The Language Cometh and Other Blessings

As reported last week, we started with our short course in Malay. Fortunately, the Malay language uses the same alphabet as we do, and most of the sounds are the same. However, the Malay vocabulary words we've been introduced to have no similarities to their counterparts in English. Even in Russian there were words that are pronounce similarly to English even though they're spelled with the Cyrillic alphabet.

Our language tutor gave us a couple of assignments. She gave us a list of vocabulary of 22 words to learn. We've almost got those mastered. She also assigned to read the Book of Mormon to each other for 30 minutes. Of course, we read it in Malay. We're now on 1Nefi, Bab 4. I should mention that our language tutor spent nine of her 18 months in the mission field in Kuching Malaysia. We meet with her again tomorrow for an hour. 

We'll meet with our language coach again on Tuesday. He will have a language volunteer with him, too. This is a great learning experience for us. It helps to get the old brain cells functioning on a higher level.

Our friend, Kevin Blatter, who serves on the High Council in our stake, asked us to be his speaking companions today. We spoke in the 8th ward. Same building as ours, just a different time. Sherrie spoke on wisdom; I spoke about faith, and Kevin spoke on patience. It was a good meeting. A brother came up to us after the meeting and thanked us for the timely messages. He said there was a need for the topics, but he couldn't elaborate about who or why, but they messages were welcomed. Another tender blessing of being prepared and listening to the Spirit.

I had another spiritual experience on Friday. I had the opportunity to participate in giving a six-month old baby a blessing, along with his parents. The brother that I was with and I were able to visit with the parents. We talked about faith and shared our testimonies with them. The thoughts I shared came from my talk preparation. We then gave them each a blessing of comfort. There was a great Spirit as we visited and gave the blessings. I am grateful for that experience. Our bishop texted me the next day to let me know that the baby had passed away. I felt so badly for this young couple, but I can see the Lord's hand in the service we were able to perform.