Lighthouse carved out of stone

President Johnson, the current Temple president carved this for me out of stone. Isn't it beautiful?

Scripture Study - March 8

Eccl 5:4 - When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.

There are so many times when I promise the Lord that I will do something or stop doing something and yet I fail. I enjoyed reading this scripture this morning to give me new hope and determination to keep all my promises, but especially those I make to the Lord.

Eccl 7:3 - Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.

I am starting to make a collection of scriptures, talks and quotes that have to do with sorrow and trials. I may need it someday and want to be prepared and have "daily affirmations" on hand to help me through the hard times. This scripture will help me to remember that if we have the right attitude, we can turn sadness into something that will make our heart stronger and encourage us to turn our hearts to God more fully.

Stiles

This name is one of those surnames which describe the nature or situation of the original bearer's residence (Lower's English Surnames, p.84), in this case designating a certain person living near a stile. A stile is a set of steps for crossing over a fence or wall. They are generally found in rural areas and allow people to enter and leave fields but restrain animals . Most are made of wood.

The word stile is a modernized from of "stighle", the old Saxon word; and the Stiles family is of Anglo-Saxon origin, tracing back to that peninsula, now known as Jetland, which divids the North Sea, or German Ocean, from the Baltic Sea. The early seats of the family seem to have been in the southeastern corner of England in the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Kent, Essex, Sussex, and Northampton.

Did you know this stuff was in the Bible?

Ok, I was reading in Proverbs and I found some interesting thoughts, and of course, this is just my opinion that it's what these scriptures are saying....

Tactfulness
15:23 - A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season, how good is it!

Think before you speak
15:28
The heart of the righteous studieth to answer: but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things.

17:28
Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.

Gossip
17:9
He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.
20:19
He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.

Interrupting
18:13
He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.

Spoiling Children
19:18-19
Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying. A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment: for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again.

Meddling
20:3
It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling.

Seeking revenge
20:22
Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee.

my personal favorite!!! I interpret this as "It is better to be single than in a bad relationship". :)
21:19
It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman.

Valentine's Day 2006 Flowers

Here are the beautiful flowers I received from wonderful people that care. The roses are from my good friend, Loren, the purple flowers are from a friend from Church, and the tulips are from my roomy, Tiffaney.

Our First Date

For our first date, Dave was my date to Terrah's wedding on Valentine's Day. It was also the day of our first kiss. I had no idea what this day would eventually mean to me. Ironically the other man in this picture is also the man I have asked to perform the ring ceremony in Orlando. His name is Bishop Parker.

Comfortable Checkers?

Christmas 2005

Thanksgiving 2005

Pascagoula Trip

It's hard to imagine what this house may have looked like before Hurricane Katrina. Notice the steps in the front, I'll bet it was beautiful. Notice the bricks scattered everywhere. I went with my Church group to Pascagoula, MS this weekend to help with the cleanup efforts. We mostly cleaned up the trash and debris in residential yards. There were about 4000 of us from the SE US area.





If you don't look too closely at this house on the right, you may be able to imagine how beautiful it once was.





But when you look at the close up picture on the left, you can see that the first floor is just gone. Gone. The first floor is just hollow. Look how beautiful the 2nd floor windows are as a comparison. There was a hush in the car as we drove down this road near the gulf. You can even see a large fallen tree in the backyard from this view.




Here is another house where only the outside remains. Sorry about the quality of these pictures, since they were all taken from inside a van. We didn't have time for sightseeing or time to stop and take pictures.





Here is an example of all the trash that each house had in its front yard. It's like a dump truck came and dumped its load in their front lawns. Some of our duties were to clean up all this trash from residential lawns.