Charlie has a new assignment in the temple as the coordinator for the Wednesday afternoon shift. This week was his first time. We are serving on the morning shift this month so I stayed home and did some family history and then came up to attend the last session with our Cobija Stake. I love to participate with them. It was a full session.
In my family history searching I found Amanda Rodgers, who is an ancestor on my mother's line. She needed all her work done and her father needed his work done as well, so last week we got to do their work and seal Amanda to her parents after sealing her parents to each other.
I also discovered that my mother's Aunt Katie has all of her work done but she is not sealed to her parents or her husband. So I called my mother and found out all I could about Aunt Katie. I remember my mother and her sister visiting their Aunt Katie in New Mexico often. She was a minister of her own church in Farmington. Aunt Katie lived in the basement apartment of the church she preached in, which was just a building she bought with a basement apartment. She helped a lot of people. In fact she died in the home of a young couple who took her home from the hospital when she was no longer able to care for herself. They took good care of her because they said she saved their lives and their marriage.
I love learning about these people. Their stories need to be told.
I'm so grateful that I am able to call my mother on the phone and talk to her and see her on Skype every week. This is a great time to be a senior missionary (you can be so far away, yet through modern technology still be connected). I'm also grateful that we can Skype with our children and grandchildren and Charlie's parents as well. We feel The Lord is watching over them. We are also grateful that they watch over each other.
We got to wish our little Nicholas Blair Lyon a Happy Third Birthday this week!
One day this week I had the assignment of Sealing Coordinator. This is the one assignment that intimidates me. I want so badly to say and do the right things for the people that are coming for their own ordinances. So I pray and The Lord helps me. I knew it was going to be a busy day and this assignment would be a busy one. When we left the prayer meeting one of the other sister missionaries could tell I was a little nervous about doing this job. She told me if I thought it was too much for me I could ask the coordinator to change my assignment. I told her about turning down the prayer in Prayer meeting once and how it made me feel and I would never do that again. After all I am a missionary. I also know that Sister Guaman (the coordinator) prays sincerely to know who should have what assignment each week and if she wanted me to have this assignment then I could and would do it.
It turned out to be a lovely assignment. Their were only three live sealings. Two of them had good sized groups so I got to instruct them and get them to where they needed to be. I also got to witness all three sealings, which is so sweet.
I have a funny story to share: I was working in the baptistry one day and a young sister was asking me a question I didn't quite understand so I asked her to tell me again "Otra vez?" She said "si, otra vez" It went on like that for a while and finally I realized she was asking me what time she could come again to the temple "otra vez". It was kind of a "Who's on first" moment.
I found out that Hermana Elva Lopez, from Charlie's mission was very sick. She works on Saturday morning and hasn't been there for a while. We have been wanting to visit her again. Charlie called her when we got home from the temple and she said we could come Sunday after church.
We took the 207 Trufi there, stayed about an hour and walked the four miles home. She lives with her daughter and her 3 children. It was a lovely day and she was so dear. I brought no bake cookies that I had made the night before. They seemed to like them, but Hna was the sweetest. She is looking so frail. She cried and cried to see us. She misses the youth that she has taught for so many years and has helped in the baptistry in the temple.
She and Charlie reminisced and she told us of her family, her siblings etc. I love this woman. She asked Charlie why he says that he left part of his heart in Punata. We both answered at the same time "you". She truly is a big reason why he loved Punata so much. She represents the people of Bolivia to Charlie and that's why he loves them so much. I do too. He told her when we go home from this mission we will leave two hearts here this time. He's right. I love these dear people.
One thing I thought about as we were walking home from visiting Hna. Lopez was about when you spend so much time in the temple with the good Bolivians that come. You associate all Bolivians with these good people. The best part of that is, if you look at and treat people like they are the best they can be, they will respond in kind. I love the Bolivian people.
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