I've had a lot of thinking to do this week. There has been a lot happening and that seems to get the processes rolling in my head. Sometimes Ken wishes they would stop! lol
We got to Skype all the kids on Father's Day. It was great and we are again reminded how great our little family is. Seems like they spend a whole lot of time working on helping other people and they truly amaze me. Every single one of them had done something this week to help someone else. There were big things and little things, major things and simple things but I can't help but be grateful for children who keep others in mind in spite of what is going on in their own lives.
Heather told me of a friend who has brain cancer and then he appeared on the screen. He was his happy, usual self in spite of losing his hair and getting ready for a totally unrelated surgery on his hand the next day. He absolutely amazes me with his positive attitude in spite of many huge trials in his life. I don't think I know of anyone with so many friends. They support him because he supports them. Isn't that the way it should be?
Oh how I wish that was the case that I could see more often. Right now I see lots of "I will take care of myself and I am not going out of my way for anyone else!" It gets pretty daunting to see that everywhere you go. Sometimes I really long to get back to my little home where more people are involved in helping each other rather than looking out only for themselves. There seems to be so much selfishness in my world right now.
Ken just finished giving a blessing to a woman we don't even know. She is close to death from cancer. Her husband is an elder in the church but hasn't been active for years. He had no idea how to give a blessing. There didn't seem to be much comfort in that room even though it was obvious that people thought she was a wonderful woman and were trying in their own ways to help. I contrasted this to my family who would be totally supporting one another in whatever situation. It was a painful contrast, a totally unknown person trying to provide comfort to a family who had little comfort or understanding of what was happening.
Fortunately, we get to work with a few super people who think in other terms. We just baptized a little grandma, nana Dawn, who is totally engaged in helping her family get better. Her granddaughter lives with her and started the whole process and they both seem to want to do what is right for themselves and their family, immediate and extended. They have big hearts and big aspirations much like some of the others we have met here. Seems like it is always a few that are holding the line and they have to work hard and be tough to do it!
I am so grateful I came on this mission. It has been hard and frustrating and incomprehensible at times. It has been amazing, awe inspiring and wonderful at others. I have made many friends in the same sense as the Lord had friends and I have gained brothers and sisters in understanding of the gospel. I have learned about Kiwis in all their varieties and I have seen beautiful things at every turn.
Though I have missed my family as never before, I have gained a new appreciation for them and I hope they have learned something about life and grandpa and grandma from the sacrifices we have all made.
I will never be sorry that I came. I will be sorry to leave my relationships here. I will never again be so happy to go home until that time that I go HOME for the last time. Until then, I hope God grants me the ability to take everything from every day and make it work.
2 months to go!
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Friday, June 7, 2013
On Strong Women
My last post was about priesthood. I wrote it because it means so much to me. I'm writing this because it means just as much.
I have met many strong women in my life. Many of them were in my own family. Many of them have been in the church. There is a weird perception that women in the church, especially if they are "homemakers and moms", are just a little more than robots following some great man along. This has not been my observation at all. I find myself surrounded by strong women and wishing that they were surrounded by equally strong men but many of them are not. It makes me even more grateful to know that I have become strong in part because I am backed by strength.
I have tons of pioneer ancestors, women who left everything to come to the Salt Lake Valley and beyond for the faith they chose to believe in. I look back on many of them and think that "if they can do it, so can I". They have been a deep and stabilizing force in my life even though they had no idea they would touch the life of anyone in this century. They were physically strong and mentally tough. They were survivors in the hardest of circumstances. To them I pay homage for their courage and endurance.
I have had many positions in the church and community. In all of them, I have been surrounded by strong women. I think I have never met women who were stronger than those I worked with in the temple and the MTC. No weeklings here for sure. They had minds of their own and made decisions accordingly. They were strong in word and in deed and didn't mind if someone knew it. There were few if any mindless followers of anything there. For the most part, they knew where they were going and why.
The women I work here in the mission field with are strong women. Many of them whom I live among are women on their own in the gospel. They have made a decision and many of them have to do it on their own with considerable opposition or at least, minimal support. They amaze me as they come to church week after week without husbands and/or children, hoping that those same will someday embrace what they know to be true. They join the church in their later years, again alone or at younger ages with children to care for and no husbands to support them. They all see that there is a real future in this gospel through their Savior. These decisions are not made lightly.
What is often disappointing to me is the little if any recognition these women get for all they do. The men here are an interesting lot. Rugby and drinking is the culture of so many that it is difficult to count. Children spend their whole lives trying to get the attention of their fathers who are on the field, at the bar or in a party with their "mates" while the mothers who stay at home holding the family together get virtually no mention. Why do men think that they have no allegiance to this family they were willing to create but take no responsibility for. I know a "boy" here who has 7 children and proudly states it but has custody of or responsibility toward none. A sad commentary this.
Thanks to you moms who are there to hold these families together. Thanks to all you strong women who give me reason to try and remain strong. Thanks to the women of the world who really believe that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. It may not seem so but it is true.
I have met many strong women in my life. Many of them were in my own family. Many of them have been in the church. There is a weird perception that women in the church, especially if they are "homemakers and moms", are just a little more than robots following some great man along. This has not been my observation at all. I find myself surrounded by strong women and wishing that they were surrounded by equally strong men but many of them are not. It makes me even more grateful to know that I have become strong in part because I am backed by strength.
I have tons of pioneer ancestors, women who left everything to come to the Salt Lake Valley and beyond for the faith they chose to believe in. I look back on many of them and think that "if they can do it, so can I". They have been a deep and stabilizing force in my life even though they had no idea they would touch the life of anyone in this century. They were physically strong and mentally tough. They were survivors in the hardest of circumstances. To them I pay homage for their courage and endurance.
I have had many positions in the church and community. In all of them, I have been surrounded by strong women. I think I have never met women who were stronger than those I worked with in the temple and the MTC. No weeklings here for sure. They had minds of their own and made decisions accordingly. They were strong in word and in deed and didn't mind if someone knew it. There were few if any mindless followers of anything there. For the most part, they knew where they were going and why.
The women I work here in the mission field with are strong women. Many of them whom I live among are women on their own in the gospel. They have made a decision and many of them have to do it on their own with considerable opposition or at least, minimal support. They amaze me as they come to church week after week without husbands and/or children, hoping that those same will someday embrace what they know to be true. They join the church in their later years, again alone or at younger ages with children to care for and no husbands to support them. They all see that there is a real future in this gospel through their Savior. These decisions are not made lightly.
What is often disappointing to me is the little if any recognition these women get for all they do. The men here are an interesting lot. Rugby and drinking is the culture of so many that it is difficult to count. Children spend their whole lives trying to get the attention of their fathers who are on the field, at the bar or in a party with their "mates" while the mothers who stay at home holding the family together get virtually no mention. Why do men think that they have no allegiance to this family they were willing to create but take no responsibility for. I know a "boy" here who has 7 children and proudly states it but has custody of or responsibility toward none. A sad commentary this.
Thanks to you moms who are there to hold these families together. Thanks to all you strong women who give me reason to try and remain strong. Thanks to the women of the world who really believe that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. It may not seem so but it is true.
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