Happy Mother's Day/Radiating Light

Sunday May 8, 2022   

Email #32 

Happy belated Birthday Jane! AND—Happy Anniversary Bryan and Jennie, AND—Happy BIRTHday baby Cal.  We are so happy that you are here.

 

Aloha All and HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!!

 

I hope that each of you mothers had a wonderful day and was honored and loved as you deserve.  I am so very thankful for all the wonderful examples of mothers in my life.  I cannot put into words the love, respect and admiration I have for my own dear mother and mother-in-law.  I am a very blessed woman to be raised by a righteous mother.

 

The biggest and best news of the week is the birth of our 21st grandchild—Cal Kenneth Bleak.  Faith was certainly a trooper as she labored all day and night to bring Cal into this world.  It has been difficult being here and not being able to hold him or to help Faith.  My heart has ached many times during the week.  But I know that she is in good hands with help from all of you and from her family.  Congratulations Jordan and Faith!

 

The Scovilles came to work for a little while on Monday and Tuesday since they missed the week before due to covid.  It was nice to have them there before the final goodbye.  They flew home on Friday.  They will be sorely missed by everyone but especially by me who worked with them every day.  They were so good at problem solving and digging in to get a job done.  They were kind and gracious, but the jury is still out whether I will miss Wink’s never ending dad jokes. 

 

I sold a $2,000.00 ukulele on Monday.  Everyone kind of makes a big deal about it when that happens.  I was just in the right place at the right time. The man didn’t even play that well, but he knew what he wanted. He loves the Kamaka brand and wanted a ukulele made on this Island.   Every time someone pays that price for one, I ask myself if I would ever want to own a $2,000.00 ukulele.  The answer—my cheaper ukulele works just fine for me so probably not. 

 

Monday evening, I taught my first senior missionary ukulele class by myself.  It was an eye-opening experience.  We have had many senior missionaries go home that were good ukulele players and are now left with very “beginners” (beginners in ability, not necessarily time playing) I brought some music that I thought would be easy to play and I found out otherwise.  I am going to back up and go back to the basics.  I am excited to do this even though it takes a lot of time to prepare each week.   

 

Beginning Tuesday, the registers at the store would not open properly.  I have been opening them for weeks in preparation of the Scovilles leaving and that morning I had lots of problems getting them up and running.  On Thursday I had to shut all three registers down and re-open them two or three times. A task that should have taken 20 minutes took an hour.  It was very frustrating but eventually I got them up and running in time to open the store. 

 

Another frustrating thing on Tuesday was that when I showed up for prayer meeting at the Gateway, I found out that prayer meetings are only going to be held occasionally now and at a time I can’t attend.  And—since it is a new semester, most of the students I had finally gotten to know and become friends with have left the Gateway because of finding better jobs.  I only recognized two or three of the same workers there.  The bottom line—all the work we have been doing the past few months with the “genuine gold program” is for naught (in a way).  Of course, friend shipping is never a waste, but we probably won’t ever see those students again and now we have twenty or so new students to begin over with and it finally dawned on me that this same thing will happen every semester. Some of the wind was taken out of my sail and I’m not sure I’m up for beginning at square one again.  I know, I know—I’m not getting doors slammed in my face or people yelling at me like “real” missionaries do, but I was discouraged and felt like all our “work” went down the drain.

 

Warehouse Wednesday was another tough day. An order I was working on with another senior sister was super confusing and the numbers didn’t match up with the purchase order.  I had to bend over a lot and my neck began hurting and causing a headache.  I found out a couple of days later that the company for that order had only sent half of the purchase order and many of the items they sent were meant to be given away with a purchase, so they weren’t even on the order.  I apologize--this probably doesn’t make any sense.  It’s all just to say—VERY FRUSTRATING day.  

 

I listened to a (Come Follow Me) podcast Friday morning in which the guest—Elder Tad Callister made a comment concerning people who radiate light and goodness.  You can feel that goodness coming from them, and you can see it!  When we take a step towards holiness there is a light that shines from us.  When I heard those statements, I thought to myself--I want to be more like that and I realized that I hadn’t been radiating light this week because of all the frustrations I had been experiencing.  So, I determined that I would try harder to lift everyone I came in contact with that day.  I tried to smile more at people as I passed them.  I looked for opportunities to engage more in conversation with people.  As I was walking to work from the parking lot, there was a student that seemed very sad and down.  I caught up with her and greeted her and asked how her day was going.  She eventually joined in a conversation with me and then introduced herself and asked my name.  She was smiling when we parted.  At work, a student opened up to me about roommate problems she was having.  We talked for a long time, and she was grateful to have someone to talk to. I smiled more as I taught the little lessons in the store that day.  These are all such little things but they made a difference in small ways that helped others, but more importantly—they helped me!  My heart felt better. 

 

After work on Friday, I did a Costco/Walmart run by myself. This doesn’t seem like a big deal but it takes about four hours to do that run (driving and shopping) and I haven’t ever driven it alone. I’ve always been a passenger.  Scott couldn’t go with me that night.   Before leaving to go home after the shopping was done, I was almost out of phone battery and the car charger wouldn’t work.  I kept praying that I could at least get to the north shore before I had to turn off “maps” to save battery time. I made it all the way home with 4 percent left.  I know that I was blessed to have enough charge on my phone.

 

We attended our first wedding reception here. (Ebbygael is one of the Gateway students that we got to know).  The invitation said 6:00-8:00 and we assumed that it was like Utah wedding receptions—come and go as is convenient.  We first attended our ward BBQ and then went to the reception—about 7:35. Another missionary couple there told us that they had been there since 6:00 and it had been two solid hours of entertainment and fun, food, laughter etc. We left at 8:00 and the reception was going to continue after a 10-minute break.  It was quite the celebration.  

 

The visitor’s center was fairly slow today but I got one chance to bear my testimony of the sealing power of the temple and blessings that come from making covenants there.  I am thankful for that blessing in our lives.  Thanks to each of you for your goodness and for the light you radiate.  I know that many of you have stress and are having trials in your lives.  Just know that we pray for you daily!

 

Much love,

Sister Bleak, mom, grandma

 

 

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

*Sister Saunders needed to take my picture to advertise the ukulele class in the mission newsletter.  She came out of a building right when I was walking past. 

*Someone asked to trade our Saturday luau duty for their Thursday night.  This helped us out tremendously, but we didn’t want to ask anyone to trade (no one wants Saturday nights).

*A mishap with the printer at the warehouse caught a huge mistake that would have otherwise taken hours to fix. 

*Hearing a comment on the podcast prompted me to change my attitude. 

*I had enough phone battery to make it home from Mililani.

*I felt impressed to contact a couple of people on Mother’s Day that I would not have normally contacted on my own. 

*I felt great love from family this weekend.







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Names

Image
Sunday February 5, 2023.    Email #70    Aloha Everyone!   Covid struck our household again this week.  Scott tested positive on Monday.  He stayed home all week. He is doing much better and finally ventured out today donning a mask.  What a weird virus.  He didn’t get it from me back in November but got it now—go figure.  And we both had it a year ago.  I hope we are done for a while.   Each Island at the PCC does an annual devotional.  I attended the “Hawaii” devotional yesterday (Scott stayed home) and was excited about the theme which was: What have you done with my name?” The first three talks were given by students and were good talks about their family name and their first names they were given at birth.  One mentioned that he was expected to carry on his good name.  It made me reflect on our heritage and the good names we were given and honor.  I then reflected on the name I wear as a missionary and ...
Read more

Exit Interview

Image
Sunday February 26, 2023.    Email #73   Aloha Everyone!   Maybe it is part of the whole process but early in the week I had feelings of regret for things I did not do and should have done on our mission or could have done more diligently. I think the biggest regret is that I could have done more for the members of our ward this semester.  I didn’t get to know the students like I had the past semesters.  But then I scolded myself and tried to think of the good things I have done. It doesn’t do any good to dwell on the negative.  It helped my mind set to be honored at some “parties”.  It is tradition that you have a farewell party given by the department that you work for at the PCC.  Scott’s party was on Tuesday.  It was coupled with another senior missionary--Tom Kendall—who also works in that department.  It was a very nice event. Scott will be very missed by his co-workers.  He has been such a good influence on them....
Read more

Honolulu

Image
Sunday February 12, 2023.    Email #71    HAPPY BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY LUCY!   Aloha Everyone!   The shift has begun.  I am shifting mentally and emotionally to get ready to come home.  My thoughts are now centered around things we need to give away and/or sell. What do we mail home vs. throw away etc.   I have been making all kinds of necessary medical appointments—dentist, doctor, chiropractor, mammogram etc. to have upon returning home.   (I am holding off on the colonoscopy appointment a little longer  ) My heartstrings are being tugged at.  I am certain it will get much harder and sadder as time goes on.  I know that this is all a part of the process, it just came faster than expected.  We have a serious buyer for our car.  They will let us know for sure by tomorrow.  The good thing is that they will put a substantial portion down now but let us continue using it right up until we fly ho...
Read more