Love from Elder & Sister Freestone

[Pat Freestone]

Hello and happy to report the ants have finally marched on and out of our house!!! Hallelujah! The food is back in the cupboards and we even hosted Break the Fast dinner at our apartment this evening!
Two of the Temple Missionaries couples, who arrived two weeks ago, had dinner with us. The Sorrells from Redmond, Oregon and the Vandiveres from Kaysville, Utah are lovely people!
This morning at the Washington Branch we taught, for the first time, our Sunday-school class, ages 12-18. We had seven students out of the seventeen that are on the attendance roster. They are great and honestly, it felt amazing to be teaching again.
All went very smoothly with our responsibilities as Shift Coordinator yesterday (5/2). I often think of Moses who told the Children of Israel “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord!” (Exodus 14:15) Over and over I am amazed at God’s grace and mercy to each of us in our hour of need. For example, even when the nearly completed shift schedule was completely erased by my hasty push of the button, the rebuilt schedule proved to be much more suitable and inspired than the first. 🙏
When we finished our shift on Friday (5/1), we met Elaine Favreau, longtime friend from Mesa, and her four darling sisters for lunch. Time flew by as we reminisced days of raising our families and serving together in the Church and community.
Friday evening we had a Cinco de Mayo celebration and Costa Vida dinner, with the Temple Missionaries in our neighborhood. This is such a fairytale way to live.
On Wednesday (4/29) our darling great niece, Eliza Freestone came into Nauvoo with the BYU Belong program. We met up on Main Street and it was obvious that Nauvoo just gets better when another Freestone arrives in Palazzo pants! Eliza’s group of thirty-some young adults, were an asset to their royal generation! We were able to be in the temple with most of them on Thursday (4/30) and they brought with them a tremendous spirit of love and reverence for God and His Holy House. We felt blessed to be in the presence of the rising generation and the “Hope of Israel!”
Tuesday (4/28) was a busy morning in the temple as we all adjust to the intensified summer schedule in preparation for all of you to come and visit this beautiful city.
We continue to discover hidden treasures and historical wonders of how the early saint, in six short years, transformed this swampy mosquito infested land into a thriving city, rivaling the size of Chicago the time.
One such architectural achievement was the Stone Arch Bridge, built around 1850, which spans a deep ditch that was part of a crucial, 1839 engineering effort to drain the "flats" (swampy land) along the Mississippi River. These drainage trenches, featuring stone arches, facilitated rapid runoff from many springs around and near the temple as well as swampy wetlands. This enabled the saint to settle and develop the area. We walk down to the Bridge on Monday (4/27) and marvel at the Saint ingenuity and fortitude.
Again we seem to living the best of both worlds with one foot in the past and the other foot in the present. And we are again reminded that we call it the present because every day is a gift. 🎁 May we all be worthy and ready to recognize and receive the gifts God is ready and willing to bestow upon us.
Love you all!
Grandpa & Grandma, Mom & Dad, Chris & Pat

[Pat Freestone]

Reflecting on Mother’s Day and the blessed life I have been given, I will repost a story I wrote a few years after my mother passed away. Every Mother’s Day brings painfully sweet memories of her. As a friend wisely said, “No matter when you lose your mom, it is always too soon!” Here are a few of my thoughts.

There is a cute children’s book called Where is Waldo? If you’ve ever read it you know that you spend time on each page trying to find where Waldo is hidden with his red and white stripe shirt and his funny hat. The illustrator uses the colors of the shirt and hat in the busy pictures to try to distract us from finding where the real Waldo is hiding. And because our brains are hardwired to solve puzzles and ask questions we scan over the picture on each page delighted when we finally locate Waldo. We might think that this is a unique and clever game, yet the premise is old, ancient really. For quite possibly since the beginning of time, all mankind has played the game or ask the question, “Where is mom?”
With the very first cries of her infant the new mom knows, through her newly acquired gift of tongues, what’s being asked, for all crying babies are really calling out, “Where is mom?” The attentive and sleep deprived mom will even put a baby monitor near her little one so she can hear the cry for her, no matter the time of day or night. Clever moms often teach a baby to call out for dad but no one is really fooled, for even if dad comes to the rescue the child’s first question will be, “Where is mom?” What ever our bump, bruise, or scrape, a broken bone or a broken heart the first question we all ask is, “Where is mom?” Big old tough athletes after winning or losing the game will undoubtedly scan the crowd with the question, “Where is mom?” And then comes the unashamed declaration, “I love you mom!”We know she will always be there as our cheerleader and defender. When we come home from school our first question is always, “Where is mom?”
Unlike the ever elusive Waldo, mom is pretty easy to find, in fact she’s just about everywhere we look, if not physically at least in our memory and in our conscience. When great and important questions arise or decisions need to be made we stop and ponder if mom would be proud of the decisions we are about to make and wistfully sigh, “Where is mom?”
As we grow up and find ourselves far away from home, in our home sickness and loneliness we reach out and make a call and when dad answers we ask, “Where is mom?” And somehow as time marches on we find ourselves with little ones of our own who are constantly asking the question, “Where is mom?” and we recognize that we now have the gift of tongues and understand the baby’s cry. We find ourselves giving counsel and the words coming out of our mouth are mom’s words and we look behind us and whisper, “Where is mom?” Before long when we look in the mirror, the face of the person looking back at us is mom. She doesn’t wear the red and white T-shirt for her T-shirt would probably read something like “I’m a mom, what’s your superpower? And as for Waldo’s funny hat, well mom wears dozens of hats, many at the same time!
And then further down the road the roles of motherhood begin to blur and we realize how wise and all knowing, unselfish and brave she is and we call out, “Where is mom?” when we need a recipe, when we need to know what to say to a broken hearted teenager? “Where is mom?” when you’ve been up all night worrying and she answers with the comforting words, “You’re doing a good job!” and “You’re a good mom.” And when all of her little chicks have left the nest and she is living her life alone with only sweet memories to fill her day, you follow the impression to check up on her often to find out, “Where is mom?” During those golden years when, because of declining health, you will put the baby monitor on her in the night as you watch over and worry and listen and check, “Where is mom?”
Then will come the day when she walks through the the veil and leaves a gaping hole in your heart and every day for the rest of your life you’ll miss her and pick up the phone to ask, “Where is mom?” only to realize that the last recording she left on your phone will have to do for now because, for a season, she is gone out of your sight but perhaps she has a heavenly baby monitor set on you so she can hear and see you from the other room. You might feel her close and know that she is aware of you and will surely help send a ministering angel your way. You might even have a dream that you are with her and you start to pray, as the tears are flowing, that you don’t wake up too quickly, but you always do with that hurt in your heart and a low moanful cry, “Where is mom?” Your greatest comfort is the knowledge that one day you too will walk through that end of life door and the first question you will ask at those heavenly gates will be, you guessed it! “Where is mom?”

[Peggy Moffat]

Love you Pat!  You say it the way I feel it! Your writing is lovely and your mission is an inspiration to me. Thanks for sharing the joy of the work here! Happy Mother's Day! Heart, Peg

Peg Moffat

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