Chocolate Chip Cookies

I get requests for this recipe all the time.   Just before my Aunt Becky died, she gave me a box full of my great-grandma's recipes.  This is one that I found on an old, torn, yellow recipe card written in pencil with the ingredients nearly worn right off.  My Pops said that my great-grandma never made cookies like these, yet the recipe was in the box and it looked well used.  Anyway. . . regardless of whether or not she made these cookies, here is the recipe, and I hope if you try them that you'll love them as much as I do.

Cream together until fluffy:

2/3 cup shortening

2/3 cup soft butter or margarine

Add sugars:

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed

Mix the eggs in one at a time until well incorporated.

2 eggs

Add 2 tsp vanilla

Mix together in a separate bowl then add to creamed mixture:

3 cups flour

1 tsp soda

1 tsp salt

Add:

1 cup of nuts (optional)

1 pkg chocolate chips

Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 375 for 8-10 minutes, or until light brown.

Temples Announced

This morning while listening to General Conference, I was overcome with emotion as the Prophet announced the new temples to be built.  The new temples sites include Barranquilla, Colombia; Durban, South Africa; Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo;  Star Valley, Wyoming; and in Provo, Utah where they would make the old Provo Tabernacle, which was burned in a fire last winter, into a Temple
I will always remember waking up that cold morning to the news coverage, pictures, and video of that beautiful building engulfed in flames.  I felt that something terrible was happening and I was upset that maybe if someone had been more careful, that building would still be whole and intact.  Yet, out of the ashes of that tragedy miracles began to emerge.  One of the most poignant, pictures of the Savior were being pulled out of the wreckage blackened and singed around the edges, but the face of Jesus remained untouched.  
How often are we told that as we struggle through the toughest trials there are good things that will come of our experiences?  The burning of the Tabernacle was certainly the darkest point of that building's history.  Who would have thought that through that devastating fire, the Provo Tabernacle would become a Temple?   There are good things ahead for each of us as we faithfully pass through the trials that come our way.  The Tabernacle has been a place for gathering and hearing the will of the Lord through the voice of our local leaders.  Now it will be a place for people to receive the blessings of eternal families.  
Right now we may be good, but we most certainly be better.  Through our trials, we can prepare to serve the Lord not the way we think we should, but in the way He needs us.