Serve With Honor

Serve with honor – those are the words we used to send our sweet daughter, Naomi, off into the mission field where she will share her knowledge and belief of God and his restored gospel here upon this earth with all who will listen to her. What a great challenge and what an honor for her to be entrusted by the Lord to take His message of joy and happiness to a corner of the world where it is needed. Naomi will spend two weeks in Provo, Utah in the Missionary Training Center where she will be taught a crash course in how to teach by the spirit. The material she will be teaching is nothing new to her, as she is already well acquainted with the gospel of Jesus Christ. From Utah, Naomi will travel to Halifax, Canada where she will serve for a period of up to two months. This is her visa waiting portion of her mission. From Halifax, Naomi will then travel to the Nampa, Idaho mission where she'll spend the remaining months of her mission time there.

Here is Naomi with her group in the MTC. Sister Mata, her companion, is standing to her right.

I have to admit, that as her mother I have felt a little bit of anxiety at times as we have gone through the process of letting her go. She is never far from my thoughts, but I am so excited for her and the experiences she is having. There are times when I am almost envious. When she flew from Utah to Halifax there was one connection where she only had 30 minutes to catch her next flight. I was a little bit concerned about that one. I remember looking at the clock at five minutes before her flight was to leave and offering a silent prayer that she would make it to her gate on time. As we spoke later that evening she told me that she had actually sat in the wrong gate. Moments before her plane was to leave she got up and asked someone who knew. I am certain that the Lord heard and answered my prayer and as a result she was impressed to ask for assistance, because she had just enough time to get to where she needed to be to catch her plane. What a delightful blessing it is to have the Lord watching over my missionary. I love the spirit that has come more abundantly into our home as we ponder on missionary work and as we send letter and packages to her.

Naomi has barely been gone two weeks but already we feel the blessings flowing into our lives. The Lord is so aware of us. He is so mindful of our needs. He is so generous in blessing us daily. I am so thankful for the opportunities we have to ponder His hand in our lives as well as to see His hand guiding and training Naomi in His work - that of building up His kingdom here on the earth.