Yesterday, in the temple, while Brother Lopez was performing the confirmations, he choked up, and I noticed the wavering in his voice. I was busy setting out the name cards for him to read and marking the ordinances as completed, but I paid closer attention. Then I also recognized the spiritual feeling Brother Lopez was experiencing. At that moment, I realized that this often happens to me as well. I might not be paying much attention to feelings or spiritual promptings, but if someone else shows how they are feeling, I focus on receiving the Spirit, and the Spirit also manifests Himself to me.

Today was our temple shift. During the last hour in Initiatory, after one patron completed their work, I completed the ordinances for three of my ancestors.

The Relief Society scheduled a temple appointment to perform proxy baptisms and confirmations. They asked Brother Lopez and me to carry out the ordinances. I couldn’t perform any of the baptisms because of my knee, so Brother Lopez did them all, and I acted as the recorder. When the sisters were ready, I performed the confirmations for most of the baptisms.

Since the activity started at 10 a.m., I saw it as a good opportunity to serve as a proxy for one of my deceased relatives. I was there for the 8 a.m. endowment session, which gave me plenty of time afterward to think and pray in the Celestial room before the baptisms.

Karen made green chili enchilada chicken soup, and everyone raved about it. Brother Mollen’s wife won’t be able to attend the class regularly anymore, as she had been. For the 5 p.m. class, I was the second adult, and I enjoyed it. There was a lot of rain, but it stopped by the time we had to load the car and take Victoria home.

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

After Karen’s breathing therapy, we had a late lunch at Salata. I enjoy their wide variety of salad toppings. I spent the afternoon working on our taxes. We should get a good refund, but the tax program shows that not enough taxes were paid in 2024, and I owe the IRS $41. That’s strange!

In the evening, since today is Groundhog Day, we watched the movie Groundhog Day. I love and hate the movie, but it’s extremely thought-provoking.

I love our bishop. He is a good, kind, and spiritual man who cares deeply for the members of the ward. However, like me, he sometimes uses too many words to express his thoughts. It was a little humorous today when he asked us to share brief testimonies about our Savior, only to take ten minutes to add his own thoughts.

This evening, I transcribed the confirmation blessing for Steven, the newest convert in our ward. I probably should have called it a Patriarchal blessing since it was two pages long. I didn’t realize I was being so lengthy, but I was trying to be in touch with the Spirit to find the words Steven needed to hear in the blessing.

I was sustained to serve as a Sunday School teacher today, which is my only calling besides being a service missionary. My co-teacher is another recent convert whose family joined the church last year. I was also told that my role is to mentor him. We will be teaching six fifteen-year-olds, with the only inactive youth being the daughter of a sister that Karen ministers to. Brother Zorn, the Sunday School president, taught the class today, and he asked me to be the second adult needed. During class, he asked each youth to introduce themselves, and he wanted me to share my conversion story, which I was happy to do.

I drove to Steven’s apartment to pick him up for choir, but he wasn’t there. He had an interview with the bishop to receive the Aaronic Priesthood, but the bishop had a meeting first, so Steven had to wait. He later walked back to the apartment, where I met him, but he couldn’t go to choir. A lady friend of his was doing some work in Steven’s apartment, and she was afraid to be alone there with Steven’s temporary roommate, who had a small fire at his house.

Many choir members showed up for our practice, and Karen was so pleased.

Today was more relaxed, except for a grocery pickup and setting the faucets to drip in the house we are watching. I hadn’t removed the freeze cover from our bushes, but I rolled it back, allowing sunlight to reach them. Today, I unrolled it again and put bricks on the edges to hold it down.

Last night, I had to leave our missionary assignment early to get to St. Luke’s Hospital in The Woodlands. Because of that, Karen and I took separate cars. She picked up Victoria, and I went to Costco to order a cake for Tuesday. I arrived at the church first because Karen was delayed by a bad accident.

I needed to be at the hospital by 8 p.m., so I was able to eat a sandwich from the missionary meal we provided, and I had already packed all I would need for the night. I was there for a sleep study that was modified as a diagnostic for narcolepsy. I am mostly convinced that I have a milder form of narcolepsy. My symptoms include excessive daytime sleepiness, intense/vivid dreams while falling asleep, brain fog/cognitive dysfunction, and the need for restorative naps.

As I have explained before, I also have sleep apnea, but C-PAP machines have never worked for me. They inflate me like a balloon, making it impossible to sleep. I use nasal inserts to open my narrower-than-normal nasal passages and have a strip of surgical tape across my mouth to keep it closed while I sleep. This stops the snoring, and I thought it addressed the apnea. My doctor had given me a home sleep study several years ago, which showed that while using the tape and inserts, my apnea episodes began, but then stopped. However, the study I had last night indicates that I still experience apnea episodes, though I don’t yet know how severe or frequent they are. It’s frustrating.

Karen went to dinner with her teacher friends, then they went to see the high school play Snow White.

The temperature dropped to twenty-one degrees last night and is expected to be twenty-eight degrees tonight. Then we get a couple of days of reprieve, followed by two more nights below freezing.

A BYU team visited our English Connect classes and tested our students. In six months, they will return to retest them to see how much progress they've made in learning English. It was quite hectic at times, but everything worked out as planned. BYU also paid for pizza for everyone participating in the training. The problem was that Marcos Pizza, our preferred pizza place, was overwhelmed with orders, and I hadn’t called early enough to get the pizza delivered on time. So, I had to pick up the pizza for the 6 p.m. testing and again for the 8 p.m.