Month: February 2026

Having Joy

| cnaglis63

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) I love to witness the moments of joy in my life and give appreciation for them. When you look carefully and thoughtfully, you will find joy in your life. I witnessed this throughout the past week.

Having joy is a choice to find deep contentment in faith, rather than a denial of pain. I love these scriptures because to rejoice always is an invitation to find strength in God during trials like stress, fatigue or conflict.

To pray continually gives me a constant connection to God’s strength. Giving thanks in all circumstances is a practice that I found to shift my difficulties to gratitude. Through this practice I have helped myself build maturity, patience and a deeper more resilient faith.

As taught by President Russell M. Nelson, true joy is a spiritual state, not merely fleeting happiness, that can be maintained regardless of whether one is experiencing a bad day, week, or year. 

We had the opportunity to assist a family who were being joined together in marriage this past week. As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we believe that families can be together forever in the eternities. While the couple were being married, the youngest children were getting impatient and could hardly wait to go into the sealing room. After the sealing of the family was done, the children were heard exclaiming, “THIS is the BEST day of my life!! We are an eternal family now!!!” I was so touched by their gratitude and joy at being joined together. I don’t remember seeing such joy from children before as they understood the importance of being together forever.

As well, the grandparents were so grateful and full of joy, and that joy spread throughout the temple. Family had flown in from across the country to be together and witness this marriage and sealing of family. What a beautiful day! Another miracle was that the sun was shining and they were able to take photos outside the temple together. The sun doesn’t shine very often in the winter here in New York. One person told me that this sky color is called “New York Gray”.

Here we are; best of the goofing around photos

Our home Ward has asked us for a photo of the two of us and a scripture to go on a plaque to commemorate our mission. Erik and I never sit for a professional photographer and thus we kept forgetting to get a photo done. We wanted one outside of the temple, but the weather didn’t cooperate. We finally went next door to the Gurr’s and asked them to take a photo of us. The next problem is that we don’t seem to take photos very seriously and it’s more of a comedy scene than anything else.

It’s hard to take this seriously!

Erik has been fine tuning his spreadsheet for our journey home. If there is anything you have seen in the USA that you would recommend for us, let me know. So far, we are planning on going to Lancaster, Pennsylvania to see a play at the Sight and Sound Theatre. This year the play is called Joshua. I’m really looking forward to it!

Sight & Sound® began nearly 50 years ago in rural Pennsylvania when a dairy farmer went from producing milk to producing live entertainment with a purpose. Now with two state-of-the-art theater locations, an online streaming platform, and a film studio, Sight & Sound brings powerful stories from the pages of Scripture and history to life on stage and screen.

Whenever I think of Gettysburg, I think of Bruce Blumell. Bruce has a deep love of history and for one Empty-Nester family home evening get together, he gave a presentation on Gettysburg. I have been to Germany to the concentration camps and felt the horrors of those places so I have mixed feelings about Gettysburg which had over 51,000 casualties in three days. This was one hundred years before I was born. This battle was the turning point in the American Civil War.

I am on the final projects for quilting and Erik is starting to get nervous that I won’t get them done. Today I have the final large project ready for the long arm quilter. Binding is made and ready to apply to the quilt when it gets back to me. I laid out fabrics for the next two projects and am feeling confident.

The lost sock

My missing sock has been found!! I bought some socks from North Carolina and they are based on using recycled wool. Each pair is made with the same pattern but the colors may not be in the exact same places in each sock. I was sad, wondering where my sock could have wandered off to. Erik (the official laundry person) said that it was probably stuck inside of some piece of clothing. Today he decided to cut up one of his collared T-shirts and found my lost sock inside of it. I am so grateful that he didn’t cut the sock!!

Next Sunday, Erik and I have been asked to give our final talks in our Branch. We will be talking about the blessings of the temple. When an English speaker uses a translator, the time is as if there were two talks given, so, we will have to be cognizant of the time (well, Erik will have to).

Tonight we are going to join up with the Historic Site missionaries for a Valentine’s Day meal. Their new Mission Leader for the Historic Sites will be joining us. There has been a two week break between the last Mission Leaders leaving and the new leaders arriving. Next month the new sister missionaries will start arriving as well to prepare themselves for the tours. They memorize the scripts for the tours and do a fabulous job.

I found an Instagram page called “mormon_food_review”. It’s really cute because these men who drink beer and cook chili decided to feed the missionaries. They edit their salty language but it’s so nice to see people being kind and helping the missionaries. They are from New York (Rochester) and I recognized two missionaries who have served at the temple. One of the videos show them in a restaurant being fed “Garbage Plates” which are famous in Rochester.

https://www.instagram.com/mormon_food_review/

I am bringing my seven (or more) layer salad to the dinner tonight. Erik cooks the eggs and the bacon and opens the can of water chestnuts for me. I chop and grate and get the salad put together. The good thing is that I used up two jars from the fridge, plus a can, haha! The Gurr’s showed us their food left and it’s not much at all. They are doing much better than us at reducing our food pantry. We’ll get there eventually!

I may sound like a broken record but I really believe that where we focus our lives will determine the joy we experience. The world around us is going to pieces, we need to be a righteous people who will receive the Lord when he returns. I encourage you to be part of creating Zion, having joy, keeping your covenants and stand ready to have Zion in your hearts.

Have a joyous week!

Unity

| cnaglis63
Reclining together

We have spent the last two Sundays in Palmyra because of the snow. Unbeknownst to us, Palmyra Ward was having Ward Conference on Sunday. As I looked around at the people who were attending as well as the Stake leaders, Erik and I realized that we know many of these people. It was beautiful to meet together for the purpose of renewing our baptismal covenants.

I was overcome by the strength of the congregation renewing our baptismal covenant through partaking of the sacrament. We were one in Christ. Then I thought about all the saints world wide doing the same thing and was reminded of the great strength there is in doing so. What do we covenant at baptism?

We renew these covenants each week as we partake of the sacrament.

  1. Come unto the fold of God (become a member of the church of Jesus Christ).
  2. Be called His son or daughter (take upon me the name of Christ).
  3. Bear others’ burdens, that they may be light; mourn with those that mourn; and comfort those in need of comfort (help others).
  4. Stand as a witness of God at all times and in all things and in all places (testify of Christ and set a good example at all times).
  5. Serve God and keep his commandments.

When I keep my baptismal covenants the Lord covenants to:

  1. Forgive my sins.
  2. Pour his spirit more abundantly upon me (give me the companionship of the Holy Ghost).
  3. Redeem me that I might be numbered with those of the first resurrection and have eternal life (permit me to enter the celestial kingdom to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ).

Can you imagine the power that is available on earth when we collectively renew our covenants? I loved thinking about this while sacrament was being passed to the congregation.

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are a covenant making and keeping people. In both our Relief Society and Priesthood meetings, we had discussions about the covenants that we make in our lives with God. The feeling of unity was beautiful and it made me think of the life that we have developed and lived the past year. We have made so many new relationships with hundreds of people. The first month of our mission brought a feeling of being overwhelmed for me because I love to meet people and learn all about them. I was thrust into a new situation and was trying to process how I was going to accomplish the integration of all these people into my brain.

Last week, I looked back at the year and am thrilled with all my new friends and love to greet them by name as they come to the temple. One sister arrived on a Thursday for an initiatory session. Then I saw her again with youth from her ward to do a baptistry session. She was surprised to see me and said, “Are you always here?” I told her that, “Yes, we are here at the temple nearly everyday”.

I always think that we work with the best people at the temple. Temple workers are trying so diligently to live up to their covenants and thus we feel so blessed to be together. They truly are kind, sweet people who love to serve and be in the Lord’s house.

I had the opportunity to visit with a young lad (approximately 14 years old). He is one of a set of quadruplets. His other siblings had come the previous day but he had the opportunity to come by himself with other ward members. We had a great discussion about the Savior and I shared some experiences that are sacred to me with him. The following day, a sister that I was working with filled me in on some background of that young man and it quickly became apparent that God had put him and I together the day before. There are no coincidences in this life. Our experiences have a purpose and we need to pay attention to understand what the Lord has for us.

The south side of our house

So, it seems that winter has followed us to New York. While our western friends are living life in the balmy breezes well above freezing, we have actually reached minus 20 Celsius. Whenever the groundhog predicts six more weeks of winter, I usually think that, of course we do, it’s Canada! Hopefully in a month, it will look a little different here in New York. Erik has been plotting out our route for going home. We are heading south to avoid the blizzards that will be streaking across the continent. The first thing that Erik found to do, is bass fishing in Guntersville, Alabama. We do have other things lined up first on the recommendation of our friends. Stay tuned for those adventures!

This week I managed to get all the quilt blocks done for a quilt. I can hardly wait to see this quilted. Then I am on to table runners. My sewing machine still has two more weeks at the “spa”. I’m very grateful for my loaner machine!

Making heart blocks

This past week, I was prompted to do an endowment session in another language. I ended up doing a French session and it was delightful. I have never done a French session before and I was surprised because we have been attending a Spanish branch and my Spanish has greatly improved by doing so. I have been working on my French for a few months and it went very well. I am also working on my ASL skills and I’m so tickled to be able to keep learning new languages.

I am selecting recipes to try for my sweetheart. We enjoy our chocolate so I will try this one.

Paleo Chocolate Torte (Flourless, No Bake)

https://bakeitpaleo.com/paleo-chocolate-torte

I can testify of this! We are absolutely walking different paths. Working together makes this life easier.

I was thinking about the city of Enoch. They were all taken up. No one on the earth has been perfect save the Lord, Jesus Christ. I think of this city and in years past, I thought that they were taken up to the Lord because they were near perfect. Now, I think the important thing is that they were all facing the same direction. Having our hearts knit in unity with Christ is important. We are all so diverse and facing different challenges, yet, we can be unified by facing towards Christ.

So, let us walk upright before God and with one another. We will receive help from the other side to give us succor on our journey. As we continue in our imperfections and foibles may we be ever blessed with help from each other and from our savior, Jesus Christ.

Breathe

| cnaglis63

It is an odd thing when Upstate New York is colder than Alberta. We were sitting at -15C here in New York and Alberta was having above zero Celsius temperatures. With the cold here comes very dry air. I am over the sensation of getting zapped every time I get up to go do something. I had packed a little diffuser for essential oils but we have been running it constantly just to put a little moisture back into the air. Still….Zing! Uncomfortable but I know that one day it won’t happen anymore. Oh, glory be!

I am including this photo that Erik took a couple of weeks ago. This is our church parking lot in Greece. It looks very frosty but it is entirely covered in salt.

Our house developed huge icicles hanging from the eaves. If one of those fell, it would kill someone. We were wondering how to deal with them and I suggested opening the laundry room window and using a broom, try to knock off the icicles. Erik tried it and it worked. It’s getting treacherous to walk on our stoop stairs because of all the melting, dripping and refreezing. On the other side of the house is our bedroom window and while I was sewing, I heard the thud of ice hitting the ground. Erik was again using a broom to knock off the icicles. I was worried about them falling because the air conditioning units sitting below the bedroom.

We finally were able to make it to Jon’s Sewing Machines in Wolcott. On Thursday we left early and made it with clear roads. They carry a small selection of fabric but I was able to find the New York State panel that has been sold out everywhere. They were able to reorder some and I was thrilled to find it. I want to make a quilt of the places we visited while in New York and many of the panels depict these places. Jon expanded his shop to have a huge repair area and so my Bernina is in for some spa time. On the way home, we hit a snow squall right before highway 14 and so we turned south and went to Lyons.

While in Lyons, we went to Aldi’s to pick up some veggies. We saw an Amish couple shopping there and when we left I had Erik take photos of their ride.

Our son Lyndon sent us a little video of our grandson, Henry opening his birthday present that we mailed to him. I found a quiet book of the Old Testament stories. When Henry asked his mom what it was, his dad replied, “Those are the brass plates.” Henry then said, “They sure are, they sure are!” Toddlers are so cute! He has now decided that he needs to wear a tie to church to go to nursery class.

Salt laid down by the snow removal company.

This past week, we experienced the onslaught of salt on the temple grounds. It’s very pretty and looks like sea glass but unfortunately it does get tracked into the temple and then melts into the carpets and makes blue puddles on the floor. Thus the presidency decided that we should encourage the patrons to remove their outer footwear before coming into the main foyer. We have four little cloak areas to hang coats and place footwear. It really helped to keep the temple cleaner and safer for everyone. This photo shows how much salt is on the sidewalks.

Palmyra temple by C. Fazio

My friend Christine loves to take photos and she’s really good at it. This photo is one of hers on a day where we actually could see blue skies.

On Sunday, we attempted to drive to Greece for church but as we were leaving Palmyra, the snow started picking up in intensity. By the time we reached the west side of Macedon, it was coming down so thickly that we thought that it might not be a good idea to proceed. We passed 3 big snowplows heading out in a row to the freeway and that sealed the deal. We turned around at Egypt and came back to Palmyra in perfect time for church.

This was my first church meeting in English in nearly a year. The first Sunday of the month, we have the opportunity to share our testimonies of the Savior. Members go up to the pulpit one at a time and share their thoughts. Near the end of the meeting, I saw out of the corner of my eye, a young lady going to the front row to wait her turn. I was on the opposite side of the chapel and couldn’t see who she was but my spirit was so drawn to her and I wondered who she possibly could be. When it was her turn, I gasped when I saw that she was a young lady from our 5th Branch that I hadn’t seen in months. Her parents are divorced and she had decided to spend some time with her mother. This young lady is very special and is so, so sweet. She has a very kind soul and looks to help others. I couldn’t wait to see her after the meeting. I turned to Sister Lau, who I was sitting with and said, “That’s why we were sent back to Palmyra today!” This darling girl and I exchanged contact information and had lots of hugs and a great little catchup. I love her like she is one of my grandchildren. This was a great lesson in knowing that God has plans for us and we just need to listen.

I have been asking the Lord about what’s next after the next. He told me that I am getting ahead of myself and that I need to breathe. So, I place my trust in Him and know that all will work out for my benefit.

Take your time to breathe and pause. Especially in these times with all the chaos going on around us, it can become overwhelming. Step back to reclaim your peace and serenity. I love the quote, “Don’t trade God’s timing for your deadline.”

In John 14:27 we find: Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Go forth with faith, not fear and know that you are loved and God’s timing is perfect.