Relief

Lots of things are completed, and with them comes a sigh of relief.  This morning we e-mailed copies of the program we use to do shift assignments to our successors and we are now pretty much done with our responsibilities – training our replacements.  Hurray!  Not that we did not enjoy being shift coordinators – we did, but we are also ready for a change.  We are happy to let others have the joy.

Yesterday, I gave the Sunday school lesson.  Although we thought we would only have that assignment once while we were here, this was my second time.  I don’t know why it is so intimidating.  We only have the temple presidency and all the temple missionaries in the class (including Sister Susan Easton Black Durrant).  But I must have had some good help from above, for it seemed to go well, and as my brother-in-aw would say “There were no tomatoes thrown”, so I guess I did okay.  But Becky gets her turn to do it next week.  So I guess the celebrations for having passed another hurdle may be a bit pre-mature.

Also this last week, we had another change in our temple presidency.  A couple who have served in the presidency for the last five years, under three different temple presidents, was released from the presidency.  They will continue on as ordinance workers (and sealer).  But I am sure it is a sigh of relief for them as well.  The new counselor is a local member of Nauvoo.  He was the stake president here when the temple was first built and dedicated here in 2002.  He is also heading up the horticulture department in the FM (facilities maintenance) group of NRI (Nauvoo Restoration Inc.)  I guess he is responsible for all the hundreds of different tree species that decorate the flats around us.  He has also been an ordinance worker here ever since he was released from being Stake President.  We look forward to working with him and his wife more in the coming months.

In a few more weeks, we will have been here for a full year.  Last April, we arrived here with the rest of our group – 40 couples strong.  Again, this year, another group of 40 couples will be arriving about the same time (mid-April).  These will be the missionaries that will be replacing us eventually as we go home the end of October.  Again we sigh, not entirely with relief, as we realize that our time here is quickly slipping away.  But we are anxious to have our numbers enhanced – we need the infusion of strength and enthusiasm that they will bring with them.  They do bring a promise of relief for us.  These re-enforcements are needed as we are now noting higher attendance at the temple as warmer weather is creeping into sight.