Girls are in still in Bear Lake with the cousins. They love with hanging out with them. They have also enjoyed boating, tubing, swimming, getting their jam on and of course shakes! Who doesn’t love a Bear Lake shake?
After meeting with the APs in the morning and putting together my weekly email I headed to Lake Jackson to take two sisters to lunch for completing the District Challenge back in March. They had missed their reward due to an appointment with an investigator. I’m sure they thought that we had forgotten but I hadn’t so off to lunch we went. We had yummy food and lots of amusing discussion. While in Lake Jackson I was able to say “Hi” and visit with some of the other companionships that are serving in that area since many of them were at the church for p-day.
Allie and Jessie are antsy for the brothers to arrive to Utah so they packed up their stuff and headed back to Ogden. Jessie ended up contacting some of her friends to visit while waiting for her brothers to come tomorrow. It was a huge surprise and joyous reunion with her friends.
Zac came home from Philmont today. I am so excited to see that cute son of mine. They are on the road for over 13 hours today so it’s a long drive. I was hoping it would be 13 hours exactly but it was closer to 15. I picked him up from the church at 11:30 but by the time they unloaded the van, put all his stuff in my mine and got home it was after midnight. But I am a happy mom to have Zac back!! ;) Unfortunately he leaves for Utah tomorrow. :(
I headed out early to meet with a companionship in the Rosenberg area to do comp study. With these latest comp studies, I have been going to companionship where one companion recently arrived in the mission field. It helps support the trainer in their efforts and reassures the trainee that all is well in their first 6 to 8 weeks. We had a really good session planning ways to help increase their investigators understanding and the blessings of the Word of Wisdom and their desire to keep that commandment specifically.
Once back from study, I helped the boys get ready for Utah. This involved doing some laundry for Zac, helping think through what clothes and shoes they would need and some tender loving care from their mom. You know making a cooked breakfast, clip finger and toe nails and popping stiff backs. Sad to see my boys leave to go to Utah because it really means we are empty nesters for the rest of the month. Yikes! Zac can "unofficially" officially go on the plane by himself and take his little brother with him. It was crazy just to send them off from security because normally I am required to take them to the gate and watch the plane take off. They have a layover and plane change to manage but I know they are more than capable. Still?!?!
Apparently Jessie and her friends had an impromptu swim party at North Shore today. Oh Jessie is loving being home. It will be hard to get her to want to come back to her dad and me. ;)
On Wednesday Aaron and I headed to the Zone meeting in League City. The Zone leaders did a great job in facilitating the training they had at MLC to their Zone. The emphasis was on using the Plan of Salvation pamphlet, being tenacious in all aspects of missionary work and being accountable for their investigators progress. Aaron and I ate at a ramen bar in honor of one of our Temple Square sisters from Japan. While serving in our mission her only desire was to eat at a real ramen bar. Not sure if this hit Japanese standard but we thought it was pretty delicious.
We held our specialized training on Teaching Lessons, Not People for our missionaries that have been here 8 weeks. We really try to emphasize that this isn’t a pass off but a way to see how far they have come in their teaching and then ways to improve even more. Even with this reassurance they still feel nervous to measure up to an “invisible” standard they have created in their own minds. It really is a positive experience at the end of the training. The bonus this time is we had Chick-fil-a. We had some ohhs and ahhs at that announcement. ;)
We had two of our sister missionaries stay with us Thursday night to get ready to head home tomorrow. They extended an extra two weeks to do multiple exchanges to improve planning and teaching in our mission. These two are amazing, devoted and the sweetest missionaries. All of our missionaries are really. We will miss these two.
Another early morning for me as I headed to Bay City for their zone meeting. Bay City is a little over an hour away. The zone leaders here really knocked it out of the park with their training. They covered all the MLC material but in their own personal way. Obviously I was impressed with how they conducted their zone meeting. Afterwards I headed to the sister’s apartment for their comp. study. They were sweet to feed me lunch (tacos) before we got down to business. Another great study session in looking for ways to apply their personal studies to the investigators needs. We had a sweet visit. Love my sisters. As I headed back to Sugar Land, Aaron and I weren’t sure if I would make it back it time to head to the temple for our new convert temple night. However Heavenly Father was watching out for me. No traffic back ups on my stretch of the road to Sugar Land and none to the Temple either. We had a wonderful night with our newest converts at the Houston Temple. The temple truly is a heavenly experience connecting those here to those that have gone on.
I woke up determined to do another sprint tri as my workout. It’s ambitious but really helps me feel accomplished in the physical sense. Later after having dinner at home Aaron and I went to Sugar Land Town Center for some entertainment. They were holding the second of 3 semifinals of Sugar Land Star, something similar to the Voice. It was a nice night. Still missing my kids though.