Glen had an experience while he was delivering desks to an apartment. While he was there for just that short amount of time to move the desks in, a man came to the apartment to replace the dishwasher. Glen felt like it was a great blessing that he came at the exact time that Glen was there so that it could be replaced. Pretty cool!
I'm always amazed at the stories that the missionaries tell about how they went to some fast food place and a total stranger paid for their lunch because they were missionaries. They talk about going to Wal-Mart and someone in the line pays for their things. One set of missionaries even got new suits from a member in their ward who owns a shop! The missionaries know they are very blessed and they're grateful for the members who give them so much. Can you believe how nice people are? We really do love the people here.
Sis. Black's father came to Las Vegas for a visit so she asked me if he could come to the office for a few hours to help me with anything I needed help with. He's 87 years old and she needed to leave for a few hours, so she dropped him off at the office. I decided to see if he could help me assemble the new missionary guidebooks for the 30 missionaries coming in February, and he said he would. So I ran off all the copies (about 40 pages worth) the day before, which took me a few hours, and had them ready when he came. And we were able to put them all together while we visited! I was grateful for the help and Debbie was grateful for the opportunity for him to feel "useful". It was a win win situation for all of us.
On Sunday we dinner with the Chapmans again. We love them! Seated at the table from left to right are Sis. King, Sis. Judd, Valerie Chapman, Elder Findlay, Elder Alford, Jay Chapman, Glen, and Zena. What a lovely dinner it was, and the missionaries left a wonderful message about what Jesus Christ has done for us. It was so good, and we hope that Valerie was touched by it! We sure were.
On Monday night it was senior missionary FHE at the Blacks and Elder Dana and his wife were in charge. He really wanted us to sing an old song he learned in his youth called, "Mormon Sunday School." Glen borrowed a guitar from Nathan Jones and we practiced the song at home and at the office and Elder Dana was delighted that we would sing it. It was so fun! Sister Dana gave an excellent lesson about the new youth Sunday School program and it was so well done. Plus we had a yummy dinner!
Our friends, the Trumans, were called as service missionaries to work at the Home Storage Center which is at the DI complex on Thursdays. Can you even believe it? We are both in Las Vegas serving missions! So we are going to eat lunch together every Thursday, probably at the mission office, because it is so hard for us to get away. It was the first time that Margaret had seen the mission office. The missionaries in their ward just love them and they talk about them every time they come into the office. Pretty cool, huh?
On Saturday night we had a RAGNAR get together at our apartment with our good friends from the ward. At Dianne Christensen's suggestion, we had a Cafe Rio potluck dinner and it turned out so yummy! We also watched the BYU basketball game. It's so fun to have these friends who also love BYU sports! And---we're going to run the Las Vegas RAGNAR in November with them! We just love them, so it will be so fun to be with them and continue our friendship after the mission. They are SO excited to do it and had a lot of good ideas to make it fun. They're pretty motivated, and this will be a good way for Glen and I to keep running and stay in shape, although our time to exercise is so limited here.
Our bishop's wife emailed me and said the sweetest thing--she wrote, "I think you are an amazing Lady, and an inspiration and example for me of what I want to be like when we serve a mission. . . Thanks for all you do for our ward and especially for attending choir! We need some fun singers and you fit the bill!!. . .You are the best Sister Missionary ever!" Can you believe how sweet that is? SHE is an amazing lady and we just love her. We love the people here!
Today we had an extra stake conference because we had Elder Ronald Rasband come who is the president of the Seven Presidents of the Seventy. He gave such an amazing and inspiring talk about his experiences in Bosnia and Croatia where he was able to meet with the presidents of each country and explain to them our beliefs. He talked to them about the importance of the family and the Bosnian president wept when Elder Rasband explained that we believe that families can be together forever. He said, "My family members were killed in the recent war and that is the first glimmer of hope I have felt since then." He also wept when Elder Rasband explained that couples can be sealed in temples for time and all eternity. It was so touching, and his talk was mainly about families and how we need to focus our efforts on teaching and loving our families. We were so grateful that we could be there--and what was awesome too was that when we got there, the Lemmons had saved us a place on a bench that was right between benches that had our missionaries on them, and the one in front of us, Elder Benioni and Elder Hoskins, had brought an investigator family. They were a beautiful family from Mexico with four children, and it was their first time in church. ALL of the children (ranging in age from 10 to a few months old) were so reverent throughout the entire two hour meeting that we were all amazed. We met afterward and they were all so so sweet! If they are baptized I told Elder Benioni that we wanted to be at their baptism! He was so sweet to the family and it was evident that they loved him. We love the missionaries here!
It sounds like you are having a blast! From the choir to the RAGNAR to the BYU basketball game--how fun. It's great that you're serving a mission with the Truman's. What a great opportunity to serve as friends.
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