A Special Sealing

 Sunday September 18, 2022.   Email #50.  Happy Birthday Wells! 

 

Aloha Everyone!

 

There is good news and bad news.  The good news is that a missionary couple who just went home gave us a cooler to use in our upstairs area.  It isn’t big enough to cool the whole space but will at least help with the office area.  We also got an upright vacuum from them.  I don’t have to use my “toy” vacuum any more.  I’m thankful for that!  This new vacuum is just OK, but much better than our other one. 

The bad news is that because of unforeseen circumstances (a very long story), we now must keep all eight doors always open in our store.  I think it made our store 10 degrees hotter than before when we only had one door (of the double set) open. This new rule happened on Friday.  I was sweating most of the day even using my neck fan.  I am so tired of sweating and being hot.  I know that a little cooler weather is around the corner, but that corner might be very wide.  

 

I had the opportunity to take a student to Kaneohe (45 minutes away) Tuesday morning to get his learner’s permit.  If he took the bus, he would miss his first class on campus, so he asked for my help.  We had a lovely conversation both directions.  He is from the Philippines, and I love having the opportunity to learn more about their culture and life stories.  He was very grateful to me.  I was grateful that he felt like he could ask me to help him. 

 

Scott and I have spent a lot of time lately on the Monday night ukulele class. My goal is to do everything electronically and not deal with making mass paper copies each month as handouts.  Another senior missionary has been helping and has also put in a lot of time. I could not do this (or so many other things) without Scott’s help.  I’m so thankful to have him by my side.  It’s been nice to have this and our district assignment that we can work on together since we don’t work together at the PCC.  There are times that I feel stressed about the ukulele class and wish I could have a break but then something happens to let me know that it is worth continuing. This nice email from a senior missionary this week is an example:

 

Aloha, Sister Bleak! Elder Brock here!

What a fun class you put on last night!

While I am not interested in learning to play the ukulele right now, Sister Brock is very keen to learn and be a part of your group.

It really was fun to see the 25 or 30 senior missionaries gathered last night to socialize and play!

THANK YOU for taking that on, and sharing your talent, It can’t be easy!

 

Along those lines… I work with and report to, Eddie Maiava, who is a professional Hawaiian musician, specializing in the ukulele and guitar.

When I told Eddie of my experience last night, his eye sparkled and he said he’d like to attend your class one night.

I have Cc’d Eddie here so you can contact him or he can contact you. You’d not regret having a professional like Eddie put on a short clinic or jut be around to answer questions!

Please let me know if I can help make introductions…

 

I have contacted Brother Maiava and I hope that he will agree to be a guest teacher one night at the class. 

 

We attended the sealing ceremony for Kiran and Priyanka Gubbala (from India) Saturday morning. They are members of our ward.  It was very special and we are so thankful that they invited us to attend.  They didn’t have any family there (which is common) but they had lots of friends and I loved seeing all these students from India in their whites with the contrast of very dark skin.  It was a beautiful sight! I felt such gratitude and happiness coming from this darling couple.  Kiran always has a smile on his face and is such a positive, happy person.  They have been married for a while now (two years?) but the day of their sealing is really what they count as their wedding day.  This ceremony is important to so many couples here and they anticipate it with much excitement and happiness.   When the sealer told the couple that they could kiss across the alter, Priyanka hesitated for a long time.  PDA is not an acceptable thing to do in India. She finally gave him a little peck.  I felt sorry for her to be put in a position of honoring her culture and doing the expected thing in her new culture.  There are so many adjustments for these young people.  It was a special occasion for us. 

 

We were given a special gift today by one of the students who we have been helping on occasion and have become her “parents”.  Her mother sent Scott and I shirts from Indonesia to thank us for helping her daughter here at BYU.  She bought Scott’s shirt but made mine out of the same fabric.  They are beautiful. 

 

We are truly blessed.  We are truly happy.  We are truly grateful.  Thank you for your constant love and support. 

 

 

Much love,

Sister Bleak, Mom, Grandma

 

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

*We were given a nice portable AC unit to use upstairs and a “real” vacuum from the Gasts.

*I needed a certain sized piece of cardboard for our new cooler and forgot to take a box home from work.  Knowing that they are taken away each night, I walked into the back room the next day expecting to be disappointed. But there was one perfect sized one (and only one)  not thrown away from the day before.  

*I felt impressed to continue teaching “The Cause of Christ” song in ukulele class feeling like we would be asked to perform it.  We were asked to play it this coming Tuesday.

*I felt the spirit in the temple as we witnessed the sealing.

*I was helping the RS president with something and called her right when she was meeting with the bishop and needed the information.

 

 

PS: We worked at the luau Thursday night and Napoleon Dynamite and his sidekick Pedro came to that Luau.  They were very nice and willing to let us take their pictures.