Sunday was church in the Tabernacle. After church we had invited
Elder and Sister Evans to dinner. They are from Farmington, have been
here since September; and he is the finance person and she is the
receptionist. They have quite a story. Their son
had his mission call and was to leave soon and so a group of friends
decided to go to Logan for some activities and then to one of their
friends farewells. The driver fell asleep on the way home and one
person in their car was killed. Their son had arm and
leg fractures plus brain trauma and he lives in a home where people are
trained in how to serve him. Their whole life changed and of course,
his did.
In the evening was a fireside by the stake choir.
Sixty-five members in the choir. They sang, “I Believe in Christ” (so
powerful), O Holy Jesus,” “This is the Christ” (very moving), “The
Spirit of God like a Fire is Burning”, (I can’t hear that
without thinking of Nathan shouting, “we’ll sing and we’ll shout” as he
did in Burley at one of the cousins baptisms), Come Thou Fount of Every
Blessing. It was calming and empowering to my soul.
Monday has not relieved me from vertigo yet. But happy
day, the Olson couple from the mtc came to visit us from Laie. They are
serving in student services at the college. He had some anointing oil
with him so I pulled them and Ray into the
mail room and shut the door and had a blessing. I was relieved
immediately. How blessed we are to have the priesthood power to heal us
according to our faith and the Lord’s will. We visited with them and
then took them to our apartment for lunch. It was
such a nice surprise.
Tuesday. In the scriptures I read 2 Nephi 14:6 “
...tabernacle for a shadow from the heat...a place of refuge... covert
from the storm...”. The temple is our tabernacle today. We plan to go
to the temple next Saturday. We’re both looking forward
to it.
Wednesday I made calls or texts to all the zone leaders
on Oahu for reservations to the temple and the Polynesian Cultural
Center (PCC). I printed 4 sets of Book of Mormon tabs and had pictures
printed at Office Depot for shadow boxes, which
I will probably put together next week for a gift from President and
Sister Walker to the departing missionaries.
Thursday I made copies and bound the “Atonement” book and
put together some information for 5 missionaries who are being
transferred here from other missions—Hong Kong and Japan. The corona
virus has caused the church to transfer missionaries
out of Asian areas into other missions after a 2 week quarantine
period.
Friday I had the office to myself. Sister Olson is an
ordinance worker at the temple every Friday and the Evans couple, well,
he had a birthday so they took a little relaxation time to another
island. So I checked in mail, printed 30 packages
of tabs for the Book of Mormons and Ray went to the eye doctor.
President and Sister Walker flew in from Maui and asked me t
to check on the Mission Tour dinner plans for next week
and I figured out how to do that! Luncheon is set for noon to feed 38
on Thursday in Maui and another one set for noon on Friday to feed 44 at
the Hilo Stake Center. My first real job.
I did it:). And reported back to her.
We’re going to a movie today with some other couples on
the island; it’s called ‘Call of the Wild”. Dad has had 2 phone calls
so far today for apartment problems. I don’t think he gets a p-day:).
As Mom said I went to the eye dr. I had several
“floaters” in my left eye that came on in one day about two weeks before
we left for our mission. About four days ago I had about twice as many
floaters. I learned that sudden onset of floaters
can indicate possible detached retina so I decided to see about getting
a Dr. appointment. I found that it is difficult to get into a retinal
specialist without being referred by another Dr. One of the Dr’s I
called told me of a retina specialist group that
takes patients without a referral, so I called them and they scheduled
fe for an exam just yesterday. During the exam the Dr. could see that I
had a tear in my retina. The Dr. took me into another room where they do
laser treatments in which they laser around
the tear and this burn causes the tissue to adhere to the retina. She
said that it was good to catch it early to hopefully avoid having a
detached retina. I feel that it was a great blessing that things went so
well.
After the procedure some Elders called me and said that
they were getting a new companion which would make three I their
companionship and they needed a bed and other items for the new elder
sho was re-assigned from Hong Kong. So I gathered
some things from our storage area and went to Walmart for the other
items and took a trip to the other side of the island to deliver the
items by about 5PM. A lot can happen in a day.
My first week, (transfer week) I was with Elder Aldridge,
whom I replaced, and we went to the airport three times to help with
luggage (with truck and trailer) and take some missionaries to the
Airport. We also took stuff to furnish two new apartments.
Seems like the same kinds of things that I was doing back home. I also
deal with broken things and arranging for plumbing problems and so
forth.
I love you all, we pray for all of you daily.
