Whoso Trusteth in the Lord, happy is [s]he. Proverbs 16:20

 

In the middle of August we said goodbye to our airbnb, doormat and all, and are now living in the mission home. We have bits and pieces of our home life sprinkled about the furnished home such that we feel very comfortable and at home here. I (Armenay) saw a plaque in a store, pictured below, that reflects our sentiment, it reads: 

HAPPINESS SERVED DAILY

While I do feel the sentiment is true, I believe our scripture above makes it ring truer . . . Placing our trust in the Lord does bring happiness. This is something our missionaries are learning daily and we are grateful. Since our last post, Norm has recovered from Covid and celebrated a birthday. We actually moved into the mission home on his birthday, it took us a few days to rid ourselves of all the boxes and we still have some places in need of a thorough sorting and second level organizing. We are allowing ourselves to be patient with that process as our days are so filled with tasks that need attention. 

To date we have had ten airport runs some as early as 3:30 a.m. On August 30 we received 22 missionaries and had 8 departing missionaries. We have had three zone conferences in eight sessions (where we train all 170 missionaries) and two full interview cycles when we spend one-on-one time with each missionary. Sunday, September 11 we held our first "Why I Believe Devotional" for friends and members with a special tribute to 9/11. Two of our talented missionaries arranged a favorite children's song from church for guitar, cello and a 50-voice missionary choir. The song is about faith and teaching the gospel, very relevant to our missionaries and it is beautiful. Last month a number of our missionaries took their preparation day time (preparation day is the only day they can shop, do laundry and clean, get haircuts, fit in some local sights, play basketball, hike, communicate with their families etc) to come to Balboa Park and film the song - you can view it at this link. We had crowds of people watching as we filmed, all drawn in by the lovely sounds of the music. 

Time to share some of the miracles and tender mercies of the Lord we have witnessed since we last wrote. Early in August we selected the date of September 11, as the day for our first Devotional, which took a lot of planning to pull together. I had been given the name of a woman to help conduct some of the music but, given our hectic schedule, had not had a chance to reach out to her. On Norm's birthday we were at the mission home getting boxes unpacked. We wanted to end the unpacking early enough to enjoy some local tacos for Norm's birthday. [See birthday song video below]. We ended our packing and contacted a friend from church to ask for a recommendation for where to get tacos. They kindly invited us to join them for a dinner at their house they were planning with friends. In a way that only the Lord can orchestrate, the woman I needed to speak with, Darice Westwood, was also at the dinner. She agreed to assist with the music for the devotional and did a fabulous job. We did film the devotional and hope to post more footage to our Facebook pages in the coming weeks. Many friends and members were touched by the devotional which had lots of music and testimony. There were over 600 people in attendance.

Our ASL elder has been fitted with hearing aids and is now going through the difficult process of learning to hear and comprehend spoken English. He is newly energized with this process and beloved by his fellow missionaries. We are prayerful that he will work towards translating a spoken talk into ASL and possibly serving in a hearing, English speaking ward before his mission is complete. It is wonderful seeing his transformation unfold.

Another elder, assigned to speak tagalog, recently met with a member who is just returning to church after many years away. As it turns out, as they began to teach this brother they discovered that this elder's father was the missionary who taught the returning member in the Phillipines a number of years ago. We know that it is not by coincidence that this elder is here in San Diego at this time. 

A couple of our sisters were teaching a lesson to a friend in a park. As they completed the lesson, they had a prayer. As they opened their eyes, they saw a woman standing about 10 feet in front of them, looking right at them. They smiled and said hello, she asked if she could approach, which she did. She explained that she had been feeling a need for spirituality in her life and that as she was walking in the park, she saw the friend's scripture opened to a picture of Jesus and she knew she needed to talk to them. She waited until they had completed the prayer and approached to learn more. 

As many of you know, I grew up in Orange County California, just up the road from where we are. For most of the last thirty years my mother has asked "When are you coming home?" And so last December when we received the assignment to serve here in San Diego, the first thought that came to my mind was "Mom, I am coming home." Since arriving here I have thought numerous times about how our Father in Heaven has the same desire as my mother, that we all come home to him. That is our purpose, to invite others to come home to their Father in Heaven. Let me build on this a bit more. Before arriving here we were told by a prior CSDM mission president that there is a running path that leads to Mr. Helix. I hoped to find that path but our first attempt proved unsuccessful. On our second attempt, we stopped a woman on the street and asked if she knew how to get to the path that led to Mt. Helix. She replied, "Oh, the secret path?" and proceeded to give us directions. As we continued our way up to the top of Mt. Helix via the "secret path" the thought came to me, that God's path is NOT secret, he wants all of us to find our way there, to the path that leads home to him. We call that His plan of happiness and are so grateful to be here engaged in His work of helping others find that path.

We take such joy in this work! Please know that we love each and everyone of you - and more importantly, God loves you and wants you to work your way home to Him!