First time for everything.....

For the first time, I had someone in my Gospel Doctrine Class, just come flat out and say "You're wrong". What might be surprising is that this is only the first time - ha, ha!! I know that not everyone is going to agree with me. And I welcome discussion in a big way in my class, because I feel this is what makes a classroom exciting and we all learn from each others comments etc. However in this situation I tried to explain my point, but felt that I got cut off before I could even really explain, or given a open mind to try and see where I was coming from, and the class room on Sunday is not where you want to have a debate, so I just moved on and left out about 8 minutes of the next part of my lesson because I really didn't know where to go from there. The most interesting thing is I felt like, and others said as well, we were both trying to say the same thing but this individual was hung up on semantics!

I have several sources that I use in studying the scriptures when preparing my lessons - first and foremost I use the GD Manual, but I also check into my old seminary lessons and handouts, and I also use the lesson helps on LDS Living - which is where I found this insight. And thought it a new way to look at 2 Nephi 1:10 about people who dwindle in unbelief, lose their belief in 1) The creation by God of the earth and all men. 2)The scriptural record of the great and marvelous works of the Lord. 3) The possibility to do things by faith. 4) The commandments. 5)The infinite goodness of the Lord. 6)The Messiah.

The argument was, that these are the blessings we are promised - Agreed! But we also don't go from being righteous and receiving all those blessings to dwindling in unbelief in the Messiah without first dwindling in unbelief in his gospel, his scriptures, his marvelous works, faith, commandments etc... until finally the Messiah.

Now I was worried if I had made everyone uneasy in my lesson but I got this email the other day that has helped me to see.......even when someone disagrees, the spirit can still be in the room, and maybe it makes class members go home and study for themselves to see what they think....

"...When we had FHE together last night, I told (my husband) about what happened Sunday, & we studied a little bit 2 Ne 1:10, the scripture in question."

".....like you said, it's all a matter of semantics, pure & simple. If people have rejected their Redeemer, then they certainly have stopped believing in His Gospel, which includes a knowledge of the creation of the earth, power to do all things by faith, etc. The very fact that they had been BLESSED with these things and in their "dwindling" now reject their Redeemer & the BLESSINGS they obviously took for granted & finally stopped believing -- that situation is really worse in my view than not having had the gospel blessings in the first place -- to me it shows they are more hardened than if they had never had these blessings & therefore out of ignorance didn't follow the gospel. I fear that this very situation of rejecting the Savior and the blessings is occurring in our country, & it worries me greatly."

"Anyway, I, for one, appreciated your "different angle," which I'd never really considered before til this whole thing came up & then (my husband) & I discussed it last night."

"So see how much contemplation and delving into the meat & real meaning of the scriptures happened as a result of your lesson Sunday? It's a very good thing!"

I really appreciated this friend sharing with me her experience!!

Another thing I used in my lesson for teaching about Agency from a CES symposium a long time ago when I was a seminary teacher and then saw again on LDS Living. The acronym POLKA

Requirements of Agency:

P: Power to choose (2Nephi 2:16)
O: Opposition, that gives us opportunity to choose. (2Nephi 2:11)
L: Laws, God gave us laws so that we would know what He wants us to choose. (2Nephi 2:13)
K: Knowledge - we are taught the difference between good and evil - between obeying and breaking the law. (2Nephi 2:5)
A: Agency - put together everything - power to choose, opportunity to choose, laws that help us to know what to choose, and knowledge of what is good and what is evil - we call it Agency!! (2Nephi 2:27)

Then one of the class members said: "I thought for sure you were going to say 'A' was for Atonement - '...The Messiah cometh in the fulness of time that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever' 2Nephi 2:26"

He felt that saying A = Agency was redundant, but that our joy, our happiness, and being free forever was because of the Atonement.

I loved that and changed my POLKA acronym to A=Atonement.

So even though I worried and wondered if I had fulfilled my calling of having the spirit with us in class and helping everyone feel the love of their Heavenly Father and Savior, I believe they did. And it was a great learning experience for me as well. Which once again just proves, how much we are all loved and watched over and that we can feel "encircled about eternally in the arms of his love" 2Nephi 1:15

Date with my hubby!

It never fails that all the movies that you want to see come out all at once. Then there are months that you couldn't find a movie that you wanted to see or was rated the right rating if your life depended on it.

Today for our date this afternoon we went to see "Big Miracle" it was really well done and we enjoyed it very much. Always love movies based on stuff that really happened!!

Tonight is our night to feed the missionaries so we took them to Cousins BBQ. And I am ready for a relaxing weekend

I hope!!

A Change for Alan

Sunday, Alan was released from the Bishopric so that he could be called to be the Stake Employment Specialist!! Kind of ironic I know!! Since he is unemployed!! However he is more than qualified because of his jobs in the past. That is exactly what his background is - working for the State(Workforce), and New Horizons - helping people find training and employement!! But it's probably my fault he has this new calling because of all of my prayers and pleadings to Heavenly Father to help Alan find a job!!

There are some neat experiences Alan has had that I would like to remember in my journal so here we go. Both Bishop Tillman and the High Counselor that issued the calling, told Alan that the Bishop said no twice, but that the Stake was persistent and so then Bishop said, o.k, but I'm not happy about it!!

Alan loves this man (Bishop Tillman) and has loved serving with him and being his counselor and support!! They have severed together for 3 1/2 yrs and it was an emotional goodbye for both of them. But they kind of just smiled as they got pulled away from each other after Sacrament Meeting with people needing to talk to each of them...."Changes come and we just keep moving forward"

Also, Sister Tillman came up and thanked Alan for all the behind the scenes that Alan did that made her husbands job easier!! I know that meant a lot to Alan as well.

This experience reminds me of When Alan was released as Bishop Fair's counselor in Wichita, Kansas to be put on the High Council, Bishop Fair and Alan were neither one happy then either!!
Our Stake President in Kansas said to me once, "I cannot prophesy about your future, but if I could Sis Brown, it would be that you will always be behind the scenes taking care of things at home while your husband fulfills his Priesthood callings!"

I'm not sure if I appreciated that comment at the time, but I sure do now! Its a very high compliment. And I know that I learned the "not complaining" about how much my husband is gone doing any calling he has had from my mother!!-- whether its Scouts that takes him away from home and family the most including family vacations and all we have is girls or Bishopric -- We choose to only see the blessings.

My mother always handled everything at home while my father served and I never heard her complain. My father was a Bishop, a Counselor in the Stake Presidency of 2 stake presidents in a row, Young Men's President, Scouting - all ages, etc... I could go on, but I'm sure you get the idea. Mother never complained about his absence and we all supported him.

Alan, early on in our married life was Elders Quorum President when he was working full time and going to school full time - but he did it and he did it well. This is one of the many things that I love and appreciate about my husband. He is a doer. Someone you can count on. A worthy Priesthood holder, who will accept any calling he is given and go full out with it!!

And I am happy to be the wife and mother at home taking care of things behind the scenes, so Alan can serve!!

Playing Cards! Movies! and Books!

Playing Cards is one of my most favorite things, next to seeing movies and reading books!! With our nephew Steve here we had fun this weekend by playing the Brown traditional card game of Shang-hi!! We wanted to spend some time having fun with him because - hooray, he leaves on Thursday to go get his family from Chicago and move them here to Allen, Texas. Which means he will no longer be living with us! We are very happy for him. I will say he has been the perfect house guest!! Since we were going to be playing cards, I gave Alan his Valentines Day present early!! Notice the cards, they have our family picture on them!! Thanks Shutterfly.com. I actually gave these same decks of cards to the girls and John for Christmas presents and they loved them. I was able to get them 1/2 price before Christmas. But didn't feel we should get us some right at that time, but when the kids came after Christmas and we got the cards out, they were shocked that we didn't have any of our fun family photo cards. So that has been corrected!! Happy Valentines sweetie!!

Also this week Aland and I were able to see a couple of movies. Alan and I went to see on Wednesday afternoon "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" I liked it and thought it was incredibly sad in some places. Alan didn't enjoy it at all. It was not what we thought it was going to be, but I'm glad that we went.

Thursday night my girlfriends and I saw "The Iron Lady" which once again, was not what I thought it would be but was incredibly good. So amazing. I kept expecting to see Meryl Streep, but all i saw was Margaret Thatcher!! An amazing performance!!

Then Friday, Alan and I both had been waiting impatiently for the movie "One for the Money" by one of our favorite authors, Janet Evanovich. Her Stephanie Plum books are laugh out loud funny and they made the 1st book into a movie - there are 18 in all!! I read one of the Stephenie Plum books to Alan while we were traveling somewhere in the car - I think it was number 10. He loved it so much and thought it was so funny that he went back and read all of them and has kept current with the new releases. We really enjoyed the show!! They never have enough time in the movie to really develop some of the characters that we wish they could have, but all in all we enjoyed it very much!!

Traveling in the Car to Utah is when I read the Hunger Games to Alan. Which he as read on his own twice more and cannot wait for the movie to come out in March!!

I've started a new series of books -The Jack Reacher Novels- I'm on book 5 now and have really enjoyed these even though they are kind of a "guys book" I like the intrigue and mystery and the solving of the crimes.

Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo 2012

It was pouring down rain, and yes, we drudged through it to be at the Rodeo Tuesday night!! Three important reasons: 1) it was Susan G.. Komen for Cure night at the Rodeo where everyone involved including the riders, and horses were in pink!! 2)Barbara is a breast cancer survivor and so we go to celebrate that and yell, clap, and cheer when she gets to stand up as a breast cancer survivor!! And 3) It's just a lot of fun to watch!! It brings back childhood memories of when we owned horses in Colorado and went frequently to Rodeos with my parents!! And quite frankly, because Aileen loves it!! She loves horses. When in High School she use to go to "Wings of Hope" in Burleson, Tx and not only loved riding the horses but the grooming of them as well. So as you can see, this would be the reason we would go pouring rain or not!!

My nephew Steven Brown came with us.

Alan was sick this night, so my friend Shawna came with and as you can see in the background, Barbara's sisters, Tootie, Beverly, and Bev's husband Ronnie were there as well!! As well as Bev's daughter Diana and her family, and Tooties two girls!! (not pictured, I'm sure they are so sad. lol)

Dad and Barbara!!

Also there was Barbara's son's Chris and his girlfriend Ashley, and David and his two kids Emmalin, and Landin.

Barbara's birthday party

It's always so hard to know what to call your stepmother! Stepmother or Stepmom always brings up pictures of Snow White, Cinderella and a bunch of other Disney characters that do not bring positive or loving connotations. Having lost my mother later in life and I'm not now being raised by Barbara, Mom seems wrong as well. And so I think of her as my "other Mother". The Mother who I have on earth right now because she is married to my Dad. And who could ask for a better "other Mother"? No one I promise you. Aileen loves Grandma Barbara and for that I am truly grateful. Barbara and I were also friends before Dad starting dating her and married her, so in this sense my Stepmother is truly my friend - what a gift. So it was my pleasure to have a little party to celebrate her birthday with our family! Thanks to everyone who could come.

Opening presents...

Barbara and David

The birthday cake - and bday flowers

Barbara and her sisters Tootie and Beverly

Grandma Barbara and Aileen

Tootie's Girls - Lauren and Taylor

Elizabeth and Lois - Art was there too!

Alan and my nephew, Steven Brown, who is living with us until his family can move here from Chicago - has a job in Dallas! Yay! More family close by!!

Here we go....having too much fun Visiting Teaching again!!

We just can't help it!! We have too much fun Visiting Teaching! We love our girls and we love each other as companions - so it is a win, win, situation!!

Lacey Lassiter had a birthday in December, but with holiday hub bub we told her we would celebrate in January! We also had Anita Williams who had a birthday in December so we celebrated it in January too! I didn't get pictures of Anita opening her presents, but we went by Tuesday night and gave her the lesson and her presents!! Too fun. Mary Arrington was there to watch, listen to the lesson, and have fun too!

Then Wednesday we took Lacey out for lunch, brought cupcakes, and presents and invited Becky along for lunch, gave them both the lesson and had a great visit and loved our lunch!!

What a great way to spend the week!