August 9, 2015 - Sunday in Carthage

This was a wonderful day of rest today!  Yea!  We left Carthage at about 7:00am for our meetings in Nauvoo.  Our Sacrament Meeting was wonderful and so were the lessons in Sunday School and Priesthood and Relief Society.  There was a sweet Spirit today in each one of our meetings.

Mom and I then took a leisurely drive back to Carthage after the meetings.  It is our Sunday off, and we were not in any hurry as we enjoyed our ride home together.  We broke our weekly Sunday Fast and had our favorite Sunday meal.  That's right, we had breakfast consisting of eggs, pancakes, potatoes and bacon!  Of course the pancakes had to have peanut butter, syrup and whipped cream on them!

Then, we had a relaxing afternoon.  I did hear from my sister, Jackie, and was informed in the text message that her daughter had been in a car accident.  I am hoping to hear more from her when details are available.  

We also got to Skype with our precious Macie this afternoon.  Josie and Tom were looking so good and each of the children were happy and excited to talk with us.  We sure miss our families!  Mom also got to talk to Amy and Ali this afternoon so it has been a wonderful day of connecting with our precious family members!  Then later this evening Bob texted us a picture of Faith and Macie together in this life for the first time!  I wish I knew how to take a picture that has been texted to me and download it on this blog!.....

Then we had a slide show and Zone conference back in Nauvoo this evening.  It was all centered around the Young Performing Missionaries.  We were taught about some of their backgrounds and heard some of their testimonies before they sang a closing song to us.  It was wonderful to be involved with them this summer and to feel of the powerful testimonies they each have and shared tonight.  Of course I had to take a picture;

Here they are after singing to us.  We were all pretty emotional.  I hope that some of them will keep in touch with mom and I.  The Sathre's, Brown's and Gratton's can all probably guess which ones we got the closest to!

This is such a clear shot of them as they were just finishing their song.  In spite of their tears, they sang strong and vibrant.  It was such an impressive group of young people with their entire lives straight ahead of them!

I did get one message loud and clear from our mission president tonight as he concluded the program.  He said, in essence, there is a marvelous feeling of love and joy that comes from serving with wonderful people, but as marvelous as that is, the remarkable feelings we internalize from working with such wonderful people will keep us moving forward and, perhaps, we will and can work hard to have these wonderful feelings with as many folks as we come in contact with during the entire course of our lives.... only because we have a common thread of the joy that living and magnifying the Gospel of Jesus Christ can bring.  

So, this joy doesn't stop at the end of the summer, it does not have to stop when we are released from callings, and it doesn't stop when precious friends move away.  At least, we don't have to let that love and joy fade away if we will just stay true and faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ,  and find that love and joy with others we meet along the pathways of this mortal existence.  The experiences are there for us.  We just need to be looking for them, and living our lives in such a way as to take advantage of them as they come.