Thursday, June 5, 2014

There is Sunshine in My "Sole" Today

“How Beautiful upon the mountains are the feet 
of him that bringeth good tidings”


I heard once that Lord likes worn out shoes
I even think it makes Him smile
For with the wear and tear that comes
Conversion takes place of style.

So if you only knew my story
Why I look the way I do
I think you’d change your view about me
‘Bout being “Just an old nasty pair of shoes.”

For I was once black and shiny
And I looked pretty sharp with a suit
But I been through a bit since then
And now these dress shoes have tuned into boots

I know the life of a missionary
And even better the life of his shoes
Because I am the shoes of a missionary
And we’ve been about everywhere declaring this good news

I got to see most of the lessons
When the family only had a dirt floor
But when they had cement or tile
I was left listening at the door

And listening was just terrible at first
I remember his language when I first heard him try
But I saw his tongue get loosed
As the miles and miles went by



My sole continued to wear daily
And the holes have grown so fast
This mission has passed so quickly
I don’t know where the time has passed

They arrive in the field quite the same
Missionaries and their shoes so new
Both fresh, both clean both ready to go
But neither knowing what they’re about to go through.

Yes it’s true missionaries and their shoes arrive the same
But they go home quite different you’ll find
One’s battered and beaten and torn to shreds
While the other goes home refined

And though battered and beaten are the soles of these shoes
And I feel bad that he can feel the rocks with his toes
I know the thinner and thinner my sole gets
The more my missionary*s soul grows.

So yes I think the Lord likes worn out shoes
I think it makes Him smile
For with the wear and tear that comes
Conversion takes place of style.


~Elder Chantz Davis
Philippines Naga Mission

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Two Questions

As I stare out the windows, 
with tears still in my eyes,
I see the faces of those I love, 
we just said our last goodbyes.
This ride will be long and trying, 
as two questions plague my mind.
Do I want the life up ahead, 
or the one I left behind?
Two years is such a long, long time, 
for going door to door.
In my reflections I thought,
"There really must be more."
As I got down off the plane,
I stared smiling at the beach.
A man turned me the other way, and said, "Elder, go find and teach."

And now as I sit reflecting,
on today, it is my last.
This really isn't fair Dear Lord, 
the times gone way too fast.
As I stare out the windows, 
with tears still in my eyes,
I see the faces of Elders, Sister, Friends I love, 
We just said our last goodbyes.

This ride will be long and trying, 
as two questions plague my mind.
Do I want the life up ahead, 
or the one I'm leaving behind?
~Author Unknown





Kathleen Davis with her son and Husband

 
 
Kathleen Davis has 6 kids, 4 girls, then 2 boys. Both boys served missions, one son went to Guatemala the other to the Philippines. She lives in Eagar, AZ.  Her husband is 1st counselor in the stake presidency and she says she has the best job in the church.... Primary Chorister. They have 13 grandchildren... 10 of which live in walking distance of their home:)
Kathleen said "I think every missionary feels this way. With 16 days left my boy is struggling with leaving his last two years behind:). I assured him the best days of his life were still ahead of him:):)"

Saturday, May 31, 2014

Prayers of a Righteous Mother

In the 8 1/2 months that my son has been serving his mission, I have witnessed many miracles that have come to pass because of the faith of the Missionary Mommas! Struggles and trials are shared. Prayers and words of encouragement are offered. Miracles happen!

Tomorrow is Fast Sunday. That does not mean we will be running to all of our meetings...hahaha. To me, this means for 24 hours I will focus on the things I have been praying about, the things I am studying about and trying to discover the things that my Heavenly Father wants me to know and do! This is also the time for special requests from me to the Lord.

So this evening at 5PM (Pacific Standard Time) I will begin my fast. Tomorrow at 5PM (PST) I will kneel in prayer and offer up the things in my heart. I have invited the MMs to join me. I would like to extend that invitation to anyone that would like to be included in this fast in any way!

My Righteous Mother 

"I have come to know that faith is a real power, not just an expression of belief.  There are few things more powerful than the faithful prayers of a righteous mother." ~ President Boyd K Packer





Wednesday, May 28, 2014

All You Need Is Love

Tim Love
I am an adult convert of 24 years. I am a musician (play in a classic rock band - all LDS members: We are The Beatless http://www.beatless.com). My son joined our band about a year ago. I am pretty much a life-long Beatles fan. Upon becoming a member of the church, I learned the important difference of admiring someone's talent and idol worshiping (which I was pretty close to!) I have 4 kids total (3 of them daughters). My oldest daughter 22 is getting married in the L.A. temple this August. My 2nd daughter, 20, is serving a mission in the Utah Salt Lake City South mission. My 17 year old son will be graduating High School in 2 weeks and then plans to leave on a mission in February. Lastly (but not leastly!), is our 10 year old Josie. My wife and I check out Missionary Momma's all the time. We very often end our evenings with "Did you read this story on Missionary Mommas?"
I am a new Missionary Dad. My daughter, who just recently left the MTC for her mission in the Salt Lake City South mission, told us of a Sister Missionary she knew who was shy at giving discussions. She said the only thing the girl wanted to talk about was The Beatles. I laughed at this when I read it, because I am a life-long Beatles fan (of their music anyway). I asked my daughter to tell her friend that St. John & St. Paul tell us to "Spread The Word and you'll be free" and "The Word is Love". She needed to let investigators know that when it comes to Heavenly Father, "he loves them yeah, yeah, yeah, and with a love like that, you know they should be glad". I also told her that Brother George Harrison talked quite clearly about the second coming when he said "Here Comes the Son". Lastly, I told her that it is important she Get Back her will to serve a good mission, Get Back her desire to serve the Lord, and that through our acceptance of Jesus Christ, we would indeed Get Back to where we once belonged. My daughter showed her the letter and it apparently made her day. She wrote me this wonderful letter made out to Brother "All You Need Is" Love. She said my letter made her "Good Day Sunshine", and that after reading the letter she knows she could serve this mission "Eight Days A Week". I guess this has taught me that sometimes you got to talk to people in a language they'll understand. Glad the Sister was into The Beatles and NOT into Justin Beiber!
 

Monday, May 26, 2014

Languages of our Missionary Children

El Evangelio es verdadero, 福音是真實的, L'Evangile est vrai, Das Evangelium ist wahr, Vajtswv txoj lus yog qhov tseeb, Evangeliet er sant, Евангелие истинно, พระเยซูเป็นความจริง.... in any language, THE GOSPEL IS TRUE!



Please welcome back Shannon Avery as our guest blogger today!

As of a week ago, the worldwide membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was 15,082,028. Of those, 83,035 are serving as full-time missionaries (actually, that number went up Wednesday when over 1,000 entered our 15 MTCs around the globe!), and over 10,000 have mission calls or are working on their paperwork. These missionaries are serving in 405 missions around the world!
One of the facts that interested me the most when I read these statistics, was that our missionary children speak in 189 published languages!! This doesn't include the unpublished languages spoken by tribes, gypsies, and other smaller groups. WOW!
This really piqued my curiosity, so I started digging further. First, I found data regarding the most spoken languages in the world. Topping the list is Mandarin Chinese, with nearly two BILLION speakers! WHAT?!! This data includes all speakers of the languages, not only native speakers:
Mandarin Chinese -- 1,917,000, 000
Spanish -- 406,000,000
English -- 335,000,000
Hindi -- 260,000,000
Arabic -- 223, 000, 000
Portuguese -- 202, 000, 000
Bengali -- 193, 000, 000
Russian -- 162, 000, 000
Japanese -- 122, 000, 000
Javanese -- 84, 300, 000
I was interested to see how this data compared to the most common languages spoken by the over 15 million members of our global church. The data I found is for native speakers ONLY, so doesn't include languages learned by missionaries:
...
  •  English—6,008,000—47.8%
  • Spanish—3,903,000—31.1%
  • Portuguese—970,000—7.7%
  • Tagalog—172,000—1.4%
  • Cebuano—131,000—1.0%
  • Japanese—118,000—0.9%
  • Ilokano—113,000—0.9%
  • Samoan—107,000—0.9%
  • Tongan—80,000—0.6%
  • Korean—79,000—0.6%
  • All others—7%
This gave me the idea to find out what languages the children of our Missionary Mommas Facebook group are speaking (those who commented on my post). Although my data is not representative of all the missionaries serving, I feel like our group of almost 5,000 Missionary Mommas is a good representation of a cross section of current missionaries. And, although this is not meant to be scientific in any way, it sure does make you feel good to be a part of something so amazing!
Afrikaans
Albanian
American Sign Language
Amharic
Arabic
Armenian
Bicolano
Bislama
Bulgarian
Cambodian
Cantonese
Castillano
Cebuano
Chamorro
Chuukese
Coloqua
Cree
Creole Portuguese
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dari
Dutch
English
Estonian
Fante
Farsi
Fijian
Finnish
Flemish
French
French Tahitian
German
Guarani
Haitian Creole
Hebrew
Hiligaynon
Hindi
Hmomg
Hungarian
Icelandic
Ilokano
Indonesian
Italian
Japanese
Kazakh
Khmer
Kiribati
Korean
Krio
Loatian
Macedonian
Malay
Malagasy
Mandarin Chinese
Maori
Marshallese
Mauritian
Moldovan
Mongolian
Navajo
Norweigan
Oromo
Patois
Persian
Polish
Portuguese
Q'eqchi'
Quechua
Romanian
Russian
Samoan
Saran Tongo
Serbian
Shona
Sioux
Slovenian
Slovak
Sotho
Spanish
Swedish
Tahitian
Tagalog
Thai
Tongan
Turkish
Twi
Ukranian
Vietnamese
Waray Waray
Welsh
Xhosa
Yiddish
Zulu
I don't know about you, but I think that is pretty WONDERFUL! Hugs to all you beautiful mommas who love and sacrifice so much - MWAH!!


Shannon Avery



 Shannon is a wife, a mom, a business and social media consultant,
 a writer, an avid genealogist....and a Missionary Momma! 

Sunday, May 25, 2014

I Love To See The Temple



I love to see the temple.
I'm going there someday
To feel the Holy Spirit,
To listen and to pray.
For the temple is a house of God,
A place of love and beauty.
I'll prepare myself while I am young;
This is my sacred duty.

 
I love to see the temple.
I'll go inside someday.
I'll cov'nant with my Father;
I'll promise to obey.
For the temple is a holy place
Where we are sealed together.
As a child of God, I've learned this truth:
A fam'ly is forever.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxlfhXDOr48&feature=youtu.be

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Eyes in the Back of My Head

Today we took the fam to the park for a picnic.  While we were enjoying our lunch we were reminiscing about "the good old days". My 17 year old daughter was telling her 8 year old brother about "Moms eyes in the back of her head".  She remembered a day that she was supposed to be sweeping the front porch and she kept getting sidetracked...this girl loves all things outdoorsy, bugs, plants, reptiles, rocks, etc...

It is important at this point in the story to know that I had caught her earlier this day doing something she shouldn't have been doing!!! She was convinced that I had eyes in the back of my head because she couldn't figure any other reasonable way in her little 8 year old mind that I could have caught her in the act!

Soooooo, as any desperate Mom would do....I got an idea!!! Muahahaha!!! I had some leftover Halloween candy like this...

...I took it out to the front porch and set this fun little piece of chocolate right where it was "looking" at her!!!

Guess how long it took for her to get that porch swept!!!  ;)

With all of the craziness going on in the world today, I wish I could send chocolate eyeballs to watch over my missionary to make sure he is doing all that he should be and to watch out for his safety. I am thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who watches over our missionaries. Accidents still happen, missionaries still get a little sidetracked at times...but I knowing that Angels are protecting these valiant servants of the Lord helps me sleep a little better at night!

And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up. ~ Doctrine and Covenants 84:88