January 24, 2016 - Sunday in Nauvoo

This Sabbath day began with our morning devotional and prayers.  As we got ready for our meetings this morning, the skies looked clear and the temperatures were in the mid 20's.  We walked to the Stake Center and it was a very nice walk.  I am enjoying the promise of Spring!  Maybe a little early, but it seems to be coming to this area.  Unlike the 42 inches of snow in the Washington, DC area!

Our Sacrament meeting was the first meeting that the new president was presiding.  He is making the effort to meet all the missionaries in their respective homes.  That will be a monumental effort but it is impressive that he and his wife are making the attempt.  We have not really talked with him even though we have been in the Visitors Center 4 out of the last 7 days.  

We were assigned to work in the Visitors Center today.  We had the early shift from 11:00am until 2:00pm.  We had 3 visitors during this time and 2 out of the 3 took tours and got acquainted with the area.  We then gave them maps and made several suggestions of sites to go and visit.  Our shift ended at 2:00pm when our relief missionaries arrived.  Then we walked back to our little cottage and had our breakfast for dinner meal and spent the afternoon preparing next week's Sunday School lesson.  I also got to work on a few more John Hinkle stories and knitting a few more layers of Hayley's hat. 

It has been a quiet and reflective day.  We think about our precious family members and enjoy our regular communications with them.  Mom keeps in touch with PopPop every week and calls her sister, Julie, on a regular basis.  The family is the most important and basic unit in the Church.  There are no better stewards over the family than the parents.  Evil designs are creeping into the family from every angle and the role of the watchman on the tower is becoming more critical each day.  

Children and many adult family members are being swept away by the Adversary's unrelenting wave of deception.  Good is made to look bad and bad is made to look so enticingly good. We are getting to the point where we need to be ever more vigilant in what the family is being exposed to and influenced by.  Even those institutions we have felt the most confident in seem to be changing colors on us before our eyes.   

We miss being around our family.  Those times that we had discussing current events and happenings in our lives have been somewhat suspended for a season, at least for these two senior missionaries!  Mom and I have spent some time reflecting on our roles as parents over the last few weeks.  We have picked out some of the things that seemed to work for us as parents in getting through the maze of life, and have been sharing those things with our children.  And we know that the things we experienced that worked for us, may need to be put into an even sharper focus for what is being swept down on this new generation.  

We are very thankful for the parents of our grandchildren!  Helping these children through the challenges they have today is a monumental task!  Our love and our prayers are with you every single day.  Our focus as a family is not just in our faith, but how we exercise that faith as we make it our way of life and our preparation as a family for glorious things to come!