Another Wonderful Sabbath

I love Sundays. We belong to the Independence 3rd Ward, and it has been a wonderful experience. Our bishop, Bp. Cato, and his family (including his parents) are all converts from RLDS. Actually, they were part of a break off group from the original RLDS to the Remnant LDS. Bp. Cato is a unique man that does things spontaneously when he is moved by the spirit to do so (and you can be sure it will most likely be every Sunday). For instance, a couple of weeks ago Ann, myself and Sister Williams, that we work with at the Genealogical Library, all spoke in church. Bp. Cato had invited the Samoan Choir to sing that day. They were wonderful. I especially loved the song that they sang in their native tongue. There was a closing song on the program, but Bp. Cato stood up and said instead of the closing song he would like Sister So-and-So (don't remember name) and her daughter to come up and sing the closing song as they would be moving out of the ward. They came up, deciding on the way what to sing. Luckily, there was a pianist that day that could play. If not, I'm sure the bishop would have gone over to play -- he has done that before. The mother and her little 5-year old daughter sang all 4 verses of "How Great Thou Art." That little girl knew all four verses and really belted it out. The mother had a lovely voice and it was beautiful. Anyway, those are the type of things that happen on a very regular basis. You can be almost guaranteed that something on the program will be changed or added. It is always a very spiritual and touching experience. I love it.

Today was very special for me. I felt the Spirit so strongly in our testimony meeting and also in our Relief Society portion of testimony meeting. Then tonight we had a Fireside at the Independence Visitors Center, again being a testimony meeting of new converts. Amazing.

I'm grateful for the experience we're having of serving this mission. I love the young sisters and elders. We really love going to their mission and zone conferences. We love having the sisters over for dinner. And thanks to Ann, we always have a nice dinner for them. She is definitely the cook in this household. I'm grateful for her. I try to be as much help as I can, but she is the one with the motivation and determination to make sure it happens. I have to admit I'm eating better than I have for a few years -- with no credit to me.

Again, I love my mission and serving the Lord. What a blessing to know why we're here and where we're going. I've wasted lots of years, but I'm grateful that I can try to make up for that and to know my Heavenly Father loves me -- and He loves all of you also.