Come to my cabin and stay a while

After posting pictures about the fires and then the floods
in the area outside my cabin the past few years
I wanted to post a few pictures of the peace 
that remains inside my cabin.

The world around us right now is often filled with 
destruction, death and devastation
but the world inside our hearts can remain at peace 
when we trust God 
and turn to our Savior.

Relish each moment with your family 
because everything can change in an instant.

Think about happy times when your children were young.

Remember your pioneer ancestors.

Put your feet up and rest a while.

Remember happy memories while you look at family pictures.

Look out the windows at the forest and think about fairies.

We welcome you with love.

Make sure you follow ALL the cabin rules.

Crotchet something soft.

Work on a quilt.

Play a game of chess.

Let your little one play with the doll in the high chair 
and bake something yummy.

Light a fire and read a good book
or catch a butterfly and make your own collection.

Sit on the deck and watch hummingbirds.

Open two windows for a cross breeze and sleep 
with a canopy of stars overhead.

Rock back and forth in a rocking chair for a while 
and think calm thoughts.

Swing back and forth and feel like a child again.

Take an afternoon nap after a hike in the mountains.

Celebrating our 45th Anniversary in Yellowstone

CELEBRATING OUR 45TH ANNIVERSARY
My husband Ross and I went to
Yellowstone National Park for our honeymoon in 1975.
We were two naive kids eager to start our lives together.
What we both desired most was to create a big loving family.
Well ten children and 33 grandchildren later
we are a little shell-shocked, but wiser.
After the roller-coaster called life in the real world.
What we have discovered is . . .
the only reality we are in control of  is this . . .
we can each choose individually to be a loving person. 

Great Weekend at Capitol Reef

My daughter Alisa is working
in Capitol Reef this summer
as a botany student
and intern for UVU.
They are studying endangered species
of plants in the park.
When Alisa has time off
we go down and visit
and she takes us on breathtaking hikes.
This park is probably has
the fewest visitors
of all the National Parks in Utah
yet the scenery is spectacular
and so is Alisa!

Joshua Moody's Last Missionary Letter Home

My grandson Joshua Moody will be returning home from his mission tomorrow. 

Today we received his last letter before his return. 

I was so touched that I want to share his letter.

Dear family,

On a particular morning 21 months ago, I was preparing to leave my home and drive to the MTC to begin my mission. I was so nervous that I could hardly eat my last meal with my family. At this moment, my dad shared one of his last pieces of advice with me: "You're only nervous because you don't know what it's like yet. If you knew the friends you'll make, the adventures you'll have, and the joy you'll feel, you would jump out of your chair and run towards your first area as fast as you could." 

Now that my mission is complete, I can tell you that my dad's counsel was true. I can't even to begin to describe how much the last two years have impacted me. I could fill volumes on the wacky adventures I've had, the trials I've endured, the people I've taught, and the happiness I've felt. But as I pondered what to include in my final email, I felt inspired to focus on the one thing that is more important than everything else: the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

Two years ago, when I left my home and entered the MTC, I had a strong testimony and belief in the Savior, but I was also full of anxiety, uncertainty, and fear. Relentlessly through the next two years, I was placed in a variety of situations that seemed deliberately engineered to challenge me as much as possible. These experiences started with little things like fear of talking to strangers and being nervous to train a new missionary, but they quickly increased in scale: the city of Paradise burning to the ground, being assigned to lead large numbers of missionaries, and spending two months in isolation trying to preach the gospel over the internet. If I was left to my own strength, I wouldn't have survived two seconds in the mission field. However, time and time again, I've been able to conquer challenges and reject temptations through additional strength that I know could have only come through Jesus Christ. I'm not the same person I was when I left; He helped me overcome my fears and weaknesses and turned me into a confident disciple of Jesus Christ who cannot be shaken. 

Even more important than the change in my own life is the change I've seen in the lives of others. I'm a firsthand witness to the converting power of the gospel. I could almost see a physical change in the people I taught as they accepted the truth; their countenance changed from dim to radiant. At the beginning of my mission, I didn't expect to have much success. I felt a lot like Ammon when he said, "We have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some." But the Lord blessed me beyond my wildest imaginations and I was able to baptize not just some, but many people.

"Now behold, we can look forth and see the fruits of our labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are many; yea, and we can witness of their sincerity, because of their love towards their brethren and also towards us. ...Now have we not reason to rejoice? Yea, I say unto you, there never were men that had so great reason to rejoice as we, since the world began; yea, and my joy is carried away, even unto boasting in my God; for he has all power, all wisdom, and all understanding; he comprehendeth all things, and he is a merciful Being, even unto salvation, to those who will repent and believe on his name" (Alma 26:30-31, 35). 

I wouldn't trade a single minute of my mission for anything. I can honestly look back and say that I have no regrets. I gave this work everything I had, even when it was hard. I'm sad to leave the people of California, but I trust that it's the Lord's will and I know he has even greater things in store for me in the future. Thank you all for your love, support, and prayers throughout this awesome adventure. I love and appreciate all of you!

"And now I bid unto all, farewell. I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my [family] and [I] shall again reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you [at the airport]. Amen."(Moroni 10:34)

See you soon, 

- Elder Moody

Remembering

At our precious grandchildren's grave on Memorial Day.
We remember you Caleb and Catherine.

Congratulations Matthew

My amazing grandson Matthew Dallan Moody graduated
from seminary and high school with high honors.
Congratulations Matthew!

Happy Birthday Rachel

Happy Birthday to a precious little girl who is a ray of sunshine to all of us!

Spring is here at the cabin

The Gift of the Resurrection

My daughter April and her husband Dallan at their son's grave.

Our family has  more gratitude for the gift of the Resurrection
 because we know we will see Caleb again.

Caleb's brothers Mitch and Matthew at his grave.
A wonderful way to celebrate Easter!

Choosing Motherhood Again

A while back Deseret Book asked me if they could re-publish an essay I wrote in my book titled For Every Mother in their new book coming out for Mother's Day 2020.


My essay is titled Choosing Motherhood Again.

The new book is titled All Kinds of Mothers.

I recently read a copy of this new book and when I read my own words, they seemed new. 

After reading my own words something happened that surprised me. 
I burst into tears.

The words I wrote in this essay many years ago comforted and inspired me to keep trying.

Lately I've had some experiences with motherhood that have left me totally devastated and heartbroken. I needed to hear those words I penned years ago.  So I want to share those words with you in case you need to hear them too:

"Motherhood is not for wimps. When you're pregnant, your body turns into a science fair project-only you're not in charge of the hypothesis, experiment, or outcome. After the baby gets here, you're sucked on, pooped on, spit on, chewed on, and wet on. Then later you get kicked, punched, screamed at, disobeyed, and run away from. You eat cold meals, wear stained clothes, and never get enough sleep. When your children are finally old enough to help, they won't. When your children are teenagers and their friends come over, they ask you to hide in your bedroom and not come out until their friends leave. When they move away from home for college, they only call home when they want something.

So why in the world do we do it? We do it because if we didn't, children would die or never be born. Society would cease to exist. The world as we know it would come to an end. I know of no other life work that can make that claim.

Those who do the most good in this world are often largely invisible and receive the lease credit or payment. When governments, financial institutions, and nations fail, mothers offer the answers-brand new people wrapped in flannel. We give the world fresh human beings with novel ideas, unique talents, and visionary answers to age-old problems. And we do it because we have chosen not to put ourselves first. We have chosen to be the stewards of a new generation. We have chosen to be the moral earth where the rising generation's roots can sink deep in time-honored values. We have chosen to offer our unconditional love, our time, our talents, and everything we have so that our children can grow up with a smile in the audience, forgiving arms in a crisis, and a push of encouragement at the door when they leave the nest and learn to fly.

No community or nation will survive without us. We feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and house the homeless. It doesn't matter if anyone else, including our own spouse and children, appreciates us if we do. When we catch a glimpse of what it means to be a mother and how our actions or failure to act will affect thousands for generations, we will never undervalue our contribution again.

Motherhood frees us to love someone more than ourselves and gives a dimension of sacredness to everything we do. Motherhood liberates us from selfishness and creates a gentler world where someone is always looking out for others. Motherhood releases us from a life of get and introduces us to a life of give.

With the years and years of of nurturing, feeding, hugging, reading, and sacrificing we are granted the ability to love and the opportunity to be loved. Our hearts open to the value of another human being in ways we didn't before comprehend. We are transformed as we transcend self.

So on those hard days, choose motherhood again with even greater tenderness and commitment. I absolutely promise you that every sacrifice you make for your child will contain your life's greatest meaning-every choice to love, your life's greatest purpose."

Sunday Will Come

Before Easter morning came the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane and the pain on the cross. Though we will never fully understand or appreciate what the Savior went through for us we can find comfort in the knowledge that because of what he did for us, he absolutely knows how to comfort us.

Each of us will have hard times, moments when we wonder if God knows us and cares. I promise you . . . God knows you and loves you.

Because Christ has experienced everything we will ever experience He can say . . . "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." John 14:27

Elder Jeffery Holland, offers this insight into trying times:
"Most of us, most of the time, speak of the facility at Liberty as a 'jail' or a 'prison' and certainly it was that. Certainly . . . could Liberty Jail be called a 'temple,' and what does such a title tell us about God's love and teachings, including where and when that love and those teachings are made manifest? In precisely this sense: that you can have sacred, revelatory, profoundly instructive experiences with the Lord in any situation you are in. Indeed, you can have sacred, revelatory, profoundly instructive experiences with the Lord in the most miserable experiences of your life in the worst settings, while enduring the most painful injustices, when facing the most insurmountable odds and opposition you have ever faced." (Ensign, Sept. 2009, 28)

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin said: "Each of us will have our own Fridays- those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We will all experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put back together again. We will all have our Fridays. But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death - Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come. No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come." (Ensign, Nov. 2006,30).

Zander's Blessing Day

Happy Birthday Tessa!

Happy Birthday Tessa. You are a piece of sunshine in our family!