Rainbows and Temples and Sunsets - Oh My

It has been some time since I have been to this favored temple of mine as I have been dealing with car issues, health issues and being super busy. 

I used to go each week for years and LOVED when I did that. But then, the health issues started and I nearly went off the road a few times being so tired and the friends that used to drive with me had moved and I figured I had better figure out what was going on with my health rather than driving myself and taking chances. I stopped going weekly and would go when others were driving. 

I miss going often but have been able to attend as I can and also visiting other temples as the opportunity arises. 

One of my favorite things I did a few years back, was cleaning the temple. They close for two weeks annually for cleaning and I was blessed to help a few years back and LOVED being able to assist in cleaning such a holy building. I always feel peace when attending and count it a blessing in my life. 

I signed up to help clean this past week and nearly canceled twice as I have been dealing with some health issues and even an hour before leaving, I was worried I may not be able to go but was determined to try and prayed my body would go along. 

I was driving to the temple in the BEAUTIFUL new car my dad and step-mom helped me get and was giving gratitude for the wonder of how blessed I am when a rainbow showed up just in front of me and ended at the temple! 

If you don't read this blog, you may not know that my mother sang us "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" every night when I was little and we sang it at her funeral and whenever I need a "pick me up" mother moment, a rainbow seems to show up. Here is a link to a post about that.

I LOVED that it ended at the temple! In our religion, we believe that families are sealed together not until "death do us part" but we believe families are eternal and we can be sealed to them for eternity in the Holy Temple of  God. So, we go to the temple for the first time for ourselves and then after that, we go and do temple ordinances for our ancestors.

We can be sealed to them forever as we believe we were individuals before coming to earth and are the same spirit once we die. Baptisms for the dead and other temple ordinances of washing, anointing and sealing's were done in biblical times and we believe we must have these ordnances done for our own salvation. 

I believe my mother was letting me know she was with me in my journey today as I had been in bed until 4 p.m. today and had gone to bed with a migraine last night. I had stomach issues and some other health things going on that made it hard for me to go but I was SO grateful I was able to go and help clean, it was a wonderful night. 

I wish I had stopped when I first saw the rainbow as it was so clear but didn't pull over until a bit later when I looked behind me and saw the burning sunset. It was SO beautiful. The night was great and the best part was, I have Princess Five home with me for the rest of the weekend! Even though the day started off not so great, it ended amazingly! 

Remember the "pot of gold" at the end of the rainbow is the knowledge we get attending the TEMPLE!

Have a BLESSED Day!

It Is 3 am and I Got a New Car

The internet is still not working and I got a new car and had to drive to the "big City" to get it so I will post more about it later and pray the internet guy will be able to figure out how to get me better INTERNET! The two posts I want to post about both have videos and I am at 9% uploaded on one and it isn't loading and it is 3 a.m. so I am giving up!

Have a Blessed Day!

Puerto Rico Update Family and FEMA To the Rescue

  

This week, I thought I would update you on my family in Puerto Rico as things ate not going well there. This was the update on from my niece on her parents this week. "My parents are doing really well! And learning how to take selfies;) They are picking up humanitarian supplies from the church at the airport and delivering them to stake centers. They are also going to all the missionary apartments and trying to clean up what they can and save journals and pictures for the missionaries who had to leave everything behind! They still don't have water or electricity, but they are sure troopers!"

My cousin has been a trauma nurse and then PA for years and now I guess is working for FEMA. We got these updates today from her.

My cousin shared this with the family as his sister was being sent to Puerto Rico, "My sis, as she is leaving an Atlanta hotel for the flight line to board a plane to Puerto Rico. Her DMAT - Disaster Medical Assistant Team is being deployed by FEMA for 2-3 weeks to provide medical care in Puerto Rico. She might be sent up into the hills but is not sure. Good luck and say hi to cousin Missionaries (My brother and his wife) if you bump into them."

Here is her latest email to the family - "Hello all, pouring rain here in Puerto RICO. Saw Elder and Sister (My brothers name here) yesterday. They came to go to lunch with me here at the MASH tent outside of the Trauma Hospital in San Juan! They even brought us m&m's. What bliss. The whole team has enjoyed the comfort treats. Yesterday had a shooting car with 5 victims come roaring up to entrance doors. 2 died I am hearing. Today happened again, but another car following, shooting trying to finish the job. We have big heavily armed scary dudes protecting us. I am trying to send pics but, that might have to wait. I am having a hard time sending texts. I can receive fine, but can't send. Today, it's still pouring rain and now having flash floods around. We sleep in a large tent, but now flooded as well. Still trying to secure shower facilities. All is well here! Lots more of need, these poor folks will be a long time rebuilding! 

Love you all," 

This was an update earlier as we wrote asking if we could help in any way - "Roads are doing better, but some still non passable. No stop lights functioning anywhere. Electricity mostly in San Juan with some other bigger cities. But, even then not consistent or reliable. Water is contaminated. Flooding and slides happening today due to 24 hours of torrential rain. It's really hard to send anything right now in that there is no postal functioning. Really, rare to have any infrastructure functioning. I would say to contribute money to the church's humanitarian fund. The church is sending a tremendous amount of help being coordinated through (My brother and his wife).

This is a huge lesson to all of our family on why we are counseled to have at least 3 or more months stored of water, food, and heating. There are so many people just sitting in their destroyed homes complaining that the government has not done anything to help them. All they have to do was get up and walk to the distribution place, but they want the government to bring to their home. So sad the entitled mentality we are running into. Of course, just like in the states, it's not everyone, but that's all the stupid news chooses to report. Thanks for your prayers and support! Please spread the word to make sure your family is prepared!!!"

I thought I would share these updates as any of us could have a natural disaster of any kind at any time. With all the earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, etc we would be wise to have food and water storage / water filters on hand just in case! 

Hearing all this makes me count my blessings! Have a BLESSED Day! 

Persimmon on Her Mission - Update in Japan

Good Evening from さむいsamui（cold） すえひろSUEHIRO!!! IT IS SO COLD HERE! And I've already managed to lose 2 pairs of gloves already! But enough about that, you beautiful people you! Lets get to the good stuff! 

First. Fun food experiences.

We were fed by a nice old lady. The lesson was really deep and intense before... to be honest I don't really know what happened, but she fed us afterwards.... I found two hairs in my food... But luckily I have the gift of tongues to not only help me speak Japanese, but to also eat things I don't always want to eat! It really is a gift! 

The second fun food story... We were invited to a lamb party.. By the way, super yummy. So the food wasn't bad, but this man lives about 30-40 minutes away by bus, and he isn't even an investigator yet! He just comes to church. But the evening included him spontaneously singing, holding my hand after a hand shake very firmly for a long time and whispering I love you in English right before leaving, and him playing his nose whistle for us. Is missionary work fun, OR WHAT?!?!?!

But some miracles of the week!

We have a girl, with a baptismal date, but she is a little nervous to talk to her mom. She is only 12, but today she said that she wants to be baptized! So that was a tender moment! 

The elders find us SO many referrals. I appreciate them very much! Also new Elder, speaks better Japanese than me, so that is always a good time!! Ha

I was able to teach the Ukulele to a less active mom this week, so that was tons of fun. I can't teach well in English, so teaching in Japanese was a good time!! 

 

We have been teaching about the Plan of Salvation a lot recently. That plan really is perfect!

Funny Story of the week! 

So we went with a member to visit some less actives. While talking they said something like,"You should go to the giant mall, and dendo!!!" "Yeah that's a great idea!" And then they kept talking.... and then the same member ended up driving us to the mall... Kind of against our will.... but it was just so funny! We weren't sure on the rules of proselyting in a mall but we got it sorted out! The member decided to buy us gyoza. So nice!! We managed to talk to about 10 young girls in two different groups, who really liked me being white. We invited them all to Eikaiwa. There was a group of boys staring at us from a distance, and they walked closer. The girls we were talking to told them to talk to us, but they walked away really fast to sit at a table to stare at us... It was all good fun! after that fun experience, we go out to the car, and her car has died... She thought it was just her key, but after calling a member, and a jumpstart that failed, we got a ride back home from the member...... It was quite the experience. Never a dull day of dendo here in Japan! 

I also found out I REALLY like kaki.... Aka Japanese Persimmons. SOOOO GOOOOOOD! Just FYI. 

Pictures. Sorry. I've gotten not so good at taking them recently! 

Shimai. The one who's car died. We are now best friends! 

We had district lunch, and zone activity. Say hello to the Suehiro district. A recent convert asked me to fill this out. She is 8. The question is "what do I want the boy I like to call me?" I tried to just write my name, But I spelled it the Japanese way, Yeah. That was a good time! 

Fun Cousin Reunion - Love These Women!

I was so grateful that I was feeling up to traveling today. I have been under the weather for several days and am not feeling well at the moment but went to bed super early last night as was able to get some decent sleep and actually had some dreams which doesn't always happen so I know I got deep sleep and awoke feeling better than I have in a few days. 

I traveled several hours and enjoyed getting to see my mothers brother and sister as my aunt and her husband have been serving as missionaries in London for the past 18 months and we were able to visit with them and some of their 10 children today which was WONDERFUL! 

I was SUPER happy to see these wonderful women there today. They are cousins from my mothers sister that passed away a few years back. Here is a post where I am at the hospital giving her a pedicure just before she passed away. 

I think the last time I saw all four of these women in the same place was my aunts funeral in 2013. Here is a link to my aunts funeral post.

I was so excited that all of these sisters were there today at the homecoming for my aunt. I used to babysit them for several weeks a year as their parents would travel or work on something. They were the cutest kids and we enjoyed playing games, especially hide and seek etc. I learned many useful things from my aunt while working for her and she was sweet to notice we needed money to purchase clothes in Jr. and high school and would pay us for babysitting so we could earn that money. I had to purchase my own clothes since I was about ten years old by babysitting and doing chores. 

Many of my clothes were used or hand me downs from my older sister or friends of the family so it was always great when I could "lay away" some new clothes and purchase them with my babysitting funds. 

When talking to my cousins today, I was touched once again by the fact that we all have trials. Each one of these women has had many issues in their life. They have lost two brothers and a sister before they lost their mother several years ago and they have had some similar issues as my girls dealing with estranged family members so I was so happy to see them all there smiling their way through their life trials. 

I had to get gas before heading home and when I pulled into the station, I am not sure why I went way to one side when there were many pumps open and I waited in my car for the person in front of me to pull out for at least a full minute as they had finished pumping but they didn't pull out so I got out and started filling up on the back pump. When I finished, I just smiled as I looked down and saw I filled up at pump 11 and filled up with 11.118 gallons of gas. So, there were 111111 ones in a row at the bottom of the receipt and 111 at the top of the receipt. I wasn't feeling that great as the long day took its toll on my not so well feelings from the week but that lifted my spirit a bit.

On my long drive home, I was able to think about each woman and how amazing they turned out even with all their trials.

They have been doing lots of construction on the highway and I was taking an exit in the middle of construction and the signs weren't very clean and I drove off the pavement dropped the car about 10 inches into the construction area and KNOW that angels were watching over me as the dirt gravel area had large mounds of dirt and I slid this way and that and was able to avoid hitting the huge mounds and ended up skidding to a stop sideways in the construction zone!

Thank heavens that there were no cars behind me following me. I am also grateful that I didn't hit the piles of dirt and fly off over the edge as I don't know that anyone would have found me over the edge as the main amount of traffic was on the opposite side of the highway and I wasn't near the exit as I went off before it as it wasn't marked well. 

I have lots to be grateful for today! I feel so blessed! I hope you have a Blessed day as well!

Best Way To Send Packages Out of Country - Overseas - To Missionary

As many of you know, Princess Four is serving as a Missionary in Japan! She has been out for coming up on a year in the next few weeks. 

With the holidays coming, I want to send her a package. When we got her packet before she left, it made all sorts of comments about NOT sending packages and how it cost more for them to get them out of customs than it was to purchase new stuff in the country etc. 


I called one of the moms who had her daughter in the same place and she said she had no problem sending packages so I went ahead and sent her a Bluetooth keyboard for her ipad. She got it no problem. 

A month or two back, she wanted some sunflower seeds and some hot Cheetos along with some other items, so I sent those and she got the package within two weeks or so. I got a video of her opening the package and was happy with how quickly she received the package.

I started gathering items I wanted to send a few months back trying to get things from each holiday. I went to the dollar store and purchased some Halloween items and then gathered the ones I had already purchased to send. 

It made me laugh that most of the items were made in China, Japan, and Taiwan for the dollar store but we are the only country that celebrates Halloween and they are making all our decorations. It just seemed funny that they can't buy them in Asia even though they are made there and then I am sending them back at $70 a box. 

I bought lots of "eye" items they would be able to wear as a "costume" to share our holiday there. However, I wanted to share how I save funds doing this and some other tips we have learned over the years. 

Don't send prescription items to Asia. There was one missionary mom who thought she would be smart and sewed them into a stuffed animal and the son was arrested for drug smuggling. They can't get even over the counter medications there without a prescription so DON'T sent them. 

If you are sending something expensive like shoes, send two packages a few days or a week apart and put one shoe in each package. My brothers never got things we sent until we split them up. If you want to give them a gift but they will have to send it home, don't send the gift. Send a picture of the gift! I sent her about five pictures of items I purchased for her for Christmas so she can have the excitement of opening a gift, the excitement of the gift but will have to wait until getting home to touch the gift. 

Send things they can leave behind. I sent things that she can "gift" to others or leave for another missionary. Most of the Christmas decorations, I look for at second hand stores or clearance after Christmas sales and purchase ahead of time knowing that the holiday will be coming or they will be on their mission for two Christmases, I bought stuff after the holiday last Christmas for this holiday. Tiny ornaments for the little tree. Funny hats for them to wear. Small games they can play with teens and kids, balloon animals, or origami paper and books etc. 

If you send it early enough, you can send it by sea but it isn't that much cheaper anymore so I just do airmail knowing that it will be anywhere from $40 to $80 depending on weight as the flat rate packages have gone up and down on weight and cost over the past few years. Also, if they go by sea, customs may be more of an issue. 

Send it early. Don't send liquids. Don't send any medications. Don't send anything of value or that is unreplaceable. Open the bags of treats and get the air out of them to make them smaller. Put any chocolate or things that may get smashed or broken that are edible into zip baggies in case it melts or the hard candy gets smashed and you have sticky messes in the humidity. I put all candy or food in zip bags. 

Roll any clothes into small rolls as they won't wrinkle and take up less space. Squeeze any airy items out and put in a zip bag to take up less space. 

Before closing your box, write down everything on a scrap paper as you pack the box so when you fill out the customs form, you can easily recall what is in the box as that can cause problems if you don't mention an item they see on x-rays like the prescription bottles in the stuffed animals I mentioned earlier. 

Don't send plastic / toy guns to any country. We had friends that were arrested while missionaries due to the family sending air soft / water guns to their missionary in Europe and someone thought they were real and that the missionaries were spies. So, never send things that could look like weapons. 

Feel free to ask any questions. We sent Halloween costumes, candy and decorations. We sent Thanksgiving decorations and I had all the girls and myself write "What we give thanks for about Princess Four" letters for her to open on Thanksgiving. We sent Christmas decorations for her to put up on Thanksgiving and then I sent a package to open on Christmas Eve and then a stocking and gifts for Christmas day. If they have a companion that is not American, it may be nice to send gifts for the companion as well as I did with the Halloween stuff as I know her companion won't be getting a package for the American holidays. 

Like I shared, I sent pictures of anything that was expensive and the rest was stuff that we could handle loosing if it was stolen, damaged, or lost in the mail. 

I hope you have a BLESSED Day!

ARRRRG - Internet Frustrations Will Hopefully Be Over Soon

I have been trying to upload this few minute video for well over an hour and it wasn't even starting for at least 1/2 hour. 

I have had to turn off my WiFi ten times and back on and it got stuck at 33% and hasn't moved for forty minutes. I had to re-upload my pictures about five or six times for the same photo as the "internet connection was lost" and they wouldn't upload. I wanted to go to bed hours ago so I am going to just post this. 

I called and switched internet carriers over a week ago but they couldn't get into a neighbors back yard to hook me up so they said they would get back with me the next day after contacting the neighbor and would probably be here to hook it up this week! 

It has been a week and a half and I haven't heard back from them at all in any way! It is hard living in a small town. If their customer service is anything like their service, I may be in trouble! 

Let's hope they are just having a bad week like my internet is having! I really am hoping to have better service soon. I talked to four different neighbors and two said they have the new internet provider and have great service. One said she has them and can't get the wifi to work in the basement but the installer said you can plug in "boosters" so I let them know that. The other neighbor said she has my current provider but it is hooked up on a different street and it works great. 

I am HOPING to have new service by next week! Have a Blessed Day!