Week 16 - Service!!

Dearest Children, Grandchildren, Family and Friends!!

It has been a great week….busy…..but great!!

I LOVE the people we serve with…..they are some of most Christlike people I know. I hope to become more like them!! On our P-day on Thursday, we all went to the temple to do a session altogether. What a sweet experience that was!! We want to do it again before we all go home in October.  This is all of us except one sister who was very ill.  I filled in for her on Friday at the temple.






On Monday, we had an FHE with the Temple Matron and learned about the artwork at the temple. It was great and I loved hearing about the artists. Some of the artwork we have are originals and one of the artists in particular I was impressed with. He painted the Sacred Grove and Susquehanna. The Sacred Grove one is so beautiful and he seems to have really captured the way the trees actually are and how the light shines down through the trees. He said of his painting that the finished product is a series of “corrected mistakes”. I think our lives are a lot like that….we become the perfected beings we will become through a series of “corrected mistakes” made right through the only being who can help us correct those mistakes, our Savior and Redeemer, our Elder Brother and Friend, Jesus Christ. Through him, our lives can become a thing of beauty!!


On Tuesdays, a lot of us don’t have assignments at the temple so this week we did two service projects.

The first one, at 8:00 am, was at the temple where we replanted an entire flower bed and part of another one, both of which had been destroyed by people trampling them and the excessive rain we have had.

 The second project we had was at a local restaurant that had been narrowly missed by a huge branch falling during a recent violent storm.  We had to cut up the branch and haul it away.

Wednesday, during our break between sessions, I had a GREAT family history experience!!  I had printed off several cards on Sunday so that the EFY kids could do the baptisms the next day and we would have our own family names to do when we were assigned as patrons.  Well, as I got ready to bring them to the temple, I didn’t feel good about one of the names and his wife so I left those two cards home with their sealing card.  I didn’t get back to it till Wednesday.  As I looked at the card, I saw something I hadn’t noticed….that his last name was different than his father’s.  I started doing some checking on the source material in his record and couldn’t find any attachment to the father or mother listed.  I then when to the father’s record and checked in the source material.  He was firmly attached in a death record and the 1900 census to his wife but there was no mention of this “son”.  I couldn’t find any connection anywhere so I removed the parents from him.  However, in searching the census, I found 7 more children who had never been added to these parents!!  I did a search and none of them had ever been entered into Family Search.  They were just lost children.  I was weeping as I attached them to their parents and printed cards for us to do their work.  How grateful I am for inspiration in doing family history….I need to always make sure that I am listening!!

Thursday was a sweet day starting at the temple and then going to eat with our dear friends.  It is amazing to me how just 3 ½ months ago we never knew these people and now we cannot bear to think of leaving them in less than three months!!!

Friday I was having a bit of a hard time missing home.  Adaline’s birthday was the day before, Ty’s first birthday was Friday as well as his daddy’s, we were going to be missing Ellora’s baptism on Saturday, the Hickens were going to be in Utah and everyone was going to be together, and I was thinking about my sweet mother who isn’t doing very well.  I’m glad I didn’t find out until I got home that Jordan had gone to the hospital.  The Lord knew I needed His love and so he sent me a series of sweet experiences.  During our temple service, I was assigned as a sealing patron.  I decided not to do our own names because Dad wasn’t assigned with me on this particular occasion.  I wasn’t thinking about my dead family members so I spent the time praying mainly about my mom.  I was filled with such a spirit of comfort and love and I felt Him telling me not to worry, that everything was in His hands.   Then, I felt a different feeling and I knew in an instant that my dad was beside me.  I could feel his love for me and the thoughts came into my mind that he was anxious, excited, to be with mom again and that he was assuring me that everything would be okay for us without her.  I have no idea what the others in the session thought but I couldn’t keep the tears from falling.  It was such a precious experience.   Over that day and the next, I read two scriptures that further testified to me that my Father was aware of my feelings and worked to calm my troubled heart:  D&C 100:1,4 – “…your families are well; they are in mine hands, and I will do with them as seemeth me good; for in me there is all power…Therefore, I, the Lord, have suffered you to come unto this place; for thus it was expedient in me for the salvation of souls.” And D&C 101:16 – “Therefore, let your hearts be comforted…for all flesh is in mine hands; be still and know that I am God.”  How can I continue to feel badly…..I just needed to get back to my service and let the Lord take care of the rest!!!

Saturday, was another day of temple service….very busy.  I talked to my mom….her birthday.  She had a happy day with people calling, cards coming and visitors.  She was very tired but felt so loved.  She is so precious to me!! 

Today we had a good day in our meetings.  This was taken from our car as we were preparing to leave. This is such a beautiful area and our church is in such a gorgeous setting!!

Afterwards, we went to the VA Hospital to visit one of the branch members who had had surgery this week.  On our way in, one of the hospital workers looked at us and said, “Oh, you’re clergymen.  Thank you for ministering to the people here.”  I wouldn’t have thought that us going to see someone was “ministering”, but then I thought it probably was.  It was a good way to end this week of service….brightening someone’s day.  We stayed for about an hour until another visitor came in to see him.  He told us he was so happy we had some.  It is going to be very hard to leave this little branch when we go.  They are in our hearts!!!

Well, this brings us to the end of another week….they are just flying by!!!  I love you all and am so glad that you are “in [His] hands”.  We just need to always remember to “be still and know that [He] is God.”

Love you and miss you!!

Mom/Grandma/Sandy  oxoxoxoxoxoxoxo