Thank You, Thomas S Monson

On January 2, 2018, President Thomas Spencer Monson, sixteenth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, passed away quietly, surrounded by his family. For almost a full decade he served as the president of the church, which was the pinnacle of a life dedicated to service in the church. He was called as an apostle at the age of 36, and had previously served as a bishop. He also had a special connection to Canada as he served as the mission president for the Toronto, Ontario Canada mission. He dedicated the Calgary Temple in 2012 and has always had a special place in his heart for our country. For all of my life I remember him as someone I looked forward to hearing from during General Conference. He would always have stories from his life to support the lessons he would teach us. I often thought of him as a wise and kind grandfather, imparting his wisdom and knowledge to us. Most of all, I will remember him for his love for Jesus Christ. His testimony and witness of Christ is one of his lasting legacies.

In the days following his passing, I read and watched a lot of tributes to President Monson. Mostly, they were positive and praiseworthy. Even Donald Trump was able to say something nice about him. A few media outlets chose to focus on the negative, highlighting things that really had little to do with President Monson, making it seem like his term as president was plagued with controversy. They could not have been further from the truth. Yes, there were those who left the church because he would not change established doctrine and policy that would go against the Lord's will. There are those in every generation. It just serves as a further tribute to Monson's love and obedience to the Lord. True, there were some incidents that happened that caused people to wonder if the church was going to be taken down by scandal. When you get to the bottom of the scandal, however, you see that there was really nothing scandalous about anything, other than the lengths some would go to discredit the church. Throughout it all, President Monson never turned to mud-slinging, insults, or denigration. While he was firm in his resolve to do the Lord's will, he always did so with humility and love. 

He was the President of the church during a very difficult portion of my life, and many of his teachings were a strength and a boon to me. I was always impressed with his ability to help me see the beauty in life and to keep a good sense of humor about things. Instead of going through a lengthy list of accomplishments and stats about the man, let me share with you some of his words of teaching and counsel over the years that mean a lot to me.

There is something wise in the admonition to choose friends with caution. This doesn't mean that we are suspicious of everyone, but that we are to be truly careful in choosing our friends. This includes opening your heart to the possibilities of befriending the seemingly friendless. I also appreciate the counsel to plan our future with purpose. It is easy to go through life without goals, but real growth happens when we have a purpose in life. As for framing my life with faith, well, it's hard for me to put into words how that has impacted my life, but I know that my life would be considerably more difficult and sad if I did not have faith.

So often I hear people say that they want to make a difference in the world. It does not matter what vocation you choose, but if you are seeking to be a good example to those around you, you will make the world a better place.

As a Sunday school teacher in my ward, this one is very relevant to me. Every week I prepare for my class with this in mind. My goal is not to give information, but to hopefully get my students to think about their lives in a way that will cause them to make the necessary changes in their life and thereby find more happiness.

Of course, with the thinking comes action, otherwise we are just sitting there thinking, and thinking. Just thinking never accomplished anything important unless action follows the thoughts.

So many examples to go with this. We can offer a helping hand to the less fortunate, or we can more easily walk on by them without making eye contact. We can stand by the person being bullied, or we can mind our own business and say nothing. We can make the hard choice of standing alone for our morals, or we can compromise our standards and integrity for the sake of "fitting in".

This ties in with the last one. It is so easy to get caught up in seeking to stay relevant, current, and popular. The result is that we often fall for anything instead of standing for truth and right.

How do we find, grow, and nurture our testimony? Here is a formula that President Monson gave us that will help.

The trials we face in life are not going to be easy, but they will help define us. We can be all upset that life isn't perfect, or we can be learning from those challenges. I am thankful that the wisdom that I learned during my challenges helped me become a better person.

President Monson was all about service. He loved a ;life of it. He always challenged us to reach out to those in the most need. He counseled us in word and action to serve the sick, the elderly, the lonely, the oppressed, and the poor. 

Love and kindness. He never was short on those two attributes. His attitude to face everything with a positive spin is both infectious and inspiring.

I had to use this advice in my life a lot. I especially found that this works with myself as well as others. The true healing that is found in forgiving ourselves and others is astounding.

Not much I can add to this, except to say "Thank you, President Monson."

Happy 2018

So 2017 is in the bag, and 2018 has started. It has been quite the year for us in the Andrews household. Heather started the school year with a new teaching assignment. She teaches kindergarten in the morning and music in the afternoon. It keeps her very busy but she is enjoying it. She gets to work with all the students in her school and has had some great experiences. My favorite was when she coordinated a Ghostbusters flash mob with the entire school without the rest of the staff knowing about it. It has really exercised her creativity. She also was called as the Primary President in our ward, and is using her talents to help all the children of the ward.

Barbara started kindergarten this fall. We spent a lot of time researching which school to send her before deciding on FFCA. I'm excited about the prospects of having her in my high school eventually. Barbara was super excited to be in school. She loves her teacher, Mrs. Lin, and is friends with all of her classmates. She also gets a kick out of her principal, Mr. Lowther. She talks about him so much that Hope is starting to talk about wanting him as a principal. Barbara started reading before school started, and has also begun piano lessons. She is learning lots and we are seeing remarkable improvement in things such as her penmanship and coloring.

Hope is still working on potty training. She has the day time figured out, but is still needing the pull-ups for nighttime. She has developed quite the dominant attitude and is proving to be a force to be reckoned with. She loves to laugh and giggle and wants to do everything her big sister does. She has also started to plink away at the piano on her own. Sometimes it amazes me how well she is able to figure out music on her own. Once in a while we mistake her experimentation with Barbara practicing. She finished off her time in nursery this year and is looking forward to being a Sunbeam in Primary next year.

My brother Kevin, who has been living with us for close to two years, started a new job at Canadian Tire. It has been a really good having him here. Dayton continues his studies at Mount Royal and even had an internship at World Health, where I go to for my workouts. Dustin and Andrew moved to Edmonton, and Dustin was able to find a design job at a home builders. It is exactly what he wants to do and he is enjoying the new location.

As for myself, it has been interesting for me this year. I finished the 2016-17 school year on a bit of a down note. Without going into too much detail, I was getting frustrated at work, to the point where I began to doubt myself a lot. I started the new school year with a goal to reclaim the passion that I had lost. I took a deep and honest inventory of where I was at and started to refocus my energies. It worked out for the better, mostly. Still not where I want to be, but I am in a much better place then before. A large part of this was due to a colleague who moved into the room across from me. She has helped me as a sounding board and pointed out some perspectives for me. I also took on a student teacher that I will have throughout much of the entire school year. Not only is she the best student teacher I have ever seen, our personalities have so much in common that she quickly became a good friend. It has been one of the most rewarding professional relationships I have had and has been a big part in my feeling revitalized as a teacher.

In church I received a new calling. Back in the spring I was called as the Gospel Doctrine teacher in my ward. I felt I had some pretty big shoes to fill (our previous teacher had been a general authority before this calling), but it has been a great and inspirational blessing for me. I have found a lot of joy in serving the ward in this capacity. Temple attendance continues to be a big focus in my life, and I was able to add the Toronto temple on my list of temples that I have done work in this summer. Yup, the big adventure this year was loading up the family on Canada Day and driving to Toronto to visit the in-laws on their mission for a week. We saw the Toronto Zoo, Ripley's Aquarium, and Niagara Falls. It was quite the event for us.

So, as I look forward to 2018, I feel ready to see what the year will bring. I hope there will be more laughs, more fun, and less Trump. Well, the first two are likely I guess. Here's the Top 10 list in review.

10. Movie Event of the Year - Hard to pick just one, but I will say that for many of my franchises I follow it has been great. Enjoyed Kong: Skull Island, which might be a promising franchise in itself. Thor: Ragnorok, Spiderman: Homecoming, and Guardians of the Galaxy 2 were all great additions to the MCU. DC had two great films with Justice League and Wonder Woman. And, of course, there was Episode VIII in the Star Wars saga, which I was absolutely thrilled by. Can't pick just one, so I will say the "event" was the franchise fun as a whole.

9. Music Event of the Year - Hands down it was Garth Brooks. As I blogged about earlier, we had the chance to see him perform in Calgary. Even though our seats were behind the stage and way up at the top, they felt like the best seats in the house. It was great to see the Legend that is Garth Brooks live.

8. So Proud Moment of the Year - This goes to my Dad, who seems to show no signs of slowing down in his seventies. He has really gotten involved in his community this year, including a run for town council, establishing a Highway of Heroes tribute, and managing not one but two concerts for Alix. He was able to bring in the Arrogant Worms in March (which we went to) and George Canyon in November (which we were not able to attend, sadly).

7. Milestone of the Year - I think for this one it's Barbara's first day of school. Heather was able to take her to the first day of classes, while I took her to her first school bus ride the next day. I took a photo of her running on to the bus with a "Bye Dad" sort of moment.

6. Reconnect of the Year - Went to Waterton National Park in May. It's been close to a decade since I last went, and it brought back a lot of great memories from my childhood. Quite enjoyed the time spent there just walking the town site. It was very unfortunate that the park was hit with the wildfires, but glad that the town was mostly left intact.

5. Adventure of the Year - The Toronto trip, no question. We had portable DVD players and headphones for the girls and then hit the road. It was a lot of fun, seeing things we had never seen before, and enjoyed almost every aspect of it. On the way back we stayed an extra night in the Chicago area and went to the Brookfield Zoo, which was excellent.

4. Professional Experience of the Year - That would have to be mentoring Hayley Jonason this last semester. As I already mentioned, she is the best I have seen. She could have her own classroom right now without much worry.

3. First-Time of the Year - Took the girls to Calaway Park for the first time this summer. We had a lot of fun. Hope loved being on rides that only she could be on. Barbara shouted out on so many times that it was the best day and place ever. It was so much fun we bought season passes for next year.

2. Spiritual Event of the Year - Doing sealings at the temple this year was just as special as before. We had two great sessions of it, and it was neat receiving some insight from the other side about how things were going.

1. Family Event of the Year - This was tough to choose for me, but I think I have to go with baptizing my nephew Austin a few weeks ago. It was a great and special experience for me, and it was an honor to perform this ordinance for him and his family.

I hope you all have a wonderful 2018, full of joy, happiness, and blessings.