Isolation Matters

Yesterday as I was couch-potato-ing, Cameron put his hand on my head and asked, “What happened to you?” I gave him a questioning glance, and he answered it with, “Your hair is MESSY!” Then I realized that I had not brushed my hair and had pulled it into a stubby ponytail. No make-up. No personal care whatsoever. That’s what isolation has done for me—a complete lapse in caring what I look like day by day. So, today I am dressed up with earrings and make-up. AND I feel perkier and more on-top-of-things. It was a good reminder that isolation and worry can be an excuse or an incentive. 

The COVID19 spike in Utah has sent a new kind of panic in our household. Haylee’s work closed down temporarily (Starbucks), and it sent us all into a bit of a funk. Being isolated leads to having nothing to look forward to. When they canceled our ward meeting this week because of the rise in cases here in West Valley, we realized once again that we need to renew our self-care and care of others for the unforeseeable future. I think we can do it with a little more faith, a little more cheer, and a little more awareness.

06.28.20

Today in America

Today in America

I have been meaning to write a post-TMM blog for weeks now, but I finally committed and put it on my to-do list for today. We have been trying to keep calm, have peace in our hearts, and live with hope in Christ for a resolution to some of today’s problems. A few weeks ago, when Jill was home-schooling Haylee on communism and socialism, we pulled out the old Disney movie NIGHT CROSSING. It is the story of two East-German families caught behind the oppression of the Iron Curtain in Berlin. The story is moving and inspiring as the families risk everything for the simple freedoms that we take for granted. . . until these last weeks. They were living in fear—fear of saying their true feelings, ideas, or opinions; fear of being pulled from their homes or put in prison; fear for the future of their children in a socialist regime; fear of losing their jobs and property. I’ve thought a lot about how I would have responded under such circumstances, and here we are today. Someone on Twitter said that we need to stop thinking about voting for or against a personality and start thinking about saving our country, America. This is an excellent video about how to look at what is happening today, and I hope you will listen:  https://youtu.be/zxLi-6RtmUQ  One of my favorite inspirational sayings goes something like this, “Not knowing is bad. Not wanting to know is worse.”

The Sunday before we left Laredo, we watched the BYU TV show FAMILY RULES. The subject was about positivity. I loved the segment featuring Hillary Weeks so much that I took this screen shot. It suggests that we make a family poster of all the positive things we do this summer. The segment was filmed before we were overcome by the pandemic or the riots or the isolation of a lockdown.  What a great way to make our homes and families remember all the great things in our lives!

Matters of Endings TMM

Matters of Endings TMM 4.5.20

Our 23 months as missionaries would have come to an end this week. We asked to extend until June 1 to see our beloved students through seminary graduation. Then the world turned upside down when we and other seniors were asked to return home immediately in the face of an other-worldly pandemic. President Peterson came to the house on March 27 and released us as missionaries. I’ve been putting off writing an ending to our story, but the time has come to face the fact that we are no longer full-time missionaries with Christ’s name worn on our hearts. I’m really not complaining. We were blessed to serve almost our full mission time, and we are grateful for every minute we spent teaching, studying, preparing, and standing with the missionaries and saints in Laredo, Texas. We will always love the people there and feel honored that God sent us to that little corner of Texas to learn, love, and live for almost two years. Many stories to come…

We are blessed with the spirit in our home today. Conference was a great experience. As it ended, Cameron insisted we have a little testimony meeting with the three of us. Jim and I bore testimony of prophets, apostles, the Restoration, and many of the things that touched our hearts. Then, Cameron. As he bore his testimony, tears literally ran down his cheeks. He talked about the parts of conference that really touched him and how grateful he is to have us home. I honestly had not realized how much he missed us. He has grown spiritually so much while we were gone. I didn’t see it until we actually sat with him twice a day over the last two weeks for prayer and scriptures. He had so many insightful questions as we read from Alma. He wanted to talk about the stories and the principles like he never had before. It is a great blessing.

We have been asked by President Peterson to write or record our mission report so that it can be sent out to our friends and neighbors, so we will soon get that ready. We have many more stories to share about the faithful saints and converts in Laredo. We love you all. Thank you for your love, support, and kindness to us.

TMM The Spirit Matters

TMM Where the Spirit Dwells Matters           

One night last month, right after dark, we had a knock on our door. We looked at each other. No one ever knocks at our door! I opened the door and found two young women who were out selling energy contracts. They had been working all day. One said, “Your apartment smells SO good! We never come to a place that smells good.” We invited them in because Jim had just made a (keto) “carrot” cake, and it did smell heavenly. The cake was still hot, so no yummy cream-cheese frosting yet, but we wrapped up some giant, warm, spicy pieces for the visitors. We told them that we were missionaries here, teaching teens and young adults, and they recognized the badges they were used to seeing on young elders or sisters. We talked to the ladies for a few moments, wished them luck, and said our kindest good-byes. I had not been able to find so much as a pass-along card to give them! Fast forward two or three weeks. The doorbell rings, and the two young ladies are once again at our door—just to say, “Hi.” Unbelievably, Jim had made another cake that day! We talked to the women about education, families, etc., but I was still unprepared with no pass-along cards. It turns out that they just liked us and this little place we call home. We begged them to talk to the missionaries next time they see some out and about.

We were telling some Sisters(who had stopped by our apartment) about these two experiences, and they said they completely understood because being with us was like walking into a place filled with the Spirit. I had not even thought about that. The Sisters said when they are out teaching, they have to work so hard to bring the spirit into the homes they visit. When they walked into our home, they said, they could relax because that spirit was already here. You mean those energy ladies didn’t come back seeking more cake?!?! Even though we didn’t have pass-alongs or scriptures to give them, we did have comfort and joy to impart. Maybe that will be enough that when the Elders or Sisters find them, they will remember, and they will listen to the gospel message.

We are feeling a little displaced since our teaching has been suspended for now. We are sure every day will be Saturday! Or Sunday—since we plan to watch a lot of videos, study, journal, and learn. This next week is spring break in Laredo. We had to cancel a visit to Austin to see my 91-year-old Aunt Raeola. (We don’t want to put her in jeopardy, especially since she has been in the hospital.) It is very weird to me that we are also seniors—and Jim with some chronic conditions, so we are cautious. Young Women’s camp had 78 girls signed up to attend. A few broken hearts! Missionaries had 18 baptisms planned for today. The temple is closed except for live endowments and sealings that were scheduled. I guess we were warned that the April 2020 general conference would be like no other. It will be unforgettable. Maybe we will ALL pay rapt attention. The Lord has MY attention! We love you. Chins up. It will all be okay. Every one of you is in our prayers.

Instruction Matters 6.23.11

It was one of those stormy days early this spring when the Midwest was hunkering down during devastating tornadoes, and Salt Lake was watching storm warnings. Dark clouds and threatening winds thundered in. Leslie and her family had returned from initiating their new camp trailer and parked it along the street when a ruckus came charging down the road. A horse was dragging a trampoline! Someone thought it would be smart to hitch up their horse to their children’s trampoline. The horse thought differently. Leslie watched as neighbors somehow calmed the horse when it veered into their yard and got the mangled trampoline unhitched. Tragedy averted! Trailer unharmed! Horse survived! Trampoline unusable!

Sometimes we hitch up our hopes to a program or an idea that looks sturdy and strong. When the storms roll in, everything gets wild, and our hopes for success are drug through the dust and mud. I guess the lesson is: be careful what you are hitching up and what you are hitching up to. We cannot take a great new Common Core, for example, and hitch it to shoddy practice or weak knowledge of the subject. Make sure that we are competent and ready and stable before we add a new core. Let’s not let the Core drag us. We can do hard things! We do whatever it takes because our kids are worth it!

Matters of the Holy Ghost’s Guidance in the TMM

Last week as I was preparing a seminary lesson on 2 Nephi 4-8, I felt impressed to take the time to explain “the curse” and the sign of dark skin. There was SO much to cover in the lessons, and really only 45 minutes in a class, that I wanted to teach only the most important doctrines and principles, but I felt strongly about this little message that was reiterated on the internet because on a mistake in the printed Come, Follow Me manual. I asked Jim to please help me remember because this point was not emphasized in the lesson, only in the supplemental, background material. As I taught, I felt strongly to stop and teach that the curse was NOT about the color of the skin. I called for the students’ attention to look at me because I had a very important message that I wanted them to understand. I said, “I want you to understand this and know that Heavenly Father loves all of us equally. Skin color has nothing to do with His love for us. The curse was and always is a separation from God.” I looked at this room full of descendants of the Lamanites, promised the blessing of the House of Israel in the latter days, and other children of different races, skin colors, and circumstances. There may have been more reasons than this, but I understood why the spirt guided me when one student stayed after class until all the others were gone to thank me for talking about the curse. She and her mother are recent converts from the missionary open house last summer. She said she and her mother had been very concerned about the passages about the curse and skin color. She could hardly wait to go to her mother and help her understand countenance and explanations of language and culture in the Book of Mormon. It was another tender mercy.

We were asked to report last month’s institute attendance in terms of how many non-members attended and how many were baptized. We had five non-members attending and four of them were baptized! Such a blessing to watch young adults seeking and finding truth!

We love you all. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is truly Christ’s church and His kingdom on earth. This is a wonderful time to be alive—and in the Restored Church of Jesus Christ! We love this mission, and wish you all could have the experiences we have had in teaching the gospel here in Laredo, Texas (just a little corner of Mexico with all the amenities and blessings of living in the United States of America). We are so grateful for the Book of Mormon. It is truly God’s word, His tender mercy for us today.

Bishop Burton, the Elders, the friend who baptized (Chris Ozuna) and two of our newest members!

TMM Revelation Matters

TMM Blog 1.28.20 Matters of Personal Revelation

Thursday’s institute class was amazing. You never know who will be in that class, but last week was unusual in that we had (besides or usual RMs and faithful YSAs) two newly-baptized members, two almost-baptized, and one boyfriend who has not yet met with the missionaries. We were studying Lehi’s dream, so we divided the class into groups and had them study parts of I NE 8 and then teach the rest of the class. What happened next was the surprise: the “investigators” (I know that is no longer the proper term) led out in teaching. It was amazing!  The boyfriend was willing and able to teach the rest of the class from his first reading of the Book of Mormon. As everyone left, the girlfriend said, “He already has a favorite scripture!” Oh, this mission is the best!

We spoke in 4^th Ward on Sunday. In two years we’ve only had to speak twice (and you KNOW how we love to talk!) It was great for us, anyway. So, we got a few notes, kindly thanking us, but I thought you would love this little message from the relief-society president:

“I have to tell you, during our Come Follow Me lesson tonight, Magnus asked “who was that president grandpa guy, that was in the chapel?” And it took us a minute, but he was talking about Elder Flanagan! And then Magnus says “yeah! He was the one who said “Heavenly Father said, hey! Dummy! And then he talked about Laman and Lemuel”

Tell that “president, grandpa guy” thanks for getting our little 5 year old to listen and remember something in sacrament meeting! We love you guys!” Ha, ha!

We had ten baptisms on Saturday! Because they do not have many music people in our stake (and two broken pianos at Los Presidentes chapel), two of the wards needed me to play, so I was running back and forth. The young women in one ward were singing “The Miracle,” and of course, it could not be programmed into the chapel piano. When my parents gave me piano lessons “so I could serve in the church,” they had no idea… Sometimes we get missionaries who can play a little, and that helps. We missed the baptisms in the other building, including one new YSA who had been so attentive and helpful in institute. He was escaping his family who were entrenched in the cartels, and he was coming unto Christ. There are some really special people here.

We LOVE teaching the Book of Mormon! I start crying when I think of leaving our students here. We love them so much! Ages fourteen to mid-thirties and in our hearts forever. I love learning Spanish, and I am getting better and better at understanding. This two years has been a great blessing.

This is 16-yr-old America who was baptized on Saturday. Her mother gave in and gave permission after canceling the baptism last week. Joy!