Mooing Mom

Today I cleaned house....and so what? you might ask. Well it has been a very, very long time since I have been able to stand on my legs to be able to accomplish that and while I am paying for it tonight, it does feel really good to have floors mopped and bathrooms cleaned, dusting and vacuuming accomplished, and general order. I am hoping that my legs will have continued improvement too! You never know how much you take for granted until you don't have it or it doesn't work properly!

This evening I made rouladen for supper - but it still had about an hour to cook when Rich came home and so it is still cooking. However, we went out to Ryan's for a quick bite. I sure wish Rich would find someplace else that he likes! LOL

As I made the rouladen my mind wandered back to my Mom. When we moved to Germany when I was a kid none of us spoke ANY German and Mom just treated it like one big adventure. We lived on the "economy" just like the missionaries and we didn't have access to any American products like our military friends. We had also gone there with only 44 # per person - about what you could put in a suitcase. But Mom created a wonderful home for us and worked really hard to learn what German food products were so that she could prepare meals that we would enjoy.

One day Mom and Dad went to the local farmers' market for produce and other items for our family. Lining the market were some "metzgereis" (butcher shops) and Mom decided to venture out of her comfort zone and get some meat - she specifically wanted beef and she was a little leery that she might get horse meat of something else. However, because she didn't know the word for beef (or really anything else at that time) she had to resort to pointing at what she thought was beef. However, as the butcher started to put her selection on the scale she really began to think that she needed to be sure that this was indeed beef. She tried asking him but he didn't speak a lick of English - nor did he understand her. Both the butcher and Mom tried to find someone who knew any English but there was no one...so as the transaction continued finally Mom resorted to the only thing that she could think of to verify that this was indeed beef - so she started mooing. The butcher was startled at first, and I think he was probably a little confused, and you can imagine how others in the market reacted too. Mom said that at one point she wondered if German cows actually mooed the same as they did in America - or maybe the Germans didn't express it the same way that we did...nevertheless...she continued to moo until the butcher got the point that she was trying so hard to make - and yes it was beef! LOL

Mom made wonderful rouladen and I don't even know where she learned how - I don't remember it until we moved to Germany - it could be that she had some in a restaurant and she just tried to duplicate it...but wherever she came up with it, she did it beautifully. And, it sounded so good tonight...but I guess we'll have it for lunch tomorrow. I wish I could just call her up and talk to her...sometimes I believe she had the wisdom of Solomon and I could sure use that right now...besides the sheer joy of just talking to her. Oh well, I still talk to her...I just don't hear her response.

I received a new calling recently as R.S. instructor for the "gospel principles" lessons. While teaching doesn't throw me much these lessons look to be somewhat of a challenge. Looking over the lesson that I am to teach in April, The Holy Ghost, is only 3 pages long and very basic information.... It would seem that everyone would have this knowledge - but perhaps things are not always as they seem. But I wonder how to teach this so that basic information is imparted and so that those who have the information in their knowledge base will also be edified. So my studying has taken me on a quest to learn what I might not know - and to ponder my relationship with the Holy Ghost as well.

In my ponderings I have thought a lot about my own testimony. And, I have thought about how the testimony of others have added to mine.

When I was very little, 3 or 4, I remember going to Primary and having my teacher talk to us in our class. She gave us construction paper with drawings of a placesetting on them that helped us learn how to set the table, where the glass went, knives, forks, spoons, etc. and play dishes to practice. I have no recollection about how that relates to a gospel principle - but I vividly remember that the Spirit testified to me (it still gives me goosebumps as I recall it all these years later) that the gospel was true, that the things my parents were teaching me were true, and that the church was true. That experience has had a profound impact on my life. And, when people dismiss the importance of teaching children I always think of how important that was to me and remember that it was the children and babes in arms when Christ came to the Americas that uttered such marvelous things that could not be written...children can be so very close to the spirit and feel its' power because their faith is so pure.

A few years later - as a 9-11 year old - I HATED Fast and Testimony Meeting. It seemed like the very same people got up every time and said the very same things, over and over again. I am sure my eyes rolled every time they got up. However, I came upon a way to get out of these "BORING" meetings quite by accident and I made use of it as often as I could for quite some time. My Dad was the bishop of our ward and so he didn't sit with us. And my Mom would have us (the kids) with her on one of the benches - usually in the middle of the chapel. Sometimes, when one of my little brothers were squirming, fussing, and being difficult Mom would nod to me and I would take them out into the foyer for a drink or to walk around a bit (these were the days when Sacrament Meeting was 1 1/2 hours long and in the afternoon or evening). One day I was really struggling with the testimonies and I was holding Jimmy (and he was being good too) and I thought how nice it would be if I could escape...and so I pinched him...just enough to make him fuss...and sure enough, Mom nodded to me to take him out! I was so happy. However, now as I have matured somewhat, I remember some of those testimonies and wish that I had appreciated them more.

Just a few years later - in my teens (15-16) - I had an experience that really helped me understand that my testimony really did inform everything that I did and was. It was during the height of the hippie movement and in that culture (which is like the pop culture of today) it was common for the kids of that time to think that they were so enlightened and they often engaged in asking "deep, philosophical questions" such as, "who am I really?" and "What is the meaning of life?" It was a time when drug use was rampant, New Age thinking was being promoted, and free love, peace, and make love not war were the typical slogans. I remember sitting on my bed one day, looking out the window and thinking about what was happening and the influence of these kids. I remember looking into a mirror and asking, "who am I?" and as I sat there it was as if a voice inside me just burst into my consciousness and said I KNEW that I was a child of God and I KNEW that I didn't need to waste my time or energy because I KNEW that the gospel was true, the Church was true, and that the plan of salvation was true. I KNEW I wanted to return to my Heavenly Father and I KNEW how to do it - and this wasn't the way. I dropped any fascination and preoccupation I had with these influences because I KNEW the truth. The Spirit had once again confirmed the truth to me in a very tangible way.

Years later, when we lived in Germany, I was teaching Gospel Essentials in Sunday School for the investigators and new members, I had the opportunity to teach about the Atonement. I had learned about the Atonement all my life and I thought that I knew it pretty well...but as I prepared to teach it (especially to non members and new members) I realized that I needed to do this very well - with plain language and in a very straight forward manner. I felt the responsibility keenly of teaching about this sacred event and I wanted the class to understand it well and I was also very concerned that there be no misunderstanding. I studied and studied and studied. I don't know how well I taught the class - but I had been taught by the Spirit as I studied and I was changed because of it.

As I continued my studying today In Moses and Genesis I was reading in Moses 6. Seven times (at least) there is reference to "teach" the gospel and the ways of God to our children. In fact, in one verse is says, "teach these things freely to your children" which I interpret to mean to do so at every opportunity - not just in formal settings - but in the day in and day out experiences of life. I believe that it was because I was taught early, carefully, lovingly, and frequently by my parents, teachers, and others that allowed the Spirit to whisper to me in unmistakeable terms that these things were true. In fact, if we do not teach can the Spirit confirm that truth? Probably yes, but likely - I doubt it happens much. Without testimonies that are built on bedrock we can too easily be swayed and influenced by the doctines of men and the lies of Satan. And if we do not teach these things to our children they are in grave danger and may well fall prey to the forces that seek to destroy and cause them endless misery. And, if we do not teach these things to our friends and neighbors and associates there is little hope for their happiness and joy - for truly it is the gospel of peace.

One Penny

I have been thinking about "little things" lately. I had been in line at the store when a gentleman ahead of me pulled out of his pocket some change. When he did many of the coins went rolling and he and I quickly bent down to retrieve them. The quarters and nickels and dimes were picked up first. As all the "big stuff" was collected he was less concerned about the pennies. I was still trying to collect them when he just waved his hand saying, "don't worry about them." I have thought about that on and off, wondering if that is kind of a type for what is happening in our country now.

When I was a young child my Mom would often see a penny or some other coin on the ground and encourage me to "see a penny, pick it up...all the rest o' the day good luck" (it went something like that LOL) or "a penny saved is a penny earned." And a penny was worth something back then - a candy bar probably twice the size of our current .89 bars was only a nickel (I say probably twice the size because I can twice remember candy makers cutting their sizes). The premium candy bars - Mounds, Snickers, Milky Way, etc. were a dime. An individual sized bag of chips or Fritos was a dime, as was Twinkies or Fruit Pies. I remember my Mom and Dad buying gasoline at the corner gas station where the station attendant checked your oil, washed your windows, and filled the car while you paid .19 a gallon. A first class stamp was .04. Milk was about .20 a half gallon, as I recall. And my folks paid $10,000 for their home. When we moved to Germany in 1966 my Dad earned $600 a month - and we thought that was wonderful.


When Rich and I first married we bought a new car - his was a stick shift and I didn't know how to drive it - a 1973 Ford Maverick. It was a great car. We called it "Morty" - don't ask me why - we just did LOL. But we paid about $3000 for him. The hotel we stayed in, in Oklahoma City on our way to South Carolina, (it was a nice hotel) cost us $12 - that is compared to the DIVE we stayed in the first night we got married that cost us $7 - it was a dollar extra because we chose a TV! (We actually had to go down to the manager's office and roll the tv back to our room - and - oddly enough I don't think we even turned it on! LOL) Our first home in 1975 cost us $26,000. Having a baby cost $600 - that was the cost of the hospital, anesthesiologist, physician, everything for an average 3 day stay. If it was a complicated birth requiring a C-section, the price went up to $1000. You paid those costs over the course of your prenatal care so that when the baby was due everything was taken care of. Most people didn't have insurance - that was just the way things were done.


Obviously prices have risen over the course of my life - a penny or two at a time. However, I was around when the super-inflation of the 1970's - 80's hit. It wasn't pretty then. We bought our first home at 8% interest. We bought our next one 3 1/2 years later at 11% - it had climbed from 9% to that 11% in the time it took us to build it - we sold it without ever moving in - the interest rate made the payments prohibitive. We found a home in Salt Lake that qualified for an FHA 235 loan at the 11% rate but the government program subsidized the interest which allowed us to once again purchase a home. A few months later people in our neighborhood moved in and ended up having loans at 17 and 18%. Then people started to lose their jobs and the market faltered. Many of the homes in our neighborhood were foreclosed on and families struggled to make it during that time.

While those times were no where near as bad as that of the depression - they were difficult. I am afraid for what very well may be ahead of us now. President Obama came out with the budget for 2011 - a whopping $3.83 TRILLION budget! That is at least $1.27 TRILLION more than the government will take in, with taxes on everything conceivable item and activity and assumptions that will be nearly impossible to meet. Nearly 4 TRILLION dollars - how many pennies is that????? I am very anxious that the debt that is being incurred and the spending that is spiraling out of control is going to bring us to an economic disaster that will make the depression look like a mild downturn.

When Elder Oaks came to our Stake in Westminster to change the Stake Presidency he talked to us very candidly about the economy. He urged us all to get our food storage, get out of debt, learn how to garden and put in fruit trees, berries, and nuts, learn how to sew and repair homes and cars. He talked about inflation and how much of our (the U.S.) debt is held by foreign countries (especially China). As he spoke I remembered being in Germany and my brothers and I found a 1,000,000 DM note and being so excited - we thought we had just won the lottery LOL - but my Dad told us that the money was worthless. We couldn't really understand how that could be. He then gave us a small economics lesson and told us that during the height of that inflationary period a wheelbarrow full of 1,000,000 DM notes couldn't buy a loaf of bread. We just couldn't wrap our minds around that. He then cautioned us that that time would come again and to make matters worse there might actually be nothing to buy with our money either. As I write this my mind floats back over our trip to East Germany with the kids and giving them the $10 to spend however they wanted - and there was NOTHING to buy!

What are we doing to ourselves?????? And to make matters worse we are hamstringing ourselves with bureaucratic red tape, regulations, and law suits that strangle the spirit out of us - it boxes us in, crippling us so that we can move quickly enough to the quickly ever changing market forces that are now global in scope instead of just national or local. Why take the risks to start a business or expand one if you have a hassle on every side or will be sued or pay everything back in taxes? This is crazy!

I just can't understand why we need a Department of Education, and EPA, the EEOC... The layers and layer of bureaucracy, waste, and money - who are we joking? We are bankrupt! We have been borrowing from the Chinese and they don't even want to underwrite our debt now! You don't keep spending when you don't have it! You can make a case for any of the programs or expenses that the government is doing - but that isn't the test. There are precious few things that our constitution calls for...the rest are nice...but not essential! And if it isn't essential - WE DON'T NEED IT!!! WE CAN'T AFFORD IT!!!!


I have been reading Sarah Pallin's book, "Going Rogue." I like one of the attitudes that is so on display in it - she talks about the sacred trust of "the people's money" and how she wanted everyone in her administration in Alaska to remember that this wasn't just money that grew on trees or that just came out of an ATM - it was the hard earned dollars and CENTS of the people. It reminded me of when I was Stake Relief Society President - I had gone with my Stake President to a training meeting in San Diego where we learned about church welfare. I was impressed with a statistic that the General Authority gave us about how well managed the Lord's funds were - at that time they believed that our Bishops throughout the Church were benevolently caring for the poor but were mindful that these were the sacred funds of the Lord and that there was only about a 3% waste. How sad that Washington, D.C. and our state and local governments don't seem to even recognize the sacred trust that they hold! It is like they think there is some kind of account that just magically fills for whatever pet project or whim they have!


Perhaps even more scary is what as happened to us - one little thing at a time - one little attitude at a time. Quickly we have come to believe that it is the government's role to provide cars, houses, daycare, healthcare, education, jobs for our citizens.... More and more we have come to believe that we can't do these things for ourselves. And, we have become more and more complacent and willing to just turn over our money as our contribution. More and more we have turned over our sovereignty, our free will, to act for ourselves, to choose what we will do. We are becoming enslaved and we will rue the day that we bought the lie that government could do these things for us better or easier than we can do for ourselves.

Every year in Seminary you have the opportunity to teach about the Lord's plan, the United Order, the law of consecration. Every year you have an opportunity to expose Satan's counterfeit plans of socialism, communism, and fascism that have been introduced (usually just about the same time as the Lord's plan is being introduced) and to show the differences between them and teach about the outcomes. I just didn't ever think that I would see such a naked attempt to bring about these counterfeit plans in our own country so quickly and be so promoted and adored by so many of our citizens. I feel like I'm living in the twilight zone!

Our government, that was inspired by the Lord for this promised land, has been corrupted and is now promoting the coveting of our neighbor's property and if our neighbor has the good sense to want to hang on to his money and property (believing that he earned it and it is his to do as he chooses) our government is trying to smear him with lies and falsehoods - and if that doesn't work they are advocating the outright theft of his goods! And what is so appalling is that so many are taken in by the lies - they are actually believing that it isn't "fair" for someone to have more than another! How is it possible that we have sunk this low this fast? It wasn't that long ago that everyone I knew believed in an honest days work for an honest days pay, helping someone in need, that you got ahead in life by working hard and doing your best - being prepared for the opportunities when they came your way, being honest, the little things - that if you saved the pennies then the dollars would follow.

Perhaps that is one of the problems in our current situation - the numbers are just so huge that you get to the point that you just can't believe that one penny is all that important. But it is.

Music

Can I just say that I love music? One of my callings right now is choir pianist. I have done this for years and so I feel comfortable enough - but I am also stretching as the chorister is a purist for timing as opposed to Tamara who was more about the feeling (not that Tamara didn't care about timing). And, I have always been more about feeling and so this is VERY good for me - needless to say - my metronome and I are becoming VERY good friends! LOL

I enjoyed playing for the choir, especially during holiday seasons or for special numbers because the music "spoke to me" and seemed to help me get in the mood faster than anything else I ever could do to get there. When our children were little it seemed that we sang children's songs all the time - especially nursery and primary songs. When the kids were in YW/YM I loved having their music in our home and having the kids sing around the piano - songs such as "Jesus Was No Ordinary Man," Called to Serve," or "The Work and the Glory."

I knew there was power in music to change lives, to bring the spirit into our lives. I am eternally grateful for the power of the spirit and music that enveloped Desi, Cherstin, and I as we played together. Perhaps there was nothing there but cacophony by anyone else's standards - but we could feel it and we were changed by it. Truly blessings were poured out upon our heads.

I never hear "Consider the Lillies" and not think of my mother. She too loved music and could feel its power. I will always be grateful to her for her patience and encouragment. There were many lessons that I "ditched." Sister Peterson was a good teacher but I just didn't enjoy my lessons after a while, like so many others, at that difficult stage where progression isn't readily seen or heard (especially if you don't practice LOL). I don't really know how much of Sister Peterson's time or my mother's money I wasted - let alone what I could have learned - but I am grateful my mom just never gave up on me. In fact, she got me a great teacher when we lived in Augsburg and a teacher when we lived in K-Town too. As I got older she would listen and tell me she could feel what I was "feeling" in my playing - that made me feel good. Oh, how I wish I could tell her that today.....

I remember when "I Am a Child of God" was first published for our use. It came through the Primary for the annual Sacrament Meeting Program. It seems that that song, and a few others too, have always been a part of me. Even when I had just heard it for the first time it seemed as though I had always known it. When the new Hymn Book was published there were songs in it that were "new" but felt so familiar. "Because I Have Been Given Much," "Lord, I Would Follow Thee," or "Press Forward, Saints." I often have wondered how that could be.

When I was a teen living in Germany Alexander Schreiner, the Tabernacle Choir Organist, came to visit. He spent time with all organists and "aspiring" organists of our stake to teach us a little bit about the organ and music in the Church. After our meeting some of us were standing around chatting with him and he was gracious enough to spend that time with us in an unfettered way. I remember telling him about "I Am a Child of God" and how it had always felt a part of me. I asked him if he thought it was possible that the "inspiration" that some sacred music composers describe was necessary because it really was a hymn from our "Heavenly Hymnal" and could that be why it seemed so familiar - because it was. He responded that he didn't know - but that he too had felt that inspiration as he had composed hymns and as he had sung others that "he knew." Sometimes I just wonder. It kind of makes sense to me if we're going to come forth with songs of everlasting joy - don't we all have to know the same song? I can't imagine being in that chorus or choir!

Both Cherstin and Desi have shared how much they love the new song they are learning and teaching the children in their wards this year. I wonder if it is one that is and will be sung by Heavenly Choirs. I don't know - but I sure hope each of us learns it and that it fills each of our hearts with the redeeming love of our Savior. Seems to me that we are going to need it!