The Sabbath - A Day of Rest - or Not

 The alarm began to yell at me, and I raised my head off the pillow wondering what day it was. Sunday. I love Sundays. But why was I getting up so early?

Oh yes. I had a Relief Society lesson to put the finishing touches on. I needed to wash my hair, which always takes a good half hour. I had food to prepare for the evening dinner with young adults.

We picked up the sisters and were off to church. The numbers were even more sparse than usual. Perhaps thirty were in attendance (and that included the six of us missionaries). We had two young men who spoke, both married with children. Both are studying at Oxford. Both gave talks that were magnificent. Academia has had its effect on them. Both spoke like so many of the professors and students around here. 

The cadence is halting, as each stops to think - to organize thoughts before they are released to the world. They do not appear polished in their speech, like a politician, and like you would expect an Oxford-educated man would be. It almost comes across as a humble message, but in reality, both were powerful.

After church, we hung around longer than we should have, visiting with everyone. People here are hungry for human company, and thoroughly enjoy the lively visiting after meetings. We drove Emma home, and then the sister missionaries. I got back to the flat in the nick of time to get the computer set up, the PowerPoint set up, and take a few deep breaths.

The lesson went over beautifully. So many good comments from sisters, and the PowerPoint, as well as the internet, as well as the computer worked great. I was so grateful. I loved putting it together. It focused on the talk by Elder Teixeira "Remember Your Way Back Home," which started with a researcher in 1946 who had an experience out in the wilderness with memory. He got to a place where he smelled a combinations of scents that brought to his memory a precise spot that he remembered from childhood.

He reasoned that if that happened to humans, perhaps that is the driving force behind how salmon, out in the open sea for years, are able to swim thousands of miles and return to the precise spot where they were hatched. He later proved that smell was the answer. 

He then talked about how spiritually, we find our way back home to our Father in Heaven, and what that process looks like. Sisters made marvelous comments about it.

After the lesson and lunch were over, I spent most of the rest of the afternoon fixing dinner. We had chicken enchiladas, pico di Gallo, beans, green salad and English Trifle - done the American way of course. I worked until everyone arrived at 6.

I guessed we would have six or seven, but we ended up with fourteen - counting us! Five were not members, two were, and six were missionaries. 

Obedient to the rules, the missionaries were all gone by 8:50 to be home by 9. Angie (today is her one-year anniversary of being in the church) and her cousin left soon after the missionaries exited (she is a researcher and must be at work - at her computer - early tomorrow.  Then Daniel, Matthew and Jules left.

The only ones remaining were Emma (she will leave England tomorrow for the states and begin searching for a job), and Brad (her flatmate and non-member friend). We did the obvious thing. We got out the Skull-King cards and proceeded to play a fast-paced game. SK won... and was properly humble.

It has been a grand day, but a very tiring one. I am grateful that I survived it as well as I did.