It is Day two on our mission - and I was taught a very good lesson by a born-again Christian!

To catch up on my blog - Friday, we flew out from Salt Lake at midnight, after a full day that began at 4:30 a.m.!  We spent Friday in Salt Lake at the Church Office Building, learning more about the military side of our mission - a lot to take in!  Then we went to Temple Square, loving the flowers, the buildings, and the Spirit of those around us.  Ben picked us up at 3:30 and took us to his place to change clothes and get our luggage packed right.  Then we went to a Greek Restaurant!  Mmmmm- good!!!  He dropped us off at the Salt Lake airport later that night.  We got to the Charlotte Airport at 6 a.m., with a 6 hour layover there.  Since we couldn't sleep on the cramped plane, or in the airport, we were exhausted when Joe picked us up at the Lynchburg Airport at around 3 p.m.  We went to a fund-raiser spaghetti dinner that Mychelle and her Young Women's group were having at their church - that helped keep us awake till bedtime.  Saturday night we slept for 12 hours!!!  Sunday we went to the Gretna Branch for Church to see all our wonderful friends that we had made over the winter!  We were greeted with open arms and a lot of love.  Sunday night, we had dinner with Joe and Mychelle and boys, then Jenny and her kids came back home from Kentucky, so we visited quite a bit that night, saying good-bye to Joe's family.  We got up at 6:30, to leave for Richmond, Virginia at 7:30, saying good-bye to the last of our families!

Now for Day one on our mission - yesterday.  We had a very wonderful meeting with our Mission President, only to find out that we won't be able to get into our apartment until next monday!  So they are letting us stay here in Richmond at a very nice apartment that is empty at the moment.  We asked what we were supposed to do for a week, and he suggested we get some sightseeing in - Richmond is very rich in Historical sights and museums.  So we got ourselves settled into this apartment and bought groceries, and collapsed for the night.

This morning I was super gung-ho to go do some research at the Library of Virginia while Brad went to see battlefields, museums, etc.  I honestly felt that the Lord had blessed us with this "week off" of our mission so that I could get some genealogy done - I have a few lines that end here in Virginia and I want so much to find the parents of these ancestors.  The Library is wonderful!  And I did get to see a very old (1700's) document of one of my ancestors, but no parentage listed.  After that I found some wonderful books that I found land records in, but no break throughs.  As I was going through the books, a man next to me kept talking to me about his ancestors and the area around here.  He was interesting, but I really wanted him to quit talking so I could get some work done.  He kept grumbling that he didn't like doing genealogy - it was a waste of time, but people kept asking him to look up so-and-so for them, since he lived right there near the Library.  Finally, he got real frustrated and said, "There is something very wrong with sitting in a Library looking for dead people!  I'm a born-again Christian, and I could be out there doing something useful, like teaching people how to find happiness through knowing Jesus!"  He packed up his papers and left......left me with a heart and brain bursting with his message - I'm supposed to be on a mission for the living right now - I'm not supposed to be finding records for people who have already had their work done - it is not the season for that right now.  I went back to search through another book, and it was like I hit a brick wall in my head -"NO!  Go about your mission, Karen!"

So I called Brad, who was driving around trying to figure out where to go next.  We both feel like we need to be serving the Lord, not our own self-interests!  So we got back to the apartment, called the Mission Office and told them we're ready to work and to serve.  Wow!  I feel so much better - not so confused!!!