Temple Work for Tyce

 Miracles:

My mom has not been feeling good for months. She didn't feel good enough to go to Utah this week to watch Hailey's play. But we prayed for a miracle that she would feel good enough to go to the temple, and she did. In fact a couple hours before the temple as she started to feel quite a bit better, she wondered if all of the pain has been in her head all along. It hasn't, but she felt good that day.

I felt protected as I drove to Idaho Falls by myself, as I had two near misses with semi-trucks...one who swayed into my lane but I saw it and pulled back, and another as I came around a corner and there was a semi on the shoulder and a car in the other lane, but I made it around okay.

Tristan's brother, Travis, had flown to Alabama so he could fly home with their daughter that was there going to college. Their flight was delayed due to thunderstorms, and they weren't sure he would make it to the temple session. But he got back to Idaho Falls with 20 minutes to spare and made it to the temple session.

When we were at the temple, we had changed into our white clothes and were ready. We went to receive our new names for the people we were doing the temple work for. I was the last to go of my mom and sisters and Lizzie. As I stepped into the booth, I thought-  I know what name it is going to be because I have had a couple of special experiences with a certain name. Then they said a different name (which I have made a covenant not to disclose), but it was even more significant, especially to me and especially that day. I stepped through the curtain and all of my family looked at me and tears welled up in my eyes. I definitely felt that it was a message of love from heaven.  I sat in the chapel with lots more tears.

The temple session was meaningful as we thought about the significance of the endowment covenants that we were doing for Tyce that day. Family, friends and the John's bishop were in the session with us. Everyone in the prayer circle was there for Tyce, plus one random couple.

As it was my turn at the veil, the tears flowed even more steady, but I was able to speak the words. The temple worker that helped me was the same lady who had been the leader of our session, and so she had watched my emotions all day - a small blessing.

We came outside to take a picture of everyone at the temple. The random guy who took our picture said, wow the sun is right there in the picture. It is really cool. That was Tyce. We have had several experiences where the sun has been right there in the last 3 months. Then we had Lizzie take a picture of Julie, my parents and the sisters that came to the temple, and the sun was a bright spot right at the top of our picture.

Other sun moments: 

   -At the cemetery on the day of Tyce's funeral, it was cloudy and breezy and it had snowed that morning. Then right as we were finishing, the sun peaked through.

-The next week on our sisters/mom trip to Oregon, it had rained and rained and rained. Then in the evening as we went for  a walk on the beach, the sun peaked through the clouds, just for a couple minutes

-The day of the dedication of the new Tyce John baseball field, it has been cold and rainy. An hour before the dedication, a hail storm had blown through Idaho Falls. But by the time it started, it was warm and sunny. The sun shined down on a family picture of the family on the baseball diamond.

Back to the temple day...

On Saturday morning, Julie had wanted to have a spiritual thought about temple work and take some flowers to the cemetery. So I had the privilege of joining their family. Julie shared some thoughts about temple work and the endowment covenant. She also told about the picture of Jesus that a lady had given her that week and the testimony she had written along with it, as she had a son die recently also.

Tristan shared how he had fasted earlier in the week because he was anxious about the temple, and what if he expected too much and didn't feel Tyce or have the spiritual experience he expected. He shared that he had been given peace and felt that the most important thing was to have faith. I shared a couple experiences that Jill has had feeling Leighton near and the messages he gave her, but that that Austin hadn't ever felt his presence, so we all have different experiences. 

After the temple, Tristan said that the day was perfect. It was exactly what it should be. He said he told every temple worker that he saw that he was doing the work for his son, Tyce. When you go through the temple for the first time, you get a name tag and get special treatment. So he wanted everyone to know that this was Tyce's first time and it made it more meaningful. Tristan said he was really emotional doing the initiatory work for Tyce, especially because you say the name of the person you are doing the temple work for so many times. Julie said the Spirit was strong in the prayer circle. Then Tristan felt his mind was clear during the session, with more emotion at the veil as you say the name again.

There were lots of tears and hugs in the Celestial Room. You almost didn't want to leave that feeling.

After the temple we had a delicious meal at the John's house. I am thankful I could go.

One last miracle, I was in Target looking for a gift for Julie for her birthday. I saw a shelf of soap and thought that was a good idea. Then I looked at the different scents: "Fresh cut grass." I honestly said to myself, no way. One of the messages Tyce had wanted Austin to give to his family at the family prayer of his funeral was, when you smell fresh cut grass, know that I am near.

CHS JV Zone Champions!

In the zone playoffs, Carly's team beat Medicine Hat to make it to the final to play against Raymond. The team played so hard and did so good. It was such an exciting game. They won 87-71.

So many people came to us after the game to comment on how well Carly played, especially on defense.

Go Cougars!!

 

Carly's JV Basketball Season

 To be honest, Carly was hoping to make the Varsity Basketball Team at Cardston High School. But then they put her on the Junior Varsity team instead. She shed a couple tears and then decided to make the most of it. It turned out to be a really great season.

First, she had amazing coaches. Logan Van Dusen and Jeremy Townsend were the perfect mix of intensity and high expectations in such a positive way. They put so much effort into the team and built up each player. Practices were productive and fun. They had a team Christmas party and a team bonding activity in Lethbridge to watch a college basketball game and go axe throwing. When the season was over, they met with each girl to talk about their strengths and things to improve on.

Logan and Jeremy each came to me and Austin a few times at the beginning of the season to say that they knew she probably wanted to make varsity and she was good enough to, but she would get so much more playing time on JV and they needed a few older girls to be on the team to be team leaders.  Two other girls from grade 11 also stayed on JV - Lilah Kormos and Miya Hansen. 

Sidenote deep thought: Logan said they put Carly and Lilah and Miya on JV so that they would have the best opportunity to improve and to help their team. Then Logan said this would be the best preparation so next year's varsity team could be provincial champions. In life, there are opportunities we have, some hard and some really good, to help us become provincial champions in life. We are also placed with certain people at certain times to help them to become provincial champions... all of us as a team of provincial champions and working on our goal of becoming more like Jesus and working towards eternal life.

The team played in 4 tournaments (Western Canada, CHS, Holy Trinity in Okotoks, and Immanuel Christian in Lethbridge) and won 3 of them. The last tournament was a varsity tournament, and they won 2 games and lost one 58-56 after being tied with 8 seconds to go. They won all of their league games except they lost to Raymond both times. Then they won both games of the zone tournament and were zone champs!  Their season record was 21-3. 

It really was a really great season...great coaches, great teammates, great athletes

Oregon or Bust

Six months ago, Diana and Sharon had the idea for all of us to go to the Oregon coast together. So we all booked flights and the vacation rental house. We would never have guessed that we would have all been together at Tyce's funeral one week before. But it felt divinely planned to all be together to be with Julie. She wasn't sure she wanted to come, and she felt like it was hard to do something normal and fun, but we were so glad we could be together to talk and laugh and cry.

 My mom and sisters all flew to Portland where our taxi driver, Sharon picked us up. The flying adventures weren't without complication, as my mom and Julie's Allegiant flight got delayed 3 times. We were so worried the flight would just get cancelled, since Allegiant does that kind of thing.  Even with their incoming plane finally arrived, they announced now they were waiting for a technician to look at the problem they delayed the plane in Provo and Portland. Then 5 minutes later they started boarding....so it just made you worried a bit if the problem was really fixed or not. But luckily they made it safely.

We ate at a cute hamburger place for dinner and then went to Trader Joe's grocery store to stock up on snacks and breakfast foods. Then we drove to the Oregon coast to the cutest little vacation rental home that Diana had found for us that was right on the ocean. Rachelle gave us each a matching heart necklace.

The next morning we went for a walk on the beach. Then we went to the Tillamook Cheese factory and ate cheese and ice cream. Then we drove to a cute little light house. The ocean is so pretty but it was so rainy and windy...it added to the adventure. We shopped at some cute shops. Then we ate lunch/dinner at a food truck by the ocean and went in a little shop where the worker told us that they were expecting an unusual amount of rain over the weekend- calling it a atmospheric river and expecting 5 inches of rain. I definitely think it did rain that much.

When we got back to our house, we ran out into the ocean in the rain and wind and then ran back and sat in the hot tub.

That night Jeanette was trying to figure out how to get back to Portland because she had to leave a day earlier than us. She had asked a rich man she knew at the airport how to get back, and he said to take a helcopter...it really isn't that expensive. We laughed about that a lot. She tried to order an uber drive, and they took her money and accepted the reservation, but no one actually wanted to drive 2 hours to the coast to pick her up. So at 11 pm, I told Jeanette I would drive her to Portland. So off we went through the pouring rain. My mom and sisters gathered and Julie said a prayer for us to travel safely an blessed that Tyce would be with us to protect us. As we were driving, Jeanette offered to pay for me to stay in a hotel and then drive back in the light, so I accepted the offer. We stopped at the first hotel after the forest, and she had an uber driver take her to the airport. At 4 am I woke up and realized she hadn't text me to say she made it to the airport, so I tried texting...no answer. Calling...no answer. Facebook messenger... no answer. Finally I tried FaceTiming her and she did answer and she had been asleep on the airport floor. Luckily I woke her up because they were starting to board her 5 am flight.  The story had a happy ending because she got to see Lindsey for a half hour before she left to Florida on her mission after she had spent her first transfer in Orem, Utah. I made it safely back to the coast. All of the ruffled feathers of the sisters were calmed and we had a fun Sunday.

On Sunday morning we went to church in the cutest little branch in Rockaway, Oregon, the little town where we stayed. Then we had a little nap, ate at a Mexican restaurant and then went to Cannon Beach. They have these famous big rocks in the ocean that we wanted to see. We parked and headed to the beach in a downpour and then as we got to close to the beach, there was gale force winds blowing sand and rain. So we walked through a few shops and just drove to see the cool rocks. 

Then we went back to the cheese factory to get more cheese and ice cream, and we picked up a pizza for our dinner. We had a mini birthday party for Diana with pizza, ice cream and gifts we had bought for her in the little shops.

We had such a fun weekend.

A few more quotes from the trip:

Rachelle - "Let them."  a saying from a book she just read that applied to a lot of situations

Sharon, "Thanks to the Atlantic for letting us sit and your parking lot and think about take a private jet.  We decided we didn't want to." Then it was time to pick up mom and Sharon

"Look for the topper." Any time we needed to find Sharon's car.

Julie - "Thanks for the 3 fry bonus." We went through the drive-through of Wendy's after we picked up Mom and Julie and their bag had 3 fries in the bottom of the bag.

Julie - "No one this side of 5 should eat dino-nuggets."

Julie - "It's not a blood line thing" story about the nephew wanting to take over the family business

Jeanette - "Tomorrow night...skinny dipping or bust."

Jeanette - "I have 99 problems, but car sickness is not one of them."

Julie telling about Brandon guessing that one of Tyce's friend's has spaz syndrome - why he is on a service mission.

Jeanette - "I give myself an F for packing for this trip."

Sharon driving in the downpour. "I'm choosing to find it funny right now. I'll let you know if that changes."

Sharon - "All I have in this life is diet coke."

Rachelle - "If it makes you feel any better, I'd give my left lung to have my kids get Cs in school."