May is all about Love!

"Home is such a pretty little place!"

This is a painting done by my sister, Lisa Higginson Jones. (I got to be an advisor on the project!) I hope she doesn't mind my using it on this blog. I used it in a lesson this week as an example of a happy home. It makes my heart glad, and symbolizes this month so far. (Can't you just hear the gulls and the meadowlark?!) We don't see sailing ships like the one in the background, but we do see lots of ferries and coastguard boats and fishing vessels and other very utilitarian craft! We are hearing fewer gulls lately and more meadowlarks, and another little songbird that I don't recognize sits in a bush outside our door and sings its heart out!

I am getting happier. I am re-learning that happiness isn't having what you want, it is finding the way to be content with what you have. A few days ago I decided that while the house we live in seems deficient as a house (because of what I am used to) it would be a very nice comfortable cabin! As soon as I made the change in my mind, I was much happier! I even catch myself having thoughts flit through my mind like, "I love my little kitchen!" When I become conscious of the thought, I am at first incredulous, but upon examination I see that "I love my little home," is a much healthier attitude and has nothing to do with measuring its beauty or even the efficiency of its set up--it is  what the Lord has provided for me and it is much healthier and happier to love it! (OH dear! Here I am using a mission blog as a personal journal! Excuse me!) Anyway, "cabin" it is!

Highlights of a very busy month!

Sun. 10th
Elder Walker gave a very beautiful talk in the Dungeness Ward on Mother's Day. He was asked to speak about his mother and how her influence helped him desire to be a missionary. It was wonderful! And while he spoke about himself he also got to report that all of his brothers and sisters who had been able to retire had, or were at this time, serving missions or multiple missions! Look what the influence of parents serving can do for the Kingdom! In my family also, my two brothers served missions as young men, and each of us sisters, who lived to be old enough, has served. It is a good thing! We are so proud of the service our children and grandchildren have given, are giving, and are preparing to give in the future. Helping to build the Kingdom at home or abroad is so necessary and wonderful!

I had a sweet Mother's Day with so much love expressed by our children. Nathan sent flowers that came wrapped up in a vase with the stems stuck in wet foam. Then, when they were unwrapped, the stems cut and the vase filled with water, the flowers began to blossom. What fun! (Today is the 21st and they are still beautiful! I have lost only one blossom!)

Mon. 11th  

Had Elders over today. Fed them pancakes, sausage and eggs for lunch because that is what Elder Sommercorn wanted for his last meal with us. In the evening we had dinner and FHE with Bishop and Sister Cain and their daughter, Ellen. Sister Cain believes that we try so hard to make things special and beautiful because we remember our Heavenly Home! When she invites you over, she makes it as beautiful as she can! I told her that we are often with people that think trying to make things beautiful is putting on unnecessary aires. That is when she told me her philosophy. She feels strongly that Heavenly Father and Mother make things as beautiful for us as they can.

Tues. 12th

On Transfer day, Elder Wilson asked Elder Walker for a blessing. He was really feeling the pressure of his companion going home, getting a new companion, and having a new set of Sister missionaries in his district. Elder Walker gave him a beautiful blessing. He is such a tender, thoughtful young man. Everyone around him can feel his love. Then we took the Elders to Transfer Meeting in Tacoma, stopping at Fat Smitty's for lunch.  

Elder Sommercorn and Elder Wilson with Elder Walker

Elder Wilson with his new companion, Elder Kearns

Wed. 13th
We fed lunch to 16 missionaries today before our Zone meeting. We had spaghetti, salad, and toasted garlic/parmesan bread. They helped butter, add the garlic and cheese, and fry the bread. It was fun to have them in the kitchen helping! They were very gracious.

Thurs. 14th
Elder and Sister Thomsen (Mission Housing Coordinator) came from Tacoma to have lunch with us,  then visit some of the apartments we are concerned about in Sequim and Port Townsend. When we got back, we invited the Bowlbys for dinner. It was a productive evening. Because most of the members here are converts there are things we grew up knowing that they haven't yet learned. It reminds me of President Packer's talk, The Unwritten Order of Things. Sister Bowlby asked what the prophets teach about face cards, so we looked it up online. Then she wanted to understand the JST's in the  Bible. She didn't realize what they were. I showed her how we mark ours at the bottom of the page and then in the text so that we never miss having the correct translation.

Fri. 15th
Had a lesson with C---- & E---. She took me out to the car and explained why she couldn't get baptized. Heavy. I couldn't get the weight of it out of my mind, so that evening we went to the High School Musical, Fiddler On The Roof. We have never seen a high school musical of that caliber! It was really impressive! Amazing talent! You should have seen the sets! Our compliments seemed to mean a lot to the directors, who are members of the Church.

Found this snail on my blind! Yuck!

Sat. 16th
Visited the DeJongs and listened to their conversion stories. Took them some family history notes from someone in our choirs at home who is related! (We have heard so many conversion stories this month! All of them have been from couples who had been in miserable situations then found the Church and each other! We hear conversion stories wherever we go! It makes it so easy to have testimony-filled conversations! One of our goals in the mission is to encourage members of the Church to have gospel conversations with their friends. I can think of so many of you who are good at doing just that!)

Had a discussion with Jerry, introducing him to the new Sisters. Fireworks! Sister Julien is very good at asking pointed questions and he didn't like that. He is going to have to decide who he is going to be. He has not been moving forward spiritually--just enjoying the love in the Church.

In the evening we visited the Bahrts. We felt strongly that we should extend an invitation to her adult daughter (who lives with them) to have the discussions. She flatly refused, saying that she is not interested! They felt badly and were very disappointed, but the visit was good. The daughter has cancer, so maybe her heart will change. She comes to every Church meeting. The Church is her whole social life, but she will not listen right now.

Sun. 17th

My 72nd Birthday! It was wonderful! We attended the Dungeness Ward, then skipped the Happy Valley Ward and came home for lunch and a birthday celebration. Wow! Are Sunday's easier when we take a break for lunch! Bruce gave me a tender card, as did our children. I laughed and cried. Melinda sent a beautiful platter that cost her a dollar at DI, but $12.65 to mail. That made us laugh and cry, too! I received so many sweet wishes!  I felt so full of love and gratitude that I felt like light was shining out of me and could make the whole world a happier place! I felt like I got younger instead of older!



Mon. 18th
The Elders came again today, as they do every Monday. I had dishes left from Sunday and they offered to do them for me. That was funny! They started by turning on the hot water, putting soap on a sponge, washing a glass, rinsing it, handing it to the companion, putting more soap on the sponge, picking up another glass, washing and rinsing it, and so on. When I asked if they didn't want to put water in the sink, the Elder said he had never done that! This was how his grandma had taught him to do it! I put hot water in the sink for him, filled the sink with dishes and when he proceeded to put soap on the sponge again for each dish, told him that there was probably enough soap in the water to do all of them! He grinned and said, "Oh! This is a lot faster! Maybe my grandma taught me to do it that way just so she could spend more time with me!"

That evening we traveled to Olympia for the Senior missionary FHE.

Tues. 19th
We were to meet with Chris and Erin again. I was really feeling the pressure, not knowing what in the world to do now. The Elders stopped by for some doctoring and I felt prompted to ask Elder Wilson for a blessing! It was a beautiful blessing and a great comfort to both Bruce and I.

Wed. 20th
Fed the missionaries in our district for the Shaws, who are in Utah attending the wedding of a grandchild! They will do it for us when we go for our granddaughter's wedding! ;)

Had Sara and boyfriend, Matt for dinner and a Gospel conversation. We showed them the movie, Finding Faith in Christ, and then talked about it. Matt, who was raised in the Church, agreed to read scriptures to Sara every day and pray with her. They talked about things that were important to their "having fun" which had influenced their decisions about religion. It was interesting to say to them that I had never drunk coke, or coffee, or tea, or any kind of liquor; had never used tobacco, and had never watched an R-rated movie -- and I am one of the happiest people I know! ;)

Below is a picture of Sara's chickens. Look at the black one with the fuzzy white halo of feathers all around its head! Notice how the chickens, just like people, turn to look at anyone who is different!  We must not be shy about being different from the world. (Nathan, just think what your first grade teacher would have said had you colored that one!)

Thurs. 21st
Molly went to the temple today for the first time with some new LDS friends! She sent this picture to us saying that it was sooo amazing! She wants to go back soon!

We inspected missionary apartments in Port Townsend, Port Ludlow and Port Angeles today.

Had dinner with Sister Lorenzen and her son, a cousin of theirs from Germany, and the Sorensens, the missionary couple that served here a couple of years ago. Delightful people!

Tomorrow we inspect more apartments, have lunch and a visit with the Bittmans and have Jerry over for dinner and a discussion with the Sisters in the evening. It should be interesting.

We love you all and pray for you morning, night and in-between!

Until next week, 

Elder and Sister Walker

Heartbreaking Experiences Require Faith!

How does one get so attached to missionaries so quickly that ones heart breaks for them in their trials?

How could the Savior of the World endure the pain of all our trials? Surely His love and attention to us is so much greater than we can imagine!

"In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old." Isaiah 63:9

"Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows..." Isaiah 53:4

"He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth..."Isaiah 53:7

You probably recognize at least two of these people! The young women are Sister Wilkinson, from Salt Lake, and Sister Naupoto, who is Tongan, but also from Salt Lake City. The day this picture was taken in the Sea-Tac Airport was Sister Naupoto's 3 month anniversary of missionary service. We have taken her to the airport to catch her flight home for medical reasons. We are all very sad, trying to be courageous! Some of you know exactly what we are feeling. 

Sister Naupoto came to the mission very, very shy and oppressed. She has made such great strides! We are so proud of her courage! But she has diabetes and has not had the money or means to care for herself properly. When she was served three meals a day, she did not know how to keep stable blood sugar levels, so Mission Medical insisted that she go home to get her glucose levels under control. We were so invested in her because besides encouraging her and trying to help build her confidence, Elder Walker had given her two Priesthood blessings and I had been on the phone with her every couple of hours for over a week, checking her glucose levels (we were to check 6 times a day) and counseling her on what to eat to get the numbers stable so that she wouldn't have to go home. We were making good progress and had an appointment with a specialist on May 8th to help us. It was very taxing and a little scary, but we had confidence that we would be successful. 

We were in the Dr. office to get a prescription for insulin when the Mission President called and said that Mission Medical had "pulled the plug!" They felt that it was far too dangerous! When the Dr. came in we were all crying! He was very kind, gave us the prescription we needed, consoled us the best he could, and sent us on our way. The really sad thing was that we felt sure she would be able to get help here and we were not sure she would be allowed to receive help at home! We gave her all the faith-promoting stories we could think of on our 2 1/2 hour trip to the airport, expressed our love over and over, tried to make it a good experience for both girls, but there was really nothing more we could do.

As she started through Security, weeping, Sister Wilkinson and I followed along beside her, but she was a few lanes over and she couldn't hear us call so she didn't know. Then we ran upstairs and all three of us followed along right above and beside her. We watched her do everything she was supposed to do as she wiped her eyes on her scarf, and still she didn't see us there supporting her! We watched until she went down the escalator to the tram that would take her to her airplane, but to our frustration and sorrow, she never looked up and so she never saw us cheering her on. It broke our hearts!

I thought of the story from the life of Heber C. Kimball where he relates that the Twelve were standing in a group feeling very downcast with their heads down and the Savior was in the midst of them, wanting to strengthen and console them, but they did not look up and recognize that He was there. 

I realize more and more how important it is for us to strengthen our faith that Jesus Christ is there to help carry our burdens, to lift our hearts and fill them with the song of hope, and also, how important it is for those of us who are rubbing shoulders with people everyday, to lift and cheer each person we meet. We will never know what hidden pain hearts are feeling because our brothers and sisters, if they are socially conscious at all, try to put on a happy face in public. But if we try to reach out with love we cannot help but light their path.

                        "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Psalms 119:105

We are praying for Sister Naupoto. We love her and want her to be able to come back to continue serving her mission. We know she is a choice daughter of our Father in Heaven.

That emotion took all the starch out of us! We had meetings and discussions all day and evening Wednesday, but Thursday and Friday, we just worked at home! We were too drained to even see people! 

I don't know how some of you carry the heavy burdens you bear! It can only be that you have great strength and have yoked yourselves to Jesus Christ who promises that His "yoke is easy" and His "burden is light" and that He will gather you under His wings like a hen gathereth her chicks! We admire you so very much and pray for you always!

One of the things we got done while we "rested" was putting up some blinds to help cut down on the heat blazing in from the windows. The whole east side of our living room is full-length windows and the sun already makes it blazing hot! These blinds make a great deal of difference! Thank goodness!

Friday evening Bruce decided it would be healthy to go to the Irrigation Festival Fireworks! He is always very excited about the big booms! "The louder the better!" That is the part I don't care for! I just like the pretty lights. ;) It was more fun than usual for me because it only lasted 10 minutes max and I took some pretty pictures! (You've gotta love an iPhone 6!)

                                                                   Isn't that fun!

Yesterday we had Jerry with us most of the day to eat breakfast, watch the Parade and then visit while we had lunch together. We got through a couple of chapters of Moses and some of Alma 5. It was a good discussion!

Today was Sunday. We started by rehearsing with a men's quartette at 8:15 on our new arrangement of Love at Home and then I played for them to sing in Sacrament meeting right before Bruce was the speaker on Mothers. He gave a most beautiful talk, telling about the qualities of faith and perseverance his mother developed through her trials. And since he had been invited to talk about how her qualities had led him to serve a mission, he got to tell about how his parents serving a full-time Senior mission had set the example for all of his brothers and sisters to serve -- 8 having served so far, 4 of them twice already! 

In the next ward I directed the music in Sacrament Mtg and then played for Primary in the 3rd ward.

It was another good day!

The following pictures are of the Elders eating their first ever scones on P-day. 

Some of them had never before heard of scones! 

They ate 27 scones, two little jars of jam, 1/2 a jar of peanut butter, a good amount of honey, 

10 oz  of cream cheese, and 1/2 gallon of milk! 

Tomorrow is their last meal with us! Tuesday is Transfer Day. We will send out 5 missionaries and get back 3 new ones. One set of Sisters will replace a set of Elders and the former Sisters! Elder Wilson, the District Leader, will get a new companion since Elder Sommercorn's mission is completed.

We will miss the Elders -- but think of the food we will save!  ;)

This Was a Very Different Week, and May is a Very Special Month!

May is great! Mothers Day, and my birthday, and Abby's wedding, all in the same month!

The year I was 10 years old, Lisa and I made a "May Basket" and took it full of flowers to the neighbor lady on the next farm. That was when we lived on Linder Road on a 40 acre farm we called "The McKay Place." I loved living where we had neighbors and could walk to the little schoolhouse church where the Eagle Branch met!

I meant to write shorter reports more often this week, but here I am at 10:20 pm on Sunday evening. My good intentions are hard to follow through on when my eyes keep closing!

Sunday, April 26th was Molly's confirmation. She wanted Elder Walker to confirm her and he was so pleased to do so. He gave her a beautiful blessing and a sweet sister in the ward wrote it for her. She loved Church, going this time to Relief Society. The sisters there were very friendly to her and she really appreciated it.

(It is so important for us to notice people and to give whatever love we have to them--and it is so easy to miss seeing them when we are caught up with our assignment or sitting by and visiting with our friends. There are people who are in agony and are hungry to feel that they matter, and we might not see the need at all because most everyone puts on their cheerful face when they go to Church, but a kind word and handshake can make such a difference!  I don't know why it seems so much easier wearing a name tag, but I am learning to look and to speak to everyone I can!) 

After Church I hurriedly made a batch of bread because the Bahrts thanked me for a loaf I had given them with such enthusiasm and then a little old lady (maybe she was only a year older than me--who knows!) said, "Homemade bread! I would love a loaf!" So we took bread around to 4 people and then had Molly over for a movie night! We watched "How Rare a Possession." We love that movie!

Monday was Preparation Day for the Elders and Sisters so the Elders came over in the morning to email, print off a booklet Elder Sommercorn had made for his end of mission report, (They give a copy to all their old companions and special people in the mission) and continue the ongoing chess competition. Oh, and play the piano! So far the games have gone in Elder Wilson's favor!

In the evening we gave Sis Naupoto, our Tongan Sister, a birthday party! (Can you believe--we forgot to take pictures!) We served her favorite meal! It was grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup! ;)
Jerry, their convert, came over to share the evening with us too. It was fun! After the Sisters left Jerry stayed and visited about his concerns. He wanted to be baptized and comes to Church every week, but still doesn't have a testimony of Jesus Christ! We had a good visit and I gave him The Testimony of the Apostles. He loves the members and they love him. Hope he can soften his heart to feel the Spirit testify!

Later in the evening the Sister's came back and Elder Walker gave Sister Naupoto a blessing.

Tuesday morning we checked the Elder's and Sister's apartments in Port Angeles. The Elders had moved most of their stuff into the new apartment we got them but I could see that they weren't going to be able to get the old one cleaned properly by their deadline and the Church wanted the deposit back, so we offered to help them clean Wednesday afternoon. They thought that was a grand idea!

At 11:00 am we went to visit Herb and June for our now every other week lunch and visit together. Elder Walker always takes some pictures or something to start a conversation and make Herb laugh--he has a wonderful laugh-- so this time it was the picture of Michael when he was a year old,  sitting in the garden, covered with mud from head to toe, and drinking out of the hose Bruce had put in the furrow to water the seeds. Both Herb and June laughed and laughed, so the picture started our visit off just right! They always have Bruce pray before we serve the meal and his prayer was so heartfelt and beautiful this time that they both remarked on it.

Sister Blatter, the Mission President's wife, called and asked if we would take Sister Naupoto to the doctor to have an A1c test to check her glucose levels because she is diabetic and Mission Medical wanted it done today. We had to try 3 doctors before we finally found one who would take her in Port Townsend, 50 minutes away! By the time we got through with that it was 6:15 pm and the Sisters had a teaching appointment at 7 pm, so we took them to dinner at the 101 Diner on the way home.

Wednesday was District Meeting where Elder Walker gave an inspiring spiritual thought after which  we gathered cleaning supplies and hurried to Port Townsend to clean the Elder's apartment. They got permission to stay there and help us--I wasn't about to just clean it for them! It took the four of us 4 1/2 hours! And they were good help!

 Elder Lacasse from Florida.

 Elder Haney from Utah.

We stopped at Goodwill on the way home and bought an office chair for them which they really appreciated! They also need a mattress, but we have to wait until we go to Tacoma to get one for them. (We will charge it to the Mission.)

We had had a nice conversation that morning about spending less money, but we were so tired that we bought a Papa Murphy's pizza on the way home.

The next morning, Thursday, we went to Port Townsend again. We had gone to inspect apartments the week before and had fond them in such a mess that I would not even fill out the papers! It was an apartment with a bad reputation and these Elders were moved in to replace some who couldn't function. They needed a fresh start--a total dejunking, a thorough cleaning and organizing, and a dresser, some chairs and some lamps to light the darkness! We started at 7:45 with 4 Elders helping and got the job done in only 4 hours! :0 It was a mess! 

 

One of the Elders loves to cook. He prepared a quiche for lunch. It was really good! He sent us home with some chocolate chip cookies. I wonder how he finds the time! 

Just mopping out! We are almost finished! 

 This Elder nobly helped Elder Walker in the bathroom!

We were so tired from two days of scrubbing, but Elder Walker knew they needed some better furniture so we went shopping for some. We found a very nice dresser at a consignment shop for a good price--well, it was a little high but the only thing we could find--and it was nice! We bought two lamps at Walmart and chairs at Costco.

These are the kind Bruce wanted to buy but we didn't have time to joke around!

Friday was our P-day! Bruce did mission reports, worked on his journal and took a few minutes to play the piano! It was so fun to hear him and he could be so good if his fingers would just fit between some of the keys! 

I played with house plans! It is creative and fun to me! And we started on a TTBB arrangement one of the Bishops wants sung in his ward on Mother's Day. 

Saturday we took all the furniture we had purchased to the Elders in Port Townsend and got them set up in their apartment. They were proud of the progress they had made in organizing things. Then we stopped at the Goodwill in that town and found a dresser for the Port Ludlow Elders! They were trying to get by with only one dresser between them. 

(Isn't life interesting? In so many missions it would be a luxury to have anything to put your clothes in, but necessities are counted according to where we are.)

In the afternoon on Saturday I had a haircut and touchup. The Bishop's wife had made an appointment for me with the young mother who does her hair. She is a born-again Christian and Sister Cain wanted me to get to visit with her. It didn't work out quite like we hoped because one of her friends came in and hung around, but she gave me a good hair cut without complaining about how I had chopped it off in spots and evened it up very nicely! I was proud of her! She even told me I had thick hair! Now, who wouldn't pay for someone to say that!

Today was the Sabbath. The Bishopric was changed in the Dungeness Ward. The Stake President apologized for "high-jacking" Fast and Testimony meeting.  It was a very sweet meeting. I went to the Gospel Essentials class until Dad came and got me out to meet someone. That instructor is a woman lawyer and teaches very well.

I bore my testimony in the Happy Valley Sacrament meeting. It was Molly's first testimony meeting. I don't know what she thought about it because she doesn't say much, but she came fasting even though her mother tried to talk her out of it! Bruce sent me with her to SS class. In that ward they don't have a Gospel Essentials class--they just send everyone to Gospel Doctrine. It was a good class--far deeper than Gospel Essentials would have been, but good. Their RS meeting was good also so I felt good about Molly being there. 

To be in those meetings I had to miss Sequim Bay Sacrament Mtg, but Elder Walker went and then I went to Primary to play.  The Bishop and his wife were both home sick today, but they came to our house this evening and she hugged me three times. I love her too! Hope I don't get what she has!

We love you all. We fasted for you, prayed for you, and thought of you all day. We pray that  you will be blessed for any good we do, and that the Lord will strengthen, protect, guide and comfort you. We know the Gospel of Jesus Christ is truly the great Plan of Happiness! We know that putting our trust in Him and keeping His commandments will bring the sweetest blessings imaginable into our lives. We know that our growth and eventual glory is His only concern. We know that we can accomplish all we were sent here to do through His redeeming and enabling power. We can be together FOREVER!