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Why We Serve: My Talk on Service

  In October 2007, Elder Steven Snow gave a talk in conference about service. He talked about his mother who had died some years before at the age of 60 from cancer. Shortly before she died, knowing that some of her dreams had not been realized, he asked his mother what regrets she had. She told him, “I wish I had served more.” This shocked him since, from what he had seen, she had done quite a lot of service both in church callings and to friends and neighbors. So he reminded her of this and she simply said, “I could have done more.” Jesus Christ taught very clearly that we should serve one another. One time I read the Gospels looking for characteristics of Christ and one thing I noticed was that any time someone asked Christ to heal them or help them in some way, He did it. His whole purpose in coming to earth was to serve us and he was completely unselfish in all things. His Atonement was the ultimate act of service and we are all the beneficiaries. When he told the Nephites abo...
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Growing Shiitake Mushrooms!

 A few weeks before Christmas, I got a text advertising a mushroom growing kit from Territorial Seeds. That is something that I have wanted to try so I forwarded the text to my husband as a hint for what I might like for Christmas. He's good at catching my hints so I got a big block of some soil mixture infused with Shiitake mushroom spores for Christmas. I didn't have time to start it before a short trip we took after Christmas so I put it in the fridge as per the instructions. About a week later, I got it out and set it up. I had to get it really wet first and then spray it with distilled water a couple of times a day to keep it at high humidity. This is what it looked like on January 5th with the mushrooms just starting to sprout: Most of the time, I kept it under a plastic lid so it would stay really humid in there. The other day my mushrooms were ready so I harvested them! This is what the underside of a ripe mushroom looks like. Notice the "gills." I sauteed a c...

Happy Birthday to Jan!

 Happy birthday to our cute son, Jan! Here are some pictures from his 6th-8th grade years: Gingerbread house, 2003 Turning 11! On a ferry to Orcas Island, June 2004 Visiting baby sister Mindy in the hospital Holding baby sister Mindy, Sept. 2004 Halloween, 2004, Jan was "static cling". It was a minimalist Halloween that year. Sitting with Everett's friend Gabriel Webb in a go-cart In 7th grade, Jan started playing the trumpet in the band Jan was born with a somewhat subtle birthmark on his forehead but the doctor said we should remove it because they sometimes become cancerous. So a plastic surgeon took it out shortly before we left for Germany. We went to the Black Forest in Germany and did a bobsled-type ride. At the "Eagle's Nest" in Germany In the Vienna Cemetery, Johannes Brahms' grave Paris Turning 13! Near the top of the Eiffel Tower shortly after Christmas. In Rothenburg, a medieval city in Germany Jan with Grandpa (and Grandma) Broadbent after h...