Personal Reflections. 4 June 2016

Today is the anniversary of the first overt contact between my sweetheart, Gregory, and me.  During this year when we are physically separated, we reflect often upon the miracles that brought us together.  The conference talk which I read today was by Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "He Will Place You on His Shoulders and Carry You Home", in which President Uchtdorf speaks of how the Savior rescues us.  Surely His hand was in the Linked-In Request that Gregory sent me and I received when I was in the depths of woe, and I desperately needed rescue, and that message was the beginning of the rescue. I am eternally grateful for the miracles that brought us together.

Although in subsequent weeks Saturday will not be my preparation day, I decided to spend a few minutes to clean the apartment.  Tuesday the possibility exists that my apartment will be inspected by city health officials.  So it seemed to be a good thing to get things in order.  In addition, I read today an article by Hugh Nibley about imposing order upon chaos being a function of the temple.  I highly recommend this article, found at http://publications.mi.byu.edu/fullscreen/?pub=1123&index=4

At 9:30 a.m. I went down to the swap meet which is held on the apartment complex parking lot.  This will likely be my last opportunity to participate, and I took full advantage of it.  Usually my yearly clothing shopping is done on New Year's Day at the Arnold Salvation Army store, because on that day all clothing is half price.  Of course, free is even better!  I had reviewed my wardrobe and had determined that I would need more winter clothing--and there was quite a lot available today, some of which even fit me!  I first found the non-clothing items I had hoped to get:  more teaspoon and a wastebasket [for gathering items to recycle], Then I looked a first time at the clothing and picked out a few things.  All in all I was there more than an hour, and was blessed to find at the end several skirts that I had not seen on earlier rounds, so I like to think the angels kept them hidden until I could get them!  They are summer weight, and I like them a lot. For the winter I got quite a lot of tops and a skirt or two.  I picked up several jackets, also.  At the end I also got a few more dishes, 3 shower curtain rods which will be useful as drying racks, several ballpoint pens [which I had been thinking I needed to get a supply of], and several handbags.One of the handbags is more like a briefcase, and is of a water-resistant material--that will be needed when the weather is severe.

Two of the brothers who help with the swap meet helped me carry my items home, a cause for much gratitude.  Then I attended to the serious business of trying on the new items.  That process took an hour!  One of the brothers was still at the sheds when I went out later on, so the items which were too little or too big I was able to already give back already.  I will be having plenty of laundry to do in the next week or two.  That is a small price to pay for a great new wardrobe!

I decided to make a trip down to South Jordan to see if I could find the woman who cut my hair six weeks ago.  I went into the shop, and could have gotten it done pretty quickly, but I decided to ask for the other stylist.  I was told, "She only works Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m."  That fits my schedule exactly! But how did she happen to be at the shop six weeks ago on a Saturday?  Seems to me like another miracle!  I will be able travel back down the highway fairly early on Monday to tend to that business. Coming back I traveled a different street, so I  found more stores I might need to access in the next 11 months.