Abundantly Blessed: A Mission Call, Debbie's Improving Heart, and Our Savior, Jesus Christ

Today (December 5, 2023) Debbie completed one more electrocardiogram.  Her heart condition has been stable for the past three months and has improved slightly from her previous refraction factor of 45 to 47.  We have been told that this may be our new normal, but that it is sufficient for Debbie to live a productive life.  

After we submitted our mission papers, additional medical assurances were required by the missionary department.  Debbie's cardiologist said that she could serve a mission if it was no more than 1 year, in the U.S., and in proximity to major medical facilities.  After several miracles to clear the medical criteria hurdles in just a few days, we received our mission calls two weeks later on November 14, 2023.  We had listed the six month mission in the Palmyra New York Temple as our preference but were willing to serve wherever the Lord wanted us to go.   It fit the criteria of the cardiologist perfectly.  The Lord was in agreement!  We are excited to serve as full-time missionaries at the Palmyra New York Temple.

The photo is from our visit to the Palmyra Temple in 2022 with our missionary assignment from President Russell M. Nelson this past month

 Our Mission Calls:

Our missionary calls, which arrived electronically on Tuesday, November 14, 2023

This is the culmination of a journey of faith since Debbie was diagnosed with heart failure just 10 months earlier.  We have shared most of that story in our previous blogs.  We reaffirm our witnesses that God is good.  We expected miracles and they happened, over and over again.  We have confirmation that this is the will of our Heavenly Father for us at this time.  We are excited to serve and know that special opportunities and experiences await us.  This is the end of a process, but the beginning of a new chapter in our lives.

Within days we had communications from the Temple Presidency with details of our service.  We need to report to the Temple Presidency on Monday, April 1 and begin our service in the Palmyra Temple on Tuesday, April 2.  We have been told that we will be serving at least four to five shifts per week.  This is of the 10 shifts that the temple is open (2 shifts per day, five days a week). We will be driving to Palmyra and will be leaving our home on Monday, March 25, 2024.  I just noticed today, that Sunday, March 31 is Easter Sunday, which will be our first Sunday in Palmyra.  We will be living in an apartment on Church Street in Palmyra, very close to the Grandin Building where the Book of Mormon was published.  Our projected release date is October 2, 2024.  At that time we will begin our drive back home.

We have much to do in the coming months, including completing our service as Service Missionaries in the Temple Department, ordinance workers in the Jordan River Temple, responsibilities with the Homeowners Association where we live and the Activities Committee of our ward.  We are always working with several needs within our family which we believe can be self-sustaining in our absence.  We feel that this timing is perfect and we know that the Lord will provide the needed additional blessings to our family members.

Debbie's Health:

In the past six weeks we have continued to visit meet with specialists for Debbie's health condition.  This includes a new urologist, a new nephrologist, and Debbie's cardiologist. This has included updated exams of her bladder, kidney and heart.  All of this will make sure that her treatment plans are current and she is receiving the appropriate medical care before, during, and after our mission.  Our early March calendar is getting filled up with final visits before we leave.  

Her new urologist reviewing the ability of her bladder to function at different levels of liquid

Debbie receiving her updated electrocardiogram . . . 

With one of the many images and measurements of her heart

Another EKG to check the heart beat strength and coordination of the heart valves

Besides all of the medical attention, Debbie's recovery has been aided by her extreme efforts to regain her strength and endurance.  I can't say enough about her determination to follow all of the doctors' recommendations and obedience to many diet restrictions.  She is working hard to be ready to serve the mission.

On her exercise bike at the gym 3 or 4 days a week

Doing her strengthening exercises at home

Holiday Season:

Halloween:

We wrote our last blog right after our family Halloween party but before Halloween.  On Halloween day we were able to attend a Halloween parade at Aria and Paisley's school.  Later that day, we celebrated our Halloween evening by visiting Halloween lights, since no trick or treaters come to our neighborhood.

Paisley in her Halloween parade

Aria, also as a "Care Bear"

Pollyanna and baby Austin dressed up as a pumpkin

One of our Halloween night visits to some pretty amazing Halloween exhibits

Baby Blessing for Liam:

We were able to attend the baby blessing of Liam, son of Leo and Giovanna Santos. This occurred on Sunday, November 19.  Giovanna's parents came in from Brazil to participate.  The following is a photo taken after the blessing at the Church. 

Giovanna with Liam on his blessing day

Liam in his blessing suit

Thanksgiving:

With Giovanna's parents in town, we invited them to participate with us in Thanksgiving Dinner, their first time celebrating Thanksgiving in the U.S.  With their family, we had a total of 22 at our Thanksgiving dinner, served in our condominium, with a few more coming later for pie.  My good friend, Michael Johnson, asks us to film a holiday greeting to use in his annual holidays greetings video from around the world.  So, the photo below is from that video, recorded by our Grandson, Jon, who was not in the video.

Part of our Thanksgiving greeting:  Happy Thanksgiving from South Jordan, Utah.  We also recorded a separate greeting in Portuguese.

Camila:

November 11 was the one year anniversary of the death of our daughter, Camila.  We took time to visit her grave and remember her difficult but memorable life.  I made promises to her that we would get her temple work done and also for her deceased husband and her biological mother and grandmother.  Now that the year has passed we are able to begin on her temple work.  Tomorrow, December 7, Debbie will serve as her proxy for her temple initiatory work.  Gina will then represent her for her temple endowment later this month.  We love her and are thrilled that we will be with her on the other side where she is free from the many mortal limitations that she suffered.

Camila's gravesite, one year later

It was a beautiful day to reflect on her life

One more baptism:

2023 has been a year of baptisms of our grandchildren.  We celebrated the baptism of Ella, Michael's daughter who lives in St. George, by Zoom.  This was our fifth grandchild baptism this year and our last until after our mission next year.  This baptism was scheduled the same time as three other family activities.  Even though we could not be there in person, we were pleased to see her beautiful smile on a Zoom connection and feel of her happiness as she made covenants with her Heavenly Father.

Ella right after her confirmation from our Zoom connection

Ella and Michael on her special day

Ella in front of the St. George Temple

Ella with her mom and dad and sister on her baptism day

Other Temple experiences:

Last month we held our quarterly Moeller family sealing session, our first since Doug's death.  His wife, Annetta, and his son and daughter-in-law participated.  It made it very special as all other siblings and spouses were in attendance.  We do a double sealing session, first to do 18 couple sealings and then we do a second session where we were able to do over 30 children to parent sealings.  We had a special treat, as our sealer in the second session was a deaf sealer.  He performed the sealings in sign language with a translator repeating the words for our benefit.  This was a first time experience for all of us, one that we will not soon forget.

While our temple was closed for annual maintenance, we chose to visit the new Saratoga Springs temple.   Since this is close to Giovanna's home, we made a special visit to her and her children and her mother who was already in town.

Visit with Sophia and her grandmother in Saratoga Springs

A few weeks later, I was able to take Moroni and Tiare to the Orem Temple Open House.  Tiare loves visiting the "marriage room".  She has a sweet spirit about her, especially when inside one of the temples.

With Moroni and Tiare at the Orem Temple Open House

Girls on the Run:

Our granddaughter, Evelyn, has been participating in "Girls on the Run" at her elementary school.  A group of girls in the 4th through 6th grade run together a few times a week to stay fit and develop a love for running.  As part of this program, they run a 5K.  As part of this, they need a running buddy over 16 years old.  She asked me, as her grandfather to be her running buddy.  This included a practice run at her school and the final 5K at Sugarhouse Park with schools from all over the valley.  It took a bit of time and effort, but I found it to be a very special time with my granddaughter.  On the day of the big event, we had rain for the first 10 minutes of the run, but it ended up quite nice.  The first time we accomplished it in a little over an hour.  In the final 5K we completed it in 48 minutes, an improvement of about 15 minutes.  I was very proud of Evelyn for all of her work.  One of her coaches at her elementary told me that this is the first grandparent that they have seen as a running buddy. The following are a few of the photos from this event.

Evelyn with some of her friends after completing their preliminary 5K

Evelyn with her school mates on the morning before the big event

The many participants gathering and preparing for the 5K event at Sugar House Park

Coming to the finish line

With our Girls on the Run medals after our completion

Other Grandchildren Activities:

Our active grandchildren keep us very busy.  On the day of Ella's baptism, we also had a dance recital for Evelyn, a play performance for Joshua and a baby shower for Pollyanna (the coming of our grandson, Austin).  Earlier in the month we had another play performance for Jacob and a soccer game for Kaleb.

Evelyn at her dance recital

With her grandparents after

Joshua after his performance with Hillcrest High School with his basket of costume changes.  The performance of "In the Woods" was done so well.  Good entertainment.

Jacob singing with his middle school performance. His portion was from the Adams Family.

Jacob with his grandparents in between his double performances that day

Kaleb, playing indoor soccer, with his vintage inside out jersey (9 upside down).

Birthdays:

Several birthdays were celebrated without photos.  Joseph turned 19 on his mission in Hawaii.  Hudson turned 7 in Texas with just a phone call, since he will be here to open presents in a few weeks.  We talked to Natalia who turned 16, but missed her at work after we went to see her.  These are a few that we got;

McKenzie turning 16!

Ella turning 8

New Car, New Job:

Moroni has become a full-time Lyft Driver.  His car was not keeping up.  We helped him finance a new used car, a Toyota Prius C, so that he could make more money in his driving activities, with much better gas mileage.

And lots of tomatoes:

We had a good crop of tomatoes on our patio and in our flower garden area.  As things started to get cold, I harvested the green tomatoes and let them ripen indoors.  We have been eating and giving away tomatoes for the past two months.  There are still a few more left to eat.

These were tomatoes that we picked just from the four plants in our flower beds.

Our Savior Jesus Christ:

I finish our blog today with reference to a wonderful experience that we had last week.  As Temple Department Church Service missionaries we were privileged to participate in the Temple Department Christmas Devotional.  The speaker at this devotional was Elder Neil A. Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve.  His message focused on the importance of three words as they relate to our Savior Jesus Christ:

Appreciation

Adoration

Emulation

He referred to the words of Elder Neal A. Maxwell who said:

"If we choose...the course of discipleship, we will...move from what may be initially a mere acknowledgement of Jesus on to admiration of Jesus, then on to adoration of Jesus, and finally to emulation of Jesus. In that process of striving to become more like Him...we must always be found in the posture of repentance."

Two days later, President Russell M. Nelson included the following in His prayer for the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

“Begin anew to study the teachings and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. No one on this earth loves you as He does. No one here understands you better or really knows your sorrows and weaknesses. No one on earth has the power that Jesus Christ has. No one here is more eager for you to become everything you can become. No one pleads with the Father on your behalf as He does.”

I testify that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World.  More importantly, He is my own personal Savior and Exemplar.  On my personal course of discipleship, I desire to not only adore Him, but to emulate Him.  His grace not only compensates for my weakness, it also provides enabling power to us to learn of Him and strive to become like Him.  He has been our constant companion over this past year and has given us strength when we didn't have any.  Our knowledge of His promised blessings gives us Peace in a troubled world. I pray that we all can learn to not only appreciate Jesus Christ, but also adore Him and emulate Him.