The Testaments

This is Kali's favorite movie right now, she calls it the Jesus movie.
It plays at least once daily in our home and I love it!

Scott & Ashlyn

Early Christmas :)

I have been taking ukulele lessons from Uncle Benny, and I LOVE IT!!! As an early Christmas gift he made me a book of songs with the corresponding cords. I was so excited to start practicing, however I hadn't purchased an ukulele yet. No need, the next day of class he surprised me with one!! Now I keep up all my neighbors playing till wee hours in the morning:) I had asked him if he had a CD out that I could buy. He said he didn't, but he did have some songs he had compiled and made an oldies CD and a Christmas CD which he gave to all the moms.

Baby Jack

Congratulations Lee Family

IMPORTANT PARENTING TIPS FOR YOUR NEW BABY

WE are the CHAMPIONS of the WARD :)

Our 14th ward girls basketball team took 1st! Go married women!!! We played a singles ward for the championship game and we showed them that old married women could still play ball :) Every girl on our team was a HUGE asset:

Vivien - What an awesome girl. For our very first game only Larissa and I showed up and you had to have three to play, so we called everyone on the roster, but no one could come, then out of the blue Vivien showed up and saved the day. She was learning as she went, getting better by the game, I am so glad she decided to come play on the team and she was AWESOME!

Larissa - She was our main girl down low, we would just toss the ball to her and she would do her thing, swoosh, 2 more points on the board. Larissa was so much fun for me to play with, we are very similiar in how we play ball and it was fun to feed off each other. I LOVE YOU GIRL!!

Me - Any of you who knew how I played ball growing up, a few things have changed, I am still a huge re-bounder, but I take more shots from the outside now, and the biggest change that I have made in playing ball, which I am SO proud of myself for, is I actually make friends now with my opponents. I know many of you are shaking your head in disbelief, but it is true. My sister Coriann was a huge example to me in how she played ball, so I decided to try it out and see where it got me, and in this instance it won us a championship. We decided as a team to not play dirty ball, no pushing, shoving, or getting angry, just play smarter and have good sportsmanship. I think in many of our games it threw the girls off because they would be pushing on us but we never pushed back. A couple times I just moved and the girl would just fall on the floor (a little trick I learned back in the day from Esther Moes, remember Mikaela :)

Andrea - This little gem wasn't able to start playing with us till right before tournament started because she was pregnant, and her first game she played was a week later after giving birth. I know she is AMAZING and look at her!!! Skinny Minnie. This girl was one of our outside shooters. We just knew when ever she shot the ball up, it was going in!!! She was a huge, huge asset to the team. DID I MENTION SHE IS AMAZING!

Julianna - She was our other key shooter from the outside, and again, when she shot the ball up, you knew it was going in! Julianna was also the brains of the team, she would inform us of what we needed to change, or remind us that we did have a time-out we could use :) There was one key game where Julianna scored like 20 points which I know totally boosted her confidance in shooting. She is awesome, and I am so glad she was part of our team.

I LOVE ALL THESE GIRLS AND AM SO GLAD TO HAVE BEEN APART OF THIS TEAM!

What can we do to be more like the Savior?

Paul Bishop from the LAPD has a magazine called the Meridian and he wrote an article of the current things he has had to deal with since Prop 8 has passed.

If you want to read the whole article, which I HIGHLY recommend click here.

Here are a few paragraphs I felt inspired to incorporate into my gospel doctrine lesson on how to be more like the Savior.

He says:
I learned a number of hard and harsh lessons. And in the events following the election and passage of Proposition 8, I felt great anguish forcing me to drop to my knees in prayer – eventually coming to a more personal understanding of the Love of Christ and what he expects from me.

Speaking of the day they had to close down the LA temple because of the 2500 people protesting.

He says:
A friend of mine, watching the same scenes play out on the television, called and said he felt like he wanted to go down to the temple with a baseball bat and begin swinging at the demonstrators. I must admit, the natural man in me agreed.

In actuality, the scenes on the television, literally drove me to my knees in prayer for the safety of the temple, the members, and our church. A lesson I have learned several times before, caused me to expand my prayers to include those who were opposing us for they are not our enemies – they are our brothers and sisters in Christ.

The Appropriate Response

In the face of hatred, how are we to feel about this focused attack upon our church? An attack launched not because we are the only supporters of Proposition 8, but because we have been the most visible and financially supportive entity in the battle. We are an easy target.

In a recent article on Christian Courage , Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles wrote, "I would say that one of mortality's great tests comes when our beliefs are questioned or criticized. In such moments, we may want to respond aggressively – to put up our dukes . But these are important opportunities to step back, pray, and follow the Savior's example. Remember, Jesus Himself was despised and rejected by the world. And in Lehi's dream, those coming to the Savior also endured 'mocking and pointing … fingers' (1 Nephi 8:27). 'The world hath hated [my disciples],' Jesus said, 'because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world' (John 17:14).

But when we respond to our accusers as the Savior did, we not only become more Christlike, we invite others to feel His love and follow Him as well

"To respond in a Christlike way cannot be scripted or based on a formula. The Savior responded differently in every situation. When He was confronted by wicked King Herod, He remained silent. When He stood before Pilate, He bore a simple and powerful testimony of His divinity and purpose. Facing the moneychangers who were defiling the temple, He exercised His divine responsibility to preserve and protect that which was sacred. Lifted up upon a cross, He uttered the incomparable Christian response: 'Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do' (Luke 23:34)."

We have often been instructed to love our enemies, and despite the current horror of our trials, this is no time to do differently.

Challenges to our faith are not new. Nor are they likely to go away anytime soon. But, as Elder Hales reminds us, "True disciples of Christ see opportunity in the midst of opposition. We can take advantage of such opportunities in many ways: a kind letter to the editor, a conversation with a friend, a comment on a blog, or a reassuring word to one who has made a disparaging comment. We can answer with love those who have been influenced by misinformation and prejudice – who are 'kept from the truth because they know not where to find it' (D&C 123:12). I assure you that to answer our accusers in this way is never weakness. It is Christian courage in action."

Lessons Learned

Clearly there are lessons to be learned from the current unrest:

Tolerance is not agreement and should not be a one way street. However, we must still remain tolerant of those who are intolerant of us.

Recognize the adversary at work here – making good seem bad and evil seem good.

We can only be Disciples of Christ when we respond to adversity in a Christ like manner. To do less opens our actions to the influence of the adversary and hurts us even more.

We should never take for granted the opportunities we have to gather together in worship.

We should never put off the opportunity to attend the temple.

For these valuable things can be disrupted and possibly even closed to us – if not permanently, then at least on a temporary basis..

Pray. Often. Don't forget to include those who are set against you.

And finally, have no doubt President Monson knows where all of this is leading. He will surely reveal the knowledge to us on the Lord's timetable. Meanwhile, we must support and trust him, his inspired councilors, and our inspired local leaders in our actions. Their actions of Christian courage will be our examples.

A few scriptures to think about:

3 Nephi 12:10-12
10 And blessed are all they who are persecuted for my name’s sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 And blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake;
12 For ye shall have great joy and be exceedingly glad, for great shall be your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you.

3 Nephi 12:38-39
38 And behold, it is written, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth;
39 But I say unto you, that ye shall not resist evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also;

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNTIE TORI

My youngest sister Coriann is turning the big 20!!! Kali calls her Tori becauses her c's sound like t's, it is so cute. Coriann is the nicest person you will EVER meet. She is friends with everyone and has the best personality. EVERYBODY loves Coriann!!! She plays b-ball at BYU-Provo and actually makes friends with girls from the teams she plays against, (something I never understood until recently, I will blog about that later). Check out Coriann's stats and accomplishments here. We are so excited to get to watch her play ball in December in our very own BYU-H auditorium the CAC :) There team is coming out to Hawaii for a tournament!

Even though she is my little sister I have always looked up to her, she is so strong in the gospel and is just such a well rounded person! She is AMAZING!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIS, WE LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU!

Na Kamalei

Kali, Krew and I go to a parent, child interaction school on Mondays and Wednesdays. We learns all sorts of Hawaiian songs, words, colors, culture, games, and dances. It has been a lot of fun for all of us. Auntie Keahe is Kali's teacher and Uncle Benny plays the ukulele for all of our songs we sing. Uncle Benny also plays with Krew the whole time so I can interact with Kali more. Today was so much fun. Kali and Kaiya dressed up, Hawaiian style and Uncle Benny turned on some Tahition drum music and the girls just started shaking their hips. They did a really good job. We didn't have a video camera, so I tried to capture it with pictures, but we will try to get video next time. They were so cute and they looked good :) Check out Melissa's Blog to see the girls singing one of their Hawaiin songs.

Taylor Lee showed up with her Grandma today because Cassie just had her baby boy, Jack. Congratulation Lee's. We are all so excited for you!!