October 23, 2011
This has been a fabulous week!!! (well, if you subtract Monday day when I had the left-over migraine that I told you about the other day)
Monday evening we went to an Empty Nester's family home evening in the 2nd Ward. We had a pot-luck dinner, lots of great conversation, and made a get-well card for one of the 'girls' who had just had a double knee replacement. Way fun!!!
Tuesday we visited some of the sisters we met at Empty Nester's. Our travels took us to the bottom of Maryland between the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River. On the way back we found a place called Goose Bay Marina---so fun! A picture-perfect area with a great dock, seagulls, sail boats, and huge yaughts--all on the edge of woods where the leaves are turning all shades of fabulous colors. In fact, to get to the bay, the woods are so thick in places,it almost looks as if you're going through a tunnel. Then that evening Roz Brown, the R.S. Pres. of the 1st ward (no relation ) came over for a dinner meeting to discuss sisters that we have been visiting. She has worked in DC as an administrative assistant at a large energy department for many years. She has offered to take us around the city and show us all the regular sites and some that aren't so well-known, since she knows all the ins-and-outs. Should be really fun!
Wednesday is temple day and we have been there three times--it has rained three times--not fun driving for me! We arrived early to have pictures taken in the Visitors Center for a Christmas gift for Pres. and Sister Matsomuri. Sister Harper was named "Baptistry Director", she did that when she was in the Mesa Temple. I am serving in the other areas of the temple and loving it!!! Lots to learn, but it's good for me...We get to the temple at 12:30 and don't leave until about 7:30, so we stopped to eat at a great restaurant called "Bonefish Grill". Great food, fabulous service, and reasonable prices-what more can you ask for?
Thursday we went to dinner at the Primary Pres. home of the 2nd ward. Her husband is an engineer and is deployed to the United Arab Emirates. It was so fun because she has three kids: two boys, almost 8 and 6, and a three-year-old little girl. They love us to come over and "play", and of course, we love to go there; we are extra grandmas to them. Later, we participated in the Relief Society evening meeting by sharing our "mission stories"--a little about us, how we were called, and what our mission is about. It's really fun to share our stories and the gospel of service whenever we can.
Friday was a really special day. We first visited Kristi, the mom I told you about before whose husband is deployed in Iraq (this is his third deployment), and has the three great boys 14, 12, and 10. They always give us hugs at church and have adopted us as their grandma's because their's live in Washington state. She told us that she hates it whenever the doorbell rings because she's afraid that it might be two officers in dress blues coming to give her bad news about her husband. It made me so sad for her, I wanted to cry.
Our second stop was at the 1st counsellor in the RS Pres of the 2nd ward who just had a baby girl two weeks ago and was on bedrest the last six weeks. It was so fun to hold that that little angel, Hannah, and to talk to Amber. Her husband is a diplomat for the dept. of agriculture--they have served in Brazil and India and hope to go to South Africa next. They live way out in the country in horse country, so once again we were able to see beautiful scenery. Sister Harper and I both felt like we should go visit the last girl. She just moved here from Colorado Springs and brought three of her five sons with her. Her husband just returned from a two-year deployment and now works in DC on 'secret missions' all week. Even she doesn't know what he's doing. We helped her make some decisions as to where to hang some pictures, etc. in her beautiful new home. As we were talking to her, she started to cry and said that she had been so lonely and had been praying for someone to come over when we rang her doorbell.
I am finding that prayers are answered in so many ways; I see it happening almost every day in one way or another. I think the main thing I see is the way the Lord is molding me into the missionary He wants me to be. I will be forever grateful to Him for this.
I love my mission and the saints in Maryland, my calling to work in the Washington DC Temple, and my companion, Sister Harper. I love all of you and am so grateful for the emails that I have received.
Have a fantabulous week and we will too!!!
