We sang with the ward choir in sacrament meeting today and also attended stake choir practice this evening. In this way we are getting acquainted with a few people in the area--people who share common interests. And this week and last week the Relief Society presidency was very happy to have a pianist to accompany the hymns, which I was so glad to do because I've not had a calling for so long.
Alan's and Jessica's home teachers came tonight and how nice it was to see home teachers again. Of course, they weren't ours, but we expect our records to be here next week so assume a home teaching assignment will follow shortly from the High Priests quorum.
Alan and Jessica have said for a long time ago they weren't going to get a dog, but two-year-old Eva found a way around that. She just decided to be a dog. She barks a lot and sometimes puts her food on the floor so she can eat it. (No, not right off the floor--from a bowl!) While crawling around on all fours she brushes up against others expecting a petting on the head. She is really the cutest puppy I've ever seen! What's best is she doesn't have to have you leash her to take her for a walk while you carry a little shovel and plastic bag to clean up her messes on the neighbor's lawns. And she doesn't bark at or try to bite the visitors nor chase cars.
We are enjoying this time with the Missouri Washburns. We hope they can say the same about us! Jessica gave up her photography studio in the basement and they put a bed in there for us so we are sleeping well every night. We appreciate the sacrifices the family is making to help us.
Friday night Alan, Jessica, Tom and I went to the Kansas City Temple and attended a session, after which I felt so much better. It was another hard week employment-wise with no call-back from Home Depot and a rejection letter from another mine ("we have looked over your application and although your skills are impressive we have decided to pursue other candidates for this position"). But Tom continues to apply to jobs every day and then takes a break and sees what he can do on Jessica's list of odd jobs that need to be done sometime by whoever has time first. Being able to do something--anything at all--keeps him feeling like he is worth something, that he is needed by someone when so many times this year he has been told he is not needed or wanted.
Tomorrow we're going to visit Amy and David and their boys three hours away on the other side of the state. We are looking forward to seeing Amy pregnant. :) We're just going to be gone a couple of days. Alan and Jessica have given us a curfew. :)
Yesterday Cindy sent me a video to watch. It is a message from Jeffrey R. Holland and one that I think every one of you may understand from perspectives similar to or even very different from our situation. Many times this year we have felt the Lord was telling us to apply somewhere in particular, talk to a certain person, travel far away, etc., and the outcome has never been what we expected. Why, when so much is at stake, would we feel inspired to make choices that turned out to be the wrong choices? This video answered that question for me and I hope it does for you, too. It is only a few minutes long and is more than worth the time it will take you to watch. Maybe within the next few weeks we'll understand why we have taken so many "wrong roads."
One last thing: In the very early hours of the morning I woke suddenly from sleep and heard the words, "Jesus Christ is the only hope." I pondered that for awhile before sleep overtook me again, and thought that perhaps I have spent too much time basing my happiness and my sense of security on whether or not Tom has a job and I have a home of my own. I hope that I am learning, slow though it may be, that I need to put my trust in God, in the power of the Atonement, and not in the men to whom Tom is appealing for work. I am trying to become wholly submissive to God and His will for me.
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