For the past week or more Elder Cummings from the area of “Madre Vieja” has been sick. He’s been suffering from dizzy spells and extreme fatigue. He’s been to several Dominican doctors as well as the Church’s doctor for the Area, Dr. Kilgore, and none of them know what’s wrong. He was sent to the office at the end of last week for bed rest.
When Hna. Johnson and I got back into the office this morning Elder Cummings was feeling a little better. He came up to the 2nd floor where the Mission Office is and used our computers to e-mail his family. He did get his letters written as well as his report to the mission president before he had to go back downstairs and rest some more.
Hna. Johnson and I love getting e-mail from our friends and family. Today we got a great letter from Hna. Johnson’s mother, Betty. Our son Dan also wrote us a wonderful letter with sage advice and some great words of wisdom. Yesterday Hna. Johnson got mail and pictures from Valerie. Yah… great pictures of the grandchildren! We love it. We love our family and the letters they write to us.
Today I received an e-mail from Nathan. It was a good letter and attached to it were the flower shop’s sales analysis spread sheets for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Wow…. I was impressed. The flower shop is doing great. I know it is an answer to prayer and a direct correlation to our service in the mission field. And I do realize that all that business doesn’t come without a lot of sacrifice. I know our family (everyone) is putting in a lot of long hard hours to make our mission possible and I am so grateful and thankful we have sons and their families who manage the flower shop while we are serving the Lord on a mission.
It is truly a blessing to us to have such hardworking and faithful sons and daughter-in-laws. And of course we also have the rest of the extended family (both Pam’s and mine) that are equally devoted and are making huge sacrifices for us and the flower shop as well. This mission would not be possible if it weren’t for the hard work and dedication of all of our combined, extended families, our brothers & sisters, their children and grandchildren that all work for the flower shop either full or part time. They are all great and I personally owe them each a debt of gratitude. They are all wonderful. We have been truly blessed by our Heavenly Father, not only for having a great and supportive family but for the tremendous prosperity of the flower shop.
I had an interesting experience while I was looking at the flower shops sales analysis and reading Nathan & Jacob’s notes and comments. The reports were so good in spite of the bad economy that I got excited. My pulse started to race and my heart was pounding in my chest. When I noticed what was happening to me I commented to Hna. Johnson that I felt like I had just run a race. We talked for a few minutes about the numbers and my heart settled down again. But then I went back to reading the spread sheets again and without my noticing at first, it happened again. My heart was racing and pounding in my chest. It made me very excited to see and read all of the good sales statistics.
Tonight at the “Casa de Huespedes” the Senior Couple, Elder and Hna. Parker, were in charge of teaching the lesson for FHE. Elder Parker is a lawyer and former Judge. His assignment in the mission is to be a member of the legal team that represents the church in the Caribbean Area. It was fascinating to hear him share stories about his duties, travels and solving legal problems all over the Caribbean. He handles everything from fighting for the church’s right to be tax exempt to getting clear title to property the church wants to build chapels on.
Elder Parker said a few months ago the country of Guiana kicked out all of our missionaries. Many of the 50+ foreign missionaries in the country were put in jail all day. One senior couple was detained in jail overnight! Thankfully the legal problems in Guiana have been solved and we are able to have missionaries there again thanks to the church’s legal team.
Elder Parker reported that they are making a little progress in the church’s efforts to gain legal recognition in Cuba. He doesn’t know how long it will take but hopefully someday soon we may have missionaries in Cuba again.
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