We RARELY watch television. We are just too busy for that. We did manage to watch the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional. After that, I now feel like it is officially the Christmas season.
Sadly, Glen's shoulder has not felt completely out of pain since his partial rotator cuff repair two years ago. Our mission doctor said he could take a look at it and see what he thinks about it.
We met him at his house just as he was getting home from working the night shift at Urgent Care. The diagnosis: sore shoulder; go see an orthopedic doctor.
Keep in mind it is the middle of the winter month of December and there are flowers flowering all over the place. Honestly, each day we see a new and different plant or flower or tree. It makes me so happy!! It is unreal how many different ones we see. For example, look at these beautiful flowers.
This is Steve, the handyman (one of several handymen the Church sends) that shows up at our house to make needed repairs or satisfy any requests we may have.
He repaired the bricks, installed a fan in our main floor bathroom, put on a new toilet paper holder in the same bathroom, fixed the grout in the upstairs bathroom and put a new door knob on the assistants' room door in the garage.
This was by far the BEST thing Steve did for me. He switched out the old, yucky, dirty-looking wash sink and installed this new, smooth sink.
The old one was all roughed up and it would leave little white specs on any clothes I hand washed in it. Frustrating!!
Glen gets up most Sunday mornings very early to get to one or another of the six stakes' missionary coordination meeting. One of those Sundays I decided it would probably be a good idea to get a talk prepared that I could give in Spanish.
I knew sooner or later we would be asked to speak in one (and probably all) of the Spanish wards and branches. I figured if I prepared ahead of time, then it would be easier on me when the time comes.
Since I had just prepared for zone training meeting, I thought I would go ahead and put all that study to good use and put together a talk on prayer. Then the more I thought about it, the more I felt like I should use the talk I'd given a few weeks earlier in the Vista YSA Ward.
It was entitled "Be Like Uncle Glen." I told about how Glen's nephew wanted to know what makes Glen so successful in life. The short version is Glen explained to him the reason is because he puts his faith, trust and confidence in the Savior. He keeps the commandments, including the Word of Wisdom. He attends church every Sunday and keeps the Sabbath day holy. He serves with all his heart, might, mind and strength. I included in that part about how he has been such a faithful home teacher all through the years, setting an example for his sons and other young men who have been his companions.
I tied in a couple of the recent conference talks like "Be Ambitious for Christ." I shared some learnings from our recent visit from Elder Oaks. Glen was happy his nephew had been watching him and looking up to him for years. Then he encouraged him to look up to our Savior as the ultimate role model and invited his nephew to make the necessary changes in his life to draw himself closer to Christ.
The more I thought about it, the more I just knew the Spanish people who already love Glen would probably enjoy the talk about him.
So I got up and got started on translating that talk into Spanish. Google translate was helping me along. That was my first step. To plow through it sentence by sentence using Google translate. Then I was going to have Glen help me fine tune it to make it sound more like the native speakers would say things.
It was interesting how I'd gotten the gentle nudge prompting that morning, because the afternoon of the very same Sunday, President Marin came to our home to sign something and handed us this piece of paper.
We had been asked to speak in a Spanish ward's sacrament meeting. When I saw they had me down as giving my testimony (because I have my memorized testimony I can give and I don't speak Spanish...), I told President Marin to tell the bishop I was working on a talk and I was going to be prepared to give a talk and to please not schedule anybody else to speak. We would be the speakers.
President Marin called back later that evening to tell us the youth speaker would no longer be speaking and just the two of us would take the whole meeting. Keep in mind that the Spanish wards and branches are so small that the sacrament portion takes hardly any time at all. That means there is a LOT of time for the speakers.
That is a good thing, because my talk was 20 minutes long. I worked on that thing for hours and hours and HOURS!!! After I got it translated, I would read it over and over to Glen as we were driving places and he would tell me how to change the wording to make it easier to understand.
I am happy and humbled to report that I did a really nice job on that talk. It was so intimidating being among native speakers, but I felt very prepared and I was very thankful I had worked so hard on learning Spanish before my mission. I still do not understand it much at all, unless an American speaks it. I still cannot communicate with Spanish speakers. I still cannot form sentences on my own. I still do not speak Spanish, yet I gave a talk in Spanish.
And the people understood what I said. One man was in tears as he told me it was exactly what their members needed to hear (at least I think that's what he said...as he talked mostly in Spanish to me). I did not realize that President Marin was in a room outside the chapel setting up for his classroom and was able to hear our talks. He assured me he could understand everything I said.
I walked out of there feeling very humbled as Glen pointed out to me that I had been given the gift of tongues to be able to speak so the people could understand. I loved it. I loved the talk. I loved the feeling. I loved the experience. I have loved feeling blessed to carry out the many assignments I am given.
(Gotta enjoy all the Christmas trees I can since we don't have one set up in our house.)
That same Sunday we went to a tiny Spanish branch's sacrament meeting and were given a 5-minute warning before we had to get up and share our testimonies. It kind of ruined it for me to be able to enjoy one of our newer missionaries' talk.
I was looking forward to hearing Hermana Thomas speak, but during her talk I was busy trying to go through my memorized testimony in my mind to see if I could remember it. It was very unnerving to be called on at the last minute.
We now have two sister missionaries in the mission with the last name of Thomas. When she first got here, I told everyone it was good she is a Spanish speaking missionary so she can be Hermana Thomas and I can be Sister Thomas and we can be distinguished that way.
This photo shows two things. Maybe three if you count this is picture proof that I am trying to keep my husband well fed.
The first thing is the fire roaring in the fireplace. We had a real cold spell (relatively speaking--not like a snow storm or anything--more like the temperature got down into the 50s) and the fire makes it feel like it's giving off warmth.
The second thing is the red fold-out card all the missionaries have that shows each day of the Light the World initiative. I love how the words show when it is placed in an elder's (or MP's) front pocket.
