Yield: To Produce Profit in Return for Cultivation

36 hours with Mikayla--20 hours with Jordan and they are off again. What an impossibly amazing weekend! It's hard for me to always keep everything in perspective, but I think Pres. Walker said it best after his third of at least 5 calls here, worried about the icy roads--wondering if Mikayla's mission call had come--wanting to know if she had made it home. Each time I shared the hurdles that seemed to be endlessly popping up and his reply was, "Oh, aren't these such exciting times! Isn't the Lord so incredibly mindful of each of us individually? I didn't see my way as clearly the past few days--but they are--and He is! Looking back--fresh memories lingering--we have experienced safety and charity and some precious moments of piercing peace, the most powerfully profound of which was Mikayla's reading of her mission call. Twice we have experienced the utter chaos and confusion of trying to coordinate and connect extended family prior to these important events, and twice I have been awed by the immediacy of peace and the intensity of the spiritual confirmations, as my children have started reading their prophetic calls, both that our Heavenly Father loves His child--and mine--and that these assignments come directly from Him. Last night, in a some brief minutes of quiet I asked Mikayla how she felt about receiving a call to serve next door to home. She told me, "It's none of the things I was expecting. It's really close. It's not a foreign language. But, something happens when you read your call and you just feel that it is yours." She is ready and asked, in all seriousness, if we could come, if we picked up the car in Burley on Monday, and go through the temple with her. Our Stake President asked her to start going to the temple twice a week after she got her call and she is anxious. I had to inform her, smiling, that we would need to have just a bit more preparatory time than that, but soon. She said that she would go with her limited use recommend until we could make plans. These are the extraordinary profits that make all of the struggles and heartaches and stresses worth the effort.

Some interesting things we learned, or remembered, over the course of the few hours we had together after the call came, were that we have numerous friends, friends of friends and family of friends who are either serving in Mikayla's mission right now, have served there, are living in her mission boundaries, moving into her boundaries or are originally from her mission area. And most ironic of all--Jet, the friend who helped Mikayla realize the spiritual power of living her testimony and opening her mouth in defense of the gospel, is stationed one hour away from the heart of Denver, at the military base in Colorado Springs, preparing for the time when he will serve a mission of his own. I know Mikayla would have enjoyed a taste of other cultures and languages integrated into her missionary experience--she has an abiding love and interest in diversity, but she decided to become a full time missionary because she wanted to share and serve. She knows this is her calling--we know it is--and because we do--Fred and I can be openly relived that she is close. We understand this isn't about us, but it is a comfort just the same. This weekend has been brief and harried, but a warm sweet glow is what is left lingering.

Part of that sweetness was added by nine 4 year olds. I visited all of my Sunbeams on Friday to break down the stranger barrier (the fruit snacks I took along aided me abundantly=). My only goal this week: Help every child want to be in class. I am pleased to report that we got there and more! I had 6 children come to church and because I was squeezing out the last hour of our visit and Mikayla was with me, there were 3 "teachers" during Sharing Time. It was perfect. One tiny waif of a  girl spent the entire hour rolling her hand round and round mine, smiling brightly up into my face and whispering every few minutes, "You're my teacher...I'm happy...I'm a sunbeam? You're my teacher...I'm happy...I'm a child of God?" The random comments, backfiring of object lessons and the goldfish attention spans had Mikayla and I in stitches. Mikayla had to leave before class, but there we colored pictures, played bean bag toss, drew on the chalkboard, dressed up like Daniel and lions and angels and learned how to reverent and how to pray. In the end happy parents picked up their sweet children and I came home in love. Primary can be such a happy, healing place. It seems that after every difficult calling or hard life experience where I start becoming weighed down with self guilt I am called to work in the primary and I am reminded how much Heavenly Father loves His children and wants their happiness and growth. And then I remember, truly, that I am one of those children and that once again I have been listening to the wrong "voices". Primary makes it so easy to see the simple truths and appreciate the abundant goodness of life.