True Love

 We have the privilege of working with amazing individuals and groups who are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but whose Christlike virtues are examples to us of what it means to love and serve other people less fortunate than themselves by volunteering their time, talents, resources and their hearts for the worthy causes that we're involved in. We wanted to mention and highlight some of these special people from time to time that we love and admire, who are making a difference in the lives of the Hawaiian people. We won't mention them by name because we haven't gotten their permission to do so. 

One lady is tireless in her efforts to provide a safe and pleasant space for displaced homeless families in her community. She opened a homeless shelter 5 years ago and everything that she does is donation based. She is building small dwellings for individuals and families to stay in on the property, to get them off the street and into a community setting that helps them work together. This week we donated screens to complete 5 more little houses for the shelter.  She is an amazing person with a big heart, and everyone loves her!  She currently houses 75 adults and 22 children.  We are providing a bible class at the shelter on a weekly basis.

We occasionally venture out of our comfort zone into the "growth zone" by taking the bus system so that we can meet and interact with all sorts of people.  Dan gave Cathy the challenge to engage someone in conversation, either while waiting for the bus or on the bus.  We met a beautiful woman who was headed home to Honolulu.  She had spent the evening visiting her husband's grave site in our neighborhood.  She discussed how she brings cards and reads them to him.  She was married to him for 44 years, and she described how she tenderly cared for him, especially during the past 10 years as his dementia progressed. Her children wanted her to put him in a home, but she just wanted to be with and take care of him. We both mentioned afterwards that she demonstrated the very definition of true love. It was just beautiful how she expressed her love for her deceased husband, and we both felt we were inspired and directed to meet and talk with this wonderful lady that night.

At stake conference today our theme was from Abraham 3:27 "And the Lord said: Whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the Son of Man: Here am I, send me. And another answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lord said: I will send the first." We loved the talks which focused on our willingness to serve and follow the selfless example of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in all we do. We are finding that by serving others and looking outward in love, and not selfishly inward, we are having an abundance of true joy in our missionary service, and our efforts to help people in all walks of life are making us happier than we could have ever been by staying home back in Florida.

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