Grateful for Many Things

Sunday February 6, 2022   

Email #19

 

Aloha Family and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Lucy this week!

 

Congratulations to Nora on your baptism yesterday!  We were so blessed to be able to be there with you remotely.  Nora, you did such a fabulous job on your violin solo! And we loved your talk Kristen!  As Jordan took the phone around to each of the grandchildren to say hi to us, I got really emotional and was filled with such love and gratitude for the wonderful people you are. We love each of you dearly.  We are so very blessed. 

 

The store was very slow this week.  We normally get a 12:30 rush—whether it is big or small—when we first open the doors of our store.  But we haven’t had that “rush” in a couple of weeks and then I found out that there has been a change lately that is having an effect on retail.  If you purchase a “luau package” now, you are assigned to be in a group with a tour guide. That tour guide has an agenda and schedule so the patrons are not allowed to wander around like they used to be able to do.   Thus—they don’t go into the stores as freely as they used to until later in the day.  It will be interesting to see if they continue with this program. 

 

Scott and I had a meeting Tuesday morning with the manager (Greg Maples) of food services and two other missionary couples who will be involved with the “genuine gold advisor program” that was introduced to us last Sunday.  We will be working with students who work in food services.  We have not been assigned our students yet but it was nice to see that Greg Maples is very excited about working with this program and will do whatever he can to make it successful.  We should get the names of our students this week.  One tender mercy—I didn’t know where the “food services” building is where the meeting was to be held but just the day before, Wink had me walk down a path that is a short cut to the Hawaiian village and I saw the building and room for the first time.    

 

We had a devotional with President and Sister Bassett Tuesday night.  I was asked to play the piano for the opening and closing song and since I don’t have a piano, my prayers were answered to be able to play at least decently well.  We sang our” mission song”—“The Cause of Christ” as the closing song.  I love that song so much.  I love the catchy tune and the words and the spirit I feel when I sing it.  President Bassett told us in his talk about receiving revelation about that song and how it was for us as missionaries to be better able to follow Christ.  I hope to be able to share it with you some time. 

 

I mentioned the Featherstone’s name to someone in the store this week.  The man then proceeded to tell me a story about when he left on his mission.  He said that he had to run away from home to serve his mission because no one in his family were members and they didn’t want him to serve.  He had no financial or emotional support.   His future father-in-law (I guess he was dating his future wife at the time) was friends with Elder Featherstone and told Vaughn about this young man.  The two of them financed this young man’s mission.  I just love hearing stories like that.  There are so many good people helping others!  We need to remember that when we hear of so many “not so good people” doing terrible things. 

 

We didn’t have a typical P-day on Saturday.  Scott was not feeling well and spent most of the day in bed. He got a “non-rapid” covid test done but we don’t have the results yet.  We think he just has a cold, but want to make sure. I worked our Luau shift Saturday night but Scott wasn’t able to go.  My responsibility was to scan their tickets as they entered the facility.  I have done this many times before and I always have a prayer in my heart that the scanners will work. The scanners were unusually horrible that night.  It was really embarrassing! Mine would go “off line” about every other group and even within a group it would only scan part of the tickets. When it just won’t scan properly---you send the group over to a student who has the master list on a computer and that student checks them in that way.   I am always so very grateful for that student who is a backup for my job and that can take care of the problem if I’m not able to.  I was thinking about that situation today and it dawned on me that the Lord is always there when I just can’t take care of the problem myself.  But He is not only my backup, He also works right alongside me with any problem I might be having.  I am so indebted to Him. 

 

Have a wonderful week.  Pray that Grandpa will get better soon.   

Much love!

Mom, Grandma

 

 

How I have seen the hand of the Lord in my life this week:

 

*I found out the location of where the Tuesday morning meeting would be even before I knew that I would need that knowledge.

*I was helped to be able to play the piano at the devotional with little prior practice.   

*They got some new stools for us at the warehouse.  Such a little but BIG thing. They have soft seats and raise and lower and we can each sit down at times now.  I am very grateful.

*We received a Valentine’s Day package from Nathan and Stephanie and kids.  It was so much fun and appreciated. 

*After selling a ukulele, the idea came to me to wait to have it engraved until the woman came back to the store to see the computer version.  She made several changes that made a big difference it how it turned out.

*Being able to be involved in Nora’s baptism.

*Spotting Sister Sharp on the side of the road being able to give her a ride home.