See You This Weekend!

Its general conference again and I hope to see you all. It will be a thrill to participate in the re-dedication of the tabernacle and all four sessions. We actually don't look at the music together until the Tuesday before. We prepare more spiritually by 1-doing an anonymous good deed,2-attending the temple,3-fasting, 4.righting something wrong in you life. I love this time of year. It seems heaven and earth meet for a brief moment.I had an experience one conference weekend in the early morning hours. I woke to the sound of a radio playing. I looked around from my bed and decided it was from outside somewhere. I started to worry about getting back to sleep because it was going to be Sunday and a long tiring day. Whenever I start to worry sleeping only gets more difficult, so I prayed that the Lord would just take care of it for me. I then started hearing music. It was the tab choir singing,"If you could Hie to Kolob" (one of my favorites)It was quiet and sounded from a distance then came closer into my room. It calmed me and I felt blessed. I drifted back to sleep to the sound of it. Later that day I realized that there is no recording of that song except from maybe a past broadcast and for sure from the very first conference session I sang with the choir. What are the chances of that being played on a radio in the middle of the night? That's what I mean by heaven and earth meeting during conference time. It is a time when the heavens open and revelation pours down upon the saints in a miraculous way. I hope you all experience the wonder of this time of year.

Sadness in my other family

I think I've realized how much the choir is a family to me. A younger sister, Bertha, came down with a rare disease about four months ago. She was a tall beautiful Samoan in her early thirties. She had thick black shiny hair down to her waist. She was quiet and mild tempered, kind and lovely. The disease was called an Auto Immune difficiency. It started out as a virus with skin blisters and spread over her whole body. She became an actual burn victim in the intensive care for months. Her hair was shaved and skin grafts were attempted but failed. They said she would surely recover but she just didn't make much progress. I can hardly comprehend the suffering she has been through. Bertha passed away last Wednesday from kidney failure and a collapsed lung. We had choir rehearsal the next day without fail but the mood was somber. It was hard for me to even go but we hugged and cried and mourned for our friend and sister together. We'll be singing at her funeral on Monday . I was a little surprised at how deeply I felt for this person. I spoke to her on occasion but didn't know her well. I think I have discovered that there is a bond that exists between us all in the choir that goes deeper than we realize. Through it all I appropriately had the words to a song in my mind.."there but for you go I"

Bryce is Doing Great!

I thought you all might want some news about Bryce. He is very happy serving in P.R. He said,"I'm feeling good. I'm slowly getting more and more tired every day...I can feel it. I'm excited to be halfway. I look forward to this coming year. I love being a missionary."
I thought the first lines were funny..he must be working hard! He says the Lord is blessing him to have a continual teaching pool. He's district leader now . He said the mission is actually going to be split this year. We hear from him by email every week which is really wonderful. He looks pretty skinny in his pictures. We are confident that the Lord watches over him and strengthens his faith and testimony continually.P.S. Pray for Samuel and Isaias -they're scheduled to be baptized on the 24th.

In a Dream

Our Disney cruise was like a dream. Barry said he thought heaven was like it. We enjoyed (almost)all our family around, had no cares and viewed extreme beauty everywhere.
I agree with him. It was truly magical. We are all still talking about it.
We also stayed one night at the Disney Resort, Saratoga Springs. It was just beautiful . We bought into the Disney Vacation Club which is a time share and our actual property is there. Ben gave Barry & I two free tickets (from friends in his ward) to Disney World so we went there for part of the day. He and Lindsey were very sweet to give them to us. Of course, Britney had to come too! The boys were content to take a ride on the surrey bicycle at the resort which is in the picture. I guess we've had enough Disneyland for the year(4 times).

The Disney Wonder was WONDERful! As we entered the ship ,someone announced,"Welcome aboard to the Jensen Family!"
We ate and and ate and ate. There was ice cream and pizza 24 hours a day. Ben bragged that he gained 10 pounds! We played shuffleboard, jogged around the deck, saw a Disney Musical stage show, watched three movies, went to the spa, swam, played ping pong, ate and ate and ate, Sang Kareoke (Barry got a standing ovation-no kidding!) bonded with our servers, JoJo and Rey, shopped, explored, rode the glass elevator, saw disney characters, watched onboard fireworks, made friends, snorkeled, paddle boated, toured, rode a banana boat,and that's the fun in a nutshell! Disney's private island, Castaway Cay was a real highlight. The Flying Dutchman ship from the Pirates movie was parked there which made for a very picturesque view. They fed us a barbecue picnic on the island and provided activities on the three different beaches. Serenity beach was just for adults.
We also stopped at Nassau and toured there for a day. We are already talking about our next cruise because I guess once you've done one you're hooked!

Blogs Away !

Jan showed me her blog last night and it looked like a lot of fun plus a good way to keep a history of yourself. So...here I go. I have enjoyed Dad's blog and the way he seems to say something important every time he posts. I don't expect to do that but hope to improve my writing skills and share my pedestrian days with family members that might care a little.
My next post will about the picture below....our Disney cruise! I will include pictures too. The DVD (produced by Barry) has been released as well to anyone interested! Bye for now

Aboard the Disney Wonder