Proud parents

Today is "Fast Sunday", and Since Ethan is now an actual member of our church, we thought we would ask him if he would like to fast today. At first he said "no" and we said that was fine. We talked to him about some of the blessings we receive when we fast and why it's a good thing to do. We are big in our family on letting our kids make their own choices and not forcing them to do things. Along that same line we also until now have let Ethan decide whether or not he paid tithing on money he earned or was given. Naturally he didn't really want to pay tithing, so he didn't. But...as he was preparing for baptism we reminded him of some of the things we are asked to do as members of the church and one is to pay tithing. We told him that if he was going to be baptized he needed to then be prepared to pay a tithe. He agreed, but since his baptism is having a hard time wanting to pay his tithing.

After more discussion and realizing one of the biggest reason he didn't want to fast was because he didn't know how to pray to start his fast, he chose to fast. At first he said he just wanted to fast until right before church at 10am. We told him that was a great! Then when that time came he decided he would fast until after church. We thought that was awesome. He was a little whiny this morning saying he was hungry and we explained that it's best to fast with a happy attitude and he did well after that.

Today in church I passed him the sacrament and he whispered, "no thanks, I'm fasting". I was so impressed. Most people wouldn't even think of that or just out of habit would take the bread and water, but he wanted to fast completely without eating. I quickly explained that he could take the sacrament. He did great all through church and lasted until 1:30. Not bad for not wanting to fast in the first place. I'm especially impressed because fasting is one of the hardest things for me to do. I hate to go hungry and more importantly I often get low blood sugar and then feel awful or get super duper ornery which makes me get angry and kind of defeats the purpose of the fast. In our early years of marriage it would make for such an awful day that once Randall kindly suggested that Maybe I shouldn't fast any more :)

Also a neat thing happened. His primary teacher is a 19 year old covert to the church. She is leaving in January to start school at BYU Idaho. Today she stood to bear her testimony of tithing and told a story about how she wrecked her car and had to use all her school savings to fix the car. She continued to pay her tithing and ended up getting a full scholarship to school so now doesn't have to pay anything out of pocket. A direct blessings she felt for paying her tithing. I thought it was so great that Ethan's very own teacher stood to bear testimony of the exact thing he was trying to gain a testimony of. Ethan is a very sweet boy and we are proud of him for the good decisions he's making.

On another note, we recently had stake conference and the apostle Elder Christofferson came. We thought that was pretty amazing that he would come. The drive to the conference was 30 minutes or more so the kids watched "Joy to the World" on the way. While watching Ethan became upset saying it wasn't fair that those people got to meet Jesus and asked why couldn't he meet Jesus? It was pretty cute. Elder Christofferson was the closing speaker and asked that at the end of the meeting if the children would come and shake hands with him. After the conference ended all the children patiently lined up to meet him. Elder Christofferson shook hands with each one and asked them their name. Ethan came up to me right after he had met him and said "Now that was cool!"