Missing Our Families

We are missing our families! I know...Christmas pictures in March? What am I thinking? Well, I have been behind in my blogging and Ryan and I keep thinking about how much we miss our families back in Utah...and since we don't get to take any pictures with them while we are away I had to post some from Christmas. Our families are so wonderful and they are extremely supportive of us. We are so grateful to be members of such wonderful families.
Today was our Stake Conference and the messages were all about families and the importance and value of families. It was so humbling to sit and listen to the many messages shared and be able to recall so many memories of our own families and the gospel presence in our homes growing up. We are both grateful to our mothers and fathers for sharing their testimonies and for building our faith in Jesus Christ and His gospel on the earth today. A choir from one of the wards sang Teach Me to Walk in the Light today at conference and the words keep echoing in my mind...

Teach me to walk in the light of his love; Teach me to pray to my Father above; teach me to know of the things that are right; teach me, teach me to walk in the light.
Come little child, and together we'll learn of his commandments, that we may return home to his presence, to live in his sight--always, always to walk in the light.
Father in Heaven, we thank thee this day for loving guidance to show us the way. Grateful, we praise thee with songs of delight! Gladly, gladly we'll walk in the light.

We feel so blessed to be able to live in a place that allows us to have this faith and to worship and serve God. The spirit is so strong and the hand of the Lord is present in our lives every single day. I love that I married a man who honors the priesthood he holds and recognizes it as the Power of God on the Earth. I am grateful for a dad who was worthy and willing to use that same priesthood power in our home while I grew up.

"The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan."

(The Family: A Proclamation to the World, http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,161-1-11-1,00.html) I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for blessing me with such wonderful family to be surrounded by! I am so blessed!