Still here...more packing...moving forward...learning more about Self-reliance

I think that packing up a house is NOT for wimps!!! We have worked very hard this week at our packing making some good progress but it is a lot of work and seems to take twice as much energy as we have. Nevertheless we have a large stack of boxes ready to be moved to storage on Wednesday evening. Just a few more things to organize before the young men come and help us again. Our house is looking rather empty. My refrigerator is very lonely now that all the grandchildren pictures and notes have been packed away. We really have only  the basic things that we still need in the kitchen and bedroom, family history records and the old photographs left to pack.

Now there will be a little more time to focus on those family history and photo projects. Without worrying so much about packing  we can actually work on them and hopefully be successful in finishing up the organizing before putting them into storage.

And yes we are still here! Often we will be asked "when are you leaving?". When our mission call came on April 19th it seemed like a long time out to report on November 28th. But September is soon behind us and I am grateful for the time the Lord gave us to prepare. It will take all the time He gave to complete what is necessary to be ready to go.

We are also looking forward to our trip to Utah and Wyoming next week. Steve and his siblings will have a reunion - it has been many years since they were all together! and we will have the privilege of attending the Star Valley Wyoming Temple Open house. The following week Steve will also attend the Welsh Institute class in Salt Lake City with his sister to learn more about Welsh research. Those Welsh ancestors are very elusive.

We are very grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission but I have to say that it is a lot of work to get ready to actually go.  As my friend said "We do not do this kind of stuff at our age". But we do this "kind of stuff at our age" because we  have a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and have a desire to serve the Lord. We have been greatly blessed throughout our lives through the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we are excited to have the opportunity to help others gain blessings as they learn more about what the Lord has in store for them.

The Lord wants us to be happy, to obtain all those blessings which can bring us happiness. One of those blessings is being self-reliant. We can all be and do so much more if we learn to be self-reliant both temporally and spiritually. Truly if everyone was self-reliant we would live as a "Zion people with no poor among us". It is a worthy goal.

We are thrilled to participate in the weekly training for the Sydney and Melbourne Self-Reliance missions. I think it is a miracle that using our computer through Skype  we can sit in our kitchen and and see and speak with 9 other people in 3 or 4 different locations all the way across the world in Australia. On Mondays at our 5 PM  we join their 10 AM Tuesday training meeting. 

Each week we learn more about how the self-reliance program works and how we can be of service. And yes, it is somewhat overwhelming to consider all we need to be prepared to do but I have faith that as we are 'set apart'  before we leave that the Lord will bless us with the ability to do all those things required of us. [being 'set apart' means being given a special Priesthood blessing] I am thrilled to learn how much the Lord tries to bless His people. It is amazing how many things are done behind the scenes to help and lift. We are grateful that we can become some of those people working behind the scenes to lift and bless some of Heavenly Father's children.

In the meantime we are studying and trying to make sure our own lives are in line with the principles we will be teaching.

We wish you a great week!