Journey Joys

This has been an interesting week.

• We finished our training to become hospital volunteers. We volunteered for 8 hours in one day.  I was beat when we got home.  Our trainer reminded us over and over that we cannot proselyte.  However during our day, we probably had four different people comment on our missionary badges.  One of them even asked us if he could ask us some questions about our church.  Craig became very efficient making coffee while I tried to tolerate the smell.  
• On Wednesday we visited a nice family. Both are from Virginia.  She is a lifetime member and he is a convert.  They have a daughter in Utah who is engaged and a 12 year old son.  The father will be deploying in two week for about three months.  We had a really nice visit with them. The next day we received a text from the mother telling us that she really was thankful for our visit.  She told us about some health issues she has had and some of his work issues.  She also confided that she has a real unrest about this deployment. She asked us to please come back again.  I'm not sure how we will be able to help but Craig and I both felt that there was a reason why we had gone to meet them.  We seem to find these type of families all the time and it teaches me how all missions are given for a reason and are tailored for your individual growth.
• We went to a baptism Sunday evening.  It was an eight year old girl named Sadie.  She attends the Mong branch.  The baptism and confirmation was done in both English and Mong.  I can't begin to explain the very sweet spirit that was there.  There were 60 people there when I counted. Of those priesthood (I mean by age qualification) every one of the men, had on white shirts and ties except for two brethren.  Children were all over the place. We couldn't tell which children belonged to who because everybody was taking care of everybody's kids.  The branch president told us that he feels they are all family.  They take care of each other and love each other.  We were so glad we went to the baptism to share in their joy and see the support of each other.
•  We have three officers deploying to the Middle East on Thursday, October 15.  Please keep them in your prayers as they leave their families for 6 months.  I think for the most part, the spouses will be fine.  They know what to do and how to prepare for deployment. It is a reminder to us all that there are still many soldiers serving in various places of the world who are protecting our freedoms.