This week just about did us in but thank goodness for the weekend and we're almost ready to tackle another week. We adjusted to a new spreadsheet and are sort of okay with it. We sent Elder and Sister Smith off to the Church Office Building and they're getting used to their new assignments there while we are getting used to not having them right next to us all day. We also got some new temporary part time help with Elder and Sister Kunz, so we spent Thursday and Friday helping them do interviews as well as doing our own. They are great and very excited to have more to do and to talk to the fun students we get.
After all of that, we came home Friday afternoon ready to either cry or run away. But, here we are on Sunday afternoon getting ready for a new week and hoping for the best. It shouldn't be nearly as stressful. We're cutting the number of interviews we do each day down to our more normal levels and making sure we schedule time in the temple which we missed last week.
We had some great interviews amidst the stress. I talked to a 17 year old from Eswatini who is in her second semester of the degree program and very focused and happy to be moving forward with her life. I also spoke with a man in his 40s who had his son right next to him during the interview. As he answered the question about honesty his son piped up and said that his dad was always honest. Pretty good confirmation!
We have devotionals pretty much every day and they are all good but I think the ones that impact me the most is when people share the ordinary events of their lives where they saw the hand of the Lord. I can relate to that and it really helps me to recognize those ordinary times in my life where I have seen the hand of the Lord. I had a time like that on Friday where I was in a room, ready for a zoom interview with a student. I had earbuds in so I could hear the student and was just waiting with my phone on the zoom site. We give them plenty of time to connect so I sat there for 20 minutes waiting. It was a sea of calm in a day of craziness where I just sat in silence. I needed that so much on Friday! That time of silence helped me survive the rest of the afternoon. Tender mercy for sure!
Friday night's concert in the park was Coco Garcia and his band. They played Latin music and it was such fun, happy music. What a fantastic way to end the week!
Our Fast and Testimony meeting today was just the best. We had a man coming back to church after years spent making bad decisions and he talked about how the Spirit was working with him, testifying of truth. We had a sister sing her testimony beautifully. We had brand new father who had just blessed his 3 week old baby talk about how much his life is blessed and we had a teenager, who gets up every single month, share her testimony of her Savior. I just sat there feeling so blessed to be in this ward!
From Gary: It was a busy week, but it was also filled with amazing students and amazing interviews! I was very grateful for the timing of one interview in particular! We can only do the endorsements for non-members of the Church. Since many are joining the Church while they are attending BYU Pathway Worldwide, we find out that they have joined the Church since the last time we checked on them, so we have to send them back to go through the right channels of getting their endorsements through the Bishop, then their Stake President.
I was talking to one student, Okey Justice from Uganda, who, when asked if he was a baptized member of the Church, said yes, I just got baptized! After congratulating him on his decision, I asked him when he was baptized, and he said "last Sunday." Then with just a glimmer of hope, I asked if he had be confirmed yet. He said "no, that will happen this next Sunday!" Since I know they are not actually a member until they are confirmed, I was thrilled because I could still complete his endorsement before he became a member! A tender mercy. Here is a picture from his baptism along with others who were baptized at the same time:
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