The Making of Me (Mica)

This week we were given President Gordon B. Hinckley's talk,  "Stand True and Faithful".   This talk was given in 1996 and I was present.  I had just turned fifteen and attended the meeting with my young women's group.  This talk had a profound impact on my life.  In the talk, President Hinckley spoke directly to women my age. He said, " I urge each of you young women to get all of the schooling you can get. You will need it for the world into which you will move. Life is becoming so exceedingly competitive. Experts say that the average man or woman, during his or her working career, can expect to have at least five different jobs. The world is changing, and it is so very important that we equip ourselves to move with that change. But there is a bright side to all of this. No other generation in all of history has offered women so many opportunities. Your first objective should be a happy marriage, sealed in the temple of the Lord, and followed by the rearin

A man with leprosy, picture taken on my last visit to India with Rising Star Outreach This semester has flown! I cannot believe we're halfway done.  I am learning so much and enjoying myself immensely.  I am making changes because of this one class.  It is helping me to begin to draw an outline of what my life could be in a couple of years.  For fun, I'm also going to share some pics from my last trip to India and I'm excited because I just booked my flight to go see my "kids" in India this coming February.  Darling Student in his uniform at the Rising Star Outreach campus This past weekend Phil and I traveled to Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire for a board meeting for Rising Star Outreach.  Rising Star provides help to leprosy affected individuals and their families in southern India through a variety of methods.  My husband has been on the board for the past six years. It was a very thought provoking weekend. Previous board meetings, I have ei

This week in class we began reading "Mastery" by George Leonard.  I quickly read my assigned chapters and then made my husband Phil read them.  I can already tell this will become part of our language as other books have.  In the first chapter of the book, George Leonard describes the process of mastery using tennis as an analogy.  He talks about the monotonous drills and exercises required before your body eventually develops muscle memory and you are able to move to the next move.  He describes progress as a series of climaxes and plateaus and the importance of each.  It reminded me of my quest to master the art of homemaking. Some people might roll their eyes at this goal but when I was first married I realized that I didn't have the first clue.  Growing up, the state of our house, laundry and meals were a constant source of stress and contention. I did not want to repeat this pattern in my marriage with my husband.  At first I stressed to my husband that house mana

This year's "Standard of Truth" or "Armor Up!" In Alma chapter 46, verses 12-13, we read about Moroni.  He was the captain of the Nephite Army and he created a mission statement f or the Nephites. It reads, " And it came to pass that he rent his coat; and he took a piece thereof, and wrote upon it—In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children—and he fastened it upon the end of a pole. And he fastened on his head-plate, and his breastplate, and his shields, and girded on his armor about his loins; and he took the pole, which had on the end thereof his rent coat, (and he called it the title of liberty) and he bowed himself to the earth, and he prayed mightily unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren, so long as there should a band of Christians remain to possess the land—“ Each year on back to school night, we have a fancy dinner and my husband Philip gives the children a Fa