10 June 2018

Seems like I just posted and another week has already gone by.  Yesterday was a busy and great Sabbath. We attended three sacrament meetings and two ward councils, plus scripture study for the YSA at the Tuioti family home in Monterey. A daughter just returned from the Philippine's mission and spoke in church, and she is returning to BYU-Hawaii to school. Another daughter and son are finishing up at BYU-Idaho. He is a new counselor in the YSA ward. A photo of them is below. The weather here has remained cool, lingering in the 60's as cold ocean breezes have kept the temperatures down and the days have been a mixture of sunshine and overcast. The residence say this is how Monterey is during the summer. But in late summer and fall (Sept-Nov) is supposed to be the nicest Indian summer weather. Time will tell. This military relations mission is quite different from our last two in that there is no set routine or tasks that must be done each week. We are left to our own to find people to minister to, and during the day most are so busy with their studies at DLI or NPS that it is hard to find families at home - only on weekends. The children are out of school for the summer and families are off doing things. However, this Tuesday two important change of commands are coming up at POM - the DLI commander and Garrison (POM) commander - which we look forward to attending. On Thursday, we are attending the DLI graduation for some of our LDS students, and again on Friday one or two of our LDS are graduating from NPS. Some of these students have become good friends and have been faithful in their religious activities. It is always bitter-sweet to see them move on, but we remember our years in the military and how it was to always be moving every two-three years, and we know it is just how things go. We are starting a new initiative in the mission around family history and temple work. It is called "Family Matters," and it focuses on helping people discover their ancestors by being involved in family history work. As family history consultants help do a little initial research for these people found by missionaries and members, it gives the opportunity for missionaries to present to them a partial fan chart of their ancestors and talk about the importance of families in a gospel context and why LDS build temples and how families can be sealed together forever. As our 50th marriage anniversary approaches (28 June), our own children and their families are on our mind. We are grateful for the blessing of family. We spent a long time in our early years together sowing and cultivating seeds of our posterity. All of that time was spent moving about in the military. It was not easy work growing a family. But as we see the results of our labors, we know it was worth it. Along the way we have had some worrisome and even painful times, but it is but a microcosm of what our Father in Heaven has experienced as children exercise their agency and make decisions. We love all our children-grandchildren, and our hope is that they ultimately all become good fruit that we can harvest for eternity.