Remember when...

2009 Memoires
Remember when...
January-April: 
Our first New Year together. Our first valentine's day married...I was sick... 
Problems with my lymph nodes started (still haven't unraveled that mystery...most recent clue is that there's a small lump only on the right side of my neck by my hyoid bone or on the cartilage...not sure which...but it's definitely there.)

Both of us were in school and had a killer research paper to complete. I spared my readers the details because by the time we actually finished it, we decided the words research, paper, our teacher's name, etc...were dirty/forbidden to say for at least 6 months.

May-June:
Remember when Clint and I were without a car for over a month because we had to have the engine rebuilt? We were driving to church on the Sunday before Thanksgiving (November 22) with all the lovely snow and as we were pulling into the parking lot we slid sideways into the curb. Smashed a bearing, shoved the right front tire 6 inches back into the wheel well, and threw off the alignment. Got it fixed by the Tuesday after Thanksgiving though. Thursday the same week we got it back though, Clint was driving to work and 3 miles before he got to the FedEx hub, the car just died! After much nagging from me for Clint to call them every day, we finally received a call from the ProShop with bad news. There's these things called idler pulleys of which there are like 4 in our car. Back in May one of them had gone bad and they replaced it but the others still looked okay. The bad news: one of the other 3 idler pulleys had gone out and made the timing belt skip a couple notches and therefore the car didn't work and once fixed would cost us an estimated $400-$450. If we waited till Tuesday last week it would be cheaper. However, as we were hoping to have the car repaired in time for Christmas and that they wouldn't find any more problems, we decided to have them take care of it right away. Total cost with labor=$500+! I've been tired of this mechanic ever since it took him 5 weeks to fix our car the first time. Clint, patient man that he is, was now at last weary of them as well. They just take so long to fix cars and call people!  Why couldn't it have just been a bad tank of gas? It only cost $43 to fill!

Now another problem the mechanics found when they fixed our car during summer was some bent valves. After they fixed the pulleys and timing belt, the ProShop said these same valves were bent again. One of Clint's co-workers has a contact who informed him that these valves should never bend from normal driving/operation...especially since we haven't been driving our car regularly for nearly over a month again other than taking it to the mechanic. Nothing that could have bent the valves was done on our part. This same co-worker suggested another mechanic in Idaho Falls so Wednesday last week Clint drove it from the ProShop to Idaho Falls. Hopefully we can avoid rebuilding the other half of the engine...if not we're going to have this other mechanic do the job if we can't have it done by BYU-I (who will only charge us 1/4 of what we paid the first time).

All in all we're more than ready to be done with car problems.

Also in June I signed my Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant Agreement. Please check back after the first of next year if you're interested on details as to what I'm going to do with my business.

We were also looking for a new place to live from like April-June. We finally found one we loved and got everything finalized and moved in the end of July! Our new home is very cozy and we absolutely love it!

From September till a couple weeks ago I was in school again. I had a very hectic semester and was sick a lot and Clint never found a second job. Luckily he got his on-campus job back a whole week sooner than we had expected!

We had a wonderful Christmas with my family. My parents surprised us with our own starter of the Willow Tree Nativity! If we had ended up stuck in Rexburg, I would have been very depressed...unless we had a nativity. Now if the occasion ever does occur, I will be comforted by the beauty of the manger scene and the love of my husband and our Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ.

May you be blessed as another new year descends upon us. Our love and prayers are ever filled with thoughts of our friends and family!

Happy New Year!

Sarah and Clint Smith

Dear Santa

Dear Pere Noel, 

I know it's already Christmas Eve and you're already traveling in your sleigh.  I am quite certain however that you know what I am writing to ask for this Christmas.  I believe that like God knows what blessings we need and the true desires of our hearts...but some blessings he cannot grant to us in their fullness if we are not striving to become all that we have the potential to be/basically be better every day unless we converse with him in prayer and ask for blessings.  I believe you follow this same principle.

This year has been very difficult for my husband and I for a myriad of reasons.  Your elves will have filled you in by now as to why.  As this is last minute, I'll sum this up shortly so that you may make your deliveries on time and take care of the most urgent bits of my letter as well.

My Christmas List

1. Help my little brother to find meaning, purpose, and joy in life.

2. Swiftly guide those men who are loyal and worthy to my sister.  If you can do the same for my friends who have suffered so much heartbreak this past year, please do so.  If not, give them comfort and peace and the will to move on and despite the sorrow have joy in their hearts.

3. Healing and strength for my friend and wisdom as she and her husband choose to have a baby now or if they may be blessed to wait a little longer.  

4. A new car for Clint and I that will never have problems so long as we maintain it well.

5. Employment for my sister and two brothers.

6. A kitten for Clint and I.  Shorthair.  Pretty markings.  Loving spirit.  Sweet but adventuresome temperament.

7. A cat genie litter system for the kitten.
8. And a job for me on campus as an info-desk secretary please!
We love you Santa!  We'll be home Sunday night to see what you've brought to bless us and the lives of our special friends.
<3 Sarah and Clint Smith

34 of 99

Ok here's what you do.... Copy this to your blog and select the ones that you have done and make them BOLD.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling (sort of)
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Have been published (New Era)
81. Visited the Redwoods
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Got a tattoo
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit (almost)
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Christmas Spirit

http://www.lds.org/topic/christmas/

Christmas Message

http://www.byuimagazine.net/video/ChristmasMessage2009_Large.mp4

The Beloved Son

Christmas Message 2009

Kim B. Clark

he story of the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night has been part of Christmas for me since I can remember.  When our children were little, we would gather together on Christmas Eve and reenact those great scenes of the Savior’s birth.  We had little shepherds dressed in bathrobes with dishtowels around their heads, and we had a little Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus.

ith all the players carefully instructed, and with the kind of precision and discipline so characteristic of these kinds of performances, we read Luke’s account of the shepherds in the field.  In song and verse we celebrated the wondrous appearance of the angel of the Lord and the heavenly choir announcing the Savior’s birth in these familiar words:

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. ¹ 

he shepherds hurried to see the babe lying in a manger.  How wonderful it must have been for those faithful, awestruck shepherds to look down upon the promised Messiah.

ix hundred years earlier, Nephi also was blessed to see the Savior at His birth:

...The angel spake unto me, saying: Look!

And I looked and beheld the virgin again, bearing a child in her arms.

And the angel said unto me: Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the
Eternal Father! ²

he little boy nestled in Mary’s arms was the Lamb of God, the Savior and Redeemer of all mankind.

hen Jesus was born, the Father expressed His all-powerful, redeeming love.  He gave His Firstborn in the Spirit and Only Begotten in the flesh to suffer and die for us.

he Father’s divine love was in His Beloved Son from the moment He was born.  That love deepened and expanded until it became—in Christ the Lord—pure and perfect, infinite and eternal, a fullness of divine light and power.  The divine love of the Father and His Beloved Son is all encompassing in its power to strengthen, heal, and purify, and, if we allow it, to change our very nature.

his is the love that “sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things.... and the most joyous to the soul.” ³

his is the love that motivated the multitudes in Lehi’s dream to seek the tree whose fruit filled Lehi’s soul “with exceedingly great joy.” ⁴  The multitudes could see and feel God’s love, and that love drew them to the tree.  But to taste of the fruit, to actually have the pure love of Christ in their hearts, they had to walk the strait and narrow path all the way to the tree.  They had to come unto Christ holding fast to the iron rod through scorn and ridicule and swirling mists of darkness.

nd so it is with us.  The path is open, the iron rod stands strong and firm, and the tree is laden with fruit.  Christ beckons us to come to Him.  The great Christmas message is, thus, a message of love and righteousness—God lives and loves us; His Beloved Son, born of Mary in Bethlehem, is the Lamb of God, the Savior and Redeemer.  His transforming, redeeming love is real and all-powerful.  If we will act in faith in Christ to repent, obey, and serve holding fast to the iron rod all of our days, His pure and perfect love will be in us and it will grow until we are filled.

y brothers and sisters, the story of the shepherds in the field is true.  The promise of the angels is true.  The message of Christmas is true.  The shepherds heard the promise and sought the Savior, and so must we.  It is my prayer that we will gather with our loved ones this Christmas season and recommit ourselves to a spiritual journey of faith, repentance, obedience, and service—a journey of love.  May we join with the shepherds of old and say to each other, in awe and wonder, “Let us now go even unto Bethlehem,” ⁵ to love, serve, and follow the Lamb of God, our Savior and King.

---

^[1]  Luke 2:14

^[2] 1 Nephi 11:19-21

^[3] 1 Nephi 11:22-23

^[4] 1 Nephi 8:12

^[5]  Luke 2:15