29 again

Sister Hoem's had a birthday cake today as it was her birthday today.  She said she turned 29 ...............for the third time.

Sister Kathy Hoem on her fourth mission with her husband wearing a party hat on her arm instead of her head.

Elder and Sister Hoem serving birthday cake

Eating birthday cake and telling about miracles

As the missionaries were enjoying her birthday cake and sitting around talking, the subject of the dental clinic came up because the dentists were trying to construct some kind of device for a missionary who has a cleft palette. All of the emergencies, extractions, root canals and deep cavities have been taken care of for this batch of missionaries, so the dentists were trying to come up with a way for this Elder to have some kind of temporary fixture that would help him speak better. Evidently the roof of his mouth is not closed over and speech is difficult to make himself understood.
But the real tender mercy came about when he made the doctor understand that there was something "sharp" in the front of his mouth and a root tip was discovered behind some other teeth and it had started to fester. So they got that taken care of and everyone was happy because that could have created some bad problems for him soon after he got into his field.
The subject of miracles and tender mercies of the Lord came up and also how different missionaries take care of problems without fanfare and usually on their own. A missionary from Tonga could not hear but his companion told the Infirmary couple that this missionary could hear the sirens in the city (they served in New York).  The couple took him to a doctor to test his hearing and found out a hearing aide could give him some sound. The mission president took care of the costs quietly on his own. That Tongan Elder was able to hear for the first time in his life - not that he understood what he was hearing. It helped that he was in a deaf mission so his companions helped out with his understanding. Several more stories were told and I went away with an appreciation of those who serve and care for others outside of the "job" assigned.