Sunflowers and an Angel

 What is it about a sunflower?  It's bright yellow color?  It's sturdy stalk?  Because it turns it's face toward the sun? I love sunflowers and there are a lot of them around here.  As we were driving through the New York countryside this past week, we saw sunflowers!  Of course, I had to pull out my camera!  You would be disappointed without my photos, am I right?  So to start off, here are some sunflowers.

We had started out the day to go find another waterfall.  This one looked so beautiful in the pictures we saw.  It is called Three Falls Woods so you can imagine how excited I was to have three new waterfalls to photograph. We hiked down a little trail but couldn't hear any water sounds at all.  There were Cicadas in the trees making lots of noise but no rushing water. Well, you guessed it.  It was all dried up.  I guess that little river/stream only flows in the spring and maybe the fall?  So I will have to go back to that one.  We decided to drive into a little town called Cazenovia.  We had read that it was a quintessential Central New York town that takes you back in time.  So we drove there.  It was a really cute town with some beautiful churches and a quaint Main Street.  We just walked around for a few minutes but didn't go into any shops. 

Just outside of town we found a couple of places that were interesting.  One is a Texas Longhorn ranch where you can go to buy meat I guess.  Instead of buying a couple of steaks we just grabbed some photos.

And there was another farm where there are lots of activities for kids and pick your own stuff, right now it's blueberries, and other kinds of activities.  We didn't stay.

As we were driving the roads we did stumble on a beautiful farm but I actually got the picture from another farm, shooting through their garden.  I can't tell you how I love these dairy farms and they are everywhere. You can see why I go a little nuts!  Not all are as beautiful as this-some are more rustic and some are down right junky.  But they serve a purpose for all those who own them.

So that was our P Day!  The rest of our week was a little more mellow and a couple of quiet days.  

We actually had a great District Council with our Elders and Sisters, learning about the importance of obedience.  Our Mission President and his wife (our Mission Leaders) are so obedient and they lead by example.  Our missionaries are obedient!  They are just so good.  President Gentry had asked them to de junk their shared (pirated) music and their apartments of anything they didn't need.  These missionaries didn't even wait until their P Day, they obeyed and did it immediately.  We are so impressed.  At our District Council, President was there doing interviews which he does before every transfer.  In between our district and another district he had asked us and the other Senior MLS couple if we would like to go to lunch with him.  It was a wonderful hour spent in great conversation. He always makes us feel so loved and has such faith and trust in us.  We love our Mission Leaders.

After lunch, while we were in New Hartford, we ran to a couple of stores (New Hartford has almost everything where Rome has nearly nothing for shopping). I wanted to find a new pink shirt/blouse to wear on Sunday.  Most of you know that we wear pink on Natalie's death day in honor of her.  I have a shirt but it isn't what I would wear to church.  This is where my angel story comes in.  

The story begins when we were  shopping for sweaters for Tyler’s mission back in 2011 and the help that Natalie gave.  I had been learning about accessing our angels and how close they really are.  We had looked and looked through sweater after sweater after sweater for his size and the right colors, with no logo or design on them. We couldn’t find anything and we were about at the end of trying.  I said, out loud, “Okay Natty, I need your help!  I need two sweaters in dark colors, size medium, no logo.”  I literally turned around, put out my hand and picked up two sweaters, size medium, one navy, one charcoal, no logo.  I remember Tyler’s face-his eyes wide and he just shook his head like-"that did not just happen".  But it did happen and it was pretty impactful. So on Thursday, we went to TJ Maxx and there was nothing.  We went to Burlington and nothing. I didn't want to go to the mall and we were needing to go home and get everything ready for our class. We left and went home and figured I would just wear a shirt that I had that goes with slacks better than a skirt.  I asked Mike if we could just run to Marshalls-we have never been there before.  Well I found a shirt that I thought looked cute in my size section of clothes.  I was excited until Mike pointed out that it was a small.  Are you kidding me?  Why was it in the large section?  I kept looking and found a couple of other shirts to try on but I hated the way they looked.  Mike found a medium in the pink shirt but I wanted a large.  I was about ready to give up and he asked me if I had asked Natalie for help.  So, right out loud I said, “Nat, I really kind of like this shirt but I need it in a large.” (I had looked through the racks, three of them, three times and there was not that shirt in large anywhere- and you know what the definition of insanity is!)   I started to walk toward the middle of the store and I noticed another rack, further back that we hadn’t seen.  I walked over to the size large section and sitting right there was the shirt!!!! One pink shirt on the entire rack.   I could hardly walk to the front of the store fast enough to show Mike!  I took it back to the dressing room to try on, and yup!  I bought it.  Who says that angels don’t exist? Coincidence?  I don't believe in coincidences, but I do believe in miracles and angels!! 

We spent some extra time preparing for our Book of Mormon class.  We did a deep dive into Agency using 2 Nephi 2.  If you want a really good video, that explains agency on a teenage level, to show your kids, grandkids or just explain it so beautifully to yourself, follow these steps: 1. go to the Gospel Library app,  2. go to 'Books and Lessons',  3.  'Seminary', 'Book of Mormon', 4. 2 Nephi 2 part 2 and go all the way to the bottom, (or you can go to YouTube - the video is called "Act for Themselves") and click on the video.  It is about 20 minutes long and it is SO good. We learned all about the elements needed for agency  and why our Heavenly Father helps us learn and grow through our choices.

Friday and Saturday were quiet.  We attempted some visits but no one was home-or a couple of people pretended they weren't home.  But look at the field we found!  Completely filled with Black Eyed Susans! And look at that sky!

We prepared lessons for Sunday, made cupcakes to share for our "Natty Day" - that's what we call our celebration for August 14th!, shed a few tears, and got ready for the Sabbath.

Sunday was a tender day for us.  We miss Natalie like crazy AND we are so thankful for our testimonies of Jesus Christ and His atoning grace that saves us every day. We are so thankful for our covenants and for the sealing power of the Priesthood of God that binds us to our family through the eternities.  Those beautiful details give us the hope and power to push through our hard days and have joy and rejoicing in spite of the hard.  Have you loved studying Psalms?  They are such beautiful verses that give hope to our souls. 

We took cupcakes to church and shared them with those few members who came.  I think it brightened their day-I know it brightened ours.

We hope you have a wonderful week, filled with joy and happiness. Remember that you are loved.  Our Savior is good.  He reaches out to us in our most difficult times and lifts us up if we seek him.  We know that He lives, that He died for us, that we was resurrected to bring to pass the great Plan of Happiness! We are thankful to be his representatives for a time.  We hope you will be like those beautiful sunflowers and always face the Son.  He makes all the difference!  We love you!