A Stain, Busy Bees & Birthdays
Every Monday evening we have a mission-wide zoom call where the missionaries get to relate miracles that occurred during the past week. "Miracle Monday" is always a highlight of the week to listen to true miracles both great and small. A couple of weeks ago we related the miracle of Elder Cawley's eye glasses (of which we are reminded every day), and this week a young Elder related how he stained his shirt. This shirt was given to him by his father and has special meaning to him. He immediately washed the shirt but the stain remained. With the shirt ruined, he was heartbroken and disgusted, but that night said a pray of gratitude that he was able to wear that shirt for a time while serving the Lord. In the morning he awoke to find that the stain was completely gone! Like with my glasses, the Lord decided to extend a tender mercy in a seemingly small way (and also like my glasses the miracle happened overnight while we slept). In both cases we are reminded each time we put the shirt or glasses on about the power of faith, miracles and the power of the atonement; that the atonement completely repairs any sin or injustice whether great or small.
During that same Miracle Monday call, the mission leaders announced that our mission had 5 times the number of baptisms over the past year!! We then saw a church-wide news article that the church as a whole had a record year in convert baptism last year. More miracles! There seems to be a new spiritual awakening across the world. There is a renewed hunger for spirituality and meaning in people's lives and they recognize the truth of the gospel when they sincerely and faithfully hear it. This comes also in no small part to the hard work of our missionaries. All the senior missionary couples have discussed how good, faithful and hard working the young missionaries are. This inspires us to do all we can to help them succeed and strengthen the wards and stakes here in our mission. Our mission is being abundantly blessed!
Time is flying! Especially when you are busy from the time your eyes pop open in the morning until they close at night. Every day brings similar responsibilities but different tasks. This past week was dominated by looking for new apartments. We have four senior couples coming in about six to seven weeks and a net increase of almost 20 missionaries over the next 10 weeks. This is a blessing as we will have at least one senior couple located in each of our eight zones to help us with whatever is needed. Obviously, this drives a tremendous need for additional housing. On top of that we are moving a couple of existing companionships to better units and renewing other leases. Once we secure all those new units we have to furnish them. My o my. This causes feelings of excitement, stress, humility and panic with an underlying spirit of calmness and humility ( 1 Nephi 3:7). 😀 We already secured four new leases and renewed three others so not bad, not bad. We can do this.
We attended our first Zone Conference! They start at 10 am with instruction from the mission leaders until Noon, then after lunch (provided by the local ward Relief Society), they spend a couple of hours of instruction from the APs and Zone Leaders. After a brief testimony meeting they close at around 2:30 pm. During lunch, Sister Cawley was recognized, along with other missionaries, for her birthday. She picked out a yoyo as her present from a basket filled with various candies and toys. We enjoyed the spirit of zone conference very much!
Santa Rosa / San Rafael Zone Conference
Sister Cawley's Birthday Present
In the Larkins clan this is birthday week(s). From late June to mid July there are (at least) 10 birthdays. So lots of birthday wishes going out almost daily. For Sister Cawley, her birthday was yesterday, July 12. For her birthday we visited Healdsburg, a town about 30 minutes north of Santa Rosa. Healdsburg has a few blocks of cute shops, antique stores and eateries. We shopped, had lunch and then traveled south west to Sebastopol then west to Bodega Bay where we shopped some more and had dinner. When we returned home we watched the Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Birds, in honor of Bodega Bay. Needless to say we are keeping a close watch on all birds right now.
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