5-3-25 Called to Serve Him..........
Retired Life. Sunday.
First, here, have a Jesus Picture! Happy Sabbath!
We attended the Spanish Congregation for the first time today. And took a picture of the two Sister Missionaries that also serve in the Branch. Great missionaries. Great people! This is going to be a fun assignment. I did OK with my testimony, even in Spanish. Hanna, well, she really wanted to bear her testimony in Spanish. So she said it into Google Translate in English, translated it into Spanish, printed it out, and then memorized it. Great effort! She did well and the folks there loved it and appreciated her effort a lot. We're off to a good start.
After church ended, we found a Cyber Truck in the parking lot. And I couldn't help myself but take pictures of my Gladiator right next to it. Cyber Truck is a lot bigger than it looks. But I still like the design and color of my truck better. If we could only incorporate the two??
It was a great warm day out, so we broke the world record and drove into the Stewart Highland's in the month of April. First time ever. Only months we haven't been there now are January, February and March. I reinstalled the game camera and loaded the five yellowjacket traps up with fresh bait. Two of them already had huge queens in them. The boys enjoyed their freedom.
Back home, we did some of our missionary studies, ate some pudding, and called it a day. Highlands was nice. We should have brought our gear up and spent the night. Maybe next time.
Retired Life. Monday.
Kind of P Day. But Senior missionaries can take personal time any time they want. So just Kinda.
We spent the morning doing up our schedule for the next two weeks. And purchased spanish scriptures and hymn book. And then did our reading and studying.
In the evening, we drove to the Mission Home and met with about a dozen other Senior Missionaries for a dinner and a message. It was great to associate with these other missionaries and helps us from being too isolated. They took a bunch of pictures, which I was going to steal and post here, but they ain't available yet. I'll post them another day. Maybe even tomorrow.
Instead, I had AI create one. It isn't too far off really. Which ones are Hanna and me?
Retired Life. Tuesday.
The morning was spent planning our week, creating menus, preparing a shopping list, ordering it on line, walking the boys (after the rain stopped).
In the afternoon, we ran into Spokane. Went to the vet's office to get tick and flea protection for Frivvy and Gus. (I found a tick on Frivvy last week...ugh...). To the cleaners to pick up my nice-looking white shirts. And then we went to a lesson with the Sister Missionaries. Dinner at that Boston place. Picked up the groceries. Then went out to find some more folks to teach. Found one and taught him a lesson on trials and tribulations. Both of the folks we taught are very interested in going to the temple and we will spend time the next while teaching them lessons and preparing them for that.
We met a dog named Donald Trump (goes by Donny). He even kind of looked like him. And Donny didn't like us much.
And I got the pictures taken of last nights Senior Missionary get together. Enjoy. (Plus there's an extra one of a blooming tree, I think it was at the church.)
We already have a great love for the folks we worked with tonight. Great people. Great start to our mission.
As for the Senior Missionaries picture. it is taken in front of the now famous willow tree. Elder Palmer, who served here in Spokane as the Mission President and now is a General Authority, talked about this particular willow tree in his General Conference talk a few weeks ago. The tree is now famous. Our Mission President says they catch folks regularly taking selfies by the tree. If you missed the talk, go back and read it. It is very relevant to the work we are doing right now as missionaries.
We totally didn't get study time today. We'll need to work on that.
Today's fun thing: I loaded the "LoseIt" app. It really does work. I take a picture of a plate of food, and it tells me how many calories, carbs, protein, etc. I'm about to eat. Amazing! I tested it on a bowl of dog food. And it passed. It identified it as dog food and told me how many calories were in it, etc.! And it made me giggle that some other sarcastic dude is just like me and put dog food in their data base!
Retired Life. Wednesday.
Here, have a picture of us in our missionary outfits! And bonus. A nice Palouse sunset picture as well.
Routine missionary day. In the morning we did our studies and preparations. Afternoon (and part of the evening) we called 14 Stewards (aka missionary apartment inspectors), introduced ourselves, checked on how things were going, and chatted a bit. Fun times. Several of them have been on their own missions and wanted to talk about that. One lives in Kooskia and was surprised that we wanted to come visit him. But hey, we love road trips, right? Beautiful country down there too.
In the evening, we set out to visit some members of the congregation that we had been asked to visit. Caught one guy home and set up a time to come back. He was quite busy. And no one was at the other house. Appears we have three folks/family ready to be taught lessons going forward. Success!
Retired Life. Thursday.
We'll be busy the next two mornings, so we changed "old people go out to breakfast" day to today. Red Tail. Very competitive games of Rummy. (No worries, we still get along.) The trip included filling up with cheap Idaho gas and hiking with the boys on the Trail of the CDA. Also, here, have a picture of a deer. Proof that the game camera at the Highland's is working once again. Woo Hoo!
In the morning block of time, we did our daily studying.
In the evening, well, our appointment rescheduled so we didn't get to teach the lesson we prepared. (It's OK. We can teach it next time...) And so, missionary work, if we're not teaching someone, then we should be looking for someone to teach. So we dropped by several families that are on our list to check on. No one was home. And one didn't have a complete address, so we couldn't find them. Yup. Some nights just go like that.
So, where is Frivolous???
Oh.....................
Retired Life. Friday.
We had District Council in the morning. Efforts to get to know the younger missionaries last week was for naught. They had transfers this week, so there were a lot of new faces today.
In the afternoon, we went back home for lunch, do our studying, and a short nap. Gus missed me.
Finally, the first picture was taken from the Stewart Highland's. Can you tell what animal that is grazing around our camping spot?
Retired Life. Saturday.
We spent the morning in the temple for our niece's sealing. And then a family luncheon.
In the afternoon, we did our studies. And Del and Ella came over for an early dinner and to visit. (We were too busy talking to take pictures...)
We used to manage our life so we went "to town" once a week. But the last two days, we have gone to town twice a day. We're going to try to keep it to once a day, we'll see how that goes.
The first picture is of what the boys do any time we eat. They climb under our feet.
And the last picture includes us with Hanna's siblings at the luncheon.
Several people have asked us lately how the Spanish is coming. The answer: Other than during church meetings, we really haven't had to use it. We are supposed to be serving these Latino folks, but they are trying to serve us. They tell us they are touched by the fact that we care enough about them to come to their congregation and try to talk to them, from the pulpit, in their language. And then they insist that they help us by speaking English with us. Which many times is better than my Spanish. Regardless, I am trying to get back on top of Spanish. Listening to General Conference talks in Spanish, doing my studies in Spanish, and praying in Spanish. Comprehension should return at some point, right?
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