Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven
Kia Ora!
We moved back into the mission office Thursday, after being home for almost two months. We started off with a bang when we received 5 missionaries from Auckland, New Zealand on Friday morning! That was combined with a major transfer among our missionaries. Elder Folland and Elder Clayton were extremely busy trying to get keys and phone SIM cards to the missionaries. We couldn’t have the missionaries come into the office, and most of our missionaries here right now don’t drive. Amazingly, things went well with few issues!
Elder Folland and President Erekson did 35 miles of biking yesterday while Sister Erekson and I had lunch at the mall and visited for a couple of hours. We had planned to bike (not 35 miles!-haha), but Sister Erekson had some knee pain so we opted out. We had the opportunity to drive one of our senior couples to the airport yesterday. We had a nice dinner in Auckland before dropping them off at the airport. They have been working in the CES program, teaching Institute classes and organizing social activities for the young adults. They will still be teaching classes remotely from their home in Utah.
We’ve been using our time away from the office to organize missionaries and senior couples to clean out our vacant apartments. We received a call from our yard maintenance guy that it looked like one of our houses had been broken into. We drove there to investigate and found a window open, the garage door open, and the entrance door open. Luckily, there was no sign that anything valuable
(our appliances) had been taken. It appears that the missionaries had not secured the flat before leaving it.We have had several apartments broken into and appliances and furnishings stolen. We spent the next five hours cleaning the home. Most missionaries are really messy and show a lack of basic life skills. We have encountered some pretty scary scenes as we’ve gone into these apartments. We assume their moms taught them, but they don’t seem to incorporate well without their moms here. It is a challenge that we’re working on—-we definitely need improvement in this area. We started regular flat cleaning lessons a few weeks before lockdown, so we’re hoping to see improvement in time.
We are now at level 2 Covid-19 restrictions. We have retail stores open. We can expand gatherings to include up to ten people. Restaurants are open with social distancing seating. We can travel outside our region. We can have baptisms as long as there are no more than ten people present. Our missionaries can go out more. They usually call ahead before visiting members. They can find and teach people again as long as they stay within the guidelines.
Elder Folland and I signed up for this mission. Why did we? If it were a job where we were paid for our work, I think we would have given it up already. It is a difficult responsibility. Why are we doing it then? It all comes down to our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We love him and know that He is our Savior. We also know that sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven. That truth came to me as we were cleaning the home in Tokoroa. Sometimes we get depressed and tired dealing with the messy apartments, etc. but that day I felt a sweetness among the mess. The thought came to me that our burdens were being lifted so that we didn’t feel them. That was a blessing we received for our sacrifice. In the Book of Mormon, we are taught “And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while ye are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.” We know that this is true as we put our trust in God.
We hope that your burdens may be made light. We love you all!
Elder and Sister Folland
We moved back into the mission office Thursday, after being home for almost two months. We started off with a bang when we received 5 missionaries from Auckland, New Zealand on Friday morning! That was combined with a major transfer among our missionaries. Elder Folland and Elder Clayton were extremely busy trying to get keys and phone SIM cards to the missionaries. We couldn’t have the missionaries come into the office, and most of our missionaries here right now don’t drive. Amazingly, things went well with few issues!
Elder Folland and President Erekson did 35 miles of biking yesterday while Sister Erekson and I had lunch at the mall and visited for a couple of hours. We had planned to bike (not 35 miles!-haha), but Sister Erekson had some knee pain so we opted out. We had the opportunity to drive one of our senior couples to the airport yesterday. We had a nice dinner in Auckland before dropping them off at the airport. They have been working in the CES program, teaching Institute classes and organizing social activities for the young adults. They will still be teaching classes remotely from their home in Utah.
We’ve been using our time away from the office to organize missionaries and senior couples to clean out our vacant apartments. We received a call from our yard maintenance guy that it looked like one of our houses had been broken into. We drove there to investigate and found a window open, the garage door open, and the entrance door open. Luckily, there was no sign that anything valuable
(our appliances) had been taken. It appears that the missionaries had not secured the flat before leaving it.We have had several apartments broken into and appliances and furnishings stolen. We spent the next five hours cleaning the home. Most missionaries are really messy and show a lack of basic life skills. We have encountered some pretty scary scenes as we’ve gone into these apartments. We assume their moms taught them, but they don’t seem to incorporate well without their moms here. It is a challenge that we’re working on—-we definitely need improvement in this area. We started regular flat cleaning lessons a few weeks before lockdown, so we’re hoping to see improvement in time.
We are now at level 2 Covid-19 restrictions. We have retail stores open. We can expand gatherings to include up to ten people. Restaurants are open with social distancing seating. We can travel outside our region. We can have baptisms as long as there are no more than ten people present. Our missionaries can go out more. They usually call ahead before visiting members. They can find and teach people again as long as they stay within the guidelines.
Elder Folland and I signed up for this mission. Why did we? If it were a job where we were paid for our work, I think we would have given it up already. It is a difficult responsibility. Why are we doing it then? It all comes down to our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We love him and know that He is our Savior. We also know that sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven. That truth came to me as we were cleaning the home in Tokoroa. Sometimes we get depressed and tired dealing with the messy apartments, etc. but that day I felt a sweetness among the mess. The thought came to me that our burdens were being lifted so that we didn’t feel them. That was a blessing we received for our sacrifice. In the Book of Mormon, we are taught “And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while ye are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.” We know that this is true as we put our trust in God.
We hope that your burdens may be made light. We love you all!
Elder and Sister Folland
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