In the mean time.

I have a million pictures to upload from our Thanksgiving trip to St. Louis.  BUT in the meantime I want to write down a great Gwen story.

About 2 weeks before Thanksgiving, Gwen expressed that she REALLY wanted her own scriptures just like Olivia.  So, I gave her a paperback copy of the Book of Mormon that I had in the closet.  She LOVES her scriptures.  She can be found "reading" them all of the time, insisted on bringing them to St. Louis with us and almost always sleeps with them by her head.  Last Sunday she got them early in the morning and kept them close at her side so that she would for sure have them ready to bring to church.  She of course brought them with her, and looked at them and talked about them all the way through the meetings.  When I went into the Primary room (where the children meet for the last hour), Gwen was sitting in the chair at the front of the room indicating she was going to read the scripture to the rest of the children.  One of her teachers, Lisa, was talking with her and they were obviously getting the details worked out just fine.  Gwen then informed me that she would be giving the scripture and Olivia would be helping her.  The time came and Gwen got up to the front, Olivia came right up behind her and whispered the words into her ear while gwen enthusiastically repeated them into the microphone.  Their delivery was perfect.  That part had nothing to do with me laughing until I cried.  It was the innocence and enthusiasm and complete obliviousness to the content of what she read.  It was a long scripture about Captain Moroni and Zarahemna having a confrontation. . . then them fighting with swords. . . then more details.  Quickly, I realized that Gwen had obviously chosen the scripture and obviously at random and had no idea what she was saying as she repeated it loudly and clearly.  The whole time holding a smile that let me know how proud she was of herself and how pleased she was to be giving the scripture out of her own Book of Mormon.  I couldn't stop laughing for the next 20 minutes.  I had to leave the room to compose myself and breath deeply not to burst out every time I thought of it. At the end, I asked Lisa what had happened.  Appharently Gwen had walked in with her scriptures open, walked right up to her and told her she wanted to give the scripture, this was the one she wanted to read and Olivia would help her.  Lisa said she was so cute she just agreed and announced it as Gwen had described.   What a cute, cute girl.