Idaho Farm, Temples, and Family Relations

Earlier this month I had the precious opportunity to visit my family in Idaho. 

My youngest sister is leaving to volunteer for over a year on a mission for our church, so all my siblings gathered together to celebrate her choice and attend the temple with her on her first time. Going through the temple for the first time is such a big deal in our religion. You can read why HERE and learn more HERE

Going through the temple is the most beautiful experience on earth and the Spirit is so incredibly strong. I frequently say temples of God are my very favorite places, and I really treasured this chance to be with my family in the holy temple. It's so humbling and electrifying to glimpse heaven and see what our divine potential is- I never feel more beautiful and cherished as a woman than I do in the temple! It's so empowering and I always leave on a spiritual high. 

My family spent the weekend together on my parent's farm in the Idaho countryside. I don't see my siblings very often since we all live on the far corners the continent (me to the South, a brother on the East coast, a brother in North Dakota, a sister on the West coast, and others scattered in-between). This was a special weekend to talk, create memories, laugh, and talk some more. It was just heavenly!

The weekend was delightfully full with shopping (picking out clothing for Rachael's mission), ice cream parlors, late-night talks, touring the town of my happy childhood, visiting more relatives

My mother made the weekend so welcoming and positive for everyone! (Thanks so much, Mom, for making it a beautiful weekend!) We really appreciated her service in creating such wonderful memories! I love spending time around her and feeling strengthened and inspired. She is such a great example of intelligence and hard work, and this always motivates me to improve myself.  

It was fun to help my dad work on the farm for a bit, walking fence lines and riding the tractor. He's such a wonderfully sincere person! It's always nice to spend time around him because he is truly without guile and is always concerned about everyone around him. His eyes have a magical way of radiating love when he converses with me, I just love it! 

I was so caught up in the wonderful conversations that I didn't take many pictures, but here are the glimpses I snatched on film of the rare moment I remembered to pull out my camera:

Two of my sisters, Lisa and Rachael. What lovely women they are!

My Kingsley-sister Betsy spent a day with us as well. We kidnapped her from college to join the fun.

One of the new livestock babies on the farm. Isn't he gorgeous?!
We had such fun watching  the new colts play in the fields. 

Mom, Rachael, Lisa, and Philip during Sunday lunch.

My brother owns a sweet house nearby and hosted the family for a special lunch after the temple visit. His house is perfectly situated with several nice basement apartments to rent out. What a smart place to live!  I was so happy for him!

My younger (but taller!) brother, Robert. He's such a great person! His future wife will be lucky for sure!

A selfie of me and Betsy in the pasture. 

My older brother Philip and me.
Seriously, everyone should have a brother like him!
He's so full of love and concern for everyone, and never criticizes!

A small glimpse of the relatives who gathered to enjoy a lunch to celebrate Rachael. 

My siblings and I also spent the weekend visiting places from our childhood.  We were all squeezed into my mom's Suburban...the same one we drove on family summer vacations when I was a child. Boy! The memories that flooded back were so fun! It felt like we were all kids again, heading out on a grand adventure!

We drove through our childhood neighborhood and visited our old house. We also spent time on the BYU-I campus, where I attended college and met my sweetheart. So many things are changing in town- my old (really old, as in they were built in the 1920's) college apartments were razed to make way for a new park. It was sad to see the College Avenue of my youth be so empty without all the snug little brick houses I regarded so fondly. I have so many rich memories from that street, and a special kinship was forged between the students who lived there. I'll have to console my heart with old photographs. I have to admit though, it did look much better with a beautiful park rather than beensy house rubbing shoulders.

It's a bit funny, but one highlight of the trip for me was actually the thrift store, can you believe it? I have to explain why- the Mormon thrift stores are so exciting because they have a gold mine of old religious books. I love books, and I particularly love to read scholarly discourses or textbooks on the scriptures, Jewish history, lives of modern-day prophets, etc. In Texas it's a rare thing to find a Mormon book at the used-book stores (Although it does happen occasionally. I scored a leather-bound, gold-leafed edition of the beautifully-written masterpiece, Jesus The Christ.). My sister had pointed out that thrift stores in this area were well-stocked with interesting books since there is such a high Mormon population. We were all interested in collecting more books to add to our home libraries.

My siblings all laughingly agreed to a friendly race to the bookshelves in the store, where we found lots of great treasures. I really love to study my scriptures with the accompaniment of my old university study guides from religion courses, but I had given my textbooks away to friends several years ago. These textbooks were so wonderful, rich with descriptions of ancient Jewish customs to help enlighten Biblical scriptures, or quotes from respected scriptorians add insight to particular passages. I love to copy notes from the textbook into my scriptures, and it really adds depth to my scripture study experience.

Anyway- I found textbooks from every religion course offered at the university. Evidently the college students all dumped their books here before leaving for the summer. Score! I have several years-worth of study material now! I was totally doing my happy-dance over this find, and didn't mind purchasing another piece of luggage at the thrift store so I could bring my treasures home on the plane. (Thank goodness Southwest Airlines doesn't charge for a second checked bag! Whew!)

The weekend was wonderfully-fun and carefree. I felt like a little sponge, soaking up all the positive energy and joy to store away in my memory for a rainy day. My heart was so full of gratitude for this experience, and overflowing with love for my family. I'm so thankful to belong to a good family, that is truly priceless!