Author: Stephen and Jodi

THIS YEAR I TOOK A 4-H SEWING CLASS. IT WAS FUN!I MADE A PAIR OF SHORTS.THEY ARE VERY COLORFUL!I PUT THEM TO THE MADISON COUNTY FAIR,AND I WON A BLUE RIBBON! YAY ME!

I wrote this for a talk I am giving today….This past weekend we went to my Grandparents cabin in Island Park. It was extra fun this time because my cousins from Utah came too. We have been helping put new siding on the cabin and building decks, but yesterday we got to build an awesome swing set with a cool, fun slide that you can stand up in. It makes us feel good to help out and make things look better. After all of the work, my Grandpa Parker said it was time to play and go canoeing. My cousin Haley and I decided to float in an inner tube.
It was a sunny day and we were excited to get wet. We made it in the water and were laughing and having fun, but soon we found out that inner tube riding is way slower than riding in a canoe. We were glad that the water was shallow. Everyone was far ahead of us, but we were still having fun. We saw fish, two vultures, hawks, dragon flies, and cows.
Pretty soon we were talking about how amazing the vultures we saw looked. Then realized that we couldn�t hear any of our families and we were yelling and nobody answered. After looking at the vultures we noticed a herd of stampeding cows heading our way. Haley and I were so scared. When we saw the cows heading our way we ran into their pasture � hey, we didn�t grow up on a farm like my grandma did! Anyway we felt safe because we were in the opposite direction of the cows. I said to Haley, �Maybe we should pray.� Haley thought it was a good idea to pray too, so we did. I have never seen a cow that close before, or even worse a herd of them. I even saw a cow standing up on its hind legs trying to get over the fence (hopping around), but before he made it he tripped on a rock and fell. It was hilarious � I wish I had a picture of it. Even though that was funny we were very scared. It felt like a long time since we had seen everyone. About 10 minutes after we prayed we saw my Aunt Jana. She was yelling that she found us and helped us cross the river. We felt safe again after that and know that Heavenly Father answered our prayer. I even found out that my family had been praying for us too!
There are many scripture stories that remind us that Heavenly Father answers our prayers. The one I am remembering most today is when Joseph Smith had his prayer answered. He was praying about which church was true. He thought about praying after reading a scripture in James 1:5. It reads, �If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.� The thing Joseph Smith was praying for was a big question, my prayer was about trying to find my family and being safe. I am happy that no matter what our prayer is about, it is heard. I am also grateful that Heavenly Father knows who I am and cares about what happens to me.

Is she really this big? WOW – time flies! She carefully selected her first day outfit on Monday and was decked out in her black leggings and denim mini skirt, complete with converse shoes. She is growing into such a fine young lady. Her teacher’s name this year is Mrs. Galbraith. When Lex came home from school she was very excited to tell me about how nice her teacher is. She also said she got seated next to an “annoying boy” that wouldn’t stop talking about religion – in fact the teacher had to tell him that they aren’t suppose to talk a lot about that at school. Too funny. She got to tell the class about herself through a true and false quiz…I learned a few things I’ll pass on. Her favorite color is orange, she doesn’t like peanut butter, her favorite sport is soccer, she hates to eat fresh tomatoes, her favorite shape is a square, she loves sewing, she is a daddy’s girl, she had dark hair when she was born, her favorite flowers are the tulip and rose, and she does NOT like to drink milk! Looks like the last few nights of worrying that school is “too long” are long gone – it was a good day.