Promise and Possibilities

Tonight I did something I haven't done in awhile. I watched a documentary. It was about Mitt Romney. A behind the scenes look at his two failed campaigns to become President of the United States.

There was no commentary or voice overs, just raw dialogue between Mitt and family. It was a penetrating look at the effort to run and the pain of loss.

I once wanted to run for office, be a politician, be a church leader, even a general authority type, but 48 years have past and I am mostly past my prime.

But life is still full of promise and possibilities, and I am so very excited for something else to look forward to, or really someone else to look forward to. If you didn't know already, I have found a soul mate and have asked her to be my eternal mate! I now pledge my allegiance and love to Shannon, my one true love. She has given life new meaning and purpose and I am thrilled beyond measure to make her my life and spend the rest of my life with her.

Perhaps it came as no surprise when I asked her, but the way I asked her was a surprise. We had been dating for six months but I had been planning the proposal for quite some time. I innocently invited her and her two daughters to join me and my three daughters on a weekend trip to Las Vegas. Little did they know that that wasn't the real destination. After one night in Vegas at a motel, I told them we must get up early and load the car so we can move to a better hotel. But after the car was loaded I insisted that we first do some shopping in Primm. Nevada.

When we got to Primm, the Outlet Mall was closed. I acted surprised and said "let's go a little farther to the outlet malls of Barstow California."  And, as planned, the Barstow outlets are a ghost town of their former glory, so when we arrived and shopped for only short time I said "let's just go back to Primm because the Outlets will be open by now."

But when I got on the freeway, I headed the car in the opposite direction. It took only a matter of seconds for Shannon to notice and let me know I was headed the wrong way. Then, on cue, Macee said"Let's go to the beach" Shannon and Abby and Amanda were so excited for the beach, but that was only half the surprise.

I told them we needed to stop at my favorite Chinese restaurant first. I pretended to be lost and needed Shannon to find it's Fullerton California location on GPS. When we pulled in the parking lot, I distracted the group as McKenna, my oldest daughter, went in to the restaurant with specially made fortune cookies we had brought with us.

When the coast was clear we all went in and ate the wonderful Chinese food. After we were done, one of the staff brought out our chocolate dipped fortune cookies which, to their surprise, were filled with all the same fortune inside. The fortune was written in a Disney Font. It read: "Dreams Do Come True In The Happiest Place On Earth"!

Tears of excitement flowed as I handed an envelope to all six at the table. Again, with names written in Disney handwriting, we opened our individual envelopes to find passes to Disneyland and California Adventure!

Our next stop was the beach for a beautiful sunset. We could hardly sleep at the Anaheim Marriott that night because we had a very big day ahead.

The next day was a holiday and the parks were crowded, but we still had a wonderful day at both parks. Although it was January, the temperatures were in the 80's. 10 degrees warmer than usual! I was able to break away from the group long enough, in the morning, to ask for help with my proposal plan, and, just before dark, as the plan finally was able to unfold. Then around 9:00 pm we went to the World of Color light and fountain show where I had specially arranged VIP seating.

During the amazing visual animated water spectacle, there is a scene where Belle says, so tenderly, to the Beast " I love you". Immediately after, there is a lull of silence just before the big finale.

So right after Belle announced her love for the Beast, I went down on my knee, and with all 5 girls watching and cheering,  I asked Shannon to marry me! With tears of pure joy streaming down her cheeks, she said "Yes"!

The finale was everything we had hoped it would be and we left the park deeply in love and feeling like a family.

Life is full of wins and losses. I have experienced both. But I have never experienced such joy and hope as I have for the past 28 weeks, and that special night in Disneyland.

Our goal is the temple, and the date is June 13th!

It's How You See It

Life is not what it looks like, it is how you see it. It is not what is in the picture, but how you view it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder because what we perceive matters the most to us.

We are byproducts of our upbringing and life experiences. Our behavior is shaped by what believe and how we were raised. Our belief system and value system are shaped early in our life and so much of how we act is based on our conditioning. We can't escape all early influences but we are not destined by them. We have more choice over our lives than we take advantage of and, in they end, how we finished life will be much more important than how we started it.

The argument isn't over who is right and who is wrong it is how they are right and how they are wrong. The world asserts it's beliefs and it's science; we assert our beliefs and our revelations. "I was born that way" or "I cannot change" are arguments purporting science. But God is the ultimate author of what is right and what is wrong, not science. And God speaks truth through revelation. Science is valuable but it is the new Tower of Babel.

Faith in Jesus Christ is the greatest answer since Christ is the greatest solution. With God all things are possible and He wants to help us with all of our problems. We just need to have the faith to believe.

God manifests His divine love to us through an abundance of love and inspiration. Even chastening is evidence of His unlimited love for us. Our welfare is His welfare: it is His work and His glory.

Following Christ is not a casual but continual process.

It is in the qualifying and receiving of the Holy Ghost that we are refined. That mighty change of heart is both literal and possible because God's amazing grace attends His Holy Spirit as the Holy Spirit attends to us. Infused by that Spirit we are comforted, guided and ultimately transformed.

When we feel His Spirit, He is changing us.