Not A Typical Day In "Paradise"

Well, with the perspective for today, I look on yesterday and realize how quickly the world can bounce up and down in our little corner. No, we haven't had an earthquake in the literal sense but emotionally, it has been somewhat like a very slow quake.

We woke very early yesterday to correct some problems with Ken's work at home and to make a call to my brother who is again in the hospital.  Kent seemed to be in good spirits in spite of the fact that he had made it through another crisis and for this I was very grateful.  Kent's and Jeanne's year has not been an easy one and I am so grateful they are doing as well as they are after Jeanne's surgery and Kent's hospitalization in a few days time.

We got ready and went out on our appointments as we would on a typical day.  We had set up three and the first two went well.  For the third one, we had made a plan which we felt inspired to make and it couldn't have gone better than the plan.  You could feel the spirit heavily and it was one of those moments that you savor and enjoy for a while.  Our lesson plan was perfect and our investigators asked questions that led directly into what we wanted them to understand.  I got a little chastisement from him on using my artistic talents better and then we left, feeling pretty spiritually high.

On to our dear friends home for dinner with them and the elders.  It was a lovely dinner staged for my birthday with much love.  I couldn't help but wonder how our lives would be changing when we return home soon and think about those we would be leaving here.  We had cake and ice cream.  I received a dear "wee" card which Pat had made and I will cherish and we had a tiny fireworks show.  We finished up with lessons and discussion led by the elders.

We stayed a while after the elders left and discussed many things with our still fledgling members and then left for home after "family" prayers.  Ken went straight to the computer when we got home and there was an e-mail with pictures of our 12 year old granddaughter's latest accomplishment.  Seems like Brinna had shot her very first 3 point buck on the muzzleloader hunt.  We were so excited and happy for her.  She is her daddy's little buddy and his good hunting partner not to mention she may be training to be the next Annie Oakley.  Lots of venison in store for the Jarvis family!

Ken then went on Facebook.  I heard him say, "There is a beautiful picture of David and his girls!"  Things were okay until he read why the picture was on there.  Heather had posted it because her daddy had died.  Now, David has been a little miracle in our lives for about 45 years.  We were heart-broken along with possibly hundreds of others.  At the same time, we were excited at the prospect that David is free from his wheel chair and running full speed on the other side.  Our hearts ache for his family but they rejoice for him.

David is the 4th neighbor who has left us for a better world in the last month or so.  We had hoped to see all of them on returning home but I guess we will have to wait until we return HOME!  It is a weird feeling.  We will miss them all very much but perhaps we will miss David's indomitable spirit the most.  What an example he has been to us all of a life well lived in spite of daunting physical incapacity!  He is the prime example of making more than the most of what you have been given.  We'll miss you Anna Grace, Von, Walden and David but we will not be too far behind.

Give us a little time though, we still have some children to love and some grandchildren to help become all that they can be, much like Kathy has done for David.  Make the most of what you have and perhaps people will be saying beautiful things about you like David is having said about him.

Is There Time Enough? Have We Done All We Could?

When I first came here, I had no idea how hard it was going to be to get ready to leave.  Yup!  It is starting to hit me as I go see my new friends and family now.  We just spent a couple of pleasant hours with our branch president and his family who invited us to "tea".  We have grown to love them and so many others here.  We have never felt alone since we arrived.  The president and his sweetheart was in our living room the very first night and we have bonded with them and many others.

We have learned so much but the time flies faster and faster as the time to leave grows closer and we feel an urgency to do everything we can to leave this place better than when we came.  We hope we have done that.  Due to our presence helping the Lord, 12 new members exist in the area and have a different outlook on what is important in life.  We hope the "old" members have some different points of view because we came.

There is no way to assure that you have left a legacy so to speak but you do your best and hope that something you have done has touched a few.  We are still teaching a couple and when we leave their house each time our first question is, "Is there enough time!"  We hope there is but if not, we hope that others will take up our quest to give them heaven.

Only two months left.  So little time and so much still to do.  Will it be enough?  We can only do our best and hope the angels we are trying to call down remain to finish the work.

I Will Remember: Clouds, Sunrises and Sunsets

They say Montana is "Big Sky Country".  I love Montana and I love the big sky.  The sky here runs sea to sea, horizon to horizon.  It is easy to see how this country got the name Aotearoa because as the name implies, it really is the land of the long, white cloud.  Those long white clouds are amazing.

They fill the sky and then they are gone as fast as they came.  They are stratus, cumulous, nimbus and many other clouds, sometimes all at the same time.  They are tinged with cream, peach, gray, baby blue.  It is easy to use your imagination watching these clouds.  They are wispy and fluffy, cotton puffs and lambs wool.  They are heavy with rain or light "as a cloud".

I have taken dozens of pictures of just clouds.  I love the sunrises and the sunsets.  It is not uncommon to see Elder and Sister Jarvis madly dashing to the end of the street in the early morning when they realize there is an awesome "red sky at morning" over Washdyke ocean.  We grab our slippers, robes and both cameras and head out as fast as possible to catch that fleeting moment.  It doesn't last long.  Click, click, click and then it is gone but not to digital or our memories.

The sun comes up in a ball of fire and paints the whole sky with gorgeous shades of red, coral, purple and violet.  It is never the same.  In the evening, it reverses itself, setting over the southern alps.  the shades are often the same and are so awe inspiring.

There is nothing I like better than to look out the kitchen or lounge window to see some fantasy sculpture carved in the clouds, a tiger, a dog, an alligator.  It is amazing to be traveling through the mountains and see the puffs of smoky clouds hanging in over the peaks making them look as if they are "floating on a cloud".

I will miss these vistas of Aotearoa but they will always be carved in the clouds in my mind.

I Will Remember: The Ever Changing Sea

Until I lived in Timaru, I didn’t really understand what the phrase “the ever changing sea” meant exactly.   I have lived near water and visited many bodies of water but until I came here, I had never actually seen “the ever changing sea” with all its dynamics.  Never in all my experience have I seen a body of water like the one I now see daily from some vantage point.

The first thing I noticed about the Pacific Ocean near Timaru was the variety in color.  The color changes from moment to moment.  It goes in a matter of hours from sterling silver, that soft silver grey that blends into the stormy sky to brilliant turquoise that contrasts dynamically with the brilliant coral sunset.  It diffuses from sea foam  green  to turquoise to purple cobalt blue as the sun rides the shallow and the troughs, the rocks and deep trenches, fading to lavender blue as it nears the shore.  It is baby blue then lavender then foam swept aqua.  There seems no end to the colors it presents in a day.  It is silver grey, steel grey, taupe, gunmetal, pale aqua, teal, cobalt, navy, deep purple, lavender and on and on.

It is beautifully calm on a warm day with waves lazily lapping the sandy beach.  The beach echoes the ripples as the water pulls itself from the sand to the sea leaving zig-zag patterns of blingy, glittering gold, copper and silver.  It forms staggered waving patterns as it retreats.  Down the coast a way, as the breeze stiffens, it is roiling and boiling, an angry sea pulling rocks from the shingle beach then tossing them back like a boy throwing pebbles at a wall or better yet, a thousand boys throwing a million pebbles.  The sound is the same I surmise.  It devours and lays waste.  It pushes and pulls and rearranges everything in its path, a giant tumbler always polishing.

As the waves crash to the shore and pull themselves back, it creates more waves at the apex of each hit.  It slams into hidden rocky reefs and sends waves crashing helter-skelter at right angles to create even more waves.  There are waves surging everywhere and it is easy to see myself swallowed up by one rogue monster.

When it is really angry, it catapults logs in the air.  It is the color of creamy hot chocolate with cinnamon sticks floating in its frothy foam.  The rocks sound like a giant rain stick forever being upended by a never tiring child.   It billows and sprays and hisses at the gulls trying to make headway against the gale.  The birds look suspended in flight by the wind.  The water rolls into great curls, looking like the hair of a mermaid falling onto the sand.  It sweeps the beach clean and the friction polishes everything in its path, stones, wood, shell and bone become smooth in its wake.

On a sunny day further south, it becomes an entirely different scene as it creates gathers and tiers of a maiden’s ball gown, pale aqua blue.  She pulls her skirt coyly up to reveal layer after layer of ruffly, silken, spun lace frills spilling onto the golden sand.  It moves as she twirls and all the layers change from moment to moment.  She is dancing at sea  and the frills keep time to the music.  The sun slowly sets, the color of her dress deepens and the silken slips become strangely iridescent  in the light of the moon.  The light reflects off the moving layers creating ruffles and swirls.  The sea calms, the music quiets.  The ball is over and tomorrow all the moods of “the ever changing sea” will have changed.  The maid slips from her dress.  It falls to the floor.  It is now time to rest. 

He's Done It Again!

One of the most amazing parts of being on this mission is watching how the priesthood works when a man is listening to the spirit.  Last Thursday we had an appointment with some lovely people we met on the beach many months ago.  We gave them our card then and told them to give us a call if they wanted to go to the Family History Center in our little building.  Well, while we were in Greymouth, he finally called.  He said he needed to know who he was.  We made an appointment to meet him at the history center and went to do that after we got home.

We did some work the day we met but we also made an appointment to go to his home.  We wanted him to know that who he is isn't just about his genealogy.  He didn't believe that we would want to come to his house because it was "just ordinary".  He and his wife have a nice older home which they keep in good shape but it isn't fancy.  Never mind, neither are we.  We spent 2 hours there answering various questions and showing a couple of short videos about the church.  He was really intrigued and when we left, he told Ken that he had never had anyone teach him like that before nor had he ever been able to talk with someone so easily about such serious subjects.  We left him a Book of Mormon, a Bible, a Finding Faith in Christ video and a Restoration video as well as the video we showed the shorts from.

We met again at the FHC and did some more research, finding a couple of lines back several generations in a few hours.   He was amazed that we could find things so easily that he had been searching for years to obtain.  He invited us back this Friday.  He told us we could come anytime we wanted to and told Ken that we were "different" from all the other people he had talked with about religion.  He thought that we really must "believe it".  Interesting!

We had an incident with a person that behaved like a child and offended us as well last week.  I was pretty upset about it and so was Ken but when we went back, Ken remained totally calm and did a masterful job of explaining some very delicate things in a very sensitive way and so we parted later still friends.

On Sunday, we held a special priesthood meeting in the branch.  Ken had to get pretty direct with the men about stepping up to the plate and walking the walk.  He came out of it just fine.  It constantly amazes me how he summons the spirit and knows what to say and when to say it.  The directions about opening his mouth do not seem to cause him any problem at all.  He has total faith that what he says will come out right and it always does.

To our sons and grandsons, your grandpa and father is doing a masterful job that can only be done with the help of "The Master", the priesthood and the spirit.  You would do well to follow him.  Your families and many others will thank you for it.

A Whole Lot of Thinking Going On

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.

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.