Life Begins in Thousand Oaks

As I return back to my history, we had just moved to Thousand Oaks, California. The community at this time was relatively small, about thirty-five thousand. We liked that. The house we rented was older, but quite adequate for our family. I only wished it had had a family room ... then it would have been perfect. Well maybe not quite perfect because I really hated trying to keep that antiquated asphalt tile in the kitchen clean and shiny. It required a lot of scrubbing, waxing, stripping, and then more scrubbing, and waxing. It was a pain.

We liked the schools, and the ward where we attended church. There were only two wards there in the Conejo Valley (the valley where Thousand Oaks was located) and our stake center was in Simi Valley, over the hill. The first calling in the ward that I received was a teacher of the Guide Patrol which were the eleven-year-old boys in Primary. They were actually out of Cubs and in the regular scouting program once they turned eleven. However, the regular scouting program was under the direction of the Young Men's organization, and boy didn't graduate into that program until they were twelve. So they remained under the direction of the Primary. This was different from what the local councils and scout executives were used to, and they never quite understood what the "Mormon" church was doing to the scouting program. So I not only taught scouting skills but, but the teachings of the Articles of Faith which the boys had to memorize before they graduated. At that time Primary was held on a week day and was longer in length than it is now, so I was able to get it all in. This was my first exposure to the scouting program, and I loved it. Just a short time later I was also called to teach the "Theology" lesson once a month in Relief Society. Relief Society was also held on a weekday at that time.

Shortly after we moved to Thousand Oaks I became acquainted with a young sister who had recently given birth to a baby girl. She was a school teacher by profession and was anxious to get back to work, but needed day care for the baby. She asked if I would consider it, and I accepted. I figured a little extra spending money couldn't hurt, and it had been over three years since I had the fun of a new baby in the house. Jon was the only one home during the day as all the other children were in school. So he became my "big helper". Oh, how he loved that baby!

Every day he would cry when the mom came to pick her up. It was at one of these frustrating moments that he turned to me and asked me a question ... a question that not only took me by complete surprise, but one that I didn't know how to answer. I needed help.

So Blessed

It's been a long dry spell of blogging for me. It's time to get started again, especially since it was one of my New Year's resolutions. And in just two days it will be May. A little slow getting started I would say. But before I continue with writing about my life, I have to write about this incredible month of April, 2011, in which I experienced so many blessings and so many answers to prayers. Some of these are:

• My recovery from one of the longest bouts of depression that I have had in a long, long, time. SO grateful for that.
• Relevant messages received from latter day prophets at the General Conference of the Church in April. So many seemed directed just to me.
• The celebration of the atonement and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The realization of His great sacrifice and His love for me was so real and meaningful to me this year ... more so than I can remember in the past. I am so grateful to Him.
• The successful surgery on my little great grandson, Brayden, who suffers from leukemia. What an amazingly brave little guy he is. And what dedicated and loving parents he has, especially since there are three other small children in the home who need their love and attention as well.
• The passing of a very critical test by our daughter, Rochelle, who had so little time to study and tried to keep the Lord and family first in her order of priorities. Why am I not surprised that she passed this test with relative ease. She will testify that her performance was beyond her own expected abilities. Prayers were answered.
• A new great grandson, Lennox, born and two baby great granddaughters, Abby and blessed.
• A great granddaughter, Nicole, baptized.
• A grandson, Jared, and his wife, Ashley, both graduating from Brigham Young University.
• A new grandson joining the family through adoption. The long and tedious process of adopting children from Ethiopia had recently become more difficult because of new restraints and red tape. Again, I believe, it was through family prayers the Dagim slipped through as one of the last to avoid these new restrictions. Our new grandson should be in his new home with Len and Kathi in about a month. We are excited to welcome him home and into our family in about a month. Another special blessing.
• A special dream I had which I knew was not JUST a dream, but a warning from our Father in Heaven regarding our family. We all know the evils and the lack of integrity that surrounds us all in these latter days. This is Satan's last chance to gather souls to his cause. No one, no family is exempt from his efforts, including ours. We need to be watchful and diligent in teaching and being proper role models for members of our family. We are being targeted and we will be vulnerable if we begin to yield to even the smallest of temptations or compromise, even a little bit, the teachings of the restored gospel. This is how Satan gets his foot in the door. We must remain valiant in being true disciples of Christ and in raising righteous families. And that begins with me.
• My wonderful, awesome, sensational, family. No greater blessing than that! Love you all.