Comments made by Joanna and Sandee

I wanted to post comments made by Sandee and Joanna from another email....It relates to this past General Conference...I wanted to make sure you all got the chance to enjoy what they wrote:

JOANNA WROTE: from President Uchtdorf: (Sunday morning session)"The more DESIRE we want to follow Him; the more we fill ourselves with the gospel....a result of our daily input (in aligning our lives with His) will increase our testimony...as soon as we set foot on the path, we will see blessings, but we must NOURISH that seed so it can take root - THEN we can taste of the fruit of discipleship...we show our WILLINGNESS TO FOLLOW Him by doing this everyday.

"He also said that this "alignment" takes time, day after day...as it becomes part of our normal day... we will see results!How exciting I think to really come to that stage of being a true disciple of Christ's - how it must feel to know we are pleasing Him, our lives will be happier even in the midst of terrible trials - isn't the gospel beautiful and how I appreciate our leaders leading us to true happy lives! Joanna

SANDEE'S RESPONSE to JOANNA:
Just thinking about that word "alignment". You may know that Buddy does braces. He does the old fashioned full banded type and also Invisalign the "invisible braces". The way Insalign works a very thorough analysis of the present condition of your teeth is done. And then a computer analysis is done. A series of "aligners" are manufactured. Each one moving a little from what your teeth were to what they must become. A patient that really wants the desired results must wear their aligners 24/7. They are only removed to eat. When Sean (as an adult) had insalign treatment he was so serious about wanting results that if he was eating at a restaurant he would order the food and would wait until it arrived at the table to excuse himself to the restaurant to remove his aligners. Then the second he was done eating he would excuse himself and go and brush his teeth and put them back in.

When Kaitlyln got engaged to sweet Michael she told us over the phone (we had not yet met him) Mom and Dad he is perfect in every way EXCEPT HIS TEETH! But Dad can fix that. You might remember that Kait and I were out in Hawaii settling Tim into school when poor Michael never having met Buddy (and with the entire rest of the family out of town) flew into Florida. Cathy picked him up at the airport and he went straight to the dental office. Weird way to meet your father in law to be. But Kait wanted him to have every second available to fix those teeth before the wedding. Like Sean Michael was fanatical about never taking off the aligners and he stopped snacking all together because it interfered with leaving them in.
Michael didn't have the full time to finish the case before getting married but because of his earnestness with wearing the aligners his teeth were much improved on his special day and for all the pictures.

If someone is less valiant in wearing their aligners every single minute it of course takes longer to move the teeth and if they get lazy and leave it out for some time they will have to move back to a previous aligner for a time because their teeth begin to shift back. After the entire case another evaluation is made of the patient's teeth. Are they exactly where the dentist wants them to be? Michaels were nearly perfect but not quite so "a refinement" was prescribed. It is no additional cost to the patient (of course Michael was getting his treatment for free as the newest member of our family) but a few additioinal aligners are prescribed just to get the teeth exactly perfectly where they are to be.

Even after a case is complete and the teeth (and their roots) are perfect Buddy said that in about half the cases (this is true with full banded cases as well) the mouth is not in perfect harmony. Because of pressures due to the facial structure, jaw movement etc. the teeth are where they are supposed to be but if left on their own they will tend to revert back to where they came from. For these cases the patient must wear a retainer (much like the aligners) AS LONG AS THEY WANT THE TEETH TO STAY IN PERFECT POSITION (in other words forever.)

Sorry for the long dental lesson but isn't that interesting. We start where we are. The Lord knows where he wants us. We use the tools he's given us ( prayer, scripture reading, service, temple attendance etc.) to align our lives with His desire for us. Little by little we inch toward his vision of us. The more we use the prescribed tools the surer is our course toward that goal. If we slip up we sometimes move back a bit but we take the same tools and inch again toward what He wants us to become. And even if we get very close to that sure place we still are in need of small refinements. We continue to get closer and closer to where we want to end up. And even when we are there all is not finished. We continue to use those tools to keep us secure where He wants us to be. To hold to our course.
Have a great day!
from Sandee
(whose bottom teeth should have had a retainer and now are all a jumble)