Week ending April 22 2012

Last Sunday we had a wonderful evening with Anjali, her son and mother in law. The Lord does guide you in your life and I know now why I didn’t insist that Anjali and her family  come to dinner here but went to her place instead. Her mother in law is a vegetarian in the strictest form.  She does not go out to eat because she is not sure if they would have used eggs or any dairy products in any of their cooking.  We tried many new Indian dishes and loved them all.  We could even understand most of what was spoken.  Her mother in law has been lonely because Anjali is gone all day and most evenings when she goes from work to the hospital.  At home in India her mother in law has many friends and goes out on her own.  Here she will not go places alone except to the nearest grocery store she can walk to.  She has no friends here to visit with and so she kept saying that we must come back at least once a month.  Ravi was moved to another hospital this week where he is getting more services so hopefully he will be able to recover and able to return to his home sooner.  We are glad we have been able to be friends with them.

Monday morning and training began in earnest.  I was glad the spirit was with us that we were able to remember lots of what we learned the previous visit for those three days.  Sister Wallace is having major tooth problems and was in lots of pain and also at different dentists all week and so I was left alone in the office to continue on those things she had taught me.  I did O.K. and was guided by the spirit on more than one occasion to go back and look at something again.  Then I discovered I had left one step of the process out.  Sister Wallace also seemed to come in just when I felt I was at a dead end to get me started again or tell me what to do next.  It was a busy week with lots of new things to learn.  I love some of my jobs and find that answering the phone is one part of the job I find most difficult.  Sometimes it is because I do not know the answers or whom to direct the call to and sometimes it is in not understanding what they are saying. 

Bill has been busy learning how to send letters and packets of information to newly called missionaries, how to prepare going home packets for those leaving, and how to handle travel for the Mission President and his wife and the Assistants between Scotland and Ireland.  He gets to spend a lot more time on the computer which he enjoys.  He’s also spent time with Sister Query going through old files on the computer and deleting them or organizing them in a way that they can more easily be found.  We have both commented on how blessed we have been by the spirit helping us learn these new skills.

Saturday was a rainy forecast and so we decided to do our shopping and then stay home in the morning and prepare for the week.  That was good because it took all morning to do that.  We had a wedding to attend at Falkirk in the afternoon.  The couple had been living together.  They needed to get married so Amanda could be baptized.  Steve is not quite ready for that step.  The Branch members helped with different things like the dress, flowers, luncheon etc. because they couldn’t afford it.  We found out how different weddings here are than back home.  They didn’t play the usual wedding songs but hymns.  They had two speakers talk about the importance of marriage and then another read a love poem.  The Missionary who taught the couple walked Amanda down the aisle since her father wasn’t there.  He also was the wedding planner.  Steve and the two elders were dressed in kilts.  Everyone is invited to the wedding but only some to the reception.  I think we crashed the reception assuming that since we were asked to bring sandwiches that meant we were invited to the reception.  We will know better next time.  I am not sure if all weddings will be exactly like this one or not, but at least we have learned that the custom is all are invited to the wedding but not the reception.

After Sacrament meeting today we received training from a couple from England over the AUF File Project for the United Kingdom.  AUF stands for Address Unknown File, and President Griffiths asked us if we would take that assignment last December.  Today we learned how much more we should be doing with the program.  Hopefully we can get it working well here in this mission now that we are in the office and are in contact with missionaries more often.

After church we stayed for Amanda’s baptism.  It was a nice service.  Amanda was extremely nervous because she does not like water, but everything went great.  Steve is not ready to make that step yet.  Hopefully he will be soon.

It has been a very different week.  We have definitely felt the spirit more in the work we have done this week in helping us remember some of the things we have been taught.  Hopefully this one last week with the sisters will give us the skills necessary to carry on next week when they finish their mission.