Wish You Could Have Been There...

Dear Family and Love Ones,

Monday? Again?  These weeks come and go very quickly, especially transfer week which is always extra busy.

Monday we said goodbye to two great missionaries, an Elder who returned to Mexico City and a beautiful Tongan sister who returned to Utah.  Our sister called Tuesday to let me know about her arrival to Salt Lake City.  I always wish I could see those amazing reunions so I love it when I get a phone call letting me know how everything went.  When our sister arrived in Salt Lake City she was greeted by a large group of family and friends, many brought leis to give to her.  Shortly after her arrival they noticed a group of soldiers returning home from an assignment.  Our sister took off her beautiful leis returned them to her family members and they each gave one to a surprised soldier, along with a kiss and a word of appreciation for their service to our country.  Many of the soldiers were members of the Church who made a big fuss over our sister missionary and told her how much her service was appreciated as well. I wish I could have been there!

Tuesday our new missionaries arrived - four Elders and three sisters - all of them are wonderful.  Our three sisters are international missionaries, one from Tonga, one from Taiwan and the third is from Laos.  They spent two months learning English in the MTC :)  Our sister from Laos is one of the first missionaries to leave that country.  Laos is part of the Thailand Mission, the Mission President from the Thailand Bangkok Mission helped our sister with her papers.  The Book of Mormon was just recently translated into Laotian so I asked our Mission Secretary to order a few copies.  Sister Blake said that we have given out the Book of Mormon in over twenty five different languages in the past year!  

We have Stake Conference nearly every weekend in January and February (there are seven Stakes).  This weekend's Conference was in Long Beach.  It is my favorite Stake in our mission, there are so many beautiful members of the Stake from the islands, Latin America and Asia. President Thompson, the Stake President is Samoan and speaks English, Samoan, Tongan, Spanish and Cambodian fluently and a little of several other languages.  He says, "I need to be able to communicate with our members". The members of the Long Beach Stake sing with such heart that you feel like joining in and singing with the same enthusiasm.  You don't have to worry about singing on key or being a great singer - you can't hear each individual because of the volume of the congregation.  Elder Hinckley was the visiting General Authority, he is over the missionary department and is wonderful.

President Marks, (I need to see his name spelled because I'm not sure if it is Marks or Max) from the Los Angeles Temple Presidency spoke.  He is an incredible speaker, we have been blessed to speak with him a couple of times now.  President Marks told about the wonderful day he spent at the Los Angeles temple and after each experience he would end by asking, "wouldn't you have liked to have been there?"  He was able to seal children to their parents, husbands to their wives and witness seven missionaries receive their endowments.  He said one of the most touching experiences was being there with two older, single patrons who were recent converts.  The man joined the Church in his early 70's, his wife is deceased but he was able to be sealed to her.  His joy was great but he said, "I wish we would have joined the Church sooner so we could enjoy being in the temple together".  The sister was 93, she had lost three babies just hours after they were born.  Throughout the day she would keep asking, "when do I get my babies sealed to me?"  Finally the moment came when her three babies were sealed to her.  With great emotion she said, "I have thought about my babies every day for the last sixty years and finally I know they are mine."  Wouldn't it have been great to have been there and shared that sweet moment with that dear sister! Of course President Marks' made his point, we need to be there - in the temple, in our church meetings, with our families, doing all of the things that really matter.

There was big news from West Bountiful this weekend with two of the wards there receiving new Bishoprics.  We are so happy for everyone involved - they will all be amazing!  We are praying for the new Bishops, their counselors and their families. It is an assignment that will a challenge and a blessing. We wish we could have been there but the next best thing was hearing from my Sister Tonya (her husband Dave has been called to serve as a counselor in the 2nd Ward's Bishopric) who gave us a great report!

I'm trying to enjoy our perfect weather without too much guilt - wish we could send some sunshine your way!

We are enjoying a break from school today and hope all our missionaries and yours find some place to e-mail home!  

We love you all!  Thank you for your support, faith and prayers,
The Long Beach Buberts