As I read over my journal of this past week to see what I could put in this blog I noticed a theme. The theme for this week and really the overall theme of the whole mission is Love. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is all about love. Our Heavenly Father's Plan for His children is all about love. The Temple and the beautiful ordinances performed there are all about love. Families are all about love.
This is a quote from one of my journal entries this week:
"The special thing about the temple tonight were the workers. I felt like it was my special day. I felt so much love from all of them. Everyone that I saw hugged me and made me feel so special. I love these sisters so much."
Another night a group from the Linde Ward (that we attend on Sundays) was in the temple. It was so sweet to see them. They feel like family to us. A sweet woman who always bears her testimony in Quechua (the indigenous language of Bolivia) just had her son return from his mission and both of them were there. She was excited to introduce him to me.
Charlie mentioned in the last blog entry about visiting the Flores couple, very sweet and very poor. I wanted to learn some more phrases in Quechua so I could communicate (at least help her feel welcome and loved) a little with her. Some of the sisters that serve with me in the temple speak Quechua. When they heard I wanted to learn Quechua they were all willing to help. It was fun to have so many come up and give me a new phrase or ask me a question in Quechua. I love these sisters!
Hna Eguino is a darling sister ordinance worker close to 80 years of age. She loves everyone and everyone loves her. She especially loves the North American missionaries. She is always smiling and hugging (even more than the rest of us). I love to hear her perform the ordinances, with such feeling, testimony and love. She reminds me of my mother. At times one of her grandchildren will come to the temple and she is so excited to introduce them to all of us. Her daughter who lives far away came to visit this week. They attended the Temple a lot together. One night I was assigned to help with the session that she and her daughter were in. I loved watching them together. They reminded me of my mother and me when we would go to the temple together. I was so touched by the great mother-daughter love they showed. I shared this with Hna Eguino and she told me she would be my mother away from home.
Today is my Mother's Birthday. She is a very young 90 years old. I got to talk with and see her and my sisters yesterday on Skype. We have a slumber party every year for her birthday so they all Skyped with me. Their theme this year was "Love". I love these beautiful, faithful, talented, fun, intelligent, spiritual, loving women. It was so fun to see them, I almost felt like I was there.
Here is a picture of my beautiful mother at one of our last Slumberettes in American Fork, Utah. Jo always gets us matching pajamas. Isn't she beautiful!
We were able to teach our first Sunday School lesson yesterday. It was a wonderful experience. Charlie did a beautiful job, everyone in the class participated, I participated as well. I am looking forward to getting to know these sweet people better and seeing their progress as they prepare and work towards going to the Temple.
Last but not least, we are so grateful that we can see, through Skype and Face Time, our children and grandchildren each week. Their lives have not all been easy since we've been gone and some are experiencing very hard trials right now, but they say our mission is blessing them. I do know with all my heart that The Lord keeps His promises and He has told us He will take care of our children while we are serving. I'm grateful for this testimony and for the faith and strength our children exhibit as they faithfully meet their challenges and as they lovingly serve and support each other.
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