Dear Family,
Thank you so much - We enjoyed the updates of the pictures on your blogs and the phone calls. We really miss the family, but it is reassuring to see and hear that every one is doing well. All you Mom's and Dad's are doing a great job with your families. We are honored to be the Mom & Dad and/or the Nonna and Papa of this family.
Friday was missionary interviews in Corpus Christi, which is a long grueling day for President Miller, who was already suffering with a cold. After the interviews, we went with them to Johnny Carino's, for some good Italian cuisine. They asked us to host an activity for the all the missionaries in Sinton and Corpus Christi zones on Halloween so that they will not be stuck in their apartments as they are not to proselyte that evening.
During the interviews, the zone leaders have training sessions for the missionaries that await their interview. This was an interesting experience for us - one of activities was to write down two stewardship interviews with Heavenly Father. 1st as if you were actually accounting for mission thus far it had room for a dialogue between Him and you (Father...You...Father... You...3-4 times), and 2nd., as you would want the interview to be. This really started us thinking. It is a good exercise for all of us to go through regarding our own stewardships. Another part that impressed us was the words of Ammon as recorded in Alma 26:22. In short, it says: repentance, faith, good works, continuous prayer, result in knowing mysteries of God, to reveal things,and to bring thousands to repentance.
Saturday, we enjoyed the 2 hour adult session of Stake Conference, which included, some great talks and a great organ solo by Elder Walker. We heard sounds from the organ that we didn't know were there to be heard. As a speaker put it on Sunday, "the music seemed to swell until the very chapel rocked with the power of that old (dropped) hymn "Oh Thou Fount of Every Blessing'". It was so touching, even our Stake President, and armed force career man, wept like a child.
Sunday, we attended the Stake Conference general session in the morning. Afterwards, we talked with several members and the missionaries. But most importantly, we listened to the Stake President. He is a retired marine pilot, who flew over 2000 missions during his career, which started in Viet Nam. He started with jets, and later went to helicopters, which is his favorite. As a captain, he lead missions of 50 aircraft. Dad could listen to him for hours. But more importantly, he is a good, solid, humble, sensitive man that enjoys serving the Lord. His wife "Pinkie" is a live wire in our Tuesday morning New Testament Class. There are many great people here that have been so helpful and kind to us.
During our companionship study time today, we read and discussed the Creation as recorded in Abraham 4. (The greatest engineering project ever!) It seems that all the physical and biological sciences are nothing more or less than an effort to understand the Creation process of our Heavenly Father. Even our efforts to take matter unorganized and create something beautiful/good are, in our own little nano-level, an attempt at learning to be creators. (Pres. Uchtdorf taught about this in his great talk in the RS Conference broadcast). At the end of verse 10, it says "and the Gods saw that they were obeyed", which indicates to us that even matter has a choice to obey or not. The "freedom to choose" is, has been and always will be, at the very core of Heavenly Father's plan. It's evidence of an "active principle of maximum participation/cooperation of all God's creatures to work out His Plan for their own benefit. "Everybody gets in the act. "Every creature, to the limit of its competence, is given the supreme compliment of being left on its own, so that the word 'obey' is correctly applied". May we always show faith in Him to make the right choice.
Love y'all, Mom & Dad
PS The weather has been beautiful these last few days; what a relief from the heat. And, the Anti Ant Assault "AAA" continues.
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