Tender Mercies

It is so amazing to see all the tender mercies the Lord gives us in our lives. It seems that so often in the business of our lives we miss or overlook all the the times that our Father places special people or circumstances in our path that help us to know that He is always there guiding us and blessing us in so many ways even while we are struggling with the difficult challenges of life. Kayla and Thomas were blessed with many of these tender mercies. To live in such a caring and loving ward who helped  them so much even though they are only there for a short time. A wonderful lady who came and cared and took pictures, kind medical staff, all the little things that" happened" so that we could come and that all the family could all be there as well.Even after we got back here on Sunday morning the Stucki's took us to church and just randomly took us to the ward where it so happens one of the converts from my mission lives and we got to meet his wife and daughter.There are just so many times that things happen that are just too good to just be coincidence. God is so very much involved in our lives and as the perfect loving parent guides us as we try to muddle our way through.                                                                                                                                 We got back to Palawan late Sunday night and spent Monday getting settled back in and trying to adjust to the jetlag again. Tuesday we had zone conference in Puerto Princessa so we took a load of missionaries up there. It was a really good conference and a great way to get us back into the work and pumped up for this final segment of our mission. Wednesday we went  with the branch president to an area along way from Narra where there are quite a few members. There used to be a branch there but it was closed because too many people were not coming to church. We visited one older couple who still faithfully come all the way into Narra often walking 5 kms to where they can get transportation into town. I thanked him for his faithfulness and dedication; he just shrugged and said," I made covenants a long time ago and I keep them". Thank God for members like that! Wish more could catch that vision so the Lord could bless their lives. Yesterday we went with the missionaries and got to do some teaching with them. One of their investigators is a fisherman. He goes out fishing every morning at 1 o'clock so he can be back to sell his fish at the market by 7 or 8. What a life- bad as logging! He strings out 1000 hooks with bait on them and it takes him and his wife 2 hours every evening to bait all the hooks so they are ready for morning. They were pretty happy yesterday because they had caught between 60 and 70 kilos of fish that morning. That brought them about 3000 pesos or around $75 gross. That was a good day.