This.

A friend called me this week to talk about the Come Follow Me reading assignment. We talked about deliverance, one of the big themes in the book of Mosiah. I also came across this short clip about being rescued. It’s too good to keep to myself.

That time when everything happened at once

In a period of two weeks, Mark received a mission call, turned 18, graduated from seminary, received his Patriarchal Blessing, and had his braces removed. High school graduation day has arrived.

Sometime I hope to detangle all of the new memories that have arrived in a heap of everythings and goodbyes, paperwork, and spiritual highs.

I have made the decision to be happy. I am sentimental, but I am not dwelling on feelings of loss. This time in Mark’s life is a triumph for him and for me as his mother. It has been a blessing to raise him!

A few more “lasts”

Last Senior Awards night
Last school field trip

Lots of culminating events of high school this week. They are all sweet and we are very proud of Mark. We attended an awards night where Mark was given an engraved watch for achieving a cumulative 4.0 GPA in high school. We picked up his final woods project from the shop 😍, and Mark and I went on a last school “field trip” to the Lotus Temple in Spanish Fork.

Mark’s furniture design and construction project sits unassembled in our mudroom, but I will post pictures when we find time to set up this new furniture. It is gorgeous.

minimum effective dose

One strategy I use for achieving goals is the idea of a “minimum effective dose.” Let’s say I want to improve my consistency in reading, so I set a small, attainable daily goal that I will read one page. Some days I may only read one page, but I have achieved the goal simply by opening the book for a few minutes. Most days I am likely to read more than one page because I am already reading a little bit and I’m not intimidated and paralyzed by a huge goal. I learned this concept from Benjamin McEvoy for improving reading but I use this strategy in many other areas of my life. Here are a few examples:

Housework: ten minutes to clean the kitchen or I make one improvement.

Scripture study: each day, read until I feel the Spirit and find something for me.

Violin practice: play one song.

Writing: write something each day. It can be a journal entry, a note, a blog post, a few words in my book…anything.

I am amazed at how well this works for me.

Quorum

Here is a super short segment of Mark reading his mission call to his Priests Quorum and a friend. I actually like that mission call letters are long and don’t begin with the assignment, but focus the attention on the gospel of Jesus Christ and the purpose and blessings of missionary work. I have two full length videos of Mark reading his call that I will keep for our family history.

Of all of the art and objects in our house, what were these young men drawn to? The three missionary tags from Richard, Daniel, and Tim displayed on a magnet board in our kitchen.

Mark the Missionary

Mark opened his mission call by himself in the grove at the Weber cabin, then he came inside to read his call to Richard and me. His friends don’t know yet, and we will host a little gathering for Mark to announce it soon.

He is assigned to the Denmark Copenhagen Mission and will begin his service on October 7. 😃 🇩🇰