Sundays whispering of the spirit

As I write this  I know my words will be inadequate of expression. I apologize in advance.

Last Sunday started out to be busy as I packed up the roast beef dinner I had prepared to take to church to feed our missionaries. We try to feed them once a month at the church. We don't live in the area of the church we have been assigned too. We have 4 sets of missionaries in the Cumberland Branch. 2 sets of seniors a set of Elders and asset of Sisters. Anyway, I am always running on thOse Sundays we take food. Now we have arrived at the church and have just finished plugging in the crockpots heading to Sacrement meeting. Bob ( Elder Donaldson) was in the hall and said," you need to go in the restroom". I asked him if my slip was showing he said no just go in the restroom you will understand when you get there. At this point I was hoping I hadn't caught my dress up in my undies.

Anyway, I headed to the restroom. As I opened the door I was greeted by a mother outraged with the behavior of her child (a 3 or 4 year old little girl). I knew at the moment of course why my dear husband sent me. I will give all the credit to the spirit as I gently touched the mothers arm and told her that was no way to talk to a child. I then asked if I could take the little girl for the day. The Mother simply rolled her eyes shrugged her shoulders and walked out. As I bent down and picked up Anna she hugged me so tight I sang to her I am a child of God. I then asked her if she would sit with me during church? Held her face in my hands and asked her to look at me. She had a hard time but after my coaxing she did. I then told her how much her Heavenly Father loved her. We then held hands and walked out of the restroom. I grabbed some Friends that were out on the table and we headed to Sacrament meeting.

I placed her on my lap and looked at friends magazine with her during announcements. She tried a few times to wiggle free ( she is use to running the isles during church) but not very hard. We folded our arms and bowed our head during the prayers and I sang during the songs. It was then that I found out it was the primary program. This wasn't planned but I walked her up and as the sunbeam teacher reached for Anna's hand I said, I will sit with her so I placed Anna on my lap and we did the primary program. I knew most of the songs except for 1 so I sang to Anna softly. Anna had a part which she got up and said two sounds and then froze. Hey we praised her she had went up more than most sunbeams did that day.  The meeting finished and I talked to Anna about going down to her Mom and giving her a hug but she didn't want too.  I asked Anna if she was ready to walk to Primary I let her off my lap and took her hand to go and she immediately laid on the floor. I sat back down and put her on my lap and held her and softly said, when you are ready to walk to class let me know and we will go. Shortly after (30seconds) the primary president came and asked Anna to walk to primary with her. Anna got off my lap and walked. It was a great site. Now for the real teaching of the spirit. I walked down to the Mother and hugged her, told her that I loved her and had been in her shoes before totally overwhelmed as a mother.I told her I didn't want to offend her and I was not judging her. I told her again that I loved her and she wasn't getting out of my hug til she hugged me back! Took her a minute or too but she finally did! I then took her face in my hands and asked her to look at me. She wouldn't or couldn't. I kept pressing her she had the same expression of No self-esteem as her daughter. She would look for a second and glance down. It was hard for her too look at me. I kept holding her face gently in my hands. Finally, after several tries she looked into my eyes it was here the Spirit taught us. I told her how much she was loved and how The Lord knew her and her struggles. How he wanted her to love herself so she could love her little girl. I asked her to tell herself every morning looking at herself in the mirror that she was loved and of great worth. We talked for about 5 minutes and then I gave her another hug this time she didn't have to be told to hug back.

As I have seen my own weakneses as a mother I pray my children will not suffer from my mistakes but know how truly valued and great they really are not only in my eyes but even more important in the eyes of their Heavenly Father. I pray I have never down anything to my children that would hurt their self esteem. 

I did not see the child or the mother the rest of the day as we were off to take care of missionary things  returning as church was over to feed the missionaries.

We have been asked to grandparent a single mother and her 3 children. She is trying to work herself out of the ghetto. She has made it one step up. Hopefully, we can help her get a better job.

I was grateful for the guidance of my husband and the spirit today.

It was nice to feel the workings of the spirit.

A tender moment

We have been working vigorously to get the employment center organized and up an running well! Soon the men will go "hunting" for great Companies for our clients to begin a 1st,2nd,or maybe 3rd career. I am learning much from the interview process and what my talented husband can pull out of the clients. He has such an ability to ask the right question to get to the persons inner core. Whether it be their greatest desire,fear or reality. They finally search to the very bottom of the bucket to get to the truth of what is holding them back. I know why he said his work was like going to church everyday!

We have met with those ill prepared to provide for themselves or their families. No education and only one skill which is threatened by health issues. Another is education poor with no focus. One wants to re- direct her career but is afraid to make the dollar sacrifice it requires to fulfill her dream. One resume was filled with TMI and we laughed so hard til we cried in the office. We meet the client this week. To say the least one of us ladies will be covering her and her history. I may have to sit on a tack to keep a straight face. We have had some tears of joy and sadness. Some come to Jesus meetings where the rubber hits the road. We and the Johns get along great!  The office needs tweaked and we need 2 more computers to be full functioning! The work is here and our goal is to provide training to leaders,youth and missionaries. 

Now for today tender moment. We had a young woman come to the church today, her name Jenna Matthews her husband Ryan. She said she had been praying and told the. Lord that she would come inside if their were cars. She knocked Elder Donaldson let her in and asked to come in and talk to his wife in the office after she had given him a quick synopsis of her story. I asked her to have a seat and asked her how we could help her. She preceded to tell me she had been wanting to return to church. In her mid- twenties she had read some literature that said the church believed such and such and knew if they did the church wasn't true. So in her mid- twenties she wrote to have her name removed from the records of the church. She has been fasting,praying and reading exercising faith that The Lord would soften her husbands heart towards the church. Today, she asked to have the missionaries. She is a bit nervous because her husband doesn't like change or surprise. I suggested that she leave hints around like her scriptures on the sofa table opened to a verse. Subscribe to the ensign. Watch conference this weekend. Invite the missionaries for dinner. We talked for over an hour,shared a beautiful prayer that touched her and exchanged information. She left with tears in her eyes and a hug of warmth.

Employment Center

Working in the employment Center and with Humanitarian Services has been a wonderful experience.

We are cleaning up the files! Oh Goodness!

Visiting Kentucky

The country side is filled with wonderful things. Things we sometimes take for granted in our daily lives.

This past week we took some time to revisit our original ward in Tompkinsville to attend the Watermelon Festival and see the people that we  originally worked with when we were assigned there. We left on Friday afternoon to stay in Red Boiling Springs at a little bed & breakfast named the Amour Hotel.

What a treat. The Smith family was holding a small family reunion and they had a musical group in their family that included a friend. From about 8pm until 10pm these two played the guitar and banjo and entertained us to the delight of everyone.  It was a classic scene on the front porch sitting around listening to the picking and strumming and joining in song.    

One week down

Nashville welcomed us with rain and cockroaches! Yeah! That is what we thought, too! We have meant with some nice people and the branch here is definitely on a higher spiritual plain the Tompkinsville! The Cumberland Branch has a very high influx from the Vanderbilt University! 

We miss our friends that we have made in T-ville! Miss Lois and her beautiful flowers!

Living in this apt. Is like a prison....no view but asphalt!

It is going to be a very long countdown. People move at their own speed here! 

We are in shock!

After getting things all arranged and the lease signed to stay here in Tompkinsville! We hadn't really stopped our happy dance! The new Mission President who I haven't met yet called and asked to speak with us!  We called back on the speaker phone and he asked us to transfer to Nashville! I wanted to say wow....wait a minute we just got things settled here so we could get back to work!   We had so many things on our list to do still. The live nativity scene and old time Carolers working with the other churches to make it a community success! Also wanted to get Carols house repaired. We were making progress with the Lafayette FHE group. We have new families that have moved into our ward. We wanted to welcome them and help them get settled. We had the Watermelon Festival in a month and the questionnaire. We hoped to start a FHE group in Burkesville by Christmas. So many other communities projects to help spruce up the town! 

We are unsure of our new assignment only that we will be in Nashville. We will find out more on Monday. 

We are very sad to leave! We have made some great friends in our short time! Tompkinsville will always have a special place in our hearts! 

I will miss my Lois and so many others! 

WE MISS OUR BEAUTIFUL COUNTRYSIDE AND LITTLE COTTAGE ALREADY!

See my Lilly girl