All is Well in Vasteras!

     I just love Mondays!  Reading an uplifting letter from your favorite missionary is such a wonderful way to start your week. "Muck Out Monday" didn't seem as tedious today. I had a spring in my step and a smile on my face as I cleaned the house and did the laundry just knowing that all is well with Dallin - he really sounds good!  I am so happy to see he has maintained his sense of humor and wit! I really do miss him, but there is nowhere else I'd rather him be. Stay safe son and keep up the great work and attitude.

 

Saturday was a fun and very interesting day. Blaine, Carter, and I went over to Blaine's dental office and did a little dentistry on Blaine's step-sister Mona Given. We love Mona. She is such a sweetheart, and it is always a joy and pleasure to visit with her. Carter assisted Blaine while Blaine cemented Mona's new bridge, and I did some research for my book. It was then my turn to get in the chair. I have been after Blaine since we moved back to St. George to replace my one and only crown. It also happened to be the very first crown Blaine ever did. He did it for me way back in Louisville Dental School - 1998. He did an excellent job with it, and there really wasn't anything wrong with it, but I didn't like the metal that was on it so I made him replace it with a full porcelain crown. Well, it just so happened that it became the first crown that Carter would do. Carter thinks he wants to be a dentist so Blaine decided to give him some experience.

 

Now, I am either the greatest and bravest mother in the world, or I am the craziest. Maybe a little of both!  I allowed my 17-year-old son who has zero dental training give me a shot in my mouth to numb me and then drill my crown in half so Blaine could remove it. He also drilled out a few amalgam fillings so Blaine could replace those with composite material. I was amazed at how calm both Carter and I were. The shot didn't hurt at all, and he showed nothing but confidence with the drill. Blaine's objective was to show Carter that dentistry really is not difficult and to inspire Carter to explore it further. Only time will tell what direction Carter decides to go career-wise, but for now, I believe he will make an incredible dentist. Here are a few pictures of that momentous occasion as well as a few pictures from later that evening of Ty and Blaine playing catch at PVHS.

 

 

 

Giving the Shot!!!!

 

 

Drilling Away!!!

 

More Drilling - Blaine is the assistant!

 

 

Blaine and Ty at PVHS' Baseball Field

 

Ty Pitching to His Dad!

 

The Windup....

 

Strike!

 

 

 

Blaine's Letter to Dallin this Week:

 

 

 

Blaine included this photo with his letter. We are at Aunt Irene's Graveside Service. 

 

 

Hi Dallin,

I have been thinking of you quite a bit this week.  My thoughts today regarding you where this:

I need to tell Dallin how important pitching our tents towards the temple is.  Then as this was talking about tents, of course reminded me of the scripture you had chosen for your mission. 

1 Nephi 2:15 And my Father dwelt in a tent.

This is the scripture that came to me today while I was thinking about the environment we live in today.

Mosiah 2:6 And they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which King Benjamin should speak unto them.

Your mom found this scripture that I had been thinking of.  She knew right where to find it.

My Sunday school lesson today was on Family and how to fortify our families.  How today the family as outlined by God is becoming extinct.
As protection for my family, the spirit taught me this today about facing my house towards the temple.

 At work, I am often led to gaze upon the St. George temple.  When I view the St. George temple I quickly remember the love our Father in Heaven has for His children. He is acutely aware of our needs and wants nothing more than to participate in our lives for our good.  Today more than ever before, I felt his strength present, even though there is so much negative going on around us.

My words to you today are to remember these things and find peace and comfort in knowing that God lives, Jesus is the Christ, and the Holy Ghost, the comforter, testifies of them.

How fortunate we are to have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives.  We must never let our testimonies burn out, but we must always nourish them with the continuous miracle of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

I love you Dallin! Stay strong at this particular time on your mission.  You are in a very pivotal period of time right now.  Please adhere to righteousness and be ever ready and willing to  heed His call of "Come Follow Me."

Yours Forever,

Dad Milne Jr.

 

 

Dallin's Response:

 

 

Hey dad we are a little short on time today because we are doing a family home evening activity here in church with mini golf and stuff so I don't have as much time as usual.  But just know that I appreciate your uplifting letters.  They give me a lot of comfort and guidance.  And nice picture by the way.  I've got to say though, it definetly does look like I get my looks from you because Mom still has hers ;) haha wasn't it Grandpa Black who would say that?

Elder Dilly-dal

 

My Letter to Dallin this Week:

 

 

2 Nephi 25:26 "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins."

This is for sure one of my all time favorite scriptures. If there is only one thing that you ever remember from my and your dad's teachings, please let it be this!

Dear Dallin,

This week has been great with all the back to school excitement. I just wish the weather would act like it was Fall and start cooling off. It is still way too hot for me. How is the weather there?  Are you getting any relief from the heat and humidity?  How was zone conference and your interview with President Beckstrand?  How is the work going in Vasteras this week? How is your health? You look good in the pictures you have sent. Still handsome as ever!

Raymond and Grandma came and spent a couple of days with us this week so they could attend a few sessions at the temple and do some sealings. They are doing well and they send you their love and prayers. I told grandma that we would have Thanksgiving here again this year and I will invite all of my brothers and sisters and their families and tell them it is a family reunion. We were going to try and have one this summer upon the Beaver mountain, but everyone's schedules were too busy - especially ours. Hopefully they all can make it.  It has been a long time since we were all together. November will be here before we know it, and that means your one year mark. That is crazy! 

Working on the book has been a little slow the past few weeks because Dr. White has been in the process of moving to Salt Lake City to begin her new job doing research for the church. She will be working in the church office building. I am very excited for her. I have been doing a lot of reading and secondary research to support our writings so I have still had plenty to do. I have read some really great books lately. I am right now reading one by Bruce C. Hafen called "Covenant Hearts".  It is a book on marriage and he explains the difference between a contractual marriage and a covenant marriage. He uses some interesting examples and shares incredible insight. In our interviews and research we have found that it is the temple covenants that causes these couples that are having problems in their marriage due to pornography to stay and rely on the Lord to try and work things out, of course this only works if both the husband and wife are willing to work at it and do all they can to take the necessary steps to heal. The covenants we make in the temple are so important. Our marriage relationships are the most important relationships we have in this life and in the world to come. A man and a woman can only be exalted together!

I start back to school on Monday the 25th. I will be taking 13 credits this semester along with studying for the GRE. I will put all my graduate school applications in come January and then we will see what happens. It will be a very busy Fall, so hopefully I can get through it. I know last Fall was super busy as well, but the Lord certainly provided a way for me to accomplish all that I needed to with our family, my young women's calling, and school. I was constantly amazed at the tender mercies He showed to me. I am excited to get back into school. I love learning new things. I have found that this is when I am happiest - when I am learning and accomplishing goals whether it is in school or anything to do with the family.  Having goals is so important, and our knowledge and our relationships are the only things we take with us into the next life. This is time in your life is optimal for learning. Take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way to gain further light and knowledge.

When President Henry B Eyring was a teenager, he awoke one morning and received a distinct impression. The Spirit instructed, "Someday, when you know who you really are, you will be sorry that you didn't use your time better."  One of the most important things that we can learn in this life is who we are!  The process of discovering our spiritual identity in life can prove to be very difficult. It is only through the truths that God has set forth that we are able to do so.  It is imperative that we have the Holy Ghost to lead and guide our lives in order to combat the philosophies of men that confuse us as to who we really are.  Elder M. Russell Ballard tells us that "we must understand the basic doctrines and receive the saving ordinances that are essential for our eternal exaltation and happiness... But even though our present long-range view of eternity is limited, the Lord has not left us without direction. He has provided scriptures and apostles and prophets through whom he has revealed His plan for our exaltation and eternal life. And we have the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, to guide us. This reminds me of what your dad has always taught you, which is to always stand with the prophet and apostles and you will never go wrong. Today in Sacrament meeting our high council member spoke and pointed out that in today's world the teachings and standards of the church are now politically incorrect, but this doesn't mean we abandon them. There are times in our lives when we must be willing to stand alone and we must find the courage to stand up for what we believe in. We must hold on to our own true identities and not allow them to be lost in the ways of the world.

Remember Korihor the anti-Christ from the Book of Mormon?  He taught that there was no need for the Savior Jesus Christ. He elevated man by teaching a very humanistic concept: "every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature; therefore every man prospered according to his genius, and that every man conquered according to his strength" (Alma 30:17).  The tragic result of his teaching caused people to forget who they were (their identity as children of God) and commit sin. Sin as we know only perpetuates our spiritual amnesia. In fact, President Eyring said this about sin: "One of the effects of disobeying God seems to be the creation of just enough spiritual anesthetic to block any sensation as the ties to God are being cut. Not only does the testimony of the truth slowly erode, but even the memories of what it was like to be in the light begin to seem... like a delusion (spiritual amnesia)." A lot of what I just shared came from this week's church news, and I also shared it in a devotional for ward council today. Good food for thought.

Anyhow son, I pray you are doing well. I miss you often, but I rejoice in your goodness and your willingness to serve a mission. You are amazing! Continue to work hard and pray harder! Also remember that working smarter is better than working harder, and it is the Spirit that makes us smarter!  Love much and laugh often and you will have an incredible mission. Don't get caught up in the difficulty of the journey, but discover the joy in the journey. "Man is that he might have joy!"

Love you tons! Take good care of yourself. Please let me know if there is anything else you need besides those prescriptions. I will put them in the mail tomorrow afternoon. You are forever in my thoughts and prayers!

With Love,

Mom

PS.  I will post some pictures of Carter doing dentistry on me on the blog. He will tell you all about it in his letter, and I will also tell about it on the blog. I will also add some cute pictures of dad and Ty playing catch at PVHS. Have a great week!

#workhard,prayharder #followtheprophet #youarewhatyoueat

 

 

Aldste Milne's Letter Home this Week:
 

 

Hejsan Allihopa!

 

Another week come and gone.  All is well here in Västerås.  My health has been good and, as you noticed, I am still too good-looking for my own good ;)  We had better success in finding these last couple days so we are starting to get ourselves a nice little investigator pool going here.  So the work is going forward!  Slowy, yes, but also surely!  Zone Training was way good, it was cool to see my mission dad, elder forsyth, do his thing as a zone leader now.  It's crazy to think that I am about as old as a missionary as he was when he trained me.  In my interview with President Beckstrand I told him about how I want to train as soon as possible.  He is a really cool guy and Sister Beckstrand is super sweet.  I told Sister Beckstrand that I didn't say hi to her early because she looked just like another sister missionary when I walked in, she really seemed to like that haha.  On Wednesday, we'll go over to Stockholm for what is called a "mission tour".  I am not exactly sure what happens but Elder Teixeria from the Seventy will be there so that'll be interesting.  Rumor is that we will all be getting I-Pads for our proselyting efforts.  Haha I'm not so sure if that'll actually happen but that would make things nice. 


Anyways, that's exciting that everyone is getting back into the school flow.  I swear, everytime I think about Carter as a senior in high school I just about fall over.  He and Ty were both looking dang good in the back to school picture that Carter sent me.  And those dental pictures of Carter are awesome!  Haha I can't believe you let Carter stick a needle in your mouth and drill on your teeth!  He looked like a stud anyways, I was telling him that one of these days me, carter, and ty need to open up our own dental practice or maybe one is a regular dentist, one an orthodontist, and one an oral surgeon or something.  We can refer all of our patients to each other and eventually set up a dental monopoly in whatever area we are in.  "Milne Family Dental" I can see it now.  Haha that would be something.  And I hope that all goes well with your own back to school thing Mom.  You'll do great.  You've have always been really good at balancing things out.


I really like what you put in about what President Eyring said about using our time.  A member here gave a really good talk on Sunday about using time and how there are good, better, and best things to do in life and how we need to be able to recognize and focus on those things that are best for us. As a missionary I feel like there are always good ways to spend our time but also better and best ways.  We do our best to allow the Spirit to guide us to do those things that are best.  During this whole mission experience I have really learned to understand the importance of our time here on earth and to appreciate whatever time it may be.  Every now and then I think about the Elder who was killed in Sweden, Elder Bailey, who was also serving in Västerås at the time, and how you really never know how much time you have left because things can happen and your life changes in a heart beat.  I thank Heavenly Father every night for the day I had and every morning for another one that I have in front of me.  I hope that when my time is up I will be able to look back and feel good about that way I used the time the Lord gave me, especially here in Sweden.  And I sure am grateful for the knowledge that I am a child of God.  I am doing my best to stay focused on what that means for me and what I can become.  We taught young mens in church on Sunday and we talked about what we can to do prepare to become good fathers and husbands.  I thought of our Heavenly Father so I had everyone list out characteristics that He has and then we talked about what we can do to begin developing those characteristics as young priesthood holders.  Of course we can never be perfect in this life like our Father in Heaven is now but, with the help of the atonement, we can always improve everyday and get closer to that level.  All He requires is our best.


So anywyays, take care everyone!  Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers. 


Love
Elder Milne

 

 

 

Me and Brown at the Ward Party

 

 

 Reunited with Forsyth

 

 

Dinner with the Coolest Family in Vasteras

 

 

The Beach.....