Followed By Another Quiet Week (January 7-15)

We did start Institute in Ft. Smith on Tuesday.  We did Lessons one and two from Jesus Christ and His Everlasting Gospel.  What a privilege to teach this topic to young adults in Ft. Smith!

We started by having everyone select a piece of art hanging in the Church somewhere and prepare a brief introduction to the piece as part of our Church tour.  They all did a great job and it reminded us of many aspects of the Savior's life.  We also had them write different names of Jesus Christ which they knew from scriptures.

They did great on that task as well.  This semester we are not only focused on learning ABOUT the Savior but learning HOW to follow Him and become a better disciple!

Institute in Clarksville doesn't start until this coming Thursday. So we spent this past Thursday having dinner with Sister Holding and Sister Anderson in celebration of Sister Holding's birthday which was this past Wednesday. She chose Mexican and the Carters recommended Las Americas Too in Barling, Arkansas.  It was good and we had a fun time with these sweet missionaries.

Sister Holding, Sister Anderson, and us

In addition to those fun things, we also had online Zone meetings this transfer.  Every other zone meeting is online which means that for one hour over three days we meet with the mission president and his wife over zoom and we are instructed by them.  Most of it is directed at the work of the young missionaries which is what it should be, but we love learning along with them.  It is so great, because they will receive invitations from our mission leaders and then have the chance to practice it and report back at our next meeting.  It is awesome to hear them share their experiences as they have implemented instructions they have received.  They are the best...and they are great examples to us!

A Quiet Week Of Recovering

If you are going to have Covid on a mission--probably anytime in your life--do it during an "off couple of weeks."  No Institute or branch activities! Just the regular missionary meetings which we attended over Zoom!  And as far as we have heard, no one else who we may have exposed has gotten sick--yay!

By earlier in the week, Gary and I were over most of the symptoms and could make it through the day without taking a couple of naps.  Jena doesn't really nap even when she is sick, but she is also improving although her cough is hanging around and more frequent than ours.  She doesn't nap, but she sleeps in until 11 or noon.  She is staying home from Church today as well with Gary to avoid being exposed to other germs while she is still recovering.

We took advantage of the quiet time to--read books, do a puzzle, clean the apartment a little at a time, ordering groceries for pick-up, and watching movies of all kinds.  Gary continues to work on the Find A Grave and Family Search.  He did a zoom call this week with a few of the other senior couples to train them to do cemetery pictures, too.  The Bevans already did it on Friday and enjoyed the process although Gary spent time with them yesterday over Zoom figuring out a couple of odd situations they found.

We also had our first monthly Zoom devotional meeting with our senior missionaries and had good conversations and didn't even have time for the game we created.  That was fun as well.

I got the calendar ready for 2024--for the apartment....

and my personal one---this is my 2023 and 2024 Calendars  (they are made by Erin Condren which  I have used for several years).  I haven't really used my calendar much on this mission because I am not busy in the same way....mostly I have just used the month calendars in it.  It seems I really liked the cover because my 2024 is SO similar, oh, well--I will be back to "real" life in the fall and will need it to get myself resettled into everything.

We had our first flakes of snow during the nigh, so we woke up to snow on the grass on Friday but it quickly melted.  One set of elders further north did slid off the road out in the countryside, so welcome to winter, Elders!!

We are starting Institute next week in Ft. Smith.  Our class this time is "Jesus Christ and His Everlasting Gospel."  I am excited as I began rereading the book Jesus the Christ by James Talmage in November and it will be a great foundation for the class.  I had set reading that book as one of my goals for this mission and I am glad that I started it at a time that it will be very helpful.

 
It doesn't get better than teaching about the Savior each week on Tuesdays and then teaching about the Book of Mormon on Thursdays  (in Clarksville which doesn't start for another week.)

And that sums up our week!  Hope you had a productive week WITHOUT Covid!  Let 2024 roll on....

My (first) Haiku

 

Succor

I knelt to plead for

Help I could not find myself

Response overflowing.

I agree with my friend.  It is challenging in a good way to think about something important (or fun) in a different way and having to narrow it down to such a restricted amount of words.

She liked this first attempt.

HAPPY 2024!!!

A friend wrote these two haikus that she shared on Facebook for the new year.  With her permission, I record them here because I like the thoughts they express.  Here is her whole post in case it inspires you to try to do the same--this is from Laurie Heimbigner (a friend from Carmichael Junior High/Columbia High School-Richland, WA))

Happy New Year to youl

2 days ago I was introduced to a new way to "notice your world": write a haiku poem with three lines; five syllables in the first, seven in the second and five again in the third. I'm having fun with it.

NEW YEAR'S DAY

Blank slate just waiting

Be bold embrace the moment

Write a great story

PROTECTED

The Lord has my back

Overflowing gratitude

I walk in His peace

When I asked if I could reprint them, she said yes and commented that she has really enjoyed focusing her thoughts in this way and pick up the essentials things. I like that and might give it a try.....maybe you should, too! And share.....