November 18, 2015 - Wednesday in Nauvoo

We had a marvelous cool Fall day as we began our morning.  The clouds were breaking up and intermittently allowing the sun to shine through.  The clouds were dark and threatening, but the sun kept peeking through those clouds as the wind stirred things up!

Our weekly training meeting started at 8:00am this morning and we called for a meeting with our steering committee for the dinner this Saturday at 7:30am.  We also got word to add to the number of meals, so now we stand at 150 to 175.  I think we will have a good day, on Saturday, and everyone is pretty excited about the possibilities.  And I am getting this extreme craving for turkey and mashed potatoes!  Go figure!  But I am trying very hard to NOT think about the pumpkin pie aspect of Thanksgiving.  This will be our second Thanksgiving away from home and the family dinner.... And mom and I are still in the midst of the "sweet fast" until our debts are resolved.

Later on this morning I got word that my cousin, Tom, passed away.  He was 64 years old and had been battling cancer for several years.  I was able to talk with him on a regular basis the last few years, but in the last week I had been able to chat with him twice, as he was put on Hospice last Wednesday.  

I am so very thankful for family.  The Gospel teaches us just how important family members are and how serious the Lord is about preserving the family unit.  So many religions teach that we are together in marriage "until death do us part", but the most incredible principle of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is that; families can be together forever! 

But, we have to do our individual parts and nourish and develop our personal testimonies of that principle...  And to our eternal benefit, the Lord has provided a way for those who did not have that opportunity in this life to accept and embrace these principles, to have that opportunity through vicarious ordinances done with the proper authority.   We pray for our family members to have these opportunities to hear the Gospel message and embrace those precious principles.... and we will continue to do so as we experience those desires from our extended families, and the willingness of those members who want to know more.

The balance of our day was spent grocery shopping and relaxing here at home.  P-days are great ways to recharge our batteries!  And today was EXTRA special!  In June 2016, we will welcome in our 20th grandchild, thanks to Amy and Josh!  We had in our mail box, here in the mission field, a letter showing their children in their individual pictures, and then mixed into that set of pictures was a sonogram picture.  What a way to "introduce" #20!  Congratulations precious family!  We can't wait to hold and cuddle these precious children who have arrived and who will be coming into our family!!!  #20 will make the third grandchild we will look forward to meeting in January 2017!   What a tender mercy, and three wonderful additional blessings for two senior missionaries!  Thank you for being part of our lives!!!