Autumn Got To Hold 2 Rare Books

Today was one of the crazy busy Sundays where we had something scheduled almost every hour.  I got cleaned up early this morning & went visiting teaching to Donna’s at 9:00 am.  I’m so thankful to have a visiting teaching partner (love ya, Shawna) who shares the load of setting up appointments and teaching the lesson.  She set up all the visits this month, and I did the lesson.  I used THIS cute handout from Marci Coombs & attached it to a little bottle of hand sanitizer that had a bee on it.

We left her house at 10:00, I came home and put together some breakfast for Autumn & I, and then I went visiting teaching at Zulema’s.  I’m thankful Nick was home so Autumn could stay home instead of having to go visiting teaching w/ me.  Usually Abbey & Ashley are there for her to talk to, but neither of them were there this month so it’s good she stayed home.  The 3rd lady we visit teach never responds for us to come visit her, so I just left the handout & hand sanitizer on her doorstep.

I got home at noon, got dressed in church clothes, and then Autumn & I left for church.  I got to give a talk in sacrament meeting today about the new 2015 Youth Theme.  I shared some pages from the book, “The Peter Potential,” and also some things from the New Era (the church’s monthly magazine for youth) and I think it went OK. I am weird & actually LIKE giving talks in sacrament meeting b/c I always learn a lot as I prepare a talk. However, I can’t just make stuff up on the fly.  I have to have it written out or else I forget.

After sacrament meeting, Autumn had her interview w/ the Bishop about getting baptized soon. She was nervous about it, especially since I didn’t go in w/ her.  But, she rocked it and is excited about getting baptized.  I took her to class and then went and pulled one of my YW out of her Sunday School class to talk to her.  Instead of going to Relief Society w/ the Laurels during the 3rd hour, I stayed with the Mia Maids class. We had a great discussion about the Godhead. At 4:15 we had our quick ward council meeting, and then Autumn & I rushed home, I scarfed down some food, and then we had a YW Presidency meeting at 5:00.  Our home teachers came at 6:00

One of our home teachers is a church history buff & owns a bookstore in Utah.  He shared w/ Autumn two VERY special books from his collection.  Autumn is holding Elder Chaney’s copy  of the Book of Mormon, which was one of the original 5,000 first edition prints. The reason that is significant is b/c Elder Chaney & his companion taught Wilford Woodruff (the 4th prophet of this dispensation) the gospel and baptized him.  There were only 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon printed in the first printing and of those 5,000 only about 500 copies are still around.  So, it’s very likely that Wilford Woodruff would have read from this very copy of the Book of Mormon!

Then, he let Autumn hold the prophet Joseph Smith’s personal pocket/thumb bible! It was so cool to see the prophet’s signature on the inside cover. Things like this don’t make the church any more true, or change our testimonies at all. But, it’s cool to be able to get a picture of Autumn holding something that belonged to and was used by the prophet that restored the gospel in this dispensation! It was a great way to finish off a very long and busy Sunday.