Well, I had a relatively decent night’s sleep last night, and I stayed in that little rest stop for far too long. I think I was probably there for like 11 hours, maybe 12? 🙃
I did some dailies, wrote my journal entry for yesterday, and while writing yesterday’s entry, it dawned on me that I don’t think I’ve asked God for any help in managing the mild discouragement that can be so easy to feel when failing to accomplish all my morning “dailies” goals.
Oops. 🙃
So, that’s one of my conversations with the Big Guy today. 😊
Stopped off at Menard’s and took back the aluminum square tube stuff I bought a couple weeks ago or so. That’s $45 back in my pocket (that would straightway leave a bit later. 🙃)
Went to Sam’s Club to pick up some granola for Heather, only to realize it wasn’t at Sam’s Club: It was at Walmart. Since I was going to be shopping at Walmart after going to the temple, I decided to not worry about going for now and just do it all at once later.
I hemmed and hard about going to the gym. I didn’t want to reinjure myself, and I was feeling lazy and not wanting to work out anyway, but I disciplined myself and chose to go and was careful with the exercises that I did (mostly leg exercises).
I think I only did seven different exercises? I did two of the five circuits that I normally do during my mega workout. I didn’t have time for any more before it was time to shower and go to the temple.
Hopefully, I’ll have both the discipline and the physical health and be better organized timewise to have a full mega workout next week.
Today was sealings first. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I love the adjustments to the verbiage in the sealing of husband to wife.
I look forward to the day when I will be able to kneel across the altar from my eternal companion and be sealed together as one.
One.
That’s what I long for.
“It is not good for man to be alone.” 🙃
It was also neat today to have another day where multiple siblings were sealed to their parents.
Good stuff. 😊
I love the temple. 🥰
After that session, I headed over to the baptistry, as per normal. So wonderful to be able to participate in the baptisms and confirmations. 😊 I was again more of a worker than a patron today, and it was just lovely. 😊
After the temple, I went over to the nearby fire station and dropped off two very old fire extinguishers that used to be the onboard fire extinguishers for Rover.
I need to buy a new fire extinguisher.
From there, I headed over to buy gas. Only $2.55 a gallon. 🥳
So nice!
Then I’d asked Grok to create me a two-week meal plan for a 43-year-old male whose moderately active who’s looking for a vegan diet that’s focused on whole foods and good gut health. I asked it to create the meal plans based off of only a refrigerator, freezer, and microwave as my available kitchen wares, and I asked it to give me step-by-step meal preparation instructions, as well as a full grocery list.
And it spit it out beautifully for me.
Gosh, AI can be such an amazingly useful tool. What a crazy world we’re heading into!
I spent a long time in Walmart trying to find everything, and the total that rang up was way more than I ever expected it was going to be. 😅
But right on cue, I think this popped into my head:
“Spend cheerfully on things that matter, time as well as money.” (Jeffrey R Holland)
😊
Honestly, I wasn’t worried at all anyway, but it was a bit of a sticker shock just on the surprising end of things.
After walmart, I remembered that the Sam’s Club in Rapid City was completely out of the salsa that Heather and Hans like, so I headed back over to Sam’s club, picked up the salsa as well as some Parmesan cheese for them and then headed home.
The drive home was relatively uneventful, other than stepping on the brakes a little too hard to ask someone who has pulled over on the side of the road if they were good to go.
That caused my electric cooler to slide forward push over the tire, and smash Little John.
😅
Gratefully, I had emptied Little John yesterday and hadn’t used it again, but the bucket is now broken in half. 🙃
Which means Little John won’t seal up anymore.
Time for a new bucket. 🪣
I spent pretty much the entire drive home listening to the same audio file over and over again. Some things that Heavenly Father told me back in March of 2021 that are exactly what I need to hear and be focusing on right now.
I titled the file “The Time is Now,” but it’s also known as “Why the Quotation Marks?” 💚
I totally forgot about getting big cups to seal up the drainage pipes out of my little soaking pool until I was most of the way home, I think. I did a quick dumpster dive in a couple of garbage cans on a truck pull out, 🙃 but no one had thrown away any big gas station soda cups.
Stopped off at JH Keith park on the way home, but instead of going down to the water, I gathered my thoughts together, called New Zealand, talked to Scott in the immigration office, and mentioned to him my concerns about my Visa application. He gave me some thoughts and ideas, and I’m just going to have to do the best that I can.
There’s only so much that I can do.
Crossing the fingers. But honestly, if the Lord wants me to go, then He’ll open up the way, and if the way doesn’t open up, then either the timing was wrong or I just got it wrong this time.
But I don’t think I’ve gotten it wrong this time. Granted, the nudges were super gentle compared to other, powerful, experiences that I’ve had, but for whatever reason, I think the Lord actually does want me to go.
I drove home, unloaded all the groceries (or at least a lot of them). I left a bunch of the frozen and cold stuff in the cooler in my van to get a better idea of what I can expect with my cooler in energy consumption running 24/7 during the hottest part of the summer.
Hopefully, it’s not too bad. 🤞
Ate dinner and chatted with Heather and Hans for a bit, came out and read some old files that a friend shared with me years ago.
And now here I am. Going to wrap this up, have a little chat with The Big Guy, and call it a night.
Gratitude:
- I’m grateful to have been able to do the exercising that I did today without any additional injury.
- I’m grateful I wasn’t given any grief taking the aluminum square tubes back to Menard’s.
- I’m grateful for the beautiful time that I was able to spend in the temple.
- I’m grateful for the lady patron in the sealing session who was just beaming. She had the most joyful happy, huge smile, and just… what a gem of an old lady. 🥰
- I’m grateful that I was able to find so many of the foods that were on the grocery list provided by my AI query.
- I’m grateful for the ease of creation of what would normally take hours upon hours of study to create and prepare. I’m echoing myself from earlier, but what an incredible age we live in! And it’s going to get even nuttier in the next couple of years. Sci-fi really is right on top of us.
- I’m grateful I was able to get a hold of the New Zealand immigration people pretty easily and that the gentleman was very helpful. It’s still awkward, but at least I’ve talked to somebody about it.
- I’m grateful that pretty much every single time something went sideways today, every time there was an uncomfortable blessing, I just about didn’t even flinch. Not even when the cooler came flying from the back to the front smashing Little John. I just… Took it completely in stride and motored on through without really having to deal with negative reactions. 🥳 I don’t think I got frustrated a single time today. 🥳 Any negativity that I felt I think was just a quick twinge and gone because I didn’t want it. I choose peace. I choose happiness.
Success:
- I didn’t mention it the other day, and all the glory to God: I’ve got three months clean.
- Staying positive and upbeat, even through the uncomfortable blessings, was pretty awesome today. If I can be grateful for everything, then… wow. 🥰
Improvement:
- The cooler slid forward because I don’t have it well secured. Such is the case with a lot of things that go “sideways” for me: in my haste, I often leave things undone or decisions unmade, such that much is in a state of disarray or incompletion, which makes it a lot easier for things to go sideways as part of collateral damage to something unrelated. So, I can definitely improve on making choices to complete actions and projects that will prevent future jogs to the right or to the left. 🙃
Thought of the Day:
God is at the helm. Never doubt it. When we are confronted with opposition, He will open the way when there appears to be no way.
~ Gordon B. Hinckley
Today has been a beautiful day. 🥰 I’ve been wanting to feel passion and drive, and I felt a bit of that today. I felt a hunger to overcome my fears–most notably, my struggle to put complete trust in the Lord. But I will overcome. God will give me the strength, and I will make the choice, and together, we will overcome.
💪
“For with God, nothing shall be impossible.”
I am going to conquer fear. Completely.
Hand of God In My Life Today:
Being up beat through the uncomfortable blessings. This is… a huge gift. 🥳
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 