Long weekend experience continued

Sunday was the usual day but it seems to be happening that more and more people are attending Sunday Services than when we first came to this area.  However, the faith of humans ebb’s and flows and so we have to just be patient with them.

When we drove to church it was trying hard to rain but not being successful.  However, after an hour or so, I looked out the window  and the water was literally pouring off the roof and flooding the garden and grass below it.  By the time we left to come home, the sun was shining and it was really hot and very high humidity.  If there is one thing I will remember of Maine it will be the high levels of humidity.  We do not have that often in Arizona.  One of the locals said that this year more than any other year in her memory, the humidity levels have been really high to the point of being really uncomfortable for her.  I guess we have just come through a banner year then?

In the afternoon we went to visit some people who have not been to church for some time.  At one house there were 3 mud trucks.  In this area going mudding is a favorite past time.  You drive into a marshy area, gun the engines, kick up lots of mud and if you have a hill in front of you, try to drive up the hill and kick up more mud.  It is not uncommon to see 4 wheel drive jeeps etc. covered in mud.  The trucks in this driveway were no exception.  In Arizona there is a track up the side of a steep hill (you can see it from the 4 lane highway, and this steep track is called Silly Mountain.  It is a favorite of 4 wheel drive enthusiasts to try to drive up the side.  I think that these people must by part mountain goat to even have it in your mind to try to drive up.  Once up……how do you get back down?  Once your vehicle is caked in mud, which of the car washes is strong enough to remove all the dirt and grime or do you really want it taken off – after all, it IS an advertisement of your accomplishments.

This weekend I had a couple of phone calls that made me feel good.  I talked to one of my companions from mission days in Japan.  We talked for over an hour and it was fun.  Her husband just passed away but she said she had not had time to grieve because  there have been 4 grand children born since then and she has gone to visit each one and does not have time to stop and think about what has happened. She and I are planning to be at the next reunion our mission has in Utah – we cannot make it to the one on the conference weekend – us because we will be back in Arizona only 4 days from this mission and she because she will be in another state welcoming another grandchild.  She has 34 grandchildren.

The second phone call was to an elder who had been serving in our mission.  It is at his home that the reunion will be held and.  He said that our mission was peculiarly ours and that the experiences of that time in our lives can never be repeated.  My companion added to that by the observation that the Lord cobbled together such a diverse group of young people to serve together in Japan and it worked.  I find that amazing.

So here we stand, almost finished with this mission here in Maine and the experiences of this year are peculiar to this area and this time in our lives and cannot be repeated.  Mind boggling!