Monday June 30th

We had a really fun Family Home Evening tonight. We went up to a little picnic area in the mountains near our home.  My brother, Lance, was able to come with us, and he was great with helping Brigitta and Marta back down the mountain after they had climbed half way up and decided they were too scared to go either up the rest of the mountain or back down.  Both options were too scary.  Luckily Uncle Lance was there to save the day.  Evidence of God's hand #1.

Kurt, however, had no such fears, and made it all the way to the top.  I wish he had worn a brighter color so that he would show up a little better in the picture, but he's there in front of a tree.  Can you see him?  He also made it safely back down the mountain, and encountered no rattle snakes on the trip.
Evidence of God's hand #2.

While the men/boys were climbing mountains and breaking rocks, the girls took a little stroll and found a bridge over the stream.  I sure have some beautiful girls.

Lance brought the fixins and equipment for us to make Wolfems, something we had not had before.  What you do is wrap biscuit dough around a round wooden block on the end of a roasting stick, and cook it over the fire. 
You then line the resulting biscuit cup with Nutella and fill it with whipped cream. The result is quite delicious, and we ate (wolfed down) every single one of them.

After all the eating had been done, we held our usual Family Home Evening, but around the campfire.  We sang lots of songs, went over our schedules for the week, had Lance sing us a song in Russian (that was cool), and had a lesson.  The Captain gave some thoughts on the Book of Mormon and its translation, and there was a little discussion, and it seemed like we were done.
However, I had the clear thought that I should bring up a discussion on the Birds and the Bees.  It's not an easy topic, and with my brother visiting it seemed an awkward time, but I've learned enough to know that the Spirit is always right when he tells you to do something.
By this time, it was pretty dark, and I think that made it a little easier to bring up an uncomfortable subject.  But it went really well, and the Spirit of the Lord was with us and very strong around our little fire.  I was able to tell my kids of the sacred nature of the relationship between man and wife and the dangers of using that power inappropriately.  I hope they felt the truth of what I was saying to them. I know that I felt the support of the Lord and knew that I had delivered the message that He desired at that time. Evidence of God's hand #3.