A note to two full-time missionaries

Hello Sister Payne and Elder Payne,

Well, now there are two of you!  Maybe I'll address you by your missionary titles, at least for a while.  I'm proud of you both and will be forever grateful for your willingness to serve the Lord, and for your patience and diligence when it is not what you had expected or hoped for.  I often have to remind myself to follow the counsel on Mark's plaque: Be still and let God be God.  He knows what he's doing and doesn't need my suggestions or complaints.  But that sure can be difficult.

I hope you both have a great day tomorrow!

Love,

Dad

Good day.  I worked a lot to finish getting things ready for Board meeting tomorrow, but somehow it seemed like I couldn't finish the projects I was working on.  I've got until 3:00 tomorrow, but I really wanted to get the info to them beforehand.  I guess we'll have to make do with what is done already.

Mark started his missionary training today.  Six weeks of Zoom is going to be a challenge.  He received his Spanish-language missionary name tag today and is so pleased to wear it.  Last night I stayed up with Julie until almost midnight (she stayed up much later) to make some signs to "welcome" Mark to the MTC.  There are signs pointing to the cafeteria (up the stairs) and language training (down the stairs).  She also made a Spanish-language sign of one of Mark's favorite scriptures, "Be still and know that I am God."  That was such a thoughtful thing to do.  It took the kids about 45 seconds this morning to find them.  So fun.

We talked to Jessie at lunchtime today.  That was so fun!  Turns out the man they're teaching in Spain has already been baptized.  They learned this when they tracked down the Elders in Madrid to pass on the referral.  I was wondering if something fishy was going on.  I'm just glad this turned out to be harmless, not an online predator.  Still, it has to be disappointing for Jessie and her companion.  She and Sister Jolley also posted a great, fun introductory video of themselves on Facebook.

This evening I played a couple games of matching with Camilla then fell asleep while reading Look Out, He's Behind You for a third time.

Thankful: Julie went to Costco today.  I am so thankful for the tremendous temporal blessings we have.  When we need something, we get it.  We don't have to count our pennies to decide whether to get needed item A or needed item B.  If something is on sale, we can get a lot of it.  If something looks particularly tasty, we can choose whether or not to buy it based on what we want.  This is so different from the experience I had growing up.  And during this pandemic with unemployment now running over 14%, the highest since the Great Depression, there are so many people who don't have this luxury.  I hope I never take these blessings for granted, and especially that I don't become proud in my comparative wealth.

Ministering: Bryce Prior popped in my mind the other day, so I sent him a message today just to say hi and check on his family.  They're doing well.  It's nice to be able to send a quick text message to keep in touch with others in a casual way.

More later…

Looking good in the name tag!

This is not the MTC experience I had!