Last Sunday we drove to Fort Smith for church. We went to Sacrament meeting, then we went to Sunday School in the Spanish branch held in that same building. The missionary's companion was sick so Chris was his companion for awhile at church. The missionary that gave the Sunday School Lesson in Spanish has only been out since June. I think that's a miracle that he could do that. We also had to look at a couple of apartments while we were in Fort Smith.
We have a missionary here who was switched to a Marshallese speaking area after he'd been here awhile. We needed another Marshallese missionary so he was asked to do it. He's just picked up the language without having been to the MTC with any official training. The gift of tongues is real in the mission field.
Missionaries are so cute!
One day Chris had to use the mission truck that some sister missionaries were using. He noticed the "change oil" light was on. When he got back he told the sisters that the oil light was on. They said they know, it's been on for quite awhile. He said, then why didn't you change the oil? They said, "We didn't know we were supposed to." Sometimes our mission president says we need to remember these missionaries have only been out of primary for 6 years.
The rule for missionaries is that if they have to back up, one missionary has to stay outside the car and watch and guide. And THEY DO IT! We see it everywhere we go, even when they are backing out of their apartment driveway and no one would know, they do it.
Missionaries are helpful!
We continue to be busy, which is good. We got a new Marshallese speaking missionary Wednesday, so the president told me last week that he was opening up a new area and I'd have to get an apartment ready to move in by this Thursday, which was less than a week away. Boy, was I scrambling to find an apartment. I got a nice 3 bedroom unit in Rogers. But where could we get furnishings that fast? We are closing an apartment in Branson, so Wednesday Chris and I drove to Branson with the truck and trailer to clean out the apartment. Branson is about 2 hours away. We have 3 sets of missionaries there. They all agreed to meet us and help out. It sure is nice to be young! Those missionaries, both Sisters and Elders can work hard. And they make everything look easy. We were so grateful for their help. We found this great poster. Talk about super heroes!!
Missionaries are grateful!
The missionaries are always so grateful for anything we do for them. I get thanked for a nice apartment every time I see certain missionaries. The other day some sisters called and said their refrigerator was broken, but they had to get on an apartment portal to register a request. They don't have internet so they called me. I was busy with something so Chris called the apartment and talked to a nice lady and explained these missionaries don't have internet. She said they could just call her and she'd take care of them. So two days later we got a call from those cute sisters and they were ecstatic to have come home and found a new refrigerator in their apartment.
30,000 pass-along cards
The missionaries are getting ready for the "Light the World" campaign. There are two sisters that are assigned to the office. I happened to hear them calling the 7th business trying to find someone to print cards they wanted to order for our missionaries. I said, "Hey, I know who to call." So I called Keith and he gave them a screaming deal on 30,000 pass along cards. They were supposed to arrive Saturday but they didn't. We were all praying for those cards. When they arrived on Monday, there was some major dancing going on in the office. Then with the help of some ward members dropping in here and there we counted them out and got them ready to distribute throughout the mission. The sisters have been delivering them all week.
Counting Pass along Cards
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Thursday for Thanksgiving the mission nurse invited us to her family's Thanksgiving at her step-sons house. Each family has their own house on a parcel of the acreage called Haven Hill that the family owns in Pea Ridge. They had tables set up for 50 people and tons of food. It was beautiful and I forgot to take a picture. In the house on the main floor there were 5 Christmas trees that were decorated to the hilt, just like you'd see in a store. One tree was the goose egg tree, with beautiful eggs on it. There was also a Grinch tree, a Santa tree, and a real tree (called the family tree). In the living room was the Heavenly Father tree all decorated in beautiful white ornaments, flowers, and ribbon. I don't know if there were anymore trees in other places. We also spent a little bit of time during the day getting the apartment in Rogers ready for missionaries to move in.
Missionaries have so much courage!
Friday we got to take a missionary to Rogersville (also two hours from here) to be in a threesome for a couple of weeks. One of the missionaries there has mono and has to recover. So he'll go to a ward member's house every day and the other two can carry on the work. It was so fun to visit with him for several hours in the car. He's been out more than a year, and he's the one that is a Marshallese speaking missionary even though he didn't get called to that. He told us about some of the really hard times in his mission. He said he wishes he could take the hard times for his little brothers so they won't have to go through them, but then that's when he really grew and learned to rely on the Lord so on second thought he wouldn't want to take that away from his little brothers. He told us that once he learned to be flexible and find the humor in situations, he started relaxing more and enjoying his mission. He told us about learning to have a meaningful conversation with someone and really share what's in his heart. He says if it isn't from your very soul, they won't listen.
There are some Amish communities in Seymor which is up by Rogersille. We went to this little Amish store. They are old order Amish so they don't use motors of any kind, or have electricity. They only use open top buggies.
Branson
While we were in Rogersville, we got to see the apartment I got for some missionaries that were living in a member's attic. They are so grateful. Then we drove to Branson to stay the night. We went to the outlet mall and walked around in the rain. We were really tired so we kinda just crashed. We stayed in a little place by Table Rock Lake. It was very minimal (and cheap), but very clean. The weather Friday was horrible all day, raining and freezing cold so it was a miserable drive except for the missionary we were with. Saturday the weather was beautiful and sunny. We went for a little walk to the marina in the morning then drove into Branson. We walked around town a little, then we went to the Dolly Parton Stampede. It was pretty fun.
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| Even with the leaves gone, it's beautiful driving around here. |
Missionary Life
We really love being here. It's hard work and it's a sacrifice to be away from our family. We've missed 2 baptisms and Thanksgiving with family. But we are thankful we have something to offer and can help the missionaries. It occurs to me that perhaps the gift we are giving our grandchildren is something better than our presence at their events.
Again, I'm so amazed at the vastness of the work. We love being around the missionaries and watching how much courage they have. We did run into a missionary this week with a bad attitude. I felt so sad for him. He's not happy here and he said he wouldn't be happy at home either. I've learned from watching missionaries that happiness is a choice. Sometimes they have gut-wrenching hard times. But they dig down and pray hard. And they succeed. This is truly God's work and missionaries are carrying His message all over the world. Sometimes we stagger into our apartment at night and drop dead into a chair.... but we wouldn't trade this experience for anything. It's such a blessing to spend so much time around missionaries. Oh how I would love to be serving with our grandsons Isaac and Xan. We see their faces in the faces of the missionaries here. One missionary here reminds me a lot of Isaac. I told him I want to grab him and hug him every time I see him. Now he's a little scared of me I think.
Missionary Experience
We decided to try the service tracting and it was AMAZING! We prayed about a street and started knocking on doors. The 1st person didn't answer so we went across the street and they opened the door. We asked if we could rake their leaves and they said they were shocked and didn't know what to say other than, "go for it!" Later they kept asking us what the catch was and we told them we are here to serve. It was amazing because we were able to talk to them a lot more after and they opened up to us. We found out the man of the house was in a motorcycle accident about a year ago and was paralyzed neck down. He has been able to move more and walk again, but hasn't been able to do the yard work. He called us his little Angel's. It was such a miracle and a blessing! Don't be afraid to serve your community!! It truly softens people's hearts. We have since been able to go back and make a meaningful relationship with them and they said they'd like to come to church! 😊🍂
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