Wonderful Day Off

I work 6 days a week and do not get home till usually 11 at night. So it has been tough to find time to update my blog or do anything except try to spend every free minute with my wife and family. Yesterday I took a day off to celebrate Kiera's and my birthday. I only get two flex days a summer so we wanted to make the best of my day off. We woke up and picked up the house before the babysitter came over. We ended up leaving late which made us not make it to the Temple session (which we found out later we were the only married couple and were supposed to be the witness couple). They made room for us in initiatories. This is a small Temple and it is amazing how small it really is. There is only one initiatory room where only 3 people can be doing initiatories at one time. I have to say that I felt the Spirit so strong as I stood waiting to start initiatories. I felt so happy to be there in the Lords house and I was impressed with the whole operation of the Temple and felt a great love and admiration for Temple Presidents. I can't express all the things that I felt but I can say that it was a most glorious time and my love for Temple work was increased. After initiatories Kiera and I met in the Celestial Room. This is always the highlight my Temple experience to see my beautiful bride all dressed in white and to me her countenance glows in Temple and I love to look at her. She told me that apparently I am not the only one. She told me that one of the Temple workers told Kiera that she is so young and beautiful that she just loves to sit there and look at her. She also said that women are the most beautiful when they are pregnant. I would have to agree, I love it when Kiera is pregnant. If I could go to the Temple everyday with my wife I would be the happiest man alive.

Next we went to eat at Red Robin because we had several coupons, a birthday coupon for Kiera and Alexa and a $3 off coupon. Our entire bill was only $6 with tax. We love Red Robin, they have the best hamburgers and we love their bottomless fries.

We then went to Nashville Shores (water park) because we have season passes. They were having Elephant rides and we have never been on an elephant before. We did not have enough cash at the time for us all to ride and so I was just going to go and then the girls were going to come on Saturday since this would be my only opportunity. But Lacie cried and cried. So we decided to wait and see if we can get more cash and ride it together. After we finished swimming Kiera got enough money for us all to ride the elephant. Kiera could not ride because she is pregnant but she was able to sit on it quickly so I could take her picture. Elephants are big and there backs are very bony. Lacie yelled while we were riding it that its wings were hitting her and Alexa said that "his wings are flapping my feet". I told them that those are not wings but ears. It was fun.

Lastly we went to Hard Rock Cafe to eat since Kiera has never been there. I sold a security system to a guy that works there and he said that he would give us a good discount. He said that he is off all Tuesdays and so Kiera and I switched our day to Wednesday so that he would be there. We got there and he was off, we were frustrated. We ended up not eating there because nothing looked good and it was expensive. We had a hard time trying to decide where to eat and we finally decided to eat at D&D restaurant that was at the mall across the hall from the movie theater. My hamburger was good and big but Kiera did not like her Chicken Alfredo that much.

After we were done we went and watched Oceans 13. It was a pretty good movie but Kiera sleep through the entire movie. She is so funny, every time we sit down and watch a movie at home Kiera falls asleep. She is crazy.

At least we had lots of fun on my day off, even though everything went wrong and Kiera was stressed the whole day.

Knowledge is not by chance

I reflected on my earlier experience where the Lord brought to my remembrance the name of Vaughn J Featherstone. Micha had told me about his scripture memorizing program and I had wanted to learn more about it. When I was home I could not remember his name. The Lord brought his name to my remembrance (John J. Featherstone, which when googled it came up as Vaughn).

I was in the shower thinking about this experience when the Spirit began to teach me. I was taught that all knowledge and experiences are given by either of two sources, either the Lord (righteousness) or the devil (evil). This is applied to agency as well, because either we are enticed by evil and choose evil, or by good and choose good. Our obedience to either, gives greater power to whichever side we yield to, therefore allowing increased enticement. Therefore, all knowledge is given to us and it will be to our benefit or condemnation. Others may assist us as well, like Micha, he was guided to impart that information to me, whether he realizes it or not. We are all instruments of the Lord or the devil at all times.

Jesus is the son of God

I was washing the dishes as Lacie was watching The Testaments (a movie about Christs visit to the Old and New world) when suddenly my understanding was opened and I was taught by the Spirit. I was given an absolute knowledge that Christ lived and that all that has been testified by ancient and modern prophets is verily true. It was though physical matter was added to my mind that contained knowledge of Christ and His ministry, I can hardly explain it. I have known by the Spirit that Christ lived and now lives but it seemed that it was by faith and now I just know because of the pure light given to me.

I have been studying the Joseph Smith, Parley P. Pratt and Lorenzo Snow and have been literally amazed at there absolute knowledge of Christ and have been striving to understand even a portion of what they understand. Now the Lord has answered the prayer of my heart.

I also felt impressed to write this in this blog. I have a Private Blog that I do more of my personal journaling and this is something that normally would go there. I was told that someone needed this testimony of the knowledge of Christ.

New Callings

We got a call this morning to meet with the President of our branch, Pres. Leadbetter. Kiera got called to be the Primary Chorister and I got called to teach the youth for Sunday School. We are very excited for our callings.

Infinite Bubbles thanks to Janet

For work I was in the home of a very nice lady. I helped her get a security system and she gave me some bubbles that she had bought for her dogs but they just scared them. The cool thing about these bubbles is the design of the bubble wand. It is designed with 4 loops and just tons of bubbles come out and continue to come out. My girls love these bubbles.

Escape from dog attack

Sorry, for not posting recently, but with my new job and trying to finish school I have been tied up. Next week I will be playing catch up. I wanted to write about a quick experience that happened to me two days ago.

I knock door to door and sell home security systems and we were knocking in this lower income area. It seems that every house has a dog of some sort. I was on this street with several houses that had several Pit Bulls. I knocked this house and the nice lady was not interested but right before I left there was a stray Pit Bull that came from around the corner. I felt impressed to stay in that yard. She had a fence and locked us in. She told me how that dog was evil and not a nice dog. I stayed in her yard for a good 5 to 10 mins waiting till he left the street. He went into this yard and stayed there for a while and so I sneaked out and took off the other way. I did not come back to that street until the next day. I ran into the same neighbor that had allowed me to stay in her yard and she told me that that dog had attacked a guy that same night and on that same street. The guy had to get 61 stitches. I felt that the Lord had protected me. I also decided to start to memorize a scripture a day since I had some time between doors. Anyway, I will be sure to remember the Lord more and he will be sure to remember me.

My girls hullahooping

My girls hullahooping

Today is Sunday and yesterday we packed up the house to move to TN. So now our house is almost entirely empty. They have no toys except for the stuffed animals that Jessica (our friend upstairs) gave the girls and this hullahoop. Debbie taught Lacie how to spin it on her neck. Here is a little video of all my girls hullahoopin.

Moving is never fun

Debbie came down form Idaho (BYU Idaho) and will be staying with Cindy for the summer. She was kind enough to let us steel her for about a week to help us pack. Wow, Kiera and Debbie got so much done while I was at work. We have to be entirely packed and moved out by this coming Monday so we can start our journey to Nashville, TN.

I was excited because my manager at Prosper, Jason Emett, told me about a luggage carrier that attaches to the roof rack of my Dodge Caravan and that his friend bought it at Walmart. Here is a picture of what it looks like.



It is water resistant and I am hoping that we can fit two on top of our van. Well, wish us luck on packing.

LDS Talks: Hope in Christ

I sent out an email letting everyone on the email list know that I had finished a talk titled: Hope in Christ but forgot to post about it here. So please jump over to my LDS Talks Blog by clicking here and if anyone has thoughts about it just make a comment. If you would like to be added to the email list send me an email cconover2@gmail.com.

Change of plans, Going to TN

Well, last night we (my family and a friend's family that wants to sign as well) went to an APX company party and had lots of fun. Lacie rode a mechanical bull and the whole place went up in an up roar. Everyone loved it. Anyway, my old manager that is going to Nashville, TN called me and we met up to talk. He told me that he was talking to his Regional manager and his regional said that they need to make my decision a lot harder than it was already. The quick breakdown is that Kiera and I both felt better about the team going to TN but were torn because Florida seems like an absolutely fun place to be and the apartments need no introduction except, that they offer a maid service once a week to say the least. Photos are in the post below and so our decision was very hard. Anyway, my TN manager offered me $60 out of his own pocket on top of my commission for every sale I make during the summer. My goal is at least 100 and that would be an additional $6000 and he will front me $2500 up front to help with the moving expenses.

I talked to Kiera and she still wanted to go to Florida. I asked her what it would take and she said $100 per sale and so I told Andy but he could not do that. I went to the river behind my work and prayed. Kiera and I prayed together and then I prayed on my own. I felt strongly that we needed to go to TN and that we always knew our answer (We never felt that good about FL, which is why we signed with TN in the first place but the opportunity was hard to pass up since the apartment were so nice). I also felt that I needed to give Kiera a blessing and that there were reasons that she needed to go to TN. So to sum it up we are now going to TN. I have absolutely been floating because I feel so good about our decision.

I know that the Lord was behind this difficult decision of our and helped us to do this yo-yo decision making because if we had not done that, we would not have $60 per sale added commission. If we stay close to the Lord, he will stay close to us.

Going to Florida to sell Security Systems

We have decided to go to Tampa, FL to sell security systems with APX. Here is a video of the Resort like appartments that we are moving into for the summer. The video starts and sends with our appartment community but in the middle are some things that are coming soon. The parts about the rooms are the appartments as well. It is so cool and we are very excited.

Video: http://www.cayclubs.com/site/assets/video/clearwater.html

Man Vs. Machine

I am the trainer for our Salesforce.com software that we use to manage all our of leads. Before I became the trainer this was rolled out very poorly and the entire floor was untrained on this software. So we set up a company party and beat up a truck we bought to take out our frustrations on. It was a lot of fun. Here are some picture of our fun.

Cruising around the lot before getting beat down.


I had the luxury of doing the honors of beating out the front windshield. I used my team leaders bat that he brought and he told me that it is the same bat the he blew out this guys knee with. I told him that I could never bring myself to hit someone with a bat and then he said that if they had just hit you in the back with a chain you could. Anyway, back the the truck beating.


We all got together and flipped it on its side. I cut my finger during this stunt. One of the team leads brought his paint gun and unloaded on the truck and then glass got into the paint and I cut my finger on the glass. Not too bad though.


Everyone that wanted to take a turn on the truck with a sledge hammer could. I took a turn as well.




We then flipped it back onto its wheels went to town again.


One of the businesses called the cops on us and the owner here pretended to turn around and get handcuffed. It was great.


I took this one with my cell phone.


We had a blast. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. In the end Man won over the Machine.

Why Alexa does not speak Spanish.

Amber and Kyle came to visit from Arizona and to go to conference with us (Michelle came also. On Saturday right before Priesthood Session, Lacie asked Amber why Alexa did not speak Spanish? Amber said, "Because her mom and dad does not speak Spanish." She then said, "I thought that Brown people spoke Spanish."

When my wife told that to me I about died. She is a funny girl. She has asked several questions about why she is so much darker than her and Ashlyn.

Lacie memorizing Articles of Faith (1-3)

Lacie is memorizing all of the Articles of Faith for primary and she has to pass them off to us. If she does she will get a framed picture of the Savior and one of her or something like that. She is so excited to memorize them. She passed off the first three with us today and had us call her Primary President to pass them off as well. We are so proud of her. Here is a video of her.

Lacie's First Talk

I am so proud of Lacie, she gave her first talk in Church today. Last week we got a reminder in the mail that she was to give a talk but when Kiera looked closer it was for last Sunday, it had arrived late. We wondered why the Primary President asked Lacie if she wanted to bear her testimony. Kiera called her and explained the situation and said that she was so excited and if there was anyway she could give a talk on Sunday, and she said sure. She was excited for Lacie to talk because she knew she would do so great (Lacie is her favorite).

So Lacie started to prepare her talk. She wrote her own talk and Kiera only changed a few words and helped her pick out her pictures. So here is her first talk.