Inspiration and hope in the face of despair

This is a long post that is therapeutic for me to write so feel free to skim or skip it.

I have to admit that I didn't watch any of the Saturday sessions of conference due to Notre Dame football (is that blasphemous my BYU friends?). I recently burned the talks onto CDs so that I could catch up on those talks while driving to work each day.

Some of you may know about some discouraging news we received this past week. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about I'm sorry, but I'm not really ready to post about it on the web. Suffice it to say I was very distraught driving home from the Mishawaka ER on Thursday evening. My mind was going a mile a minute and I went from fighting back tears to trying to drive home through my tears in a very short time. As I was driving I happened to be listening to President Uchtdorf's talk. It just so happened that today I listened to Elder Wirthlin's talk followed by Elder Holland's talk. Let me share with you some excerpts from these three talks and maybe you can feel a little bit of the inspiration and blessing I felt hearing these words.

From President Uchtdorf's talk:
"Hope has the power to fill our lives with happiness.² Its absence—when this desire of our heart is delayed—can make “the heart sick."

"The scriptures say that there must be “an opposition in all things.”¹⁵ So it is with faith, hope, and charity. Doubt, despair, and failure to care for our fellowmen lead us into temptation, which can cause us to forfeit choice and precious blessings.

The adversary uses despair to bind hearts and minds in suffocating darkness. Despair drains from us all that is vibrant and joyful and leaves behind the empty remnants of what life was meant to be. Despair kills ambition, advances sickness, pollutes the soul, and deadens the heart. Despair can seem like a staircase that leads only and forever downward.

Hope, on the other hand, is like the beam of sunlight rising up and above the horizon of our present circumstances. It pierces the darkness with a brilliant dawn. It encourages and inspires us to place our trust in the loving care of an eternal Heavenly Father, who has prepared a way for those who seek for eternal truth in a world of relativism, confusion, and of fear."

"The Lord has given us a reassuring message of hope: “Fear not, little flock.”⁴¹ God will wait with “open arms to receive”⁴² those who give away their sins and continue in faith, hope, and charity.

And to all who suffer—to all who feel discouraged, worried, or lonely—I say with love and deep concern for you, never give in.

Never surrender.

Never allow despair to overcome your spirit.

Embrace and rely upon the Hope of Israel, for the love of the Son of God pierces all darkness, softens all sorrow, and gladdens every heart."

Now from Elder Wirthlin's talk:

"whenever my steps led through seasons of sadness and sorrow, my mother’s words often came back to me: “Come what may, and love it.”

How can we love days that are filled with sorrow? We can’t—at least not in the moment. I don’t think my mother was suggesting that we suppress discouragement or deny the reality of pain. I don’t think she was suggesting that we smother unpleasant truths beneath a cloak of pretended happiness. But I do believe that the way we react to adversity can be a major factor in how happy and successful we can be in life.

If we approach adversities wisely, our hardest times can be times of greatest growth, which in turn can lead toward times of greatest happiness."

"Learning to endure times of disappointment, suffering, and sorrow is part of our on-the-job training. These experiences, while often difficult to bear at the time, are precisely the kinds of experiences that stretch our understanding, build our character, and increase our compassion for others.

Because Jesus Christ suffered greatly, He understands our suffering. He understands our grief. We experience hard things so that we too may have increased compassion and understanding for others."

"I know why there must be opposition in all things. Adversity, if handled correctly, can be a blessing in our lives. We can learn to love it.

As we look for humor, seek for the eternal perspective, understand the principle of compensation, and draw near to our Heavenly Father, we can endure hardship and trial. We can say, as did my mother, “Come what may, and love it.”"

Finally from Elder Holland:
"My beloved brothers and sisters, I testify of angels, both the heavenly and the mortal kind. In doing so I am testifying that God never leaves us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges that we face. “[N]or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man [or woman or child] upon the face thereof to be saved.”¹³ On occasions, global or personal, we may feel we are distanced from God, shut out from heaven, lost, alone in dark and dreary places. Often enough that distress can be of our own making, but even then the Father of us all is watching and assisting. And always there are those angels who come and go all around us, seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal."


I have often felt that the talks in general conference seemed to be directed straight to me and the circumstances of my life. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I was listening to these words at the exact moment that they were desperately needed. Sometimes I think the Lord just wants me to know he's still there.

The Class Clown Gene

While I am flattered that so many of you think that Spencer takes after me with his clowning around I'm sorry to say that most of you are wrong. I do consider myself to have somewhat of a quick wit and I think I can be humorous from time to time, however, I am a very shy person. I tend to be quiet and reserved when I first meet people and it is only when I become comfortable that I open up and make jokes.

I thought the poll would turn out this way which is why I put it up. I don't think Melissa gets the credit she deserves. This past week I ran into one of the secretaries as work who had gone to a recruiting lunch with Melissa and some of the other resident wives. She told me what a fun person Melissa was and how funny she was. She then proceeded to tell me of the stories that Melissa told and how she had many in the room in stitches. This is not the first time someone has told me how funny Melissa is. I was always told that she was quite the crack-up by her coworkers in Salt Lake, and I was told repeatedly in Pikeville how funny her stories were.

So there you have it folks. Spencer's ability to make other kids laugh when he first meets them is something he definitely does not get from me. He has his mother to thank for that gift. I, for one, am thankful for it because I have always felt self conscious about my shyness with new people and I don't want my kids to have to deal with that.

Picture Update

So I spent last Friday, downloading, uploading, editing, and ordering pictures. Friday morning Spencer asked me to see the pictures in the photo album of his Halloween costumes when he was a baby. This caused me to pull the albums out of the closet and realize that I haven't inserted any new pictures in a year. (mainly because I ran out of room in the album) So I started with ordering a new album, and then set to the task of downloading all of our current pictures off of 2 memory cards, editing them all, uploading them to snapfish, and then ordering a years worth of pictures. It took a while but I feel great that it is done. The albums also have a new home in the book shelf (where I think they should belong) so hopefully that will help me to keep them updated more often.


I also realized, as I was downloading pictures, that I haven't put any pictures on the blog recently. So here is an update of what we have been up to lately, in pictures.

Here is Spencer and Jessi at the Tailgate for the ND Football game that Jacob and his brother Doug were able to attend. They managed to beg these hats and bracelets off of neighboring tailgaters. Sometimes they can be little stinkers, but cute little stinkers. Jacob and Doug had a great time at the game and ND came away with the win, so an all around great time. Meagan and I had a great time once we got home and everyone took a nap, ah that is the good life.


The kids and I drove to Michigan a few weeks ago to go raspberry and apple picking. The kids quickly got bored with the raspberry picking and so that was left to me. But when it came time for apples they were all to happy to help. Jessi wanted to hold the bag, even when it got to heavy and she decided to just drag it across the ground.

Spencer wanted to help by getting the apples out of tree. Sadly, this I think was Spencer's first time climbing a tree. He was a little nervous at first, but eventually figured it out, and now, anytime we go anywhere he is on the lookout for good climbing trees. He is getting quite comfortable in the trees and now it is his mom who gets nervous.

For playgroup this week we went to a farm. It had everything, and although this picture doesn't show every one's excitement, we had a great time. We started with this hayride.

Then it was off to the corn maze. I started with everyone holding hands but that didn't last for more than about 30 seconds. Kristian was all about picking his own directions and no matter how many times he tripped over fallen corn stalks, he was determined to do it on his own.
This was one point where all of the kids were actually together. After this Spencer went off with his friend Oliver, Jessi followed but quickly got nervous when she couldn't see mom and stayed put crying until mom and Kris caught back up.

Next was the pumpkin patch. Spencer didn't take long to find his and bag it up. Kristian choose once again to do it all on his own, and even managed to carry his pumpkin around for a second or two, then he feel on a vine and figured mom could carry it the rest of the day. Carrying around 3 really does get heavy.

We finished up the day with lunch, a huge playground and a petting zoo. Spencer really liked the rabbits. All in all, it was a great afternoon and the kids had a blast. And surprisingly, I wasn't as worn out as I thought I would be. Bonus.

Jacob's brother Mark has been staying with us this last week while he does some rotations at the 2 hospitals. The kids have loved having their Uncle Mark here, especially because he is always willing to wrestle with them, give them elevator rides, and play checkers or candy land. On Thursday evening we headed downtown to the College Football Hall of Fame. This is the kids 4 visit but they still find new ways to entertain themselves.

I think their favorite part was playing outside afterwards. Uncle Mark taught Kristian the proper start stance. Isn't he cute. Once again, another fun filled day for all of us Corry's.


So that is what we have been doing lately. We will be sad to see Uncle Mark leave on Tuesday but we are all happy that his absence will be replaced by my mom aka Grandma Powell. I don't know what my kids are going to do when November rolls around and they are stuck with just Mom and Dad again.

Vote in the poll!

Seriously people, 2 votes? Did I mention the poll is anonymous, as in no one knows who you voted for (or if you voted). My follow-up post is going to lose a lot of it's luster if we only have 2 votes.

I hope you people aren't this apathetic about voting in the elections this year (especially you Battleground state people). Indiana and Ohio, where your vote counts. You Utah folks are free to stay home on election day because we all know Obama is going to get fewer votes than Mitt Romney out there.

Don't think I'm letting you Canada folks off the hook either. I'd make a joke about your voting, but seriously I'm not quite sure how the political system works up there (or how the Queen of some European nation fits into all of it).

Our Class Clown

As has been mentioned in previous posts, Spencer is quite the class clown at school. He very much enjoys making his friends laugh and has increased his attempts to get a laugh when he gets home. As you can see I have added a poll to the site to see where our readers think Spencer gets this gene. When the poll closes or sooner I will make my vote and possibly post the defense of my decision.

The poll is anonymous