My (Marc) turn to write, so here goes! Last week was pretty normal—busy, hard work,
fun & fast, and meaningful!
Friday evening another senior couple, the Congers, came over
for dinner and conversation. We just
ordered in Chinese food and talked. They
had just returned from one of those traumatic experiences of mortality, so it
was a great time to talk and process everything. Their son had recently had a serious
heart attack, and ultimately the family had to make the decision to take him
off life support and watch him leave this life.
It was a sad experience made worse by the fact that he and his family
don’t currently have the assurance of their faith and the gospel to soften and establish
an eternal framework to the experience.
The heart attack was a total surprise, but as often is the case, the
Spirit had been working on him the last few weeks of his life enough that he
had returned to church for the first time in 20 years and even born his
testimony several weeks before he died. Unfortunately,
none of his family attended with him to share that sweet experience. I am so thankful to know that Heavenly Father
loves us, knows us well, knows our hearts, and to know that only He can judge
what this mortal son would have done if he had lived longer!! It’s amazing to me what a sweet experience a
funeral can be when softened by faith and knowledge! I will never forget how much I enjoyed my
father’s funeral, and how much the family enjoyed being together and honoring
him and his life! Truly, the Lord has
taken away the sting of death!!
Saturday we invited Elder Franco (from our home stake) and
Elder Winters over for dinner. We have
so little room in our apartment that we need to bring a little table from the
study and rearrange the living room to make room for four, but it’s worth
it. (And not just to make my wife happy
with me!) Elder Franco’s father is the
branch president of the Spanish branch in the Kent Stake, and since we attend a
Spanish branch here in Flushing, it was fun to talk. Diane made good old American hamburgers and
potato salad and the elders couldn’t get enough!! Funny how small things like good food can
make people happy! (Especially men!)
 |
| Elders Franco and Winters. (Preparation day at home for me, so no tie.) |
I told all the missionaries in my last zone conference
presentations that one of my goals is to become a “hugger” by the end of my
mission, and asked the elders to help me.
It’s made big difference! Many of
them remember, and I’m getting more and more comfortable with the man-hugs
(three claps on the back seems to be the norm).
I do love these missionaries, and it’s good for me and them to learn to
show it in this way! (We’ll see if I
revert in civilian life…) Kind of hard
to believe that we’ll be going home in 7 or 8 months!
This Saturday, my friend Jay and I are going to the
Priesthood restoration site in Pennsylvania with a bus full from our stake in
NYC. The stake organized the one-day
trip for priesthood holders and potential priesthood holders to commemorate the
restoration in May of 1829, and I am excited to go! We leave at 7AM and return at 7PM, so it will
be a long, full day.
Tuesday night, we (Jay and I) have scheduled our first
sit-down appointment with a family we home teach, and we are excited to see how
it develops! She is a ‘non-practicing Utah
Mormon’ and he is a “practicing Roman Catholic from Ireland’ (her words), and
they have at least one teenage son at home.
The last three months we’ve been working up to this visit via notes on
the door, cookies on the porch, and voicemail messages, so we hope it comes
off. (We think it will because the
fulltime sisters were told, “not this week because the home teachers are
coming.”) The sisters have been trying
to establish contact, too, without much success. Hopefully it will be a good experience for
the Darcys, and begin to establish a bridge between them and the gospel. [Later note: It fell through, so we keep trying...]
We still love our mission, and still feel
useful and needed! (Sometimes I catch my companion studying other missions on-line, planning for senior mission #2!)
 |
| Flushing |
 |
| Flushing |
 |
| Flushing |
 |
| Sister Williams making food for a Zone Conference |
No comments:
Post a Comment