October 14, 2012

Sunday night has come again!  Time to share just a few thoughts from this week's experiences!  The highlight of the week was undoubtedly our visit yesterday from our oldest daughter Amy and her 5 kiddos.  They live in Walnut Creek, CA, about an hour + from Sacramento.  As Senior Missionaries, we can have visits from our children upon occasion as long as we do not neglect our work here.  Our only negative in being on a mission is our distance from our children and grandkids. Hopefully, they miss us (which we hear that they do:), but they also realize that sometimes in life you need to stretch and serve outside of your comfort zone if you want to grow in your faith and service.  Friday night we went to a large ward (unit within the church) that has a small group of Chinese within that unit. Most of the younger Chinese know English quite well but as is usually the case, the older ones (like us!) do not know how to speak English.  The church had badminton games set up in the cultural hall and there were quite a few folks there.  They had us do a quick overview of "Daily Dose" and soon hope to have regular classes going.  This morning we went at 10:30 and met a small group of people who are Mien (I think!) and had come from the foothills within Viet Nam.  This group, and probably some of their grandparents, were instrumental in assisting the United States during the Viet Nam War.  The majority of them have immigrated to the states because if they had remained in their country, they would have been destroyed for helping the U.S.  Right after we met with the Miens we met with the Spanish Ward's Council and introduced them to Daily Dose.  Many of them speak both languages but often need pronunciation help as well as conversation skills.  Soooo, this Tuesday evening we will be presenting the first Daily Dose classes to Spanish, as well as Mien, speaking people.  We will teach this first  class, then a couple who have just returned from a mission in Mexico have been called to teach Daily Dose in that ward.  Then, today, we came back to our little  Marshallese LDS Church and watched the Elder's Quorum president substitute for us in teaching the Marshallese.   He did a fine job!We have had a very busy week-end and week!!  We get a weekly newsletter from our mission president, Pres. Lewis, and this is a quote that I thought worthy of passing along as possibly your "thought for the week":  Obedience is the price, Faith is the power, Love is the motive, the Spirit is the key and Christ is the reason."  (Unknown author.)

Have a great week!  We are praying for those of you who are having some extra health challenges right now!!