Week of June 15-21, 2015
Great week and wonderful adventures in this beautiful land. The green here is almost over powering for an old desert rat like me. Everything is green even when it didn't rain for almost three weeks. It rained the last couple of days, we had been praying hard. The farmers really needed the moisture.
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| Corner that we pass by everyday on our way home |
As we go out into the country we are amazed at the amount, variety, and density of the undergrowth. This is place can grow anything and what a blessing for the people.
We are working with a local hospital to try and arrange some member visits to the people there and also to see if we can get the church to assist in a Humanitarian project. On Wednesday we traveled to the hospital and met with the main administrator to give him the paperwork that needs to be completed to request the aide. While we were there I had to take some pictures of the the hospital and some of the challenges they are having. 65 photos later we were done. I forwarded the pictures to the senior couple over Humanitarian aide and he could not believe the conditions. So we hopefully will be able to assist the hospital in getting some of the things they need. As you can see from the pictures there is a great need. The hospital is very proactive in improving the conditions. They have received some help and are in the process of remodeling the 4th floor. Some rooms have already been upgraded. They are working hard at making it a better place for their patients.
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| Typical room most beds are fixed not adjustable |
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| This has to be pre WW2 cabinet |
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| The fourth floor is being renovate this is an old operating table |
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| four beds and no privacy |
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| Kitchen to warm food for patients |
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| Their eye equipment is a little old but they still use it. |
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How is your eyesight could you tell me the letters
in the second row on the left, Please! If you said
H you failed it's an N the top line is sh and b |
There is a wonderful young lady in our branch who speaks English and is a huge help in helping us to serve the people. She translates for me in Sunday School and helps Sister Mikkelsen with cooking projects as she translates for the people that come over to learn a new American dish. On Thursday we helped celebrate her birthday. We went out to lunch together and then we took her to our favorite bakery shop for a special birthday treat.
This place is amazing you can't pick a bad treat. They are all wonderfully delicious. Not only is this young lady a wonderful translator she is a very talented artist you can see some of her creations in the attached pictures.
Friday was our trip out to the farm. We got on the bus and the Elders said "did you get the text" and we said "no". They went on to tell us our Mission President and his wife and family left that morning to go back home. They went back to take care of family. President Steineger who is the president in the Liviv mission is our presiding authority while President Packer is out of the country. He is scheduled to go home on July 1 he has been filling in for another mission president who's wife got sick and couldn't return. He served as the mission president here about 5 years ago. His son also served as a missionary in this mission about a year ago he is also in Liviv with his family. President Packer should be back in a couple of weeks.
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Elder Halstrom and temple and Area Authorities with
President and Sister Packer during mission conference |
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From left, Elder Donald L. Hallstrom, Elder Randall K. Bennett,
Elder Bruce D. Porter, Elder Jörg Klebingat, and
Elder Russell M. Nelson. Photo courtesy of Elder Russell M. Nelson. |
Friday was the farm day and guess what, I had to dig up three more stumps that were inside the greenhouse footprint. Now you ask," How is he going to relate this to the Parable of the Stump". Not to fear here goes the parable. Getting our garden clear of the stumps of sin is a difficult process. We work and toil to remove them and make our garden a fertile place for our lives to grow and develop. The process of cultivation in the garden is on going. Sometimes in our garden of life we overlook a stump of sin or a new one crops up. If we are committed to keeping our garden clear of this type of problem we must continually be vigilant and root out the stumps of sin as soon as we detect them. In this case the stumps were very small and in a couple of hours I was able to remove all three. That is the way of sin. If we handle it on a daily basis and don't allow it to grow and set deep roots in our lives, it's easy to remove and takes much less effort that waiting and trying to root our large and deep set sins. So let me climb off my soap box and tell you some real great news.
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| Three Little Stumps easy to do when there are small |
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| Preparing greenhouse frame for paint |
We had two baptisms in our branch on Saturday. It was two children of record but the wonderful thing was that everyone came out to support them and we had four different investigators that attended the baptism. It was a wonderful celebration.
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| She was baptized by an Elder who used to serve here. |
One family that attended brought a cake that she had made. It was nine layers and was honey flavored and you can see from the picture she made a honey comb pattern on it and then made little chocolate bees on top. It was the best cake I've had here.
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| That says Baptism Day. The bees were way cool. |
It is so wonderful to see the member come out and support these wonderful children.
In closing I would like to say Happy Fathers Day to all you dads out there. The one Father we sometimes forget is the one that deserves the most thanks. Our Heavenly Father has given us all we have and hope to be. I love this verse in the New Testament
Hebrews 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
Our Earthly fathers, mine included, gave us so much as we were raised in this life, but without the Father of our spirits we would not have the opportunity to be here and learn and grow. May we always reverence our Heavenly Father and do so by service to others. We love you and hope you have a wonderful week I know we will
Love Elder and Sister Mikkelsen.
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| My first Fathers Day as a Grandpa!! Cute kid. |
