Monday, June 13, 2016

Week 14 Report

Life continues to be wonderful in the Hawaii Honolulu Mission. It's been a routine but wonderful week. The work in the office continues in a constant and unpredictable way. Monday and Tuesday were pretty much spent getting caught up with transfer business. Devon is still working to close an apartment in Wai'anae. The elders had pretty much destroyed it. A handyman repaired everything. The carpets were cleaned. The elders and sisters came and cleaned. Devon thought it was ready to turn over to the landlord and so scheduled an appointment with her. Well, they forgot to clean the glass window louvers. So, Devon spent a day cleaning them. I think he's done more housework in three months than he's done in his entire life!

Wednesday we only worked till noon and then went to Laie. Devon needed to deliver some house ware items for some missionaries there and we had appointments with Dr. Hughes. Devon had some questions about a mediation he is taking and I have been having pain in my right lower rib cage. Common sense told me it was nothing to worry about, but given my history I was worried anyway. Wonderful Dr. Hughes listened carefully to both of us. He ordered a chest x-ray for me (4 views) just to be on the safe side. About an hour and a half later (after office hours) he called and reported no lesions seen. Such good news!!! He took Devon off his blood pressure meds as his BP was 91/60 and he has been having some lower leg swelling. There is a BP cuff and stethoscope at the office, so I'll be monitoring his BP carefully. We went to the PCC and ordered several handmade items from the Mission Settlement. I'm already shopping for Christmas presents. Then we had a wonderful dinner at Pounders and nice drive home.

We moved back into our remodeled offices on Thursday. We had planned to move on Friday and were given permission to wear our jeans to make moving things easier. But the worker showed up Thursday morning to move our computer lines back upstairs. That gave us two choices: close up for the day or just move. So we did the latter and moved into our new offices. Since we had permission to be casual on Friday, we all decided to follow through on that. Loved wearing jeans for the day! The only problem was that we had an unexpected visitor Friday afternoon. Bishop Causse and the head of the FM group came by to see the new office. Does that name ring a bell??? Well, sad to say, not to me at the time. I almost asked, "What ward are you with?" Boy am I glad I didn't! He is the Presiding Bishop of the Church. Yep, the big wig from Salt Lake! And here we were in our jeans! He was very gracious and friendly. We didn't realize who he was until after he was gone. Our bad!

The hard thing about being away is missing special events for our family, or when someone gets sick. My brother-in-law, Rodney, has been in the hospital dealing with out of control blood pressure, heart rhythm problems, and an infection. Thankfully everything is under control and we hope he will be going home soon. I'm so grateful we can keep in daily contact through the telephone and prayers.

Saturday our sweet children and some of their good friends gathered at our new Lehi home and emptied our storage PODS. We still have items in two storage units, and various furniture items at several of our kids' homes. What would we do without our family? I'm hoping Emily can find our swim suits in one of those boxes. We're anxious to go snorkeling.

Things have been very exciting at the Laie Temple Visitor's Center for several weeks. Elder Swinton is the Visitor Center's director. He kept noticing that tour buses would stop in the parking lot, look around, and then leave. He wondered why they didn't come in and so one day he walked out to a bus.
It seems they thought the grounds and Visitor's Center were private property and not open to tourists, so they just stopped in the parking lot to let them have a look at the beautiful grounds. Well, Elder Swinton invited them in. When they found out it was free, and that it had free bathrooms it was a game changer. Now they come...by the busloads. It's a regular stop on the tour schedule. Currently up to almost 200 Chinese tourists stop at the Visitor's Center every day! They are hungry to learn about Christianity and love taking their picture in front of the statue of Christ. They are only allowed to bring one religious book back to China with them, but many are taking Chinese Books of Mormon. They can't keep them on the selves. It's been a wonderful thing!

Chinese tourists love taking their picture with someone with blonde hair - in this case, Sister Swinton.

Chinese tourists with some of our cute sister missionaries.

Saturday was a special mission conference with Elder and Sister Renlund. Also speaking were our area seventy and his wife, and President and Sister Warner. It was a great conference. For me, the theme that stood out was how important our attitude and effort are. Sister Warner (I love her!) reminded us that attitude is a choice. She taught that to be successful we must show up (1) everyday, (2) on time, (3) with a good attitude. Always act as if we are what we need to become (or as Devon says, be the missionary your mother thinks you are).

Elder Renlund continued that theme. He drew this diagram on the chalkboard and then asked us which box we would put ourselves in? 
It caused me to evaluate myself. I know the box I want to be in, but in truth I probably bounce around a bit. Elder Renlund said, "It's totally up to you - what kind of missionary you will be." Then he asked us to make hymn #131, More Holiness Give Me, our prayer. It was a wonderful and inspiring meeting. The principles taught are ideals that will bless our lives in whatever we are doing.

Sunday also did not disappoint. I find myself so grateful for the many blessing of this past week. I know without a doubt we are constantly receiving divine guidance and blessings. I see them in my life and so many others. 

1 comment:

  1. So glad you are well and happy. The Lord takes special care of his missionaries. Your message on my Frontrunner ride to work is such a blessing. What a wonderful beginning to my day!!!

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