May 31, 2015 - Sunday

Mom and I had this Sunday off from the Visitors Center, and we had a restful afternoon after our early morning meetings.  The day began with us driving the van pool of two additional couples to our Church Meetings in Nauvoo this morning.  We had three wonderful meetings and enjoyed the lessons taught on service, Family Home Evening, and the 5th Sunday combined lesson on wayward children. 

There are so many senior missionaries who have children who have separated themselves from the teachings of the Church,  and the Mission President felt he needed to address this issue.  So many members of the Church feel that if they stay true to the faith and fulfill their duties and responsibilities in the Church, that their wayward children will automatically be saved.  That is a false and misleading train of thought.  

Every person has their agency and they can choose the paths they wish to follow.  Heavenly Father lost 1/3 of His Children due to that agency in pre-mortal life.  It is such a sobering thought and yet with patience, love, prayer, service, and giving them their time and space to make course corrections, they can change.  We can't give up on any of our family members, ever, but we can be better at praying for them and helping them feel our love for them and giving them time to make those changes.

Mom and I made regular comments throughout the meetings on how grateful we are for our precious children and grandchildren.  We are so excited to see part of our family this coming week!  I have so many hugs built up inside me for this much anticipated reunion!!!

The Carthage missionary senior couples then quickly gathered back to Carthage for a potluck dinner together before those scheduled today had to report to the Visitors Center.  We all had a wonderful and quick dinner, but what a great feeling of camaraderie we felt!  I went over to help Elder Hansen open up and mom helped Sister Hansen clean up her kitchen.  It was a fun time together and we all had a great meal!  

Then, after the center closed, we all car-pooled back to Nauvoo for our Zone conference.  We had our monthly slideshow of all the missionaries out working the sites and preparing the mission for the summer crowds.  We then had our Zone meeting based on lessons learned from General Conference. 

We have had a wonderful day of instruction.  Mom and I have felt that the two trips into Nauvoo today were well worth the time spent.   We were able to get back home by 9:00pm, and that seems to be an early time now as we enter into the summer schedule.  Mom is doing so well with the new bedtime and she is still up at 5:00am or earlier each morning.