‘Forget Not’


“No matter how dark your days may seem, no matter how insignificant you may feel, no matter how overshadowed you think you may be, your Heavenly Father has not forgotten you. In fact, He loves you, with an infinite love.”
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, gave this loving reminder during the General Relief Society Meeting on September 24, 2011.
Using the forget-me-not flower as a metaphor for his remarks, President Uchtdorf noted that although the flower is small in size, and easily unnoticed among larger flowers, it is still beautiful and vibrant.
President Uchtdorf tied the five petals of the forget-me-not flower to five things women should not forget.

Forget not to be patient with yourself:

President Uchtdorf reminded women that everyone has strengths and weaknesses—that no one is perfect, even those who may seem so.
“God wants to help us eventually turn all of our weaknesses into strengths, but He knows that this is a long-term goal,” President Uchtdorf said. “It is OK that you are not quite there yet. Keep working on it but stop punishing yourself. “
“Dear sisters, many of you are endlessly compassionate and patient with the weaknesses of others,” he added. “Please remember also to be compassionate and patient with yourself.”

Forget not the difference between a good sacrifice and a foolish sacrifice:

President Uchtdorf defined an acceptable sacrifice as giving up “something good for something of far greater worth.”
“Dedicating some of our time to studying the scriptures or preparing to teach a lesson is a good sacrifice. Spending many hours stitching the title of the lesson into homemade potholders for each member of your class may not be.”
President Uchtdorf noted that every situation is different, and suggested asking, “Am I committing my time and energies to the things that matter most?” in order to distinguish between good and foolish sacrifices.

Forget not the happiness that surrounds you:

Using an example from the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, President Uchtdorf described how one of the characters, Willy Wonka, hid golden tickets within chocolate bars, promising to reveal wonders to five people who discovered the tickets.
“In their anxiousness, people began to forget the simple joy they used to find in a candy bar. The candy bar itself becomes an utter disappointment if it does not contain a golden ticket,” President Uchtdorf said. Whatever a “golden ticket” may represent to each person, President Uchtdorf warned Relief Society sisters to not put their happiness on hold as they wait for a future event, or golden ticket, to appear.
“The lesson here,” he said,” is that if we spend our days waiting for fabulous roses, we could miss the beauty and wonder of the tiny forget-me-nots that are all around us.”

Forget not the “why” of the gospel:

President Uchtdorf said that sometimes, in the routines of daily life, the vital aspects of the gospel of Jesus Christ are unintentionally overlooked.  “We sometimes see the gospel as a long list of tasks that we must add to our already impossibly long “to do” lists. We focus on what the Lord wants us to do and how we might do it, but we sometimes forget why.”
President Uchtdorf reminded the sisters that the gospel is not an obligation, but a pathway leading to happiness and peace in this life and “glory and inexpressible fulfillment” in the life to come.

Forget not that the Lord loves you:

In closing, President Uchtdorf said, “Just think of it: You are known and remembered by the most majestic, powerful, and glorious being in the universe! You are loved by the King of infinite space and everlasting time.”
“You may at times feel a little like the forget-me-not—insignificant, small, or tiny in comparison with others,” he said, noting: “I hope (the forget-me-not) will be a symbol of the little things that make your lives joyful and sweet.”

Zions last trip before school started.

WARNING.... THERE LOTS OF PICTURES and this is just a sample of what I took. Zion's was so much fun. We spent the night at the Lodge and hiked for two days. Lets just say, we were tired when we got home.

Our first hike was to the Upper Emerald Pond, we started out just going to do the easiest part of the hike the Lower Pond but for some reason we just kept going and made it all the way to the top.

This was a great trip for just before back to school time.




 While we were in Cedar Duane and I took Andi to the store, while there we bought her a backpack that she just loved. She had it packed and carried it the whole time. She carried the diapers for her and Lydia, Jessica Water bottle, snacks,  nursing cover up. It was full and she would let anyone touch it. She carried it for at least 2 1/2 hours. When she feel asleep in Duane's arms on the way down from the hike, we tried to take it off her, she had a death grip on it, but we got it off so Duane had a easier time carrying her.

There was so much in her back it fell apart the next day, When we got home from Zion's I had to sew it back together.


We had a deer on our path down we got within touching distance, can't believe it wasn't more sacred of us.








 Love these smiles!!



Hunter's picture he took.


 This is our friend the crazy squirrel. Andi dropped one of her baby yogurt snack and the squirrel picked it up and ate it.
 The squirrel eating Andi's snack
 Apparently, he liked it. he followed up all the way back down the trail. We had stopped to let Andi get closer to the water and Hunter and I sat down. The Crazy Squirrel jump up on us and was searching for more food, it was biting our bags and climbed into Duane's pack. We were happy he didn't bit us.



 When we got to the top of our hike, Andi stepped on something and she cried, she said it hurt, someone there gave her a band aid to make it all better, we thought oh good we can see where it really hurts, Andi opens it and puts it on her chin. We find it funny because that's where she was hurt two weeks ago.

 Love this picture, we are on the tram going to one of our hikes, Jessica is talking to the people next to her finding out where they are from and the one she's talking to has a knee brace on, he was telling her he got hurt at the Grand Canyon the day before, meanwhile Lydia is pulling the beard of the guy next to her. Miss Lydia made friend everywhere.


 At the end of our hiking and on our way back to check out of our room.