Skip to main content

Speaking with Mark

Everyone in the family will agree:  the best Christmas gift we received yesterday was talking to Mark on the phone from Russia!  Here are a few things I took away from the conversation:

1.  Mark is happy.  Like really, really happy.  He tends to "unload" in his emails home which is fine--we're happy to be his sounding board.  However, he tends to sound stressed/worried in those emails.  Listening to him on the phone though, he's still his happy, optimistic self, thank goodness.

2.  Mark is a worker.  Like a really, really hard worker.  He spoke of how frustrated he feels with the majority of missionaries who are not working.  That says to us that he's working his tail off!

3.  Mark is speaking Russian!  He doesn't think he is, and he frequently writes about his lack of ability, but he is definitely speaking.  In fact, he speaks everywhere and has absolutely no fear.  He doesn't understand why other missionaries don't do the same as him :-)

4.  Mark loves people.  More than that, he loves talking to Russian people more than anything else.  He says it's his favorite part of the mission.  Not talking about the gospel, or anything church-related.  Just talking to them about their lives and hearing their thoughts.

There were some other things, but nothing as spectacular as those four things.  The only hint of sadness we heard was that he misses playing his horn.  The mission president keeps his horn at the mission office, so Mark doesn't ever have a chance to play it--not even on P-Days.

Too, he was overwhelmed with emotion when he told us how much he appreciated all the support we give him.  He's so thankful for the letters, and the packages, and the prayers, because they help him through the good and the bad days.

As Ethan pointed out, only three more phone conversations, and he'll be home! :-)

Comments

  1. Those four things are amazing. What a strong, noble young man!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Like Dominos....

It all began with glare.  Simple, obnoxious, I-can't-stand-it-anymore glare. Our 60" rear projection TV in the family room was basically unviewable except after 10 o'clock at night.  The glare from the windows was making it impossible to see anything during my 10 minute lunch break each day, and something had to change. Too, the TV didn't fit in the entertainment center from Germany.  John, wanting bigger and better, hadn't considered that the space is only 40" wide.  For the past five years, I have been nagged by 6" of overhang on both sides of the TV stand. I went to Lowe's to price blinds.  $1,043 for five blinds, and that was at 20% off. I figured a new TV would be cheaper than that.  I was right, even with the state-of-the-art receiver and new HDMI cables that sly salesman told us we needed to have. But where to put the old TV?  It just needed a quiet, dark place to retire. Glo's bedroom.  Her TV was a relic from the paleoneoneand...

The Quest for Birkenstocks

One of the main reasons I go to Germany every couple of years is to restock my supply of Birkenstocks.  I started buying them when I lived there, and I basically can't live without them now.  It just about kills me when a pair runs its course and needs to be thrown away.  I think in my lifetime, I've thrown away only three pairs.  One that never was quite right (the straps were plastic and would cut into my skin after a long day), one pair that I wore gardening one too many times (the brown dirt stains wouldn't come out of the white leather), and the pair that I was wearing when I broke my ankle (they were an unfortunate casualty of broken ankle PTSD because those purple and blue paisleys go down as one of my favorite pairs of all time).  I only threw out the garden ones a couple of days before I left for Germany, because I knew I would be getting a new pair. The only store where I have ever bought my Birkenstocks is Hoffmann's in Speicher.  (Well okay, t...

Thinking Beyond Ourselves

In our church, most adults hold a “calling”.  What this really means is they have a job, or a specific way to serve within the local congregation.  We believe that this calling is inspired from God—it’s a specific way that he wants us to serve, so that we can either learn and grow ourselves, or so that we can help someone else. I have had more callings in the church than I can count, and with few exceptions, I have loved every one of them.  I have come to love people (adults, teens and kids) who I might never have met.  I have learned much--from how to organize a Christmas music program, to how to make a Sunday School lesson meaningful to apathetic teenagers.  I have served as president of the children’s organization, and I have been the leader of 30 young, single adults. With every calling comes a lot of work.  Of course, the amount of work one puts into a calling is up to an individual.  I choose to put everything into a calling.  I give up ho...