Beautiful Sabbath

 We are coming to the  point that I cannot record all the events of the day with any amount of brevity. Our hearts are full.

We went to church today in person, and there were fewer than forty people there. So many are still opting to be safe and to stay at home. I can't really blame them. Numbers of cases are rising again, Yet, they are not serious enough to be hospitalized. 

I took the book that Shelley bought for us and gave it to the Relief Society President. Since the meeting, and the second hour meetings were broadcast, she announced to everyone there and everyone watching that if they would like to write in the book, to send her an email and she would print it up to go in the book. 

There were quite a few sweet notes from people who were there in person, but I doubt that we will hear from anyone else. It is so easy to forget to do something like that when you get home from Church and change and get busy doing other things.

The sentiments that were expressed were wonderful, so we are so grateful for their kindness and I am so grateful for that beautiful book. I will be thumbing through its beautiful drawings for some time....and re reading the sweet notes inside.

We spent the better part of the afternoon firming up our travel plans when Erin and Ethan come. It's a good thing we did. It looks like next weekend may be the last hurrah around here before school gets underway and everything down south was filling up fast. On several sites, we got the last rooms available. 

We attended an afternoon Zoom session with our young missionaries and several wonderful people from the ward. Later, we tuned into a mission-wide Zoom call to hear all of the young missionaries who are departing bear their testimonies. We have served with many of them. The elders all came out shortly before we did. They of course, served a full two years, but in a way we did also. That 6-month hiatus in Gilbert seemed like we were still on a mission, but waiting.

I was so impressed with their testimonies. They are all mature young adults now, mature in their testimonies, more mature in their understanding of people and more mature in their outlook. Many bore testimony of how they have learned to focus on others, many talked about this being the most joyous part of their lives to date, many talked about how close they have come to the Savior, and many spoke about favorite scriptures and why.

I am so proud of them, (knowing full well we had nothing to do with that tremendous growth spurt) and just wish I could hug them all and let them know how much we love them.

I may yet have a chance. Tomorrow we go to London for the evening. We will attend the farewell dinner with all those tremendous young people. We'll visit with everyone, wish them well, and probably hug them. And then SK will say his usual goodbye: "If we don't see you again in this life, we'll see you in the Celestial Kingdom."

You gotta love that guy.