Blessings!

First of all, the greatest mission adventure we are having at present is getting to know a brilliantly amazing and lovely family of four females, whom I have previously mentioned.  They have enriched our life, enlightened our minds, and livened up our existence.  This energetic, wildly creative, and loving bunch have introduced us to not only their interesting and varied life experiences, but also to the surrounding area of the 1,000-year-old English village of Cheadle in which they live.  How lucky are we to have the on-going treat of teaching them and them teaching us!  Second of all, because of their generosity of their time, we have now seen the oldest buildings we've seen to date while in England.  Those pictures will be posted as I get to them.  So little time and so much to do in mission work.  Teaching people is our priority and everything else is secondary.  Teaching this family is frosting on the cake and the blessings are just as sweet and rich.

This beautiful young woman wrote the poem that was posted a few days ago.

These two beautiful young women are sisters.  The one on the right is in her gorgeous prom dress.  The one on the left is in her pretty horse shirt (she loves horses and has been riding since she was four years old).

Sisterly love.  No need to choke her.  She leaves for Uni (university) in a couple weeks.

Happy because she's finished college.

Contemplating her future higher education.

These girls are very polite except when I'm taking their picture!

 

See how sweet I am?  A regular little angel.

The mum in the family shares pictures of her family.

I'm an angel too, okay?

THE Talk is Over & Normalcy(?)Returns

Whew!  Thank you to all of you who offered up prayers on my behalf.  For those of you who couldn't figure out what the big deal was about me having to give a talk in Church on late notice, just put yourself at the edge of a cliff and stand there knowing you have to jump soon without getting the gear ready for protection and you might experience something close to what I feel about public presentations--especially the ones where there isn't proper time to get mentally and organizationally ready.

Yes, I am announcing that I have once again survived a talk in Sacrament Meeting (as you all knew I would--ridiculous me--please tell me no one has died from one yet).  As per operational mode, I was running on an over abundance of adrenaline to the extent I couldn't get right to sleep even when I finally climbed into bed at 4 a.m.  I even scared myself with the baptismal jumpsuit that was hanging on the door to dry because it looked like a visitation to warn me I must repent of stupidity.   Poor pathetic creature that I am.

No, I did NOT take this picture at 4 a.m.  Do you think Elder Blain would properly institutionalized me?

 It is not fun being an anxious perfectionist because nothing being worked on is ever going to be good enough or quite ready yet--until the deadline hits and the "project" must be delivered in whatever state it ends up.  Though the final product is probably acceptable by most standards, it cannot ever meet my expectation and I pick it apart afterward until I manage to convince myself it was actually a semi-respectable flop.  It doesn't matter if anyone compliments me, since in my mind no one will really give honest feedback because they have to be nice.  We should have neutral evaluators so we know where we need to improve, not that it would kick me into a more reasonably efficient and sane mode of operation, I suppose.

Yes, I know all that stuff "they" say about being a proper speaker.  When it comes down to it in the Church, the thing is to prepare, pray, pray, pray, study, pray, ponder, pray, and cross your fingers (while praying) to be receptive to the Holy Ghost who WILL always pull you through for the edification of ourselves and others for His purposes.  Trust, faith, and relying on the Lord is the key.  Why cannot I not get that into my thick skull?  Probably because I have a thick skull (too vain and prideful).  A small voice in my head says,"Repent ye, repent ye!"  LOL (only thing left to do other than ramble on about this ridiculous subject of FOPS*).
                                                                                                                                                                                        *fear of public speaking

Why waste time with any more of this drivel?  SO many wonderful things happened this week that I must get busy downloading pictures and telling you all about them!  I hope you have ten days of uninterrupted time to view the pictures.

A Necessary Change

 "But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things."  2 Nephi 2:24

A new blog format has emerged due to the fact I have been frustrated with the other posts that didn't quite fit properly on the page.  What finally convinced me to quit wasting time trying to make it work was the scan of the poem I posted yesterday.  It wouldn't post it so it was large enough to read without cutting off some of the words.  I really miss the old format because I was quite attached to it being my first blog attempt with the colors and layout personalized.  The link layout was better, but I shall move on with the new.  If you find it not readable and have suggestions, you are welcome to send your opinions.

Meanwhile, I wish I'd made a copy of the old site now.  It would have been nice to have the main page layout in the colors.  Oh well, life must move on.  There are so many really great looking blogs out there that mine in comparison is very plain and simple, which suits me while on the mission where there isn't time to mess with it an fancy it up.  Besides, I don't think I've got the time, talent, or patience to work at it too hard.

I just received a note about two hours ago that a speaker backed out for Sunday and they'd like to "invite" me to fill in by speaking on the Atonement.  Oh boy.  Back to my stress and study mode for the rest of the week so don't expect much on the blog until after Sunday.