2025(6) Faith Leap: Chapter 10 - Happy OLD New Year

 2025(6) Faith Leap - Chapter 10: Happy OLD New Year! 

Just as Bob was logging off of his Utah Commonwealth class, the sky suddenly exploded with fireworks - the entire neighborhood ringing in the Julian New Year (after already ringing in the Gregorian New Year - because why choose one or the other when you can embrace both?!) Is the amount of holiday-ing we’ve experienced this year a bit excessive? Yes. Yes it is. But the Holiday season is now officially over...I think. The thing I will miss most about the holidays will be the American Christmas music played over the speaker at the larger stores. Even this week on our shopping trips, we were greeted with songs like Sinatra's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and Autry's "Here Comes Santa Claus". I'll miss that little part of home.

In his talk on Sunday, our Branch President reminded us of how Joseph Smith's family ended up in Palmyra. They had a successful farm until a volcano across the ocean affected their crops to the point where they had no choice but to relocate. They were led to Palmyra - which was where Joseph needed to be, because that is where the gold plates were buried. President testified that, often, when things are hard and we may be asking, "God, why have you forsaken me? Haven't I been obedient? Where are your blessings? Why, when I've been doing my very best to do what you've asked of me, does it feel like I'm being punished?" - those are the very times that God is actually doing what He knows we need in order to get us to where we need to be in order to fulfill our purpose and experience greater blessings than we can see in the moment. This tender reminder served as a reassurance to us that He is directing us to be where He needs us to be. God truly does work all things for our good.

Highlights: 

• Bob was ordained a Teacher!
• I spoke in church - and reflect on the pros and cons of translation
• Georgia, though small and largely unheard of on our side of the world, is such a gift to this side of it. It is amazing to realize some of the grand mission of this small country.
• We found printer toner, plain paper, art supplies, and classic books in English!
• 36 side-by-side money exchange shops, policemen everywhere who keep us guessing, strange light in the night, and Utah rocks

Prayer Requests:

• Andrew - For his protection, I don't want to write details that could be linked to him. Suffice it to say that Andrew is in Georgia because he had to flee his home country because he was bold and courageous in standing for his convictions. Georgia's policy on foreign visitors is that you can come for a year, then you have to leave for a day, and then can come back for another year, continuously. But, when Andrew's year is up and he has to leave, he is not sure which, if any, country will accept him for even a day, as he no longer has a passport, and his home country will immediately put him in prison for years and then conscript him to war. Yet, when you acknowledge what a scary situation that is, his response is one of faith. Andrew met the missionaries just a couple of weeks ago. He is such a sincere seeker of truth and, when he's found it, he will boldly defend it. He appreciated President Simonenko's story about Joseph Smith and expressed that he believes God is doing the same for him. Please pray for him to find the truth he is seeking, to be protected, and to find a home.

Details:

Sunday was a big day for us! Bob was ordained to the office of a Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood, and I was invited to speak in sacrament (as well as teach our youth/sunday school class which, much to my children's dismay, they were the only children there. So it didn't feel much different than a homeschool day for them. 😆). 

Bob's Ordination

Bob's ordination was unique. At home, he would have been presented for sustaining and been sustained in his quorum. But, because he is the only young man in the Branch, he was presented to the entire Branch in sacrament meeting for sustaining vote. And then all of the men (and a few sisters) stayed after church for his ordination - to provide quorum support. There was such a sweet spirit in the room from the love of the brother's in the Branch, and from the Spirit as Bob was ordained and given a beautiful Priesthood Blessing through Richard. (The Branch President put Bob right to work in his new office by inviting him to speak in sacrament meeting this week. Bob accepted the invitation, but is really not looking forward to it. He has spoken in church before, and normally doesn't feel too stressed about it, but the lack of peers in this small, unfamiliar group has him a bit rattled. Consider adding him to your Prayer Request List.

Translation in Church: the benefits and difficulties

If you are interested, you can read my talk HERE. You will notice that the talk is written word for word. This was to allow Richard to translate it ahead of time, and to help me prepare how often to pause for translation. (This is an art that is surprisingly tricky for me. Even with translation, many people will speak from notes rather than writing out every word. But Richard is trying to use his language as much as possible, but didn't quite feel ready to translate on the fly; and, while there aren't any Georgian-only members attending to warrant speaking in Georgian, both of us wanted to make sure Georgian was an option - just in case the missionaries had any Georgian investigators. And we are so grateful we had prepared, because they did! A reminder that, if we want something, we need to act. God rewards effort.) Richard received lots of compliments on how perfect "his" translation was. Turns out that ChatGPT with prompts to use terminology aligned with The Church of Jesus Christ does a fantastic job, especially with a little human review in the mix!

Benefits of multiple languages/translation: 

• writing out a talk word for word means that it is well timed
• and  your words are distilled down to what is most important
• even when reading your talk, while the translator is speaking, you have time to look at the congregation 
• especially because I don't understand the other languages, the time between the English gives me time to ponder
• translations in different languages give new and profound insights
• The regular back and forth between 2 voices draws you back in if your mind wanders

Drawbacks to translation:

• I am a talk tweaker. For the sake of translation, I had to refrain from making my regular last minute changes.
• As a speaker, having to pause for translation, does disrupt the flow of thought somewhat. I had to work harder to stay connected to the spirit of my message. 

Reflections on God's purpose for Georgia

We realized the other day that we are less than the distance from Orem to Disneyland to 3 wars right now. On the one hand, that is a little scary. Georgia has always been prime real estate to Europe and Asia - control of this country has changed hands many times. On the other hand, with Georgia’s surprisingly lax immigration and work visa policies, God uses her to gather His people and provide a safe haven for the suffering and homeless. Nearly every day we meet someone who is here because they are escaping unrest in Russia, Ukraine, Iran, etc. We hear stories of their government destroying their home on the front, arresting them for protesting the war, or seeking a place where they can legally marry a foreigner. And, because the people here know how to wear it out and make do, because they are used to squishing in and then squishing in some more, they are pretty perfectly suited to make room. It is so humbling that, for a time, we have the privilege to be here - to be inspired by them all, and to hopefully share the light of our Savior with them. We have talked a lot about how every interaction we have here feels significant. We cannot quantify or describe why or how. But we know that we are being changed for Good (quality) a little at a time - and hopefully for good (lasting).

Treasure Hunt Success

To my Homeschool tribe: do me a favor and take a moment to appreciate your printer. I am really missing the luxury of printing whatever I want for school and church lesson plans! The only printer we've seen in Georgia is in the clerk's office at the church and it sat, unused, for over a month because no one knew where to buy toner. And plain white printer paper! Lined notebooks are easy to track down, but you have to find a specialty store for any other kind of paper. On the bright side, gone (forever, hopefully) are the days where the kids sketch one drawing in the center of the page and then the paper is discarded. We are learning to use and appreciate every square inch of the paper we have. 

For his Commonwealth class this semester, Bob is supposed to create a big project that highlights 10 of his Heroes. He can think of a plethora of mediums he would like to use if he were at home, but is really feeling the pains of limited resources here. (Even the things we can buy, we are hesitant to buy a large amount because we need to be really careful with our funds, and we can't take much home with us. So we have challenged him to see what he can do without spending much money.) I am actually excited about what that means for his project - it won't be the polished project he envisions, but what a valuable exercise in thinking outside of the box! His project will, out of necessity, be unique and creative. I am just praying that he comes to see it that way too.

For our date this week, after a fervent prayer, Richard and I drove to Batumi without the kids! I couldn't help but worry - what if we get in a car accident or something and our kids are left to fend for themselves in a foreign country? During my prayer, God reminded me that He is with them and I felt His reassurance that, as requested, angels would attend us all. After that, I had no worries, and Richard and I had a delightful couples'-time recharge. We made it our mission to locate one of the alleged specialty stores where we could find plain paper, printer toner for the church, and some art supplies for Bob's project. Miraculously, we found a parking spot (in the rain) right next to the store where we hoped to (and did) find toner and printer paper. Directly across the street, we noticed a bookstore - where we found paints, colored paper, tape, and glue. AND classic books (like Austen, Dickens, Orwell, Doyle, etc) in English for about $5/book! If you know what avid readers our children are, and how much they have missed the library, you understand how exciting this is! We bought each of the kids a book to gift them for Valentine's Day. We have friends here in Georgia who are homeschooling their children in English, so we plan to leave the books with them when we leave. That way I can purchase them without the stress of adding weight to our suitcases. Across the opposite street was a healthier food store where we also found some treasures.

Ignoring Supply vs Demand, Police in Abundance, and Firelight in the Night

Do you see all of the red and green signs in the picture below? Those are not Christmas lights. On the drive to our church, there is a length of 2 blocks where there are at least 35 money exchange shops. I believe I have mentioned this before - rather than sell different things than their neighbor, Georgians tend to congregate - selling the exact same thing, and charging the same price. When you see this, you can't help but wonder, "Why, when you saw there are already 30 people selling the exact same thing next to each other, did you think, 'I'll do the same!' rather than 'Think of how successful I would be if I sold something different - like wallets and purses for holding all of that exchanged money..."? I am guessing that, at least one of the reasons you see this oddity, is so that they can save on the front end by buying at a bulk discount with their neighbors?

Also pictured here is a police car. I'm pretty sure there is 1 police car for every 50 other cars. They are everywhere. And they never turn their lights off. You spend the first few weeks in the country thinking you are being pulled over every time you drive. And we still haven't been able to figure out how they decide when they are going to pull you over. Last week, a police car was honking at us for driving behind a slow garbage truck. But you are not supposed to pass on a solid line. Plenty of people break that law, but the last time we were here, we were ticketed for doing that (hence Richard being held in customs when we tried to enter the country this trip). 

We noticed this orange, fire-like glow along our beach. From our upper balcony, it looked to be out on the water. By the time we got to the beach to investigate, it was gone. Any ideas? A burning ship perhaps? It was both fascinating and eery.

Snow

The snow we saw in the last post was in the mountains. On Old New Year, we awoke to our first snow at home. (The view from my balcony - though it was mostly a slush by the time we took the photo). 

Utahlite

We have a couple of apps that help us identify cool rocks we find on the beach. We found this beautiful green one and learned that it is best known as Utahlite - because it is abundant in Utah. Go figure! 🤣 We were thankful for the love note from home 💕