Favorite Things of the Month--Part I

When I planned my locums assignments, I wanted to make sure that I had a good work/life balance.  Places near family and/or friends were high on the list.  If the job was located near or relatively near an LDS temple, even better.  I also wanted to be able to fill my off-hours with other good things, like exercise and cultural events, maybe even some sightseeing.

This assignment is located a reasonable drive from one of my oldest and best friends.  You know (or at least I hope you know) that kind of friend--the one that you can basically tell anything and they'll understand, where you can not see each other for a couple of years or more and pick up where you left off as if you just lived across the street.  It's a balm to my soul to be able to spend time with this "sister from another mister" (and--fun fact--we are actually distant cousins through our paternal lines.)

I also have a very good group of friends from my days in New York.  We have scattered all over the place, so being able to visit one can be a rare treat.  One of those friends lives nearby, and she recently had the life-changing miracle of giving birth to a beautiful baby boy.  It just so happened that his blessing (what we in the LDS church call a christening) was scheduled for my first weekend up here.  It was absolutely wonderful to see her and her little son and see the joy that she feels to be a mother.

I am LDS, and one of the things that is important to me is taking the opportunity to attend the temple.  We believe that families can be together forever, and the place where we make those covenants with God to have the opportunity to do that is in our temples.  For those of our ancestors who for whatever reason did not have that chance in this life, we perform those ordinances as proxies for them.  I had the name of a very distant relative that needed her temple ordinances done.  I thought that I would only be able to do two of the four ordinances for her with the limited time I had, but through a series of miracles, I did all of her work the other evening.  It gives me a lot of joy to know that she has the chance to progress and be with her family forever, and I felt (and feel) very strongly that she was aware that was being done and was super-happy about it.