Further up, further in, and pour on the turmeric!

Wonderful thing for Thursday, 22 January:  How does it happen that the days fly so heedlessly?  Or perhaps the better question is, why do I expect time to stand still until I give it permission to move on?  In two days, we'll have been five months in the mission.  How did that happen?  One of the younger missionaries asked us once if we ever count down the time till we go home.  I thought about it and replied, "This is how we look at it now:  we've been out here four months - yikes!  We've only got 14 months left!"  And so it is.  I never want to have it as my motto, as did our high school class of '69, "So much to do, so little done."  And yet, that mantra haunts me every day; as the hymn says, "Have I Done Any Good in the World Today?"  So what's so wonderful about all this?  A merciful God, I suppose; a God who is willing to hang in there with me if I only hang in there with Him.  A God who is constantly cheering me on, pleased with every little effort but always encouraging me to raise the bar.
C.S. Lewis quoted George McDonald saying, "God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy."  That is why, in The Chronicles of Narnia, we find Aslan or his followers always encouraging, "Come further up, Come further in!"   Another wonderful thing about it is, that it truly is a joyful journey, despite the daily reminders of personal weakness.  There is much to rejoice about; yesterday we had two wonderful visits with three amazing young adults.  To see them talk about their hopes, their feelings, their testimonies, is to feel perhaps, that same pleasure that God must feel as He looks at me in my earnestness.  How He loves us!  How grateful I am to Him that He shares that love with us (Moroni 7:47-48).

fun thing:  Yesterday for the second time since being here, I made Ellie Kreiger's White Chili.  It's only possible because I bought hominy when we went to the US base in Pisa in November, and I only have one can left.  I still have to make substitutions, so in the end it's not really "Ellie Krieger's White Chili", but something quite different, but just as good.  One thing I didn't think I was substituting was cumin.  I bought "curcuma" without thinking twice that it might be something other than cumin.  I did notice, both times, how very yellow the broth was.  It was only yesterday, at about the same time I sat down to ladle out only a little broth because my digestive system is messed up and I was wishing I still had curcummin supplements, that it struck me that curcuma must be turmeric!  "Cumino" is cumin...duh.