Coronavirus. Ugh. Thankfully Arkansas never actually went on complete lockdown, so we were still able to enjoy walking at Lake Fayetteville and going on hikes and spending time with friends. Business has definitely slowed down, but we'll be ok. Actually, the slower pace with everything was really nice in the beginning. We were travelling so much. And it all just stopped. No more overnight trips to the temple, no more Little Rock, and we didn't even go visit home for the first month since Missouri was on lockdown. And it was really nice to just be home and not sleeping in a new bed every week.
We've started up our work trips to Little Rock again, but we're going every 3 weeks now instead of every other week. It makes it so much easier! We've also gone to visit family twice now, which has of course been wonderful. Especially getting to do "home church" with others. As much as we like staying home...home church with 2 people can be a little...underwhelming? haha, Again, initially it was very much appreciated - I was starting to burn out with my calling. But it's been long enough now that I'm starting to miss just seeing everyone each week. There are of course some people that we still see regularly, but I miss getting to see everyone else in the Ward. But that won't be changing anytime soon...
Last week we got an email from our Stake President about resuming meetings. There has been an increase in cases in our area lately, so they aren't comfortable setting a return date yet. And when they do finally feel that it's safe to resume meeting...they plan to actually start another 4 weeks after that...with only 50 people per meeting, all wearing masks and no congregational singing. That's just crazy to think about. It already feels like it's been so long. We decided we probably ought to do more with our Sundays and home church if it's going to continue for that long. So we're combining FHE and church for the time being, and doing our "family" Come, Follow Me then. We played church music this morning to make it feel like Sunday. Then for church had an opening prayer, sacrament hymn, the sacrament, watched a conference talk, and then did Come, Follow Me. I've been staying in my dress all day to make it feel not just like every other day as well. It's been nice, and felt good today to be trying a little harder to set the day apart for ourselves.
I've also started doing family history since we can't go to the temple. I never thought I could get so excited about doing family history work, but I'm loving it! Also, Family Search makes it so easy...if you don't know what to do or where to start, just look at your tasks list. I can't count the number of times I've opened up a name from that to connect a record...and then got lost for over an hour looking at their children or parents and siblings, and their parents and children, and so on. I've also been amazed at how many beautiful, sacred experiences I've had as I've found names of those whose work is ready to be done. I've experienced powerful feelings that I'm used to feeling in the temple, while doing the work, but never imagined it could be just as strong and memorable at home, sitting on my couch. I've definitely come to realize that both Temple and Family History work very much hinge on the principle in Ether 12:6, "dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." The testimony comes from doing. If you want to know and feel for yourself the power and importance of the work, you have to try it yourself!
Other than that, we're so happy that summer is here! We went swimming for the first time this week and we've been walking basically every day. We also realized the other day that there are multiple mulberry trees on the trail we always walk. (Felt kind of dumb for just now realizing it when we've been walking that trail for over 2 years now...and avoiding the black spots on the ground the fallen mulberries leave in the summer, lol). Most of them are super tall and out of reach, but we were able to pick a few and snack on them the other day - so yummy. It feels SO good to be outside! And we love the warmth and the sunshine. Yay, summer!
