Hrm... Jared and I have both blogs and Facebooks AND Myspaces. I figure that means we are old but are in denial. Also, we are addicted to the internet. And attention whores. But we all already knew that.
Back to our Sunday. Before I get into the nitty gritty, here is a picture that has nothing to do with anything, except it helps illustrate the points that: A) Our daughter is cuter than any other baby in the history of us having babies, and B) Jared got her to keep a bow in her hair for almost a whole minute.
SO, after Cutest Baby Ever was done being photogenic, we had the Smiths and the missionaries over for dinner. Interesting side note - the Smiths asked if their baby (also known as Cutest Baby Ever in the Smaller and Quieter Than Our Baby category) could sit in a closet the while we were eating dinner. Apparently she likes sleeping in them. Another intersting side note - we have no closets that aren't completely filled with junk, so she slept NEXT to a closet.
For some weird reason, Jared and Joe decided it would be fun to have a dinner made up of Ramen and Spagetti-O's. The Ramen got omited, but we all did have corn dogs -which to my chagrin, our baby adored. Dang it. And butterscotch cookies that Mandy had to make Joe or he threatened to leave her. When he said that he laughed, and I think he was being sarcastic, but he seems like a man who takes his cookies seriously.
It seemed like a good time at that point to take a picture in which Joe looks undead, I look heavily medicated, and Mandy looks creeped out.
I should frame that picture, a memory of how they spent their first wedding anniversary. I'll bet this is how everyone dreams of spending it.
Then, we rushed out of the house to catch a class held at a local Baptist church, with the title: "Mormons, Muslims and Me." - a 6 week course. We'd been curious when we saw the sign up in front of their church, and met our bishop's wife there, mom (she tipped us off about it), the missionaries and some other friends from the ward. We were quite the sight, walking in, dressed up (not a common thing at churches anymore) and with the missionaries - whew!
The topic was Joseph Smith, and was taught by their preacher who had studied the church during his doctorate work. He began his talking by announcing that it was his goal to prove that Joseph Smith was a fraud. He proceeded to attempt it by going through his life, giving half-truths and completly false and widely known refuted falsehoods, with very little documentation. It was so sad to hear someone talk about something so wonderful as the restoration of the gospel, but missing the point completely by only researching the detractors of the church.
His main problems with Joseph Smith were his failings - which he had, just like all of us, and the pastor repeatedly commented how he didn't measure up to Christ. Prophets are people - imperfect, every single one of them. Christ is our example and our Savior, and if God only depended on perfect people to send forth his gospel, there wouldn't be anyone to do it!
One part that did make me giggle though was when he talked about the First Vision and how you should never start your own church if you disagree with yours... good golly, Baptists are Protestants! That's exactly what YOU did!
There are 4 more weeks to go - I may go. We'll see. I stayed in the lobby and kept baby occupied but I could hear over the loudspeaker, and I couldn't help but look at my beautiful daughter's happy face and be so incredibly thankful that I can share with her the gospel - the joyous knowledge that our Heavenly Father loves us, loves his Son and that we can return to him. That he didn't leave us here without a lifeline - we have inspired and wonderful scripture, commandments to follow. As difficult as it can be to follow, I'm so thankful we have a path to follow. We have a prophet on this earth that speaks to us in our day. We have a way to return to His presence. And my Cutest Baby Ever gets to know the joy of gaining and having a testimony of that too.
Now that's some good news.
