Blessings

Dear Hermana Hughes,

Missionary self reliance training with Pathways missionary

There is more than one way to serve a mission, and I have to learn again and again to concentrate on the blessings and have my focus on Jesus Christ instead of being distracted by the negative.  This was to be our "slow" week, since transfer are behind us and interviews coming up beginning tomorrow.  But it didn't quite work out that way.  Here are the blessings:

--I woke up Monday morning to emails from family and friends about what a good talk Dallin gave in the 6th ward sacrament meeting.  Paul even sent me a recording of it so I got to listen to it, even though I wasn't there.  I felt like I didn't miss anything (except Mark's strata!)

--We found out -- through a stake president in Montalbon who Dad was talking to about missionaries -- that there was a dinner at our home Thursday night for the area authority and all the stake presidents and their wives.  I'm so glad he mentioned it!

--I had inspiration (after doing my homework) on the menu for the dinner, what gifts to give them (we were told we provide gifts), and how to set up. 

--We had committed to go to meet with another mission president and wife early the Tues morning, but Dad had impression we should cancel.  Late Monday night a sister needed help desperately for an emotional issue, and he brought her and her companion  back to the mission home for the night.  I slept through it all!  After breakfast (thank goodness they like cereal) he took them to the area mental health authority in Quezon City to get counseling.  He is super patient.

--The MTC president emailed Dad to say the senior couple we were expecting Friday would come Wednesday.  I'm so glad it wasn't Thursday (night of dinner).

--The shower in the guest room leaked into the kitchen last week when Dallin was here, so we knew not to put the senior couple in that room, which would have been a disaster since we had a breakfast for the senior couples the Thursday.

--Dad put me in charge of the self reliance training for the departing missionaries, and we planned to travel to MTC and have it by the MRC after they had their chest xrays (all missionaries have to have an xray to check for tuberculosis here.) But no UBERs or Grab Taxis were available, and Sister Morris, Sister Cole's companion said, "I'll drive!" and she did.  It's super crazy traffic here and very hard to drive, but she did great and we arrived early.  The training was good--especially the Pathways part-- and then we went to meet Dad at a restaurant back in our mission for lunch, but he had another sister missionary who needed help, so he got stuck in the office.  However, I handled the lunch and the missionaries loved it--the sisters ate way more than the elders!

--I got back in time to cook hamburger soup for the senior couple, set the table, and collapse on the couch for a few minutes before the Cluffs arrived from the MTC.  They're from Australia, our age, with deep church experience and very kind.  And they loved the soup.  I love the senior couples --they are so valuable.

--The breakfast next morning for all the senior couples in our area went well.  Even though my helper froze the egg casserole instead of refrigerating it, it turned out well and whatever the seniors didn't eat, the assistants were happy to take care of.  One of the seniors drove them to their new assignment so we could prepare for the stake presidents later that day.

--I was prompted to do most of the food preparation early, and we were just setting up tables for the guests when Ray Goodsen and his wife, Debbie, arrived to visit.  He is an 80+ man who was one of the first four missionaries to the Philippines in early 60's, returned as mission president in 70's, and keeps coming back to help Filipino people.  His organization built 3500 homes after typhoon in Tacloban, kitchen, bathroom, drill wells and now they are doing a gardening project.  They were fascinating to listen to and such good people.  They could be relaxing but they love serving and there is so much to do here.  (Mark and Abby are going to visit Tacloban and see his work next week--Sarah visited in December.)

--We got the food all ready and greeted the first of the stake presidents at 6pm.  The dinner was scheduled for 7pm but we are used to guests coming early--it all depends on traffic.  Everyone was here by 7:05 and I said, "Let's eat . The food is ready!" and the area authority said, "We'll have a devotional first."  So we had a meeting for 45 minutes including a talk by ME!  The blessing is that the food still tasted okay even though it was so long sitting on the counter or in the oven.  They seemed to enjoy it very much and stayed until about 10pm.  We discovered one of the seniors out in the wet kitchen washing dishes at 9:30 pm.  He just came and helped.  Amazing!

--Friday the Unicity Global Convention started in Hong Kong.  Derrick sent us a video of Dan's talk and he did a wonderful job.  Derrick, Fenton and Rocky all participated and Fenton is relieved it's over.  He wrote,  "the company was very blessed in my opinion. Some things that seemed like they were totally going to fail actually worked out and went pretty well! You were definitely blessed."

--I know we are blessed.  I struggled a lot this week with a terrible cough and with some personal issues I am having difficulty with.  But I know the Lord hears and answers my prayers.  Sometimes the answers would come clearly during my personal study in the morning, and sometimes not until later in the course of the day, but they were clear and I felt God's love in them. 

Hannah, I know what you are doing is hard but it is SO important.  I know the Lord can perform miracles for you.  As Elder Andersen said when he set us apart, there are subtle miracles throughout the church, but here in the mission they are not subtle--they are apparent.  And as President Uchtdorf said, " ...if we trust Him, He will help us to notice the good, bright, hopeful things of life. And sure enough, the world will become brighter."

Love,

Mom

Stake presidents' wives sat at their own table.

New senior couple wife --her name is JILL CLUFF!

I forgot to buy juice for breakfast, but Dad ran to McDonalds for it just before they all arrived! (Going to the grocery store here is NEVER fast, but he made it there and back in 25 minutes.)