Scriptures

Best Christmas present ever.

And FYI they discontinued the blue scripture in the new addition. WHY???? Blue is the best color. Bad call.

Love,

Brittney

Fall Sunday

Didn't have to wear a coat to church.

Lessons were all good.

Sat by someone I knew in RS - say whaat? I am actually starting to get to know people.

Trev cuddled me all sacrament meeting. I love that best.

(Still can't stop staring at my ring...)

Sunday School

Trevor and I got called to be ward missionaries. So far it's been great - a lot of work though.

This week was my first week teaching the Gospel Essentials class. I was beyond nervous, but Trevor helped me think through things and was really supportive.

The topic was "The Creation". I found a talk by Elder Nelson that had a piece in it that really touched me:

"While visiting the British Museum in London one day, I read a most unusual book. It is not scripture. It is an English translation of an ancient Egyptian manuscript. From it, I quote a dialogue between the Father and the Son. Referring to His Father, Jehovah—the premortal Lord—says:

“He took the clay from the hand of the angel, and made Adam according to Our image and likeness, and He left him lying for forty days and forty nights without putting breath into him. And He heaved sighs over him daily, saying, ‘If I put breath into this [man], he must suffer many pains.’ And I said unto My Father, ‘Put breath into him; I will be an advocate for him.’ And My Father said unto Me, ‘If I put breath into him, My beloved Son, Thou wilt be obliged to go down into the world, and to suffer many pains for him before Thou shalt have redeemed him, and made him to come back to his primal state.’ And I said unto My Father, ‘Put breath into him; I will be his advocate, and I will go down into the world, and will fulfil Thy command.’”

I love everything about this. I love how it shows Heavenly Father as such a loving Father. Ah. My new favorite quote. I could go on and on.

Happy Sunday from the Schauerhamers!!!

Love,

Brittney

Wooden Nickels

In church today, a recently returned missionary talked about wooden nickels. His father would always tell him to get rid of his wooden nickels.

This really stuck with me. I have a lot of wooden nickels in my life. Things I desperately hold onto, that are not good for me, not good for anything. All they do is take up room and weigh me down. I can't do anything with them, can't get anything for them, can't give them away. Yet I still cling onto them.

Not only do I cling onto these wooden nickels, as useless and restricting as they are, but I often refuse to take real nickels that are being offered to me, insisting instead on holding onto the wooden ones. I won't drop the wooden ones to make room for the real nickels.

As we go on collecting nickels, be they real or wood, it decides our future. Our opportunities.


Will I go on holding onto wooden nickels that weight me down, restrict me? Or will I drop them, even though for a while, I'll be left with nothing? And eventually, once I make the decision to drop the wooden nickels, I'll start to collect real nickels - I'll have room to take the nickels being offered to me.

The worst part is that I know which nickels are wooden, and which are real. But for some reason, it is so hard to make the decision, for whatever reason, to drop the wooden ones. To let go. I know some real nickels are right there for my taking, being offered to me, nickels that will improve my life and my happiness. Yet I can't drop the wooden nickels, making the needed room.

But I know that in the end, when I drop the wooden nickels, as scary as it is, where once I had useless restricting weight, I'll find limitless opportunities and fulfillment.

Love,
Brittney

Merry Christmas!

Things that made this Christmas great:

• The music and lights and snow (obviously prior to Saudi...)
• The parties and jolly mood.
• Christmas sweaters. Especially my favorite one, stolen from Grandma. There are no words for this particular sweater. Lets just say - it has bells. Honest.
• Having a bunch of Christmas' with friends and family, and their super wonderful gifts.
• Taylor had his Christmas presents shipped to me to take home for the family. Their contents were the highlight of, almost, my life. Which may at first sound a little sad - but seriously, they were awesome. Lets jut say they came from a company called something akin to: Adultswhostillwishtheywerekids.com

*   1 Leg lamp - just like in a Christmas Story

*   1 A puzzle alarm clock. Looks like a child's toy.

*   1 T-Shirt that has a digital display of the time across the chest.

*   1 A picnic bench condiments set

*   1 A sarcasm ball. Like a fortune ball, but it says mean things. Like: Yeah right you pathetic loser. Dream on.

*   1 A green bag that says, I use this environment friendly bag because my wife makes me

*   1 little plastic green finger puppet monster with a packing peanut carefully twisted and shoved in his toothy mouth. This particular item was NOT listed on the packing slip. My theory - someone was playing with this item, or it was on their desk, or SOMETHING, and somehow it found its way into our box. The whole how behind its mysterious existence makes me smile. Someone obviously took time to get that packing peanut in its mouth - which I highly doubt was intended for us. Especially since we didn't pay for it. 

• Getting to come home for Christmas.
• The way our home is decorated, all the familiar ornaments and decorations and the tree.
• Getting Christmas jammies, like every year. And getting matching ones with Bobbie.
• Watching Christmas movies, especially White Christmas. Which I found, even though Bob and Camree hid it from me. Haha, better luck next time ladies.
• Christmas Eve dinner - namely brisket and green bean casserole.
• Sleeping in one room, all of us kids together.
• Waking up to Bobbie jumping on me, yelling, "IT'S CHRISTMAS, NINNIE! IT'S CHRISTMAS!"
• Sitting in the hallways, staggered, like every year.
• Bobbie's plan to not go into the living room last this year. Her plan - we draw numbers out of a hat. Taylor drew 1, I drew 2, Mikail drew 3, and Camree drew - Duplicate. Which means she gets to go in with whoever she chooses. Naturally, she decided to duplicate Taylor. So what, you may ask did Bob draw? 5. Skipped 4 and went right to 5. Foiled by her own plan. What a special Christmas surprise.
• Walking in and seeing a brand new Mac Book Pro - 15" sitting on my pile of goodies. I had no idea! No seriously, I had no idea.
• All of my other goodies: boots, jewelry, clothes, movies, my leg lamp.
• Giving dad his shoe shining kit for the 20th time. And the way he totally had no idea what it was. And camouflaging it beforehand. 
• Having 7-layer dip
• Getting to go to Church and see all those people who I dearly love. Most everyone was gone, but I did get to see the Waites and Sis. Conner. I love seeing people I've known for forever. 
• The Christmas program. Getting to sing all those Christmas songs, and hear the Christmas story. It was a wonderful experience, on Christmas, to actually go and sing all the songs.
• Getting to snuggle with Bobbie the whole time. I miss sitting next to her at Church, and having her cuddle with me. So nice. 
• Getting a super awesome call from Becki and Jenni and Andrew. Best cousins in the history of the world. I swear.
• Sitting here alone, at midnight on Christmas, in my new comfy PJ's, in our cluttered messy living room. Filled with all the goodies of the day, and the tree and ornaments. At home. Typing on my new laptop, with the blue keyboard protecter. 

Love,

Brittney