November 2017 Visiting Teaching Handout

I've been looking and waiting for a week or so for the new visiting teaching message to come out on line so I could make my handout.  It finally dawned on me today.......there is no message this month.  The visiting teaching message for May and November are messages of choice, taken from General Conference talks.
Choosing a Conference talk is difficult for me as I tend to have more than one talk that I find I needed to hear and yet, choosing one that I think has a great message for everyone.
As I was reading through different talks, there was something from Elder Neil L. Andersons talk, The Voice of the Lord, that hit home with me. Elder Anderson stated that the First Presidency had told Elder Hales that he could give a brief message in the Sunday morning session if his health permitted it. While his health did not permit it, he prepared a message.
The part of the message from Elder Hales talk that Elder Anderson shared and the quote I chose to use for my handout, was this: "When we choose to have faith, we are prepared to stand in the presence of God."
Where November is Thanksgiving, I chose to use Elder Hales quote plus add in a touch of Thanksgiving.  It fit perfectly, reminding me that having Faith in God helps me to have gratitude in all things. There are days that I'm not as in tune with the Lord as I should be, and not being grateful for all that I have and showing gratitude, taking things for granted........I surely need to work on that!

I then went looking on the internet for quotes that incorporated the two subjects together.  Here are a few I found that I really liked:

1. Being grateful in our circumstances is an act of Faith in God. - President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

2. Gratitude is our sweet acknowledgement of the Lord's hand in our lives. It is an expression of our Faith. - Bonnie D. Parkin

3. Gratitude is deeper than thanks...Thankfulness may consist merely of words.  Gratitude is shown in acts. - David O. McKay.

4. The greatest test of faith is when you don't get what you want, but still you are able to say...."Thank You Lord." - John Hagee??

October Entry Way Desk Decorations

Here it is, almost the end of October........................I actually see my life passing right by me the way time just seems to disappear. 
This month has actually not been a good month for me.  A very dear friend passed away and my oldest daughter and her family moved to Forest Grove, Oregon.
I did, however, take the time to decorate my entry way desk.  I do find joy in decorating this desk each month, although I am running out of ideas from one year to the next.  I try to add something different each year and each time I walk past my desk, I find joy.
This is what my desk looked last year.......

And this is how it looks this year..........fun......I love this time of year! I would have liked to put the orange bow on the horseshoe tree again this year, but for the life of me, I searched my home high and low but could not find where I put it.  But looking on the bright side, I'm sure it will turn up around Christmas time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Pressure Tank

Once again, we had water problems, but this time it only lasted one day.  As I was standing at the kitchen sink on October 12th, I noticed that our water pressure was very low and then...........NO WATER.
Thankfully, I filled a pitcher of water before it totally gave out, giving us some drinking water.  We also have water storage, which gave us enough water to fill ice cream buckets to dump in the toilet bowl to make it flush and enough water to sit a large container on our vanity to use for washing our hands.
But looking on the bright side, it wasn't nearly the disaster that we had back in November of 2015.  That is something I don't think I would like to do again!  Did I say, "DON'T THINK I Would Like To Do Again!".......I meant, I WOULD NEVER LIKE TO DO AGAIN!
We had our local area "pressure tank fixers" come to our home the next day to look over our situation and they found that the mag on the pressure switch had blown and we also had a leak in the pressure tank.  We decided to get a new, bigger tank, while we were at it because it would cut down on the amount of times the tank would kick our pump off and on. 
They band-aid, fixed the problem so we would have water to use until they returned with the new tank.  They came back within a few days and here we are back to normal, as normal as normal gets for us, and things are good.

 

 

Through the entire process, we only had one, slight mishap and if that's all that occurred, I'll take it.  While trying to get our tractor close enough to the well house to lower the new pressure tank, the 2nd step on our cement stairs, leading to our back door got nicked with the tractor tire, leaving a 9-1/2" x 2-3/4" mark.

Moon Splendor

Last night, somewhere around 8:45 p.m., the moon was absolutely beautiful.  And of course with my point and shoot camera, I have as yet to figure out how to get a nice picture of the moon.  I took many pictures of the moon surrounded by clouds, which gave me a double moon (not sure if it was window reflections, or just what it was).  I also took pictures of the moon by itself.  I know the photos aren't the best, but sometimes, not the best just has to be good enough......good enough that you can still see the moon in all it's splendor.