RANDOM THOUGHTS!

Life in the mission continues to stay very busy. Sometimes we don't even know what day it is, but we wouldn't have it any other way right now!

My Spanish is coming very slowly! I know I have made some progress but I pray so hard that I will all of a sudden just be able to understand and speak but not yet. We had Elder Douglas, a member of our Area Presidency here last week and he told me to be patient and it would come. He also said to not worry about the language, to just keep loving the missionaries, setting that example and have someone translate for me.  I will try to be patient, but I really want to know Spanish right now so I can speak to the beautiful people here in Mexico. I'm praying hard for the gift of tongues. On a positive note, I bore my testimony for the first time all in Spanish at a Stake Conference last week. I was scared to death and my pronunciation on some of the words was bad but at least I did it.  Keep praying for me please!!!

We are rolling out the English Connect program next week at our zone conference and I'm excited for them. This program is actually coming down from the church. They feel that since English is a universal language it will help the native missionaries in the future as they apply for school and jobs .  We already have missionaries trying to learn English so they can speak to me. (Melts my heart they are doing it for me 💕) We often help each other learn. It will be good to have a program in place.

After 7 months we finally seem to be in a good rotation. Transfers, all kinds of different trainings, multi zone conferences, traveling the mission, interviews, stake conferences and then it starts all over again.

We are up to 116 missionaries and most of them are pretty awesome! Our Assistants are absolutely the best and help us lead this mission to be the best ever. 

One of my main jobs is over the medical and wow it is a lot! Never a day that I don't have something! I will say though I am learning a lot of new and different medical terms. I told President I could become a real nurse when I return home. 🤣 Its such a spiritual experience as most of the time I truly know the Lord is directing me in the decision for the medical care. 

Thankfully this was the first time I knew I was being prompted and didn't act as quickly as I should have.  It happened today when I thought I should reach out to an Elder who had not been feeling well. I didn't reach out right way thinking I would after church. As we were driving to church the missionary sent me a note updating me on how he was doing. I was worried about him and thought I need to reach out to our area medical doctor. Again, we were on our way to church so I didn't text him right away. During church I get a message from our area doctor asking how this missionary was doing.  I told him about the text I had just received and got some great advice to forward on to our missionary. We are praying it helps. I told Paul on the way home from church that I was being prompted and I didn't act immediately but the Lord was there to fill in the gaps and take care of his missionary sooner than I was. It taught me to follow promptings immediately! (Just so its clear it would have been delayed by 1 hour and it was not an emergency)

I've spent this past week putting together our first Sisters Conference which will happen in about 2 weeks. We have amazing young sisters but they are struggling in different ways. I've spent a lot of time on my knees for the guidance and direction this conference needs to go and its been a lot of work but I pray the sisters will go away with a better understanding of who they are and their potential as a missionary.

I've decided on the them "Rise Up". (Rising up to their potential)  I truly hope they will learn and grow greatly from this conference!

I will be the first speaker then we will have some workshops, a Q&A and then President will be our concluding speaker.  We will end the conference with a special lunch. 

Transfers are tomorrow and it will be a long crazy day.  They are very long days but at the same time very rewarding! This day is bitter sweet. We are excited to get new missionaries but so sad to see our missionaries go home. After we finish greeting, interviewing and training the new ones we take the ones going home out to dinner and then back to our home for dessert and a little goodbye program. Then the sisters usually stay at our home and we take them to the airport the next morning. The elders go to the assistants house.

That wraps up our mission life for today. On to the family...

Our family is doing well and they continue to keep busy with their various schedules. 

Our son Derek (McKenna & Shiloh) are building a home and they should be moving in the end of April. 

Our daughter Kirsten (Ben & Sadie) is pregnant with baby #2 and its a boy!  

Our daughter Ashley and her family (Tyler, Gavin, Beau & Luke) are as busy as ever with all the sporting events for their boys. Luke her youngest plays in a lot of soccer tournaments either in St George or Mesquite and his team always win.  Unfortunately they lost for the first time yesterday. They have been playing up a year and Luke continues to score goals, score the winning goal or scores the winning PK (penalty kick) The twins are also scoring lots of goals and winning a lot! There tournaments will come later. I'm so grateful for the videos of all the amazing plays they have and scoring their goals.

Our daughter Brooke and her family (Jory, Rhett, Baker & Scottie) are coming in a couple weeks and will be here for Paul's birthday. We are so excited! Paul especially can't wait to meet his new granddaughter. We were also blessed to be able to participate in Scotties baby blessing via FaceTime.

Our oldest son Steven was ordained a high priest today and put in as 1st counselor in their bishopric. We were so grateful to be able to join via facetime for his setting apart. It was hard not being there, especially for Paul not being able to ordain his son to a high priest, but its ok, we know we are all being blessed by our service.

We love the Lord, we love our missionaries and we love our family. As hard as it is to be away from them we are forever grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord. We truly are blessed.