Pressing Forward

There are few days anymore when we take the bus to church.  As much as I enjoy riding the bus, it is much nicer to ride in a car.  When we take the bus, we have to leave home a little before 9 am, but we don't have to leave until 9:30 now and that extra half hour is truly lovely.

Sister Swena had severe health troubles and had to leave us sometime in November.  I know her companion Sister Hamblin is probably feeling slightly adrift, and the Thornes - as well as Sister Hamblin are sometimes overwhelmed with all the work that is now shared by 3 instead of 4 at the mission office.  I am happy to report that Sister Swena is doing much better.  I don't think she will come back to finish out her mission though.

So in the meantime, we ride in the car when we have meetings.....in a very tight squeeze, we can put 5 in the car, but not six.

Our sacrament meeting, Sunday School and Relief Society/Priesthood were all excellent meetings.  We must have had 60 people there, which was a wonderful turnout.  Our branch president spoke in sacrament meeting.  He is very wise.  He shares personal experiences and personal insights, and I love the way he uses them to teach the Gospel.

I visited with a 90-year-old woman who was born and raised in Holland.  She shared with me that when she was very young, her parents divorced and her mother didn't want her children.  Her father remarried a woman from Scotland who raised my friend and her siblings. This sweet lady took my hand and whispered, "I always had a bible, and I have always believed in Jesus Christ.  So when I heard this is His Church - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I was baptized.  She is there very week on the front row.  She is an angel and I love her.

SK had a meeting after the block, and didn't get home until 3:30.  We ate dinner and then went to the center for a council meeting at 5.  There was a lengthy agenda and much discussion and planning taking place.  I gulped when they began planning for Golden Days 2015, and I realized that we will be gone by that time in September.  It will happen more and more as time passes.....we will be part of planning events that we will not participate in because we'll be in Gilbert.

Sacrament meeting at the center used "Marriage" as the theme....which has been the theme for all meetings in February.  I loved it.  Both of the YSA speakers, as well as the guest speaker did a lovely job of it, making SK and I both tear up a little bit, and I think most of the 35 in the congregation felt something special there.

After the meeting was over, one of our YSAs (a visiting intern from Mexico....he is studying to be a chef) kind of held court....he is handsome and charming.  Everyone stayed for a good hour after sacrament meeting, but he and the young women who were enjoying his company stayed until 10:30.  It was fun just to watch them have a good time.

This is another week where we will be gone every evening, so it will zip by, and before I know it, I will be sitting here at the computer looking at March!