A Time of Refreshing
"...when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." (Acts 3:19)
"That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed." (Romans 15:32)
"For they [family and friends] have refreshed my spirit..." (1 Corinthians 16:18)
"...on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed." (Exodus 31:17)
While the other "S's" are important, we focused on having the spirit in their apartments. We remind the missionaries that their apartment, like our homes, should be a place where the spirit resides, where they can be refreshed, and then carry that spirit with them throughout their day. They all work long, hard hours and need a place where they can refresh their minds, body and spirit. Having the spirit in their apartment is essential as that is where they pray and receive revelation as they think about their friends (we don't say investigator anymore), study the gospel and plan their week. That spirit is derived, in part, from a clean, well-organized apartment with images of the Lord, temples, etc. Some have taken that to new levels as the other day we visited an apartment and found an image of the Savior in the shower. We smiled and told the Elders, "Good job!"
Another refreshing occurred with family of our mission leaders visiting the mission for the holiday. Our mission leaders, like all mission leaders, are doing the Lord's work 24/7, 365 days a year for three years. We could clearly see how refreshed they were when their family came to see them. We certainly are refreshed every time we speak, text, or FaceTime with our family and friends. We have a digital picture frame in our apartment which displays revolving photos of our family. We sit and watch those slides all the time. It's so important for all of us to refresh.
When we met with our mission leaders this past week, we suggested, and they agreed, that it is time to refresh the mission furnishings. During our apartment visits we noted how old and tired (as Sister Cawley says) many of the furnishings are. So we will start buying new and rotate out the old where needed.
As mentioned in previous postings, the mission has six garages full of old furnishings - couches, desks, bookcases, chairs, lamps, and many other items. Many of these items have been in storage for quite some time. With the help from other senior missionaries, we spent the last three days going through each garage and deciding what to keep, what to donate and what to throw away. Our mission leaders instructed us, "When in doubt, throw it out." We ended up filling a 15 yard dumpster twice. We organized each of the garages with similar items - in one garage there are couches, in another tabes and chairs, etc. We then invited all the surrounding stakes to come take a look at what we have to bless those they minister to who are in need. Here are before and after photos of one of the garages:
We thought, "How can we instruct the missionaries to keep their apartments clean, neat and organized when we ourselves have several garages that are dirty and disorganized?" We can now feel better that we practice what we preach.
As always, refreshing comes from the Sabbath day. It's what that day was made for! We had a wonderful Sacrament Meeting today - a special meeting. Sister Tamara Runia, First Counselor in the Young Women's General Presidency, and her husband attended our ward, the Foothill Park Ward, in Healdsburg. Sister Runia's sister is a member of our ward. Both her and her husband spoke followed by testimonies from the congregation. Brother Runia told the story of their first date where his car was stuck in reverse so he drove backwards for four miles to take her home. Sister Runia spoke of the loss of their son, Ryan, back in 2013. She stated that while she still doesn't understand why the Lord took him home, her lack of understanding doesn't mean she doesn't believe. There are many questions good, believing Latter-day Saints have but, like Joseph in Liberty Jail, we trust the Lord that all these mortal trials are for our experience. She mentioned that they went through all five stages of grief but added that there is a sixth stage; purpose. That all things in life are personal and purposeful with the Lord. Others later bore strong testimonies. We felt refreshed by partaking of the Sacrament and listening to such inspired and uplifting talks.
Brother Scott and Sister Tamara Runia
All of us need the refreshing that comes from the atonement of Jesus Christ. It comes to us through, among many things, a clean and organized environment, through family and friends, partaking of the Sacrament, constant prayer, daily repentance, exercising faith, scripture reading and inspired messages from church leaders. It also comes, ironically, through long and hard work in the Lord's kingdom by serving and loving others. For all those reasons, we definitely feel refreshed.
By the way, the 4th of July was refreshing - after working in the garages, we ate and slept. 😁💤
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