Taking time to celebrate

We have been married 43 years. I remember sitting outside Pres. Grant Fugal's office when he was Stake President.  His wife was sitting there too. It was their anniversary. She told me that when her husband was done with interviews they were going to go out for an ice cream. I thought that was so sad.

Not so sad anymore.  On our anniversary we had a District meeting from 10-1:00. Glen and I taught the lesson there on Revelation through Prayer.  We were scheduled to feed four missionaries at 5:00 and we had a Missionary Committee Meeting at 6-8:00pm. And we actually enjoyed the whole day! We did sneak in lunch with the Malhums (another Senior Missionary couple). Of course we still had our candy bars for breakfast in memory of the quick breakfasts we had in Hawaii on our honeymoon before catching early morning island hoppers.

But we celebrated the anniversary on Friday by going to Fresno to the temple and going out to eat at Chiles. When we went to pay the bill we were told someone had already paid it for us! It was a lovely, relaxing day.

And then the next day we went back to missionary work!

Hey- this is work!

We have been on a mission now for one year! And it just dawned on me that this is hard work.
I started suspecting that when we didn't have time to eat dinners. Or when we barely had time to heat up one little frozen dinner in the micro-wave and so we split it before running to the next appointment.

There have been a couple of illnesses and emergency surgeries that have required dinners to be taken around. It has been a blessing in impressing part member families. Mormons aren't too bad after all!

 And Glen has put in a lot of time getting five sisters their Food Handlers Permits through the Church Employment Services center. And a fork lift operator permit through the same place. People really need the opportunity to work.

 We have English classes that we teach each week with Glen teaching the beginner class and me teaching the slightly advanced class.I always figured it would be easier to teach the Branch to speak English than for me to learn Spanish. This is actually very fun and we have members and investigators there.

 We also keep very busy taking members to the Family History Center to get family names to take to the Temple.  When we go to the Temple in April we will be doing the sealings for the families of the Branch members that we have all been working on. Also we have some of the newest adult converts ready, interviewed, and excited to go do baptisms for the dead! Plus Glen has lined up a member of the Temple Presidency to come and speak to our Branch in April.  It is amazing how fast the Lord sends ideas to someone like Glen who is willing to move on them.

For me there are the Relief Society lessons, visiting teaching, lining up missionary dinners and also activities to be done.We had a Relief Society birthday celebration with a breakfast together and then we made 50 sack lunches to take to the Rescue Mission homeless shelter. It was really fun and I made a Spanish quiche that turned out surprisingly good. (Never made a quiche before in my life.)

 The Bishop's Storehouse has been closed for months while undergoing renovations. So we do the shopping ourselves for the members needing food and deliver it to them.

 And there is the Executive Secretary work for Glen along with helping the branch clerk (who speaks no Spanish). Glen does a lot of planning on the agendas trying to get everyone where they need to be, doing what they need to do.  That is NOT easy.

And those are just some of the things we do with the Branch.  Then we do MISSIONARY WORK. That means meetings (this week we left for a Zone Special Training meeting at 8:30am and got home from it at 6:30p.m. Yeah, that was one of those no dinner nights because we had to run and help a family member right after.) Then we work with the other missionaries in fellowshipping and teaching.  And Glen's specialty, finding investigators.

I think it would be a hard thing to return from our mission and wish we had done more. Our Mission President always ends his letters and lessons with this admonition:
                                 Never Surrender!  Never Quit!  No Regrets!

"The Go To Guy"

Our Mission President is into sports.  A real movie was made about him and his soccer team.(Forever Strong). So it's understandable when he talks in sport story mode. When he talks about Joseph Smith he asks, "How could the Lord choose a 14 year old boy?"  Then he explains, "The Lord didn't see a 14 year old boy.  He saw a "Go To Guy".  The guy you know you can trust in a pinch to do exactly what needs to be done."

 When you consider that we lived forever before we came here to earth, and Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ knew Joseph Smith there, it is easy to see that when they looked at him they didn't consider his age at all.  In infinity numbers are irrelevant.  What they saw was their  "Go To Guy".

So what do they see when they look at us? We may exhaust ourselves with fear, anxiety, distractions, and doubts but we want them to know that we WILL do what they ask. The Prophet Joseph Smith said we were ordained to our earthly callings in the Grand Council of Heaven. Whether it is as a missionary, teacher, Bishop, Young Women's President, home teacher or whatever, the Lord knew who he would call and to where.

So we have to be alert.  If someone offered you a cigarette right now would you go out and smoke it?
No.  So Satan doesn't waste his efforts there.  He will come after us with one of our personal weaknesses.

And so Heavenly Father gives us help.  Whenever we want to talk to him we can pray.  Whenever we want him to talk to us we can open the scriptures and receive answers. We can live so that we are worthy of revelation in our lives. Elder Bednar says revelation can come quickly like turning on a light.  Or slowly like the sun rising. Or even like being in a slight fog where you need to take a few steps in faith. Ponder, move forward,and we can say, "If this is a wrong decision or the wrong choice let me know.  Otherwise I will go ahead." He will always be watching over you.

President Monson says he wants to say to Heavenly Father, "I am Tommy Monson and you can trust me."
Now that is a "Go To Guy."  What we do for, and give to, Heavenly Father shows our love for him. He asks for all we have and in return he gives us all he has.  As the Lord comes to trust us, we can also become his "Go To Guy".

The New Norm

Being too busy used to be the exception.  Now it is the normal day.  Today as soon as I got up we did our companionship prayer and study time.  Then I had to make a dessert for later today and get ready quickly to pick up some Elders and go to our Missionary District Meeting.  Luckily Glen and I don't have to teach it until next week. It is so amazing to have these young Elders and Sisters teach us.  They are good!

Then I dropped Glen off and picked up a sister to take her visiting teaching.  I won't do it for them.  But I will do it with them.

Then I dropped her off and ran down to pick up Andrea Diez for her baptismal interview!  She doesn't have a car so I took her and her three kids under 7 to the church for her interview. She will be getting baptized this Saturday!  Yes I did tend the kids while she was being interviewed. But lest you think I walk on water let me tell you how it all happened.  Two weeks ago the Elders asked me to pick Andrea up for church, along with her children and their car seats.  It meant I had to miss my ward council meeting and go clear across town to get her, come back, take her home again after church, and come back for Glen (he doesn't fit in the car with everyone else). And I will admit I wasn't my usual cheerful self about it. So while I was pouting the Lord said only one thing: "and you want me to do what for you this week?"  In a second I realized that He is definitely working overtime blessing me every day.  If this daughter of God needs a ride to church and baptism and church again, I will do it.  I will do whatever He asks to show my gratitude to Him.  And I will drop the attitude.

Anyway, so after her interview today I went back home and cooked dinner for our two new neighbors.  Amber and Ryan (who looks exactly like Ken Pack!) were invited over for dinner.  They are young and not exactly married so we invited the two Sister missionaries from the Single Adult ward over too.  It turned out great!  The Sisters gave a message on prayer at the end of the dinner and Amber and Ryan responded quite well. There was a good spirit there. So we loaded them up on cake to take home and hopefully they will come asking for more. Spirit not cake.

Then after that there was a Stake Missionary meeting and Glen was willing to go without me so I could type up my Relief Society agenda, Visiting teaching report, and Relief Society monthly report for the Branch President...which I am going to do right now:-)

A Really Great Hard Day

Lets just say it was a full day.  We started off studying extra long and extra hard during companion study this morning because next week we have to teach the missionaries for District Meeting on the subject of prayer. We are going to quote my nephew Elder Heath serving in Ghana right now.  He said we need to pray for our investigators and less actives by name.  That means if you have 10 investigators you need to pray 10 times in your planning session. Multiply that by everyone you feel a need to pray for and you can see why Enos prayed all day and all night. Heath's mission president recommends you use a pillow for your knees if you need to!

Then I went visiting teaching with Juana Estrada and Angeles Santiago.  They are partners but neither one of them has a car to go in.  So I drive them.  It is worth it to me for the sisters to fellowship each other. This took a couple of hours.

Then Glen and I went to the Family History Center with Maria Ramirez.  She is 69 or 70 depending on which record you want to believe. She wants to do the FOR for her parents and grandparents and then get everyone sealed.  It was very difficult.  Many of the records were tied up or confusing.  Luckily we know two really great helpers.  Tammy helped us immensely!!! She really is as good as they say she is up in the administration building. Ann also was a big help. Even so it took 2 1/2 hours to find what Maria needed. (should have just called Tammy sooner).

Then we picked up the young Elders and ran to a teaching appointment.  Afterwards Glen had to jump start the Elders' car and get them to a repair shop. Then he had to run them to their various appointments while the car was getting fixed.

While he was helping them pick the car back up etc. I was teaching our ESL (English as a second language)
class at the church.  It is just so much fun.   They figured out the long and short sounds of the vowels and could all read "pigs like mud".  Quite an accomplishment! It really is a fun time. Hopefully this will help them with jobs, children's schooling, doctor appointments, shopping etc.  Not the pigs part but the learning to read English part!

We are exhausted.  But we are very happy with everything we were a part of today.  Missions are great.

A scary Valentine's Day

It takes a lot to scare me anymore.  But lets say I was very anxious to see Valentine's Day coming this year.

 That's because we were throwing a Valentine's Dance for the Spanish branch which meant decorating, cooking treats, coming up with music, clean up etc.

We had been asked by a family to take them to the airport after the dance because their daughter was going to the Provo MTC.  We said yes of course, and a few days later they mentioned that we had to leave at 1:30 am to get there.  We put on a brave face and said that was fine.  Then the day before, they told us it wasn't to the Fresno airport which is the closest one.  It was out of Sacramento which is over two hours away. This was the same night as the dance: Valentines.

We decided to make the best out of it and booked a hotel so we wouldn't have to drive all the way back that night. Turns out the people were real nice about checking us into the hotel at 5:00 am.!

 After four hours of sleep we took off to explore Sacramento. Neither of us had ever been there.  We went through the State Capital building of course.  Then we went to Sacramento Old Town which is much bigger that San Diego Old Town and isn't Spanish but rather sprung up from the Gold Rush.  It was a very interesting place and we settled on eating at Fat's City. Fat is the name of the family who first settled there by the railroad, not a description. The food was excellent and the place was historic and beautiful in carved wood and Tiffany stained glass.

On the way home we went by the Modesto Flea Market which we have heard so much about, just so we would know what people were talking about and sure enough, it is big.

So what looked like an impossible, daunting, and even scary Valentine's day turned out to be quite fun and even relaxing in the end. Who would have guessed.

A Shift in the Mission

About two weeks ago Glen and I had a shift in our mission.  Actually, I shifted months ago when they put me in as Relief Society President. My focus became helping the sisters in our little Branch. I did that through getting them back to the Temple, and by doing Familly History, and by giving them callings as teachers and visiting teachers and fellowshipping with activities.

Glen really loves proselyting.  And he is really good at it. The other missionaries actually text him asking for new referrals. Now he does a lot for the Branch too.  He figures out the music so they can have a dance. And of course he is still straightening out the membership records and teaching the Branch President how to do advancements in the Priesthood, tithing settlements and all the regular kinds of things it takes to run a branch or ward correctly.  But two weeks ago something else came up.

I help with the Bishop Storehouse food orders because of my calling.  And Glen and I went to Fresno recently for training on that.  But most of the meeting was taken up with the Church Employment Services.  We talked to the Brother in charge after and explained how the Spanish in our area have different problems than most unemployed people here.  A couple of days later Glen had a chance to speak with him again.  So the next day this man was serving in the Temple and he saw a Spanish couple walk by.  And the Lord spoke to him. Actually he says the Lord chastised him and said  "These are my children too.  What are you doing to help them?"

Without knowing this Glen was impressed to ask him to come to our church after Sacrament meeting to talk with any Branch members who needed help finding a job or a better job.  He came and was very kind and loving to our members. After, he told Glen to sign up the people on ldsjobs.org and he would contact them and help them.  Then he said Glen needed to line him up with a meeting to talk to the Stake and get them on board and get an employment specialist that could help them.  Wouldn't you know, as we were walking out the door in comes the Stake Presidency councilor. It wasn't his church building and we didn't expect him there but Glen immediately got the two men together and plans were set.

Now we realize that this is a huge undertaking. Glen has even told the Lord that he loves proselyting but if the Lord wants him to do this and work mostly with the Branch, he will.  The first Sunday Glen spent a lot of time after the meetings signing people up on the computer. He has learned how to get the people trained with the church's help and get them jobs.  I can't imagine how we are going to be able to fill this huge responsibility but with the Lord's help I know it is going to happen.