Assessor Meetings in Salt
Lake
13 – Court with Jeffrey Purcell (guy who hit Zac and CJ)
20 – county Xmas
21 – Weber Duals, Rich Christmas party, Snowmobile Friends Christmas party
22 - Talk in Church
22 - Talk in Church
December 16, 2002 - Letter to Kyle Kimbal on his mission
Dear Kyle,
It was great to get your Christmas letter. Sounds like things are going well. We are proud of you, and the work you are
doing. Getting the message of Heavenly
Father and our Savior’s plan to everyone is so important.
We’ve enclosed a couple of videos, and would like you to
give them to the family (mom and 6 kids) that you are teaching. Wish them a Merry Christmas from your “second
family” in Morgan.
Zac will probably write before Christmas. He’s been pretty “whooped” on CJ. This may be the REAL thing?!?!?! Don’t know what he’ll tell you…………. She’s even got him to sacrament meeting the
past two weeks – amazing. It’s her
birthday today, and he is taking her to “The Testament” film at the Joseph
Smith Building, and also to “The Roof” restaurant, and then to see the lights
at Temple Square. Well enough of that,
better not tell all of his secrets.
Take care, and keep on doing the work with a purpose. It’s amazing how Heavenly Father blesses us
with his spirit, when we seek him with real intent.
Love the Rich’s
Roger, Gwen, Zac, Landon
December 22 – talk in church
Dear Brother’s and
Sisters, I’m grateful to be here today.
I apologize for my voice and cold, and hope that you will bear with
me. I’ve known for 6 weeks, 3 days and
about 12 hours of this assignment, and believe me, I didn’t want to add another
week. The Bishop told me he felt that I
should talk today, and I believe that is true, and I’m grateful for the
opportunity. I’ll get into the reasons
for that in a few minutes, but first the Bishop has asked that I tell you all a
little about myself and our family. I
know a lot of you are acquainted with our family, but there may be a few who
don’t know us, and so I’ll give you a quick overview. I’ve lived in Morgan all of my life, my parents
are Lee and Veloy Dickson who live in Morgan City, and my husband, Roger’s
parents are Ben and LuAnn Rich who live right here in this ward. Roger and I have been married for 25 years. He’s a great husband and father and I love
him very much. My dad says he deserves a
gold star in heaven, for putting up with me.
Roger works for Wonder Bread, and has to work on Sundays, and so you
won’t see him here very often, but we’ll see what we can do about getting him
here on his vacation days throughout the year.
We have four children. Our first
little girl Ambure, was killed in a car accident at 10 months of age. The 24th anniversary of her death
is a week from tomorrow. We are so
grateful for our Heavenly Father’s plan, and know that families are forever, and
that is we live that way we should, that we will have the opportunity to be
with her again. Our second girl is
Amanda. Amanda is 22, and lives in Mesa Arizona Arizona
Well,
back to the reason I’m here today. As I
said, the Bishop felt I should talk, and told me to tell you what is in my
heart. As I approached this assignment,
I wanted to do a good job, and know I had to be closer to my Heavenly Father in
order to do this. So I decided I would
try an experiment. I began reading the
scriptures daily. I never would have
believed it, but I can’t tell you the change that has come into my life in
these few short weeks. A few days ago I was reading Sister Sheri Dew’s book,
“No Doubt About It”, and was directed a
verse in Alma 32, chapter 27, which states:
But behold, if ye will awake and
arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a
particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this
desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place
for a portion of my words.
My experiment was actually in the
scriptures! I couldn’t believe it – but
what I do know is that I had a desire, and my Heavenly Father has helped that
desire grow, and I can’t explain in words, how wonderful it has been to have
the Holy Ghost with me, like he has never been before, just because I have been
praying and reading the scriptures daily!
I never would have believed it, except that I have experienced it for my
self, and I am grateful to our Bishop for this assignment that put me on the
right track. I have wondered if I was
the only one who wasn’t reading the scriptures daily. You know we have been told we should by the
prophet, and our teachers, and I have always had such a hard time with
this. I love to read, and will read
novels right and left, but I never could get into the scriptures. I asked a good friend who is very active in
the church, if she thought that I was the only person who hadn’t been reading
the scriptures, or if she thought that a majority of people had this problem.
She said that she thought that there were probably quite a few who had a hard
time with this too. As I look our over
the audience today, and there are so many of you who are so strong in the
gospel, and I admire you so much, and I feel I am somewhat preaching to the
choir about this subject, but maybe there is someone who has had a hard time
like I have, and if so, I would even hope that you would just put the Lord to
the test, and see if what he promises you isn’t true. It will be life changing. I know it isn’t easy finding the time, or
even the desire at first. It took our
Bishop’s request to talk to spur me into action. Our good friends, Mark and
Janene Walker, get up every morning with their family at 6:45, and Janene puts
on the griddle, and fixes pancakes, and eggs, and they take turns reading
scriptures around the island bar while she’s fixing breakfast. Landon and I aren’t so fancy, but we’ve found
something that works for us !! At 6 in the morning we are the only ones in our
house, Roger and Zac having already left for work, but we’ll get out the Cocoa
Puffs, and a couple of bowls, and between mouthfuls of food, we’ve been
reading and discussing the Doctrine and
Covenants out loud, as this is the subject Landon has been studying in Seminary
this year. We have been regular at this,
and it has made a difference in our lives.
Like I said, I never would have believed that the change would be so
measureable, but it is !! Roger asked me
a couple of weeks ago, what had gotten into me?
And I told him, I’ve been praying morning and night, and reading the
scriptures, and I can’t believe how good it makes me feel. He said to keep it up !! He liked it !! Some days I find myself just walking around
with a goofy grin on my face, and a bounce in my step, and I can’t believe how
good I feel. It is unbelievable.
I know my message to you today has
not been a Christmas Story, but I felt I needed to tell you of my
experience. My Father, Heavenly Father,
and my Savior, my brother has poured out their love upon me, and I wish
everyone could feel what I have felt these past few weeks, and this past
year. I would like to thank again, Pacome,
for his invitation to Landon to come back to church, and for Landon to drag me
along. It was a hard thing, but you have all been so
welcoming to us. I appreciate Lauri’s
and Tami, and Sherry and their confidence in asking me to join them in the
Young Women program. I love them, and I
love the girls, and I have learned so much this past year. I know my Heavenly Father loves me, and I
know that it is only through our brother Jesus Christ that we can return to
him. I love them both so much for the
sacrifice they made for me personally. I
know each one of us individually has come to this knowledge, and while I am new
at this, I can tell you that reading of our Father in Heaven, and our Savior in
the scriptures will help us to know them.
They are always there for us, but we are the ones who need to reach out
to them, both through daily prayer, and by searching their words to us through
the scriptures.
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