Dear
Family and Friends—
It’s
a very warm, cloudy, humid day today.
My flowers on the balcony are still blooming beautifully. I don’t know how long that will last
but so far freezing weather does not seem to be on the docket. Despite the warm weather this week the
trees have decided that it is fall and they are turning. In the park the big maple trees are
turning orange/red-orange and it is beautiful to see. But other trees, the leaves are just yellow and falling, the
oak is just turning brown. Thank
goodness for the maples.
I
had a difficult Institute lesson to prepare for last Monday and it consumed my
time. Lynn said “What’s for
dinner?” Hah! He got on his bike (did not take car)
and went to the nearest KFC during rush hour. He was back in 15 minutes with dinner which was secured to
his carrier on the back tire! It
was the bike which gets around all traffic, didn’t have to wait in line at the
store and the easy trip back which made the process so fast. I was one grateful lady. When you’re in the mood, KFC hits the
spot. We had FHE that night done
by a lady who has to work on Saturday night till eight in the morning so she
doesn’t come often to church on Sunday but she and her daughter have been
faithful Home Evening attenders.
Marianna is from Hungry and has been a member for about 4 years. I was impressed with how well she did the
activitiy.
Tuesday
was temple day and two nice pieces of information to note: In the morning I was assigned to be in
the baptistery but the people who were scheduled to come were late and I was
going to leave but then an older missionary couple came with three sisters, a
strange combo. The couple said
they had a bag of baptism clothes that they borrowed from the temple and were
returning them. Now that’s even
stranger. They explained that the
ward in China town had a baptism this past Sunday and they baptized 7 people!! I said I had never heard of that many
being baptized at the same time, certainly seemed like a record. They said they had never seen it either
but knew it was going to happen and since their ward did not have enough
baptism suits they had to borrow some from the temple and were returning
them. None of the three sister
missionaries had seen the baptistery so I showed them around and they were duly
impressed.
The
next interesting thing is going to make sense only to those of you who have
seen the newest temple movie: When
I was through with Initiatory two other sister ordinance workers came there
with wide excited eyes and said that “Eve” was in the eleven o’clock
session. Wow. This could not be a complete surprise
since she and “Adam” are from NW NYC area in Westchester Co. My schedule did not give me an
opportunity to see her. Later on
Lynn took me aside and with quiet excitement said that he had just taken “Eve”
through the veil. He said she had
been quite emotional; she’s very beautiful and short. Apparently she was there that day with her sister. How would it be to sit through a movie
and see yourself? How would it be
to see her walk through the veil?
Lynn said it was very surreal.
At
the end of the day we were able to give a pass-a-long card to a man in the
park. When people pass us and say
“have a blessed day” that is a clue they are Christian and we often talk with
those that say that to us.
Monday
and Wednesday I did a lot of cooking, the crock pot doing the most work making
chili. On Wednesday I made a big
batch of corn bread and two loaves of white. In between cooking I finished prep for Institute and went
that night to six lovely members, one of which was new to the class. I believe everything went well with
great insights being exchanged. I
told the class at the end that their assignment was to watch Conference this
past weekend, take notes and we would discuss some of the favorite talks or
favorite things that were said.
Thursday
evening I had 10 missionaries over for a chili dinner. I made sure I had plenty of food and I
did! During the day I made a big
apple crisp and had a large relish plate made up. We had three new missionaries with the last transfer and it
was nice to get to know them better.
When you feed the Elders and Sisters you always have a grateful group on
your hands so it is very worth the time and effort. We had so much food left over that we had the Spanish
missionaries come between Conference sessions Saturday for the same meal with a
little augmentation on the relish tray.
I
went shopping Friday morning per usual at Target—it’s always such a zoo getting
there. But once I am comfortably
in the store it is time for me to relax.
A man on an electric store cart said, “Sister, I hope you have a blessed
day.” Well I turned and walked to
him to thank him and he started a long conversation about religion and the
different religions that didn’t make sense to him and he couldn’t stand. While I was listening to his barrage I
fumbled around my purse and tried to give him a pass-a-long card but he said he
already had some. I asked him if
he would like some church representatives to come talk to him and he didn’t
want that but he did know about the church web site. I told him to watch Conference and gave him the times it was
being shown. I’d like to think he
tuned in for something.
Saturday
was laundry day, Conference Day, feed the Spanish missionaries day, sang “Happy
Birthday” to the twins (who turned 7, BTW) and then I watched one of my churchy
movies that night while folding clothes.
The evening was a great time to relax. Lynn came back from priesthood meeting greatly enthused. First of all, all that show up get
dinner. Then he said the meeting
was well attended by the men in the ward and last of all the talks were
incredible. So, I’ll have to go
watch them some time.
Sunday
I made a big Chinese cabbage salad in the morning then Lynn and I went to the
church for the lunch at 2 pm that the Spanish ward was putting on. If you go to eat their food, it is
recommended that you take some of your own to share. The Spanish are not into salad, they are into beans and
rice. : ) So, I knew I had to take a salad. It was well received. We watched both sessions on Sunday in
our apartment—especially liked Oaks talk.
In
the evening we talked to Adam and Nathan and had them tell about their birthday
party and gifts. They were excited
to show us some of the things they got.
Then, we got online to watch the White Coat ceremony which was shown
live out of the So. California College of Optometry. J.D. and his 2017 class mates received their white “doctor”
coats as a reminder of the professionalism that they were to bring to their
schooling. They were “student
doctors” now. They also took an
oath on the order of the Hippocratic Oath that doctors are supposed to
take. It was a LONG oath that they
took. But we saw J. walk into the
area where they were having the ceremony (it was done outside) and then also
saw him receive his coat. The
program lasted an hour. So glad we
got to be part of it! We talked to
J.D. and Monica later that evening.
So
that’s the week—not a lot of excitement, but it was a good week, always is when
it’s Conference time.
I
love the church. I know the gospel
is true. Sure am grateful for men
and women of God imparting their wisdom and inspiration from the Lord. It is the best, and so are they.
Love to
you all—Kathy/Mom
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