10/2/17 On Hold and FHE with the Shirts Family

     This morning our top priority task was to sit on hold with Intuit and try to resolve a tax issue. It was anxiety inducing and boring at the same time. In the end we found a solution that will probably be good enough. It was not very satisfying but at least we can move forward.
      This evening we got to have the Shirts family join us for Family Home Evening. John is a former bishop from another ward and now is one of David's assistant scoutmasters. He works as a financial analyst. Mindy is an energetic Mom of four. Her kids say that she loves to talk and tell stories. Jaqlyn is 16 and on the swim team. Turley is 14 and also on the swim team with his sister. Rushton is David's age and they are good friends. He and his younger brother Johnson are both being home schooled. We thought is was neat that they do orchestra at a public school that offers electives for home-schoolers.
     We had a lesson where we talked about answers that we found for our conference questions. Then we played games. David took some kids down stairs and show them the projector. The older kids and parents played ImagineIf. I find that it's a fun game for learning what other people think about each other.
Here are some of the answers that we heard to our questions:

Conference Questions

How can we balance our time?

Put Spiritual things first

How can we have less stress?

     We should remember that we are sons and daughters of God.

How can we strengthen family relationships?

Spend real time with each other (as opposed to virtual time with technological devices)

How can we involve older people in Gospel activities?

     Give service

How is the church helping with the natural disasters?

Helping hands, donations, lose yourselves in service (Oscarson)

How can we be better missionaries?

     Welcome and embrace everyone on the journey (Ballard)

How can we be better friends?

Ask yourself "who needs me today?"

give service

What are some ways we can avoid problems in media?

Don't compare other's apparently perfect lives on social media with our own.

Put down phone and find someone to serve (Oscarson)

Wear gospel glasses

How can we think of good questions?

How can I share my testimony with my friends?

     Service

     Invite them to activities

Pleeeeeese? - Peter

       As you can see we didn't write down answers to every question but I do think that having questions helped us listen more attentively to Conference. We will definitely continue this tradition next year.