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Hello, we did some stuff with the family this week but decided to post them on our blog instead of here. We wrote about our Family Home Evening with the storyteller and our night at the UofU organ concert.

Upcoming Recital

Marie has been invited to play a recital in a neighbor's home next month. It is scheduled for Friday evening, March 28th. We should hear some music by Bach, Schubert, and Brahms. Family and friends will be invited (as well as friends of the host family). We look forward to hearing Marie perform again. Mark your calendars!

Angela's concert in the Tabernacle

Angela sang with the Salt Lake Children's Choir in a concert in the Tabernacle on Temple Square. The concert was given by the Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable, which was created during the 2002 Winter Olympics to address the spiritual needs of Olympic athletes of many religions. Rick and I attended the Interfaith Concert on Sunday night. It was very inspirational and enjoyable. I read a description in the Deseret News of last year's concert which was held in the Assembly Hall. They were very similar concerts. As we enjoyed the concert, we wished that we had brought our children with us and invited some friends.
In the last couple of weeks I read a talk on that topic given in the 2001 BYU Women's Conference by James A Toronto. You can listen to the talk from this link. In the talk, Brother Toronto quotes Joseph Smith's teachings about our feelings toward other faiths and their beliefs. I found the quotes from Joseph Smith and other prophets that he quoted in the talk to support my good feelings at the concert. The talk also talked about the tensions in the Middle east and thus seemed particularly timely to me with Emily living in Jerusalem right now.
I want to teach my children as Sister Toronto's talk states, to "dismantle the "walls of Partition" -- intolerance, pride, suspicion and rivalry-- by teaching our children to love and learn from our brothers and sisters of different backgrounds, viewing them no more as "strangers and foreigners."
Angela liked singing in the concert. The Japanese drums was the part she liked best of the concert. They were exciting.

Angela in Salt Lake Children's Choir Interfaith Concert

On Sunday February 10th at 5:00 I will be singing in the Tabernacle on Temple Square with the Salt Lake Children's Choir in a Free concert that is open to all ages.

Angela

Angie's 12 birthday was in January on the 19th. She just got braces on her teeth and started singing with the Salt Lake Children's Choir. She is going back to violin groups with Jeanne Grover. She will be in the same group as her cousin Savannah. She is reading a lot of books. One of her favorite authors is Patricia Reilly Giff. She also went into the Young Women's organization at church.She said she really likes her leaders,Sheri Winward and Brenda Miner, and she is excited for girls camp in July.

Succession in the Presidency

Bruce R. McConkie was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when this devotional address was given at Brigham Young University on 8 January 1974.

http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=6070

Elder McConkie detailed the process of succession when President Lee died and President Kimball was ordained and set apart as the President of the church. He gave this talk just 10 days after their meeting in the temple.

I invite every member of our family and anyone else to read this talk during this season of transition to re-affirm or establish their testimony that we will always have a living prophet on the earth until the Lord comes.

I imagine they are meeting in the temple even now or have met earlier today to set apart President Thomas S. Monson as President of the Church. I have heard we can look for an anouncement Monday morning around 11:00.

President Hinckley's veiwing

By JP

I would like to comment for a moment about the passing of President Gordon B. Hinckley. On January 31, 2008 I was in Salt Lake for an job interveiw and I decided it was important to me to stop by the veiwing for president Hinckley. I was impressed by the outporing of love and reverence this community showed forth. I wanted to take a picture as I left to remember being there (My camera had no batteries, but thankfully Meridian Magazine took the picture for me, it is part of a wonderful article.) I realized as I was there how memorable his passing will be. I had the thought come to me that when I look back at this time in my life I will remember it not for the job searching, or the stress about which degree to get, I will remember January 2008 as Marie and I with Chris and Cyndi when the Prophet passed away. I will remember being at his veiwing.
I also had a flood of memories come over me about what I had learned from President Hinckley. I thought of his Be's, and his optimism, I remembered him dedicating the building on BYU-I's campus named for him, and singing for him at President Clark's Luncheon. Mostly I remembered a music and the spoken word I attended a month or so after I got home from my Mission. I remembered President Hinckley walked in and sat down only a few rows away, I thought to myself, you just spent two years telling people he was a prophet of God. I felt a rush of testimony and gratitute to be in the same room as he was. In parting I want to give the links to my favorite talks of President Hinckley's.
The Marvelous Foundation of Our Faith and his remarks at the Hinckley Building Dedicaton.