Quotes of the Week

You don't know exactly what is ahead of you in life. There will be joys and happiness, there will also be trials and disappointments. But one thing you can be sure of -- The Savior stands ready to help you. There aren't words to describe the majesty, power, glory, or love of the Son of God.
--Neil L. Andersen

Wherever you are, whatever your circumstances may be, you are not forgotten. No matter how dark your days may seem,  no matter how insignificant you may feel, no matter how overshadowed you think you may be, your Heavenly Father has not forgotten you. In fact, He loves you with an infinite love.
--Dieter F. Uchtdorf

With confidence we testify that the Atonement of Jesus Christ has anticipated and, in the end, will compensate all deprivation and loss for those who turn to Him. No one is predestined to receive less than all that the Father has for His children.
--D. Todd Christofferson

Quotes of the Week

How can you and I really expect to glide naively through life, as if to say, "Lord, give me experience, but not grief, not sorrow, not pain, not opposition, not betrayal, and certainly not to be forsaken. Keep from e, Lord, all those experiences which made Thee what Thou art! Then let me come and dwell with Thee and fully share Thy joy!"
--Neal A. Maxwell

The best missionary training center, the best family history center, the best Sunday school class, and the best temple preparation courses are all taught inside the walls of your own home, apartment, dorm, or wherever you live.
--David A. Bednar

My invitation to each of us,  ...is to allow the power of the truths of the Book of Mormon to find us and embrace us once again and day after day as we diligently seek for personal revelation. It will do so if we allow it.
--Ruben V. Alliaud

Glen Goes to BYU Football Game; Cute Halloween-Costumed Family Members

To introduce this Halloween post, let's just make this clear:

While both of those candies are a toss up for me as to which one is the worst candy, I will make mention that Dallas loves candy corn and Glen loves black licorice.

Dallas and Rebecca stopped by one date night when Glen had sequestered himself in the basement to watch football. It was nice to have company for a few minutes. 

Halloween was a fun diversion from Covid and from politics. I got my last October skeleton photo of the season. I have to admit I was sad when I went by this house the day after Halloween and the yard was empty. I felt like I had lost some familiar friends.

Then I saw this skeleton photo and got a good laugh out of it.

We received this emergency alert which went out to all the residents of Utah warning about how COVID-19 is spreading rapidly and to be careful.

I read that "these alerts are typically used for severe weather and AMBER Alerts, but state and local officials are increasingly deploying these Wireless Emergency Alerts to warn of COVID-19 spikes as well. 

"Typically they are targeted to a city, but Utah's appears to be the first time a Wireless Emergency Alert was sent to an entire state. Officials explained in a news statement that the 'dire situation' there drove them to try the stark approach."

It was not good news when we learned that my Aunt Carol (Dad's sister) was sick with the dreaded disease. 

I am happy to report that after getting 5 days' worth of some kind of intravenous treatment and getting blood plasma from a donor who had previously had the disease, she is now home. HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!

As we were learning about Aunt Carol's illness, we were also informed that Glen's sister JoAnn, her husband Dave, and one of their daughters, Cathy, are all struggling with COVID-19. JoAnn and Cathy have been able to recover at home, but Dave has been in the hospital for a week and is on a ventilator. It is a worrisome and scary time for that family. 

Now let's get back to the subject of Halloween. 

Glen bought himself his own bag of Halloween candy and enjoyed some of it before he put on his surgical boot and found his warm coat, gloves, hat and his ear buds. 

He had been invited to go to the BYU game at the stadium. He was so excited to be back in the sports action. Lane and LaVona Lewis had gotten the tickets. Dennis Crandall also went with them. 

Apparently he hadn't dressed warm enough because it took him several hours to warm up once he got home. 

Meanwhile, back at home, I was the one handing out candy. Or I should say waiting to hand out candy because I spent the whole night waiting... 

We ended up having only 10 children, 2 of our missionaries and 3 grandchildren come trick-or-treating. The missionaries asked if they could come over the next day to visit with us. 

They brought two other missionaries with them when they came to visit the next evening. 

Chris Nolasco, Kenton Stephens, Jonathan Cottle and Eli Whicker were all Spanish-speaking missionaries. It is always a rewarding experience to talk with our missionaries and find out what they are doing and feel of their goodness. Such fine men!!

Okay, once again, back to Halloween. I love it when the Golden grandchildren come to trick-or-treat at the end of the evening. 

Caroline's antennas were bouncing all around as she was talking. Madison was so happy she had borrowed the parrot from our toy box to go with her pirate costume. Spencer decided he didn't want to wear the blow-up dinosaur costume like last year. He went as gray man this year. Cuties!!

Brooke was at a friend's house that night.

Apparently Spencer likes to be very organized with his Halloween candy. I was bemoaning the fact there were no Baby Ruths in his loot. 

Rebecca said there are no Baby Ruths in Spencer's bag because he already pulled the one that he got out of his stash to save for Grandma. (What an angel boy!!!!)

It looks like Jacob's children got a good candy haul in Nebraska.

Claire had carved the cutest Olaf pumpkin. 

Claire thought Olaf the pumpkin looked perfect in the snow. 

It had snowed earlier in the week, but on Halloween they had nice weather.

Logan's smile is as big as the pizza Jack-o-lantern's smile.

In Florida, Newland was giving everyone a scare. This was the perfect year to have a mask built into your costume.

Underneath that scary costume is just a cute little boy who loves to catch (get bitten by...?) lizards.

Sarah was busy getting her four boys outfitted for Halloween. Eli was a zombie and played the part well.

Carson was Captain America, looking quite dapper if I don't say so myself. 

Lincoln was a garbage man. His costume took Sarah quite a bit of effort, but it paid off for him because the garbage men are his heroes. 

Sarah figured out how Lincoln could crank up the trash can filled with candy to dump it in the hole at the top of the truck and the candy would go into his candy bag. His truck even had working headlights and red taillights. IMPRESSIVE!!!

He tried his costume out a few days early as he was waiting for the trash man to come by their home. The trash man got such a kick out of Lincoln that he stopped to take a picture with Lincoln.

He even let Lincoln and Carson get in the truck and honk the horn. 

Quoting from Sarah's blog about the evening trick-or-treating and Lincoln's costume: 

"Jeff passed out candy from our driveway and he kept hearing people passing by talking about 'the little boy in the garbage truck.' We would pass people as we were out that said, 'Oh! There's the garbage man! We heard about him!' And we had two people stop us to take his picture. Lincoln hit celebrity status. As if that wasn't enough, this morning someone on the Facebook page said his costume was their favorite of the night. Ha! I knew it was cute, but I didn't think we'd be winning any unofficial neighborhood costume contests over it!"

Now let's see Jonah who was dressed as Link from Zelda. He had some good Link moves!

Now we will end with Ben, Haley, Kade and Levi's Halloween costumes. They were going for this look:

I think they nailed it!!!!! 

Quotes of the Week

How blessed we are to live in this latter-day dispensation when restored gospel light can shine brightly in our lives and help us to discern the adversary's dark deceptions and distractions.
--David A. Bednar

Jesus Christ Himself is the Lord of lost things. He cares for lost things. It doesn't matter why they were lost. It doesn't matter even if they were aware they were lost. "Rejoice with me; for I have found that which was lost." In the end, nothing is truly lost to Him.
--Ruben V. Alliaud

In every season of our lives, in all of the circumstances we may encounter, and in each challenge we may face, Jesus Christ is the light that dispels fear, provides assurance and direction, and engenders enduring peace and joy.
--David A. Bednar