Below is a talk that I gave in church just a few weeks ago to all of the adults in our ward.  I’m hoping that some of these things that I have learned will help some of the families in our ward to say financially independent.

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"We encourage you wherever you may live in the world to prepare for adversity by looking to the condition of your finances. We urge you to be modest in your expenditures; discipline yourselves in your purchases to avoid debt. ... If you have paid your debts and have a financial reserve, even though it be small, you and your family will feel more secure and enjoy greater peace in your hearts"

Brethren have put together this little pamphlet to help us with some of our Basic family finances. I know that you have probably heard this before but today I'd like to go into some specifics.

Pay tithes and Offerings: We have all read and heard the promise given to use in the Book of Malachi 3:10. and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. If we have not already tested this promise that our Heavenly Father has given us, I recommend you test this out. So, first, Pay your Tithes and Offerings.
Avoid Debt: I know that we are told all of the time to avoid debt and I'm not here to tell you what qualifies or does not qualify for good debt. We just need to read what the Brethren have put together for us and make decisions in our own families on how to handle it. They recommend the following, "Spending less money than you make is essential to your financial security. Avoid debt, with the exception of buying a modest home or paying for education or other vital needs. Save money to purchase what you need. If you are in debt, pay it off as quickly as possible."

Build a Reserve: This has always been difficult because I didn't know how much money I should have in reserve. $200 – $500? I guess it depends on how much money you make and how much your expenses are. BUT, I'd like to propose that at the very least, you should have $1,000 as an emergency fund. This is not FUN money, this is not new couch money. This is money to use when your furnace goes out, or your car breaks down. EMERGENCY ONLY. So, before you start paying down your debt, you should build up an emergency fund. My problem was always that I would be paying off credit cards and then my car would break down. So, I'd have to use a Credit Card to pay for it to get fixed. Then, our furnace went out, so I'd use a credit card to get it fixed. I seemed to always be losing the battle. So, before you pay off your debts, get an emergency fund so if there is an emergency, you don't use credit cards, you use the fund. When you have to use the emergency fund, pay back the emergency fund of $1,000 first and then get back to paying off debt. I started by putting away 1% of my check in a separate account. You would be amazed at how quickly just 1% of your income can grow if you just stay at it.
Pay off Debt: I'd like to focus on Paying off Debt for a few minutes. The Brethren state that we should SAVE money to purchase what we NEED. If you are in debt, PAY IT OFF. How do we pay off our debt. I'm not an expert on paying off debt because I do have debt I'm working on, but how do you pay it off. Well the obvious answers are, make more money. Sometimes we will need to be creative because one way to get out of debt is to INCREASE YOUR INCOME. A few ways I increase our income is to sell things on ebay, have a garage sale, or see if there are extra jobs at work I can do to earn a little extra.
The second obvious answer might be SPEND LESS. I think all of us can look into our life and find thinks that we don't need. We recently looked through our finances and found ways to decrease our expenses. We turned off our home phone and we cancelled cable. We also try to travel in the least expensive car when going long distances. We have created a dinner menu for each week so we don't spend as much money dining out.
Lastly, if you do have debt, the Church has some awesome resources to help you pay it off. On the ProvidenLiving.org website there is a link with resources to help you pay off your debt. They have Calculators to help you determine how quickly you can pay off your debt. Other plans I have heard of are called "The Debt Snowball". This is a plan that lines all of your debts from smallest to greatest and then puts together a plan to pay off the smallest debt first. When that debt is paid off, you start working on the next until in snowballs into paying off the largest one.
Use a budget: One way to find ways of decreasing your expenses is to track them. If you MAKE A BUDGET, you will immediately see things that you are paying for that you can either cut, or decrease. It is estimated that you can decrease your spending significantly simply by recording what you spend. Budget are hard and cumbersome but if you will put one together and start tracking your money, it will begin to work for you. The church has many budget worksheets that you can use online or on paper.

Teach Family Members: Teach family members the principles of financial management. Involve them in creating a budget and setting family financial goals. Teach the principles of hard work, frugality, and saving. Stress the importance of obtaining as much education as possible. Let your kids know that you are trying to save money and trying to pay off debt. You will be amazed at how often they will want to help and find ways to save a little money.

If you have paid your debts and have a financial reserve, even though it be small, you and your family will feel more secure and enjoy greater peace in your hearts.
May the Lord bless you in your family financial efforts.
The First Presidency

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My son and I went to the broadcast of the General Priesthood meeting of the LDS Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) last night. The speakers began speaking and I could see throughout the congregation a number of people with their phones on or their iPads on. It always makes me a little suspicious to see electronics on during a talk. I have mixed feelings because they could be taking notes, or they could be checking facebook. I glance over at my son Andy and he had his phone out. AArrggghh! I hope he isn’t playing games or checking his email , I thought. As I focus my eyes a little closer I find that he is taking notes. Periodically I double check to make sure he isn’t playing something. At the end of this session of conference, I notice that he had been taking notes the whole time. That is Awesome!!! So, on the drive home I ask him to send me what he had written. Below are his notes. I am proud of Andy for paying attention, picking out significant quotes from each speaker, and writing them down to review later. I’m starting to see why the Prophet has changed to age for missionaries from 19 to 18.

D. Todd Christoferson
“We must be men that women, children, and god can trust”
“young men must excel in school and go to college”
“be worthy models for the upcoming generation”
“you are needed most in priesthood quorums”
“most important work we will ever do is within the walls of our own home”

Gary E. Stevenson
“digital peer pressure is just as potent”
“one young man can make a big difference”
“Christ also had ridicule, what would be different if he had said oh whats the use?”
“do we want to be quitters or do we want to stay strong?”
“what we do what we see and what we say will effect who we become”
“go forward not backward, courage, on to victory”

Anthony D. Perkins
“beware concerning yourself”
“Any boy or man can be dragged down if they don’t beware”
“If even mighty David can be drug down, how can we be saved? Christ and his disciples have placed for us beware signs”
“Praying always closes the door for Satan”
“A man never has stood taller, then when they are on their knees”
“stop your soul from falling off the cliff and back up”
“heed spiritual beware signs placed by god and prophets”

President Uchtdorf
“we are called to serve bless and act”
“Your church experience will be much more powerful, and memorable”
“as a pilot i have touched the skys, as a church member i have felt the heavens embrace”
“The priesthood is the eternal power of god. God created the earth through the priesthood”
“Our all powerful father in heaven has granted us his great power”

Priesthood notes cont

President Uchtdorf
“God has granted us this great power for the salvation of his children”
“the priesthood is available to every WORTHY man no matter what his ancestry is. It is available for no price. It is available to all the ends of the earth”
“Those who do not take it seriously are like those who fly through the air far above the clouds and complain about the size of the packet of peanuts where ancient kings would have given everything they have to try just once”
“as we honor the priesthood, God will honor us”

President Eyring
“help others discover their special gifts that god gave them”

President Monson
“there is nothing else in this world that will provide as great comfort as a testimony”
“make the effort to share ours(testimony)”
“a woman needs to be told they are beautiful. I repeat WOMEN NEED TO BE TOLD THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL, worth while, valuable”
“people can change”
“MEN CAN CHANGE”
” ‘don’t you know leopards can’t change their spots?’ ‘you should know, i don’t work with leopards, i work with men, and men change everyday’ ”
“we must develop the capacity to see men of what they can be, not what they are now.” -x3
“on a mission, look as if to baptize every person that you meet.”
“Courage is the word we need to hear”
“Are young men ready to respond? Ready to serve?”

In our last Stake Conference, our Stake President challenged us to read the Book of Mormon through one time before our next Stake Conference.  So, for Family Home Evening I went out to the internet and found a few ways to track your progress while reading the Book of Mormon.  I came up with about 5 different ways and brought them before all of the family.  Each person chose their way of tracking their reading.  When we were done, I took mine and taped it up to the side of the fridge.  Immediately the other kids grabbed the tape and started taping their page as well.  Within minutes all of our papers were up for everyone to see.

Every day, I try and fill in the squares which indicates how many chapters I have read.  Since it is out where everyone can see, it motivates all of us to see how we are doing compared to the rest of us.  Below is a picture of the wall with our tracking pages.

Our family was passing through Brigham City yesterday headed home from dropping off out oldest son from college. While we were there, we decided to stop at the LDS Brigham City Temple Open House. We didn’t have tickets so we were a little worried that we wouldn’t be able to get in. So, we stopped at one of the parking lots where they were shuttling people up to the Temple and asked. The answer was yes, so we got in line and waited for the next bus to arrive to take us up. It didn’t take too long and we were at the temple grounds ready to take a walking tour.

The LDS Temple was beautiful and the people were very nice. I must say, there were much more people than I had expected. Bus load after bus load dropped off eager people anxious to get a look at the new temple before it is dedicated.

After our tour of the temple, we went out front and took some pictures. It was such a nice day, we enjoyed every minute of it, except for the fact that our oldest son was now not with us, he was at school.

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In scouting, the highest rank you can achieve as a youth is the Eagle Scout Award. There are long hours of learning, camping, and working to get this award. Many do not receive this award until around 16 or 17 years of age. If a young man does receive this award by 14 or 15 it is usually a sign of dedication, and perserverance.

In the Young Women program of the LDS Church, there is an equally hard award to earn which is called Young Womanhood Medallion. The program is called “Personal Progress“. Many young women in the LDS Church are not able to earn this award at a young age but work over the 6 year in the program and receive it when they are 16 or 17.

HOWEVER, I am proud to announce that Savanna Carter, my daughter, has earned her Young Womanhood Medallion and was presented the medallion in church last Sunday by our new Bishop. I am very excited for her and proud of her accomplishment. What made these event even more sweet was that Deanna, her mother, my wife, also earned her medallion too since adults can earn this award as well. HOW COOL IS THAT!!!

Congratulations Savanna and Deanna on their hard work in the LDS Young Women’s program.

Below is a small video showing Savanna’s final project. She made a little stuffed caterpillar for all of the nursery kids to use when they go for a walk around the church. The leaders love it because it keeps all of the kids together. The children love it because it has a fun look and loops to hold on to.

A mormon missionary couple from our ward is serving a full time LDS mission in San Diego California at the Mormon Battalion Historical Site, emailed me about a new video that was supposed to be on YouTube. They mentioned that it was sponsored by the Catholic Church and that it talked about values and principles in the upcoming election. They said it was a video of someone using a tool to carve words into stone; family values words. I decided to go to YouTube and look it up. I punched in a couple of key words and found this video. I think it was the one they were talking about. It is powerful. Way to go Catholic Church! Way to hold true to some basic values and stand up for what it right.

Enjoy their video below.

In the spring, our LDS ward brought all of the youth for a joint activity. The Young Women and the Young Men planned an activity where they would go out and learn to shoot skeet. Of course, this activity was highly supervised by adult leaders. For some of the young men and some of the young women, this was the first time they would shoot a gun. The leaders threw the skeet with a hand held throwing devise and the youth tried their best to hold up a 20 gauge or a 12 gauge shotgun and shoot a flying target. Some of them picked up the skill quickly and other were not so sure they even wanted to try.

Below is a picture of my kids, and my wife, getting ready to shoot the target.

I don’t know much about the Young Women’s program in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Mormon Church, but I do know that they have a full manual of activities and goals that the young women set for themselves to help them grow and mature. This last week my daughter Savanna had just such an experience. Little did I know that she is encouraged to have a project that she puts together every so often. I don’t know if it is every month, every year or just once during her time as a young woman in the LDS faith. Nevertheless, she put together a project that would allow all of the young women in our ward to show what type of clothing is appropriate to wear in public. The project was a fashion show. She named the fashion show, “Modesty You Gotta See”. So, the day before her fashion show she got out a huge roll of paper and created a banner to put across the stage. She assigned all of the young women in our LDS ward to bring a nice outfit that would display the correct way to be modest. Some wore everyday clothes, some wore church clothes, some wore play clothes. Savanna ordered a cake and prepared for the next day. Her big mistake was asking me, her father, to MC this program. I was a little concerned that I would make it a little too goofy for what she wanted but it actually turned out fine because some of the young women leaders in our ward were a little on the goofy side as well.

So, the fashion show came together perfectly. We put up the banner, I MC’d the event and described each outfit as they walked across the stage. There were a few parents there and many leaders cheering each of them on as they strutted across that catwalk displaying their modest attire. Below are a few pictures of this event.

GREAT JOB SAVANNA!

My sons and I went down to Thanksgiving Point Utah last week to participate in a golf tournament sponsored by Charity Anywhere Foundation. We had a great time golfing even though we didn’t do very well. I think we lost almost all of the free golf balls we were given but we did find a few lost ones in the out of bounds area. For a couple of holes, my Dad joined us and helped us do a little better but not good enough to get out of the very bottom of the tournament rankings.

All in all, we had a great time and enjoyed a nice sunny day in Utah.

This year our little LDS family had the opportunity to get tickets (they were free) to go and attend the last session of General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As most of your may know, the last session is Sunday afternoon at 2:00pm. Luckily, our family also had reserved that very same weekend at my grandfather’s condo up at Park City. We arrived early and picked out seats as close as we could to the front. Our seats, if standing at the podium, were on the far right of the conference center and we were about 15 rows up from the walkway that splits the bottom from the top of the center. We were pretty close, but not quite close enough to see the speaker’s faces very well. It didn’t matter though, directly in front of us were two television sets. One was showing conference with subtitles and the other was showing conference with a sign language professional. I found myself watching the sign language TV the most because of the interesting way that they communicate. I always tried to pick out what words they were trying to sign and I always wondered if they were keeping up with the speaker or not.

We had a great time at General Conference. This was the first time that Katie was able to attend because of the time restriction. Many people may not know but youth under the age of 8 are not allowed to attend. My guess is that they want silence in the conference center so that the speakers can be heard for television and radio. Anyway, it was a great experience. I think my kids were able to feel the awesome reverence that everyone has for the 12 apostles and especially for the Prophet of God. When President Monson walked in the room, everyone stood, everyone was silent. It was something to see, that many people in a huge conference room standing silently until President Monson sat was great to witness.

Below I have posted a video of some of the Highlights from April Conference.