Two Week Catch Up
During our weekly mission wide zoom on Sunday nights, I love hearing the messages from our departing missionaries. It seems like every missionary has that pivotal point in their mission when they turn to their Savior and experience that joy that comes from truly depending on him and doing his will.
One sister missionary told how she struggled at the beginning of her mission. She had a calendar her family had given her with all eighteen months of her mission and she had been marking off each day. As she came to her pivotal point in her mission instead of crossing off each day, she started writing down the miracles she had experienced that day. Even though things hadn't changed and became easier, she had changed and the mission became a joy to her. I am trying to follow her example in writing down each day the miracles that come my way.
The past two weeks have been so busy with apartment inspections, temple visits, and some Christmas activities. Each day brought with it Christ's tender mercies in our lives.
Both our temple visits the last two weeks have been special. The first week, we went with a brother who was being sealed to his deceased parents along with his deceased sister. His aunt from Carlsbad and nephew from Utah joined us for the event. We had the privilege of acting as proxy for his mother and father. It was a wonderful day.
Our temple trip this past week was to perform some baptisms and to attend an endowment session. During the second to the last week of their missions all departing missionaries attend a temple session together. We ran into all these missionaries on their way out of the temple as we were going in. So many missionaries that we have served with and loved, including our sweet senior missionary friends, the Fowers. This made our visit very sweet but to add to that, a couple that we work with in the Family Search Center was attending the same session as us and we were able to sit by each other. Truly it was a wonderful day in the temple with many friends that we deeply love and yet did not know a year ago.
We had a shorter transfer than usual so we had to hustle in order to get in all ten apartment inspections. Elder Prater taught so many missionaries this transfer on how to clean their bathtubs so they are sparkling! He also had to put that knowledge to use as he and I cleaned an apartment that had been vacant for a while. The mission needs the apartment for next transfer. The bathroom was really dirty and one look at the tub and I thought it would never come clean but my husband used his magic and it came out amazing.
It is starting to look like Christmas around here and we have attended some Christmas activities lately. During our ward activity our assignment was crowd control in the overflow where there were children's activities. The whole gym was beautifully decorated and a delicious buffet style dinner was served. It was a wonderful evening.
We have noticed many houses decorated up in the neighborhood and were able to see the lights at the Los Angeles Temple before we picked our son up from the airport. We are definitely getting into the spirit in our apartment as we have a tree that someone didn't want. The lobby of our apartment complex is also beautifully decorated. There are signs of Christmas every where we go.
We have enjoyed helping others with family history.
and eating some more Mexican food...
We also found a cute little lake nearby. Dixon Lake where you can fish for $9 a day.
This is one of my favorite miracles from the past couple of weeks. We visit a very dear sister who is preparing to receive her own endowments in the temple. We have taken her to church and to the Adult Family Home Evening and she is just such a delight as she is taking it all in. We visit with her weekly to study the book of Revelations together. This past week as we were studying, she pointed out a set of scriptures on her coffee table. She mentioned that it belonged to her fathers who had passed away thirty years ago. She said that she had never touched the bookmark that he had left in the book. When she had looked at it the past week she noticed that the bookmark was in D & C 77. That section of the book is a revelation given to Joseph Smith in 1832 which contains an explanation of the Revelation of St. John! We had been using that section in our studies together! Surely her deceased father is happy with the decisions she is making in her life now. I love coincidences because they are God's tender mercies in our lives.
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