President Monson

We woke up to the news this morning that President Monson died last night. It is always sad when a prophet dies. President Monson has been serving as an apostle or prophet my entire life. Talk about a life given fully to the Lord. It will be weird not having him at conference anymore. Russell M. Nelson will be the next prophet. He became an apostle in 1984. I was ten years old. 

This is my favorite Thomas S. Monson quote. I loved it so much that my last Sunday in Young Womens I had my cousin Traci make it for everyone on a card they could keep. She knows how to make things look cute. Jorja has hers hanging up on the wall. This is what Jorja's card says:

Jorja, Your Heavenly Father loves you. That love never changes. It is not influenced by your appearance, by your possessions, or by the amount of money you have in your bank account. It is not changed by your talents and abilities. It is simply there. It is there for you when you are sad or happy, discouraged or hopeful. God's love is there for you whether or not you feel you deserve love. It is simply always there.

Stockton and Jorja both dressed up today as a sign of respect for President Monson. They said not many other people dressed up, but I'm glad they did. This morning I was looking for Preston and Mike said he was downstairs getting dressed. He still hadn't come up at 8:10. That is the time he needs to leave for the bus. I went downstairs and found him sound asleep in his bed, still in his pajamas. I woke him up and said it as 8:10 and why did he go back to sleep? He laughed at me and said he was so cozy. Obviously I had to take him to school. I went straight to the temple after I dropped him off. I saw Katie there. She was being an escort to Paige who was getting her endowments out. I asked her if Paige was going on a mission. Nope. Paige is 18 and at school at BYU-Hawaii. Maysen has been asking about getting her endowments out but Mike told her they rarely let people do it this young if they're not going on a mission or getting married. Katie told me they transferred Paige's records back to our stake because our stake president thinks it's a great idea for people to take out their endowments when they are ready. That is really good to know.

Mike decided he wanted to start reading the Pearl of Great Price with the kids. We were reading Moses when the Young Mens Presidency came over to talk with Stockton. They gave him a Book of Mormon with a challenge to complete it by June. Stockton is already reading the Book of Mormon for seminary. Seth said that a lot of the boys will be going on missions soon and haven't read the Book of Mormon, so they are trying to encourage them to do that. I'm pretty sure Stockton has read it several times by now, so we will see if he decides to read it again. I guess he can keep up with his seminary reading, and then go backwards and read beginning chapters too. Who knows. It was awesome that we were reading scriptures as a family when they came over. Good timing. I did ask Seth if Young Mens president was now a lifetime calling. He has had that calling for years now! Probably to make up for the fact that he has six daughters and no sons. He was Elders Quorum president before this and was always in charge of the Fathers and Sons campout. When he was in charge it became a Fathers and Sons and Daughters campout. They changed it back because the sons ended up hanging out with the daughters and the fathers lost out on the bonding time. Haha.