Closing...

2011-12-09T14:23:00.001-08:00

I am closing this blog down. If you need to find me and my family, we're over at chaseanddarlaguymon.blogspot.com.

Don't worry, I found a great site that is letting me import everything from this blog, edit it like a scrapbook, and print it. I have already started working on it! When it is all done, every post will be bound into a book with a table of contents starting from the beginning of this blog.

blurb.com if any of you are interested in doing the same with any of your blogs.

Art Submission

2011-10-07T21:16:00.000-07:00

"Sacred River"
I wanted to remember in a creative way the Sacred Groove and The Susquehanna River for their importance to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. One restored the gospel, the other restored the Priesthood, both through the Prophet Joseph Smith. I merged both pictures, which can be found in the scriptures or on the Church History website, to create this unique work of art.

To create this, I plotted a work space and painted the edge to give it that "framed" border look. With that completed, I penciled out the basic outline, and then started to Mod Podge the ripped up tissue paper to the outline.

Small detail image

Overall Picture

100th post.

2011-10-03T21:01:00.000-07:00

I have often wondered what I would write as my ground-breaking 100th post. I always thought it would be either earth shattering or ground breaking, but in reality I think neither call for this occasion. I often recall my time spent in Nauvoo in the past two years.

The first was when I first stepped into Nauvoo as a Boyer and left there a Guymon. When we were sealed in the temple, I knew that I would instantly be linked to this wonderful and marvelous place for the rest of my life. I was excited for the opportunity that C had given me to stay for our honeymoon. It not only brought us together as one, but it also brought us closer to our Lord. We spent days visiting the sites and taking in the Spirit that was there. I love and cherish the time that we spent in Nauvoo getting to know the sites and exploring by ourselves. We were blessed to have most of Nauvoo to ourselves because the pageant had ended.

The second time was when we returned to participate as a young married couple in the Nauvoo Pageant, at the invitation of W & M, C's brother and wife, we found ourselves living like pioneers. We stayed in a log cabin and dressed the role every evening for a week. I was astonished when we first ran through the show at the following quote:

"Today, facing west, on the high bluff overlooking the city of Nauvoo, thence across the Mississippi, and over the plains of Iowa, there stands Joseph’s temple, a magnificent house of God. Here in the Salt Lake Valley, facing east to that beautiful temple in Nauvoo, stands Brigham’s temple, the Salt Lake Temple. They look toward one another as bookends between which there are volumes that speak of the suffering, the sorrow, the sacrifice, even the deaths of thousands who made the long journey from the Mississippi River to the valley of the Great Salt Lake."
-President Gordon B. Hinckley, "O That I Were an Angel, and Could Have the Wish of Mine Heart."-October 2002 General Conference

During our first performance, with C's parents sitting in the audience, I grabbed C as this quote and the Nauvoo Temple was lit in lights. Every night from then on, it was just something we did. I realized the great sacrifices of those early saints each and every time we took the stage because of our previous time spent in Nauvoo. Even now, I can hear President Hinckley's voice speak these words to me whenever I look at a picture of the Nauvoo Temple, which is everyday because there is a picture of the Nauvoo Temple in the 4 major rooms of our apartment (the only one without the Temple is the bathroom).

Since this weekend was General Conference I always true blessings are bountiful in the things that the Lord has his voice pieces speak. I feel so uplifted and full of the Spirit, even now that Conference is over as I review my notes and study out in my heart the things the Lord would have me do. I am grateful for my inspired calling as a teacher and a mother. I am grateful for the lessons that I have been taught, and the lessons I will be taught if I just put my Faith in him. I am grateful to missionaries who serve and are faithful in their calling to gather the lost sheep. I hope that one day, a newly acquired friend will find her way back to the church. I know it won't be today, but I know that through the Spirit that I feel from her, and mine that whatever hurt she is feeling, she can know that she is forgiven and through repentance all things are possible. I just hope that I can help her feel the love of her Savior and Heavenly Father.

Please, I would encourage you that you need to know that you have a Heavenly Father who loves and cares about you. He misses you, just like a parent misses a child. He desires for you to return to him one day. You have an older brother, who suffered and died, then was resurrected so that you might live again with your Father in perfection. Your family can be an eternal one, if you set on the right path now.

I love you no matter who you are, or what you do in life, because you are my family. Everyone of you are part of my eternal family.

Love,
D

Darla Elaine Guymon

Closing...

Art Submission

100th post.