Sunshine Sentiments: ENERGY TO MY SOUL

Last night I attended (and helped on the committee) to put on a Relief Society gathering activity. And I made new friends! I'm so excited for this new adventure with a new tribe of women at my side. I miss my Kentucky friends. And I'll ALWAYS love them and be grateful for their friendship through the years. But it's time for new adventures and a chance to add new memories.

Here's the committee and a few of my friends:

Debbie (I teach her son cute son in primary), Laura (our fearless leader, who has more love to give than anyone else I know), Me, Pineapple, Melissa (who has 3 sons including a young man in my Activity Days and one daughter: Pineapple), and Gina (who is kind and fun and positive! I can't wait to get to know her better!)

Jill, Me and Aaralyn

(They are super creative! Jill makes gorgeous cards!

And Aaralyn made our tables look like a autumn wonderland!)

Here are some more new friends:

These are the ladies I sat with for dinner. They are all amazing.
The three on the right are all related. The two on my left on top are sisters. And Marilyn is the dark haired beauty on the bottom right.

Heidi is amazing! She homeschools. AND I love her two beautiful daughters,

whom I've already had the privilege of teaching in seminary and primary!

I got to give a short message about friendship at the event. Here are a few of my thoughts:

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that “friendship is one of the grand fundamental principles of ‘Mormonism.’” That quote has always inspired me because I believe that friendship is a fundamental need in our world. I think that we all have a profound longing for friendship and a deep yearning for the satisfaction and security that close and lasting relationships can give. In fact, I would consider friendship to be a first cousin of charity. And to paraphrase the Apostle Paul slightly, friendship “suffereth long, and is kind; [friendship] envieth not; … seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; … [friendship] never faileth.”

AND

BUT If we truly want to be tools in the hands of our Heavenly Father in bringing to pass His eternal purposes, we need only to be a friend. Consider the power of each one of us reaching out to love and support each other in unconditional friendship. The power is in each one of us to be a friend. Old and young, rich and poor, educated and humble, in every language and country, we all have the capacity to be a friend.

Our Savior, shortly before His Crucifixion, said to His disciples: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends.” Having been so richly blessed by Christ’s friendship, I pray that we will now be to others what He is to us: a true friend. At no time will we be more Christlike than when we are a friend.

Speaking of friends, our monthly date nights with the Browns (Katia's in-laws) have been some of our favorite activities since coming to Idaho. They are the greatest friends! We sure love hanging with them.

Ian, Alicia, our server, Me, Scott

And they are even willing to play games with us!

Speaking of Alicia, she was kinds enough to invite me to join her book club. I didn't get pictures, but I sure LOVED meeting 7 other wonderful women as we discussed Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. I loved Marcellus, the octopus. (But I will warn you that there is some language in the book that I wasn't fond of.)

Look! It's my adorable grandson!