Shaylee spoke in church for the very first time.  The topic was "Standing in Holy Places".  She did a fabulous job!  She is growing up too fast!  She is growing into such a beautiful young women inside and out!  She loves junior high and friends!  She is a good friend and so much fun to be around.  She is very long winded just like her mother.  She loves to come home and talk my ear off but I love it...I hope she never stops!  She loves young women's and is enjoying setting goals in her personal progress book.  She is doing great and I am so proud of her accomplishments.  I love her so much!

I was asked to speak on “What it means to “Stand in Holy Places.”  In D&C section 87:8 it says…

What is a Holy Place?  The temple is a holy place.  It is the House of the Lord.  Our chapel is a holy place.  It is dedicated to the Lord as a holy place.  A convert in Texas said, when she walked through the chapel door, there was a feeling of holiness that she had never before experienced in her life. There are holy places to help us reach the temple.  They are attending sacrament meeting, participating in Young Women’s, going to seminary and so on.  A holy place is where we feel safe, secure, loved, and comforted. 

I want to share a personal story that happened to me the night before school started.  I was in my bedroom and had just finished watching the video of my sweet little sister Paige.  I was laying in my bed crying and couldn’t stop thinking about how much I missed her because we shared a room and she would always get on her knees and start to laugh and play with me at night right before bed.  I got up to go get a drink and my mom heard me crying and said, “Shaylee, do you want to come lay by me?”   As soon as I laid down by my mom I felt safe and comforted and I new I was in holy place.

We can create our own holy place when we have personal prayer, study our scriptures, bear our testimony, read & study patriarchal blessings, attend church meetings and listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost.  Our ultimate goal is to return to Heavenly Father there is no Holier place.  Which means on earth we need to Stand in the Holiest place on earth and that is the temple. 

How do we achieve this goal?  In 1 Corinthians 3:16 it says “ye are the temple of God.”  We need to keep our own bodies holy because the spirit cannot dwell in unholy places.

What might make “our temple” an unholy place?  Immodesty, impure thoughts, impure actions, R-rated movies, word of wisdom problems, gossip, language, and music.  If you want to “Stand in Holy Places” and return to Heavenly Father it requires sacrifice.  I want to share a story about a girl named Heather who was invited to a party with the “popular” people of the school.  As she walked in the door, the music that was blasting through the house hit her spirit.  She felt sick inside.  Then friends started disappearing into darkened rooms.  Heather said:  “At the party I soon realized I had to make a choice:  either these people or my standards.  I couldn’t have both.  I knew I did not want the words I was hearing or the movie scenes to contaminate my thoughts, no matter how popular these people were.  I knew I did not belong there.  As I was waiting for my mother to come and get me, I looked out the window in the darkened night, and there shining on the hill like a beacon was the temple.  It was like the Lord was reassuring me that I was doing the right thing.”  It is not always easy or convenient to live the gospel standards and stand for truth.  It is easy to give up what we want most…for what we want now.  Make hard decisions ahead of time with a goal in mind.

LDS youth are different from other youth.  We have made covenants and commitments to Heavenly Father that other youth have not.  We are responsible for every decision we make and we will be held accountable.  But we have the Holy Ghost to help us and other youth do not.  The choices we make now will result in how easy or difficult it is to later “Stand Ye in Holy Places” such as the temple.

President Monson asked,  “We know where we want to go.  Do we have the resolution-even the faith-to get there?    And then he said, "All of you have difficult situations in your lives, but you know the source of your spiritual strength. Every time you pray, or read scriptures, bear testimony or stand for the right you shut down the powers of evil in your life. When you walk down the halls at school and see other students do you think to yourself I am different? You are not better than they are...but your knowledge of and your commitment to the Savior make you different, that difference can be a blessing, a great advantage."

Paige changed my life...

and oh how we MISS her!  What a joyous day it is going to be to see my two sweet baby girls again!  The day she went in for surgery was one of my favorite days with her.  Heavenly Father knew the time was coming for her to return home and he allowed us to spend several hours together laughing!  I will never forget that day!  

Our family can be together forever!

A little get away to the mountains...

A couple days after Paige's funeral we decided we would go camping with some friends.  Keith worked Friday morning and then came home and finished loading the car and trailer.  On Friday afternoon we headed up the mountain to Pivot Rock Canyon with our neighbors the Shepherds.  We drove with the trailer on back and any time we went over 60 mph it would start fish tailing due to the men that loaded full coolers in the wrong spot.  So the trip up was a little annoying!  When we finally arrived in Payson the kids were thirsty so Shaylee, Max and Cade had there first experience using a debit card in the gas station.  They thought that was pretty cool!  We pulled off to the side of the road because I couldn't get service on my cell phone and that is where the directions.  The Raines caught up and we followed them to the campsite.  It was beautiful and peaceful.  While we set up the tent the kids explored the area.  The Bellistons, Lloyds and Kinseys showed up a little later.  We enjoyed hiking, good food, visiting, exploring caves, games, reading, shooting guns, relaxing, nature, horseshoes, capture the flag, campfires, smores and we will never forget the toilet with the large green tarp.  

 Pivot Rock Cave

Cade showed Rylan how to catch a butterfly and he was thrilled the butterfly actually sat on his finger.  He even stayed there for a long time until I look the picture.

Sometimes I wish I could be Mary Poppins and snap my fingers to tidy up a room to perfection!  I feel like I am nesting again getting ready for a baby to come.  I can't help myself either!!!  Paige is going through another procedure next Tuesday, July 26th for a cath.  Tell you the truth I am a bit nervous for this one like all the many many other procedures she has gone through in her life.  Her blood flow from her lungs to her heart is flowing just a bit much so they need to see what they can do to help balance it out a lot!  I am kind of looking forward to going to the hospital again...there's a special feeling inside those rooms with very special people helping out!  I just pray we will stay a short time 2-3 days like they said right?    

Aspen Grove...

What an amazing week!  My favorite thing seriously was not having to cook for an entire week or clean the dishes!  It was so great to be in the beautiful mountains with family.  My kids loved every minute of it.  We will definitely go again when Paige is a couple years older for sure.