Another busy, but amazing week here in Texas Houston South.
Sunday night we were blessed to have the six stake presidents, the Houston Temple president and their wives over for dinner. This was the first time they've been to the mission home or had a gathering like this. It was awesome to be with them and to get to know them on a more personal level. One, President Smith, shared his conversion story with us. It was such a powerful witness of the truth of the message our missionaries share.
Aaron is still spending most of my days at this point interviewing all our missionaries. There is no way to short cut this and it's amazing what he is learning about them, their families, and their goodness. Aaron thinks could do this forever and already wants to ask for an extension. ;)
The kids and I started the week off with P day with the missionaries again. It is always fun for the kids to be a part of the missionaries’ lives. The kids have already bonded with several of them. It was a day of volleyball, bballl, football, kickball and wiffle ball. We have all come to enjoy some great wiffle ball games. :)
On Tuesday, we really enjoyed going to the Houston Aquarium in downtown Houston. We loved the flow of the exhibits and they were done quite nicely. Some of the highlights of the Aquarium were seeing the white tigers and petting the stingrays.
Today we went with Aaron down to League City for interviews so we could actually go to Galveston Island for beach time. The boys invited Trevor and Hunter Moore to come along and since Avery was out of town I was Jessie’s playmate at the beach most of the day Wednesday. I found a great beach that was part of a little RV site called Delanerra. I thought it was a great find because it had access to showers, bathrooms and a mini store if we needed. We loved the beach and Ocean! The water was warm and it had enough waves to body board on. The locals warned us that it was dirty but no more than Pineview dam. I think people expect it to be blue like Mexico’s but with a river running into it, it gets muddy. We saw lots jumping fish, which was new to me because it was so frequent. Later that evening, Aaron and I went to dinner with the Morton’s and Martinez’s for Gerry Morton’s birthday. It was a delight and the food was amazing!
On Thursday evening we were invited by the temple president and his wife to join them for dinner at the temple and to do a session together on. Who gets to do this!!! I've never had an appreciation for the temple as much as I do now as he taught us. We met before the session in his office and he gave us a number of things to think about. After the session we went back to his office and for another two hours he taught us. I will only say that next time you go to the temple truly put yourself in the shoes of Adam and Eve and see what you're taught. Such a personal story….but it really is each of our own story. Also consider what you'll put on the altar next time you prepare to go through the veil. Aaron was able to organize a special missionary endowment session in mid-October with President Crane. We'll take all our missionaries through a morning session and he'll then teach and answer any questions they have. If we can connect them to the temple and their purpose the missionaries hearts will change.
This Sunday night Aaron will be speaking at a Spanish fireside to our investigators and new converts. He is so excited! He can't wait to use his Spanish. I am even preparing to share a brief testimony in Spanish. :) Oh the things I do.
As we drove home from the temple the other night Aaron just really feels like he’s come home. Not that we don’t want to come back to Utah but that it’s just as comfortable as our home and community is in Ogden. It's a tender mercy I never anticipated.