The week before Christmas brought some family issues that affected our blogging skills, so we took a week off to get our collective head screwed back on right.  Besides, I can't think of any other excuse for not posting last week.  A few days before Christmas resulted in a second round of antibiotics for Lorene to deal with an infection, and we think that maybe she is over it now and are hoping for no more recurrances.  Although she has had some minor health issues since we started serving here in Salt Lake City, they have not been debilitating and for the most part she has recovered very quickly.  We know that overall she has been blessed with good health and has been able to serve even with minor disruptions.

Christmas was rather quiet and, to our recollection, we have never had an entire Christmas morning just to ourselves.  The peace and quiet was rather nice, but a little lonely, and we able to enjoy just being together remembering why and what Christmas really means.  To top the day off we went to our Branch for a Christmas dinner with our fellow missionaries.  We were sad that several of our missionary friends were not in attendance as they spent the time with family members who live live close by, but we had no regrets about spending the time with our mission family.  We were especially sad that our adopted mom, Sister Sharon Walker, was not with us, as she has gone home and been released due to some health issues.  We love her so much and will ever be grateful for her friendship, and we call and check up on her on a regular basis.

In less than a week we will begin a new year and, with it, new opportunites as well as new challenges. The past year has gone by very fast; we are hoping that this year passes more slowly. We want to savor our new friendships as long as possible and want to be more effective at helping others find their ancestors and to continue to search and find our own family members (Steve) and clean up the records in Family Tree (Lorene).  Time passes too quickly to waste it, thus my New Years's wish is to be more effective with what time is allotted to me and to develop a more meaningful relationship to Him who we follow.  The Savior is only as far away from us as we put Him, and thus conversly is only as close to Him as we draw close to Him.

We have both recommitted ourselves to our Mission which has brought a great sense of peace and comfort to each of us.  We have been trying unsucccessfully to concentrate on our Mission as well as dealing with some family issues at the same time and it has been very hard on us emotionally as well as affecting us somewhat in our service at the Family History Library.  We have come to realize that we will likely have some of these family issues long after we are no longer serving as missionaries, but we won't always be here on a mission serving others and helping them find and become connected to their ancetors.  Although we still have love our family and care about them, their issues will no longer prevent or diminish our opportunnites to serve and help others as we put the Lord first and His work of bringing families together.  We also know that because we are here on a mission, the Lord will watch over our family and He will be there for them.

I just want to add a note about what Steve wrote in the last paragraph.  I was writing in my journal this morning about how difficult it has been to balance our time, efforts, and emotions between the family issues, health concerns, and our missionary responsibilities.  As I finished writing about my concerns in these areas, the thought came to me through the Spirit that we must "Seek . . . first to build up the kingdom of God, and to establish his righteousness . . ." (JST Matt. 6:38).  I didn't share this with Steve until after he wrote (and I edited) the blog. I am awed that he and I had the same inspired thought about putting the Lord first.  One blessing that has come to us as a result of our missionary service is that we are becoming more united.

May your new year be a joy to you in all the aspects of your life.