Be responsible, no excuses

           We were able to listen to Elder Lynn G. Robbins devotional given at BYU to the Education Week crowd. His message of being totally responsible for our actions without ducking behind excuses seemed to fit the events of our week.

Our soldiers came to Family Home Evening in modified combat gear so they would be prepared for the simulated war exercises. They aren’t required to wear their body armor or carry their weapons, but they do need to keep track of their gloves and eye glasses and all the other pieces. When they are fully decked out they could pass for human mules with gear strapped to every part of their body.

At our District Meeting was Sister Morillo was preparing for her first baptism of her mission. It was six days until the baptism and she already had the programs printed and all the details covered. She and Sister Hale return home next week. We will miss them both.

The training helped me look at prayer in a new way. Elder Stuart used the prayer of the brother of Jared when he took the six stones to the Lord as an example. He acknowledged his relationship with God beyond addressing Him as Heavenly Father and explained his need. He had already cut the stones from the mountain and shaped them to be used as lights before he asked the Lord to touch them to make them glow. I’ll review those verses and see if I can’t align my will more closely with my Father’s as I pray for each of you.

On Thursday, I taught Korean to the soldiers with the sisters and on Saturday we were teaching English to Koreans. My friend from the USO came without his granddaughter so he must have felt the instruction was good for him as well as his granddaughter. There were seven adults and four children that we taught in four groups. Afterwards, one of the sisters had brought homemade sushi rolls for a snack and almost everyone stayed and stayed just to visit. The sister missionaries had hoped to meet with one of the students alone and teach her a missionary discussion, but none of us had the heart to send any of the other Koreans away. The English class ended with a video of Elder Costa’s conference talk and Sister Hale’s testimony on the importance of families so all of them learned something about the Lord’s plan for us.

We thought we had a lot of rain and then it rained some more. If you look closely at the picture on the right the red path near the river disappears as the water covers it. The path is several feet above the normal water level.

Sunday, Sister Hale gave her final talk in Korea. It doesn’t seem real that she will be a student at BYU-Provo in less than ten days. She said they were told that the more time sister missionaries spend doing missionary work in the rain the more handsome and faithful their future husband will be. These two figure they have been soaked enough times to merit a prince in shiny armor. At district meeting they were asking for help to find investigators who want to change and on the way home they both utilized the train ride to visit with a Korean and invite them to learn more about Jesus Christ. Sister Rhoades hasn’t even been in Korea twelve weeks and carried on a conversation in the language for thirty minutes. She’s amazing! She trusts the Lord. She has had an awesome trainer who has taught her to trust the Lord can do His work. They don’t make excuses; they just go to work. (PLUS they buy me a little watermelon when they see a farmer selling them in the market. I give them a gold crown for that alone!)