President and Sister Gelwix

We had a ward Fireside recently with president and sister Gelwix.. You don't know who they are you say.....Have you seen the movie Forever Strong?  He is the coach that that movie is about!  I have to tell you him and his wife are simply amazing.  He is the Mission President of the Fresno mission here.  His wife is so funny and so cute.  The whole fireside was about communicating.  In one way or another. (it was nice to be spiritually uplifted and get something out of church without three kids with us and I wish I would of taken notes, this was a few weeks ago)  Sister Gelwix talked about three different things to communicate.
1.51/49 This was really funny.  In a business there is always someone who owns a little bit more I guess you would say.  So someone has 51% and a 49%.  There is the CEO and the CFO.  Who is your 51 and who is your 49.  I have to say garrett is probably our CEO but i definitely run the show the CFO!;) So afterwards we were talking with friends to see who was the 51 and 49. 
2. Hold a Family Meeting.  Whether its just you and your spouse if you have little kids who can't really participate, or you don't have kids.  If you have older kids than have those also participate.  Make it a specific time each week.  Not when you driving in the car or on your way to bed.  But a specific time.  Talk about schedules, things that are going on with kids, concerns for one another, or the children and ways to deal with them.  Budgets, goals to work on and how you did on goals for the weeks before.
3. Spiritual Bank.  She made an excellent point, we are always taking out withdrawals on our spiritual bank and asking for things.  She said to make sure you are always always always depositing.  I feel like I withdrawal alot from this....  I think some people are just better at this than I am.  I sometimes struggle doing spiritual things.  In a sense having three kids is harder.  You just have a lot more laundry, another mouth to feed, Breck to get to school and its hard to get in my scripture reading and morning prayers.  If we get family prayer, fhe and the food blessed I honestly call it a week of success!  I'm trying to be better.  I have conference downloaded onto my ipod so when I fold laundry or do the dishes I have one ear bud in and listen while the chaos ensues.  But i do get stuff out of it and its nice!

She was so so cute!  Love her!

President Gelwix took a little different approach.  His whole approach was "THE LONG VIEW" He was saying to regards to where do we want to end up.....  In the celestial kingdom with all of our family. 

He said something that I will never forget....  He looked at Garrett and I and asked... How old is your little boy?  We said 4 months.  He went onto say....Lets be on the safe side and say just 13 short  months ago, Kooper was an adult spirit.  Before he left to come to earth he was an adult spirit.  who made "adult" decisions because children don't make adult decisions.  He was surrounded by his bestest friends.  What do you think were the LAST words he spoke to them? What do you think he said to them before he came down to this earth life?
When I think of having a baby I never really thought about it like that before.  It was really interesting and good food for thought.

The whole talk that President Gelwix was saying was we had all these steps that would get us from where we are to where we need to be.  He said we just have to get that person to that step that is right there in front of them.  Just focus on that.  He said some people will fly up the stairs and others you may have to crawl, but just focus on the step in front of you.  He said we all have people who have fallen away from the church or who have not yet joined.  He said just continue to pray for them....remember "THE LONG VIEW" we all want to be there together in the end but focus on that step right there in front of you. 

These are just a few points that stuck out to me.  You can tell from his Demeanor he is an amazing man who is truly called by God to be a Mission President.  I am so grateful that they took time out of their busy schedules to come and speak to us.  Sorry if this is jumbled.  It hopefully makes some sort of sense but really I guess the whole feeling there you could really feel the spirit.  I don't get much out of church these days.  Sacrament you can forget it.  Just trying to keep three kids quiet and occupied I consider a success.  Sunday School I spend half the time trying to Get Breck to go into Primary and then Kooper's meal/naptime is during Relief Society.  So needless to say I know everyone says at some point  but What is the point. and President and Sister Gelwix made it clear what the point is.  I wanted to write this down so we would remember how great this Fireside truly was.  It was a good pick me up!