Seem familiar?

http://picasaweb.google.com/kristi.bassett/March2008/photo#5183907349085770770
This clip is eerily familiar of one we have of Gwen. All of the sudden this weekend Bentley decided to start sitting up by himself, attempt talking and even crawling! A little too much growth for comfort, he's growing too fast!

Ever wondered the odds?

Yonight we were playing 10,000 - the dice game. Max asked us what we would do if he rolled 6 ones (he only had 6 dice). We all laughed. A few rolls later, Max rolled zix 6's. Six 6's!! That is amazing. So we tried to figure out the odds of rolling 6 6's in a single throw of dice. While we were trying to figure it out, I ran across these interesting statistics. Any of you smart college kids know the answer to what the odds are to roll 6-6's? Enjoy the list below.

loves.

The Odds
Ever wondered?

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Odds of bowling a 300 game: 11,500 to 1

Odds of getting a hole in one: 5,000 to 1

Odds of getting canonized: 20,000,000 to 1

Odds of being an astronaut: 13,200,000 to 1

Odds of winning an Olympic medal: 662,000 to 1

Odds of an American speaking Cherokee: 15000 to 1

Odds that a person between the age of 18 and 29 does NOT read a newspaper regularly: 3 to 1

Odds that an American adult does not want to live to age 120 under any circumstances: 3 to 2

Odds of injury from fireworks: 19,556 to 1

Odds of injury from shaving: 6,585 to 1

Odds of injury from using a chain saw: 4,464 to 1

Odds of injury from mowing the lawn: 3,623 to 1

Odds of fatally slipping in bath or shower: 2,232 to 1

Odds of drowning in a bathtub: 685,000 to 1

Odds of being killed on a 5-mile bus trip: 500,000,000 to 1

Odds of being killed sometime in the next year in any sort of transportation accident: 77 to 1

Odds of being killed in any sort of non-transportation accident: 69 to 1

Odds of being struck by lightning: 576,000 to 1

Odds of being killed by lightning: 2,320,000 to 1

Odds of being murdered: 18,000 to 1

Odds of getting away with murder: 2 to 1

Odds of being the victim of serious crime in your lifetime: 20 to 1

Odds of dating a supermodel: 88,000 to 1

Odds of being considered possessed by Satan: 7,000 to 1

Odds that a first marriage will survive without separation or divorce for 15 years: 1.3 to 1

Odds that a celebrity marriage will last a lifetime: 3 to 1

Odds of getting hemorrhoids: 25 to 1

Odds of being born a twin in North America: 90 to 1

Odds of being on plane with a drunken pilot: 117 to 1

Odds of being audited by the IRS: 175 to 1

Odds of having your identity stolen: 200 to 1

Odds of dating a millionaire: 215 to 1

Odds of dating a supermodel: 88,000 to 1

Odds of writing a New York Times best seller: 220 to 1

Odds of finding out your child is a genius: 250 to 1

Odds of catching a ball at a major league ballgame: 563 to 1

Odds of becoming a pro athlete: 22,000 to 1

Odds of finding a four-leaf clover on first try: 10,000 to 1

Odds of a person in the military winning the Medal of Honor: 11,000 to 1

Odds of winning an Academy Award: 11,500 to 1

Odds of striking it rich on Antiques Roadshow: 60,000 to 1

Odds of getting a royal flush in poker on first five cards dealt: 649,740 to 1

Odds of spotting a UFO today: 3,000,000 to 1

Odds of becoming president: 10,000,000 to 1

Odds of winning the California lottery: 13,000,000 to 1

Odds of becoming a saint: 20,000,000 to 1

Odds of a meteor landing on your house: 182,138,880,000,000 to 1

Chance of an American home having at least one container of ice cream in the freezer: 9 in 10.

Chance of dying from any kind of injury during the next year: 1 in 1,820

Chance of dying from intentional self-harm: 1 in 9,380

Chance of dying from an assault: 1 in 16,421

Chance of dying from a car accident: 1 in 18,585

Chance of dying from any kind of fall: 1 in 20,666

Chance of dying from accidental drowning: 1 in 79,065

Chance of dying from exposure to smoke, fire, and flames: 1 in 81,524

Chance of dying in an explosion: 1 in 107,787

Chance that Earth will experience a catastrophic collision with an asteroid in the next 100 years: 1 in 5,000

Chance of dying in such a collision: 1 in 20,000

Chance of dying from exposure to forces of nature (heat, cold, lightning, earthquake, flood): 1 in 225,107

Chance of dying in an airplane accident: 1 in 354,319

Chance of dying from choking on food: 1 in 370,035

Chance of dying in a terrorist attack while visiting a foreign country: 1 in 650,000

Chance of dying in a fireworks accident: 1 in 1,000,000

Chance of dying from overexertion, travel or privation: 1 in 1,428,377

Chance of dying from food poisoning: 1 in 3,000,000

Chance of dying from legal execution: 1 in 3,441,325

Chance of dying from contact with hot tap water: 1 in 5,005,564

Chance of dying from parts falling off an airplane: 1 in 10,000,000

Chance of dying from ignition or melting of nightwear: 1 in 30,589,556

Chance of dying from being bitten by a dog: 1 in 700,000

Chance of dying from contact with a venomous animal or plant: 1 in 3,441,325

Chance of dying from being bitten or struck by mammals (other than dogs or humans): 1 in 4,235,477

Chance of dying from a mountain lion attack in California: 1 in 32,000,000

Chance of dying from a shark attack: 1 in 300,000,000

Chance of having a stroke: 1 in 6

Chance of dying from heart disease: 1 in 3

Chance of getting arthritis: 1 in 7

Chance of suffering from asthma or allergy diseases: 1 in 6

Chance of getting the flu this year: 1 in 10

Chance of contracting the human version of mad cow disease: 1 in 40,000,000

Chance of dying from SARS in the United States: 1 in 100,000,000

Chance of American man developing cancer in his lifetime: 1 in 2

Chance of an American woman developing cancer in her lifetime: 1 in 3

Chance of getting prostate cancer: 1 in 6

Chance of getting breast cancer: 1 in 9

Chance of getting colon / rectal cancer: 1 in 26

Chance of beating pancreatic or liver cancer: 1 in 9

Chance of beating thyroid or testicular cancer: 9 in 10

In the spirit of bummer Easters...

I have a friend from my mission field coming to town, and Mom and I hope to go to dinner with her tonight. In preparation for our visit, I reviewed my missionary journal from the time I lived in her area. I found this entry in my journal about the Easter I had while there in her area. And I thought you missionaries might be able to relate...that sometimes the most important days (Easter) may also be a bummer...

4/15/79
Today I've been really upset. Everything seems to get me down. First I got up at 2:00am because the mosquitos were eating me alive. I could hear them buzzing my ears. I got up to figure out why, and realized that the landlady came into our room while we slept, and unplugged the fan (trying to save money). The fan is what keeps the mosquitos from buzzing us. I plugged it back in and got about 4 hours of sleep. I got up and took a freezing cold shower. I then found there were no clean garments nor a clean white shirt. Nothing. So, I went to church in dirty clothes. Stinky! As I went to Priesthood meeting there was no breakfast to eat. I didn't listen much to the meeting because I smelled terrible (I had sweat so much the night before - 10 miles it seemed like - to get to Pando's baptism) and I didn't feel much of the spirit. We then came home and Elder BAll and I had an argument about whether to have a companionship inventory today or tomorrow on PDay. Well we decided to do it today, but it was miserable. We argued about the way we work, the families we've got and the whole bit. It seemed I was just tired, and I was.

We then went out that afternoon and tried to teach. But everywhere we went fell through. Sacrament meeting was full (note: this was prior to the consolidated meeting schedule so we had priesthood in morning and sacrament in afternoon) which was one thing that helped me feel better. But I felt all around bad as all my clothes still stunk. Also I found out that Rose (newly baptized member) was talked to by some people who told her the church was bad and not to go anymore - so she didn't come to church.

Sometimes I wonder if I couldn't be using my time more effectively in college, getting married etc. But on this Easter, I know Christ died for me. He made possible not only my resurrection, but also my being able to return CLEAN to God and live with him. I realize this mission is perhaps one of the best ways to show my love for Christ.

P.S. Dinner just came - Dry chipa and 2 day old meat milenasa...gross!

Some days are best forgotten.

Dad's top 15 cartoons for the week...

Bentley

Our almost-missed Easter

I hope everyone had a fun Easter in (for most of you at least) St. George. We sure missed being with you--we would have taken being with any friends and family at all, let alone being with such a fun group in such a fun place. Yes our Easter was a really slow one this year, so much so that I feel like we almost didn't have a holiday at all. It's something I've thought a lot about today and two basic thoughts have formulated separately in my mind, although I haven't been able to quite synthesize them together yet. So you tell me--do these both make sense? Can they work together or are they contradictory? Am I just thinking too hard? You be the judge...

My first thought is this. Every year around Christmas time I hear people lament about how commercialized Christmas has become. Apparently these people feel that, as a society, we have taken a huge step away from what Christmas is all about as stores seem to start holiday sales, people start with the holiday decorations, and radio stations start with the holiday tunes ever closer to Halloween. I say "holiday" instead of Christmas because that is another thing that I hear people complain about--that the "Christ" is increasingly being taken out of Christmas. Because political correctness calls for us to consider those from all religions and backgrounds, and not just the Christian majority, I hear lots of grumblings about how generic the season is now, and how much it takes away from the religious meaning.

And it's not just religious people who are concerned about this worldy, commercial trend. To many, the "true meaning " of Christmas (or perhaps, the "true meaning" of the "season") is not Christ at all (again, the political correctness thing) but "giving" and "peace" and "goodwill". The Person is not what is important, but the ideas that He was born to teach.

There's another group that many of us fall in that isn't annoyed by the growing commerciality so much as by all that has come to be expected of us. Rather than have time to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas we feel obligated to send out Christmas cards and make neighbor gifts, attend and throw parties several nights a week, and, of course, get the perfect gifts for all our family and friends somewhere in the midst of it all. We resent the busy-ness of the season. We find ourselves wishing that it could be simpler, that there wasn't so much to do so that we could take more time to reflect on the Savior.

Every year I hear people complain about these things. I read conservative email forwards and newspaper articles that basically hash out these ideas over and over. Well I'm here to say, let's look at what we're really talking about when we make these complaints. Let's look at Easter.

This year Easter came super early. So early it really threw most of us off. I didn't even see it coming until a few days ago, myself, and by the time I did I already had my whole Saturday committed to hosting a candidate for work. So there was no anticipation, no "Easter Season" in preparation for the big day. We woke up on Easter Saturday and went to a 30-minute Easter egg hunt that the neighborhood association put on (which was actually really fun and well put on but was still a very small part of our day). Kris had bought me a pack of bunny-shaped Peeps. I hadn't bought her anything. After the hunt I went to pick up my candidate and Kristi threw a baby shower for a friend. That was Saturday.

Sunday (Easter) we woke up stressed as usual and scrambling to get ready for 9:00 church. Kris had bought Gwen a new Easter dress which was beautiful. The rest of us wore the usual. We missed the opening song. There was an Easter medley sung by the choir. The talks were not Easter themed, and the closing song was "I Am a Child of God." The Sunday school lesson was on Jacob 1-4, the Priesthood lesson was a Teachings for our Times lesson based on a conference talk about marriage and family. We came home and did not have any plans with family (obviously) or friends (because many of them were already with family). We took a nap and, because I had been eating out with my hosting duties, we had leftovers piling up and decided to have those for dinner rather than going to the trouble to make something fresh. After dinner Gwen begged and begged so we finally hardboiled some eggs and put glitter on them, even though the Easter bunny never really came and hid them. (Who really wants to go find real eggs, and she already has plenty of candy from the neighborhood hunt.) And that was pretty much our Easter. Oh and I'm heading back to work tomorrow, of course. No paid holidays this month.

So what say you? Better than Christmas? You think about what each is celebrating and Easter probably should be better than Christmas. And it's great, right? No stress at all. No commercialization. No parties to plan or neighbor gifts to deliver. No annoying cards to send out or mall parking lots to get stuck in. Easter has none of these things, just lots of time for reflection. So this is a good thing right?

This year I'm not so sure.

Am I wrong to say I appreciate that everyone, regardless of religious beliefs, looks forward to December? Is it bad that I have countless memories of dozens of rich Christmas traditions, even though many of them are based around commercial things? I'm sure you see what I'm trying to say. Don't get me wrong--it's not anyone's fault and there's not much we can do to change it. No holiday will ever compete with Christmas for excitement and hype and memory-making. If we had another holiday even half as big as Christmas we'd all be fat and bankrupt. But I guess the point I'm trying to make is that as much as it's a shame that "Season's Greetings" has replaced "Merry Christmas" as the appropriate mantra of December and Santa has overtaken baby Jesus and the popular icon, you never have an almost-missed Christmas. Even if the extra worship you do only comprises a tenth of the extra shopping you do, the long season means you still do a lot more of both. The way Easter has largely maintained it's true meaning is great, and you can say a lot of things about Christmas, but you have to admit--Christmas never almost sneaks by without you noticing it.

So that's my first thought. Or essay, you might say :) Now my second might seem to contrast the first. The one detail that I left out of my unenthusiastic description of our noneventful Easter this year is the actual worship and reflection that took place. We don't read too many verses of scripture each night with Gwen but we are consistent. Tonight, I figured the least we could do is change it up and read the Easter story rather than from where we were at in the Book of Mormon.

And it was amazing.

I've never wept so openly as I've read the Christmas story on Christmas Eve as I did tonight. For one thing, the Christmas story is great, but not nearly so miraculous and important as the Easter story. But perhaps more importantly, on Christmas Eve I feel warm fuzzies but my thoughts are largely elsewhere. I feel too much excitement to feel much of anything else. On Christmas, things are going so well--I'm so happy--that it's harder to feel how dependent I am on the Lord. On an intellectual level I know I need him but that need isn't nearly so real when the next day is Christmas as when the next day is a stressful day at work.

Tonight I explained to Gwen about what they did to Jesus, how they put nails in his hands and wrists and how they hung him on the cross. Gwen stared at me with horror as I described how the people spit on Jesus and wouldn't give him water but gave him vinegar instead. Like me, Gwen also had nothing big to look forward to tomorrow and wasn't hyped up on anything we had done today. So she wasn't silly or restless. She just listened intently as I told her how they did these things and then made fun of him until he gave his life and died.

We talked about what a sepulcre is, and how they put Jesus' body in and put a big rock in front. I then read just the first couple columns of John 20 and Gwen asked questions as we read: Who's Mary? Who's Peter? Why were there clothes on the ground? Where was Jesus? What is a gardener mean? I took my time to explain these things but I could hardly speak because I was so choked up with the spirit. I asked Gwen to imagine if she was one of the people who Jesus showed the marks in his hands to. I told her to imagine being Mary, and running to tell everyone the good news, that Jesus had died but that somehow he was strong enough to come back to life. Somehow he conquered death. I told her that someday he would come again, that he would show her the marks in his hands. She asked if he would hug her and talk to her. I said He would probably make her laugh and would certainly make her feel happy.

The whole experience lasted all of 20 minutes. Kristi listened from the other room but we wrapped up before she had even finished feeding Bentley. My Easter experience was so short, but also so powerful. And so I'm left here toying with these questions in my mind. Is this just how it is supposed to be? Easter is one byte of imported German chocolate and Christmas is a grocery sack full of Kroger-brand chocolate bars? Isn't there some way to have it all, to have a holiday that is anticipated and exciting but also meaningful?

I don't know the answers to these questions for sure. I suspect it depends on us--on what we have inside and how we want to prioritize things. Like I said at the beginning of the post, maybe these ideas don't fit together and I'm contradicting myself in my ramblings. In any case, I'd love to hear what ya'll have to say on the matter. I've made a case for Christmas and for Easter. What do you think?

Updated pictures!

http://picasaweb.google.com/kristi.bassett/Febandmarch2008

For those who are curious....Bentley is turning out to be quite handsome! I think his hair is going red which is really cute and he has the best smile! It has been stressing me out because with Gwen people would stop me in the store and comment on what a beautiful baby she was. Just as many people stop me about Bentley but all of them just say, "Wow.....you're baby is huge! I've never seen such a big baby!". Which is flattering and all, but it's not quite the same. The funny thing is that Bentley is big, but for his six month check up he weighed the exact same as four months, which means that two months ago he was REALLY big ;)

Miss you guys and can't wait for Mom to come visit! Yahoo!

Youth Team Handball

Hey Everyone, Today in P.E. a man came and gave a presentation about the 2nd most popular sport in the world: Team Handball. This sport is a mix of soccer, basketball, water polo, and hockey. He showed us a couple of videos of this sport. The links below is are videos to youtube about the game. He gave us a flier telling us about the sport and, if we were interested, to come and play it. Every Tuesday at 5:30 - 7:00, I will probably be playing the sport. I had a great time and gym and I wanted to learn more about it. Anyways I thought I would just share that with you guys. If any of you have played it, or even heard of it, please tell me. I want to know what you guys thought. Thanks,
Max

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ym85m8skU4Q
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kPgnRff5EVg
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Owq2aA2Z31s&feature=related

Life

All I can say is that I am so glad that Kristi was just kidding about leaving the kids home when we go to Disneyland! Speaking of Disneyland......I am so excited . I would give my vote on our little voting system we have, but I couldn't figure out how to do it! Just know that nothing is in the way of me being so excited...no babies to be born....work, who cares..... boyfriends, don't have one....I am free and easy and ready to party with ya'll!
So, life moves forward in a pretty typical way. I go to work and eat cookies and then come home and rest, and then go back. However, I feel like I have more of a system going and am able to get home a little bit earlier than normal. We have just added another "client" who orders lots of cookies. Have you ever heard of Omniture? They go worldwide but are based in Orem. They used to have a contract with Mrs. Fields, but fired them and guess who got the job? US! This is great for business but it also tests my physical and emotional endurance. Somehow I get through.
I am going back to school in the fall and have decided to do Speech Pathology or more correctly named "Communication Disorders." I know all this seems crazy to suddenly switch majors when I will be a senior, but I feel really good about everything. Although I sometimes have discouraging moments, I have been blessed to feel like everything is good in my life...as far coming home from the mission....school, I feel like I have done everything I could (except I really need to buckle down and find housing)....dating, you may not believe this, but I feel content and know I am where the Lord wants me to be....work, some day's are rough, but I have learned patience and how to stick with a task. So there, there is my life and my feelings about them. As ya'll know, the Lord tests us, but he is always there to help us through and love us. I know he loves me.
I love you all! I wish so much we could see Blaine and Kris and family (minus the dogs) :) soon! When I hear of get togethers Rosey has with Nick and Stef, it makes me miss the good old days with B & K and baby Gwen, eating great meals and watching movies! Miss you tons!
Love, Jane

Big announcement!

Is everyone sitting down? I know we just got one, but we love it so much we just couldn't wait to get another! Gwenie is going to have a new little.......car!

I didn't fool you for one second I can tell! I tried though. Here is a picture of our new(er) car. I know you are thinking that it is about the miniest mini van there ever was! We actually turned away from the new minivan idea. Though we had a good deal lined up it was still just too expensive plus with gas prices on the rise and stuff....well we couldn't figure out how it would work. So after talking to a mechanic about my car and how long it has left, we decided to go to the complete opposite end of the spectrum and find a cute tiny little gas saving car that Blaine can drive to and from work. Then in two years when the lease is up on the accord and we have like three more kids we will get a van.

So we found this sweet little car...

It's a 2007 Toyota Yaris (only has 12,000 miles on it). Gets 40 miles to the gallon and is just slightly bigger than a bicycle ;). It's about the tiniest car I have ever seen, but it will do just what we need it to. The best news of all is that it was about 1/3 the cost of a van.

Anyway, we just wanted to introduce our newest addition. We are excited about it, and also excited for the time when we can get a van, but hopefully by then they will have hybrid Odysseys!

ridemax

Not only are we excited for Disneyland, we have also found this amazing software program that will help maximize our trip.

www.ridemax.com

Given the Bassett family track record of inability to decide what to do on Monday holidays, I thought this might be a worthwhile thing :)

Oh, and we are going to leave the kids in Utah with my family. They would only slow us down in Disneyland. Rides, RIDES, RIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDDDDDDESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Top 10 cartoons for this week...

Some work related cartoons...enjoy!

Popeye

Hi family! I am not really sure if it is 12:34AM or 1:34AM, I hate those first few days after daylight savings when you aren't quite sure which clocks you have reset yet. It is particular bad when it is the middle of the night and you are already disoriented!

Poor little Bentley is quite miserable. I think he has pinkeye. I was speaking in sacrament meeting today (it is really quite a mean thing to ask a perpetually late person to speak at nine o'clock church the day of daylight savings, making it really eight o'clock church!), and when I woke up Ben just looked like he had a little "sleep" in his eye. By the middle of church it was pretty yucky looking and then this evening it was practically all glued up from all the gunk, plus all pink and swollen. He looks an awful lot like popeye. Keep the little duker in your prayers, especially since my sister is coming this week and I want her to realize how handsome he is ;).

It was so cute tonight as we sat in our loft as a family. Blaine managed to salvage a home video tape that I accidentally left on top of our toaster oven over a year ago. It was all melted and weird and today he finally figured out to fix it (this is why you should marry an electrical engineer), so we enjoyed watching a home video of December 2006. It was crazy because that was just a few months before we came here but Gwenie was SO little and so cute. And of course the whole video was about Christmas time and Janey was there for lots of the scenes and little Anna. . . just made us miss Utah and y'all so much. It's amazing how much a life can change in a year. Twelve months from the time of that video we had Bentley (in the video I wasn't even pregnant yet!), moved across the country, finished school, started a new job, got a new car, met lots of new people, etc. Our life has changed so much but I am so grateful that no matter what changes I get to keep the ones I love the most Blaine, Gwen and Bentley, near me always. I find myself grasping for anything to cling on to in this crazy life of changes and I am so glad I have the Savior and my family. Anyway, back to how tonight was "cute". After we watched the video Bentley was just laying down on the ground and Gwen was being goofy. She was jumping up and down and Bentley just got such a kick out of it. He giggled more in five minutes than he has the rest of his life combined. He adores Gwenie and just thought seeing her jump was the coolest thing. It's hard to explain but I was just so amazed, I spend my whole life trying to get a giggle from Bentley (he has done it only two or three times; he loves to give big toothless open mouth smiles, but the giggles are rare), but it comes so easy to Gwen. She just has to be herself and you can just see the admiration in Ben's eyes. I know there are going to be rough times with the two of them when they are older and drive eachother crazy but for now they both love eachother so much and I love to watch them interact.

As I mentioned, I had to speak in church today, what a mess. I tried all week to prepare something but really struggled. To make a long story short I didn't feel so great about the talk; mostly because halfway through I found myself comparing "exercising faith unto Christ" to eating cabbage instead of pizza. It's like I couldn't get my mouth to stop saying these nonsensical things, but my mind was screaming "ahhh what are you even talking about!!!??". I was trying so hard to not look at my paper but I really think that was a bad idea. Anyway, it's over now and there was a really good result from it that I am so excited about....tonight a member of the bishopric called and asked to come over. When he did he told me a little story about the day. Earlier in the morning they had been going over names for a certain calling and decided to take some time to think about it. My name had not been on the list of names, but during my awesome (gag) talk the bishop wrote a note to the counselors suggesting that I might be good for the calling, then after sacrament meeting the Young Women's president also came up and told the bishop that she would like me to fill the calling if at all possible. So he extended me a call to be the miamaid advisor and as you can all guess I am absolutely thrilled! It was also a testimony builder to me about really being called of God to do a certain calling, but I thought it was pretty neat how they came up with my name for the calling at the same time; especially because I gave the worlds worst analogy. I don't know what cabbage is like, but most certainly it is not like faith.

Well the debate rages on about whether or not we should be looking at getting a van. We have found an excellent deal but just aren't sure if it is the right step for us now. Though we did go and test drive one; it would be soooo nice, but with gas prices going up the way they are and with us only having two kids (read: and not planning on another any time too soon so don't even start with those types of jokes yet, I demand at minimum a month of solid 8 hour sleep before I even consider considering it! And based on the fact that I am writing in the BAWB at 1 or 2 AM I don't think that month is coming any time soon). It would be nice for a trip back to Utah, but a downpayment on a car and car payments themselves would exhaust our savings and keep us from saving in the future, so.......I don't know. It really straddles the line between a want and a need. We want it and we need a different car, but not sure if we "need" a brand new van ;).

Gwen has been extra cute lately. We are reading to her from the Book of Mormon everynight (rather than the Book of Mormon stories thing...) and it is amazing how much she really gets it. In the past it came up in a verse about the devil and how he is bad, etc. etc. and more recently we have been talking about the difference between Nephites and Lamanites. Today she asked Blaine "Dad, is the devil a Lamanite?". She always has lots of good questions and it is particularly cute when we ask her what book we are in she will always respond "JacobS" she gets a little confused because her best friends last name is Jacobs. Anyway, she is so smart and cute and fun, I just cherish every moment (almost...) that I get to spend with her. Blaine and I got all emotional as she was singing for us the new song they are learning in primary "If the Saviour stood beside me, would I do the things I do?", what is so sweet about Gwen is that I am sure that she would continue to do the things that she does and the Saviour would be so pleased. I don't know how we got such a wonderful daughter.

Lil' Bentley is ohhhhhh so close to being able to sit up by himself. He also enjoys laying on his tummy and looking up and out at the world. Not too much in the way of crawling though. He loves playing in the saucer and watching his big sister. He is patient as the puppies jump up on him and lick his face (resulting in the dogs getting the boot to outside). The other day I was sitting next to Bentley on the couch and Boots jumped up and laid on Bentley's lap. It was innocent enough until Bentley flung his head forward and started sucking on Boots! It was pretty gross but Bentley is just at that stage where EVERYTHING needs to be sucked on and chewed on. No signs of the first tooth but it should be coming soon. His smile just melts my heart, in particular right now when he looks so sick! His eye is just so sad that when he smiles he just looks extra sweet.

Well. Ben's asleep now and I am going to the gym in four and a half hours, so I better go catch some zzzz's before he wakes up again. It's really amazing how much I do love him because if anyone else kept me awake for so long you better believe I wouldn't be so fond of them ;).

Good night!

Spring

Hi Family,

I spent the last while reading through many of your posts. Thank you for taking the time to write! With all of life's demands it can be easy to let important things slide. I recognize I haven't taken as much time as I ought to keep up, but on this lovely sunday afternoon, it has been a delight (as we learn scripturally the sabbath ought to be) to read and be inspired by you. Thank you!

Life has certainly been busy these past few weeks, but they have been full of the Lord's blessings and tender mercies. Recently I was offered a job at the MTC (opposed to the BYU Bookstore at the MTC) which pays almost 50% more, and will really help us out financially. I work in the Learning Resource Center which is designed to help new missionaries learn how to do things like companion study, study journals, lesson plans, etc. It has been humbling as I am not as fresh on those types of topics as I once was. It will be a blessing to get back up to speed on the missionary program and how to bless these missionaries. Stef is a great example to me about that. Each day I hear about her experiences with her missionary district. They are all doing well, but some have struggles that she works hard to resolve. She is so diligent and hard working. Those missionaries are lucky to have a teacher like her.
These last few weeks in the bookstore have been fun. A couple years ago I was a councilor at a local EFY at SLCC. It lasted only a week but has proven to be a memorable experience in my life. I have recently seen 4/5 of my boys that I taught at that EFY in the MTC. They will serve all over the earth and I am filled with joy that I could be a part of preparing them to serve missions. They look good, and are bright, capable young men. Thanks dad for encouraging me to take advantage of that opportunity.
It seems I hear constantly from Rosey about some boy "Cameron Loser" who is in the MTC right now. Apparently this boy is the love of her life, and has been for years. Well, Stef was the one that told me that Rosey said he is in the MTC right now and how cool it would be if I could get his address so Rose could write him. At a slow point in the day at the bookstore a week or so ago, I overheard some missionaries talking and I heard someone say "Elder Loser". I jumped into action. I walked over to the group of missionaries all admiring some notebooks (or some other fun item available to missionaries in the bookstore) and inquired immediatly where this elder loser is. He was kind of squatting down looking at something and stood up when he heard his name. When I saw him the face looked familiar. Like I have seen it somewhere before...and yet I don't think I have met him (weird huh rose? :)) Anyway, I probably have met him but I told him who I was and he was excited to hear I was rosey's brother. I asked him for his address and he quickly complied using another elder's package with their mission address written on it. He was excited and is a handsome looking elder. Since then I have seen him several times and I am always impressed at what a kind, sharp young man he is. Rosey, he is anxiously awaiting your letter!
Our stake conference was today and it was really fun. We have made some new friends in our ward that we carpooled over with, and the conference was all about temple worship and families. Before the meeting started in the Provo Tabernacle, President Bateman walked in. I was very surprised as we hadn't seen him in the saturday evening session, nor was he on the program. Well, I am not sure why he was there, but all I can figure is he left his scriptures on the stand (or something) because he was gone as quickly as he came. One of the challenges that came to us is to memorize the proclamation to the family. It is one of our stake goals and Stef and I need to get going on in. We were talking about how to go about it earlier today, and Stef suggested we just memorize through mom (who of course has already memorized it years ago). We will certainly memorize it, and are open for any suggestions on how to memorize something that long.
We are getting more and more exicted about our little baby coming. Some of you may have heard that after Stef's glucose test a couple weeks ago, they asked her to go to the hospital for further testing in case she had gestational Diabetis. We have prayed and she has been so good to eat healthier and exercise more. When she went in for those tests this week, they all came back positive assuring us that all is normal. We are very grateful for that blessing in our lives. Our little boy must be getting a good workout in her tummy too cause he does some really big kicks sometimes. In stake conference today I saw one of those kicks out of the corner of my eye. It was so big, it caught my attention.

Well, we love you all! Thanks for your love, support and prayers.

Nick (and Stef)

Thank Goodness It's Friday...

Photo Shoot...

I hadn't seen this photoshoot from B&K&G&B. Check it out if you haven't seen it...Those grandkids are soooo precious. Enjoy!
http://picasaweb.google.com/kristi.bassett/PhotoShoot2008

Check out Max's pictures of the ski trip

If you haven't checked out Max's pictures/videos from the ski trip - here's the link... Watch Rosey and Marg rolling down the hill - it's a classic!

We can't wait to see all the pictures when Nick get's em compiled.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bretbassett/SkiingAtDeerValley

February Wrap-Up

I'll try to make this quick but I did want to share a few more things from February with you all.

I still serve as a Welfare Square missionary but it is not longer called Wooden Spoon. There are 8 of us and we are doing what we call "Provident Living" classes for the Mt. Olympus Region here in SL. There are about 16 stakes who each send a ward and stake "Provident Living" specialist to come to these basic cooking classes and then go back and share with their wards. We cover the same basics as in our old Wooden Spoon classes except on a much larger basis. We teach about 150 people in a stake center up by Churchhill Jr. High. I don't teach the classes (thank goodness) but help get them ready, buy supplies, serve the samples, etc. So that keeps me busy one Friday and Saturday a month.

I can now donate blood again since we have been home from Equador a year. I couldn't donate for a whole year because we had been in the jungle. But it is good to donate now every 56 days!

Nancy and I serve on the PTSA at Valley Jr. and we were in charge of two dinners for the faculty before the two days of parent-teacher conferences. We fed about 60 teachers each day. It is easier for us just to do it all ourselves and we have a good time making it look nice with table clothes and homemade food. One day we served b-b-q beef sandwiches, cabbage salad, fruit and chips with cake for dessert. Course most is made from scratch and you would think those teachers had never eaten food from scratch! They wanted me to post the cabbage salad recipe on their website! And they loved Nancy's frosting on the cake and were disappointed to hear there was no recipe! The second day we have school money (as opposed to PTA money) so we did pizza and a salad bar. Janey even made homemade cookies for dessert and of course they loved those (you should see Janey whip out a batch of cookies at home these days - it doesn 't happen often but she saved me last week!) I might add, too, that Max is doing very well in school and the teachers love him. I got lots of comments like "oh, he is such a nice boy." I had to agree! I'm so thankful you all made parent-teacher time a rewarding time for me!

Caroline is playing on Valley's varsity basketball team and I went to one of her games. When they play at home the Jazz band (of which Max is a part) is supposed to play. But unfortunately they didn't play at the game that grandma, Aunt Karen and I all went to last Monday. Caroline did make 14 points so we were glad we went. And as a side note, I think it's fun that Caroline and Max are best buddies. She spends a lot of time here. They play ball outside when the weather is good enough or at the church when they can convince me to go over with them.

I serve on our ward scout committee and I have to say how thankful I am for all the people from Merril to Ken to Ernie to Mac to whoever else helped you guys (Blaine and Nick) through scouting. I am just learning all of the behind-the-scenes stuff and I appreciate it more than ever. I am the health/safety/transportation specialist and get a little frustrated at times. But scouting is great. Keep saying it . . .scouting is great. . . scouting is great. . . .

I got asked to serve on a West Valley Education Committee by councilman Joel Coleman and our first meeting is today at City Hall. I'm not sure what that entails but I'll keep you posted.

I enjoyed being in the Jordan River Temple last Friday in preparation for our Stake Conference. Dad and I were there from 2-10 pm and loved it. If you want to feel good, go to the temple.

Rosey and I spent part of President's Day up in Park City. We dropped Max, Rich and Caroline to ski and then enjoyed shopping at the outlet mall. Thanks Rosey for a fun time.

Our weather has finally cleared enough for me to run outside rather than on the Yorgason treadmill. It's been a long winter (and I STILL marvel at the thought that Blaine ran 22 miles on a treadmill) It's great to run outside, even if the temps are still chilly like this morning's 30 degrees.

Hope you all know how much I love you. We pray for you daily. I just have to say how thankful I am to have Janey here for Max. It really is a blessing to have at least 4 of us at FHE and scripture study.

Love, Mom

Bad idea jeans...

"Ears to hear, let him hear"

Thoughts from my Saturday Evening Stake Conference talk

I was visiting the 1st ward a few years ago, and something delightful happened, which has always stuck with me. It was about 15 minutes before the meeting, and the chapel was relatively empty. I went around and shook everyone's hands that were seated. And then I took a seat up on the stand. As I watched people coming into the chapel, I saw Sister Chellson enter like gangbusters. She was an elderly sister and she had a smile on her face that went from ear to ear. She had a joy in her face that I'll always remember. She announced to everyone in the chapel that she had just had her hearing restored through a new device. She didn't believe that would ever be possible for her to ever hear again, and yet, here she stood - and she could hear everything everyone said. I remember her walking around shaking everyone's hand, and then when someone smiled at her and said something behind her back which I couldn't hear from the stand, she stopped turned around and pointed and said with great big smile on her face, "I heard that, I heard that!!" Her happiness was so infectious, that it made my whole sacrament meeting.

Sister Chellson new found happiness reminded me of the kind of joyous countenance I have often seen on the face of new converts or on the faces of people who are reentering the church membership after a period of inactivity or excommunication.

I like to think new converts find joy for the same reason that Sis Chellson did…they had received new ears, they could hear spiritual things, some for the first time. Sister Chellson had received the ability to hear with her natural ears again, converts receive new spiritual ears with which they can hear and understand God and his plan for them. This new ability to understand God's commands and to hear his voice can be every bit as wonderful as Sister Chellson's new found ears.

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My daughter Janey had an experience recently where she had to hearken and choose the right while the storms rage.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a large snow storm that blew in, and it was so violent, that roads were closed, people become stranded, and they had to leave their vehicles on the side of the road and seek shelter. Some were unable to leave their offices, schools, or employment, and so had to sleep at work. My daughter Janey was one of those. She had worked all day, and had no idea that a bigger than normal storm was raging. But about 3:00 she started getting calls from customers who had to cancel orders because they couldn't get to the store because the storm was too bad. When it came time for her to leave to come home which would have put her smack dab in the midst of the worst part of the storm in Alpine, she was tempted to just try to make it home, cuz from where she was, it didn't look bad. But she listened to all the people who had called and cancelled, and she chose to sleep at her bakery where she worked. She MADE GOOD CHOICES IN THE MIDST OF THE STORM because she listened to others who knew the danger.

This is what we must do to hearken. When the storms are raging, we must listen with the ears the Lord give us and then we must obey.

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What does that even mean? To take upon us the name of Christ?
Does it mean, that like missionaries we should wear a badge that has Christ's name upon it?
Does it mean that we should wear a CTR ring?
Or that we should hang a nametag on our backs or on our forehead which says "Christ" so that everyone around us knows who we are, who we belong to?

I don't think that that is what Christ had in mind when he asked us to take his name upon us.
I think he desires that instead of taking his name upon our external selves, that we will take his name upon our internal spiritual selves.
His name should be burned into the fleshy tables of the heart. He should be our first desire. He should be our greatest hope. He should be the source of our faith, and the wellspring of our love.

When we take his name upon us, we should become better people. People like Christ. We should have better interests, better desires, better perspectives. We should relate to the world differently than we did before.

We should be better people who leave the doors of the chapel, than those who came in.

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He doesn't leave us alone to guess at what is right, but he gives us ears to hear him. When we are baptized he gives us new truths, new perspectives, and new understandings which are illuminated by the power of the spirit. And these new truths and perspectives help us understand what is important and unimportant, who we are and who we are not, and what is the purpose of life and what is waste of our precious time. When we use those new truths in our daily lives, to understand the world around us, it is as though we are listening with the new Ears that God gave us. When we don't use those new truths to understand the world it is as though we had never received these ears and we'll get caught in the same traps as the rest of the world who have never received these new ears and eyes.

When Christ sought to remind members of the church to listen with their new understandings with their new teachings, and their new testimonies, He said on numerous occasions: "Those who have ears to hear, let him hear "

As members of the church, we have received those ears to hear. Are we using them? Or have we put them away except on Sundays for 3 hours.

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Hearkening requires tuning in.
My brother-in-law is a member of his High Council in Houston, and he told me a funny story. He sits next to an elderly brother who is pretty quiet most of the time. One day a couple of weeks ago, they were finishing up their high council meeting, and the president pointed to the brother and asked him if he would take care of the problem at hand. The brother kind of came alive, and put up a hand to stop for a second. He then pulled out of his pocket a little ear bud device and pushed it in, turned on the hearing aid, and tuned it real quick. He then brought his hand down and said, "President could you repeat that?"

Brethren and Sisters, just because we have received new ears, doesn't mean that they will help us. We have to have them in and tuned up. WE have to hearken to what we learn because we have them. If we don't, it will be like the old saying that a man who doesn't read is no better off than the man who can't read. A man who doesn't hear with his new ears, instead of his old ones, is no better off than a man who doesn't have new ears.

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Elder Richard Scott said "Have you noticed how Satan works to capture the mind and emotions with flashing images, blaring music, and the stimulation of every physical sense to excess? He diligently strives to fill life with action, entertainment, and stimulation so that one cannot ponder the consequences of his tempting invitations."

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I can think of sitting in my home watching General Conference, and hearing President Hinckley give the "Summit of the ages" talk, and I can recall just shaking with tears running down my cheeks because the spirit was so powerful.

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The world will always hear with worldly ears, and will mock or jeer at the perspectives that we hold and will try to get us to abandon our perspectives. But if we will recognize that we have been blessed to have these spiritual ears which help us understand the Glory of God and his work, then we will be on a more joyful path .

The story is often told of the 5 blind men who never having seen an elephant are invited to approach an elephant. One grabs the tail and announces to the others, that an elephant is like a rope. One grabs the trunk and says it is like a large snake. Another grabs an ear and says it's like a huge fan. Another grabs the leg and says it's a tree trunk. Each seeing a portion of the truth, but none seeing the whole elephant for what it is.

The same is true for each of us. To say what is truth one must see all of it. That person must understand it from all perspectives. But we are not perfect, and we can't see from all perspectives. Only Christ knows the truth of all things. And therefore Only his Perspective is True. Only his Knowledge is Perfect. And as much as the world wants to force it's loud and usually obnoxious viewpoint upon us, if we have spiritual ears to hear - we will be blessed to hear the truth from the Savior who sees all.

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Recently an article ran on the front page of the Wall Street Journal talking about Mitt Romney's withdrawal from the Presidential race. The article talked about all the cruel things that were said and done in the media related to Mormons during the time that Mitt was running. It was a well written article, but it made me angry, because it reminded me of how many mean spirited people there are, and how many times I had been offended by all of the things said about us as members of the church. Here's what I wrote in my family Blog to my family:
-quote-I was angry until I realized, I know the truth about who we are as a religion. We aren't psychos or weirdo's. We aren't poor and uneducated people whose wives are always pregnant and whose families are barefoot. We aren't sitting around talking about ways to disrupt or destroy other religions. We aren't polygamists. We aren't anti-non-member. We don't hold to doctrines that are so far out as to be considered fantasy by 'right-thinking' people. We don't disassociate ourselves from others. On the contrary. We try to find ways to serve and help bless others. We are educated, we work hard in our chosen occupations, we participate in community government and strive to make the world a better place where all can grow. We are happy. We are content with the blessings the Lord's given us, and strive to help our children work for blessings in their own lives. We don't drink, smoke, or have adulterous affairs. Our families are drawn together with real gospel teachings. We work for what we receive, and we help our own when it comes to welfare needs - in fact we help any amongst us, member or not, who have real needs. - end quote-

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This reality of the darkness that comes to those who don't have ears to hear or eyes to see, hit me when as Bishop I visited a member of the ward who was Blind. He invited me in, I sat, and we had a nice visit. When I got up to leave, he thanked me, and then asked me to turn off the lights as I left. I turned off the lights, and shut the door behind me, leaving my friend in a completely dark room. It had never occurred to me how challenging being in the dark would be all the time. And it made me feel sorry for those enemies of the church, who live in spiritual darkness and who have to live only listening with worldly ears and seeing with worldly eyes. It made me feel sorry for all the times I've left friends who live in spiritual darkness, and walked away.

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If we feel encumbered by the world, perhaps we need to listen with spiritual ears. And the key to listening with spiritual ears is humility, teachability, and prayer. D&C 136:32 Let him that is ignorant learn wisdom by humbling himself and calling upon the Lord his God, that his eyes may be opened that he may see, and his ears opened that he may hear;

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It was Beauty that killed the Beast

Thoughts from my General Session Stake Conference talk

In 2006 the movie "King Kong" came out and swept through the world's theaters. While this story has been told through the years in movies and books, this newest version of the story was impressive with it's computer animation and surround sound - you almost felt like you were there on top of the Empire State Building when he was jumping up and trying to swat down the airplanes. You also got the sense that nothing could stop this powerful beast. However, ultimately the beast falls to his death trying to protect the beautiful actress who had tried to help him. As the newsreporters are taking pictures and trying to come up with snappy one liners to headline their story, one said "So the airplane's what killed him, Huh?" And the other said, "No, it was beauty that killed the beast."

Brothers and Sisters, each of us has a beast within us. For some the beast is anger or jealousy or hate. For others it is seeking after pleasure or giving into addictive behaviors. For others it is being mean-spirited and critical of others, or becoming a shopping animal who is overly impassioned by fashions of the world and worldliness. For others perhaps the beast is procrastinating personal change, or being too lazy or too fearful to overcome our weaknesses.

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All of us have weaknesses which we must overcome. For as Paul observed, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). And we know that the natural man is an enemy to God.

But whatever the beast is for each us individually, beauty is bigger. Beauty can tame and then destroy the beast that seeks to destroy us. Of course, the beauty of which I speak is not the beauty of a lovely woman, rather, it's the beauty of the Glory of God, the glory of his creations and of his work and his plan. The beauty and Glory of God is what will humble that beast within, and ultimately will help overcome it.

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When I was a young man growing up in Houston, I took my driver's education in a large wealthy neighborhood with wide treelined streets. The houses had gated entries and were palatial and generally not visible from the road. No one's cars were parked on the road. A perfect place for rookie drivers to practice their driving. The only thing that was at risk, were the occassional maids or laborer who were arriving to go to work or who were going home from work, as they walked to and from the bus stop. I recall there were 2 drivers ed cars working the same stretch of street. I was behind a young woman who was terrified of driving. As we started down the street, I was behind her car, and in front of me, she was driving. But her driving was all over the place. She would start driving one direction and then overcorrect so that she was going another direction. It was hilarious to watch as this car would swerve one direction, and then swerve another direction and the skreech on the brakes, and then start all over again. What was funniest of all to me, was to watch up ahead all of these maids were sitting at the bus stop watching this car - which was all over the road - swerving back and forward - coming towards them. As the car came to the corner where the bus stop was, she was told to make a turn right in front of the bus stop. As she started her turn, she didn't turn hard enough and the car started heading right to the bus stop. She put on her brakes and came to a stop. But by then all the maids had jumped out of the way, and run for their lives.

What was the reason this young woman had such a hard time driving? Because she was looking at the road right in front of her and when she noticed she was going wrong, she'd overcorrect. She needed to look at the horizon to set the course, and then she could steer in that direction. The same thing is true when plowing a field, or when cutting a lawn. You can't focus just on the problems in front of you. You must look out ahead to see what is out there, and then you adjust gradually to avoid the problems coming closer. That is what the Glory of God gives us. It is our focus. It is our hope and our joy. It's the horizon which we look for. It is what we seek with a single eye. And when we seek to be one with the Glory - it will light up all the works we do day to day so that we aren't jerking ourselves around daily whims of life.

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Sometimes these tastes of glory just drop out of the sky like a tender mercy and they make our whole day, week, or lifetime. I had one of those glory of god moments hit me the other day when my phone rang. The call was from one of my best friends from my teenager days growing up in Texas. I haven't even seen him since the summer before I went on my mission. His name is David Hadley. He was a Catholic friend, and every time we got together he tried to harrass me, in a friendly sort of way, about the church. He had a good relationship with his local priest and so he would go to his catholic church and the priest would tell him all these things about our church and would feed him specific questions to hit me with. He would hit me, and then I would go talk to my Dad who would show me answers from the scriptures. I would then pass them on to David. Who would then go to his Priest who would then feed him more questions etc. This cycle went on for years. What David and I both didn't realize was that with each exchange we were both learning about the gospel and our testimonies were getting stronger and stronger. Finally I went on my mission, and the week I went into the MTC, he got baptized. I was so mad…not mad that he got baptized,I ws delighted about that, but mad that he had waited until I went to the MTC and couldn't even attend. My brother baptized him, and my grandpa confirmed him. So through the years, I often wondered if he had stayed active or not. I heard good things about him, but I just was lousy at reaching out to old friends.

So as I mentioned, he called me the other day, and told me he had just been made a Stake President in a suburb outside of Fort Worth. I paused. Is this the same young man who used to mock me because we didn't drink coffee? Is this the same guy who used to make fun of us for not shopping on Sunday or for not telling dirty jokes? Not only had my friend stayed faithful to the gospel, but I knew that he had been prepared by the Lord for this great trust of the Lord. And that I had been an instrument in the Lord's hands to help him prepare for this work. Suddenly I felt as though a window of heaven had opened for me and someone had taken a bucket of glory and thrown it out right on top of me. I was covered and totally awash in joy and gratitude, and peace. I could see the hand of God working in my life, and through Dave's life, which blessed us both. The thing that surprised me was how suddenly this feeling had overtaken me. It was as though my heart had sprung open and I felt the glory of god pouring into my heart. As though the veil was so thin I could see through it. It was beautiful to me. It took every desire I may have ever had to seek after sin, or the pleasures of the world and washed them away. All I wanted to do was to follow the Lord. To praise his name.

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First - Moses having seen the Greatness and the Glory of God, recognized that man is nothing. That of all that the world had to offer, and all that man could and would create, that it was nothing in comparison to the Glory of God. Moses said after his first encounter with the Glory of God - "Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed. "

If we want the glory of god to change us, to help us overcome the beast within, we must recognize that the glory and the works of man are nothing. The fastest races, the tallest buildings, the most powerful bombs, the richest kings, The most beautiful art….when combined together is still but a shadow of the glorious work of God has and will do for the benefit of the children of men.

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Second, Moses learned with a surety who he himself was, and he learned why the Lord with all this beauty and this glory, would be mindful of him, a man who had no glory of his own.

The Lord said to Moses - "Behold, thou art my son…" He also said: "And I have a work for thee to do Moses, My Son, and Thou art after the similitude of mine Only Begotten… "
What son or daughter, having seen the Glory of his Father, wouldn't respond to a call to work under this condition?

Imagine you were speaking with the king of some great country, and the king said to you "And behold thou art my daughter or my son, and I have a work for thee to do, my daughter, for thou art like most beloved son."

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Our testimony to the world is that the God of all creation, is our father. That we are truly his children. And while we may not have glory of our own - that God has a work for us to do…as his children. And he let's us experience his Glory which moves his work forward.

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I found a wonderful quote from a Sister D. Lynn Ford who had been struggling with her feelings of glory or the lack thereof. And someone encouraged her to stop looking at her own glory, and to look at the Glory of God…and that this would help her develop her faith.

Said Sister Ford: "A friend told me that if I recognized how “big” God is and how “little” I am by comparison, I would have faith to place my life in his hands. I have found that to be true. Though I cannot create a flower or the hills around me, I can plant a seed, climb the hills, and bear a child—all because God, in wisdom and greatness, has made it possible for me to do so. With my growing appreciation of God’s greatness, goodness, and power, I am learning not only to put my life into his hands but also to recognize his hand in all things (see D&C 59:21). I am learning to say “Thy will be done” and really mean it, trusting in his greater knowledge of my personal needs. It may be difficult for me to be truly grateful in times of trial, but it is easier for me to look for—and find—the good side. I thank God for helping make my burdens light."

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Third - We will occassionally be left to ourselves. We must continue to seek the Glory of God.

One might rightly ask, why is it that I can feel such a wonderful, joyful, outpouring of the Glory of God during a meeting, a conference, or a phone call, and yet a day later, feel dark and alone again.

This is one of the things Moses also dealt with. The scripture says "And the presence of God withdrew from Moses, that his glory was not upon Moses; and Moses was left unto himself. And as he was left unto himself, he fell unto the earth. And it came to pass that it was for the space of many hours before Moses did again receive his natural strength like unto man;

I wonder if Moses asked the same question…"Why, why am I left unto myself." But instead of becoming discouraged, the scriptures teach us that he encouraged himself, and he remembered what had just happened to him. The scriptures said, "and he said unto himself: now mine own eyes have beheld God; ...(and) his glory was upon me; and I beheld his face, for I was transfigured before him.

He reflected on the Glory of God that had been upon him, and he rememberd the experience he had had.

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Brothers and sisters, this is what we must do if we want to cast Satan out of our lives. WE must remember these moments when we are able to experience the Glory of God, so that during those times when we are left unto ourselves, and Satan comes knocking, then we can say what Moses said, " I will not cease to call upon God, I have other things to inquire of him: for his glory has been upon me, wherefore I can judge between him and thee. Depart hence, Satan"

If we will seek FIRST the glory of God and his righteousness then all other joys will follow after. But if we seek First the glory of the World and it's promises of wealth beauty and fame, then we will be disappointed with what we become, AND we will miss out on the meaningful experiences that come with serving God by serving others.

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I Testify, that the fight we have is worth it. That seeking first the kingdom and glory of God, will bring us greater joy and greater perspective. May we all seek for that glory, for as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

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Tips on talks...

Preparing talks for me is hard because it is so freeform. There is SOOOO Much that could be said. So each conference I have to go through the same process. I start from scratch and painfully build and then tear it apart. I then rebuild and tear apart again and again and again. I thought that maybe if I wrote down some of the things I learn each time it might help me next time I have to build a talk. I learn a little bit about good talks by seeing how excellent speakers do it (Sister Beck, Sue Tanner, Pres Eyring and others are sooo good), and I also learn a little bit about good talks by learning from my mistakes (which are many!). Here are some of the things that struck me this conference...

- Time your talks - always keep to the amount of time alloted to you. Don't just ramble! People on the program downstream from you are watching the clock, and from the minute you go over, their blood pressure goes up. If you are ever the last speaker - do your best to end 5 minutes before the meeting is supposed to end giving time for song and prayer. Don't go 5 minutes after. I can't think of anything you can say which is more important than 250 peoples' time.

- If you are the last speaker (or the accordian speaker who is the person designated to increase or decrease the length of your talk so that the presiding officer has enough time) make your talk a series of important points you want to make about your topic...then you can cut out points as you need to to keep to your time.

- Write your last point and conclusion so that if you run out of time, you can jump to the end and wrap it up w/o having to pull it together at the end.

- Find a main topic, and establish that topic in the opening of your talk, and then open it up to 4-6 subtopics that support the main topic. Make sure the main topics and subtopics are doctrinal and are substantiated by scripture and general authorities talks.

- But once you're established the scriptural nature of your topic and each subtopic, make it come alive with a personal story or a delightful quote or a metaphor so that people can relate to it. People tend to get drowsy when the talk is primarily reading scriptures or quoting GAs. You need to do both, but recognize that when you tell a story which is new, people come alive and listen to find out what will happen.

- Don't be afraid to teach basic truths. Don't try to teach exotic doctrine, or something of your own discovery. We aren't speaking in church to teach something 'new'...we are trying to teach something 'true' something which the spirit can witness to each person is true. That's why we come to church afterall - not to learn new things that we've never heard before, but to feel a witness of the spirit that the gospel is true, and to be motivated to keep living it for another week.

- Don't worry if no one remembers what you said. Really what you're trying to do is to help people feel the spirit. To get em thinking, and get em feeling. If they remember that your talk was special and helped them feel the spirit - then you can feel great about your remarks.

- Always consider your audience.

Well that's it for now. Please feel free to add any thoughts to the list.

Another wonderful Stake Conference...

Hi Gang,

Just a quick report to let you all know that Stake Conference is over for another 6 months. And wow! what a great one. Since it's such a big deal, I start getting nervous about December and we start planning what we want to have happen. So by time it's here, I'm really wound up - not nervous per se, but just carrying a weight around that doesn't leave until the last 'Amen' is uttered, and we come home.

We didn't have a visiting authority, so I was presiding for the conference. We had the regular meetings (Priesthood Leadership, Adult, General Session) and everyone was so prepared and had great messages.

A huge snowstorm rolled in during Priesthood Leadership and the Adult session (Saturday) but the crowds still came. We had President Alba of the Salt Lake City Mission come with his wife, and they spoke at the Adult session. Sunday, both Grandmas were able to come, and they both came over for dinner afterwards. And then we went with Janey to the CES fireside to hear one of our favorite speakers - Sister Beck and then ended the weekend playing games with the 4 of us at home. It was so nice to have a great Stake Conference behind me, instead of in front of me.

I've got to say that my favorite part of Stake Conference is always preparing my talks. It is really hard for me because I have soooo many things I'd like to share, but I only have so many minutes (about 50 mins total) and I want to say just what is needed. So as I stuggle through all the metaphors, stories, scriptures, talks, quotes, etc. I become super sensitized to everything around me to see if there is something around me which needs to be included in the talks. About a month before conference I start wondering if everything I see or hear should be included in the talk somehow. The closer I get to the meeting, the more that I examine everything I read or hear or see to see if it belongs in a talk. You know how whenever something happens, and you say "Oh there's a sacrament meeting talk in there somewhere"? Well, that's how my whole life becomes for about a month before conference. And while it's hard to sort out everything and find just what I want to say, it's really a sensitive time of year, and I learn a lot about how the Lord works with me.

Anyway - I hope you all will always go to your Stake Conference Meetings. it's sad how many people think of Stake Conference as a time to skip church. Kind of a vacation from the callings. In our stake average sacrament attendance is 41%. But Average Stake Conference attendance is only 23%. That's close to half of the active members who drop out of sight!

We love you all, and pray for you in every prayer we give at our house.

Loves.

Dad

Pictures

For your viewing pleasure
http://picasaweb.google.com/kristi.bassett/March2008

Let's get this party started!

Hey everybody!! I feel bad to be such a late arrival but I am finally making my first post--hopefully this will work. Before I say anything else I do want you all to know that I have read the whole blog and I have commented on many of your posts so I have been participating to an exent, but I am finally getting the time to actually write on my own. I also want to say that I hope I'm not too late. It seemed like there was a surge of posts the first week or two, but then it has been pretty dry for this last week so I hope everyone else is still as excited as I am. Of course I would be a hypocrite to even suggest that anyone needs to post any more than they already do, but I do hope everyone is still excited because I think this will be great!

Anyway, that said, things are going well with us and with me in particular. On February 22, we finally released the project I have been managing and it has been really rewarding to be done and to see the product go up on the web and start getting ordered. I'm still busy with finishing off some of the final details of this project and there is a lot to be done as I transition back to my other project, but in comparison to how things have been the last several weeks, it has felt pretty relaxing lately at work with only 40-45 hour weeks.

My hours dying down have made it possible for us to finally start hanging out more as a family. A few of the things we've been able to do include--

• Our 5-day, 5-year anniversary celebration--this included planting a garden the first day (we planted tomatoes, pumpkins, and a bunch of herbs), girl scout cookies for Kristi the second day, a very fancy dinner the third day (we went to The Melting Pot, a French Fondue restaurant, and after our $20-off coupon it still ran us about $70 for the meal! The fun thing about fondue is it is all about the flavor combinations and I felt like the little rat on Ratatouille, with so many fun combos exploding in my mouth. Also it is perfect for a fancy date because with the many courses it takes about 3 hours to get through the meal which means there is a lot of time to visit and absorb the romantic atmosphere. Fun night!), a night to herself for Kris the fourth day (she went to the store and bought some new outfits and I got the kids fed and put to bed, etc. while she just took it easy all evening), and finally our traditional "Do you remember..." letter for the fifth day (I have written this letter for Kris on each of our anniversaries--basically I write a short introduction and then have a long bulleted list of everything I can think of that happened in the last year, from life events, to vacations, to friends and family and places, to inside jokes. I spend several weeks working up a list of anything I can think of that has been a part of our life.)
• Going on runs again--finally I have been able to make it out on my run a few times this week which has been super fun for Gwen and I on the run and Kris basically at home alone (that "basically" is of course defined in terms of what Bentley's current composure is :)
• Going to the park to fly kites. We all went to Old Settler's park on Saturday (Nick, you'll remember, this is where our ward Turkey Bowl was at) and we flew kites and played on the playground. The weather was in the 80s, the park was full of other fun families, the wind was constant (although, unfortunately, the kites were cheap...) and it was pretty much a perfect day at the park.
• Cub scout blue and gold banquet. I talked Kristi into coming for the free dinner and we actually had a pretty fun time there. The event was something we had been planning for awhile and I was really happy with how well it came off. Particularly impressive was that I guess the ward has a tradition of having a cake auction to raise money for friends of scouting and it was amazing how generous (or rich) some people are in the ward. The parents of each of the scouts were asked to make a cake to match the banquet's army theme (so there were tanks, flags, campfires, bloodied dead soldiers (yeah, I wondered if all the parents actually helped their kids with all the details...), and the like). There were about 10 cakes and the first one sold for $35. This kind of blew my mind that people would bid that high for a cake but the prices just went up from there. The bloody soldier (or whatever it was supposed to be :) sold for about $80, and by the time we got to the last cake, it went for $150!
• Movies at night--we watched a really heart-string-tugging movie about adoption and being different called the Martian Child (I was very skeptical when I heard the name too but it has lots of famous actors, got pretty good reviews, and is a drama, not a comedy or a science fiction, so don't worry, it's not as weird as it sounds!), a Meet the Parents clone with a twist that the boyfriend is white and will be marrying into a black family, called "Guess Who" (Kris didn't even watch this with me but I was pleasantly surprised at how funny it was and, though not perfect, not really any more offensive than Meet the Parents was), episodes of Jericho which we've been getting into even though Kris says she hates the show because the whole End-Of-The-World scenario is so scary (really we are both pretty addicted), and finally, American Idol which Kris isn't into that much this season but I have really enjoyed so far.

So anyway, it is nice to have some fun things to write about finally and to have life back to normal a little more. There are many more good and bad things I could say but in the spirit of making this look like a blog post (albeit a quite lengthy blog post) rather than one of my epic letters I'll call it good at this point. I'm excited to read more about what is going on in your lives too so let's all keep the posts coming!