Joy in Family History

The title for this post comes from this month's Visiting Teaching Message.
It also fits my week, though. I felt joy in family history!

I started off Sunday indexing around 200 names. I'm not saying this to brag or guilt-trip, I was given really easy batches. After Hiram had finished getting ready, he came into the kitchen and lovingly said, "Okay, let's put away the Spirit of Elijah for a bit and eat." ...Spiritual feasting and physical feasting are the same, right?

On Wednesday, I was able to go to the temple to do work for family names. A few weeks ago, I found some names on my dad's side that needed sealings, and then also a few weeks ago, my sweet sister Lexie found names on my mom's side that needed all ordinances. She and Racer were able to perform baptisms for them in the Oakland Temple, and on Wednesday, I was finally able to print off the first list of names for Endowments! It was such a wonderful experience.

I cannot even explain the lightness of spirit and joy that I felt for the rest of the day. I know I was doing work for another, but I felt as if I had been endowed with power once again. That evening, I was visited by my visiting teachers, who repeated the Visiting Teaching Message's words:

As members of Christ’s restored Church, we have the covenant responsibility to search for our ancestors and provide for them the saving ordinances of the gospel. They without us cannot “be made perfect” (Hebrews 11:40), and “neither can we without our dead be made perfect” (D&C 128:15).

I whole-heartedly agree. I felt just a glimpse of what "[being] made perfect" feels like, and it felt wonderful.

The Provo Temple. Beautiful.

On Thursday night, Hiram and I invited over some friends from our ward to play the cardgames Nerts and SET.  What I learned was that the men are wayyyy quicker at clearing their nerts piles than the women but the women totally rock at seeing SET patterns.

Safe to say, the boys got first and second place in our Nerts game (by far), and the women placed first and second in SET counts (by far).

For dessert, I wanted to provide something yummy and chilled, since it's summer. I came up with the following:

Simple Strawberry Trifle

Ingredients: 
Makes four servings of about 160 calories each -- I double counted. If you eliminate the whipped cream it's about half the calorie count. But who doesn't want whipped cream?...
Crushed Graham Crackers
1/2 cup Chocolate Pudding*
1/2 cup Vanilla Pudding*
Strawberries (2 cups sliced and four whole)
Whipped cream!
*The puddings I used were both from packets... I'm not that good.

Instructions for One Serving:
Remember, there are enough ingredients for four servings, so you can do this four times.
1. In your cup, place a layer of crushed graham cracker.
2. Over the graham crackers, spread two tablespoons of chocolate pudding.
3. Layer 1/4 cup of strawberries on top of the chocolate pudding.
4. Next, layer two tablespoons of vanilla pudding over the strawberries.
5. Add another layer consisting of the rest of your strawberries!
6. Spread the whipped cream on (I sprayed what looked like about a half a cup each), and top with your whole strawberry!
7. Grab a spoon and ENJOY!

All four servings.

The reason why I include this in my "Joy in Family History" post is because each of those beautiful dessert cups were a wedding gift from my Grandma Allen, that she and my grandpa were given as a young married couple. As I layered the dessert I thought about how she would make things look beautiful, and how the "package looked prettier than the present inside."

While I can't say that this looks better than it tasted (it tasted soooo good!), I can say that with every bite I was thinking of her.

 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: 

And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. (Malachi 4:5-6)