Childlike Faith

Dear Family and Loved Ones,

     We have enjoyed another eventful and amazing week here in Long Beach! We actually had a couple of days of cool rainy weather and wondered if Summer was over but by the weekend the temperatures were back in the 80’s and even warmer weather is predicted for this week. I’m not complaining :)

     Tuesday we had Leadership Training with our Zone Leaders and District Leaders at the mission office. We kept things simple and served them pizza, fruit and chocolate chip cookies. They are always happy to eat . . . even a very simple meal. Ted said the training went well. We have found it is very important to work with our mission leaders – they really set the tone and establish the culture of the mission.

     Tuesday was our ward Relief Society Meeting. They focused on missionary work and had our new Sisters (we now have a companionship of Sisters in our ward as well as our two Assistants) teach about member missionary work. I was supposed to talk about how we can prepare our children to be missionaries. There had been so much great participation from the Relief Society sisters that we were almost out of time when it was my turn to share so I tried to condense my message as much as possible and it didn’t really work. I find myself in that situation at nearly every stake conference as well. It’s hard to figure out how to trim a talk or a lesson on the spot and still make it meaningful. That is something I need to work on! Our Relief Society sisters also made some care packages for the missionaries serving from our ward and a Christmas Advent calendar for each set of missionaries in Long Beach! We have an AMAZING ward!

     Ben and Mari made it through another week of school. They are doing well and are feeling more a part of things all the time. They really don’t complain about waking up so early for seminary. They do a great job of keeping up with their homework and they still find time to enjoy their friends in the ward and at school. They really make our job as parents enjoyable.

Shelly left for Utah Friday morning. She already had a trip planned and later found out that her boyfriend Ian and many of his family members would be in Utah the same weekend to participate in the “Tough Mudder” event (an eleven mile run and obstacle course) so they decided to make the drive together (I’m sure that made the long drive much more enjoyable). Saturday and Sunday Shelly and Ian got to spend time with family. Ian returns to California Tuesday and Shelly will spend the week in Utah with family and friends, Zumba, TGIF’s, etc. and a little work :)

     Ted spent some time this week figuring out how we will accommodate more missionaries in our tiny Long Beach Mission. We anticipate with the new age guidelines our compliment (the number of missionaries our mission can expect to have) will increase, especially the number of sisters. We are looking forward to receiving some of these new, young, enthusiastic missionaries and will do everything we can to be ready to welcome them and to help them have a great mission experience. There is no doubt this new directive has come from a Prophet of God who knows we need to have enough missionaries to enter every country who will open their doors to us. It’s interesting that in the past six months a new training program has been implemented that guides the trainer in helping his new companion learn the lessons from Preach My Gospel . Much of what was taught in the MTC is now taught in the first twelve weeks of the new missionary’s mission by his or her trainer. I can see how it will be possible for missionaries to spend less time in the MTC and still learn what they need to know to be successful missionaries.

     Saturday we had a very successful flu shot clinic for all of our missionaries. Because of two funerals and a scouting event in our stake there weren’t any church buildings available so we held the clinic at the Cal State Long Beach LDS Institute.  CSLB is right around the corner from the mission office so it was the perfect place to gather our missionaries. Thanks to five wonderful nurses who volunteered to help and it went very quickly and smoothly. Of course we made sure each missionary had a treat when they were done. They also got a chance to visit for a few minutes before they went out to work.

     Sunday we witnessed a member missionary in action. One of the newly baptized members of our ward arrived to sacrament meeting, she noticed that the sister she normally sits by wasn’t in her usual spot so she walked in one door and out the other. We were trying to decide if we should go find her when one of the sweet sisters in our ward went after her and practically led her by the hand, brought her back to her spot in the chapel and invited her to sit with her. Throughout the sacrament meeting I noticed she would quietly explain unfamiliar terminology to the new sister. Afterwards she got her phone number and said, “I want to make sure you get to the temple as soon as possible to do baptisms”.  It really touched me to see her tenderly caring for this dear new sister. I imagined her as a little seedling that needs to be carefully nurtured until her roots grow deeper and until she is strong enough to stand on her own. Our Father is the Master Gardner but he relies on us to help him in His work of caring for His children especially the tender and delicate ones. How grateful He must be for this dear sister and the many others who notice those who need some loving care and provide it so willingly.

     Sunday night Ted went to a great baptism for a special young man from China. He is studying here at CSLB and is a friend of Kyron, Kylee George’s (one of our dear West Bountiful friends) fiancée, who was also recently baptized. This young man has shown tremendous childlike faith. When he was taught the principle of tithing the missionaries asked him if he had any questions. He said he did have a concern. The missionaries assumed he was going to say, “Ten percent is a lot of money”, instead he said, “How will I pay my tithing when I return to China if there isn’t a church close by?” Our missionaries reassured him that there would be a way for him to keep this commandment. Following his baptism he shared his testimony and said, “I feel like a baby-man”. What a great way to describe the feeling of being born again! Surely this is what the Savior had in mind when He said, “Except ye be converted and become as a little child ye can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God”!


We love and appreciate each of you,

The Long Beach Buberts