What Do Belgian Chocolates Have To Do With Gaining A Testimony?

We had a leisurely Sunday morning of breakfast, watching some church movies, and Autumn playing w/ her dolls.  She kept coming over to show me every time she would add an elastic to her Jasmine doll’s hair.  It was not that long ago that I remember she didn’t know how to do it and was always asking me to put elastics in her dolls’ hair.  Now she’s grown up and can do it by herself.  It makes me sad but proud at the same time.

These are the surprise treat that I found at Costco yesterday that I used in my Young Women’s lesson on testimony.  During the lesson I had this box of chocolates sitting out on the table and I would nonchalantly eat some during the lesson.  I stopped about 1/2 way through the lesson and asked them if they had noticed that I was eating the chocolates.  They said yes, and I asked them if they loved how good the chocolates were.  They looked confused and one of them said, “we don’t know b/c we’ve never tried them.”  I then turned that into the object lesson and shared w/ them that a testimony is the same way.  We can take someone’s word about something (like parents or other trusted leaders), but eventually we need to find out for ourselves if we believe something is true or not.  I told the girls that in 5 years they could possibly be serving missions or be married and have kids of their own, so they need to develop their own testimonies so they can share it with others.

I then passed around the chocolates so they could experience for themselves the same sweetness that I was experiencing.  I also noticed that there was a red heart in the middle of the box so I tied that into the next part of the lesson.  I shared how everyone comes to have their own testimony through different ways.  But, in the middle of it all everyone has to receive a confirmation in their heart from the Holy Ghost that something is true.  I shared this quote from the lesson:

“An eyewitness [is] not enough.  Even the witness and testimony of the original Apostles had to be rooted in the testimony of the Holy Ghost.  A prophet has told us that the witness of the Holy Ghost makes an impression on our soul that is more significant than ‘a visitation of an angel.’” ~ Elder Dallin H. Oaks

I realized that I haven’t been taking a weekly self picture of Autumn & I like I used to.  I was so good about doing that every week before Church, and just haven’t in a while.  Maybe it’s b/c I get faces like this from Autumn!  LOL!  But, that is real life at this stage in our lives.  So I’m going to try and be better about taking our pictures together again.

After church, we went over to Mom & Dad’s house to make dinner and eat w/ Nick.  He was an angel and watched Autumn for me so I could go visiting teaching at 6:00.  Then at 6:30 my visiting teaching partner and I met up w/ another lady we visit teach to go to a Single Adult fireside.  It was given by a senior married couple that returned in December from a mission to Russia.  They shared their experiences there and how much the church has grown in just 20 years.  It made me think about my own mission to Slovenija and how much I love and miss the people there.

They did a great job, but went 30 minutes overtime, so as soon as it was done I hurried home to make sure Nick & Autumn were doing OK.  Sometimes they get along great and other times they are like water and oil.  Nick said she had fallen asleep and taken a nap, so they were fine.  Nick gets the “Good Helper Of The Year” award for filming at least 18 re-takes of a segment I was trying to do for my Biggest Loser audition video.  I also had him take some regular pictures for me to take to the casting call.  Please give me your constructive criticism on this pic.  I’m wondering if I should crop it so it shows mostly my face?  What do y’all think?