Oct. 28 2012     Fall is in the mornings and evenings and then Mother Nature thinks it's summer again in the afternoons.  Each week, Thursday mornings, we meet with 3 other companionships in a district meeting or once a month we meet with our entire "zone" which consists of a total of 7 or 8 companionships.  We are the only "seniors" in this zone and everyone else is between 19 and 21 years old and all are males.  We have sister missionaries serving in other parts of our Sacramento Mission but not here.  How we admire these young men!  In the past, we have always admired the sacrifice of these young folks, particularly our own children, but we really had not totally appreciated the unique lifestyle that they chose to embrace for 2 years. I just read that missionary applications have gone from 700 per week up to 4000!  Wow, the work of the Lord should be on fire soon!  We continue to do our "Daily Dose" classes and just this week went to 3 public libraries to offer to teach this wonderful English course in the libraries.  We have not gotten their approval yet but are praying for a positive response.  We, of course, will not be able to include anything religious like we do in our church classes,  but know the Lord will bless us with his Spirit to be there and that hopefully will lead to missionary contacts outside the library itself.  Our class today at church was entitled "Being Punctual".  Because most of the folks we work with are from the islands, punctuality never has been a priority.  We talk about it a lot though because it is so critical to maintaining a job and fulfilling church responsibilities.  A very special family is moving to Utah this week and will be sorely missed.  They are such an incredible example to all the Marshallese.  We had a "farewell"/Halloween party last night.  It was quite an evening!  The Marshallese and the Figians both sang songs in their native tongue and then a group of young Marshallese did a native folk dance.  The place was really rocking especially since there were dozens of children on a massive sugar high running about.  It was really quite emotional as well since this family is so loved by all.
Yesterday we went to Amy's home for the day.  Many of you will remember our telling you of Amy's dear friend who died of a heart attack a few months back at the age of 41.  He had been trying to work on his back yard before his death.  My son-in-law, Alph, organized a gigantic service project that  John had the privilege of helping with.  A large group totally landscaped the back yard, shrubs, trees, sod, irrigation system, gardening boxes, etc.  Eleanor was gone for the week-end and when she arrives home tonight she will be so surprised!  Wish I were a little mouse and could see her expression!  Isn't it wonderful to serve one  another!!  I wasn't at the service project but I was on the Wise homefront doing grandmother service!  The older Wise children have matured so and the twinners keep everyone hopping!  This grandma is definitely getting older!  :)  Being close to them helps us (a little bit)not miss our other kiddos quite so much!
:)  Have a wonderful week full of happy service!