Deserving Family Gets Christmas Makeover

This is such a beautifully moving video. I just had to share it with you today.

Thanks for stopping by and Merry Christmas!

© 2015 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

It Was So Cold, Our Camera Quit Working

We spent a wonderful time visiting family in Utah last week. While we were there, we went to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

It turned out that the week we spent in Utah was one of the coldest of the season so far. We arrived on Saturday, December 27. It snowed on Sunday and Monday, and the temperatures stayed below freezing, so there was snow and ice on the ground the whole week we were there.

We went to Temple Square on Tuesday. It was absolutely freezing that night. I mean literally. Our son said that the "feels like" temperature was 5 degrees!

Our family walked around bundled up as best as we could for a while, but it was just too cold to stay outside for very long. I had brought along our DSLR camera and our compact point and shoot digital camera. I took pictures using both cameras.

I had taken several pictures and was about to take a picture with the DSLR camera when it seemed to just freeze up. I pressed the button to take a picture and it just stopped working. Thankfully, our point and shoot digital camera kept on working, so I was able to take more pictures.

I took the picture below with our DSLR camera before it quit working. By the way, the camera was fine once it warmed back up.



Finally our group couldn't take the cold anymore so we went to the 10th floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to see the Christmas lights from there.

This is one of the pictures I took from one of the huge observation windows on the 10th floor.



As you can see, the sun had set not too long before I took this photo. On the horizon is the reddish-orange color from the setting sun. I'm thrilled that I was able to take the picture at just the right time to catch that.

It was wonderful to visit Temple Square and see the Christmas lights before they were taken down for the year, even if it was bitter cold. If you ever visit Salt Lake City during the Christmas season, I hope you'll take the opportunity to visit Temple Square and see the stunning Christmas lights and displays. They are even more beautiful in person.

Thanks for stopping by!


© 2015 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

A Special Christmas Video

It's early December and the beautiful Christmas season has begun. It's so easy to let this time of year become filled with the hustle and bustle of buying and wrapping gifts, decorating, baking, mailing Christmas cards, and all of the other things that go along with the Christmas season.

As we go about our busy days, I hope we will pause to remember the real reason we celebrate Christmas, which is the birth of our dear Savior, Jesus Christ.

I hope you enjoy this special video called "He is the Gift" which reminds us in a beautiful way that Jesus Christ was the first gift of Christmas so many years ago.

May we all keep the true meaning of Christmas in our hearts throughout this Christmas season.

Thanks for stopping by!


© 2014 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Meet the Mormons

I want to let all of my awesome readers know about a wonderful movie that's coming to theaters this Friday, October 10, 2014. The movie is called Meet the Mormons. The movie tells about the lives of six members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and their families who live in different parts of the world.

The movie was shown at a premiere event yesterday in Salt Lake City. An article about the premiere shared the positive reactions of those who watched the movie. Some of the words used to describe the movie were the following: touching, inspirational, and enlightening.

Our family is looking forward to seeing this movie. And I'd like to invite all of you to see it too.

Here is the Meet the Mormons movie trailer. I hope you'll enjoy watching it.

To see where Meet the Mormons is playing in your area, please check out the movie's website by clicking on the link below.

Meet the Mormons

By the way, all net proceeds from this film will be going to charity, specifically the American Red Cross.

Thanks for stopping by!


© 2014 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

The One-Year Mark

We recently received this picture in an email from our youngest son, who's serving a full-time 2-year mission in Arizona for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He's the one on the right. Notice the short-sleeve shirts? Ya. It's hot over there in Arizona right now.

Our son just passed his one-year mark on July 17, 2014. That's what the picture is about that he and the other elder are holding. The other elder received that cute picture from his parents. It turned out that July 17, 2014 was his one-year mark as well. In case you can't read the writing on the picture, here's what it says: Happy "Hump" Day! July 17, 2014.

So our son has reached the half-way point of his mission. In one of his emails he said that the first year of his mission has gone by so fast. And in his latest email he wrote, "If this year goes by as fast as the last one did, my mission will be much too short." That's so awesome. It makes me happy to read those words because they show how devoted he is to serving the Lord and the people in Arizona.

Thanks for stopping by!


© 2014 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Scorpion In A Box

Each week, we look forward to the emails from our two youngest sons who are serving full-time 2-year missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And it's extra fun when those emails include pictures.

I recently shared a couple of pictures sent to us by our youngest son who's serving in Arizona.
Well, this past week he sent a few pictures of a scorpion that had been caught by someone he knows. This is one of those pictures. Can you say yikes?!



This is what he said about this picture:

"This is a bark scorpion, the most common and most lethal scorpion. It just so happens to be able to blend in with carpet and can squeeze through something as small as the width of a credit card."

Double yikes!!

I did a search online for the bark scorpion and yes, this does look like the Arizona Bark Scorpion. You can read about it HERE.

Did you know that the Arizona Bark Scorpion is nocturnal and that it glows in the dark under ultraviolet light?



I found this picture of an Arizona Bark Scorpion on the Wikimedia Commons website. We actually purchased a UV ultraviolet LED flashlight blacklight for our son to take with him on his mission to Arizona. I don't know if he's used it yet though. But, it's nice to know he has it in case he wants or needs to use it make sure there aren't any scorpions in his apartment.

He's been serving in Arizona for just over a year now. And so far, he hasn't mentioned finding any scorpions in either of the apartments where he's lived. And I'm thankful for that.

Thanks for stopping by!


© 2014 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Exciting News In The Mail

Last week we received something exciting in the mail. It was the travel itinerary for our third-oldest son who's currently serving a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He's serving in the Massachusetts Boston Mission, which includes most of Massachusetts, all of Rhode Island, and parts of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Connecticut. This is a photo of him taken in December of last year. He was serving in Massachusetts at the time.



The travel itinerary we received gave us the date and time of his arrival at our local airport. Yay! It's so exciting! He will be arriving home in less than two months now!

My husband and I each write a weekly email to our son, which he responds to in his weekly email that he writes and sends to us on his P-day (Preparation Day). That's the one day in each week that missionaries are allowed to take care of personal business like food shopping, laundry, writing/emailing family, etc. The rest of the week is totally devoted to missionary work.

In our weekly emails to our son this last Sunday, my husband and I told him about receiving the itinerary. It turned out that he hadn't received it yet. He already knew what day he was coming home, but he didn't know what time, etc. So, this must have made it very real for him.

His reaction was actually wonderful to read. It sounds like the end of his two-year mission is coming up too fast for his liking. And that he doesn't feel like he's been out on his mission for very long at all. Those words are music to this missionary mom's ears. It shows how much he loves his mission and that he loves serving the Lord and the people in New England. And I know that that's true. He really does love his mission and loves sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We look forward to the day when our son steps off of that plane and into our arms. Until that day arrives, we know that he will finish his mission strong and will continue to serve with all of his heart. And we wouldn't want it any other way.

Thanks for stopping by!


© 2014 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Dusty Skies In Arizona

Our youngest son is currently serving a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Arizona. I had heard that there was a haboob, or dust storm, last week in or near the area where he's serving. So, of course, I had to ask him about it in my email to him a few days ago.

In his weekly email, he replied that when the dust storm hit, he and his missionary companion happened to be at the church building, so they waited in there until most of the dust storm passed. Then they headed home.

While he was waiting at the church building, he took pictures of what the sky looked like and sent a few of the pictures home via email. Here's one of the pictures he sent.



You can see how windy it was at the time of this storm by how the trees are bending in the wind. And the sky certainly is a dusty color.

For those unfamiliar with what a haboob, or dust storm, may look like, this is a photo from Wikimedia Commons showing a haboob in Texas.

Haboob in Ransom Canyon, Texas 2009
Wikimedia Commons - Photo by Leaflet

That looks pretty ominous and scary to me. I definitely would not want to be caught out in one of those dust storms! And I'm glad that our son was inside at the time the dust storm hit in Arizona this past week.

Contrast the dusty sky picture at the top of this post with this one taken by our son a couple of days after the dust storm in Arizona.



What a difference! And what a gorgeous sky!

Thanks for stopping by!


© 2014 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Turning Grapes Into Raisins: A Labor of Love at the LDS Vineyard in Madera, California

On a bright, sunny Saturday morning at the end of August in 2013, my husband and I, along with hundreds of other volunteers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints converged on an 80-acre grape vineyard in Madera, California.

The purpose? To pick the sweet, plump, juicy Thompson Seedless grapes and lay them out on large paper trays. Why did we place these grapes onto paper trays? So that they would dry in the sun and turn into raisins.

The grapes were left to dry in the sun for about two weeks. Then, volunteers returned to the vineyard to roll the grapes, or should I say raisins, inside the paper trays. The raisins were processed and made available to people around the world as part of the LDS Church's welfare and worldwide humanitarian aid programs. If you'd like to learn about the LDS Humanitarian Aid program, please click HERE.

This vineyard is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Members of the Church in eight stakes volunteer to work in the vineyard throughout the year. For my non-LDS readers, you may be wondering what a "stake" is. A stake is a geographical unit that is made up of a group of wards. And a ward is a local congregation that is organized geographically. Members of the Church attend a ward near their home. Each ward is assigned a certain number of rows in this vineyard.

I took these photos after my husband and I had finished working in the vineyard.

Newly picked grapes. Isn't that a beautiful sight?



A row of grapes in the vineyard. See how they are changing color? These were picked several days before we arrived. They were already on their way to becoming raisins.



Grapes beginning to dry in the sun.



Grape vines.



Grape picking tools – grape pan, grape knives, garden pruner, and water. My husband uses a grape knife. I prefer my garden pruner.



To learn more about the LDS Vineyard in Madera, please click the following link. There's a great video that accompanies this brief article. The video shows volunteers working in the vineyard.

Raisins: Part of the Lord’s Work

Linking with Oh, the PLACES I've been! and Our World Tuesday.

Thanks for stopping by!


© 2014 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved