Today I went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, the 7 am endowment session, and did the ordinance for Hazel Amy Ennest, the wife of a distant cousin. I love being in the temple and feeling the peace there. In the past, there are parts of the session that I routinely slept through but I have been working on staying awake and alert each time I go. I do gain greater understanding and knowledge as I pay more attention and also if I have prayed before I go to the temple.
Today, I had some thoughts about how to better organize other pages on my blog. I think that I will have Mondays be my Foundation Day. Discussion about those habits and practices that help me continue to build and strengthen my foundation. I am referring to habits like daily sincere prayer, scripture/Gospel study, journaling, and meditation. Other practices that help me increase and strengthen my testimony are striving to keep my covenants, service to others, attending church and temple often and doing Family History.
It is 4:15 pm and I am just doing my Family History and blogging for the day. I didn’t get up at 4:15 am because Gil and I went to the Utah Jazz vs. Atlanta Hawks basketball game Vivent Arena last night. The Jazz won the game and we had fun watching the game from the Security National Mortgage suite at the arena with some of Gil’s co-workers. We did get home late and since I didn’t have my Intermountain job today, I decided to sleep in until 5:15 am.
Gil and I got up and went to Vasa. I did a light workout because I meet with a personal trainer at 8:00 am. That was an interesting experience in my weight loss/preparing to do the Lotoja relay journey. I learned that I have 32% body fat and that is after I have lost 25 pounds! I hate to think what my body fat was when I weighed close to 180! Brayden, the personal trainer, said I have weak gluteal muscles and tight hip flexors. He proposed that I continue the cycling classes and meet with him once a week. I told him I would think about it but I think I might do it as I tend to not push myself very hard in training and I get frustrated when Gil tries to push me.
I got a chance today to talk to my mother, Serena. She is such a wonderful woman who still serves many in her community through her work with the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, her ministering for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, her service and concern to her family, her indexing work and serving in the temple to mention a few of the things she does. Is it any wonder that I am on not content to just take it easy even though this is my “day off?” My mother told me that she had already texted her siblings asking them about how they celebrated the holidays when they were young so she could answer the Storyworth question for the week.
My father responded to the Storyworth question: What are you thankful for? with the following list:
My wife
My children
Our family
Our house/home
Our friends
Our garden
My health
Jesus Christ, my Savior, My Redeemer
My Father and Mother in heaven
My earthly father and mother
My brothers and sister
My extended family (aunts, uncles, cousins)
My wife’s family
Good food
My membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Priesthood authority
My sister-in laws and brother -in-laws
My ancestors – my family tree
My church leaders
My physical body
My life
This beautiful earth
I am sovery grateful for truly amazing parents, Max and Serena Watt.
I just got back from the Oquirrh Mountain Temple where I was able to do ordinance work for distant ancestors. I love using the Ordinance Ready application in Family Search.
Oquirrh Mountain Temple at Sunset
Tomorrow night after serving dinner at the VOA Homeless Youth Resource Center, I am going to be watching this presentation on Zoom. LDS Earth Stewardship is a great organization that is working to help members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints be more aware and active regarding issues of how we use the bounteous resources of this earth.
2021 FALL FORUM”Conservation and Reverence for the Earth”, with Dr. Paul Alan CoxThursday November 11th, 7:00 – 8:30 PM
Attend in person at BYU (Provo, Utah) or join us online via Zoom“Reverence for the earth is taught both in scripture and in the temples. Care for the planet and compassion for the plants and animals we share it with can become an act of worship if we explicitly acknowledge the Creator and our contingency as stewards of His masterpiece. Modern revelation reaffirms our responsibilities to protect and care for the creation.” Dr. Paul Alan Cox has lived in remote island villages searching for new medicines. He was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize, sometimes known as the Nobel Prize of the Environment and was named one of TIME magazine’s eleven “Heroes of Medicine” for his discovery of a new HIV drug candidate. His conservation foundation, Seacology, has set aside over 1.5 million acres of rain forest and coral reef in 60 countries around the world.
Cox was both a Danforth Fellow and a National Science Foundation Fellow at Harvard where he received his Ph.D. He currently serves as the Executive Director of the Brain Chemistry Labs in Jackson, Wyoming, a not-for-profit research institute focused on finding new treatments for ALS and Alzheimer’s disease.REGISTER TO ATTEND IN PERSON REGISTER TO ATTEND ONLINE VIA ZOOM
Thursday November 11th, 7:00 – 8:30 PM