Maze

I had a really neat experience this past weekend that I want to blog about, more for myself so that I remember it, but feel free to read on.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go to a baptism of a girl who was getting baptized into my ward. It was a really neat experience, and to make it better she asked me if I would give a talk on the Holy Ghost. Of course I said yes, however, she asked me Friday if I would give the talk and the baptism was Saturday. I was a little nervous with giving this talk and wasn't quite sure what I was going to say. I had been thinking about it all day and didn't have much going through my head. Most of the baptisms that I have attended are for 8 year olds and I didn't want this talk to come across to this girl who is 21 that I was talking to a child.

Well I went about my day with this in the back of my mind. I had been planing on going to a bbq and then to the corn maze with a bunch of friends, so I went even though I knew I needed to get this talk written, oh and I had a lesson to plan for Sunday. (yes I am a procrastinator I have known about the lesson for a month) So off to the bbq I went, once there I wasn't sure if I was going to go to the corn maze, but I did and boy am I glad I went. While I was going through the maze I had HUGE inspiration for my talk. It was amazing! So I want to write down how I used my maze experience for my talk...

I started off by talking about he differences between the Power of the Holy Ghost, and the Gift of the Holy Ghost. For those of you who don't know the difference I will quickly explain. The Power of the Holy Ghost is the witness of the truthfulness of the Gospel to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that one receives while investigating the church. The Gift of the Holy Ghost is what you receive after you have been baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by the laying on of hands by the proper Priesthood authority, which gives you the Holy Ghost as your constant companion throughout your life to help you and guide you as long as we are keeping the commandments and living how God has asked us to live. So keeping this is mind I am going to tell my experience of the maze and how this applies.

Me and my friends walked up to the begining of the maze and there were 2 seperate entrances. Once was a maze where you could walk through and come to certain "check points" where you would be asked a question, and upon answering the question properly would guide you through the maze to the end. The other entrance on the other hand you were left to your own instincts and guessing skills as to which path to take. So of course looking at the 2 options me and my friends chose the path of guessing. Well I will tell you I have been to a few corn mazes in my life and this one was SO hard. We were lost forever. There were so many dead ends and loops that lead you in circles. At one point one of my friends ran a head and came back and yelled hey guys this is the path you want to be on, so we would head that direction. Well at the end of the maze there was a large tower that if you stood on the top you could look down and see the proper path to come down. As we made our way through this maze we were starting to get to the point that we could see the tower but weren't quite sure how to get to it. So we continued on. There was one point where we were close enough to talk to the guide standing on the tower and we thought we had picked the wrong path to go down so we had started to turn around when tower guy yelled down to us, "are you sure you want to go that way?" which got us thinking, mmm maybe...so we turned around and starated back to where we came from and he gave us a little bit of guidance as to where to go. Well we finally made it to the tower and most of the people we had gone with were already at the tower and were helping guide us where we needed to go.

Now you might think, how does this relate to the Holy Ghost. Well let me explain. For me the side of the maze that I went through is like going through life with only having the Power of the Holy Ghost. We wander through life with no direction and no help, but ever once in a while we get a little help by the Holy Ghost saying, "ya hey come this way, this path will lead you to where you need to be, which is having the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in your life, which will lead you to true happiness. And we may follow that prompting for a while and then forget about it because it can't be with us all the time, but then some time goes by and we may be looking into the church again and maybe start turning away from it again, but we have the Power of the Holy Ghost saying, "are you sure you want to turn away from this?" and in the end if we make it to the tower, we have listened and have made the choice of baptism.

Now on the flip side of things I liken the other side of the maze to those of us who have been baptized as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and those check points in the maze are the Holy Ghost guiding and directing us down the proper path and helping us along in life. Now sometimes as baptized members we may find ourselves in the other maze walking aimlessly along not knowing what to do because we have lost sight of the Holy Ghost, but thankfully there is what we call repentance and through this we are able to have the Holy Ghost as our constant companion back in our life taking us back to the maze with help and check points.

I have such a strong testimony of the Gospel and I know that the Holy Ghost helps and guides me in my life. I am so thankful for this blessing in my life. I am also thankful that I was asked to give this talk at the baptism because if I hadn't I wouldn't have ever had the neat experience that I did through this maze. It brought a whole new outlook on the Holy Ghost into my life.

- Kinsey

kids sometimes

Wow 2 posts in 2 ways this is a new record for me! So this past Sunday my sister Kelly came down from Sylvan Lake with her 2 kids to go spend some time with her in laws out in Taber, she first stopped at mom and dads in Cardston and spent the night there. So I headed for Cardston right after church so I could be there with them. Well I arrived before they did and was met by some very excited nephews when they finally arrived. Of course one of the favorite things to participate in at Grammie's and Pa's house is the trampoline. After 3 or 4 times of my sweet little Rhett coming into the house saying "Auntie are you going to come jump with us yet?" I finally caved and went to jump. Here is where the story gets good. So we are jumping around and Rhett (who is 5) says...

Rhett - Auntie look there's the temple

Me - Your right Rhett there it is

Rhett - My mom and dad were married there (said matter of factly)

Me - Yup they were, are you going to get married there Rhett?

Rhett- When I'm big

Me - Sweet, am I invited?

Rhett - Sure...I guess if you want to you can come

Me - Well thanks Rhett I'm glad I can come. So Rhett who do you think is going to get married first...Me or Zane (Zane is 8)

Zane - Pfff ME

Me - Speechless and feeling like I just got stabbed in the heart. Thanks Zane.

Zane - Laughing

At this point I tackled and tickled this child. Gotta love nephews. This is also the nephew when the last time I asked him if he thought I was ever going to get married said...mmm eventually. I can tell he has a lot of faith in me and finding a husband. Oh and he told me when I do get married I shouldn't have too many kids. I should only have 2 or 3. Any more than that is too many. Haha what a kid.

So I guess the moral of the story, stop asking my nephews opinion on my marriage status or I will be at least 39 before I'm going to be married!

- Kinsey

What the...

Ok how is it that in this part of the world (being Southern Alberta) does summer FLY by...yet winter lasts F.O.R.E.V.E.R? I hate it! I have yet again blinked and another summer is gone. It has been a good one though. I have been able to spend a lot of time with family. Its the most I have probably seen Kelly and her kids in a short span of time since they moved up to "Central Alberta" and it has been awesome. I have loved it! I miss them too much through the year when I only get to see them for a few days every 3 or 4 months. Her and the kids came down in July and it just so happened that I had most of the time off work so I was able to spend a lot of it with them. We went to Waterton one day which was the coldest day of the week and resulted in us sitting in the back of mums SUV for a very rememberable picnic. We tried to go down by the lake to let the kids throw rocks but every time we attempted it the wind Gods did not like this idea and the wind would pick up so hard that we could barely walk into the wind it was crazy. Also while they were here we did July 1st parade in Raymond and then BBQ in Cardston, Grandma Robinson turned 80 and we attended her birthday bash. Let me tell ya getting all her kids, grandkids, and great grandkids in a picture was quite the feat but we did it and the only person I think we were missing was my brother in law Cliff. He had to work and couldn't come down. That pretty much sums up July.

August I moved into Lethbridge. Mom and dad found some renters for their house so I got the boot, so into Lethbridge I went. Its been really nice to not commute every day. The first week of August I went up to visit Kell and the kids which was a blast! I wish I had had longer than a week. I finally for the first time since they moved up there got to go to the BEACH! Rhett told me before I got there that they were going to take me, and Kelly told me they ordered nice weather and sure enough we had nice weather and went to the beach. It was a lot of fun. Me and Kell also got to have some solo sister time which was a blast as always. She is definitely one of my favorite people in the whole world. I wish we lived close enough that I could see her every day.

That has been my summer thus far. I will attempt to put a few more pictures up however my sisters have not been putting their pictures on Facebook so I can't steal them off there and I don't have a camera so I don't take pictures. When they finally put them on I will post pictures.


These are my 4 nephews playing at the park.

hmmm...

Well blogging world it has been too long since I last posted. So to get myself caught back up I'm just going to give a quick over view of whats been going on in my life since lets see...mmm NOVEMBER. I can't believe it has been that long since I last posted. Lots has happened.

So lets start from there things that have happened since November

1. Christmas - I know I know who wants to go back and think about Christmas however I had a really good one. It was my first Christmas not spent at home in Raymond. Me, mom and dad went up to Kelly and Cliff's and spent it with them and the boys. Christmas is always so much better with little children around. The excitement is always so fun to watch.

2. I turned 25 - This was actually a really hard thing for me to come to grips with. I may have cried a little bit. Turning 25 just seemed so old, one of the only things I kept thinking was... I am now closer to 30 than 20 what a depressing thought (no offence Kell since you did turn 30 this year), and I am not where I thought I would be at 25 which made it all the harder to turn 25. I have since come to grips with it and am really enjoying this year of my life so far.

3. I went through the temple and received my endowment. It was the best experience of my life and I am so glad that I made the decision to go through. It has definitely showed me that my Father in Heaven truly loves me and knows me. There were so many things that happened in the temple that made the experience amazing that I know Heavenly Father put in place for me.

4. My nephew Zane got baptized. This actually happened the day after I went through the temple. It was such a good weekend. It is crazy to think that I have a nephew old enough to be baptized. Time flies by.

5. I went down to Utah with my best friend Kelsey for Conference. It was so fun to road trip with her down there. We stayed with her aunt and uncle and it was pretty much a whirl wind trip. We headed down on a Friday and came home on Sunday. Crazy I know, but your only young and single once right?

6. Mom and dad moved to Cardston and I am currently living in their house in Raymond by myself until it sells. I am really enjoying living on my own its going to be a little difficult to live with roommates again when the time comes.

8. I am currently working on getting a second job to help get myself out of debt and to save money either to go back to school, or to go traveling. I think I am leaning more towards traveling, but we will see what happens.

Well thats about all thats new in my life. Hopefully I will be a better blogger and actually write fun stuff on here in more detail.

-Kinsey