February 21, 2022

Mucho, Many, Beaucoup Blessings

More training this week to get ready for the summer season. We had a 9 hour day on Thursday. We will be Initiatory coordinators one day, endowment coordinators another day, sealing office and veil coordinators another and be on a baptismal team another. It should make for a very busy and enjoyable summer. We know our Colorado family, the teenagers, will be here sometime this summer with a youth conference so we are super excited about that!   

Dave's ankle has almost gone back to normal and I get to have something done on my tooth today! We both feel like there is a powerful phenomenon that happens when you work in a temple, you feel healthy and energized while you are there and then you kind of collapse with exhaustion when you get home. It is a pretty amazing blessing. I have not had any breathing scares since we've been here even wearing a mask most hours of the day. I have been amazed also with my shift in being able to wake up early and feel good, it's like I'm a morning person now!  

 There is a plant based eating group here that gets together for dinner once a month so we got to do that Friday. No pickle ball this week because of a storm though, hopefully we'll get to go this Thursday morning.

I had a tender mercy on Thursday with the initiatory. I was the coordinator and learned we had an own endowment arriving at 11 am. The hour already had 3 patrons with only two rooms, one patron per room and the area needs to be empty with an own endowment so there is no distractions or noise. I was feeling anxious about how it would work, but the Lord is in charge....my first 11am patron arrived early, my second patron didn't show and my third patron came at 11:30 after we had had a very sweet quiet time with the own endowment sister. I felt to weep with gratitude at the orchestration of it all. My desire now is to skip feeling anxious and just know everything will work out. 

Our branch had a linger longer yesterday (Sunday) and I got to work in the primary, (my favorite) so we feel like we are getting to know the members better each week.  

                                  Sunset at Nauvoo Temple

 Sunset on Mississippi

Photo credit Kevin Bullock

                                         Sunset at Nauvoo

                                         Only plants here

               Broken chair Dave is fixing from the Arrival Center

                 Mixing up Dave's 16 Whole Grain & Seed bread

                                        The yummy results

                                      An eagle and it's lunch

                                        Photo credit: Mary Norton

                                   Visitor to the neighborhood