Great to be 8

This week our nephew Crew got baptized. It was the first grandchild baptism in the Richins family and everyone was so emotional. There was such a sweet spirit in the room as Jaden and Amy both gave talks and all the cousins sang. Crew's cousin Jack and other Grandma Suzanne gave beautiful prayers. It was a sweet simple yet powerful reminder of what all of this is about: family and helping each other home. All made possible because of our Savior Jesus Christ. Jaden gave a beautiful talk about the Holy Ghost that I wanted to save. I love how he related him to an offensive coordinator who whispers in our ear and helps guide us. 

Crew this is what you looked like the very first time I met you. I came down the escalator after finishing my mission and saw my mom holding you with your snaggletooth and Hunter and I had these big dreams of how great it was going to be and I picked you up and you took one look at me and started to cry and reached back for Grandma. So we started off a little bit rough. But over the years we have become better friends. We love to wrestle each other and most of the time that’s me beating you up. We play video games together but our favorite thing together is to play sports. And I guess we aren’t a very original family because I’m also going to talk about football.

 

So Crewman I don’t want to talk about college football I’m going to talk about NFL. So when your favorite quarterback in the NFL Dak Prescott from the Dallas Cowboys. When Dak Prescott gets a play do you know who gives him that play? It’s the offensive coordinator. In the NFL there are these guys that sits way high in the stadium and looks down and wears these cool things called headsets. They are able to read plays and figure out what the best way to attack the defense is. So they have the headset and they speak into the headset and call plays.

 

In Dak’s helmet there is an earpiece and when they play comes in he has to listen to it really carefully and then he goes into the huddle and tells the rest of the team what the play is and then they go execute.

The offensive coordinator gives the team direction and tells them what to do.

Here in a little bit you are going to get a special gift. There are a lot men in this room that are going to stand around and put their hands on your head. And they are going to give you the gift of the Holy Ghost.

 

If I could describe the Holy Ghost to you in the best way I know how. I would say that He is the ultimate offensive coordinator in our lives. The Holy Ghost sits way up high and he can see everything. He can see the good and the bad and the decisions we make. When an offensive coordinator sits there he can see oh the defense is going ot blitz we need to do something else. For us the Holy Ghost can tell us don’t go there, don’t make that decision, don’t say that. He protects us like that. An offensive coordinator can look at the defense and find gaps. And say oh we need to run this play or pass it. The Holy Ghost for us can tell us “go do this” Choose to do this.

The offensive coordinator can tell the QB when he makes a mistake. What are some mistakes quarterbacks can make? Do you think they are sad when those things happen? After a mistake is made the offensive coordinator can get on and say “it’s alright, you can get back up and do better next time.” And the Holy Ghost does that for us. If we make mistakes like if you punch your brother (which you never do;) or if you get fights with mom and dad and don’t listen. Guess what you can try again. The Holy Ghost will comfort us and say “it’s ok you can get back up and do better next time.”

 

Crew sometimes do NFL stadiums get really loud. It would be pretty hard to hear. In this picture Dak is trying to hear what the offensive coordinator is trying to say. Crew you might not see this in your life yet but the world is going to get really noisy. There’s going to be a lot of distractions and things will take your time and attention. And sometimes we need to put our hands over our ears and listen to what Heavenly Father wants us to know. And you can hear better by doing certain things like reading our scriptures and praying and serving other sand loving our family and being good to others.

 

And our Heavenly Father has given us the Holy Ghost to teach you things. For me, I think we all want grand experiences with the Holy Ghost like Him telling us to go somewhere and we do it and something amazing happens. And Crewman that happens. But for me, some of the sweetest experiences with the Holy Ghost are little things. Like sitting with your Uncle Brock when he got home from his mission when I was in 9^th grade. I remember him taking off his nametag and bearing his testimony. I remember feeling in my heart by the power of the Holy Ghost that this was all true. That Jesus loves you and he loves the people that Brock served.

I remember on my mission walking on the street and praying with my companion to know where we should go and what we should do to find people who wanted to know that Jesus loved them.

I can remember meeting my sweet wife for the first time, your Aunt Kenzie and I can remember the spirit telling me “That’s the one”

 

Those are the little things Crewman that bring a lot of joy to your life. And if you can learn to listen to Him. And sometimes it’s loud and it’s hard and we get busy. The Spirit wants to talk to you. The Holy Ghost wants to tell you things to do. He wants to help you. You are never alone. Because He wants to be there for you. So I want you to remember that that you have someone on your side all the time. You have an offensive coordinator and you are the quarterback of your life. He is going to help you and guide you. Life is going to be hard but you’ve got someone there to help you and teach you.

 

Crewman I want to bear my testimony that Jesus loves you. That God loves you and that the Holy Ghost is real. And as you try to be good because you won’t be perfect but as you try to be good and make right choices you are going to be a happy boy.

 

I love you and say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Peaches

• Light the world starting
• Putting together decorations for our tree. I even replaced the flowers in the playhouse's window boxes to be poinsettias so they looked more Christmasy 

• Jaden reading Fourth Wing. I put page covers over the skippable parts for him

• My cousins and I always text about nostalgic childhood memories and we found some epic memes from High School Musical this week

• Finding pinecones at At Home and thinking of Amanda when we were in Pittsburgh playing games and she was trying to get us to guess pinecones and her clues were "they grow on trees" "you put them in drawers" I had never heard of scented pinecones until the

• Stopped by my grandparents on my way to the temple to meet up with Jacobson.
• I always text my friend Alexis when I am at Grandma and Grandpa's because she lives right across the street. Every time I drive up there I think about how crazy unexpected it was to have lived there. Great quality pic but Grandpa answered the door right as I was snapping the pic

• Going to the temple with Jacobson. It's so fun to reconnect with companions. I have known from a young age that spiritual ties are the strongest bonds you can make and I am lucky to have forged some amazing friendships with incredible women. My favorite relationships are the ones that stand the test of time and where you just pick up where you leave off whenever you see each other. That's how it is with Jacobson. It was fun to walk into the waiting room and see her. I also texted a pic of me with a family name to my YW group chat. I hope at least one of them follows the recipe card I made for them and takes a family name with them to the temple. I also sent this to my cousin and his wife who lost a baby they named Evelyn. Again so grateful to know of a plan that is designed around families being together forever.

• Rumors about SLC hosting the Olympics again
• Watching the Santa Claus movies
• Christmas music. I texted our friend Amanda because Sia's snowman is her favorite Christmas song and she wrote back that she was listening to it at that same moment as well. There are so many nostalgic moments that make me miss our CMU Crew! We are going to see most of them at Zach and Jenna's daughter Millie's baby shower when everyone is in town for Christmas but Tanner and Amanda won't be here. Can't wait to see the others though!

• Getting a wearable Barefoot Dreams blanket from Major and Natalie for Christmas

• It snowed 

• Our Christmas Tree

• Seeing the video of Light the World taking over Times Square
• Crew's baptism
• I went to Deseret Book and picked up a journal for Crew's baptism. I recorded both Amy & Jaden's talks and wrote down a list of things Mike blessed Crew with in his confirmation as well as what were said in the prayers. I typed all of this up and glued it into the notebook with the program from the baptism and gave it to him with two powdered doughnuts stacked together to look like an "8." I figure this is a relatively easy and special gift we can do for all of the nieces and nephews. I have such a passion for recording things like this, I know I've said it before but I think there is a reason "remember" is one of the most repeated words in the Book of Mormon and I hope one day Crew will look back on his journal and remember the spirit he felt and the covenants he made on his special day. 
• We sang The Miracle and it is quickly becoming my new favorite primary song
• Megan had glasses of Martinelli's and doughnuts after and I got a video of Crew & Hunter saying Cheers and clinking their bottles together and Parks joined in but when he clinked his glass he said "CHAMPAN!" So now we say "CHAMPAN" instead of Cheers and I love it. 

• Picked up a new Coffee Table book at Deseret book called Hear Him and it's my new favorite book full of artwork and stories of Christ. It's beautiful

• Found a grey ladybug that was alive inside the house. I put it in my basil plant that I have now kept alive for several weeks and am very proud of. One day I'd like to have an herb garden

• Started reading ACOTAR. Nothing like cozy reading by the fire while Jaden plays video games with the boys 

• Made blueberry and raspberry muffins that are delicious

• The first Presidency Christmas devotional is always a great way to kickoff December and the Christmas Season. I'll not soon forget Elder Gong wearing a top hat and talking about Scrooge. His talk about Scrooge was my favorite and the idea that we remember Scrooge for being well Scrooge: grumpy, selfish, confrontational and not for his changed final state when he repented and became kind, selfless and loving

• Found the cutest Santa painting on Etsy. I'm obsessed with Esty printable art. There are so many good ones for so cheap!

• I was asked to help out with Fruit Heights City's live nativity in a couple of weeks. I had a text come through from a high councilman in the Stake who is in our ward asking if I could take call after work one day. I said yes and had no idea what it could be for. Bridge goes to high council because he is the YSA representative for the stake and he said that Robbie was in charge of the live nativity. We all joked about how awesome it would be if Jade and I were asked to be Mary & Joseph especially since he was asked to play Joseph in a nativity for his ward when we were dating. But it ended up just being me asked not both of us. I was asked to be a narrator. I'm super excited to help and experience it. My parents went last year and said it was awesome. Lots of fun Christ focused Christmas things, my favorite

Pits

• Forgetting to put up the new flags the Grantham's ordered and asked us to put up so at 10:00 the night before Anita flew into town Jaden and I were outside lowering the flag, folding it and putting up the new ones. 
• I got a baby shower invite from July of 2022 get delivered. I guess my friend had my Bountiful address but still it took me that long to get it I felt so bad I missed it
• Left my parmesan zucchini in the oven for too long and most of them burned

• So much laundry and not enough space in our closet to put our winter sweaters and coats
• A lot of girls aren't able to make it to my Favorite Things Party I'm throwing with girls from high school 
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