Monday, May 12, 2008

Who knew concrete and PVC pipe could be romantic?

Yesterday was Mother's Day and it was probably the best I've ever had. Gary was asked to speak in church a couple of weeks ago and he was so sweet. His talk was great. I'll include a copy at the end. The boys decided to serve breakfast in bed and they brought it in on a tray for me to enjoy. We spent the day relaxing which doesn't happen very often these days.

Ever since I started planting flowers in our front flower bed I've been coveting the concrete edging around other people's yards so this year I told Gary that is what I wanted for Mother's Day. He scheduled it and in the next couple of weeks it will be here. I can't wait! I never would have dreamed that concrete would make me as happy as it does.

He also designed and bought the supplies for a sprinkler system for our garden so I wouldn't have to drag the hose around and try to remember to water the garden all summer. A truck full of PVC pipe, valves, drip hose, and other sprinkler stuff also made my day. I love having the garden but I have a hard time getting around to watering it as often as it needs to be during the summer while I'm chasing the boys. Hopefully, with a more consistent watering schedule, we will have a bumper crop this year and the pressure cooker and water bath canner will be working over time.

I sure do love my boys and all they do for me. It's fun being the "princess" of the family most of the time and they are really sweet to me.

Here is Gary's talk:


I appreciate the primary, especially the CTR 6 class. Brother Cole and I team teach that class. They are a great group of children! I have learned a lot about the families of my class through the comments from the kids. It is a tribute to the families and mothers in the ward that these children are so well behaved and so well taught. I have had the opportunity to take restless children to their parents over the last three years. One child in particular was back in my class in less than 30 minutes with his mother; a changed young man. Mothers really have such a tremendous influence on their children. From a talk in the December, 2007 Ensign, President Hinckley quoted from E.T. Sullivan: “When Gods wants a great work done in the world or a great wrong righted, he goes about it in a very unusual way. He doesn’t stir up his earthquakes or send forth his thunderbolts. Instead, he has a helpless baby born, perhaps in a simple home and of some obscure mother. And then God puts the idea into the mother’s heart, and she puts it into the baby’s mind. And then God waits. The greatest forces in the world are not the earthquakes and thunderbolts. The greatest forces in the world are babies.” And then President Hinckley summarizes thusly: “And those babies…will become forces for good or ill, depending in large measure on how they are reared.” How true it is that the thoughts and actions of a mother will be felt for generations! John Steele was a private in Company D of the Mormon Battalion. His wife, Catherine Campbell Steele, was one of about 50 women that traveled with the Battalion, supporting their priesthood.In Santa Fe, New Mexico, Private Steele was assigned to the Sick Detachment. There were 87 men and 20 women in the detachment that headed for the New Zion via Pueblo, Colorado and then further north. Private Steele, his wife and young daughter Mary, they had buried two other children back in Nauvoo, came into the Salt Lake valley on July 27th, 1847. On August 9th, 13 days later, on what is now Temple Square, Catherine Steel gave birth to Young Elizabeth Steele; the first white child born in the Salt Lake Valley. John and Catherine had heeded the call of the prophet to join the Mormon Battalion, they had followed and sustained that prophet through the loss of two children and all along a march through the desert wilderness, and then they named their fourth child after that prophet of God.Young Elizabeth Steele married James Stapley and they named their fourth child Mahonri Moriancumer Stapley. This family was deeply affected by the prophets of the Lord and wanted their children to remember from where they came and the priesthood authority by which all things come to pass. The Stapley family moved into what is now southern Utah. That was a harsh environment in the late 1800’s. Mahonri eventually married and had a daughter named Dail Stapley. Dail was my paternal grandmother. She grew up in central Utah. She raised a family of six children on the tail end of the great depression. She passed away when I was 9. In my grandfathers journal he wrote about this about his wife Dail: “I love my wife dearly. She has been a good mother, a good homemaker, a good wife, a good companion, and so very patient with me. She has been the best thing that has ever happened to me.” Two years later my grandfather passed away.My mother was a school teacher until I was born. She quit that job and took on the occupation of mother and wife. She did that for six children. About the time my baby sister started school, dad lost his job, and mom went back to work. I know that she had planned on going back to work eventually, but this was a little quicker, and more needed than her plan had envisioned. My mom had 5 boys and a girl. She had 5 eagle scouts and sent all five sons, plus two extras that lived with us for several years each, on missions. My mother retired from teaching last summer and she and my father are four months into a mission themselves in Atlanta, Georgia.My dear wife Aironn served a mission to Denmark a few years ago. She has given birth to four terrific sons. She also earned a college degree and was working to support us until Tom was born. My son’s mother camps, fishes, bowls, has her own baseball mitt and batting glove. She cooks and eats wild game. She is the center of our family. When Aironn asks for a priesthood blessing, she requests that I give her those blessing when her sons can be there to witness the priesthood in action. She tutors and mentors all five of her boys. She is an example of service, determination, focus and love. Aironn is already laying out a plan to help her future daughter in laws feel appreciated and welcome into our family. My uncle Ross and Aunt Betty Rae had seven girls, no sons. What a tremendous influence on the priesthood this couple had by preparing their daughters for temple marriage. They set a high standard for their daughters to reach. Their daughters are serving missions and marrying in the temple. Their grandchildren are receiving the priesthood. The influence of mothers is not limited to their children only.These women, these mothers of mine, are not extraordinary humans. They are daughters of God. They are strong. They are like so many others in this room. They all have testimonies of God, they all have families they care for and love. In Doctrine and Covenants 93:40 the Lord has declared: “I have commanded you to bring up your children in light and truth.” That is why I am here today, because my mothers taught their children in light and truth. An apt description of the influence of mothers on the faith and priesthood of their sons is found in Alma. In describing the rearing of the 2000 Stripling Warriors, Helaman writes: (Alma 56:47) “Now they had never fought, yet they did not fear death, and they did think more upon the liberty of their father than they did upon their lives; yea they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.” What a wonderful observation by a military leader of the influence of mothers. Truly we know that the greatest work we will accomplish will be within the walls of our own homes.As I look back on my rearing, I see where my mother influenced me and the priesthood that I now hold. She was a strong woman. She cared for and nurtured me. She taught me to cook and clean, to grocery shop, to work hard, to study and to pray. All through my childhood my mother prepared me to leave her side. She prepared me for the mission field. She prepared me to go away to college, she prepared me to find my wife, and she prepared me to raise my own family. And now that her family is raised and out of the house, she is continuing to set the example to her children and grand children by serving the Lord in the mission field. That is the strength of motherhood. They are not superhuman, although at times I believe that my mother had eyes in the back of her head, but they are dedicated to the Lord and their families. Mothers are influencing the priesthood every day in every corner of the world where worthy young men are found. They are teaching our young priesthood holders in primary, Sunday school, and scouting. They are loving their children at home. My wife has invited friends of our children, who are not of our faith, to dinner, to play, to scouts and to church. She is an example to our future priesthood holders of tolerance and missionary work and charity. And like Catherine Steele and Young Elizabeth Steele and Dail Stapley Bishop, Leslie Bishop all had an influence on my priesthood, these women and Aironn are influencing the next generation of priesthood holders in the Bishop family. I can truly say that Aironn is the best thing that has ever happened to me. May we honor our mothers by heading their teachings and love, by following their council and by exercising our priesthood in righteousness. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.