General Relief Society meeting

Sister Linda Burton

Sister Burton is such a great lady, you can feel the spirit so strong when you are around her and she really lets you know how loved and special you are!  I felt that when I met her and I felt it again as she spoke on Saturday.

Sister Burton spoke about Covenant Keeping.  

Making and keeping covenant means:

1. choosing to bind ourselves to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ

2. Committing to follow the Savior

3. It is trusting the Savior and desiring to show our gratitude for the price He paid to set us free through the infinite gift of the atonement.

Keeping our covenants is an expression of our commitment to become more like the Savior

Why make and keep covenants:

1. Covenant keeping strengthens, empowers and protect

As we keep our covenants we receive courage and strength to help us bear one another's burdens.

The Savior said "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another"

We all have burdens to bear and burdens to share

An invitation to the bear one another's burdens is an invitation to keep our covenants

Lucy Mack Smith said "We must cherish one another, watch over one another, comfort one another and gain instruction that we may all sit down together in heaven"

Even the prophet Alma had to bear the burden of having a rebellious son but Alma was blessed with Covenant keeping brothers and sisters in the gospel who were deeply converted unto the Lord and had learned what it meant to bear each others burdens.

As parents seek and act on personal revelation, counsel together and administer and teach the simple principles of the gospel they will have power to strengthen and protect their families.

2. Keeping covenants is essential for true happiness

President Monson said "Sacred covenants are to be revered by us and faithfulness to them is a requirement for happiness."

 Covenant keepers are commandment keepers

3. Keeping our covenants demonstrates our love for the Savior and our Father in Heaven

Of all the reasons we ought to be more diligent in our covenant keeping this reason is more compelling than all LOVE.

Evaluate how much we love the Savior by using as a measure how joyfully we keep our covenants.

Let us remember that even those who have been wayward and in the past or who are currently struggling can feel the touch of the Good Shepherd's hand upon our heads and hear his voice saying "come on you aren't tied down anymore, you are free!" 

Sister Carole Stephens

Keeping your baptismal covenants means you are willing to serve the Lord your whole life

We keep our covenants everyday as we are kind show love and take care of each other

Love and watch over and serve others in small and simple ways.

When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren 

We are all at different places on the path but we can help each other press forward with a steadfastness in Christ having a perfect brightness of hope and the love of God and of all men.

Do you see yourself in the work of salvation?

Take a moment to think of another daughter of God who needs encouragement to get back on the path or who needs a little help to stay on the path. Ask your Father in Heaven about her she is His daughter, He knows her by name, He also knows you and He will tell you what she needs. Be patient and continue in faith and prayer in her behalf and act on the promptings you receive as you act on these promptings the Spirit will confirm that your offering is acceptable to the Lord.

President Joseph Smith said, "This society was organized to save souls. What are we doing to win back those who have gone astray, to warm up the hearts of those who have grown cold in the gospel?"

A book is kept in heaven of your faith, your kindness and your good works and your words.

Sister Linda Reeves

When all is said and done, What will matter to our Heavenly Father will be how well we have kept our covenants and how much we have tried to follow the example of our Savior Jesus Christ

Lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God and feast upon His love.  I testify of the strength and power of prayer as we express our deepest pains and desires to our Heavenly Father and the answers are received as we feast upon the scriptures and the words of the living prophets

President Thomas S. Monson

Heavenly Father loves you, each of you, that love never changes., it is not influenced by your appearance, by your possessions, or the amount of money you have in your bank account, it is not changed by your talents and abilities, It is simply there. It is there for you when you are sad or happy, discouraged or hopeful, God's love is there for you, whether or not you deserve love, it is simply always there.

Prayer, scripture study will strengthen our testimonies and He will be there and we will not walk alone

Where ever we are in life there are times when all of us have challenges and struggles although they are different for each they are common to all.

There will be times when you will walk the path strewn with thorns and marked by struggles. There may be a time when you feel detached and even isolated from the giver of every good gift, you will worry that you will walk alone, fear replaces faith. When you find yourself in such circumstances I plead with you to remember Prayer.

We were not placed on this earth to walk alone.  We have the promise, Pray always and be believing and all things shall work together for your good.

What I learned:

We need to love each other, help each other and strengthen each other but especially those who have gone astray.  The Lord was always concerned with the one and so should we. We should not judge each other, we all have struggles, our struggles are different and they are real and they hurt.  Lets just be kind, patient and understanding of one another. When we do this we will be keeping our covenants and following Christ's example and showing Him our gratitude for His atonement and it shows that we love Him.

Relief Society General Meeting desert social

We had a desert social prior to the General Relief Society we had a desert social.  On Friday we met at the Stake Center around 6:00 pm to set up and get as much of the decorations done as possible. We were there until about 10:00 pm. I was blessed because the Tillotson family watched Conner for me so that I could go set up.  Brent was out of town and Parker was at Universal Studios Halloween Horror nights with our neighbors. We really did not have a lot of help, only one of the husbands was able to come help and so when I saw the Portuguese missionaries show up to help because their investigator did not show up, I felt this was a huge blessing. On Saturday we met again around 3:00 pm to finish setting up everything and I did not get home until about 10:30 pm, I was exhausted!! Our theme was Good Works.  Each of the units (we have 9 Wards and 1 branch) have given service through out the year and we wanted to showcase that.  We had a display of the service that was provided by each Relief Society.

Sister Jacobs from the Spanish Ward helped us with the decorations. Everything was beautiful!

We order all the wonderful desert from a local company.

Our Good Works cookies made by a sister in our Stake.

Busy day and blessings!

I have decided that I will look at my days and think of the things that happen during the day as blessings, because that is really what they are.  I think that for me, doing this will help me see things in a different way and it will make me be happier, I am already happy there is nothing wrong but I want to be happier!

Today we had a busy morning but a pretty relaxed afternoon. We had parent teacher conference at Conner's school and because of that he did not have school.  I met with his teacher while Conner sat on a chair outside his classroom door reading Harry Potter.  His teacher Mrs. Nagel is really nice and patient with Conner. She said he is doing great academically and that he is super eager to learn.  She said that his classmates deal with his quirkiness pretty good too.  He is quirky and he has certain ways that he likes to do things, but that is fine, that is the way he is and we don't need to change him, we just need to give him the tools and rules to be able to deal with changes and to help him navigate through life, in this way he won't get frustrated and depressed that he might do things different than other people.  Right now, he has not realized that he does things differently but someday not to far from now he will notice and we don't want him to become upset, feel bad, depressed and want to be alone because that might be easier.  I am glad that his teacher is on the same page as us and willing to help while he is at school. She is awesome! She is a blessing in our lives!

Conner and Mrs Nagel

Conner has been asking for this school t-shirt with a painted tie on it.  He wears a uniform everyday and Fridays are dress down days but they have to wear the school uniform pants and a school t-shirt, so today we went to the school store and got it for him.  He was excited. Seeing him happy makes me happy!

Tomorrow is the General Relief Society broadcast and we are having a desert social prior to it. I had to go to Sams and buy the fruit and water and some other needed items. The cart was very heavy, I had 5 packs of 32 water bottles each!! Conner was such a great helper! I loved having him going everywhere with me today. I have gotten used to doing everything alone but it is fun to have him tag along with me when I am running errands. Someday there won't be a child to go with me so I am going to enjoy it for as long as I can!

Trying on his new shirt.

World Puzzle

Conner and Brent made this cool puzzle.

Today's blessing

I am sitting here just crying.  I don't know why I never thought of this before. There is so much that can be done now about family history thanks to the internet.  I had a thought yesterday that I should look up a family history center in Malaga, Spain.  I looked it up an there was one!! It was late in the day so the center was closed.  I called today and spoke with a very nice gentleman from Venezuela who was very happy to help me find my ancestors.  I have the De Sotomayor line all the way to 1780 the death of Francisco De Sotomayor, who was born and died in Malaga, Spain. He is my fourth great-grandfather.  My line ends there and I have often wondered about these ancestors.  I have known about these ancestors since my mom got this information from a distant cousin when I was 15 or so. So for a long time my mom was stuck.  Well today when I was speaking to William, he told me that some of the records from Malaga at that time had been burned.  He said that if that was the case that he would look for another way.  I was sad but hopeful that he could help me in some way.  Right after I hung up the phone, I received an email from him that he had found an archive from 1750 and that he needed my authorization to look in them because he was not a family member or a descendant of the de Sotomayor family. I sent an email back with authorization and now I just pray that he will have success in finding my family.  He told me to call back on Tuesday.  I have faith that he will be able to help me! I am crying tears of joy.  I feel that I am being helped from up above and that my ancestors are waiting for me to help them. The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints brings families together forever not just the ones that are here on the earth but also those who have passed away.  When you do family history or the work for those who have passed away you feel connected to them, like you know them even though they lived long before you. They are my family and I love them and doing the work brings you so close to them, you are excited to someday meet them in the next life. It is so hard to explain. Families are forever! I love my family!

I am grateful for little things!!

Things that I am thankful for today,

Even though Brent is on his way to Utah right now and it is hard when he is gone, I am thankful that the cub scouts were cancelled tonight. You see, dinner time is very difficult around here, Conner is extremely difficult and not just that, I can't eat salt so I have my own diet.  Parker doesn't eat what I or Conner eat so he has his own food and Conner doesn't eat what any of us eat so he has his own diet!!! Brent is fine and he will eat most of what I eat and he doesn't miss the salt too much.  Because everyone has his/her dinner, dinner time is hard.  When Brent is gone I have a difficult time. For us having to go somewhere around dinner time is hard. So today I am so thankful that cub scouts was cancelled!!!!! It is one less thing for me to worry about!!

I am also thankful that Parker can drive himself to church for his Young Men activity, it gives me the time that I need to deal with Conner's. So today I am also thankful for a teenager that can drive himself.

I am thankful that Conner did great with his dinner tonight!!! He fed himself most of it which is a big accomplishment. I still had to stand next to him to make sure he was eating but that is fine.  He has an issue with picking certain foods with his hands, but he is getting better.  Tonight when his banana broke off from the peel he actually held it and ate it, now that is another great accomplishment. He will only eat his banana with peanut butter which is super healthy.  He has issues with his fine motor skills, like spreading peanut butter with a knife is hard but he did it by himself tonight, another accomplishment!!!!

I know these are little things but to me they are blessings!!!!!!

I hope things continue like this while Brent is in Utah. I don't want to be a mess by the time he comes home!!

We got pictures from our Sorella!!!

Alison and her companion in Milano, Navigli Sorella Heupel

Alison and her former companions in Savona Sorella Bringas and Sorella Pace

Alison and her MTC companion Sorella Willis

Alison and her former Companion in Bergamo Sorella Gillette

Alison with Sorella Hoppe, Sorella Willis and Sorella Durfee. These sisters were in the same MTC group with Alison

Parker's grades

We are very proud of Parker's grade.  He extremely smart and we know he can do a great job.

These are all Advance Placement classes so they are tough.

Family History: I AM BEYOND EXCITED

On Saturday Brent and I were going through my ancestors in Family Search and as we were looking down my grandma's line we noticed that it just kept going!! I had not noticed the last time that so many names had been linked.  This particular line went all the way to BC!!  I could not get myself off the computer, I was so excited but we had to go to dinner and celebrate my BIRTHDAY which was the next day, Sunday.  Then on Sunday the same thing, as I had a little more time after church we sat down to look some more and to take the time to read their names and dates and where they were from.  There are thousands of names of people from all over Europe.  It is so cool to see that when you can tap into a line that was all recorded it just keeps going back.  I was lucky that my Ramirez the Arellano line (my maternal grandmother) was so well documented.

My most favorite discovery so far has been that of Juan Ponce de Leon, yes the same who discovered Florida and was the first governor of Puerto Rico and the city I was born and raised in, was named after him, Ponce, Puerto Rico. I was just clicking away down one of the lines, when I saw the last name Ponce de Leon.  I followed that line until I saw his name!!!! I could not believe he is my ancestor, he is my 15 great-grandfather. My line comes from his daughter Juana Ponce de Leon down to my maternal grandmother, Eugenia Ramirez.  A trip to Saint Augustine, Florida is in order. It sure will mean a lot more to me now to go visit Juan Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth in St.. Augustine.

Juan Ponce de Leon

 Juan Ponce de Leon was born (1474) to a noble family in Leon, Spain. He was a captain in the Spanish force commanded by Nicolas Ovando, Spain's royal governor of the island of Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic). After putting an end to an indian mutiny, Ponce de Leon was rewarded with the governorship of the eastern province of Hispaniola (Haiti). With rumors of large amount of gold in the island of Borinquen (present-day Puerto Rico) the Spanish crown gave Ponce de Leon permission to explore the island(1509), he founded the settlement of Caparra, which is near what is now San Juan. Ponce de Leon was named the first governor of Puerto Rico. Encourage by the Spanish crown to discover more lands, Ponce de Leon decide to follow rumors of an island called Bimini, which apparently was home to a magical fountain whose water would rejuvenate those who drank it.  He set sail from Puerto Rico (1513) in search of the Fountain of Youth, and the expedition landed (April 2nd 1513) on the coast of what is now Florida, modern-day Saint Augustine, the first Spanish settlement in North America. He thought he had landed on another island and not the coast of North America. He named the site Florida, in honor of the lush and florid vegetation and because it was around Easter time which called Pascua Florida in Spanish. He was named governor Florida. He returned to Puerto Rico.  He set sail again (1521) still looking for the Fountain of Youth.  He landed on the Florida coast, while he and his men were building houses for a proposed settlement, they were attacked by indians.  Many men died but Ponce escaped, but injured by an arrow to the thigh.  He boarded his ship and set sail again, he reached Cuba where he died. He never found the Fountain of Youth. His body is buried in the San Juan cathedral in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Also I always remember my grandmother saying that we were related to the famous Puertorrican pirate Roberto Cofresi. Once my grandmother Eugenia told me that she asked her mother about him and her mom told her never to speak his name again because he was a disgrace to the family.  My grandmother never found out what her relationship to him was.  He is my grandmother's 2nd great-grandfather's brother. The Von Kupferschein family came from Austria, from there went to Bohemia (Prague) and then through Trieste, Italy.  They settled in Trieste, Italy, and one of them (five generations later) came to Puerto Rico which is my family's line. In Puerto Rico they changed the last name from Von Kupferschein to Cofresi so that the Spanish could pronounce it. My grandmother's maternal father was Jose Maria Irizarry Cofresi (Von Kupferschein).

This coloring book was a gift from my mom a long time ago.  She had the author dedicate and sign it for me.  I guess she knew him, I think a distant family of hers. I never let anyone touch it!

 Another thing that my grandmother used to tell me was that we had family that came from the Canary islands. She was right.  I found the line that goes to San Nicolas de Tolentino, Las Palmas, Canarias, Spain, a long name!! 

San Nicolas de Tolentino, Las Palmas, Canarias, Spain

I am having way too much fun with this.  I love thinking about and learning about my ancestors. This particular line is so rich in history. I am loving every minute of it.

I have been busy looking through names

My 48th Birthday

My 48th birthday was Sunday, September 15, 2013.  We celebrated with a by going to dinner with a few of our friends at Seasons 52.

With Natty, she is a dear friend and also Brent's secretary.

Maria Quddos, me, Natty, Johanna Lopez and Karen Butler

On Sunday after dinner we had cake and ice cream.  Brent had surprised me with flowers on Saturday