I can only speak for myself, but sometimes miracles are both happy and traumatic. Both fill us with incredible gratitude.

Like the time my brother received a liver transplant, or the time we had a car crash and no one was injured. Then there was the time I really needed a job and got one. I am so grateful for these miracles.

Our family was blessed with an amazing miracle recently. This miracle cannot be denied. God was very much aware of the situation and blessed our family.

This is a picture of my parents taking a stroll in Slovenia.

They are the rock of our family.

The most loving, supportive, and noble souls I have ever known. 

My youngest brother and his wife blessed the parents with a wonderful trip. They do it every year. It is a trip most treasured by our parents. They traveled to many locations in Europe, starting and ending in Slovenia. My brother served his LDS mission there. On the day the were scheduled to return home, my mom had a fall. She fell down a flight of stairs...24 stairs! Let me just say she is 84 years old. She is a very healthy 84 year old, but everyone knows that a fall by someone who is older in years is usually not a good thing, and sometime it is tragic. 

This was so scary for my dad. He heard her call to him and saw her falling. They have been married for 61 years and are very attached to each other. 

Now for the miracle! 

My amazing, wonderful, favorite mom in the whole world, escaped that fall with no broken bones, no major injuries, just lots and lots of bruising. They took her to the hospital and had her checked out, and she was released to come home. Ice packs, Ibuprofen, and TLC from my brother, and then she was home. 

When I saw her I cried and cried. It was traumatizing just thinking about my 84 year old mama falling down the stairs. I still have to say that quick so I don't think about it too much. But, she is safe. She is healthy. She is alive, and not invalid. 

I've always felt like my parents were blessed with so many good years, because they are still so involved in blessing others. They both still volunteer at the local Family Search Library, helping others, and actively doing their own genealogy, and my dad spends every Friday afternoon reading, telling jokes, and stories to the "old folks" and the convalescent center. Many of which are younger than him. He has done this for 20+ years.

I am so grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who blesses His children. I am so grateful that my blessed Mama is still here to hug and kiss and tell her how much she means to me. Thank God for Miracles!

Come on Over!!!

I have a new blog! 

Well not so new, I've been posting at my new place since August 2011. 

I would love to have you come visit me there! Heres the link,  

http://www.ourjoyfulnest.com/

Hope to see you soon! Love, Joy

Family Party!!

Natasha getting her gift from cousin Summer!

Gettin' the vittles! 

Wendy and Melinda!

Scott, Stacy and Ian!

Ok, it can't be Christmas time! Where's the snow? 

Andrew, expecting a ball! and Kelsey!

Nancy getting instructions on her new digital camera!

Emily, Erin and Kiefer, cousins!

I love a family party!!

Howzit-Elder Flexy!

Alex- the day he got his mission call!

Elder Flexy 6:2 -email-

Mama!!
Wow we have worked so freakin hard this week!! we tracked for five and a half hours the other day it was crazy! but it has been great we had a christmas party for the ward it was pretty fun. we also saw a life size nativity scene with black people sculptures. so ya things are going great.
So here are a few questions: (Emily and Kelsey helped)

1 Is it hard to follow the mission rules?
1.some are easier than others.
2 What color is your toothbrush?
2.its blue
3 Are you flossing?
3.yep every day (usually)
4 Is your companion cute?
4.he has a girlfriend so that doesn't matter HAHA
5 How do you wash your clothes, is it a washing machine like that time we went to the laundry mat?
5.we have a washer but we have to hang dry them.
6 How do you decide what or how to teach?
6.well we have study and planning time to discuss those things with your comp.
7 Do you ever feel discouraged or upset when people don't listen?
7.not anymore i used to, but now it just, is what it is.
8 How are you and Elder Shumway doing?
8.he is doing well he dosent like our bathroom but he will be ok.
9 What do you usually eat for breakfast?
9.toast with PB and Nuttella
10 Do you often have dinner appointments? How often?
10.sometimes maybe twice a week.
11 Who do you get letters from at home?
11. you guys, Jess, Carlie, and Geni
12 How do you respond when someone is attacking our church?
12.well we say "we aren't here to fight have a nice day."
Special question of the week:
13 How do you explain the Godhead to people on your mission? What scriptures do you use?
13.well we just explain that they are three separate beings but are one in mind and we usually don't have to use scripts for that but when we do its Jesus's baptism.
anyway things are going awesome we might have some baptisms soon!! and ill get some pictures home to you soon. love you
Love Elder Flexy


Baba!
thats awesome to hear about the party and you wrestling those kids they need to be roughed up a bit. so i have a confession i've wrestled four guys in the ward and they are all bigger than me but i won all four it was pretty fun. is riley getting tough? i hope so i want a challenge when i get home. ya that lesson is a good one. and i always just look at the fact that my leaders can actually see better than me so blind obediance is not even accurate in most situations. but ya things are going great here in SA. tell nathan hi for me. love you
Love Elder Flexy

Sunday Best!

Doctrine and Covenants 50:24

That which is of God

 is light; 

and he that receiveth light, 

and continueth in God, 

receiveth more light; 

and that light groweth 

brighter and brighter 

until the perfect day.

Hope you Sunday was the Best!! 

Love, Joy

Howzit-Elder Flexy!

Elder Flexy 6:1 -email-

Mama

this week has been crazy!!! we have worked so hard! ya this week was transfers and i'm staying in Durban North but i got i new companion Elder Shumway. He is a cowboy from Wyoming. he is awesome i can tell we are gonna have a good time. ya he isn't related to the shumways we know but ya.

1 Did you or Elder Martin get transferred?

1.Yes Martin was sent to blomefontain to be a zone leader.

2 If so, who are you with, and/or where are you?

2.Elder Shumway in durban north still.

3 How are your investigators doing?

3.they are doing good hopefully they continue to progress.

4 Have you gained or lost any weight?

4.ya i gained like two KGs but now i'm back down to the same i have always been.

5 Have you had any interesting weather since you've been there?

5.just hot weather and humid but its not to unusual.

6 Would you like a copy of the Conference report Ensign?

6.we actually already have the conferance one so we are good thanks.

7 Anything new on pictures?

7.i will buy another memory card and send the other cards home.

8 Do you want me to send you some memory cards? I'm worried you have had to stop taking pictures because of not having any memory.

8.ya i will for sure.

9 Did you receive your Christmas package yet?

9.yep i got it, it was super nice and thanks for the photos they were super nice i loved them.

10 Do the South Africans celebrate Christmas like we do?

10.ya its very similar there is just no snow.

11 Do you have plans for Christmas?

11.not yet but we will do something fun. about my phone call home we are allowed to use skype which would be cheaper and better so if you could get skype that would be great.

12 Do the South Africans play any other sports besides football (soccer)?

12.ya they play Rugby and Cricket as well.

Special question of the week: How would you explain to others that we are Christian? 

13.well that is simple we beleive in Christ and we know that only through him can we be saved.

anyway things are going great with the new companion!! and the work is going great love you. 

                                                                Love Elder Flexy

Baba!!

i'm so glad to hear you are having such a good Christmas season. i hope this season is good for everyone back home. so yesterday we tracted into this very mean man that just wanted to bible bash so we just left. but ya i had a desire to punch him but i'm a missionary and i'm bigger than that so i didn't. but he chased the spirit away and we had to pray to get it back but other than that its been great.ya having christmas come really does make me miss home a little bit but i'll be fine. anyway love you Baba

                                                                 Love Elder Flexy

Kelsey

ya waiting for the call is the most exiting thing EVER!!! ya but it will be worth it in the end. ya about the parables that you were talking about maybe when Jesus taught like that it was to teach the meek and humble the ways of the lord. but the rich and prideful could not interpret the parables so only those who were in tune with the spirit could learn the mysteries of god. anyway mission is awesome and you will love it so much. love you

                                                                 Love Elder Flexy

Sunday Best!

We had a lovely 

Creche

display in our neighborhood,

 and I thought I would share some of my pics from it. In case you don't know what a Creche is, it is a Nativity. 

Here you go!

Do you love it? 

I do!! 

Remember He is the reason for the season!!

Hope your Sunday was the Best!! Love, Joy

Family History Friday (FHF): On Bridges!

My Dad wrote this about Bridges. 

I thought you might enjoy it.  

"On Bridges

Bridges have often held a fascination for me and I believe it is because of the part they have played in

my youth. The bridges that crossed small rivers in my hometown were steel structures built above the

road. The load, placed on the bridge by the vehicles crossing it, was on the steel structure above the road as opposed to sunken supports under the bridge holding it up. There were two steel support structures one on either side of the bridge. They were built such that we could run up one end of the bridge's steel support, walk

across the top and then run down the other side. We were climbing and/or walking on flat steel

beams approximately 10 inches wide that had rivets about two inches apart on each side of the beam. At the top of the structure, we were about 10-12 feet above the road and, of course, the signswould warn people to, 'Stay off the Bridge'. They were a constant challenge but a usual way

of bridge travel for us, as youth. When I made my first trip to San Francisco, as a serviceman, and saw the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge, I was awe struck. Fortunately, I was stationed at the Presidio as an MP and had a daily view of the bridge for almost two years. It was some time later, as I matured mentally, that I really contemplated the significance of bridges. It may have been after watching the show, "For Whom the Bell Tolls" that I realized how important bridges were to the movement of military troops and supplies. In converse, the importance of the destruction of bridges in order to prevent the movement of those units. In primitive times rivers and huge ravines were natural barriers to protect one tribal community from another. As commerce and a higher order of society were established the rivers and ravines were unwelcome barriers and bridges were built to span them to allow interaction which would be beneficial to their communities. Pioneer stories tell about the difficulty that they had in crossing rivers; sometimes having to travel several miles along the river to find a place shallow enough to cross without losing life or property. They also tell of the need to spend several precious days descending a steep ravine with their wagons and then ascending the other side. Had there been a bridge, they would have lost very little time. Bridges play such a very important roll in our

society. We probably seldom think about the planning and expense that went into the construction of a bridge. In many cases workers lives were a part of the sacrifice to complete a bridge. I love the poem, 

'The Bridge Builder'

by Garrett Boon –

An old man, going a lone highway,

Came, at the evening, cold and gray,

To a chasm, vast, and deep, and wide,

Through which was flowing a sullen tide.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim;

The sullen stream had no fears for him;

But he turned, when safe on the other side,

And built a bridge to span the tide.

"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim, near,

"You are wasting strength with building here;

Your journey will end with the ending day;

You never again must pass this way;

You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide-

Why build you a bridge at the eventide?"

The builder lifted his old gray head:

"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,

"There followeth after me today,

A youth, whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm, that has been naught to me,

To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.

He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;

Good friend, I am building the bridge for him."

The poem is not only about a physical structure but of building a better way of life for those descending from us. The old man was a pioneer and as he settled he built bridges, roads, railroads, schools and communities for you and me who came 'his way' maybe generations later. Have you ever thought about other kinds of

bridges. There are people who are 'bridges' that bring other people together. There are 'people bridges' in families; those who make peace and nurture greater love by their tender ways. They tend to make smooth the ravines and rivers of differences that sometimes tend to separate brothers and sisters. Then there are bridge builders between generations, those who make it possible to bridge the gap between we and our ancestors. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is such a bridge builder and thank goodness for the great

work being done to bridge those gaps. The gaps of centuries and world wide distances, oceans, language barriers and sometimes plain indifference to the 'eternal family' cause. These are data or information bridges that make it possible for us to bridge the gap between this world and the next; between the living and the deceased. We must thank Heavenly Father every day for all the bridge builders. They who build the bridges that span the rivers, ravines, oceans, data and the human gulfs that exist in this wonderful but complex world we live in. Christ, himself, was the ultimate bridge between us and our return to the place that we came from."

-Emil

Happy Family History Friday! Love, Joy

A Party on Christmas Day 2009

The Family all enjoyed themselves!

Dad reading a card. 

(I'm not sure, but he might be Santa)

Me with my sweet Natasha. 

My Mom!

Exhausted and snoring loud! ;)

Emily intent on the game.

Too many parties!

I love my families, all of them. I married into a great family and I grew up in a great family. And...I am the mother of a great family. I feel so blessed and thank Father in Heaven for all of them. 

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season! 

Let's do it again!!!

That was so fun, let's do it again!!! Speaking of the past year, that is. It's almost over, and I can't believe it!!!!! Time flies when you're having fun (or not). It has been an interesting year with lot's of changes in the world. We would not choose to have some of the things that have happened happen, but we can choose how we will respond to them. I will continue to choose joy and have faith that everything in the world and life will work out eventually. I do believe, like the song says, "The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth good will to men".  I also believe that we will never be given a problem or challenge that we can't handle. If you're having a hard time, either make a change or continue in faith. 

"No one can go back and make a brand-new start, my friend; but anyone can start from here and make a brand-new end" -Dan Zadra

Happy New Year!! 

2010 

-it will be a great new year!

Family History Friday (FHF): I Only Took Five Minutes.

A memorable experience my Mom had back in 2002 went like this. Working as a volunteer at one of the Family History Centers for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she received a phone call from a woman in Norfolk, England, we'll call her Kate. She was seeking information about a soldier who had died during WW II. She was a professional genealogist and was trying to find the family of this soldier. She did not have a birth date, but had a death date. Kate told my Mom a little about how she came to be interested in finding this soldier's family. My mom then went to the computer and pulled up the Family Search and Ancestral File programs (the LDS research programs). She typed in the soldier's name and guessed at about the year he was born, assuming he might be about 25 years old at his death. She said a little prayer that he would be there and clicked enter. His name came up on the screen and she was able to pull up the family record. "There he was with his parents and 13 brothers and sisters, he was #7. His date of death was 10 June 1944". She didn't find a location of his death. She was able to look at the sources of the record and noticed the he was born in St. George, Utah, and there were still siblings living. All of this information

was found in only five minutes, and my Mom was overjoyed that it was found so fast. She mailed copies of the information she found  to Kate in England and waited for a reply. Just one week later Mom was called to the phone again, it was Kate calling to tell her she had been in touch with the sister to this service man, and that she was sending the full story.

----------------

Kate was planning a trip to France and was asked by a past member of the SAS, Special Air Service Brigade, to find some 30 paratroopers of the SAS who were buried in a village in France. She found the cemetery and noticed another headstone that had the name of the soldier from St. George, Utah on it, but no other information- his squadron, base, home state- nothing. "Her interest was immediately aroused, think how little was known about him. Where in the states were his family, his loved ones?

She knew she must find out as she noted that he died the same day as the SAS members". After wandering up and down some of the small towns streets, she came upon an older man who was quite leery of strangers. After convincing him that she was only doing research for a friend, he relaxed a little and told her that indeed the SAS were buried there and that they had been executed by the Germans. She asked about the American soldier and he said, "He was, too." He told her that the soldier had been shot down over France and had been hidden by some of the towns people, but then was betrayed. The SAS and this soldier were executed as the Allied Forces advanced toward them. They were then buried in a mass grave. The German soldiers buried them in their uniforms, not knowing they would be identified, when they were discovered, because their names had been sewn in the inside of their uniforms. The American soldier, however, was dressed in French clothing. He was identified by other SAS who were out on a mission when the 30 were captured. The French man said the town had found the mass grave and had lovingly reburied the men in the cemetery. They had cared for the cemetery grounds and had a memorial service every few years to recognize these heroes from another land. They had never had family members of the US soldier attend. Kate thought to herself, "His family doesn't know that he is buried here and maybe nothing of the circumstances of his death. I really need to do something about this." The French man told Kate that another memorial service would be held in September.

---------------

When she told the surviving family members of the soldier from St. George about the memorial, his younger sister said that members of his family would be in attendance. Where and how he had died and where he was buried had been unknown by the family for over 56 years.

What was done right?

1) Family members submitted information to Ancestral File so that he could be found.

2) Kate was prompted, and went the extra mile, then followed through to completion -she made contact with the family.

Kate said to me, "It's too bad his parents never knew what happened to him." But I told her that "They know, he has told them himself, even a long time ago." -Joanne

As you can see from this story, miracles happen. See what miracles are waiting for you. Check out the new Family Search here.

Happy Family History Friday!! Merry Christmas too! Love, Joy

Merry Christmas!!!!!

I love this time of year! 

Sincerely. 

But I do believe that I put a real effort into it. 

First, I rarely shop, maybe once or twice in the whole month of December. That way I don't feel like I'm dealing with lots of people who are shopping and don't want to be there. 

Second, We spend alot of time with family and loving them.

Third, we have taught our children from an early age to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. 
The Birth of Our Savior. 

Fourth, we don't get a lot of stuff for Christmas. My children ask for one thing from Santa and one thing from us. 

I truly believe that this has made a big difference in my life. One year, we didn't have any money for Christmas, and when we told the kids they said, "That's okay!". And it was okay.
We know what matters most at Christmas. We have a Savior and we celebrate His birth and His life at Christmas and always. I'm glad to be able to read about His life in the scriptures. I'm glad He gave us an example and taught what to do, and how to live in this life. I love Him.

A little motivation is a good thing.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes the best motivation for a needed change in our lives is rarely fun or pleasant. When I was tiny (yes, I remember being tiny), about the time I was potty trained, I would go potty in the middle of the night and was either too scared or too tired to go back to bed, so I developed a habit of falling asleep on the rug in front of the sink. Sometimes I slept there the rest of the night. Sometimes I got cold and went back to bed.

When I was five, we moved to a very small farm house in the country while my Daddy was building our new home. Before we could even move into the farm house, a lot of cleaning up had to take place. In fact, the home had basically been abandoned and left empty for quite some time before we moved in. Mom and Dad had 5 kids at the time, and there was only one bedroom in the house. All of us kids slept in the one room. My three older brothers slept in a full bed, and I slept on an old army cot next to the crib where my baby brother slept. Mom and Dad slept on a hide-a-bed in the living room. Sometime in the moving process it was mentioned that there "sure were a lot of mice around". This, of course, was a concern to me, because I thought they were scary. In the back part of the house was a small wash/storage room. Mom would keep her canning jars there, along with the washer and dryer. The first time I walked back in that room to get something I heard many of the canning jars shaking and rattling. I realized that the mice (not mouse) were running through the jars to escape. Ok, so now we are at the motivation part of the story. I don't think I ever fell asleep on the rug in front of the sink ever again. I avoided the trip to the bathroom in the night time, all together. I was so good at going potty before bed and staying in bed. I became a parents dream.

I know, I know -he's darling!!!

Just not in my house!