Less = More

I am enjoying my experiences with finding creative ways to make money. Here is one of my experiences...

I have mentioned in one of my previous posts, that the Lord is helping me in my preparations for what is to come, (whatever that is). One thing that I have been impressed to do lately is to simplify and organize our home. Two months ago, I received a few promptings to cleaning out our "storage room" (aka the most disgusting, dust collecting, junk filled room we have had). I didn't act on the promptings right away, but before long, I discovered why it was such a good idea. 

One month later, my father needed a place to stay. His lease was ending and he had a hard time finding another place to live that was in his price range and in an area of town that he wanted to live. We invited him to live with us until he could find a home of his own. We had to clean out that storage room in order to clean out two other rooms for him and build a bathroom.

The rule that determined our simplifying decisions is if we haven’t used it in 6 months and don’t have definite plans to use it within the next three to six months, get rid of it. I dumped drawers and into boxes to sell or donate or take to the dump, and took out any items that I wanted to keep. Eventually, the only things that we will have left in our house are things that we use regularly. No more someday craft projects, no more clothes that may fit better someday, no more junk lying around for us to trip over or dust off or take up space. It feels great!

“Let’s turn our dust collecting, space taking items into money.” That’s what I said to my husband. Luckily he was on board. I am happy to report that most of the things in that junk room were treasures for others, who paid money to take them off our hands. A Yard Sale… It’s a lot of work, but honestly, it was worth it. Indoor/Online yard sales are great too if you want to take time to post pictures on those sites or Facebook pages. Our outdoor yard sale lasted three days. We took everything that didn’t sell to the D.I. and TAG at the end of each day. TAG is a Thrift Store that pays a small amount of money for your donations. 

I also found some things that I was able to cross off of our “Survival Shopping” list and I am making room for the things that matter most. “Things” don’t really matter, so de-junking hasn’t been difficult. What we have left now from our pile of things to get rid of, are items that are the most valuable, things that people don’t pay enough money for at yard sales. Those items will be on e-bay this week, auctioning off for the most amounts possible; like my husband’s golf clubs and my leather, Harley Davidson jacket.

We are using the extra funds to purchase food and other items that we have been wanting to add to our storage.

Our 4-yr-old daughter wanted to help us with our yard sale, but didn’t want to give up some of her stuff, even though it was stuff that she has grown out of and never plays with any more. So I made her a deal; “When someone buys your stuff, you can have the money to buy a new toy!” She also sold orange juice, donuts and candy.

One month later, my father is living with us. Our basement will be finished soon, which will increase the value of our home if we ever decide to re-finance or sell it. We have had that “someday” goal since we moved in 10 years ago. Things are working out better than I thought was possible. Where there’s a will, there’s a way; I have always believed that.

Ezra Taft Benson Talks About The Last Days

"Knowing what we know as His servants can we hesitate to raise a warning voice to all who will listen that they may be prepared for the days ahead?

Unto an otherwise gloomy picture, there is a bright side; the coming of our Lord in all His glory. His coming will be both glorious and terrible, depending on the spiritual condition of those who remain."

We know not the day, nor the hour of His coming, but of this you may feel assured; you stand close to the great day of the Lord! 

D&C 101:38

"As a special witness of our Lord, I humbly declare to you that he lives and He is close to His servants. His words shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled. Whether by His own voice or the voice of His servants, it is the same." 

President Ezra Taft Benson

Insurance, preparing for the unexpected

My husband is self-employed. For the first 9 years of our marriage, I worked and provided health and dental insurance. When I stopped working to be at home with our daughter, our benefits ended. We were without insurance for a couple of years. I tried to apply through the Federal Government’s “Health Marketplace” website (for Obama Care), but we were denied coverage, because according to their calculations, we qualified for Medicaid. So I applied for Medicaid through the Utah Department of Workforce Services site.

They denied us because we made too much money for their criteria. I gave up on applying for insurance, knowing that I was taking a risk and that we would have to pay penalties for having no insurance. Freedom from the runaround headache outweighed the loss from penalties, until… April of this year, when I found myself in the ER because of complications from a health condition that I have. My condition is not life threatening, but it is painful. My Dr. recommended that I have surgery ASAP.  A $25,000 surgery was not an option without insurance.

So I applied for insurance again two year after my first attempt. This time I applied for Medicaid first and was ~ you guessed it ~ denied coverage. This time, our denial from Medicaid became our ticket to Obama Care. You cannot apply for coverage outside of the open enrollment period (around Oct/Nov), but there are a few exceptions to that rule, like change in employment, change in family member count, and denial from Medicaid. Their denial letter was sent to the Market Place, which gave me the key to that locked door.

Long story short; I applied, we qualified for coverage including premium payment assistance. We now have better Health Insurance than we have ever had (even when I was employed by Intermountain Healthcare)! Our coverage started on July 1st. On July 2nd my husband was diagnosed with a disease that requires frequent medical attention and expensive medication that would have been beyond our ability to pay. Call it coincidence if you want, I call it miracles and Divine Intervention.

If you don’t have insurance, apply for Medicaid through the Department of Workforce Services. If you are disabled or over the age of 65, apply for Medicare. If you are denied coverage, apply for Obama Care through the Health Care Marketplace. If you need help with any of this, call or e-mail me. I can walk you through it or direct you to someone else who can. I can also tell you about financial assistance through Intermountain Healthcare. If your medical bills are beyond what you can pay, they will help you by setting up a monthly payment plan or in some cases, writing off a portion of what you owe.

Survival Kits Part II

I finished our 72 Hour Kits by the last day of July like I wanted to. With each of us having our own backpacks, we will survive for 72 hours; that is reassuring. Since then, I have been working on adding to our survival supplies, one item at a time.

We are going to experience earthquakes in Utah; that is a well-known fact and it's inevitable. Our dollar is losing its value; that is also a well-known fact. Companies are going out of business, people are losing their jobs and new jobs are becoming limited. Whatever the cause, we will need to survive off of the food and water that we save right now. And it will be for longer than 72 hours. That is why the Lord has directed His prophets for years to warn us to be prepared. Now is not the time to ignore those warnings!

I believe that the Lord will protect us by leading us away from here before the destruction hits, like He has done in the past. Whether you believe that or not, whether we leave or stay, we will need to be prepared. As much food and survival supplies as we can save right now. Survival supplies is not a directive from the Brethren. I added that part to my list, for personal preference. I will not go out of debt to provide our family with those things. And I will not preach this as doctrine or necessity, it is only my personal prference. 

My list is prioritized by the greatest necessity, not by the most affordable items. With our lack of funds and lack of knowledge of what we will need, we are relying on the Lord to guide us. He is helping me prioritize and showing me ways to make, save and spend our money. I have been prompted about what I should buy and in some cases, where I should buy it. But His council for you and yours may be different, so I won’t share our list with you at this time. If you need some suggestions, search Pinterest or Google and go with what YOU feel inspired to go with for your Survival Supplies.

The answer to the Trivia Question; "What is one thing that survivors of Hurricane Katrina didn't have that they wish they had more than anything else after their disaster?" - - - More than food, more than water, more than first aid kits ~ Official Documents... Family members were separated and many were brought to hospitals. Getting to them without the right documentation was impossible. We will need Birth certificates, Social Security cards, Photo IDs, Adoption Papers etc. For some of us, these will end up being the most important items that we have in our supplies.

The Lord's Day

Why are the leaders of the church so committed to instilling the importance of keeping the Sabbath Day holy right now? They teach principles that the Lord inspires them to teach. LDS.org is full of talks on the Sabbath Day; last month every time I turned to that site, it seemed like there was a new article or talk posted on the subject on their home page. Local leaders have been asked to focus on teaching and instilling the importance of this commandment. I want to share some points from a few of those talks that touched me, some points that inspired me to make some changes in my Sabbath Day worship.

There are many ways to improve our relationship with Christ. Our level of spirituality is determined by our attitudes and doing the things that will bring us closer to Him. I gain spiritual strength by attending the temple each week. Serving others, regular scripture study and thoughtful, regular prayers are other ways to improve our relationship with God. My husband has helped us tremendously by leading us in the habit of having Family prayer each morning before he leaves for work and every night before our daughter goes to bed. I have been leading us in the habit of Family Home Evenings every week and have seen the difference that this is making for our daughter. She remembers the things that we teach her, soaking all of it in like a sponge. It helps me in my daily teaching moments with her.

But of all the things that we can do to increase the spirituality in our homes, keeping the Sabbath Day holy is the most rewarding. I believe that this is where our connection with God begins; our spiritual growth is determined by how we honor the Sabbath Day. Blessings come in making an effort and the quality of our relationship with God depends on it.

One of the talks that I found on lds.org last month was from Neill F. Marriott, from the Young Women’s General Presidency. It was entitled Reverencing the Sabbath. After reading this article, I committed to doing better. The following is an excerpt from that article. “We deepen our discipleship as we prepare to keep the Sabbath holy and offer up our vows in righteousness (see D&C 59:11); we then receive the guidance of the Holy Ghost, even personal revelation, in our daily life.” When we commence each Sunday prepared and reverent, our depth of Sabbath understanding will be as spiritual food to all members of our family. Faith in the Lord will grow in our homes as we bring our Sabbath day reverence into our living places.” 

“Personal revelation in our daily lives...” I love that! I could use more! “Commencing each Sabbath prepared and reverent”, means preparing before the Sabbath arrives. Be ready by bedtime on Saturday night; clothes washed and ironed, Sunday bag packed and meals prepared if necessary. My daughter and I have been known to take hours to get ready. Starting on Saturday will save a lot of headache on Sunday morning. I also realized recently that Sunday morning, one hour before church starts, is too late to instill in our daughter, a sense of excitement and honor for the Sabbath, church and the Sacrament. It takes more than forcing excitement to go to church and more than anything we’ve ever tried, to instill a sense of honor in her for the entire Sabbath Day. It takes having it instilled in us first. Being better examples of sincere reverence and honor is the only way.

There are many families with more children than we have who make it to church on time every week. I know how it feels to be on time and what it tells others about my attitude towards the host and the event that I am attending. What am I telling the Savior every time I’m late to the most important meeting of the week according to Him? Those who are usually on time know that it is a sign of respect to show up 15 minutes early. It says; “I am happy to be here”, “I am ready and willing to participate” and “You and your meeting matter to me”. In my efforts to improve my Sabbath experience, I am committing to doing what it takes for me and my family to be on time every week, which for me means being ready one hour before church starts.

I love Sundays! That is one day that I get to rest from my weekly labors. It’s the best day of the week for me to focus on Family History work. I take extra time to write in my journal, write for my blogs, and visit the sick and afflicted. When we can be together as a family, it’s when we take our walks and visit family and friends. I get to immerse myself in the scriptures and gospel studies. I get to renew my covenants with my Savior during the sacrament and recommit my life to Him. I get to learn from others’ experiences and testimonies and I get to share mine. Even though we do all of these things, we also do things that defile the Sabbath.

The Sabbath is between us and the Lord; we don’t need someone to tell us what we can and cannot do on Sunday to honor the Sabbath. Some people believe that going to the beach on Sunday is inappropriate, for them it might be. But when I lived in San Diego, I found that a quiet, secluded place on the beach, a place where the Spirit of the Lord can dwell, was great for Sabbath worship of reading, writing and praying. Exodus 31:13 says Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you. You can just ask yourself, “What sign do I want to give to God?” See Russell M. Nelson’s talk on LDS.org entitled; The Sabbath Is A Delight. 

How do you feel when you take the sacrament? I thought about that question recently during one of my studies. When I am annoyed with my adorable, active, and sometimes irreverent daughter during the administering of the sacrament, we are both missing out on the blessings of the Sacrament. In Sister Marriott’s words; “The effect of partaking of the sanctified bread and water gratefully and humbly is to make of us new creatures, spiritually reborn, as Paul teaches in 2 Corinthians 5:17. Week after week as we strive to live the sacramental covenant, we change.” Another way that I am committing to improve my Sabbath experience is to approach the sacrament ordinance differently.

Our children are expected to live the letter of a law that they don’t completely understand when they are asked to be quiet during the sacrament. There’s nothing wrong with that, but more than the habit of being quiet, I want to instill a reverence for our Savior in our daughter. It takes more than being quiet to feel reverence. “As the sacrament is passed, we allow the Atonement of Jesus Christ to enter into our being, individually and personally… With our symbolic action we are saying to God and man that we reach out to the Atonement of Jesus Christ, take it into our souls, and desire His atoning blood to be applied in our lives. In this holy moment we acknowledge our constant need of the Redeemer, our desire for His forgiveness and blessing, and our commitment to live our covenants.” Sister Marriott.

The Lord has given us the most important invitation of our lives: a chance to spend a day with Him. How are you going to prepare spiritually and physically for that day and what blessings are you hoping will come from your time with Him? That thought provoking question comes from another article on LDS.org, entitled “Blessings of the Sabbath Day”. The answers that you come up with tell you the blessings that you will receive from spending the day honoring and remembering our Savior and renewing your covenants with Him each week on His Holy Day.

Happy Pioneer Day!

The 24th of July; today is the day that Mormons remember our Pioneer ancestors. Every year around this time, I pull out the autobiographies of my Pioneer family members. One that I have been thinking a lot about lately is John Loveless. He was born in Ohio in 1807. John was a member of the church, baptized by Solomon Hancock, confirmed by Simon Carter, ordained a Priest by Thomas B. Marsh and Selah Griffin and ordained a High Priest by George W. Miller and Isaac Higby. 

He wrote about his family, his farming, and his church callings, miracles, trials and his testimony.

The members of the church were chased from their homes eight times in eleven years by mobs who hated the Mormons, some of the moves were within months of each other. This happened from 1833, just before the Printing Press was torn down, to 1846, as he and his family were among the last group of Saints in his area who left for the West.

In his words; “In the fall of 1838, the mob arose and we were compelled to sign over all our property by force of arms. In this I was an eye witness to scenes that until this day, when called to mind, make my blood run cold and would almost make me fight a legion. Women were ravished, men murdered, houses burned, property destroyed, the Prophet and Patriarch, with many others, taken and cast into prison.” 

When the Saints left for their trek to the west, John was asked by Brigham Young to stay behind to salvage any crops or farm land. Most of the Saints left in November of 1845, he left with his group on April 27th, 1846. He wrote, “I left the city of Nauvoo, the home of the Saints where I had counseled with my brethren, received direct instructions from the Prophet of God, associated with him, been instructed by him with many important commissions, worshiped the everlasting God, Eternal Father in His own temple, a house built and set apart by the Saints of God for His worship, and all the near and dear associations connected with this. 

I say when forced to leave all of this and after crossing the Mississippi River and sitting upon its banks, looking back over the country and associations that I had left; the bodies of the Prophet and Patriarch of God ruthlessly, foully and deliberately murdered by the howling and blood thirsty mobs, damnable spirits that had caused it all, my feeling became so excited and aroused that it seemed to me that if myself and each of my little boys were endowed with the strength of Samson and had the power and strength of body been commensurate with that of my will, I fear that it would have been accomplished.”

He wrote about the day when he fought a destructive, fire-branding mob with the Sheriff and a large posse. They stopped the fires and the mob; he took his family and neighbors with a few of their things and went to Nauvoo to guard everyone from the fury of the mob. On that same day, he received his endowments in the Temple.

The Pioneers inspire me in their faithful endurance and hope. They put blame where blame was due, never upon the Lord. I love reading about the miracles that occurred because of their faith in God and the power of the Priesthood. I love reading his testimony and his expressions of gratitude for God. In their hardest trials, they remained full of faith and gratitude. One of the miracles that he recorded was when he was sick with inflammation of the lungs and was near death. In that condition, I imagine most people would give up. Even after he received a Priesthood blessing, the brethren who administered to him gave him up for dead. But after talking to his wife, who refused to accept his death, they both determined that he was going to recover and in four days he was back to driving his team, praising God for the mercy and power that was manifested to him.

When they experienced the most severe hail storm he had ever witnessed, and the suffering from cold and exposure, he wrote; “But what cannot the Saint of God endure, while in the discharge of their duties?”

He wrote about the country being flooded which didn’t allow them to pass through easily on the path that the other pioneers had left for them. They had to walk three hundred miles and two months out of the way, to get back to the original path. But of that trek, he said; “We continued our journey for Great Salt Lake City, blessed in every undertaking, and good spirit prevailing all of the time. All enjoyed good health, met with no losses of consequence and on the fifteenth day of September, 1851, we arrived in Salt Lake City.”

And some of his last words in his autobiography; “How big with importance, love and almost adoration, did it appear unto us, and how straight to my heart did the tones pierce as I heard them sending a thrill of pleasure, thanksgiving and praise to my soul. Yes to my very heart’s core, calling forth shouts of exultation and joy, praise, honor and glory to God, a perfect burst of enthusiastic joy. 

What, though it was a burning desert. What, if the farthest extent of vision could discover nothing but burning, sandy plains covered with sage brush and high rocky and burning mountains. It was the place selected by God for the gathering of His people and after the trying vicissitudes through which we had passed ever since the first organization of the Church. It was here a place of rest, of rejoicing, of delight and finally above all, of happiness. 

Here we could worship God and love Him, receive instructions from His prophets and teachers without fear of fire, sword or bayonet, without expecting to hear the sounds of an infernal mob ringing in our ears. Salt Lake City; I have not language to express my gratitude to God when first I entered thy sacred precincts. There I met with the pioneer, those holy and indomitable spirits led by Brigham Young their Prophet and Seer, the successor of the immortal Joseph with Heber, the beloved and noble spirit. The saints of God who had taken the burden and borne it, given to them by God that the ancient prophesy might be fulfilled and the Saints find a home; a home, how sweet the word. 

Here again was my family united, and here the union with old and tried brethren, the grasping of hands, the shedding of tears and shouting, rejoicing and praising God by the President, friends, family and all. Salt Lake City, can it be wondered that I call thy precincts sacred? Can I ever cease to love and praise God as long as memory holds her seat upon her throne?"

He settled in Provo, and lived there for two years. Then they moved to West Jordan, where he assisted in the building of the canal to bring irrigation water into the West Jordan area. Then in 1855, he moved to Payson to continue his occupation of farming, where generations of my family were born and raised. I was born in Payson, lived in West Jordan when I was a young child and in Provo as a college student; my path in Utah reversed his path. I don't consider that a coincidence; I believe that our ancestors are more involved with influencing our lives and the paths that we take than we give them credit for.

Speaking about the challenges that we are asked to face today as modern-day pioneers, Elder M. Russell Ballard says; “May we remember the pioneers and their stories, remember that they came to build Zion in a united effort. And then accept the responsibility to instill such faith in all we meet, especially in the rising generation, and to do so through offering our own living sacrifice of a life moved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and anchored by the hope of good things to come through Him.” See Pioneers, An Anchor For Today (page 50); in this month’s Ensign, written by Elder Marcus B. Nash, of the Seventy.

Trivia Question:

What is one thing that survivors of Hurricane Katrina didn't have that they wish they had more than anything else after their disaster?

Anyone want to guess? Click here for the answer.