The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

First, the GOOD:

• We loved hearing from some of you this past week and all the ‘good’ things you are doing.  It warms our hearts!
•  Attended a farewell party with other Birmingham Mission senior couples for President and Sister Leppard Monday night.  We know we will see many of them again at mission reunions, otherwise I’d have to put this on the Bad or Ugly list. 
• We spent the weekend up north on the grounds of the Preston Temple, first with a temple session with the Great Britain National Council on Friday night, then our annual meeting all day Saturday.  We were richly blessed and spiritually fed by our leaders.  We were admonished to ‘do good’ in our callings and for others.
• We were able to say good-bye to people we love and respect dearly (maybe I should put that under ‘bad’).  Our Irish Director of Public Affairs, the one that scolded me last year for calling their garden a yard, gave us a book about Ireland.  Inside he wrote an old Irish proverb:  “May you be in heaven 30 minutes before the devil knows you are dead.”  We love John Connolly, our favorite Irishman.
• Zack is still alive after winning his second MMA Fight.  Praise the Lord.  J
• The weather is lovely . . . 80° every day, sunny skies, no rain.
• We took lunch to the missionaries at District Meeting on Thursday.  We discovered that my nephew, Daniel Gines, taught Elder Phillip’s family the gospel in Trinidad.  They were baptized 5 years ago.  We again have a witness of the Lord in the details of our lives.  I asked Elder Philip how much he had grown since on his mission (physically).  Five or six inches.  He returns home the same week we do.  Won’t his family be surprised to now have a son well over six feet! 

Friday night at 10pm! Really!

Then, the BAD:

• The weather is lovely . . . 80° every day, sunny skies, no rain.  The ‘no rain’ is the bad part.  Everything is so dry.  There are even fires up near the temple that are making the air smoky and smelly.  They haven’t experienced this before.  We are praying for rain.
• A bad media week for the Church here in Great Britain . . . Ron and Malcolm spent way too much time having to correct misinformation and sending ‘official Church responses’ to media sources.  Enough said. 

And last, the UGLY:

• More good-byes to people we love that our paths won’t likely cross again.  Man, that’s tough. 

I’m grateful that every week the ‘Good’ list is always longer than the ‘Bad’ or ‘Ugly’ list.  I am intrigued by the general theme of our conference yesterday, that of ‘doing good’.  I tend to complicate life in my head.  What if we all just lived by those two words?  It doesn’t have to take a lot of time or money, but just a moment of reflection and prayer each day to figure out how best to ‘do good’ that day.

John 13:34-35:

“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”  By this shall men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

Much love to you all,

Elder and Sister Partridge