First Full Week
Email #2
Dear family,
We had our first full “normal” week of assignments this week. Basically, Scott goes to “work” at 8:00and is welcome to go home at 4:00 but he usually stays until I get off at 6:30 or so. He chooses to stay longer and is happy to keep working on his assignments. I don’t go to my assignment until around noon. Except for Wednesdays when I work at the warehouse.
There is a weekly devotional given on BYU-H campus every Tuesday morning. I haven’t really followed who is going to be speaking—just not in the habit yet. Monday night, I decided to look through a senior missionary newsletter that had been emailed to the missionaries a few days previously. To my great delight, Elder Nattress—Katelyn’s former mission president was scheduled to be the speaker the next day. I made sure that I was in attendance Tuesday morning. Scott also attended but came late so we didn’t sit together. Elder Nattress gave a wonderful talk on building our lives with Jesus Christ as our foundation. Afterwards, I hurried up to the front to greet him and his wife. Even though they have never met me, when he saw my name tag—sister Bleak, he asked if I was the mother of their very dear missionary—Sister Katelyn Bleak and then he gave me a big hug and told me how much they loved her. I thanked them for being such a great influence in her life and sister Nattress assured me that they were the ones influenced and taught by her and that she came to the mission field very prepared to be a great missionary. It was a very tender, sweet moment. I was so thankful to be in attendance today,
My shifts at the store were much better this week. I am building a relationship with my co-workers and I am so much more comfortable with the procedures and such. I know how to use the cash register now and feel much more useful. The store is still slow at times but I am better at finding things to do. I usually begin each day by tuning the ukuleles. There are about 130 ukes out on the floor that need to be tuned. There are also about 50 more that are very expensive behind a counter that we don’t tune because they stay in tune due to how nice they are. So far I average teaching about three or four ukulele lessons a day.
There is another place at the PCC that also teaches ukulele lessons. It is called “The Settlement.” When they get busy and if we are slow at my store, I go down there to help them. On Friday, the settlement got really busy and called me to come and help. With three of us teaching, we still had groups of people waiting to come in and be taught. The day went by so much faster and I had a lot of fun. I love being able to work at both places and have a variety. I love meeting people and asking where they are from but I most especially love seeing the happiness in their eyes after we sing and play—You are my sunshine, They feel like they have done something really great and they always smile and leave feeling good about themselves. The settlement just has a really good feel to it and the lessons are taught outside by the “river”. The atmosphere is more relaxing than the store.
My Wednesday warehouse day was pretty tedious this week. We all did “inventory” jobs. Which meant a lot of counting things. Diane and I worked together and we worked on clothing items. The warehouse was hot and I was on my feet for the whole six hours. I only sat when I ate lunch. I was exhausted by the time I went home and pretty gross looking and feeling. I really had a good attitude until about the last hour and then the time went by so slowly and I just wanted to get out of there. I had to remind myself several times—“Gayle, you chose this!”
We went to Connie and Peter Uluave’s house Wednesday evening to visit them and Steve and Kay who are in town. Even though they only live about 25 miles away, it takes an hour to get there. But the drive is incredibly beautiful. And a bonus was that we got to sit on comfortable furniture!!! I know that seems silly but it felt sooo good.
Scott and I worked at the Luau Thursday evening. We will have this assignment once a week while we are here. It is basically scanning tickets, greeting people, handing out leis. It was a lot of fun finding out from people where they are from. And the bonus is that we get to eat there when our shift is over.
I had a tender mercy on Friday. Since Scott’s brother Steve is in town, he invited Scott to play golf with them on Saturday—our p-day. But Scott doesn’t have any clubs here.. We had looked on Facebook marketplace for him to buy some but most of them are at least an hour away and we had no time to go look at any to buy. I had been praying that a way would open up for him to get some clubs. Finally, I just told the Lord that I didn’t know how it would work, so I was leaving it up to Him to work it out. Friday evening as we were walking to the car, Scott stopped and talked with Jeff Arnett (we were in the same district at the MTC) who right at the end of the conversation asked Scott if he had had his clubs sent here yet. Scott told him no and then I said that he was supposed to play tomorrow with his brother. Right there on the spot Jeff offered his clubs for Scott to use the next day. We went to his house and picked them up right then a there. Yes—God is mindful of us even in little things. I’m so grateful. As it turned out—Steve hurt his knee right when they got to the course and they ended up not playing after all.
We are so grateful for modern technology and that we were able to FT to see Noah baptized on Saturday. I got emotional when I saw all of you and the grandchildren on the screen.
We got to attend our assigned ward (married student ward) for the first time today. There were only 24 in attendance when the meeting began. A few more came later during the meeting. I expected that there would be many more “islanders” in the ward. I would say about 60 percent were mainlanders. It was fast and testimony meeting. One girl (woman) who bore her testimony shared that she and her husband are graduating in December and will be leaving to live in Mongolia (where she is from. He is from the states.) It was truly a miracle that they were able to get plane flights home. You just can’t get into that country right now. But with the help of God, they were able to get tickets. She hasn’t seen her family for four years.
Happy birthday to Elsie, Stephanie and Andrew this week!
I love you all very much. You are in our hearts and prayers. Thank you for your support. Have a wonderful week!
Much love,
Mom, grandma, Gayle.
How I saw the hand of the Lord in my life this week:
*Feeling the prompting to look at the missionary newsletter and discovering Elder Nattress as the speaker.
*Having my prayer answered about locating some golf clubs for Scott for Saturday
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