Dear Hermana,
I talked with Sister Macaballug today at Novaliches stake
conference and she said Sister Macaballug is being released March 14. Didn't you say March 12 for you? Anyway, I sent an email to Sister Johnstun
asking if you can travel back together.
I haven't received any travel plan for you --have you received any?
At one of our zone conferences this week Dad changed the
closing song to "The Time is Far Spent" and that's how I'm feeling
about your mission--there are only three more Sundays to write to you after
today. For me, on the other hand, there
is still a very long time. One of the
assistants told us on Friday that we have 873 days left!
It certainly seemed like a long week with a zone conference
every day for five days in a row. I gave
a 30-40 minute teaching from Elder Renlund about Treasuring up the Words of
Life and Dad taught two or three times each day. Monday went so well and the missionaries were
SO reverent and attentive, the zone leaders and STL's workshops were so great,
I told Dad, "I feel sorry for the rest of the meetings this week--none
will be this good." But
surprisingly every day the missionaries were attentive and reverent and
participated well and every day the mission leaders taught well. It was actually amazing and I felt like the
Lord poured out blessings on our mission the entire week.
We were looking forward to Friday night when all the zone
conferences were finished and we planned to celebrate by watching a movie about
Winston Churchill (we are actually allowed to watch movies) but Dad fell asleep
on the couch at 6pm, he was so tired!
Dad has spent a lot of time with a missionary from Ukraine
who had several emotional breakdowns the first weeks of her mission and refused
to accept the Filipino culture. He went
to see her for the last time Tuesday night, as she was reassigned to serve in a
mission in Ukraine. Fortunately, there
was no trauma in the mission this week and we enjoyed seeing every missionary
and talking with many of them. I love
seeing Dad go up and put his arms around a struggling missionary! I saw him do that to one who has almost been
sent home a couple of times. It was just
after the departing missionaries bore their testimonies, and he said,
"President, I'm just hanging on so I can be one of them!" (He has eight weeks to go.) The Filipino
missionaries will try so hard if they know you love them.
We have three couple missionaries who serve out in the
district and four who serve in or near the office. We all got together after the zone conference
on Thursday and had pizza in the office and took this photo. They are all so great, and we were happy to
see that our new couple from Australia are already loving their branch where
she is in the Primary and he is in the bishopric and they are both making such
a difference already. Senior couples are
so inspiring!
Saturday was a recovery day for me. I must have been dehydrated after the
week. But I'm great today and have
enjoyed a quiet Sabbath with Dad. And with the Merkleys gone our mango
consumption dropped from 22 to 4. They
are SO delicious -- I'm excited for you to taste them. Elder Bowen, our area president, calls the
fruit on the tree of life in 1 Nephi 8 "the white mango"! We've been told that the weather gets hot in
March-May because it's summertime here, but it's also mango season, so they'll
be even better by the time you come.
Speaking of the tree of life, I love this scripture that
follows Lehi's vision. In chapter 13
Nephi describes our day -- and YOU:
And ablessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my bZion
at that day, for they shall have the cgift and the dpower of the Holy Ghost;
and if they eendure unto the end they shall be flifted up at the last day, and
shall be saved in the everlasting gkingdom of the Lamb; and whoso shall
hpublish peace, yea, tidings of great joy, how beautiful upon the mountains
shall they be.
Much love,
Mom
I only took photos of
missionaries this week--some of practice teaching, some great elders and
sisters -- I SO LOVE THE SISTERS! And
all the seniors.
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