AS YOU WISH.....

This is a fantasy, isn't it? It only happens in fairy tales.

It is usually "I want...." or "I don't want....."!    Why can't it sometimes be "As You Wish"?

But it only happens in the fairy tales that someone loves in a way that they say this

with the desire to please an other and bring them happiness. 

Or does it????

LIVING WATER

Just a few short days ago this was brown brown brown - dead dead dead and then the rains came and with water there was life. Water truly is life and perhaps the drought reminded us again how vital and important water is to life and then this gives meaning to the 'living water' that Christ talked about for as with out water there is no life without Christ there would be no eternal life. He truly is 'living water' to each of us.

We have been amazed how quickly the plants have responded to the rains and have greened and are growing again and we realize that the rains come from God who does give life and that prayers are heard and answered.

From the song 'Jesus' Love is Like a River'

For everything grows where the water goes

And everything lives where the water flows

Jesus' love is like a river

Flowing gently through my soul.

I am so very grateful for the 'Living Water' that Christ gives to us and that we will live forever to thirst no more.

SHE CAME... SHE REALLY CAME

It seems that we are in a forgotten land here in Arkansas for no one comes this far to visit us, but this week we had the wonderful surprise of having my sister, Conny and her husband, Paul come on their way from the MTC in Provo, Utah to Birmingham, Alabama where they will serve a mission.








Conny is one of my very favorite people in the whole wide world and someone who I miss the most - and she was here.... really here.... right in our very own house. What a treat this was!




I am so very proud of Conny and Paul and their great desire to do good works for they then make it happen. They have been serving in the Mesa Temple for years and she has recently been Primary President and then a counselor in the Relief Society. People seem to recognize the strength and faith, wisdom, compassion and great abilities of Conny and Paul and surely they will be of great help as they serve and teach and love the people in the area they have been called to as leadership and activation missionaries.

We look forward to hearing about their adventures.

O A L

I would like to tell you about ONE AMAZING LADY - my dear and best friend since coming to Arkansas. Although she is a little younger than I am we were married in the same year, 1958 and our lives have had much in common with family, church, homemaking, doing and getting the job done being much of what we are about. She is smart and funny and quirky and good - just my kind of person to hang out with. But she has this big mean challenge to deal with called MS and through the years it keeps trying to get the best of her and although it has won some of the battles in the end she will win the war for she is the strongest willed most stalwart and true in faith, and hope and charity person I know. She is a 'cheerful angel' for she always has a smile, a laugh and a twinkle in her eye that lifts your spirits.

Last Sunday in Fast and Testimony meeting they took a microphone down in the audience to her so she could bear her testimony from her wheel chair and I felt like celebrating that she could express her strong feelings for others to hear. Her testimony is stalwart no matter what has happened to her and she is a great example of 'turning toward the Lord in our trials instead of away from Him'. Perhaps one of the reasons for having trials and adversity in out lives is to see which way we will turn and this will determine the direction we will go for eternity.

This O A L is a great blessing to me and I so enjoy our friendship and am trying to be more like her. I picture how great it will be to run and walk and dance and do anything and everything with my sweet dear friend Janet someday. We are trying to live so we can have Celestial bodies and just watch us go and do then.  

Richard and Janet Gregory          

Recognize the trypical 1950's California look?

        

Janet on their 50th Wedding Anniversay

FAST DIPPITY DO RIDES

I am not a fan of fast dippity do rides and when life gets to feeling like I am on one I want to yell  'STOP.  Let me off this thing!' Well, today I feel like I got off and my feet are safe on the ground and I am free to go where ever I want to go and do what ever I want to do.  What a great gift.  How long will it last?  I don't know,  but I am totally enjoying it while I can. And it is cooler with even a little rain - so how perfect is that?

I know that my ride in life is not as wild and hectic as some other's but you need to remember that I am older - and that I don't like fast scary rides - so you all can stay on the ride longer than I can. Understand????

So what kind of a ride have I been on lately?  Actually there have been some fun high spots and I will share some of those.

We went to lunch at a good Mexican food place with our dear friend John Herring who we Home Teach.
 
I taught the watercolor class Tuesday and enjoy seeing the students learn and progress.  It is true that....

"To be able to find joy in another's joy ..... that is the secret of happiness".

then taught a calligraphy class that same evening.  Teaching requires personal preparation time and I find that helping someone else be creative is as draining as doing it yourself - but rewarding.

Had a fun and even exciting painting time with Makenzie Wednesday as I watched her get into it and discover her own creative talent inside waiting to be let out.  She just started playing and before she knew it she had a lady in her painting.  She added the green feather and titled it 'Nat' because it had a look of Natalie. 

While she was painting her lady I was working on a piece for my friend and neighbor, Annette that she has wanted for a year.  She asked me to do a 'name painting' for her teacher friend last year and then said she wished she had one for her classroom.  Well, school is starting so now seemed to be a good time to finally getting this done.  I have had it in my mind what to do for months so it is nice to have it out of my mind and on canvas. 

She now has it hanging in her classroom where she is a speech therapist in Elkins School District.  

It was fun to do and turned out pretty good - but of course I know how to do it better if I had another go at it.   

Then that afternoon two sisters, Ashley and Micah - 13 and 11 years old, came for an art lesson.  They are home taught and their parents want them to have some art education and experience so they will come once a week to do art.  They want to start with watercolor and drawing and then learn calligraphy.  We had them draw a still life and taught them some basics and they did pretty good. 

There are tons of birthdays in August for the Cooper/Bramwell family so there have been lots of cards and paintings to do so it seems that every spare moment I have been at my drawing table working on something.

These are some of the ones I have done in the last two days and I do enjoy doing them - but Then to get them off and mailed. It has been a good - but sometimes stressful project to do a painting for all my brothers and sisters, nephews and neices for their birthday.  It is good to have a real purpose for painting a picture and a home for it to go to instead of being stacked with others in a corner somewhere. 

Thursday is my day in the Family History Center and I was surprised to find that we had new chairs and furniture that is making our little room look so much more professional.  For years we have managed with donated tables, chairs, computers, bookcases, etc. but our new director, Charlie Fowler is so on the ball and now we have the Church Physical Maintenance people on the team and they have taken over and got things done in a fast and remarkable way.  It is good to finally see this little place recognized and properly furnished.

We now have beautiful maroon comfy rolling chairs at each of the five computers,  plus around our nice table and very fine desk.  How fancy is that?  Next is a paint job for the walls that they will do next month. 

I worked with a lady who was trying to find her Fogg ancestors and we found that there is a Fogg Library at Harvard that could have been donated and established by her relative.  It is exciting to help people find family. 

Cute Justin and his sweet darling wife, Clairissa

Thursday we had the very special treat of having Justin Cooper, our nephew, come for dinner while he was here in Fayetteville doing business. He is so nice and fun and interesting and loving and caring.  We look forward to him coming often and perhaps bring his family or his Dad, Newell. 

There have been a few other 'highs' and some 'lows' but that is the way this ride through life is and we have to remember that if we have enough speed going into the lows we will keep on going and come out heading up again.  Perhaps a flat easy road would not be a very interesting ride day after day..... but once in awhile it is nice. 

LOOKING BACK

It is a tendency of mine to look back saying 'I could've, should've, would've' and realize that much time can be wasted on things I no longer can do anything about, but then I see some people who don't even look back long enough to see if they really completed the task and if it was acceptable - and how can you progress and improve and change and repent and learn or even get satisfaction from doing the job if you hurry away from it too fast?..... So it seems to come down to "How long do you look back and why and how far ?" I know that Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt for looking back but perhaps it was because her looking was with the desire to go back and so my thought is that if we are looking back wanting to know how to go forward doing better it is a good thing. Don't you think so?


When we were in Vernal Heidi took us to a sweet little shop that sold vinyl letters of thoughts and sayings and these are some of the ones I got to put on the walls of our home to remind me of gems of wisdom that I need to remember daily.

I do understand that....

Looking back to yesterday can rob us of our today and tomorrows... but yet we are constantly told to 'remember'.

Each day is a gift from a loving Father who would hope that we open it with joy and anticipation of using every part of it to bring honor and even glory to Him and thus to ourselves.

"Time is a very precious gift of God; so precious that it is only given to us

       moment by moment".                       

                              Amelia Barr

So we only need to live it moment by moment - RIGHT????

If we can fill as many moments of our day with love we will find there will be more joy than sorrow and more blessing than hurting, more peace than contention and more success than failure.

We will be more Christ like.

THE WORLD AND US

On Sudays when Keith and Stephanie and family are here for dinner we have started to have a little family sharing time and this past week we talked about all the places in the world members of our family have visited and what we learn from being in different countries and meeting the people. It was surprising how many places have been visited by someone in the family and we commented on how years ago we would never have dreamed that we would be traveling so far and wide from home.

Some of the things we talked about learning or becoming more aware of were 1) Gratitude for our own country and the many blessings and even comfort that freedom allows us to have 2) The beauty of this world that God has created for us 3) The diversity of people and cultures yet the many things that we have in common 4) How happy most people are even in the most dire circumstances of poverty and how we should learn how to be happier with the basic simple things of life 5) That there are good intelligent nice people everywhere and that we can have more tolerance and love for others remembering that we truly are brothers and sisters and children of God 6) That we can gain confidence and self reliance as we travel and learn how to deal with different situations and people 7) That we can share and make a difference in other's lives 8) That home is wonderful and a good place to be.

What would you add?

We asked each person to tell us the three places they would like to see and it was interesting the responses. Some were Iceland, Africa, New Zealand, The Holy Land. It was fun to think about the travels that might still be in our future. Austin was not with us but Keith, Stephanie, Natalie, Makenzie, and Phil were with Opa and me.

Keith was in Honduras last week and will soon be in China again. He, Colton and Opa had been to the most places. If we counted Coree and Gavin's family's travels in Asia and soon to be in the Middle East we would span the globe.