18 January 2016

Another week has gone by and it's been a wonderful week.  We have so far two part member families we are reading the Book of Mormon with and explaining as we read, this has helped especially the non-member spouse to understand the scriptures.

On Saturday we were with the Markut family, the husband is being taught by the Elders.  After reading we visited then  invited the family to come to church on Sunday as we were going to visit that ward anyway.  The husband said he wanted to finish the Book of Mormon before he went to church, we explained to him the importance of attending at least Sacrament meeting.  He told us he would think about it and let us know that night.  He is one person who,when he gives his word he will follow through.  He's over come a lot of things in his life including Word of Wisdom challenges.

Ray received a call from him Saturday night telling us they would be at Sacrament meeting which they were, we met them at the Church building and sat with them.  Many ward members came up tot them afterwards to welcome them as they know many of their neighbors and love the area they live in.

Also on Saturday night, we had the Plett's over for dinner and invited Ray's oldest son, Rod and his wife Stephanie as Steve and Rod were good friends when they lived in Ferron, Utah.  They told of stories of their teenage years, we laughed so much.  Steve and his wife Tami have both gone through a divorce an have gone inactive.  Steve worked for Ray in his grocery store in Ferron Utah as a teenage and loved Ray, he taught him how to work and be loyal to the customers.  So when we moved last June to Lehi, we discovered Steve lived around the corner from us.  They both accepted callings this past week, he loves dutch oven cooking and will be the cook for the stake youth this summer on Trek.  Tami accepted a call to serve on the Compassionate Service Committee.  

The other blessing we experienced this week was with our young couple, Steggell's who has a darling 16 month old son is on the move constantly.  The wife is taking the missionary lessons from the Elders, her husband is a member and has been on a mission, in fact he knows Ray's cousins in Spanish Fork.  The husband has not wanted to pray vocally with his wife or with the Elders until the other night when we had finished reading in the Book of Mormon and Ray turned it over to him to call on someone to pray, he said he would pray, his wife was surprised and said, "Really?"  He gave a beautiful prayer.

We also met a few others, one in particular is a sculptor, he did the bust of President Kimball which is in the Conference Center and a couple of pieces on Temple Square as well as others.  He has a studio with Dennis Smith, another famous LDS sculptor, he invited to take us on a tour of the studio which we are going to take him up on.  He has just gone through a divorce and his two daughters who are over 18 are living with him.  Very enjoyable visit with him.

We had Zone Training on Friday, met the other Senior couples in our Zone.  This week we have a World Wide Missionary Conference on Wednesday, Zone Conference with our mission president on Thursday and in between meetings with bishops and Stake President and families as well as a couple of family activities.

As senior missionaries, our rules are a bit different from the young elders and sisters.  In the MTC and our mission, they have set three priorities which are: 1. Our health  2. Family  3. Mission.