Dear Family,
Here it is December already. It seems that I have just finished the beginning of the month reports and it is time to begin them all over again. Hopefully I am getting faster and more confident with them. December has really started out dark, dreary, and rainy. We have had our lights on all day and it still felt like evening in the middle of the day. I guess that I shouldn’t complain about the rain because it certainly makes everything so green around here. And in California we were always praying for rain. Maybe we are never grateful for what we have and really should be.
The week started out with Brother Packer coming for a mission training session. It didn’t affect the office so much except Dad and I (and the part time missionary in the office) were in charge of the luncheon on Thursday. It was finally decided which building the training would be in that day, so now we could arrange for the scheduling of the building. We finalized the menu and how much of what to buy. I also spent much of the day making sure all of the missionaries got paid what they should. With some of them going home in the middle of the month we have to prorate their money. Also, all of the visa waiters have to be put into the system manually and we have to determine (if we can) how long they will be there so we know how much to pay them. One of the elders got his flight schedule to fly to Atlanta, GA to go to the consulate to get his visa. The consulate here in Washington, D.C. isn’t very nice (easy to work with), so the Church is flying him all the way to Georgia on December 4th so that he can get the job done. Hopefully he is successful. The Church is confident enough that they have flight plans for him to leave Virginia on the 10th of December.
Tuesday evening Dad and I went over to the Spanish elders who live in our complex to take the flight schedules to the elder going to Atlanta over to him. We have volunteered to take him to the airport next Tuesday for his 6 am flight!! We will pick him up at about 4:20 a.m. I was just glad that he didn’t live at the other end of the mission—he is only 2-3 minutes from our place so that will help.
Wednesday Dad spent most of the day shopping for the supplies for the luncheon. People in the office were really impressed that he was going shopping all by himself. He did a great job, too. I was glad to be in the office most of the day since I would be gone tomorrow for the luncheon.
Because of the increase in the mail at this time of the year, we have divided up the zones for mail delivery. Each of the senior missionary couples and the part time missionary will take a zone and keep the mail delivered. Dad met up with the missionaries at their zone conference while he was out shopping so we could get our zone’s mail delivered. Merry Christmas missionaries!!
Thursday we got into the office a little late (8:45) because we were getting our lasagnas baked. The senior missionaries told me that the Costco pizzas would cook in 1 ½ hours. When I went out to the car at 6 am to get our two lasagnas to put into the oven (it was cold enough that we didn’t have to bring them in) and read the directions, it said 1 hour and 55 minutes. We were still the first ones there and were ready to take off for the meeting when the others got there. We had mail for all of the missionaries attending the meeting to take along with all of the food. Dad was so good to come and help set up the tables in the hall way for serving and tables for the mail and teaching materials before he left to go home and go to bed. He had been up a lot of the night with cold and sore throat. He didn’t want to spread any of his germs.
There were two of us left to get things set up which was plenty. They didn’t want tables set up in the gym because they were having tables set up for the teaching and they were just going to use those tables to eat at. So we were to put the Caesar salad and warm lasagna on plates and put them on the counter for the missionaries to come along and pick up. We had two tables (they are half as wide as regular tables are, but just as long) in the hall way with the plastic ware, napkins, croutons, rolls/butter, cookies, and water bottles. We also had gluten free chicken salad for those needing it. It seemed to work well, and we got our 65-70 people fed while the lasagna was still warm. I think they enjoyed having warm food after the last couple of luncheons where the directive was that we had to have them all fed in 5 minutes. They had a lot of sack lunches and were glad to have something a little different. It is so fun to get out and mingle with the young missionaries and be reminded what all of this is about. It is essential that the bills get paid and the housing, cars, etc. get taken care of, but the real reason we are out here is to help people come to Christ. A good day.
It is hard to come back to the office and get back into the groove of things. Dad came back to the office about 4 and then we went home about 5. Hopefully he will get to feeling better quickly.
Friday Dad was feeling better, and went into the office for a little while, but then decided to go home and take a hot bath and nap. Before he left President Caplin came in to get some things at the office before leaving for interviews. He was a little surprised to see us there because the other missionaries don’t come in until after 9. I think in the past they have rotated their time coming in and leaving. With our being on the learning curve, I like to come in as close to 8 as we can because the office is quieter and I get more done that first hour or so than I do with all of the interruptions. We are often the last ones leaving in the evening often for the same reasons. Hopefully, we will get faster and be as competent as the others are. Dad came in and stayed for about an hour and then we went on home.
There were a couple of baptisms this evening that we were going to go to, but Dad got to feeling a bit achy and thought it would be better for everyone if he didn’t go.
Saturday was, as said before, a rainy cloudy day. It felt like late afternoon all day. Dad was still feeling a little under the weather—no pun intended, so we did indoor chores. We did do our grocery shopping, but that was about all. We did get to buy a new water heater for our house in Santa Clara—yipee! We were going to go to a baptism at 7, but found out that all of the baptisms this week were either on Thursday or Friday evenings and the only one on Saturday was at 4. I had thought the last one was at 7. We didn’t even get to go to a baptism this week.
Sunday was a great day. Church was good. I marvel at the good people of this ward. They are so good to open their arms and welcome new people, especially investigators that we now call “friends”. Since we go to the gospel essentials class for Sunday School, we get to know the new people in the ward in a smaller setting. When I hear of their stories of hunting and finding the gospel, I am so grateful that I have always had the gospel in my life.
About 5 we went to dinner with two other couples from the ward to the Jung’s for dinner. They are a family from Korea that have been real pioneers in the gospel—in their families and in the Church. They did a lot of traditional Korean food that was not only very tasty, but also beautifully put on the table. While we ate, Brother Jung entertained us with the story of how he found the Church. It started with his wanting to learn better English and then how he wanted to be more like the missionaries, and then finally how he learned the gospel. When he got baptized, there was no font in Korea so the missionaries took him into their bathroom. They showed him the bath tub and told him that they would fill it half full of water and he would get in and stand very close to the front of the tub. The missionary would stand just outside of the tub and say the prayer. When the prayer was over, then Brother Jung would slowly sit down (with the help of the missionary) then he would lay back and rotate his knees to the side so that he could be fully immersed. The next day he came back to the missionaries’ home, dressed in white, and was baptized. To make sure that we got the full picture of it, he got up from the table and went to the end of the table and demonstrated sitting down slowly, then lying back and rotating his knees to the side while laying on the hardwood floor of their living room. We then learned that he and his wife met through Brother Jung’s mother. She had joined the Church after her son and was serving as the R.S. president when Sister Jung came to church as an investigator. Brother Jung was working out of the country and could not find a member of the Church to marry. He told his mother to look for someone and she liked Sister Jung and the Branch President approved of the choice, so when Brother Jung came home, they met and were married. The stories were fun to hear and we were entertained. One of the other couples was another senior missionary couple in the office and the final couple were from the ward. He works in the White House as a member of a 15-person office who read all of the legislation that comes out of Congress to go to the President. These 15 people have their areas of expertise and they read the laws, figure out what they are all about and tell the President the pros and cons of the bill and which way he should go on it. He admitted that there was a LOT of stuff to read.
We finished dinner in time to race to the stake Messiah sing-along. This area has some very talented musicians, so it was fun to listen to them sing and play and then be able to sing along when it was our turn to sing. Oh what beautiful music and words that is!
We went straight home to listen to the Christmas Devotional. Again, the music was beautiful and the messages were wonderful. By the way, Elizabeth’s dancing was heart warming and brought big smiles and a few chuckles from us.
We are so grateful for this time of year to be reminded of our Heavenly Father’s love for us by giving us his Son. What great hope we have because of the Atonement. We are also so grateful for family who become more and more dear to us. We have also been blessed with wonderful friends. How blessed we are!
As always, we love you lots and lots,
Mom
Here it is December already. It seems that I have just finished the beginning of the month reports and it is time to begin them all over again. Hopefully I am getting faster and more confident with them. December has really started out dark, dreary, and rainy. We have had our lights on all day and it still felt like evening in the middle of the day. I guess that I shouldn’t complain about the rain because it certainly makes everything so green around here. And in California we were always praying for rain. Maybe we are never grateful for what we have and really should be.
The week started out with Brother Packer coming for a mission training session. It didn’t affect the office so much except Dad and I (and the part time missionary in the office) were in charge of the luncheon on Thursday. It was finally decided which building the training would be in that day, so now we could arrange for the scheduling of the building. We finalized the menu and how much of what to buy. I also spent much of the day making sure all of the missionaries got paid what they should. With some of them going home in the middle of the month we have to prorate their money. Also, all of the visa waiters have to be put into the system manually and we have to determine (if we can) how long they will be there so we know how much to pay them. One of the elders got his flight schedule to fly to Atlanta, GA to go to the consulate to get his visa. The consulate here in Washington, D.C. isn’t very nice (easy to work with), so the Church is flying him all the way to Georgia on December 4th so that he can get the job done. Hopefully he is successful. The Church is confident enough that they have flight plans for him to leave Virginia on the 10th of December.
Tuesday evening Dad and I went over to the Spanish elders who live in our complex to take the flight schedules to the elder going to Atlanta over to him. We have volunteered to take him to the airport next Tuesday for his 6 am flight!! We will pick him up at about 4:20 a.m. I was just glad that he didn’t live at the other end of the mission—he is only 2-3 minutes from our place so that will help.
Wednesday Dad spent most of the day shopping for the supplies for the luncheon. People in the office were really impressed that he was going shopping all by himself. He did a great job, too. I was glad to be in the office most of the day since I would be gone tomorrow for the luncheon.
Because of the increase in the mail at this time of the year, we have divided up the zones for mail delivery. Each of the senior missionary couples and the part time missionary will take a zone and keep the mail delivered. Dad met up with the missionaries at their zone conference while he was out shopping so we could get our zone’s mail delivered. Merry Christmas missionaries!!
Thursday we got into the office a little late (8:45) because we were getting our lasagnas baked. The senior missionaries told me that the Costco pizzas would cook in 1 ½ hours. When I went out to the car at 6 am to get our two lasagnas to put into the oven (it was cold enough that we didn’t have to bring them in) and read the directions, it said 1 hour and 55 minutes. We were still the first ones there and were ready to take off for the meeting when the others got there. We had mail for all of the missionaries attending the meeting to take along with all of the food. Dad was so good to come and help set up the tables in the hall way for serving and tables for the mail and teaching materials before he left to go home and go to bed. He had been up a lot of the night with cold and sore throat. He didn’t want to spread any of his germs.
There were two of us left to get things set up which was plenty. They didn’t want tables set up in the gym because they were having tables set up for the teaching and they were just going to use those tables to eat at. So we were to put the Caesar salad and warm lasagna on plates and put them on the counter for the missionaries to come along and pick up. We had two tables (they are half as wide as regular tables are, but just as long) in the hall way with the plastic ware, napkins, croutons, rolls/butter, cookies, and water bottles. We also had gluten free chicken salad for those needing it. It seemed to work well, and we got our 65-70 people fed while the lasagna was still warm. I think they enjoyed having warm food after the last couple of luncheons where the directive was that we had to have them all fed in 5 minutes. They had a lot of sack lunches and were glad to have something a little different. It is so fun to get out and mingle with the young missionaries and be reminded what all of this is about. It is essential that the bills get paid and the housing, cars, etc. get taken care of, but the real reason we are out here is to help people come to Christ. A good day.
It is hard to come back to the office and get back into the groove of things. Dad came back to the office about 4 and then we went home about 5. Hopefully he will get to feeling better quickly.
Friday Dad was feeling better, and went into the office for a little while, but then decided to go home and take a hot bath and nap. Before he left President Caplin came in to get some things at the office before leaving for interviews. He was a little surprised to see us there because the other missionaries don’t come in until after 9. I think in the past they have rotated their time coming in and leaving. With our being on the learning curve, I like to come in as close to 8 as we can because the office is quieter and I get more done that first hour or so than I do with all of the interruptions. We are often the last ones leaving in the evening often for the same reasons. Hopefully, we will get faster and be as competent as the others are. Dad came in and stayed for about an hour and then we went on home.
There were a couple of baptisms this evening that we were going to go to, but Dad got to feeling a bit achy and thought it would be better for everyone if he didn’t go.
Saturday was, as said before, a rainy cloudy day. It felt like late afternoon all day. Dad was still feeling a little under the weather—no pun intended, so we did indoor chores. We did do our grocery shopping, but that was about all. We did get to buy a new water heater for our house in Santa Clara—yipee! We were going to go to a baptism at 7, but found out that all of the baptisms this week were either on Thursday or Friday evenings and the only one on Saturday was at 4. I had thought the last one was at 7. We didn’t even get to go to a baptism this week.
Sunday was a great day. Church was good. I marvel at the good people of this ward. They are so good to open their arms and welcome new people, especially investigators that we now call “friends”. Since we go to the gospel essentials class for Sunday School, we get to know the new people in the ward in a smaller setting. When I hear of their stories of hunting and finding the gospel, I am so grateful that I have always had the gospel in my life.
About 5 we went to dinner with two other couples from the ward to the Jung’s for dinner. They are a family from Korea that have been real pioneers in the gospel—in their families and in the Church. They did a lot of traditional Korean food that was not only very tasty, but also beautifully put on the table. While we ate, Brother Jung entertained us with the story of how he found the Church. It started with his wanting to learn better English and then how he wanted to be more like the missionaries, and then finally how he learned the gospel. When he got baptized, there was no font in Korea so the missionaries took him into their bathroom. They showed him the bath tub and told him that they would fill it half full of water and he would get in and stand very close to the front of the tub. The missionary would stand just outside of the tub and say the prayer. When the prayer was over, then Brother Jung would slowly sit down (with the help of the missionary) then he would lay back and rotate his knees to the side so that he could be fully immersed. The next day he came back to the missionaries’ home, dressed in white, and was baptized. To make sure that we got the full picture of it, he got up from the table and went to the end of the table and demonstrated sitting down slowly, then lying back and rotating his knees to the side while laying on the hardwood floor of their living room. We then learned that he and his wife met through Brother Jung’s mother. She had joined the Church after her son and was serving as the R.S. president when Sister Jung came to church as an investigator. Brother Jung was working out of the country and could not find a member of the Church to marry. He told his mother to look for someone and she liked Sister Jung and the Branch President approved of the choice, so when Brother Jung came home, they met and were married. The stories were fun to hear and we were entertained. One of the other couples was another senior missionary couple in the office and the final couple were from the ward. He works in the White House as a member of a 15-person office who read all of the legislation that comes out of Congress to go to the President. These 15 people have their areas of expertise and they read the laws, figure out what they are all about and tell the President the pros and cons of the bill and which way he should go on it. He admitted that there was a LOT of stuff to read.
We finished dinner in time to race to the stake Messiah sing-along. This area has some very talented musicians, so it was fun to listen to them sing and play and then be able to sing along when it was our turn to sing. Oh what beautiful music and words that is!
We went straight home to listen to the Christmas Devotional. Again, the music was beautiful and the messages were wonderful. By the way, Elizabeth’s dancing was heart warming and brought big smiles and a few chuckles from us.
We are so grateful for this time of year to be reminded of our Heavenly Father’s love for us by giving us his Son. What great hope we have because of the Atonement. We are also so grateful for family who become more and more dear to us. We have also been blessed with wonderful friends. How blessed we are!
As always, we love you lots and lots,
Mom
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| Sister Jung |
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| Korean dinner |
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