Sunday, 21 October, 2012 Haven’t written through the week, but did make notes to remind me of things to write down. Highlights were: On Monday we said farewell to one of our great missionaries, Elder Clark. We had grown to know him a little better than most of the missionaries so far because he is one of the Elders who first invited us to go to dinner with them to Daisy May’s - whom I think I wrote about earlier, where we had such a good time both with her and her friend from India. Elder Clark has spent time in India which made for some interesting conversations that night. Then, for the previous 12 week period he served as an AP so we saw him in the office often and worked a little more directly with him. His family picked him up on Monday and they all came to the office for final farewells and pictures. It was fun. Here is a picture of him with the office group Monday (we all gathered over by Dad who was on the phone, but got off just as the picture was snapped. I even managed to hide the crutches - cool, right?) Oh - our new couple are the Terrys - standing next to me & Dad:
On Monday I also re-initiated my efforts to follow up on a referral to Frankfurt Germany...made some progress (I hope) by Friday as one of the workers in Salt Lake had contacted the Frankfurt office by phone and they were supposed to get back to him. Hoping to hear something tomorrow:).
Tuesday I received a blessing in the mail, in the form of a letter from Elder Taumoelau, one of our missionaries who is from Tonga. He had had a birthday a few days earlier and we had called in the morning to sing, “Happy, Happy Birthday Elder Dear” (to the Primary tune), which we do for all of the birthdays in the mission - sometimes laughing at how bad we sound, but continuing the effort to let them know we love them and we are happy for their birthday. Our efforts are usually met with laughter and a thank you - we sometimes wonder what they think of us:). Elder Taumoulau’s letter changed our thoughts about the whole process however as he thanked us deeply from his heart and said we sounded like angels. He said from his earliest years his grandmother has always been the first one to sing to him, Happy Birthday - and since she could not do that for him this year, he was so very happy to have 3 Grandmothers in the office now! He also related that he had told his family that he needed nothing for his birthday but prayers that he would have a baptism. He did. And, the Lord led him to 4 new investigators on his birthday. He also enclosed a fun picture for each of us of those involved in the baptism. It all made me cry - happy tears:). I felt so blessed.
Wednesday we had a visit from a couple who had worked in the mission some years ago; they spent quite some time visiting and looking around at the changes. Since he had been in charge of housing back then, it was quite interesting to hear that he had worked from his home and it only took about an hour a day. That was kind of hard for us to even imagine - but then, it was a different time, probably less missionaries and definitely a different mission president. We have come to believe that our mission president moves missionaries around a lot more than most do. Anyway, the best thing that came from their visit was the following story of an elder whose father had either served in Japan, was from Japan, or had been in Japan - I didn’t get that part straight, but now wish dearly that I had. Anyway, this elder I believe had visited Japan also and had studied Japanese in high school, was very fluent in it and fully expected to be called to Japan when he put in his papers to serve a mission. Instead he was called to Equador and was greatly disappointed. After serving for 23 months, he and his companion were at some gathering of people and a Japanese man came over to him and said, “Can you teach me about your church?” in Japanese. To which the elder of course replied, in Japanese, Yes! The man’s next question was, “Can I bring my friends?” Of course, another Yes! It turned out to be a group of 64 Japanese who were in Equador for some sort of conference or something. The end result was that in time, all 64 of those were baptized. Here is the good part: the man who came over to the elder originally asked him to put his testimony in his Book of Mormon; when the missionary opened the Book to write in it, he found the signature of his own father was already in it. Which seals in my heart the desire to be obedient. Surely the Lord is in charge and knows where we need to be and what we need to be doing better than we do:)! [If only we will listen!]
Thursday was, for some reason, a very quiet day allowing us to pretty much catch up on all the work and allowed our new secretary to spend a lot of time reading the old histories (she is working on the current one, along with the newsletters, the blog, etc.). We enjoyed the quiet, altho it made we want to go to sleep!
Friday, I received a phone call that was another blessing. I was able to call one of our elders who had asked me a month or more ago to ask for missionaries to be sent to his dad, who lives in Idaho, with the good news that (finally - after several follow up calls) missionaries had an appointment with his dad this Saturday. The referral secretary in Idaho promised to keep us updated, so we are hoping for great news!
Another blessing on Friday was a call from Sara:)! She sounded great, was driving their new truck (pictures on Facebook for those who haven’t seen it - and the truck(s) that left as part of the deal) pulling the horse trailer (with a new fender) on her way to get a chipper for branches, etc. At least that is what I remember. I got to talk to Payton, who shared all about her kittens, Boots & Pumpkin. Sara shared that of the 6 kittens those are the two they are keeping and the mom’s name is Princess. Brings back memories of naming all the creatures that came our way:). Abby and Payton had school pictures posted on Facebook - only when asked which picture I should put on my wall, the school picture or one of the earlier ones, Abby chose the one of her standing by the tree - a great choice I think!
I talked with Mary yesterday; it was good to hear her voice. I love hearing from my children:)! She sounded great as usual, even though she’s been not feeling well - maybe from overworking with the two jobs? I asked if they had heard any more about whether they would be showing Sub Zero’s owner on Shark Tank; she answered no, she thinks they don’t tell you ahead so that you will be watching ALL the shows. BUT - she did say they showed a brief clip of the Sub Zero attempt on one of the previews, AND they they had an onslaught of several hundred new fans on Facebook the next day! (Sorry, can’t remember the exact number...but you can ask her.)
My memory is so bad...I think I talked with Emily too this week. Yes, I did. She sounded good and it was fun to hear that Eli is exercising his “polite” self, taking great delight in asking for things with a proper Please, and taking the time to express his gratitude with an expressive Thank You after having his requests granted. Wish we were there to see and hear it:). They are still held up with their remodeling of their house by paperwork things. I think we could all pray for a speedy end to the permit process so they can get on with their lives - maybe even include them in our fast next week!
Dad and I drove to Roseburg last night for Dad to get his temple recommend signed by Brother Vincent; now he has a valid temple recommend once again...that is good! If my leg(foot) will let me I am hoping we can go to the temple for the Stake Temple night in two weeks. We will have to see. While we were driving, we got to talk to Jim Jr. briefly; they are still working on the insurance aspect of the Walk Aide. They sounded good and I got to say Hi to all the kids - who were all sitting in the car listening:)! Sounds like some challenging times at work are ahead, but that is nothing new. We met the Beckenhauers and their granddaughter after getting the signature and had a meal at Gilbertos together - that was fun, then we went to Sherms to get our groceries for the week, stopping at the house to pick up a few games before heading back to Eugene. I was hoping I could find some of my Halloween decorations...but it is all a maze of boxes to me, so I came home without any:(.
By the way, Ammon Bullinger is trying to e-mail all of us a "Quote for the Week" - so be sure to let him know if you get it! I thought his starting one was great. All in all a good week; lots accomplished at the office and I am learning how to walk better with the crutches. Looking forward to next Friday to see what the next big improvement will be:). Miss my kids...and the grandkids. If anyone reads this blog, please send me an e-mail & let me know...then I won't send you a paper copy:)! (You can just comment here if you want to also...)
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