There and Back Again: Week 72 If you can't take the heat...take something for those hot flashes

Last Sunday there was snow, on Monday the sites were all closed due to ice and extreme cold. Yesterday it was 90degrees! Mother Nature is having hot flashes. We didn't let that stop us. Speaking of Mothers.....

On Tuesday night I participated in a readers theater performance of the organization of the first Female Relief Society. Several of my ancestors were among the first 20 women who organized themselves under the priesthood to do "Something Extraordinary" to create a force for doing good in the world.

Relief Society helps prepare women for the blessings of eternal life as they increase faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and His Atonement; strengthen individuals, families, and homes through ordinances and covenants; and work in unity to help those in need.

They are the oldest and largest women's organization in the world.

On Thursday our international women's day activity was WONDERFUL!

All the food was beautiful and delicious.

The music (songs performed in different languages) was very good.

I sang "Let the Holy Spirit Guide" in Madarin after much tutoring from my sweet daughter, Spring who served an 18 month mission in Taiwan. Then Sister Ballard presented a video of groups and individual relief society women from all over the world sending us a greeting from their country. Egypt, Uganda, New Zealand, Uruguay, Brazil, Portegal, France, U.K., Taiwan, Beijing, etc. It made me weep. I felt so proud to be a member of the relief society!

Elder Cullen was a super hero in the kitchen helping us to assemble the three veggie boquets. Everyone helped and no one had a heavy burdern.

On Friday we got to work in the GREENHOUSE! We helped pot over 2000 "plugs"

it's going to be SO beautiful.

Saturday we started printing and binding the relief society cookbooks I was in charge of assembling.

We will give every sister a free copy.

We also attended a wonderful community event called "He is Risen" there were many many displays with the atonement and ressurection theme and lots of beautiful musical numbers and free refreshments.

Then we attended a Nauvoo Symphony SPRING CONCERT which was VERY good especially for a tiny town! Such an uplifting way to end such an amazing week. So while Mother Nature gives us whiplash (There's a huge wind storm going on right now!) We continue to celebrate, serve, and support each other and look forward to Christ's second coming.

He is RISEN!

There and Back Again: Week 71 False Spring

This has been a week of extreme opposites. We had warm weather and flowers blooming, then in the night I was awakened by a roaring sound. I usually sleep with ear plugs but that night I didn't want to miss the expected tornado siren. The storm we were experiencing dropped HUGE hail stones on our son's, Ben's, house. We put our Pearl and Lazarus in the Bushnell Garages with the tractor and event chairs! LOL

Then the weather cleared and it was so warm we didn't need to wear a sweater!

The weather seemed to reflect the highs and lows of mission life as well as we supported our friends in their trials and rejoiced with them in their joys, both feasting and fasting. We took on some of their burdens (taking the international dinner off their shoulders) so they could leave the mission and help their children for a little while. Today we made 450 wontons and put them in our freezer for this coming Thursday's event, celebrating women around the world.

and others took on our burdens by offering to help! Because of this "one heart, one mind" attitude we are all able to rejoice even in our trials and all of our burdens became light. This is the joy that comes from centering our lives on Jesus Christ and serving and loving each other as he would have us do. I am grateful. A snow storm is expected tomorrow...it will snow on the daffodills, but their joyful color will be seen through the snow and make it more beautiful. So is it a "false" Spring? or are the blooms a reminder of what is coming even when there is a storm? Perhaps it's just a "loving reminder" from Heavenly Father.

There and Back Again: Week 70 Your prayers and fasting are working!

First of ALL...Thank you everyone for your fasting and prayers and please do not stop. This week we have seen baby steps towards unity and less contention. Our efforts are working...keep it up. Just two days ago, FM leadership changed our morning devotionals to be more inclusive, mandatory for paid employees, and spiritual for the express purpose of becoming more unified. Other things are micro changing as well.

As activity directors for the mission we pray and counsel with our committee to provide activites that serve the individual and the group and help those individuals come closer to each other and Christ as they play.

It's a fun challenge. We make Kahoots (an online game) with fun getting to know you questions, or pictures of missionaries when they were children or newly married and give out prizes. It's very fun to scour Salvation Army for likely prizes.

We found two couples to teach us social dance and line dancing...SO fun.

We coordinate dinners and help others who plan dinners by providing games or activites to make them more bonding.

We encourage others to share their talents and shine. We help others develop their talents too! I just heard this week that a computer class I taught about google slides, helped one couple do a very cool remote fireside for their home ward! They were thrilled to have the computer skills they learned here from our activity. That was SO validating to me.

Last night was our BIG "Racing Down the Covenant Path Pinewood Derby" Activity. I could NOT believe how many people came and how eager so many people were to make derbies! We had an "open" category and provided wheels for Veggie Cars too.

It was very funny and fun and before the race we had a short lesson on what our covenants are and what God expects of us and what HE promises to do for us when we keep our covenants and we tied it all in to being good sports at the race.

They got big laughs from that AND we did have a "Covenant Keeper" Trophy for the best sport who ended up being Elder Christensen who had made a pickle car that looked great but got limp over time and wouldn't go down that track so he just ate it and didn't pout!! SO FUNNY.

I think the point of this letter is that God wants us to Work Hard (Even in the Rain)

And play hard (even when sad things happen)

and have JOY through Christ in all of it. Being close to Jesus is NOT just a Sunday thing. We can be close to Jesus when we work, including Him in our problem solving and daily tasks. We can be close to Jesus as we play by using play as an opportunity to bond with our fellow earthlings, love them, and grow in skill and competence with them. Have a wonderful week. We love you.