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Fear not, I am with thee; oh, be not dismayed,

For I am thy God and will still give thee aid.

I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand… (How Firm a Foundation; Hymn 85)

I love hearing the children in the ward sing this song.  When I found out that I had to teach this song to young children, I knew it would be awesome, but I didn’t know how it would affect me.  I find that anytime that I am feeling overwhelmed, or struggling with things in life that this song especially this verse (3) comes to my mind and I find great comfort in it.

Sunday we had the primary program in sacrament meeting.  It was a year’s worth of work from everyone, and I know the primary presidency put a lot of work into it.  I am the primary chorister, and I have never struggled with a calling as I have with this one.  I have  had this calling for almost 2 years now, and only now do I feel confident with what I am doing.  I have no music training AT ALL!  No note reading, no knowledge of how to lead, no ability to follow a tune.  The first weeks would make me sweat just thinking about it.  I have never wanted to quit something so badly in my life.  The game part was not a problem for me, I enjoy having fun and you throw children into that equation and it was easy.  I probably spent the first 6 months not sleeping the Saturday night before church.  It was awful.  Finally I started praying to just get through my Sunday, gradually my prayers changed to help me learn what needed to be learned so that I can feel confident in my calling.  It wasn’t an over night success, it still took another 6 months to be able to laugh at my inadequacies and eventually I started to sleep again.  I feel like I have learned more with this calling then I have learned in any other calling.  It stretched me to a point that I thought I’d break, but I didn’t!  I enjoy my time with the children, I love how brilliant they are, and I love listening to them sing songs like How Firm a Foundation.  It made me look at songs in a different way, listen to the words, and feel the spirit through the music.  Funny how the Lord knows the path you need to take even if you are reluctant and think you know better.

Now for an update on the last month or so!

Let’s see Emma turned 11!  Yeah, you read that right, 11, which is impossible because I never turned 30, and those laugh lines around my eyes don’t exist, it’s just bad lighting in the bathroom (leave me alone, I can live in a little denial can’t I?)  What a beautiful young girl she has become.  She’s so intense and passionate about things.  I envy her love for life and her excitement for new things.  She is playing the flute this year in school and is loving math this year.  I know this next year will be full of changes for her, and I can’t wait to see how she grows and changes.

Grandma T was able to come for Emma’s birthday, she took us out to Johnny Rockets for dinner.  Grandma is great to have around, thanks for all you do.  She gave Emma some cash for her birthday, Emma hasn’t decided what to spend it on yet, I think she is saving for a Nano.  Grandma and Grandpa O sent Emma a camera which she is loving and using all the time.  Danny and I gave Emma a gift card to Borders and a new back pack and she got a bag of her favorite candy, candy corn, from her little sisters.  We took her friend out with her to dinner and a movie.

We recently spent some time with our friends the Clarks up at Lake Tahoe to see the Salmon Run at Taylor Creek.

My little Hallie has gone from sleeping for 6 or 7 hours at night down to sleeping for only 2, WHY? When I figure it out I’ll let you know.

Danny has moved my blog so that I can put on as many pictures as I want, but now I’m having to learn a new way to blog and put pictures on, hopefully things will get smoother as I practice.  To get to my blog now you can drop the blogspot on the end: gohoponpop.com

We went camping with the Hamblin family.  We love being with the Hamblins and we are so happy that Devree is home and that they are  together again as a family.

I have a lot more to tell, it’s been a busy month, but this is long enough for one post.