
After we went home to get showered up and changed we were off to Cedar City. We had lunch at a cool little Irish bistro kind of place before we went to the Shakespeare festival to see "A Comedy of Errors"....not the greatest play I've ever seen but respectable...at least there we no "dancing gay rabbis"...(inside joke with Sue...you had to be there). After the play we drove further up into the mountain canyons to enjoy a nice meal at Rusty's steakhouse.
Morning in southern Utah's desert, geocaching and hiking in abandoned silver mines with my sweetheart, bistro dining in a cooler mountain community, Shakespeare, and mountain dining, then going back to our beautiful home.....we ARE so blessed...what a life we live! The only thing missing is all of our kids and grandkids.
Kari and the kids are coming back to visit today....yeee haaaa....life is good!
A few months ago, Sue and I began a little hobby called "geocaching". Geocaching is an activity that combines hiking and driving with treasure hunting. It has taken us to some pretty interesting places so far. One of the coolest places we have found was fairly close to home. We traveled up the road to Silver Reef, an old silver mining town with some cool history. Anyway, they have two very old pioneer graveyards there that look like old pioneer graveyards. We followed a dirt road about a mile and a half past them, down some semi-rugged roads until we found some remnants of an old ghost town. Along with the ghost town we found many old abandoned silver mines. They were all secured with rebar but you could still see inside them. We had a blast finding old tin cans and such and just exploring. We were done by 11:30 and it was almost 1:00 by then. We went back to the graveyards to look around and then went hiking into the desert scrub to find another cache. We had lots of fun.
After we went home to get showered up and changed we were off to Cedar City. We had lunch at a cool little Irish bistro kind of place before we went to the Shakespeare festival to see "A Comedy of Errors"....not the greatest play I've ever seen but respectable...at least there we no "dancing gay rabbis"...(inside joke with Sue...you had to be there). After the play we drove further up into the mountain canyons to enjoy a nice meal at Rusty's steakhouse.
Morning in southern Utah's desert, geocaching and hiking in abandoned silver mines with my sweetheart, bistro dining in a cooler mountain community, Shakespeare, and mountain dining, then going back to our beautiful home.....we ARE so blessed...what a life we live! The only thing missing is all of our kids and grandkids.
Kari and the kids are coming back to visit today....yeee haaaa....life is good!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Plumb Family Visit
Will, Kari, and the kids have been with us since last Friday. We have had lots of fun with them while they were here. Will and I were able to get out a couple of times to golf. I took him to a couple of courses he hadn't played before. We had a great time. We also went up to Springdale (Zion Park area) to eat at Oscar's (Brett and Annie's favorite and ours too) then off to the Imax theater to see the "Transformers' pretty cool on the big screen. I don't know what entertained us more, the movie, or this guy next to me that decided to jump over the back row of seats in the middle of the movie to get some concessions, only not realizing that there was a 6 foot drop....after realizing the guy didn't acutally kill himself, I couldn't stop laughing for 10 flippin minutes witht tears running down my face...oh my gosh...you had to be there. I think Kari had a great time too....but that was between trips to the bathroom for nausea.
We had such a good time with the grandkids too. They are all growing up and were such fun to be around. We have them completely indoctrinated to the Wii now too.
They left for California last night for a week at Disneyland and Will's family. Will is going back to Buffalo from there but Kari and the kids are coming back to our place next Thursday and will be staying with us for 4 or 5 more days....yee haa.
Sue is feeling and doing much better but still needs to be on her patch to keep her dizziness at bay, Good news is that the doctors have found nothng seriously wrong and it is just a bad virus.
We had such a good time with the grandkids too. They are all growing up and were such fun to be around. We have them completely indoctrinated to the Wii now too.
They left for California last night for a week at Disneyland and Will's family. Will is going back to Buffalo from there but Kari and the kids are coming back to our place next Thursday and will be staying with us for 4 or 5 more days....yee haa.
Sue is feeling and doing much better but still needs to be on her patch to keep her dizziness at bay, Good news is that the doctors have found nothng seriously wrong and it is just a bad virus.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Sue is Getting Back to Normal Again
Sue is finally getting back to normal and has begun driving again. She is still a little shaky in the dark and on uneven ground but she is doing much better. Back to physical therapy, the ENT specialist and the audiologist for a fitting for a hearing aid on her left ear.
She survived this past Friday with an all day excursion in the car in the mountains. As we meandered through the mountains 50 miles north of us, she did great. The winding roads and altitude were of no concern. Neither was an excursion in a cave.
It's good to have her back in the game. We still don't know what's exactly wrong with her or if she can function without the patch behind her ear...but the simple fact is that she is getting better. If she remains like she is today there is no reason that she won't be able to fly back East to be with Sherri for the birth of her daughter.
When life throws you lemons...make some lemonade!
She survived this past Friday with an all day excursion in the car in the mountains. As we meandered through the mountains 50 miles north of us, she did great. The winding roads and altitude were of no concern. Neither was an excursion in a cave.
It's good to have her back in the game. We still don't know what's exactly wrong with her or if she can function without the patch behind her ear...but the simple fact is that she is getting better. If she remains like she is today there is no reason that she won't be able to fly back East to be with Sherri for the birth of her daughter.
When life throws you lemons...make some lemonade!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Sue & Ray's Zion Paradise
