Dealing With The Heat

Maybe it's the lingering effect of radiation treatments, maybe I'm just getting older, but I seem to be hot to the core all the time these days.  I'm generally taking lukewarm showers to try to help. 

The Ragozzines made it home today, it's quieter, but we do still have family here, including Kevin Despain who arrived last night to see his sister Danielle and to do some hiking in Zion Park.  Here's my picture of the day, actually taken July 12 when we had one last gathering of the "big group", enjoy ...

Doug Jr, Sarah, Chloe, Darin, Jacob, Hilary, Rachel gather in the kitchen :)

Ragozzines Head Home... God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again!

The Ragozzines left for home today -- can't believe it's been a month already!  To say that it has been a wonderful month for all of us in our family is a major understatement.  Thank you for making the effort to come, and thanks to every family member who did so much to help us be together these precious weeks!

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Picture of the day... Riley and Emma!

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I continued reading in Moroni 7 today.  I plan to read it a few times repetitively, and ponder and pray to get its full meaning.  I was impressed today that we think of charity as being willing to give to those in need.  Moroni teaches us that there is more to charity than that -- that "charity is the pure love of Christ".  I am realizing that charity in a single word encompasses all the good that Christ did for each of us and the attributes that He desires each of us to develop and magnify in our own lives.

Here are a few more verses I dwelt on and enjoyed today,

19 "Wherefore, I beseech of you, brethren, that ye should search diligently in the light of Christ that ye may know good from evil; and if ye will lay hold upon every good thing, and condemn it not, ye certainly will be a child of Christ.



20 "And now, my brethren, how is it possible that ye can lay hold upon every good thing?


21 "And now I come to that faith, of which I said I would speak; and I will tell you the way whereby ye may lay hold on every good thing.


22 "For behold, God knowing all things, being from everlasting to everlasting, behold, he sent angels to minister unto the children of men, to make manifest concerning the coming of Christ; and in Christ there should come every good thing.


23 "And God also declared unto prophets, by his own mouth, that Christ should come.


24 And behold, there were divers ways that he did manifest things unto the children of men, which were good; and all things which are good cometh of Christ ..."

Faith, Hope, and Charity ... keys to the blessings of our Saviour

I read these verses in Moroni 7 today and was again deeply touched by the power of the love of our Saviour Jesus Christ for each of us.  All of it is very inspirational . . . I have added italics in parentheses for thoughts I had while reading and yellow highlighting on my favorite parts ...

32  "... the Lord God prepareth the way that the residue of men (every one of us!)  may have faith in Christ, that the Holy Ghost may have place in their hearts, according to the power thereof; and after this manner bringeth to pass the Father, the covenants which he hath made unto the children of men.

33 And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me.

34 And he hath said: Repent all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me, and be baptized in my name, and have faith in me, that ye may be saved.

35 And now, my beloved brethren, if this be the case that these things are true which I have spoken unto you, and God will show unto you, with power and great glory at the last day, that they are true, and if they are true has the day of miracles ceased?

36 Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved?

37 Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain.

38 For no man can be saved, according to the words of Christ, save they shall have faith in his name; wherefore, if these things have ceased, then has faith ceased also; and awful is the state of man, for they are as though there had been no redemption made.

39 But behold, my beloved brethren, I judge better things of you, for I judge that ye have faith in Christ because of your meekness; for if ye have not faith in him then ye are not fit to be numbered among the people of his church.

40 And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope?

41 And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.

42 Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope.

43 And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart.

44 If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart; and if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity.

45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—

47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.

Thanks for reading this with me, I hope it touches your heart as it has mine!

Enjoying family just a little longer before they head home!

Family started heading home today, sure has been nice having them!  Josh, Megan, and their children left today, Benjamin and Doug Jr go tomorrow, Sarah, Darin, and their children leave Tuesday . . . you get the idea. 

So we enjoyed today while we could.  Had a nice dinner, turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, and apple crisp.  Tasted great, company was even better!

My mother fell at church and hurt her feet and ankles.  Tom and I gave her a blessing, and we tried making her as comfortable as possible.  My dad was there this evening, she tried too.  Hopefully the swelling will be a little less in the morning.

We got a new bishopric in our ward today.  Lee Hogan is the bishop, Lynn Maxwell and Sherm Howard are his counselors.  The executive secretary and clerks (including me) are continuing the same.  They are all good people and really care for the people in my ward.  I'm looking forward to the continued opportunity to serve, it really is a blessing!

Our former bishop, Gary McKell, and his wife Eileen are going to serve a mission at BYU Hawaii.  They are very excited about it, and I'm excited for them!

Going back to family, Chloe, Darin, and Benjamin did some dancing to what I think was ballet music tonight.  It was a lot of fun!

Mario Kart, Swimming, and Computer Viruses

It continues to be a lot of fun having family at our house.  Ethan absolutely loves Mario Kart, and at age 5, generally dominates anyone who plays him.  It is interesting watching the level of detail which he understands this game!

It was 106 degrees here much of the day, so lots of swimming also happened . . . last night we even had a bonus session after dark, clothes and all, just get cool!

Two of our computers got hit with a computer virus where a rogue Internet "security" system gets on your machine and won't let you do anything.  I took the first machine to the shop when I couldn't figure it out, then the second machine got hit with the exact same thing -- "AV Security Suite", so I got the idea to google it.  Over 70,000 items on how to deal with it, so clearly many people are dealing with this same issue.  In my case, a combination of a system reset to two days before and a thorough system cleansing seemed to do the trick.  Arggghhh!

Reunion 2

Pam, Logan, and Tanner Despain came for a couple days, and Josh, Megan, Ethan, Kate, and Riley are here for a sleepover too. Getting ready for another fire and marshmallows in the backyard. Yum! Maggie is enjoying Baby Signing Time and Ethan is beating everyone in Mario Kart, the 5 year olds are ruling the computer game world. Life is fun at our home tonight ... :)

Ode to Abigail

I mentioned yesterday that I would enjoy finding Put-Put-Charlie's theme song, and we'll still try for that another day.  I have been talking to some in the family since then about how my granddaughter Abigail reminds me of a song that was popular a long time ago (1964) ...  So laugh with me (it is definitely a sound from the past, which makes it a little fun) and take a listen to

Abigail Beecher by Freddy Cannon

Of course, my granddaughter is Abigail Ragozzine, I'm the Beecher here, but it's still fun for me . . .