Peanut Brittle Love and Service

When Ye Are in the Service of Your Fellow Beings Ye are only in the Service of Your God.

Mosiah 2:17

In the Book of Mormon King Benjamin was such a great example to his people of service and had great love for his people. King Benjamin was getting old and was soon going to die but before he did he asked his son Mosiah to gather together the people of his kingdom so he could teach them and share the things God wanted him to share with them.  Many people came and King Benjamin’s voice could not be carried to them all so he had a tower erected to project what he was going to say. Even then so many people came to hear their beloved King teach them that they all could not hear the sound of his voice and so he asked his words to be written and taken to all.  These are some of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon.

I want to share one verse that is one of my favorites and why it is. It is Mosiah 2:17

“And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.”

The reason this is one of my favorites is that it reminds me of my mom. A woman who was put in and out of an orphan’s home as a child so her mom could run around. She would come back and get them and then when she wanted to leave she would take her kids to the home.

My mom had a hard life. She was married at the age of 14 to her first husband so she wouldn’t have to go back to the home when her mom left again.  Over the years she was married 5 times, she had 10 children that lived past 6 months between the first 4 husbands.  This was a woman who could have been bitter and angry at her lot in life. And maybe she was for a time. Until at the time she became an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  She had joined the church in the late 1950’s but was not a participating member for very long.  When I joined the church my mom after a year or two started going again. She found a purpose in her life and never looked back. She served constantly. Mom had some rough edges but her life of service more than made up for it. Some examples of her service is that she served God by serving in the Boy Scout program for more years than I remember. She was always doing something with Boy Scouts. She received the honor of Silver Beaver. For years she until she got too old she made peanut brittle for every adult in the ward when it was their birthday. She had little earthly things but that didn’t stop her from sharing what she had and serving others. This scripture in Mosiah was so much of my mom that we had the idea of the verse engraved on her headstone.

 People today still when they talk of my mom they talk of her service and her giving even when she gave more than she had.

If we all remember what Mosiah says about when we serve others we are serving God we will serve with more compassion, serve more willingly and as we serve our hearts will love others and we will be blessed with Charity. The pure love of Christ.  I am grateful for the example my mother showed her family of this principle. 

I'm Published!

Our San Juan trip was highlighted in the local newspaper. Now I can say I'm a published photographer. Insert smiley face here.  It was a neat experience to be able to do this and I'm grateful for the opportunity. 

Following Christ our Savior's Example of Baptism

As I was reading the final chapters that Nephi writes in 2 Nephi 28-33 this past week I marveled at Nephi's unwavering testimony of Christ and following Christ example. In chapter 31 he teaches us why Christ was baptized and how we must follow Christ in this ordinance, receive the Holy Ghost after baptism and then endure to the end to be saved.

2 Nephi 31:5 "And now, if the Lamb of God, he being holy, should have need to be baptized by water, to fulfill all righteousness, O then, how much more need have we, being unholy, to be baptized, yea, even by water. 

We learn here that Christ was baptized. Why?

2 Nephi 31:9 "And again, it showeth unto the children of men the straitness of the path, and the narrowness of the gate, by which they should enter, he having set the example before them. 

Christ set the example for us. He showed us the way. We too should be baptized. 

2 Nephi 31:10 "And he said unto the children of men: Follow thou me. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, can we follow Jesus save we shall be willing to keep the commandments of the Father?

Nephi is teaching us to follow Jesus and keep his commandments. 

2 Nephi 31:12 "And also, the voice of the Son came unto me, saying;He that is baptized in my nae, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me; wherefore, follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do. 

Christ received the Holy Ghost after his baptism. We shall receive the Holy Ghost after our baptism.

2 Nephi 31:13 "Wherefore,my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism - yea, by following your Lord and you Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel."

We follow Christ with full purpose of heart, with real intent, repenting, witnessing unto God we are willing to take upon us the name of Christ by baptism.

2 Nephi 31:16 "And now, my beloved brethren I know by this that unless a man shall endure to the end, in following the example of the Son of the living God, he cannot be saved."

Follow the Saviors example and endure to the end. Endure is a word that can bring to mind trudging along, hanging in there until it's over. But that is not what endure to the end means. Enduring to the end means being faithful all your life to Christ and his teachings. Being faithful will bring joy to the enduring.

2 Nephi 31:17 "Wherefore, do the things which I have told you I have seen that your Lord and Redeemer should do; for, for this cause have they been shown unto me, that ye might know the gate by which ye should enter. For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost.

Nephi is telling us to follow the Savior. Enter into the gate of repentance, baptism by water and remission of our sins by the Holy Ghost.  This path will lead to eternal life. And then he ask us is verse 19 of this same chapter "I would ask if all is done?" Is it done?

Another one of my favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon tells us...

2 Nephi 31:20 "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life."

Press forward with a steadfastness in Christ. That is a great visual sentence. 

Pressing forward in Christ in the world today of worldly influences is vital to helping us endure and being faithful always. 

Feasting upon the word of Christ. Another great visual sentence.

Not just read but diligently study the scriptures and the words of the prophets to help you solidify keeping the commandments and solidify your testimony of Christ and his gospel. 

Day 7 - Hiking Mt. Constitution and Later Sailing Fun

We started early today. We were excited to pick up Joshua, Jackie and Ryker from the ferry about 8:30 am to spend the day with them. After picking them up we drove straight to Moran State Park to hike parts of Mt. Constitution. We planned a couple of hikes that were not difficult but that we were still able to see what we wanted too. Ryker is 5 and we wanted him to enjoy it. Moran State park has many different hiking trails that arrive at the same destinations. It just depends on where you park and what trail heads you take to get to where you want to go. We decided to take a short hike to 75 foot Cascade Falls. It was about a 1 mile round trip hike.  The trails are well groomed and the area is pretty. Depending on what time of year you go you can ride bikes on some of the hiking trails.

Larry's fashion sense taking over again.

75 foot water fall we hiked too.

We were so happy to have Joshua, Jackie and Ryker join us.

We got photo bombed!

We then drove up to Little Summit trail head to park the car and hike up to the Tower on the top of Mt. Constitution.
A view along the way.

The steeper part of the trail was below us so this was a good hike for Ryker. He was such a good little hiker.

It was more of a gradual incline from Little Summit trail. The hike was about 4 ½ miles round trip. We hiked among lots of huge pine trees and came to edges where the view of the islands and bays were spectacular.

I even found fairy houses in the forest.

The top view from the top of this tower was amazing. We could see 360 degrees all around us to the various islands with just a few trees in the way.  

The day isn’t over yet! We’ve never went sailing before and we wanted to try it so we scheduled a sailing for 3 1/2 hours. We hiked down to get lunch and get ready to go sailing. We arrived right on time for our adventure. This was a first for all five of us.
We boarded this beautiful sailboat.

Larry got to help put up the sail,

Ryker and Joshua got to help steer the sailboat.

Jackie and I got to enjoy the ride.

We couldn't pass up some couple shots. It was beautiful to spend this time on the water with some of the people we love.

When the motor was off and the wind in the sails were the only thing moving us it was magical. The rocking movement of the water, no noise and gliding along watching the sunset with some of the people I love is a memory I will keep for a long time.

All vacations must come to an end. We need to help tie off the boat and then...

...the day was coming to a close and not too much later we had to take Joshua, Jackie and Ryker to catch the ferry back to the Anacortes. The next day Larry and I were headed for home. It was wonderful, fun, relaxing and memory making vacation so mission accomplished. Until the next one… Oh where should we go?

Day 6 - Biking on Shaw Island

Today we wanted to bike on Shaw Island. We missed the morning ferry there and the next one didn’t leave from Orcas to Shaw until around 3:30. Shaw is the smallest of the Islands the Ferry shuttles people too so it looked like only three or so trips a day went back and forth. We were dinking around and didn’t leave until we had just enough time to drive onto the ferry with our bikes on the car. Which cost us $21.00 unfortunately. Riding in car to Shaw didn’t cost anything but riding back to Orcas in a car cost $21.00?  We wouldn’t have drove on if we knew that. Anyway we were there and the ferry going back to Orcas left just under an hour later. So this ride was going to be short and sweet or we would have to wait on the island until 8:00 pm when the next ferry headed to Orcas. We found the island to have beautiful scenery and very little traffic. We only rode 4 miles so we didn’t get to explore much but if we do this again I’d start with Shaw Island because of not getting to see much of it and its less traffic.  

Pictures from Shaw.

So peaceful.

Loving the road names on these islands.

Loving the man who explored and biked with me.

Another day of vacation to add to our memory and experience suitcase of life. 

Day 5 - Stayed on Orcas Island and Played in the Rain

We woke up to hearing the rain patter on the roof. Larry and I had already decided that today we were going to stay on Orcas Island and do something different. We stayed in the condo for most of the morning doing homework waiting out the rain and finally decided to go to Eastsound’s Chamber of Commerce to get information about Moran State park hiking trails. 

Larry may be starting a new fashion trend. ??? Warm leggings under shorts for men. ???

I’ve had my eye on a pumpkin muffin at the Brown Bear Baking in Eastsound that I wanted to try so I got one and it was another great tasting thing we found. It had a cream cheese filling which was a wonderful surprise. We got two more to share before the week was over.

Baking yumminess.

We drove to Moran State Park and checked out what trails we will hike on Friday. It was still raining and misty so the mountain view was limited. We are hoping for clear weather on Friday.

We had to get the golf fix in for the week so we went to golf Orcas Golf. It is a really compact 9 hole course. It is also currently golf on the honor system. There is a little box to put your money in. And yes it was still raining so we golfed in the misty rain. I got a little bit wet I must say. I must love my husband to golf in the rain. Oh wait… I guess he must love me to bike 44 miles and counting.

I don't know if it's like this all year but the course is on an honor system.

Me. In. The. Rain. Before. We. Start.

It's a pretty compact short 9 hole golf course. 

This is cute. The snacks and drinks are on the honor system too. But it was empty this time of year.

Did I mention we were golfing in the rain? I wonder if we could change the words to instead of Singing in the Rain to Golfing in the Rain?

For dinner we treated ourselves to the great tasting pizza we had at Portofina Pizza earlier in the week. Enjoying the company, enjoying the place, enjoying the food, enjoying the activities. We’re doing good!

Day 4 - Lopez Island, San Juan WA

Woke up ready for another day biking this time on Lopaz Island. Larry and I are hobby/enjoyment riders. We are getting more experience as we take these rides in our life but we enjoy the ride as we take them. As we do we learn from our previous experiences and take them on the next ride. Kind of like life wouldn’t you say?

It was another nice day. Not too hot, not too cold with a bit of cloud cover. The rain forecasted did not come. Arriving on Lopez you arrive into the port but there is no city close by. So you need transportation. We got off and saw a bike staging area so we rode up there and looked at the map and planned our route. Some people who know me know I am very organized but I decided with this vacation I wanted to just go as we go. I didn’t want the vacation to be too structured. We knew what we wanted to do this week and we’ve been figuring it out as we go along. Lately at home things have been so busy I didn’t want to much structure on vacation.

First we rode to Lopez village. It’s a quaint little village with cute shops. We have found on these islands the cutest book shops. We found another one today. 

We rode down to the water and watched sailboats and birds. We were treated to a couple of cute crows. I had never thought crows as cute. We got a cute picture as they snuggled each other on the railing.

We looked at the map again to see where we could bike to before we had to catch the ferry back to Orcas Island at 3:45. We decided to bike to Shark Reef and see what was there. It was about another 4 miles down the road we thought. We rode along looking at Lopez Island. It seemed to have more open areas than Orcas Island and the roads were wider. Bikers are cautioned to stay off Center street and so we did. Beautiful green was all around. We still biked up and down quite a few hills but they were manageable. As we got closer to Shark Reef it felt more and more serene. Not a lot of traffic, less houses that we could see. I liked that. We got to the end of the road which is like saying the same thing as the end of the land and the entrance to Shark Reef right before it. We parked our bikes and walked the ½ mile or so to the water. It was beautiful. 

As we got there a couple of guys were there saying they saw Orcas in the water. We didn’t see any Orcas but we walked further down the trail and saw seals! They were so cute. It was funny to see how some of them were laying on the single rocks that stuck up out of the water. Strong abs for sure. That for me made the biking trip worth it. 

The treasure we found was worth it to me. As I was watching the treasure we found I was thinking how much my grandchildren would love this and so I took many pictures to be able to share. We weren’t in a hurry anymore to make it to the Ferry so we got to enjoy the view for a while.

We had come 11 miles and now we had to ride the 11 miles back to the Ferry. I forgot to mention that when we got to the Reef we had to make the choice of not walking out to the Reef and ride straight back to the Ferry to catch the 3:45 or walk to the Reef and see what was there and wait for the 7:30 pm Ferry. I voted and Larry kindly agreed to walk out to the Reef. I mean that’s what we rode out there for! 

Found another road sign that reminded me of family. My daughters are into yoga and I have heard them say this word. I'm not sure what it means but I can guess peace and tranquility like this area we were biking in. Yes, that is Larry waaaayyyy up there. 

Heading back we stopped at The Galley Restaurant that we had seen lots of cars in front of on our way past earlier so we figured it was good. We ordered a French Dip sandwich to share which was yummy and it came with really good sweet potato fries. So far the food on our trip has been an A. 

We rode back to Lopez village so we could get batteries for our bike flashlights in case we had to ride in the dark. We actually made good time back to the Ferry and it wasn’t dark. We had to wait 1 ½ hours for the Ferry though and it would be dark on the other side when we rode our bikes to the car. 

Another 22 mile ride today.

We were the only two people getting off the Ferry at that time. Later night rides between islands does not get much traffic we were told.

The hot tub felt really good for all our tired biking muscles. I told you we would get good use out of that hot tub.