366. Missionary letters from our 3 grandchildren today -- and personal thoughts!

Tonight I think I will tell some of my thoughts, and include the 3 missionary letters we got from our grandchildren this week.

My husband Wayne has been in the Kolob Rehabilitation building for about 10 days now. He hadn't been well for a few days.  So I tried to wake him up early  Sunday, Feb. 15th, 2015, about 2:30 a.m. I couldn't wake him up to check on him.  He was so incoherent, and slid onto the floor, and both he and I couldn't get him up.  That is when I called an ambulance.  Six men came, and helped him up, and into the ambulance.

Wayne, in 1950, on his first mission to Sweden.

Soon after we got to the local emergency room, they immediately sent him to the Intensive Care Unit with some serious problems.  His carbon dioxide level was 70 and should be 30, even though his oxygen level was okay.  After he had been in the ICU for a couple of hours on a Bi-Pap machine which was supposed to take the co2 out, they called me from the hospital.  I had gone home to get some rest, and the call was to tell me he wouldn't survive without a breathing tube down his throat. I told them he loved life, and to do all they could to help him survive.  Many things were done to accomplish this.  His kidneys and lungs were weak, and he had a blood clot in his left leg.  Also he had pneumonia, and the infection was very close to his heart, so they had heart monitors all over him.  

Our oldest son, and youngest daughter who live in Bountiful, 5 hours north, came that night, and our son Wayne M. gave his dad a beautiful Priesthood blessing.  It apparently isn't the will of the Lord for him to go yet!  He wants to be able to do more indexing.  He has done almost 634,000 indexing names, and has hit over 1,000,200 in points as some names are worth 3 points.  Also he has done over 70,000 names in arbitrating.  He wants to make it to 1,000,000 indexing names, which would require him living several more years.  When he indexes, he usually does from 3,000 to 5,000 a month.

This was taken last September at my 80th birthday party, just after Wayne had been in the hospital then for 5 days with pneumonia, and was still on oxygen.  Pal, me, on the left, our daughter Tacy, and Wayne.  After that stay in the hospital, he was in 2 days before Christmas, and 2 days later after Christmas was in 2 days again.  Since then he has been on oxygen.

He will come home from the rehab unit in 2 or 3 days. He is 84 1/2 and in September we will have been married 60 years!

.  But here are the letters from our grandsons and granddaughter we received this week.  They are fun to read, and you can feel the missionary spirit in them ---  Usually they are longer, but they all are getting transferred.

This first letter is from Ben, who is in Taiwan, and will be home toward the end of July this summer.  

Hello Everyone!!

I have moved. I am in Tanzi right now. I am in the Taizhong north zone so I will be able to go to the temple. I also have a native companion. I am so excited! I get to speak only Chinese for a while. This is going to be really fun. I will learn a lot, and I might learn some taiyu. Who knows. This area is going to go crazy. I have faith in this area.

My previous companion has also moved to this zone so we will see them often. I am really really really excited. I might have to start righting in chinese because I will forget english.

We don't really have that much time today because it is power week woooooooo!! power power.

Love, Elder Lieske (Ben)

This is a picture of Ben on the left, and Jake on the right,before their missions.  They are both out serving the Lord now.  Their older brother who is a returned missionary will be getting married in May.

 Ben is in Taiwan,  and Jake has been in Indonesia since last September -- went in the MTC August 13th 2014.  This below is Jake's letter--

This week was a good week but it started off really weird, this week we had to switch houses with the sisters because they didnt feel safe, it is really dark to get there so we switched so i have been living out of my suitcase this last week. we were trying 1 week first.

This weekwe also have an investigator with a baptisimal date, pak radjio he is cool and i hope he does get baptised. also this week we went to teach a referal and it was cool his name is gilbert and he is from france and he is really cool to go to his house and talk to him, he speaks mostly indonesian but still can speak english too.

This week i cant really think of anything really cool that happened, Elder simanungkalit is still super funny and it is nice to work with him but i am probably going to be moving on the 11th but im not for sure yet, president hasnt called me but he has told me in an email i will probably be moving so i will tell you where i am going next week.

My indonesian is also just fine i can talk with the other elders and understand and i can talk to people on the street it is really cool to be able to understand another language and i am really grateful for this oppertunity to learn another language.

This was a good week

Love Elder Lieske (Jake-Jacob)

Our granddaughter Skye Nicholson is in the Irvine, CA, mission, and will come home the end of this May.  This is her letter.  All the 3 letters are shorter this week as they all are getting transferred to other areas.  But you can feel their spirit!

Skye is on the left in this picture.

Wow! This past month went by super fast!!!

We were able to stop by a lot of less actives this past week. (none of which home but it's alright) And besides that We had a lot of meetings in Irvine.

OH! Also we were able to help a non-member that was moving into our stake. She was super sweet. We helped wipe down the house and get it ready for her family to settle in. It was really fun ;) This week we also were able to go to the temple. I love the opportunity that we have to attend the temple, I know it's helped me throughout my life and I will make it a point to attend the temple once a week once I'm home. because there are so many blessings that come from the temple and being so close to God. 

This weekend was transfer calls, and if you don't already know I'm being transferred. It's weird, I'm not used to this but I know God is in it. So that makes it easier. We also had stake conference so  I spent most of the day visiting the ward members and getting pictures with them. I hate saying goodbye to people!!!

Any ways! Next week you'll find out where I end up ;)

Love y'all!

Remember we can all be missionaries! D&C 4  (Sister Skye Nicholson)

--------------------------------

Usually I write some inspirational things I read in LDS Living, Meridian Magazine, or other places.  But tonight I wanted to tell some about us.

We went to a sweet Family Home Evening at the rehab center tonight, and there were only 4 people (including Wayne and I) among the residents that were not in wheelchairs.  Besides being a rehab, it has permanent residents.
 A sweet family came and gave the lesson, with the mother playing the piano, the father giving a lesson on Jesus and His atonement (for Easter coming up), and a teen age daughter singing, with a teen age son and the daughter giving prayers.  It was a beautiful evening!