God Loves his Children Story written by Kirsten Udall as told by Jimmie Rogers

     “I had been inactive for a long time.  But somewhere inside me I knew I needed to go back to the gospel.  So I did just that .  My girlfriend Lesa, belonged to another church, and I knew she would be a great member of my church.” Jimmie Rogers is a member of the Concho Branch, and he described how he literally one day, “saddled up two horses and went to Lesa’s church and picked her up to bring her to his.”  Jimmie describes Lesa as a “bible thumper” who knows the scriptures inside and out.  He said when she listened to the missionary lessons, she could see how what she knew from study of the bible, blended perfectly, with what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints believed as well.  The two were married in June, and attend the branch faithfully.

     Several weeks back, they had an experience that reinforced their faith in our Heavenly Father, and just how much he loves and watches out for his children.  The two were collecting chickens, and roosters, by the post office, and had headed toward St. Johns to get gas.   In Jimmie’s words, “ we were drivin into St. Johns, and flipped our truck.  When we started to flip, I thought of how tiny Lesa is and knew that even though she was belted in, she might possibly slip out of her seatbelt, or worse.”  Without a second thought he unbuckled his seatbelt and reached across and wrapped his arms around her so that she would be safe.  Somewhere in these brief seconds, he was hit with the possible consequence of the choice he had made.  He said I remember thinking to myself, “I’m dead… when I heard a voice speak to my mind that said, “NO you’re not.”  Next he remembers feeling the presence of an angel that he reports, “came in through the window and held me tight against my seat, until the truck stopped rolling.  Rescuers on the scene marveled that this couple walked away without injury.  The truck was totaled!  Lesa knows that it was an angel that protected them  She says, “I saw a flash of light, and could see him in the cab with us.” Both of them know that God sent this angel to keep them safe.  They know He loves his children and watches out for them.  They want others to know this too.

Putting your faith and trust in Heavenly Father By Kimberly Farr

Ryan and I thought our family was done.  We gave away/ sold all our baby items.  Last April, Emma turned 2. She would say "I'm big girl!" I closed my chapter of having more kids and felt good about that.  Last May, Ryan came to me out of the blue and said "You are probably going to laugh but I have had a lot of thought about having another one." My first reaction was " That's not funny.  I'm too old to do this again. We said we were done." But in that moment I knew we had another one waiting.  We prayed to Heavenly Father about this path and felt it was right.  Last August, we found out we are pregnant.  I will never forget the smile on Ryan's face.  This first trimester has been really hard.  I have been very sick.  I had days I could barely get out of bed.  Ryan was a true blessing and took care of me, our kids, the house, his job, and everything else.  He never complained.  I asked Ryan for many blessings during this difficult time.  Every time Ryan gave me a blessing, I felt peace and I felt Heavenly Father right next to me.  I knew this is the path we needed to be on even though at the time it was very hard for me.  I knew we could do this together. I will never forget my first ultrasound.  The first thing I saw was 2 circles.  I looked at the ultrasound guy, looked back at the 2 circles, looked back at the guy... He then said with a huge smile "Well my dear, you are having twins!" I couldn't believe it! Then he zoomed in closer.  I was truly touched as I saw 2 tiny hearts beating inside me! I have to say I never freaked out! I never said Really Heavenly Father you think I can do this.  All I have felt is PEACE! From day one of going down this path I put my whole heart, my faith, my trust in Heavenly Father! This is the path our family needs to be on!  I am now 14 weeks along and am getting back on my feet.  We truly are excited for these 2 extra blessings Heavenly Father is sending to our family.  I have my faith and my trust that we can do this as a family.  It might be hard at times, I won't get any sleep, it will be a juggling act... But I have my Heavenly Father right next to me and all I have to do is get on my knees and pray and his arms will be around me.  I know we can do this together as a family! I am truly blessed for all that Heavenly Father has blessed me with.  I can't wait to hold and snuggle and kiss these extra blessings!

Children are like sponges……. They absorb everything Written By: Candice Bond

Last weekend I had the opportunity to listen to General Conference.  As I listened many thoughts came to my mind, but it seems Elder L. Tom Perry’s talk hit me the deepest.  In his talk Elder L. Tom Perry discussed the important roles that both a mother and a father play in a child’s life. He stated, “The most powerful teaching a child will ever receive will come from concerned and righteous fathers and mothers.”  As he said this I reflected on my own role at home as a wife and mother.  Immediately several instances came to my mind. The first one was about a year ago when my daughter Paislee was only two years old.  From the time Paislee was born she has received many priesthood blessings for various reasons.  One day I was not feeling very well and had told Paislee that she needed to be extra good that day because I was sick.  All of a sudden I felt two little hands on the top of my head and heard Paislee begin to whisper a prayer asking our heavenly father to help me so that I would feel better.  This showed me that although Paislee, at two years old did not fully understand the priesthood, she had a great foundation of knowledge knowing that when someone is sick and they get a “prayer” that they can be healed.  The second instance happened just last week.  I had just put the girls in my van and was heading downtown to run some errands for the day. My husband had driven my van the night before and when I got in I found what I think was ranch dressing had been dripped all over my steering wheel and my seat.  I immediately stated my frustrations, cleaned the mess up and forgot all about it.  That afternoon as Ty walked in from work Paislee immediately walked up to him and told him how much trouble he was in because he had spilled ranch dressing in my car and had not cleaned it up.  Seeing her react like this made me stop and think about how my initial reaction had impacted her so much that hours later after I had already forgotten about the situation she felt she needed to make sure her dad knew he was “in trouble”.   Elder Perry said “sometimes we find ourselves in situations when we have the opportunity to teach children a lesson which will have a lasting effect on their young lives, a successful parent should never be too busy to capture a moment in a child’s life when an important lesson can be taught.”  As we go through each day we have the opportunity to teach our children many lessons in life.  They are like sponges, they absorb everything, both the good and the bad.  One of my all time favorite scriptures is found in Helaman 5:12. It says, “And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall”.  As a young mother I often feel overwhelmed with life in general and feel that I fall short of being the ideal wife and mother.   I find comfort in this scripture and the promises that it makes.  Although I am far from perfect, I know that the lord will be there to help me every step of the way.  I can only hope and pray as I strive to teach my girls that that they will remember more of the good things than the bad.

Answered Prayers by Velvet Nielsen

         I am always amazed at what a loving God we have who hears and answers our personal prayers.  Two years ago my husband and I were buying cattle at the sale barn in Belen.  It was critical to our loan officer for us to finish buying our cattle that week.  Our little seven year old girl had a bad kidney infection and we hated to drag her to the sale barn because it typically took all day to fill our truck. We prayed earnestly that we would finish in a timely manner so we could take our little girl home.  I was amazed that the cow/calf pairs came through early and we were able to fill our order by 9:30 a.m.
        Another time we were out of money with which to buy supplement feed. We were worrying about how this would affect our cows ability to breed back in a timely manner.  I prayed again to get some help.  I got up from my knees and found an old Livestock weekly magazine on the couch, as I was flipping through the pages I came to an article which gave me some critical information we needed to apply at that time to help us in our business.  I know God loves each of us and is wanting and waiting on us to ask for his divine help. I am so thankful that we can always pray to a loving heavenly father.