Don't Inhale!

Exhale exercise #1: So Sunday, I was sitting in the half-dark, air-conditioning-turned-off  Paoay chapel waiting for your dad to finish a member-records meeting with the stake president.  Four very dignified women came into the chapel and invited me to their relief society meeting.  I declined, knowing we would be leaving for an introductory-piano-lessons meeting in ten minutes.  In their broken English, they kept insisting I follow them, which I dutifully did.  Well, it turned out to be a stake relief society presidency planning meeting, not your ordinary relief society meeting.  They invited me to speak at their stake visiting teaching conference.  Mind you, I've played the organ for stake functions, which made me almost faint, but I have never spoken in a stake anything in my entire life! Now all of a sudden I qualify to speak at a stake function? Go figure!

Exhale exercise #2: We arrived at the San Lorenzo Branch meetinghouse to give a little introduction to the members there who have requested piano lessons.  Twenty people have signed up for piano lessons.  No one plays the piano for any of their meetings.  They are very anxious to learn to play.  During my presentation, one of the sisters broke down and cried, indicating I was a literal answer to her prayers.  She has wanted to learn to play the piano for years.

Exhale exercise #3:  Your dad has been learning a lot about member records.  Along with this, he has also learned about the different reports that can be generated by ward clerks that will help further the missionary efforts.  We were invited to attend a zone leaders' meeting in the mission home this morning so your dad could present this information to them.  Maybe one in twenty-four elders knew anything about these reports.  They couldn't thank your dad enough for showing them these reports. They kept shaking his hand over and over and thanking him.

Exhale exercise #4:  Upon returning to our apartment, I anxiously checked my email.  I had applied for a music grant sponsored by a very generous LDS couple living in Washington State. The grant gives keyboards to senior missionaries who are teaching piano lessons. The music teachers loan these keyboards to their students so they can practice at home.  These same keyboards are then granted to the more gifted students who complete the music course. Yesterday I had received an email informing me that because of the state of the economy, if I was awarded the grant, I could only expect to receive half the keyboards originally offered.  I emailed back, stating my case. The response to my email was waiting for me. Not only was I awarded the grant, but I have been awarded four times the number of keyboards they had previously mentioned!  I am very humbled and grateful.  Most of my piano students don't own keyboards.  They try and practice at the meetinghouses, but with limited success.

Your dad and I are both being treated like royalty.  It is very flattering, yet humbling.  We are going to pass out from lack of oxygen having to exhale more and more often.  The challenge will be to stop the nose bleeds while continuing to exhale.....me give a talk during a stake visiting teaching conference? Yikes! (At least they agreed to let me speak for only seven minutes instead of the twenty minutes they originally requested.)

Keep the Faith,
Elder and Sister Eddington