FHE is on!

When Carter got home from his mission he made a point to make sure that we were doing Family Home Evening. I will freely admit it was something that we were not the greatest at before. We had lots of "family time" together, but not many family home evenings. We were happy for the change and to make it happen! Carter was the lead person at first and was always doing the lessons and I have to admit I LOVED it. I loved seeing him in his "missionary" element. I also loved that we were learning a lot! But it wasn't long that we started to make assignments and then we all took part in doing lessons. What a fine example Carter is for getting us on track! Thanks Bubba!

Baby Shower!

(August 27, 2016)

It was almost time for Baby Bentley to arrive so that meant it was time to go to a baby shower! Since it had been about 10 years the Skinners had a baby at home they needed EVERYTHING! thankfully they had a lot of friends who donated items too.

 It was fun to go down and celebrate with my sweet friend and give her baby a cute present! Babies are always so fun! And this party was pretty mellow, not a lot of silly games etc, which was great! It was awesome to just get to visit with her and her family and friends.

 I thought she looked gorgeous too! It's tough being a pregnant lady when you are this far along! Haha! I loved her cute dress!

Baby Bentley got a LOT of great stuff and MANY gift cards to Target (including mine)! I wanted to make sure they got all they needed! It was very tempting to just go and buy cute outfits, but I knew her sweet girls had already bought a LOT of clothes! SO I figured this way she could get what she didn't have yet. Not long now! Can't wait to meet her!

Alta vs Hillcrest

( August 26, 2016)

 Friday Night Lights!!! The first game after school started was against Hillcrest. Not to sound too cocky but we were expecting to win. Their team hasn't done well in the last few years and even with a new coach not much changed.

 Will also played in the JV game on Thursday (which are these pictures in black jerseys).

 It was the first time in two years his brother has seen him play so of course it wasn't long before he was down on the sidelines and giving him advice!

 The varsity game was unreal! we were SOOO impressed with the student section at Hillcrest! They were all dressed up in bright colors and VERY loud and fun! It didn't matter to them what their previous records were they were there to CHEER!

 It wasn't long at all for us to score and those scores just kept on coming! Poor Hillcrest just couldn't keep up! Especially with Josh Davis- he was on fire!

 Will played well! He was in most of the game on defense and also played for special teams.

 I love this picture that was taken by the team sideline photographer! You can see the intensity on Will's face! Awesome!

 The final score was 67 to 26 for Alta! WHOA!!!! It was definitely a statement game! We are Alta and don't you forget it! Another win! Let's GOOOOOOO!!

First Day of School 2016!

(August 24, 2016)

I am not sure how we got here already! Will's first day as a Senior in high school and Brianne's first day as a Freshman. Where did the time go!!!

 When I took Will school shopping I was surprised when he wanted more "dress shirts"! I was very happy to oblige too! He looks so sharp in this type of clothing!

 12 grade! Yikes! He is so excited to get this year started and to enjoy his schedule. He did things right and has a pretty simple school schedule for the year! Yay! And I was happy to see that he and Brianne had the same seminary class for the first semester. They even walked there together every day.

 Brianne was SOOOOOO excited to FINALLY be at Alta! She totally feels like a hawk already since going to games/activities for BOTH her brothers! I am certain she was the only freshman that already knew the fight song! haha!

And she looks so grown up too! Over the summer getting her braces off and getting some darling school clothes made her just gorgeous! She couldn't wait to go to school! That's not to say she wasn't nervous about getting to class etc, but she was excited nonetheless! Thankfully she has a sweet brother who was very helpful too!

 The Freshman actually start a day before the other students. It's called "Hawks Flight School" and it allows the peer leadership team to help the freshman class to go to their classes and try everything out before the upperclassmen are there. The student body officers are also there to help and to make them feel welcome. This year they wrote EVERY freshman's name on an A or hawk and placed it in the commons! It took Brianne and I a while to find hers but we DID!

 They also get class shirts every year and Brianne was pumped to finally get hers! Class of 2020!

Here comes another year!

Homecoming!

(August 21, 2016)

I was so excited for this day! Two years in the making and it was finally here! We had A LOT of help with Carter's Homecoming and I was SO incredibly grateful! I had many family, friends and Ward members ask how they could help so I ended up making food assignments. It worked out perfectly too! I also had a couple friends who were not coming to the church to come early and set up the food etc. It was so kind to just be able to walk in and have everything ready. (Thanks Kelly, Kristi & Jennie!)

We arrived to the church early so we could save some seats for family and it wasn't long before the service began. Will and Chan were also on the stand because they both offered the sacrament prayers. After the sacrament was passed Carter was the first speaker and he did an amazing job! Here is his talk:

I lost 50 pounds for this moment.

It is a little surreal to be standing in front of you again.  Two years ago, I gave a talk from this pulpit. My mission was the best thing that I have ever done – ever.  Nothing compares to it not even football.  My mission was the best and I am grateful that I get to talk about it a little bit today.

My topic today is tender mercies.  Tender mercies enable us to push through the tough times and trial that come into our lives to all of us.  To look at this, lets read out of the Book of Mormon.  1 Nephi 1.  This is Nephi talking.  Nephi and his family were commanded by God to leave Jerusalem around 600 BC before it was destroyed, which was a tough thing to ask.  They had lived there their whole life and all of us can relate to that in some way.  They were led by God to the promise land and there were a lot of tough things that happened to them. I love what Nephi says in verse 20 the very last verse of chapter one.  I think it is very significant at the beginning of the Book of Mormon.  As I read this, look for the words tender mercies.  When the Jews heard these things they were angry with him.  Yea, even as the prophets of old were cast out, stoned, and slayed and they also sought his life that they might take it away, but behold I Nephi will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he has chosen because of their faith to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance.

Nephi had been through a lot of craziness, but he chose to have a good attitude and see the tender mercies are over all the Lord has chosen.  Tender mercies are specific personal blessings that come to us.  They can be in the form of a text from a friend, a feeling of peace in a tough time.  On my mission, I saw many tender mercies and many things that helped me get through my mission.  It was hard – it was the hardest thing that I have ever done.

One thing that comes to mind, every six weeks there comes a transfer.  So every six weeks there is a possibility that you will get moved into a new place in Florida.  In the first two transfers you are trained by your trainer .  You call them your dad. My trainer was Elder Bagshaw.  He was a good guy – we got a long really well.  Totally opposite from me, totally theatrical.  He was a good little feller  That is what they say in Florida – short for fellow.  After these first two transfers, I was transferred to Coco Beach.  I got a call from my mission president and asked to train another missionary and it had only been 12 weeks and that was a tough thing for me.  At the time, I was like good heavens – why are they asking me to do this.  There are plenty of other missionaries that could have done this.  I was freaking out.  What happens is every 6 weeks we get another and find out where we are going.  At that time, my best friend Jayden Johnson had just gotten to the mission and was being trained by another Elder, Elder Jeppsen. I was transferred to the same zone they were I and that was a tender mercy for me.

Why does God send us tender mercies?  Go back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  God gave them two commandments - he asked them to have children and told them not to eat of the fruit of that tree.  Everyone knows the story – Satan came and tempted them and they ate and they were kicked out of the garden – which we all call the fall.  When they fell, two things happened.  One, they were going to die, which we all will eventually at some point and Spiritual death – sin.  This is what God wanted to happen.  A lot of Christianity thinks this was a mistake, but it was meant to happen.  It was all part of the plan from the beginning.

Open the Book of Mormon to 2 Nephi Chapter 2.  Lehi is writing a letter to his son Jacob. Jacob had a tough life.  He was born in the wilderness and watched his older brothers fight and saw a lot of hard things, but good things too.  I am sure Jacob asked why does God allow bad things to happen.  Lehi answers that in verse 11.  He said it must needs be there is an opposition in all things – if not so my first born in the wilderness righteousness cannot be brought to pass neither wicked ness, holiness or misery- all things must be compound in one. 

In essence, he is saying you can’t have good if you don’t have the bad.  If we don’t have the hard days, we won’t have good days.  Without good and bad, we would not have the right to choose.  It is very important.  Life is hard sometimes, and you want to cry yourself to sleep.  But God being the good father that he is, wanted us to have happen. This is why tender mercies are so important.   Hope is so important and one of my favorite things.  The message of the gospel is hope.  Without hope, we cannot have faith.  Faith in the world today – people think of as a belief.  Faith is hope  plus action.  You can say I have faith, but if you don’t act, you really don’t have faith.  God wanted us to have hope and faith to get through these tough times.  That is why he allows us to see the good.

The question is how can we have more tender mercies in our lives.  There is a way we can invite more tender mercies into our lives.  That is by obedience.  Obey the commandments that God has given us.  In D&C it says – A big fat promise – the Lord gives us in 82:10 – I the Lord am bound when you do what I say, but if you do not what I say, you have no promise.  The Lord will help us get through the tough times if we do what he says, but if you don’t do what he says, there are no promises.

President Bednar talked about this cool thing. God is always raining down blessings like rain cascading down mountains.  As we walk through life, we get hit with the rain and get the blessings, but when we are disobedient to the commandments, we put up an umbrella.  The blessings still come, but they hit the umbrella and fall by the wayside.  Thank goodness we can repent and change and take the umbrella down and the commandments are instructions to take the umbrella down to claim the blessings that are rightfully ours.  Happiness is the central message of God’s plan – at any point and time you can change.

This is a good measuring stick and we can ask these questions to ourselves.  How do I feel peace, do I see blessings that are promised in the scriptures, do I feel happy, when I go to church do I feel happy and enjoy it.  If the answer is no to these questions, ask Heavenly Father  how to improve and just do it.  Get it done.  If you do that, I promise you, you will see the blessings come from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints – Jesus Christ is the center of our message.

God stated his purpose. He stated this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. That is what God wants that is why we are here.  God tells us what our purpose is in D&C 11:20.  He is talking to Hyrum Smith.  Hyrum asked Heavenly Father about the truth and it says this is your work to keep my commandments – yea upon your heart, mind and strength.  So our purpose in life is to choose God and the opposition that comes.  Opposition always comes.  Choose God through that opposition and the tender mercies that he promises will come.  In a way, tender mercies are from the Lord for Choosing the right.

There is a story I want to share.  I learned a lot about this early in my mission.  In my first area, I was in a place called Hunters Creek and it was south of Orlando. It is rated the 21^st best place to live in the United States.  We were pretty proud of that.  I was excited to be there. In my area, was the mission home and office.  It was a good area and we were working hard white washing the area, which means they took 2 previous missionaries out and brought 2 new ones in.  We had no one to teach and I asked Heavenly Father was to do.  We fasted, prayed and were obedient – praying we could find someone to teach.  One day that finally happened.  A tender mercy finally came on a Tuesday.  We were going to visit a potential investigator – a lady we met at our mailbox.  We knocked on her door and hear not interested, go away, which happens a lot.  So we left and started knocking on other doors.  It started to rain and in Florida, when it rains it can come down, so we knew we wanted to knock on another door, but we went and sat in the car for a minute.  We were sitting in the car and I look to the left and see a red door with a Mercedes Benz in the driveway.  We picked that door to knock on.  We knock and at first, no one answers.  Then knocked again and a lady answered.  Her name was Sally.  She looked at us and said that is spooky.  She is from Great Brittan so she had an accent.  I knew I should have done my hair that morning and I had on a bad tie with turtles on it.  So we talked to hear and we said why did you say that is spooky, what prompted you to say that.  So she tells us this story.  She said two months prior she came across Mormon.org online and watched a video message – you know those cute videos that make my mom cry.  She kept watching them and was infatuated with these videos and kept watching them every day.  She was on Mormon.org and the week before we came ordered a Book of Mormon.  Before we came to the door, she was inside her house praying to the Lord and asking him is this is the right church and to let her know.  Right when she said Amen, we knocked on the door.  I will never forget the look on her face.  Sally and her entire family were baptized.  A family’s life was changed forever.  It showed me that miracles happen and those things that you hear actually happen.  If we do what we are supposed to do and follow the commandments, we will see miracles.

From that point, I did the best I could to fulfill my role as a missionary and I think I did a good job.  I can stand here and honestly say with all my heart I did the best I could.  I worked hard every day and followed the rules. Heavenly Father blessed me. Before I close, I leave an invitation for you.  Find a way you can do better, commit to God and just do it. I promise if you do that you will see miracles like I saw on my mission and everyday miracles.  A huge miracle like knocking on Sally’s door or a small miracle like an open parking spot near the front door, I don’t know, but I know this church is true.

The past two years in Florida, Jesus Christ testified to me that it is true, it has to be.  I saw too many miracles and felt the spirit too many times.  Another story, when I was on an exchange in an area by Disney World, I was with a missionary about to go home and he was done with Florida and ready to go home. I had been out 8 months and I remember thinking this sucks and I need help.  I prayed to the Lord to help me with exchanges.  The next morning, I was studying the Book of Mormon and I felt like I should study 3 Nephi 11 when Christ comes to the Americas. I was reading along and I was at the point in the chapter where Christ invites everyone there to come up and feel the prints in his hands.  As I read it, I felt the spirit really strong and I heard a voice that said Carter, this actually happened.  I knew this was all true.  Joseph Smith was a prophet – he has to be.  The Book of Mormon is true and above all Jesus Christ is a real person, he lives and loves us and suffered for our sins and went to the cross and died for us and on the third day he was resurrected.  Because of that, we can all live happy lives and we can feel peace from the gospel.  That is the message of this church and that is the message I was privileged to bring to the people of Florida for 2 years, but it is not over.  Once a missionary, always a missionary.  I love Jesus Christ and love this church. I testify of these things, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

After Carter spoke Brianne sang a beautiful version of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing"

After she sang Jeremy Pease gave a talk. I loved that he said "The Crismons have been well represented today". I thought that was awesome because it's EXACTLY how I felt!  From the sacraments prayers, Carter's talk and Brianne's voice it was a beautiful day for a Mom!

After the sacrament service we went back to the house for food and Carter was able to visit with former companions, friends he hadn't seen since he returned and many others who wanted to come and say hello and congratulate him for a job well done! Swen even stopped in and had a wonderful chat with Carter reminiscing about the mission field. Swen served in that same mission years before so it was so fun to hear them compare stories! It was an emotional day in such a GREAT way! I couldn't be any prouder of my sweet family!

Day with Carter! First game!!

(August 19, 2016)
Carter wanted to attend the temple the week he came home and Chan and I were honored to join him. We ended up going to the Oquirrh Mountain temple. It was wonderful!

 I love this picture! He looks so much like his Dad here!

 Me and Carter- I'm not sure why we chose an area with sun in our eyes! haha!

Temple selfie! Haha! After our temple service we went home to get Will and Brianne and to take Carter to do some shopping! His lost so much weight on his mission that none of his clothes fit him anymore! So we took him to purchase some new clothes and a few other items he needed. Then  it was time to go to Will's first football game! I couldn't be more excited to have him here to see his brother play!

 Here we go!! let football begin!!!! Brianne was SOOOO excited to finally be able to sit in the student section!

 Carter found Logan Harrison, his school buddy, who also just returned from a mission!

Will had the honor, along with some student body officers, the principal and vice principal, to be in a ceremonial ribbon cutting for the new turf! He and Kanyon Larsen were the seniors chosen to help! It was awesome :)

The best part of the night was that they had an incredible WIN! They played Taylorsville and absolutely creamed them 49 to 20!! The perfect first game!! Cannot wait to see these boys play this season! Especially number 50!!

CARTER IS HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(August 17, 2016)
Carter and I had talked through email in the weeks leading up to him coming home and had made lots of arrangements. He had sent home a few boxes of keepsakes- not much really. Mainly letters along with a few funny things that had memories attached. He left a lot there too- which is fine- because other missionaries could use them. Like the bike we purchased- we donated it to the mission home. But we also talked a lot about plans for when he gets here. I was able to get him a part time job at an elementary school! He did an email interview for it and got it! He'll be starting tomorrow!! We also got him signed up for a "Discovery class" up at LDS Business college. It gives you tools you need to get started in college. But right now, today, I just wanted to see him. I wanted to have him in front of me, give him a huge hug and listen to him talk about his mission. I could not wait!

The morning he arrived it felt like Christmas! We decorated the yard with signs, balloons and American flags everywhere! We also had signs in the house and with us at the airport!! His flight ended up coming a bit earlier than we were expecting but we prepared and just headed that way! I had our neighbor ready to take photos and my other neighbor ended up surprising us too and took video of his arrival!

 This isn't his video but is a good snippet of him that day! He seemed to take FOREVER to come down. He honestly didn't even seem excited! He was so chill! But oh.... my.....goodness that first hug was precious!

 There was quite a greeting crowd for him too! Our family, Gamma, Papa, Brooke, Mark, Dakota, Skinner kids, Swen, Tanner and Erika. It was awesome!

 This picture shows my feelings perfectly! YEEEESSSS!!

 That hug.....

 Then it was Dad's turn

 Brianne was the next

 And the brothers too!

 Such cute kids! And back together again!

 My family is all back together again!!!!!

Once he gave everyone their hugs and greetings we piled into my truck and had a couple errands to run! We had to go make a couple purchases at the store. He couldn't fit everything in his suitcases so some things he had to re-buy when he got home. We didn't want to do it ALL right now but he did need a couple things right away. Once we got that out of the way we went to black bear diner to have some lunch. He was struggling right away too- you could see how out of sorts he felt. He had been doing the same thing every day for 2 years and he just didn't know what to do with himself. Bless his heart. We just kept talking about his mission and he would light up and tell us stories. We drove him around to the school that he would be working at just to see it. At this point Will was following us with Brianne and it was just me, Chan and him in the car. He was playing his favorite Mormon Tabernacle choir song- Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing- and he began to cry. It was the most tender moment I have ever witnessed from him. He had put everything he had into his mission and was already missing it terribly. Later that afternoon we went over to the Stake Center and met President Davies so he could release him. We were there for over an hour. He had Carter share certain experiences and he gave him some advice as well. The hardest part for him was taking off his mission badge. It was a bitter sweet moment. Carter also gave me a blessing that afternoon. It was a blessing of gratitude. What a sweet thing that was. Just hearing him give a blessing was joyful but to have it directed to me was an honor. This entire day I have been completely full of pride. My son has served an honorable mission. Doesn't get any better than that. So blessed to have my family together again.