Service

We really are enjoying our mission! This past week we were able to take a few days off and tour the coastal line of our mission via the infamous Highway 1. We saw some incredible scenery, hiked on some amazing beaches and enjoyed a break from fires and smoke.

In our area, we are enjoying some great spiritual experiences with the people we are working with as they prepare to attend the temple of the Lord.

We love the opportunity to be missionaries and serve as many of our brothers and sisters as we can, but this week we found ourselves being served and uplifted so often it seemed to be the theme of our week. With such love and support we don’t ever become discouraged by the challenges of our work.

Thursday we drove to the Sacramento temple and experienced a powerful spiritual boost! We gained new understanding about God, about how to use delegation to be a better leader, how to make prayer more powerful, and a reminder to trust God to take care of us while we follow him. ALL things are possible to them that believe!

We arrived home to a sweet note and plate of snicker-doodle cookies from Sister Baggett and Sister Hall, thanking us for the good we are doing and the example we are for the young missionaries. That was so thoughtful of them! Their note brought tears to Sister Stewart-Longhurst’s eyes. And lots of joy to Elder Stewart-Longhurst’s tummy.

But even better than their thoughtfulness toward us was that by following that prompting to bring us cookies they blessed another life as well. Since they dropped off the cookies when they did before they went to the church, their timing at getting to the church perfectly coincided with some guy who was walking by the church and pelted them with lots of questions from the moment they got out of the car. They, of course, answered him and shared much of the joyous message of the restored church of Christ, which made him happy. The Lord’s timing is perfect!

Between letters in the mailbox from seminary students, scouts, and a ward brother back home, gifts of home-grown garden produce, multiple dinner invitations, and many other expressions of friendship and encouragement we have been abundantly served. We are touched by these kindnesses, and reminded that when others serve us, their fellow beings, they are truly serving their god.

“. . .when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.”—Mosiah 2:17