Half Way

It feels good to be back doing all of the usual ward activities and our community service again. For some of our service opportunities it's been more than a month since our last visit with them. We are trying to be a good influence wherever we go. We are teaching the most basic Christian principles in life, and we are representing Jesus Christ and his church in a positive light, which can hopefully result in good outcomes down the road. We're now exactly halfway through our 23-month mission. 11 1/2 months in the rearview mirror, 11 1/2 more months ahead of us. We hope we can build upon the relationships and friends we've made so far to have more of an impact, influence and successes in the future.

We had a new opportunity to volunteer at the New Hope Ministry in Kailua this week. They asked us to do Bible trivia with them on Thursday nights, so we planned a Jeopardy game. It was an awesome experience, everyone had fun, and we established a lot of goodwill with them. They are very excited about us coming back every week. We will probably try to vary things up a bit so it's not always trivia games, but we will do our best to teach them about the Bible in fun and interesting ways, and make it come alive in their hearts.

Sister Mundell is amazing. Her doctors describe her as "the model patient" because she's been so proactive recently about taking charge of her health. For years her knees have been a persistent painful problem -- bone on bone with a torn meniscus. She thought there was no hope, and her condition could only get progressively worse. She was worried about the prospect of having knee replacement surgery, and saw a sports medicine MD this week. What he told her surprised the both of us because it was counter- intuitive to what we expected to hear. Her condition has improved as the muscle around the knee has become stronger because of all the walking and exercises she has been doing to lose weight. In fact, knee replacement is the least desirable option for her, as surgery may make her condition worse. She was so excited and happy to get that diagnosis. We feel like the Lord is extending his tender mercies by blessing us with good health on our mission. 


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