Always in the Middle (#43)

In President Uchtdorf’s July first presidency message he observed, “By many world calendars, July marks the middle of the year. While the beginnings and endings of things are celebrated and remembered, the middle of things often goes unnoticed.

Beginnings are times for making resolutions, for creating plans, for bursts of energy. Endings are times for winding down and may involve feelings of completion or loss. But with the proper outlook, considering ourselves as in the middle of things can help us not only to understand life a little better but also to live it a little more meaningfully.”  

Well, it’s July, and we are actually right in the middle of our mission in Micronesia Guam.  July 3rd was our “hump” day.   We have been in the mission field for 9 months, and we have 9 months to go. As we think back over the last 9 months we find that we have been blessed with good health, lots of energy, and the ability to see what needs to be done here in Palau.

Is the “hump day” the high point of the mission with everything else just falling action, or is it just the middle as President Uchtdorf says? Whichever it may be, we plan to keep working like we have in the past 9 months, and finding the joy of service here.

We have been grateful for the opportunity to get to know, work with, and pray for the members here. We love being able to associate with the elders, and to have been a part of their missions.

Last Sunday we attended a baptism and had to wait 30 minutes while the person doing the baptism tried to locate some white pants to wear. Sister Johnsen took a look at the baptismal clothes and decided to wash, reorganize, and inventory them so that each organization would have a list of what was available, and in what sizes.

We also found out this week that we might be able to assist President Kesolei in his branch office by organizing some of his files. We hope that when we are finished it will be a good thing, and that we won’t have completely messed up his system. We have been going through old records and have actually found some baptismal information that no one knew was there. Even the office in Guam didn’t have the information, so it is a huge blessing to have started this project. We plan to work on it pretty hard this week, and take records to Guam that we can’t identity.

We had a branch cleanup day on Saturday and we learned that the 25 gallons of paint that is stored at the back of the shed would not be used as part of the repainting done next year. We decided to open it up this week and see if it is any good and try to do some touch up on the building where the paint is peeling—walls and doors, inside and out.  Apparently they are hoping to get some new paint on the building that does better than this paint.

On Saturday night we got a call to ask us to speak in Sacrament meeting on missionary work. Sister Johnsen spoke about the importance of missionary work and quoted Elder Holland in his talk, “We Are All Enlisted,” in the October 2011 conference. He said, “What greater gift could grandparents give their posterity than to say by deed as well as by word, “In this family we serve missions.” Sister Johnsen related a story that Jocelyn told her recently about how Maddie was asking when grandma and grandpa were going to be home. Jocelyn explained to her about missions and how important they were and expressed some of the ideas from Elder Holland’s talk. After that Maddie told her, “When I grow up, I want to serve a mission!”

We have another busy week ahead, but we wanted to pause and thank everyone who has prayed for us, and stayed with us during the first half of our mission! Sulang!