Family Reunion

All right people, it's time to find which weekend in August is the least busy for the family reunion.  Please respond to this post (or whatever form of communication in which you get this message) to let me know.  I will be picking by the end of the week as there are people that need to start taking work off. E-mail me privately if you wish!

Did Christ recieve the Gift of the Holy Ghost?

I was reading in 2 Nephi 31:12, where Nephi is prophesying about Christ's baptism.  He goes on to explain how he heard the voice of Christ tell him, "He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me." (Emphasis added).  I was interested in studying why Christ would need the Gift of the Holy Ghost during his ministry, but as I searched, I found more questions than answers.

I tried to find any account of Christ actually receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost by traditional means (i.e. the laying on of hands), but could find no such reference.  I remembered learning on my mission that the Gift of the Holy Ghost was not bestowed until Christ was resurrected, and this is explained in the New Testament and the bible dictionary (John 7:39 - ... for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified).  I also looked up in Jesus the Christ, but found no reference (although it does talk about the Gift of the Holy Ghost being bestowed upon the Apostles after Christ had ascended).

So here's the question.  I understand that the Gift of the Holy Ghost was not given to others during Christ's mortal ministry, but are we to take the language of 2 Nephi 31:12 to mean that Christ had received the Gift of the Holy Ghost? If so, did he receive it during his lifetime and why, if he was God, would he need the Gift of the Holy Ghost? If not, why did Nephi use this language?

Any help would be massively appreciated.

What do you know, we finally got a blog! I can't guarantee we will update it, but for anyone who cares, it's there and currently up to date (for now):
http://myfavoritebeans.blogspot.com/

Ho Ho Ho

The girls got to visit with Santa and recieve a gift from him at Adam's work Children's Christmas Party.  

 Avery doesn't like to talk to people, but she really wanted a gift, so she suffered through it.  Emily is just shy anyway, and Sarah is loving it all:)

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We made our candy train for family night and, I have to say, it's the best one yet and the girls put their car together all by themselves.

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

I apologize for the poor quality of this video. I've been fighting with Blogger all evening, but since it won't let me upload anything larger than 100MB, this is the best I could get. 

We loved spending Thanksgiving in Idaho with the Beans, Hills, and Piippos. We were sad that more people couldn't make it, but we did have a great time with everyone there! We miss you all already!

Christmas Tree Adventures

Just starting out and ready to hike. Everyone is in good spirits.

One down.....

Two down.....

Three down and we are out for the count.

5 minutes in and and Avery had already fallen down 6 times into various bushes,and we were way behind.  Adam had to finally put her on his shoulders.  

10 minutes later,I was screaming, both older girls were on the ground and Adam was way ahead.  

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Finally, we made it to the blessed tree!!

Adam showing the girls about the saw.

 Watching it fall.

 Dragging it out was much easier as it was all down hill and not through such thick forest.

All happy again:)

Daddy giving the girls a lesson in animal tracks as we go.

Taking a break to make snow angels.

Emily found mice tracks and tried to track it out.

 Made it out alive.  I don't know how Adam can navigate through the forest like that.  I was totally lost.

 Making an organic snowman.

Pine cone buttons, Berry eyes, Stick nose, weed arms.

What a fun time we had making a snowman in the forest!!

Dressed down and ready to go back to Grandma's

Every tree wants to be picked to be a Christmas tree. This lucky little one is just perfect for us.

Nuggets

We had some training this morning from Elder Gibson in the General Young Men's Presidency, and he said some interesting thing, so I thought I would share:

- The decision to lower the missionary age stemmed from a desire to curtail the loss of youth after high school.  President Monson told Elder Nelson, "We are having a hemorrhage in our youth.  You are a doctor and I need you to fix it."  When Elder Nelson and the General Young Men's Presidency pitched the idea of lowering the age for Elders to 18 to President Monson, the first thing he said was, "What about the women? They ought to go at 19." His next question was, "Do you think this will result in more temple marriages?"

- When the member of the Presiding Bishopric are set apart, they are given keys similar to those of other bishops, but they are instructed that their keys are "dormant," meaning they take direction from the President of the Church.  The Presiding Bishopric has essentially no authority and can't even preside at almost any meeting.

-  The Church expects us to have 100,000+ missionaries after the first quarter of next year; however, they recognize that the numbers will drop in coming years and stabilize; one of the concerns they had was not pressuring women in to going on missions. The Church estimates that 25-30% of women will go on missions.

- The Church changed the Strength for the Youth pamphlet to emphasize group dating not as a group of boys and girls in any number of combinations, but instead a group of couples, each boy having one girl he is on a date with

- The Church stripped the activity portions of the Duty to God program because it felt that Scouting covered that need