Woke up this morning and Skype was ringing and we found ourselves in the middle of my Mother's 96th birthday party. Gosh... it was fun to see cousins, friends, kids, grandkids and this is the first time I've been able to see Mother. It was nice and she looked so beautiful. Thanks Devan for getting us on. Loved it. Uh... maybe next time I could comb my hair and get some makeup on...please! Oh well. Thanks for e mails from friends this morning too. The first thing we do every morning is turn on the computer to see if anyone at home still remembers us. After she left Mother's party, Danna Lee kindly called to comfort me if I was sad. Thanks DL - kind of you. Actually I was fine - well, after a minute or so. But I missed hugs and the cake and refreshments looked oh soooo good. We went for a walk after and bought roti with egg in the middle and curry sauce for dipping. Mmmm...it's good....sort of. But just couldn't take the place of that carrot cake I saw - save me a piece. Oh and happy birthday to Sam too. Was so fun to see Sophie crawling across the floor.
Loved the phone call from Kirrah announcing her upcoming marriage in June. Yes... I knew it would probably happen while we were gone and had emotionally psyched myself for it. But knowing they'll be married in the Logan temple where we were married 45 years ago - oh how we'd love to be there to see our first grandchild married. Congrats to you both. You're a great couple and we're happy for you. We'll be there in our hearts. I can just imagine what a beautiful bride you'll be. Uh oh.... better stop there, before I get too sad.
We haven't seen conference yet - DVD's didn't arrive in time. So it's now scheduled for next Sunday. I think it will be a kind of marathon watching. 4 hours on Saturday - everybody brings their own lunch for break time and the same schedule for Sunday. I could have watched it on line, but will wait to view it with branch members. We've heard it was really good. Oh Adam, must have set up my Ipod\Itunes so it automatically downloads conference as it came on last night. Thanks Adam - but now I'm over capacity on my Ipod - got to start deleting - and I'll just have to figure out how to do that myself as none of my sons or sons-in-law will run over to help me. Imagine that!
Monday is kind of recovery day from the week-end. We have appt tonight to do FHE with the Tinggom family, clean up from yesterday and do grocery shopping for dist. mtg lunch tomorrow. Mmmm... if I only knew what to fix - isn't that always the hard part. Met with and had lunch with Peter and Agnes yesterday after church. He was scheduled for an Apr 16th baptism, but yesterday he said it needs to be changed because he can't quit coffee yet. Agnes - his wife - kind of came unglued and started yelling at him. They're Chinese and she's a very large woman. Anyway, she was VERY upset and told him she'd waited too many years and no one can make him get baptized and it's been just long enough and on and on. Some of it in Chinese and some in broken English - we could understand snatches. But then she yelled something about..... and you killed our son, ...... abortion..... you need to repent.... it's been too long Oh my...I think we have bigger problems here than coffee drinking. The missionaries and us just kind of looked at each other with an internal eye rolling kind of look. SO not sure what's going to happen there. Afterward the missionaries told us that abortions are very common here - didn't know that. Peter and Agnes are older and I suspect this was long in the past - don't know anything else. Stay tuned.
On Saturday night at 10:30 PM the phone rang and I was asked to teach the R.S. lesson on Sunday morning. Well, at least they called rather than just not showing up. I was sooo tired and thought I'd just face it early in the morning, along with fixing the lunch before going to church. Garald was leaving about 9:00 AM to pick up some new members for church. I knew I should have studied and prepared but just didn't want to do it. Just blocked everything out and went to sleep. When I got up in the morning, there on the table were about 5 books all marked with references for the R.S. lesson subject - tithes and offerings. What a great companion I have. He's the best! Lesson went well, so did the lunch, then we went and visited 4 families. One is David and Mei - sealed in the temple last September - having very serious marital problems. On the brink of divorce - we're trying to help but feel so helpless. Mei said she never loved him - it was a marriage arranged by their parents. (but I'm thinking it was their choice to make temple covenants) They have 4 children. Imagine how this is going to affect them, their posterity and generations to come. Just when strong LDS people are so badly needed. One of their sons is in my Seminary class. He's one of the difficult ones, but has so much potential. We feel like we're watching a ship wreck but don't know what we can do. Garald gave David a blessing, but he said until God takes away this trial, he won't go back to church. Church attendance has just imploded lately - dwindling fast - and on our watch. We are doing everything we can to visit, teach, encourage, but it kind of feels like a tidal wave that we can't stop. Not sure what's going to happen and feel very badly about it all. Then visited Sister Julia and Thomas. He's out of work - so common around here. Works as a scaffolder. So we're typing and updating a resume for him today. Also visited Chuk, her son was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday. Single mother with 3 sons - who are a handful. The youngest just turned 3 this last week. We also visited Chen and Barbara - he's the Chinese man who helped us buy our car. He says he'll visit with Peter as he has a great method for giving up coffee. Probably just moral support from another Chinese person will be helpful.
We're busy, we're happy, we love being missionaries (most of the time) Oh My - I had such a hard time adjusting when we first got here - Boy...did the Lord have his work cut out for Him trying to mold me into a missionary. It's been a very big job for Him... but I"m getting there. Love to all at home. We're so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. Thanks for not giving up on us. Oh... and enjoy the snow on spring break (he he) If you come over, we'll share our sunshine. (and humidity and rain)
No comments:
Post a Comment