Dear Family,
I will copy below the letter I wrote Dallin and Hannah, but
I want to first thank you for your fasting and prayers. There has been an unmistakable change in us
this last week. I have personally felt
an extra measure of love from Heavenly Father, confidence in my work, and less
fear and anxiety over problems in the mission.
There has been more unity in our companionship and more energy to do the
work. Dad has been amazing! I don't
think he went five days on very little sleep--but he always wakes up early
feeling ready to work again. I testify
we have felt help from heaven, had prayers answered and seen miracles occur. Just tonight, one of our trainers called to
say her companion was determined to go home to her family because she heard her
dad, recently sealed with their family in the temple, was drinking again. The meeting Dad had with her was miraculous
and events unfolded in a way that she recommitted to serve and turned from
tears to laughter over the course of their conversations. Literally.
We are so very thankful for your sacrifices and prayers for us.
President Bowen taught us that I am NOT the mission mom and
Dad is NOT the mission dad. We are
fellow servants with the other missionaries in our mission. That relieved me of 175 children and I'm down
to just eight again, which is a big relief!
We are to direct them to not depend on us, but to take care of
themselves and their own welfare.
We started the week with MLC and that afternoon Dad did a
surprise visit to some missionaries who'd lost focus. A really great thing that happened this week
is Derrick coming to visit. He came to
Manila Tuesday and we drove Tuesday night after zone interviews through slow
traffic to have dinner with him. He
brought us a duffle full of canned pumpkin and other things from USA and
Singapore and we had a great visit. I
appreciated hearing that their family has adjusted well to Singapore and the
children love the neighborhood and school.
The next morning he heard from Julie that the baby monitor got unplugged
and she slept through the whole night instead of waking up frequently to feed
the baby. Every since then, Ransom has
slept much betterl!
We finished four days of zone interviews this week, which
completes the third time we've interviewed all the missionaries. Dad continues to handle the problems of the
mission with patience and the Spirit, lovingly sending home one missionary who
is better off not in the mission. Dad seems to have more energy than me -- I
fall into bed exhausted every night!
Friday after zone interviews and mission office planning
meeting we went to a Chinese restaurant with our stake president and his
wife. They live in our subdivision and
have been so kind to us. They showed us
the crabs and the live fish before they cooked them and everything was very
delicious. Very early the next morning
-- about 1:30am --Fenton arrived from Singapore! It's been so fun to have him here. He helped me all day Saturday and drove me to
church this morning while Dad went to the far reaches of the mission to help
missionaries and meet with a stake president. Fenton was great with the missionaries
who came to dinner tonight. I wish he
could stay longer, but he heads home tomorrow morning.
Week's Disappointing Event:
Water flooding into kitchen from upstairs bathroom. Again.
Week's Happiest Event:
Mission call to Megan Cutler --Santiago Chile South and to Sarah
Cutler--Pennsylvania Pittsburgh. They
both leave in January. And Emma Kimball
is working on mission papers.
Landmark: I fed the missionaries a meal with NO RICE. (The Filipinos were a little disappointed, I
think, but they made it up with ice cream afterward.)
We are really looking forward to general conference next
week, but are listening at every chance to the talks in the meantime.
Fenton asked me what causes me to be stressed out in the
mission. I can honestly say my biggest
stress comes when I loose the Spirit. I
need it so much in this work! I cannot
afford to be without it!
Quote of the Week is from Sister Jones at the 2017 Women's
Conference:
If we choose to focus on our negative thoughts and doubt our
worth instead of clinging to the Savior, it becomes more difficult to feel the
impressions of the Holy Sprit.
Love you,
Mom
From Dad:
Greetings to you both!
I’m grateful to know that you are a blessing to your missions and
mission president. Just to be clear 99% of the missionaries here are doing
their best and most are succeeding wonderfully.
I am very proud of all of them and recognize that most have
not had the privilege of stable family lives or even any family life at all. It
is remarkable that they do so well—even the ones who have had to go home are
people, who, with a little extra help, will be just fine.
I’m not stressed out and actually I’m have a great time. I
enjoy the work more each week. The Area President, Elder Bowen, told us that
the first six months will be slow and sometimes hard, the next two years will
be fast and wonderfully enjoyable and the final six months will come and go in
a flash that will leave us wanting to stay. Here’s to that being true for us. I
love you both.
Note the photo of Fenton driving in metro-Manila!
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