Things Are Picking Up

What?  Monday already?

Yes....and it was a gorgeous day. The lake outside looked like a sea of glass....hardly a ripple troubled the surface, yet a few dozen white ducks lazily floated.  They almost looked like decoys....they sat motionless on the water.  A lone swan - large, regal and snowy white stood out among them.  The sun was brilliant.  The lake path was heavily traveled all morning.

We did some planning for the next couple of months.  We do all the missionary apartment inspections on this island - which is about 16, and they need to be set up in advance.  We need the car for that, or else we might spend more time just getting to each apartment than we have.  Since we share the car, that also takes some advance planning so that we can line up the appointments on days that we can drive.

We also have more things going on at the center than heretofore, with more activities planned and more missionary efforts from the YSAs.  We had a planning meeting tonight after Family Home Evening with the missionary committee and I was impressed with the way everything was conducted. One young man on the committee served a mission in Mesa Arizona and has been back several months....but he is still on fire and eager to serve.

He has some wonderful ideas....I hope we will be able to implement them all.  One is to have a music fireside at least every other month.  It would be patterned after "Music and the Spoken Word."  There is a great deal of talent amongst the YSAs, and if we invited missionaries and other people from the stake to participate, we would have wonderful hour-long inspiring events for non-members to attend.

Another thing he wants to do is to have a short meeting at the church where the Christus statue is.  The church has let the YSAs go in before and sing and have talks.  It would be lovely if we could do something like that again....having any kind of missionary-oriented meeting in front of the Christus would have to be a success.

We walked over to the center in the beautiful mid-40 degree weather.  A heat wave of sorts....crowds of people were out in the bright sunlight.  We occasionally drive if we have a lot of things to carry or if we are tired or if it is very unpleasant weather (I really haven't encountered any weather here I would call unpleasant)....but when we drive and park, it costs $20 just to park for the night.  We could easily spend $100 a week just on parking.  Not only do I want to spend money on that, but I enjoy the walk.

It was a great Family Home Evening with our high counselor and his wife speaking to us.  He also brought his youngest four children.  They told their story of starting out married life.  They had four important guidelines that they agreed were of utmost importance:
1.   They would always pay a full tithe.
2.   They would not delay having children.
3.   When the children came, the mother would quit work and stay home with them.
4.   They would not work on Sundays.

They then told that they moved into the future in faith.....and while they didn't see miracles, they found that they always had enough and to spare following those family rules.  They shared experiences that backed up what they said.  It was inspiring.

The activity was fun....SK was asked to write a Norwegian quote on the board (I am absolutely serious....and I have to tell you that his writing was completely readable.) and then as teams they had to translate and give a meaning.  It was funny and fun for everyone.

We had about 25 there, but the other half is in the back of the classroom, conferring as a team!

We planned to take the bus most of the way home, but as we neared the bus stop....it came and left, even though SK made a heroic run for it.  So we walked all the way home, which isn't far.  We didn't hurry but strolled home, enjoying being out.  In a few more months, we will be walking home in daylight!....with the sunlight lasting close to midnight.

But I won't think about that now.  I will just enjoy each day that comes, treasuring it away in my heart for the future.