Today is the Sunday before our 1st Christmas away
from home. Yesterday was the Yearsley
family Christmas party in Swan Lake. We
only had Jeff and his kids who attended from our family. Today is Scott’s birthday. He is 35 today. We just got off the phone and had a good
visit with him and Kyler…Tristan was busy on the computer, and only talked briefly…..guess we aren’t missed too
much!
This past week at work was a nice week. I had decided that I wanted to make
Shreveport Gumbo and take it to work to share.
We usually eat it during Christmas break during our pinochle tournament
at Hope’s house….we each bring a soup to share.
It went over well at the office.
The office workers all had some, and a few missionaries who stopped
in. Everyone said they loved it…..I know
that WE enjoyed it! It was a delicious
change from our usual lunch foods. The
Clayton’s said it was a good idea, and they will bring a stew one day to share.
Yesterday, we went to Chick fil A, which is probably 10
miles from us, up in the Milpitas area. We
just decided to have something different for lunch. While eating our chicken sandwiches, Gary
said, well this is our chicken dinner while the family eats theirs at the
Christmas party! While up that way, Gary
showed me 2 of our mission apartments. One is an
old, old house, probably a mansion in the old days, that has been converted into
apartments. The floors slope in it, so a
very unique place to stay for missionaries. Gary said he would have loved
having that experience as a missionary, staying in a place like that. The other house is a house with 2 orange
trees in the front yard. It belongs to a
member, and the missionaries who stay there are required to pick the fruit and
deliver some to her every couple of weeks I think.
Today in Relief Society, the lesson was on faith, and one
sister, Nga, told of a miraculous experience she has had that has made her
faith stronger. This is what she
said. Some time ago, she had a pain in
her neck and in her shoulder that made life pretty miserable. Not having a lot of money, she just dealt
with it, until one day it seemed more than she could bear. So she called President Shelton and Brother
Bui to come give her a blessing. The
next day, she went to do her job as a caretaker for a woman who has
cancer. That person needed to go and see
the acupuncturist, so she took her. She
said that while she was there, she was looking around the waiting room, and
seeing people of different nationalities sitting there, and a thought came to
her to talk to the acupuncturist, who she referred to as the Master. She mentioned to him about her neck. She said he took her wrist, and said to her,
you don’t sleep well. She said she hadn’t
for years, and was amazed he could tell.
Then, he had her lay on the table and put pins in her ankle, then told
her to move her neck. She did….the pain
was gone! Some time later, I don’t know
how long, she called and went back to him.
She said, my neck is now 90% better, but my shoulder still hurts. He said, I can only fix one thing at a
time. So then he did the pins in her
ankle again, and told her to move her arm, and the pain was gone in the
shoulder! She was so amazed at this,
that she told friends of hers how good he was.
She said this was only the second time she had ever gone for
acupuncture, and the first time she ever had tried it, there was no success, so
she didn’t believe in it. However, for
her, this was a miracle, as she had lived with the pain for so long. Well, her friends went to him, and they didn’t
get cured, and said, I thought you said he was so good, but he isn’t. She said, she knows she was cured because of
faith. She had faith to ask for the blessing, and faith as the acupuncturist
was working on her, feeling that it wasn’t a coincidence that she went there
with the woman she was helping the day after receiving a blessing. She said that every time she thinks back to
that time, she knows it was a miracle for her, and that faith is required for
healings to happen.
Elder Atkinson and his family came back to the branch to
visit today. He was our Zone Leader when
we first arrived, and went home the first transfer after we got here, so we
didn’t get to know him very well. He had
been in the Vietnamese program, but by the time we got here, he was in an
English speaking ward, as the President likes to move missionaries the last
month to English from their language that they have been speaking.
I gave the scripture in Sacrament meeting today. In our branch, there is always a scripture
shared at the beginning before the talks.
Probably because we have no youth speakers to speak. I did Isaiah 9:6, because of it being
Christmas this week. After church, Brother
Tam told me that the scripture he gave in Branch Council meeting this morning
was also from Isaiah. It was Isaiah 43:5…..I
thought it was very interesting. It
says: “Fear not, for I am with
thee: I will bring thy seed from the
east and gather thee from the west.”
Very interesting since these people have come from the Eastern countries
and moved to the Western country of the United States.
Today I made Fudgy Bon Bons to take to work to share. I have been in the mood to make some of our
usual Christmas time goodies, and we know plenty of hungry missionaries who
like to share them! I made some cinnamon
rolls too. Gives me pleasure to do
things like this on a Sunday afternoon while Gary is watching football. We both got our naps in too. So, tomorrow, lots of treats to take to the
office! Oh, and the schedule for this
week is this: Monday, regular work. Tuesday, we meet at the San Felipe building
(which is where we meet for church) at 6:30 a.m. to cook breakfast for the
whole mission. I guess all the senior
missionaries help. The menu is steak,
eggs and pancakes. After breakfast is a
devotional meeting, then split into zones for a gift exchange…..$5 or less
gift. After that, it is back to the
office to finish the day as usual.
Wednesday, Christmas day, we are off.
We have been invited to the Crawford’s for dinner again. We plan on skyping or face timing or just
chatting on the phone with our kids and grandkids before heading to the Crawford’s
house.
Thursday and Friday are regular work days, with Friday
evening being a Branch activity. Clark
Nguyen is getting baptized (his is Ann’s son, Nga’s grandson), and after that
is the Branch Christmas party, potluck.
I just signed up for dessert, as I won’t have time to do much before we
head over to the church after work, so I will bring brownies again.
I heard that Emilie was doing better this week, so that was
good news! And Sophie was changed to a
splint instead of the cast.
We have enjoyed getting packages and Christmas cards in the mail from family,
and love seeing the Christmas pictures that our grandkids drew/colored for us
and then sent to us to use as decorations for our apartment.
We have had plenty of Christmas goodies given to us,
too! We both need to work at getting
more exercise!!
We wish all of you a Merry Christmas! We didn’t get cards sent out this year, but
please know that we love and miss you all!
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