Ups, Downs, Blessings

 After my birthday we decided to take a little break at a hotel for some good food and new surroundings.

On the drive to the hotel we were able to see a lot of the demolition of buildings and roadside areas. They knocked down one of our favorite markets we shopped at. 

This is all part of a government improvement and beautification project to make the city look cleaner and modern to possibly attract international tourism and business.

It all started well and enjoyed the beautiful grounds and gardens. 

 The first evening we enjoyed a Ramadan Buffet feast with Muslims that had been fasting between sunrise and sunset. A lot of great foods including curry chicken. Missed the picture since our phones were charging.

The next day was a pretty good day other than I got stung by a bee. All of those beautiful flowers had to be pollenated. We tried another restaurant for some ice cream and French Fries. The Fries tasted a little funny but we ate them anyway.

Our daughter Stephanie called us and we did a video chat during this snack.

We decided to check out this new science museum next to the hotel but it ended up being closed for a couple of days.

Everything seemed to be going quite good until the next day when I started to get sick. Unfortunately, I remained sick until we left the next day. I didn't feel good enough to teach our weekly temple preparation class and our general conference evening with the district missionaries was canceled. 

I forgot to mention a few details about our first Temple Preparation class the last week. We gave an introduction to four members of our branch. We used the booklet called, "Temples and Families".  

One brother asked me when there might be a temple built in Ethiopia. I told him a story about what a family history couple told us while we served a mission in Guam. They said the Church leaders had decided Japan needed a third temple. It would either be in Sapporo of Osaka Japan where I served as a young missionary. There were more members, wards and stakes in the Osaka area, but Sapporo was doing more family history and submitting names of their ancestors for temple work. Sapporo got the temple first. 

Just then this brother started filling in the family history chart with his parents, grandparents and great grandparents. He said he couldn't quite finish it and said he would pray to remember the last great grandparent's name. He said everyone had passed away except him so there was no one he could ask about this information. It was great to see him get excited about doing family history work in order to speed up the need for a temple close by.  

As I got more sick Sister Martin decided to join the fun and so we both had to skip church the next day. 

This experience reminded me of a story my dad used to tell me about David O. McKay when he was a new Apostle. His first big assignment was to go on a one year trip visiting members of the Church in Asia, Pacific islands and beyond. On the journey over to Japan by ship in 1920, David O. McKay got sick and exclaimed, "during the next sixty hours, goodbye everything I had ever eaten since I was a babe on mother's knee".  

Monday we felt a little better and decided to host the district missionaries for a session of conference.

Sister Martin made her traditional conference sweet rolls for the event. They all loved them.

We enjoyed some great conference talks together. My favorites were Elder D. Todd Christopherson, President Russell M. Nelson, and a bonus talk from a previous session by Elder Uchtdorf comparing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to airplanes, of course.

But then I still wasn't feeling very good so the next day I rested again. Sister Martin was fine by then.

Wednesday we had district meeting so I decided to go anyway. Only a little over a half mile walk each way.

On the walk back from district meeting I started to not feel well again and could hardly go up the stairs.

When I arrived back to our apartment I was exhausted and laid down immediately on the couch. I told Sister Martin I should've asked the Elders for a Priesthood blessing. 

A couple of hours later, Elder England and Elder Dorado rang the doorbell. They said they had come to give me a blessing. Neither of us had called them. They told us they just felt like I needed a blessing and showed up unannounced. 

I took their picture. I was so thankful they had come over. And thanks to God for having this wonderful option of a blessing when I was in need.

I felt fine the next morning and started back to my usual activities.