Category Archives: Faith

Family Home Evening – Trying to be like Jesus

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I have not been very consistent on Family Home Evening, but I’ve decided that this family REALLY needs it!! So, I’ve prepared my lesson and I think it’s one that I need the most. Our lesson is Trying to be like Jesus. If you want to learn more about Family Home Evening and how it can strengthen your family SEE HERE.

We will be reading THIS STORY out of The Friend and then we’ll throw some scenarios out there and take turns deciding whether the reaction is being like Jesus or not. We’ll also play a fun little game where we make a story. We’ll each add on two sentences and form a fun story that we’ll write down and treasure forever…. it might even pop up on Garibay Soup.

Our music will be I’m Trying to Be like Jesus from the Children’s Primary Book. We have a CD with the song on it, so we’ll just play it and sing along. I’ve printed out the lyrics and we’ll try to learn them together as a family tonight.

If you have any ideas to add to our Family Home Evening vault please leave me a comment and let me know!! And I hope that you will join along with the Garibay Family tonight as we make this family STRONG!

Marriage, Life, Church – UGH it’s all hard

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Life isn’t always perfect. Pictures don’t always show the whole story. My smile sometimes is a lie. I don’t know what is going on right now, but I feel like things are falling apart. It’s funny, because in the primary class that I teach we were talking about apostasy and restoration.
There was a time of apostasy on this earth when the fullness of the gospel was taken away. Then when Joseph Smith had the first vision, the start of the restoration started.

I feel as if my family is about to go through the apostasy. Yeah, a little harsh – and I know there are probably a lot of members that know my family that gasping. Life sucks sometimes and I don’t know what went wrong.

I for one will say that being a member of this church is hard to be a part of. They ask a lot of you and it’s not easy. You get to go to church and see all these “perfect” families that were born into this and have never known a different life and think to yourself, ‘Hmmm we’ll never be there.’ We are not perfect. I don’t have a husband that thrives to serve others like all the men in this church seem to do; I have a husband who thinks the world revolves around him and is probably the most narcissistic person that I’ve ever met. He gives murmuring a whole new meaning. But he’s my husband and with or without the church I love him. I’m not perfect…. I have so many faults, but I’m trying. I’m trying to be the Mormon wife, the Mormon mom. But life is not so sugar coated as it seems, well at least not when you’re starting out at this so late in life.

I do know this. It’s hard, but it’s what we’re supposed to do. With or without my husband, I will continue to be a member of this church and hope that it gives my children the morals and principles that I want them to have with them for the rest of their lives. Getting up on Sunday and going to church for 3 hours is hard sometimes, but what’s 3 hours out of 168 hours? 3 hours out of our week is NOTHING. There are things that my husband doesn’t understand. Things he thinks are inconvenient, and I don’t know how to go about showing him the reason why we are called to do callings that take our time, why we have to go to church for so long, and why he should be going to church instead of watching that stupid football game that could have been DVRed.

I’m bitter today. I see him slowly pull away and by the time that we’ll be able to finally be sealed together as a family he won’t be in the same spot I am. What a horrible thing. Apostacy sure has a new meaning for me, and I hope to God that it doesn’t hit this family that has come SO FAR from what it used to be.

Mixed Feelings

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I’m having mixed feelings about my new calling to Primary. I think that the calling is great and I know that I could learn a lot from who I’d be teaching with, but I just think that the timing is not right. I don’t feel comfortable leaving Gino to attend Sunday school by himself. He’s so new to all of this and I can see him falling away from the church a little bit. Not wanting to stay after Sacrament, and I just think he’s too new of a member to do this to.

I feel bad going and turning down my calling, but something inside of me keeps screaming that I need to turn it down.

I don’t know what to do. 🙁

Scripture Scouts

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My past few posts have not had pictures. Hmmmm…. kinda boring huh?

I wanted to talk about something kinda cool. I was up at the Bishop’s house today while Jayden was having his piano lesson, Sister Shumway was going over our new class that we teach together with me.

She let Jayden borrow a CD called Scout Stories (this might not be the correct name, and if it’s not I’ll update it tomorrow) and I have to say IT IS AWESOME! Jayden and I listened to the entire 1st Nephi Story, which I write about HERE. At the end of the story, Jayden asked me, “Mom, this is so awesome! Where’s the promised land.” And this is where I giggled. I felt all excited inside, because Jayden now knows the same story that I’ve been reading forever, because I totally suck at Scripture study, but he was asking questions! That means he was totally paying attention. Why did I giggle? Because I wasn’t 100% on where the promised land was. I told him that I believed it was here, in the USA, because that’s where Joseph Smith found the plates, but I guess it’s something I’ll eventually find out as I read…. or listen to Jayden’s stories.

**EDITED TO ADD THAT THEY’RE CALLED SCRIPTURE SCOUTS – NOT SCOUT STORIES 🙂

Building a Strong Family

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If you’re a reader of my blog, then you’ve read this post before. I wanted to bring it back though. Especially for Works for Me Wednesday. Rocks in My Dryer hosts a wonderful carnival that gathers hundreds of bloggers that share what works for them. This week I want to share what works for us on building a strong family.

Remember the days when families used to sit together as a family for dinner. Talk about their days and bring laughter into their lives. Our society has cut this out of their lives and it’s sad. It’s sad that families are so busy that they don’t stop to appreciate what God has given them. A beautiful family that should be providing each other with unconditional love.

Bringing families close and together is a very important thing to the Mormon church, as it is to most religions. We implement something into our homes that strengthens our families and all it takes is one night a week.

It’s called Family Home Evening. Monday nights, the majority of the members of the church are gathered together in their homes strengthening the bonds that God has given us with our families. It’s a date and time that’s a guarantee in each of our homes that we will be together as a family, without media, without stresses, just us, God and the ones we love.

The way Family Home Evening is typically organized is as follows:

Opening Prayer
Sing a church song together
Quick lesson on any of these topics
Family Activity
Special Treat
Closing Song
Closing Prayer

You don’t have to be a member of the Mormon church to practice this. You don’t have to even give lessons or sing songs. Just having a set day a week to do some family activity together will do amazing things. Even if it’s just playing a board game and eating some ice cream afterwards.

Family Home Evening is a great time to discuss anything that needs to be discussed as a family. You can use this time to discuss weekly meal plans and chores, and go over the family’s weekly calendar. But the main thing is it’s important that you’re consistent, and you always end it with a fun activity and treat.

The last time that I posted this post I had a reader contact me to tell me that she’s not Mormon, but she absolutely loved this and implemented it into her family, and they all loved it. I feel so wonderful that her kids will have beautiful memories of their childhood, because she read this post from me.

I hope that I get some of you out there to join in with me. I’ll try to update every Monday with what we have planned. On my Topics that I Discuss on my sidebar, FHE stands for Family Home Evening. If you have ideas for great lesson ideas or activities, or even a yummy treat recipe you’d like to share please leave a comment and share it. Remember, you don’t have to be Mormon to have a Family Home Evening.

I KNEW it was gonna happen – JUST KNEW IT!

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So, I’ve been waiting ever so patiently for Ella to turn 18 months so I could shove her into Nursery and actually listen during Sunday School & Relief Society. I’ve always had this feeling inside that right when she was ready to go to Nursery that I’d get a calling that would be in primary.

Today I got called to teach the 8 year olds turning 9 this year. The ones that just got baptized. I’ll be teaching the class with the Bishop’s wife, Wendy, who I absolutely love. So, I’m pretty excited, but had to giggle inside that what I had a feeling would happen actually did happen. This year we had made the decision to stop going to Gospel Essentials and start going to Gospel Doctrine instead… especially since they’d be studying Doctrine & Covenents, but Gino will get to hang out in there all by himself…. or with Ella until she turns 18 months. I”ll still study the weekly lessons with Gino at home so I can learn, and so that he’ll be prepared and understand what they’re talking about.

Today was Testimony Sunday at church and I still didn’t feel like I was ready to get up and share my testimony… I don’t know why, because I do have a strong testimony. I’ve seen this gospel completely turn my family around. We’re not even the same people as we were before. Gino has done a complete turn around and I’m so thankful for the gospel. It’s only been a year and 1 month that we started coming to church, and a year and 1 month ago I never would’ve thought we’d be where we are now. I’m thankful that I now have a better understanding of why I’m here on this earth. I’m not just lost in this world wondering what the point of it all is. I know what the point is, and I know what I’m supposed to be doing, and I’m striving my hardest to do it all. I’m not perfect, and neither is my husband, but we’ve come such a long way and it feels good to be on the path that we’re on. I hope we never lose track of it, because it feel so right and so good.

I’m feeling absolutely horrible today and I don’t know what’s wrong. I don’t have a cold or the flu, but I just don’t feel well. It may just be my body telling me that it’s had enough of the torture I’ve put it through these past few days of doing major stuff around the house, so maybe I need to listen to it and just relax for the rest of the day.

Here am I, send me

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I was reading some blog posts and I came across one from a sister in the church that she had gotten from a talk given by M. Russell Ballard on March 13, 2001. You may click that link to read the entire talk.

The part she took out of it and posted on her blog is beautiful to me. I like to think that before I came to Earth and we were assembled talking of God’s great plan that I stood up and said, “Here am I, send me.” I imagine myself standing proud saying, I will be a mom to your spirit children, and I will love them and care for them.

“Here am I, send me.”

“Every sister who stands for truth and righteousness diminishes the influence of evil. Every sister who strengthens and protects her family is doing the work of God. Every sister who lives as a woman of God becomes a beacon for others to follow and plants seeds of righteous influence that will be harvested for decades to come. Every sister who makes and keeps sacred covenants becomes an instrument in the hands of God.

I have been drawn to an interchange between God the Father and His eldest and Only Begotten Son, who is the ultimate example of living up to one’s premortal promises. When God asked who would come to earth to prepare a way for all mankind to be saved and strengthened and blessed, it was Jesus Christ who said, simply, “Here am I, send me” (Abraham 3:27).

Just as the Savior stepped forward to fulfill His divine responsibilities, we have the challenge and responsibility to do likewise. If you are wondering if you make a difference to the Lord, imagine the impact when you make commitments such as the following:

“Father, if you need a woman to rear children in righteousness, here am I, send me.”

“If you need a woman who will shun vulgarity and dress modestly and speak with dignity and show the world how joyous it is to keep the commandments, here am I, send me.”

“If you need a woman who can resist the alluring temptations of the world by keeping her eyes fixed on eternity, here am I, send me.”

“If you need a woman of faithful steadiness, here am I, send me.”

Between now and the day the Lord comes again, He needs women in every family, in every ward, in every community, in every nation who will step forward in righteousness and say by their words and their actions, “Here am I, send me.”

My question today is, Will you be one of those women?”

Another Inspiring Day at Church

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I missed the last 2 weeks of church. Today I finally went back and couldn’t be more happier that I did. I think that the talks that were given today were absolutely wonderful.

During Sacrament the topic that was talked about was how to deal with people questioning and basically hating our church with a Christlike attitude. It’s such a difficult thing to do, because I personally get very defensive and upset when people mock my religion, especially when they have NO CLUE what it’s about. Half the people in this world don’t even think that Mormons are Christian. It baffles me since Christ is what are religion is all about, and isn’t being Christian believe that Christ is our savior?

I am horrible at being Christ like. Today opened my eyes in areas that I wish I could be better at and gave me some goals to work towards. I want to be a better example for all of my friends and family. I want to be that person that people look at and wonder…. hmmmm, how is she so happy? What is it that makes her life seem so complete. Maybe some people already think that, but sometimes I don’t feel like that, and that’s the point I want to be.

I’ve been slacking in a lot of areas. Personal scripture study, family prayer, family home evening. That’s just to name a few. I feel like things have been so hectic that I’ve stepped off my path a little bit. It is a good feeling to know that I can get right back on it, and I have the power to do it all by myself. I feel like my life has been a little chaotic, and I need to get it back to where the chaos wasn’t effecting us.

Ward Christmas Party – and more sewing talk

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Last night was our Ward’s 1st annual Nativity Scene Christmas party. We had a live nativity scene outside and it was beautiful! They even had a tamed turkey.

They had a buffet of soups and then right before the primary singing started Jayden came and told me he had an accident. Man! Right when I thought he was better. So, we had to leave.

To be on the safe side we didn’t go to church today. Which kinda sucks because it is the Sunday before Christmas. Instead, my husband is out breaking the sabbath doing Christmas shopping and I’m sewing. We will maybe do a lesson together as a family tonight. Funny thing is, Jayden’s fever is gone and he’s completely fine today! The lab called though and said that Jayden’s culture came back positive for strep, but it’s not the strep that they worry about and treat.

I finished all the rows for my niece’s quilt. I now get to sew them all together and I’m nervous about it! My Grandma said that this is one of the hardest parts. Gino’s out buying me pins so I can pin the rows together. I never knew sewing could be so therapeutic and addicting! I think for my next project I’d like to make Ella a patchwork skirt.

Our First Baptisms

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I know that I have readers that are not LDS, so I wanted to explain something before I talk about what happened last night.

If you believe in God and you believe that the bible is true, then you probably believe that in order to return to our Heavenly Father you have to be baptized. What about the people that didn’t get a chance? Do you really think that our Heavenly Father would be so unjust that he wouldn’t ensure that eveyone had an opportunity to receive that important ordinance of baptism? I believe this church to be true. I believe that the fullness of the gospel was taken from the earth many years ago, and that through Joseph Smith the fullness of the gospel was restored. I believe that during the time that the gospel was not on this earth that the priesthood, who has the authority to baptize was also not on this earth.

If you’re not LDS I understand that you don’t believe this, but I do and just want to clarify all of this before I elaborate on last night.

I had a friend once explain to Gino about being baptized by the proper priesthood authority like this…. Basically, let’s say you want to get a driver’s license and you decide to go and get it from this guy who makes them in Oak Park (I’m from Sac… it’s ghetto there LOL) instead of going to the DMV and get the proper one. So, you have your license and your driving around, but it’s not a true drivers license… right? It’s the same we think about baptism. So, that’s why Gino got baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints even though he was already baptized once in the Catholic church. He needed to get baptized by someone who had the proper priesthood authority, and on October 11, 2008 he did just that.

Okay… so back to the people that never had a chance to get baptized by the proper authority. That is one of the beautiful things about our temples. We as members can go and get baptized for our ancestor’s who have passed away that never had the opportunity to get baptized. That is what baptisms for the dead are all about.

Last night Gino the honor and priveledge to get baptized for 2 of his uncles that passed away. These uncles were uncles that he was very close to. Last night Gino walked down the steps to the baptisimal font and for his first time ever baptisms for the dead was baptized for Tim & Jorge Garibay. After Gino came out of the water and sat down to get them confirmed and to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, the emotions were strong… even our Bishop stopped because he was starting to cry. It was an amazing.

I had the honor and priveledge to get baptized for a dear friend of mine that was murdered. Melody Hawkins was a close friend to our entire family, and I am so happy that I was able to get baptized for somebody that was truly a special soul.

I’m excited to be able to work on our genaeology and start doing all the work for our ancestor’s who never had the opportunity to receive the ordinace of baptism.