Favorite memories from Middletown

I wanted to share some fun moments that I have had here in Lake County.  As well as share some things that I have learned over the last 6 weeks!

First off, I was officially welcomed into Lake County!!  Here we go!

We went to Bro. van der Boon's home and he plays accordion.  If any of you are wondering, it's a lot harder than it looks!  D&C 60:13 "...Neither shalt thou bury thy talent that it may not be known."

I got a new bed!!!!  It is a small thing, but made a huge impact on my rest!  

1 Nephi 16:29 "...And thus we see that by small means the Lord can bring about great things."

Sometimes you don't know what to expect.  We found a frog on the toilet seat in our church!!!  "The nearer we get to our Heavenly Father, the more we are disposed with compassion on perishing souls.  We feel we want to take them upon our shoulders and cast their sins behind our backs."  Joseph Smith

There were many, many funny signs found throughout our area, but this one is pretty funny.  We didn't realize until later that it is a code message from Hank to Don...  

Alma 32:21 "And not as I said concerning faith- faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true."

 Christmas was a lot of fun here.  A member of our ward gave us a 7 ft tree to decorate to have the Christmas spirit in our apartment.
Luke 2:10-11 " And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."

 This is Clearlake, the largest lake in California!!            This is Hidden Valley Lake and the
                                                                         view of the valley.

  Alma 30:44 "...And all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator."

We decorated a gingerbread house with 2 of the girls from our ward.  We had a blast!!!!

3 Nephi 14:24-25 "Therfore, whoso heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, who built his house upon a rock- And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock."

We opened presents, and discovered Silly string in our stockings.  We decided to have a little fun with it and decorated the Elders Christmas Eve.

2 Timothy 1:7 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love and of a sound mind."

 We got the chance to go to the Oakland, California temple together!
                                        Psalms 122:1 "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord."

I found my MAN!!! haha, just kiddin'! 

Genesis 2:24 "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, 

and shall cleave unto his wife [companion]: and they shall be one flesh."

We may have gotten turned around a few times here and there...

Matthew 10:39 "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."

Our district is the best!!!  The elders even made us pancakes for our last district meeting!  YUMMY

Mosiah 2:17 "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."

We celebrated New Year's Eve with a member and roasted hot dogs and s'mores!!  

3 Nephi 12:47-48 "Old things are done away, and all things have become new.  Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect."

We went to this County jail in Lower lake... It was the first jail in Lower lake.  By reading the bottom sign, the  first inmates and escapees were the men that built it!  Yes! 

Jacob 6:12 "O be wise; what can I say more?"

We were on Cobb mountain and it was so pretty with the fog.            And of course the beautiful mountains.  It is very pretty up here!

And in all, I learn everyday that "He that loveth not knoweth not God; GOD IS LOVE.  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son... If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another."  1 John 4: 8,10-11

I KNOW

So, I don't have a great analogy today with anything that I have seen, but I was sitting in this chair and was trying to decide what I wanted to blog about.  The only thing that kept coming into my mind was to testify.  Write out your testimony.   So here you go.

I know that God exists. I know that He loves each and everyone one of us.  I know that He is my Father.  I know that He is happy when we obey, and sad when we disobey.  I know that He wanted us to come to this earth, and that He wants ALL of us to return to His presence through baptism and keeping the commandments.

I know that His Son Jesus Christ lives.  I know He loves us.  I know that He performed the atonement for me because He loves me.  I know that the Atonement is there to allow us to be forgiven, to be cleansed, to right any wrongs that happen to us in this life, and to allow us each to return to live with our Father in Heaven.

I know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God.  That he had the faith it took to go in to that grove of trees and kneel down and ask God himself which church was true.  And that God the Father came down and His Son, Jesus Christ, and told Joseph Smith that none of the sects were true and that he, Joseph Smith, was to be a prophet.  A prophet that is called by God himself to lead and direct His children back to Him.  To bring back those ordinances and covenants we need to do to enter God's presence.  Joseph Smith did translate the plates that contained the Book of Mormon through the power of God.  

I know that the Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints has been restored to the earth and that it is the same church that Jesus Christ established when he was on the earth.  I know this because I have asked God, my Eternal Father, and He has told me it's true in my heart and in my mind.




I know this clip is a little long, but it is SO amazing!  These are the testimonies of Apostles of Christ.  Apostles are to represent Christ and testify of Christ.  In the Bible dictionary it states:
"The calling of an apostle is to be a special witness of the name of Jesus Christ in all the world, particularly of his divinity and of his bodily resurrection from the dead."

So, grab a cup of hot chocolate, or a little bag of popcorn, or some of that Christmas candy you got and take the time to be uplifted as you listen to apostles of the Lord testify of Jesus the Christ.

Christmas on a mission!

So, I wanted to share with everyone our Christmas Eve day.  It was fun, exciting, and different to have Christmas away from home.  But here are some of the things that we did.

1. I got A LOT of candy!!

 At my house, we get silly string in our stockings, and so we went out back and had a little silly string war.

Sister Cluff getting ready for war!

 The damage done...

But then we had a brilliant idea, we were to save the rest of the can and use it tonight at dinner with the Elders.  So we put our cans safely away and went to visit some people.

This is the view from the van der Boon home.  Yes, this is the view of where I serve.  That is Hidden Valley lake in the middle.

Another angle from their porch.  It was 70 degrees on Christmas Eve, so we spent as much as possible outside!

 Then we went to dinner early, spoke to the people that invited us over.  Told them our plan and were completely up for it.  Then we hid in the back, She asked the Elders to come and "move a chair for them out back."  They willing did so and then we pulled out our cans and sprayed them down!!!  It was epic!

The results... Oh it was funny!

We did not have time on Christmas to open presents, so we did them German style and opened them on Christmas Eve.

Thanks for ALL the wonderful Presents everyone!!!
You are the best!  :)

Christmas with a twist!

I heard this story this past season and wanted to pass it on to you all to help you feel some more Christmas cheer!!  I hope you all enjoy!

"My son, Nicholas, was in Kindergarten. It was an exciting season for a six-year old. For weeks, he'd been memorizing songs for his school's "Winter Pageant."

I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd be working the night of the performance. But, unwilling to miss his shining moment, I spoke with his teacher. She assured me that I could attend the dress rehearsal the morning of the performance. All parents unable to attend that evening were welcome to come then. Fortunately, Nicholas was happy with the compromise.

So, the morning of the dress rehearsal, I filed in ten minutes early, found a seat in the school auditorium and sat down. Around the room, I saw several other parents quietly scampering to their seats. As we waited, the students were accompanied by their teachers and they sat cross-legged on the floor. Then, each group, one by one, rose to the platform to perform their song. 

Because our public school system had long stopped referring to the holilday as 'Christmas'...I didn't expect anything other than fun, commercial entertainment - songs of reindeer, Santa Claus, snowflakes, and good cheer. So, when my son's class rose to sing, "Christmas Love," I was slightly taken aback by it's bold title.

Nicholas was aglow, as were all his classmates, adorned in fuzzy mittens, red sweaters, and bright snowcaps upon their heads. Those in the front row-center stage - -held up large letters, one by one, to spell out the title of the song. As the class would sing "C is for Christmas", a child would hold up the letter 'C'. Then "H is for Happy", and on and on, until each child holding up his portion had presented the complete message, Christmas Love."

The performance was going smoothly, until suddenly, we noticed her...a small quiet girl in the front row holding the letter "M"...but it was upside-down. She seemed totally unaware that her letter "M" appeared as a "W".

The audience of 1st through 6th graders snickered at this little one's mistake. But she had no idea they were laughing at her, so she stood tall, proudly holding her "W".

Although the teachers tried to shush the children, the giggling continued until the last letter was raised, and then...we all saw it together! A hush came over the audience and eyes began to widen. In that instant, we understood the reason why we celebrated the holiday in the first place. Why that, even in the chaos, there was indeed a purpose for all the festivities.

For when the last letter was held high, the message read loud and clear:

"C H R I S T W A S L O V E"

And, HE STILL IS!!

Amazed in His presence and humbled by His love...I pray that you will have a very Merry Christmas as you reflect on His amazing love for YOU!"

Christmas shopping

We had a wonderful experience going down to Santa Rosa to do some Christmas shopping with two ladies from Middletown.  We went to two malls and Costco all in one day.  While we were at the second mall, we were in JcPenny and I was getting a little bit tired.  We were conveniently in the bedding section, and their was a spot that you could test the memory foam pads.  I laid down for a little and rested there.  I was super tired.  But when all was done, we had had such a fun time that we didn't feel bad about going and really appreciated the trip and the experiences that we had there.

Some days we may feel like this life is too much or too hard for us to handle.  But it is not.  The person we are about to celebrate the birth of, Jesus Christ, has already taken upon him all the unfairness and the discomforts in this life so that he will know how to succor us, or to support us.
I like to think of Mary when I think of 'enduring to the end'.  She was a very strong lady and had to suffer much to bring the Savior into this world.  She saw an angel that told her that she was going to conceive a Child.  Then she had to tell the man she was engaged to.  Then she had to travel great distances before she actually had the baby.  Gave birth in the humble circumstances of a manger stall.  Now I don't know about you, but this seems like a trial to go through and she is extremely humble through the whole experience. 
In Luke 1:48-49 Mary is describing her feelings after having heard the news that she is going to give birth to the Son of God.  She says, 
"For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.  For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name."  

We each face trials, but Christ has already overcome them.  He is there for us and wants us to feel of His love all the time.  Christmas is important because we get a chance to celebrate and reflect on the MIRACLE of Christ's birth, as well as the promises of His sacrifice to overcome the world.  In the end its going to be worth it.  We will look back and be glad we stayed strong and faithful in our life.  Christ and God are real.  They LOVE us very much.  They want us to be successful in this life, and not to get weighed down or discouraged in the different experiences we face in life.  Let us be happy and rejoice as we celebrate this CHRISTmas season.