Done!

The best news is that we are done with the renovation of the Roller Court house. Tom added up the 55 hours he spent on it. Plus the 25 hours or so spent cleaning it and the 10 hours or so that another person and I spent helping Tom.

We painted the cupboard and the handles, removed all the carpet and laid down vinyl planking and painted all the walls that were not wood. (There's wood wainscotting). Also had to mow the pasture of a front and back lawn and power wash the siding... and I'm sure there was more. It really looks quite nice and fresh and clean now.  The walls are actually a pale yellow.  And if we can get it off Tom's phone, we will show you a before picture.  Truly awful!

Other things. We had the missionaries to dinner on Monday.  Barb came over, too. Tuesday I got my hair cut. When I wasn't helping Tom I was working on a bunch of articles for my executive coach. I also finally got around to trying to update my website. And I listened to several training calls.

Saturday Tom ran in the Bridge Bash at Cotter springs and bridge. They ran along the river and he had one of his best times. He also calculated he was probably the oldest runner. That's my man!

We went back in the 90 degree heat and spent an hour packaging food for the food insecure. We were under a large tent at 5-man stations. One handled the bags and the funnel. The rest of us poured scoops of dehydrated ingredients into the funnel/bag. Then runners took bins of filled bags to be weighed, sealed, and boxed. We averaged about 6 bags a minute and totalled the entire group packaged 27,000 bags in the hour we worked. It was pretty amazing! There were three or four shifts that day, so they got a lot done.

Saturday evening was the Women's session of General Conference. It was really good to go and listen to inspired speakers. I especially loved President Uchdorf's talk on faith. He said, no matter how much faith you have there are two things we can't do.

          1. We can’t violate another’s agency. God will not force anyone to choose the path of righteousness. He will reach out in love and invite, but he will not compel. So when we pray for a wayward child or friend or pray for someone to change… we have to allow them their agency to not change.

            2. We can’t force our will on God. We can’t force God to do what we want. Faith is not to change God’s will, but to empower us to do his will Paul prayed for relief from the thorn in his side and came to understand it was a blessing. Faith is trust that God knows us and loves us more than we do. He can see what we cannot.

When we trust in God’s wisdom and his perfect love, then we can believe that everything he gives and withholds are for our eternal blessing. In time, all will be made right. We will be not just content, but overwhelmed by his love, grace and mercy.

Today I was in Primary most of the second and third hour. They asked former missionaries to come in and share a missionary story. It was fun to hear the stories of others. Then after church there was a baptism of a man who had been out of the church for 38 years and came back. Pretty special.