Good Morning,
Here we are in the middle of January and we finally got a snow storm. Not really a storm, but steady, soft falling of snow. It has taken most of yesterday and this morning to get the amount of snow that we have and enough to cancel church for today. Church would never have been cancelled in Utah for this amount of snow. Garn and I had a bet about whether Church would be cancelled today when we went to bed last night. I was so sure that it would not be cancelled because there was so little snow on the ground and it had been spritzing around since 1 p.m. on Saturday. I guess the steady turtle won the race because we woke up this morning with about 2 inches of snow on the cars and fences.
We decided to see if the other senior missionary couple would like to come to our home and we could have a “Sunday School” type gathering and have a lesson together. We thought we would invite the sister missionaries that live in our complex to come along with the Spanish elders that live in our complex. Everyone was willing to come and we decided to have the young missionaries teach a 15-20 lesson as a companionship. Both the sisters and the elders were willing to do that. We will have them come for lunch and after lunch we will have our lesson. We are looking forward to listening to the young missionaries—whenever we hear them teach, we are so impressed with their spirit and knowledge.
Now back to the beginning of the week. Monday was the beginning of a full week of work at the office. We have decided to get up and read scriptures together at 6 studying the lessons from the Come Follow Me manual. Then we will get ready for going to the office and get their before 8. That way we can leave by 5. That gives Dad a chance to get more stuff done with WES and gets our dinner ready earlier. Hopefully this will allow Dad to sleep better.
I worked on looking the audit information that I will need to be prepared for and have by the end of February. Hopefully all will go well there.
Then at 8 pm when the people of California are going home from work, we will go walking. We have found it much harder walking up and down the little hills with full stomachs. In the morning before eating anything it is a lot easier to walk faster and up and down hills.
Tuesday we didn’t do as well on our new schedule to study together in the morning. It was 6:30 before we pulled ourselves out of bed. It would help if we could get to sleep a little earlier. We were again good about getting our lunches made the night before so that we could make an earlier get-away for the office. As much as I love the people in the office, I seem to get much more done when we are there by ourselves. I don’t get so many interruptions and can stay a little more focused.
While I fixed dinner, Garn worked on WES stuff. Then after dinner, I worked on reconciling the 5 credit cards that the office has while Garn finished up with WES stuff. We went walking after that and did our scripture reading that we had missed in the morning.
Wednesday we did better about getting up at 6 to study. I like that so much better because it is a kinder, easier way to enter the world and seems to set the tone for the day. Garn was gone much of the day going to the district meetings to talk about the conversion stories that the president wants the missionaries to help the new converts write. The scriptures are continually telling us to remember—remember when the Lord led our fathers through the Red Sea, remember when the Lord helped our fathers (Alma) get away from the Lamanites, remember when the Lord helped Nephi get the brass plates, etc. We are to remember the spiritual times that the Lord has intervened in our lives, when he has answered prayers, provided miracles, or brought peace to our hearts. These conversion stories can be the 1st chapter to the convert’s spiritual journal. There will be hard times in their (our) lives and being able to go back and “remember” the feelings that were felt and the testimony received can be very helpful.
I was a little jealous of his being able to go out and associate with these marvelous young people while I got to sit in the office and figure out why our payments didn’t get to the apartment complex and we are late on payments. I used to think that the people we replaced were just whining about how bad the mail is here in Burke when we talked with them before we came. They had every reason to complain.
We stayed and cleaned the office because the ones who were supposed to do it had left early and didn’t make it back to the office to do it. They had left to take care some housing situations and just didn’t make it back. The office staff cleans the office Wednesdays and Fridays to save hundreds of dollars monthly. The cleaners weren’t doing a very good job, so the office staff decided to do it themselves. We only have to do it every third week and it doesn’t take very long.
Thursday, we did it again. We were up at 6 for scripture reading. We are excited about what we are learning. Sometimes, I feel that there is so much that we need to read and learn that I feel a little overwhelmed. Maybe we just need to spend even more time.
We had some sad news today at the office today. One of the senior couples is going to be going home early because of health reason from the husband. He has some discs in his back that are pinching nerves so badly that he needs to get surgery. They will be leaving on January 22nd. We knew that this July we would become the senior office missionaries, but we didn’t think that by March 5th (the date when the other office couple is scheduled to leave) we would be the senior couple. That is really scary when you think of how little we know.
After dinner I watched the Audit training video and got a better feel for what I would need to do to get ready for the audit. I have had such poor experience with auditors from the county coming to audit WES that I don’t look forward to audits. This one, however, hopefully won’t be too bad. I have not done most of the work that will be audited, but I don’t want the mission to look bad. Things should be fine because the previous financial secretary was very organized.
I was so ready for Friday. We got up and did our scripture reading and then off to the office. Garn had another district training meeting to go to. I am happy for him because he loves getting out with the missionaries so much. It was a good week for me because I finally hit the bottom of my in basket. There are still many things to do and the basket will fill back up, but I haven’t seen the bottom of the basket for over two weeks. What a nice way to end the week.
Saturday we slept in. It felt so good to get a little extra rest after some of the short nights we had had this past week. We had a baptism at 11 to attend, so got our laundry done and a few bills paid and off we went. I had printed off a copy of the audit with sections that the President needed to look at in case the President and Sister Caplin happened to go to the baptism that we went to. He did and I was able to get the information to him so that he can arrange for an auditor. The baptism was wonderful and the music number was beautiful. Wish more baptisms had musical numbers.
We got a few errands done after the baptism and headed home as the snowflakes started. They were so tiny that it was hard to tell it was snowing, but we had been promised a big storm, so we were glad that we were heading towards home. We only had to get a few groceries and then we would be done for the evening. The snow was coming down a little harder by the time we got the groceries into the house, but still not “storm” category.
Now here is where the first of the letter comes into existence. THE BET. Dad bet a chocolate malt that church would be cancelled.
Sunday morning arrived and there was about 2-3 inches of snow on the fence rails, but I still didn’t think that was enough to cancel church. About 8:30 I got a text from the other senior couple telling us that our Stake President, President McConkie, had cancelled church for the stake. Garn won!
Everyone showed up at 1 and we had a good lunch. The senior companion of the elders’ threesome had gotten permission from President Caplin to do the sacrament, so we had a sacrament meeting in our apartment. We didn’t have little sacrament cups, so used paper cups and a plate for the bread. The young elders administered and passed the sacrament. It was a spiritual experience. Afterwards the elders took 20-30 minutes to share some thoughts about how important it is to follow the living prophet, and the sisters followed up with their talks that they were to have given on our premortal life. They asked the question of how knowing who we are and where all of us came from helps us when we work with people. Some wonderful thought were shared and one that I really liked was “when we remember who people really are—children of God—we realize who they can become. They have divine DNA and can become as God.” When we remember this, we treat people differently and help them to become who they are supposed to be. What a great day!
We got to talk with our children and we love that. We love you all and appreciate the choices you are making. Remember you are in our prayers.
Sending much love,
Mom
Here we are in the middle of January and we finally got a snow storm. Not really a storm, but steady, soft falling of snow. It has taken most of yesterday and this morning to get the amount of snow that we have and enough to cancel church for today. Church would never have been cancelled in Utah for this amount of snow. Garn and I had a bet about whether Church would be cancelled today when we went to bed last night. I was so sure that it would not be cancelled because there was so little snow on the ground and it had been spritzing around since 1 p.m. on Saturday. I guess the steady turtle won the race because we woke up this morning with about 2 inches of snow on the cars and fences.
We decided to see if the other senior missionary couple would like to come to our home and we could have a “Sunday School” type gathering and have a lesson together. We thought we would invite the sister missionaries that live in our complex to come along with the Spanish elders that live in our complex. Everyone was willing to come and we decided to have the young missionaries teach a 15-20 lesson as a companionship. Both the sisters and the elders were willing to do that. We will have them come for lunch and after lunch we will have our lesson. We are looking forward to listening to the young missionaries—whenever we hear them teach, we are so impressed with their spirit and knowledge.
Now back to the beginning of the week. Monday was the beginning of a full week of work at the office. We have decided to get up and read scriptures together at 6 studying the lessons from the Come Follow Me manual. Then we will get ready for going to the office and get their before 8. That way we can leave by 5. That gives Dad a chance to get more stuff done with WES and gets our dinner ready earlier. Hopefully this will allow Dad to sleep better.
I worked on looking the audit information that I will need to be prepared for and have by the end of February. Hopefully all will go well there.
Then at 8 pm when the people of California are going home from work, we will go walking. We have found it much harder walking up and down the little hills with full stomachs. In the morning before eating anything it is a lot easier to walk faster and up and down hills.
Tuesday we didn’t do as well on our new schedule to study together in the morning. It was 6:30 before we pulled ourselves out of bed. It would help if we could get to sleep a little earlier. We were again good about getting our lunches made the night before so that we could make an earlier get-away for the office. As much as I love the people in the office, I seem to get much more done when we are there by ourselves. I don’t get so many interruptions and can stay a little more focused.
While I fixed dinner, Garn worked on WES stuff. Then after dinner, I worked on reconciling the 5 credit cards that the office has while Garn finished up with WES stuff. We went walking after that and did our scripture reading that we had missed in the morning.
Wednesday we did better about getting up at 6 to study. I like that so much better because it is a kinder, easier way to enter the world and seems to set the tone for the day. Garn was gone much of the day going to the district meetings to talk about the conversion stories that the president wants the missionaries to help the new converts write. The scriptures are continually telling us to remember—remember when the Lord led our fathers through the Red Sea, remember when the Lord helped our fathers (Alma) get away from the Lamanites, remember when the Lord helped Nephi get the brass plates, etc. We are to remember the spiritual times that the Lord has intervened in our lives, when he has answered prayers, provided miracles, or brought peace to our hearts. These conversion stories can be the 1st chapter to the convert’s spiritual journal. There will be hard times in their (our) lives and being able to go back and “remember” the feelings that were felt and the testimony received can be very helpful.
I was a little jealous of his being able to go out and associate with these marvelous young people while I got to sit in the office and figure out why our payments didn’t get to the apartment complex and we are late on payments. I used to think that the people we replaced were just whining about how bad the mail is here in Burke when we talked with them before we came. They had every reason to complain.
We stayed and cleaned the office because the ones who were supposed to do it had left early and didn’t make it back to the office to do it. They had left to take care some housing situations and just didn’t make it back. The office staff cleans the office Wednesdays and Fridays to save hundreds of dollars monthly. The cleaners weren’t doing a very good job, so the office staff decided to do it themselves. We only have to do it every third week and it doesn’t take very long.
Thursday, we did it again. We were up at 6 for scripture reading. We are excited about what we are learning. Sometimes, I feel that there is so much that we need to read and learn that I feel a little overwhelmed. Maybe we just need to spend even more time.
We had some sad news today at the office today. One of the senior couples is going to be going home early because of health reason from the husband. He has some discs in his back that are pinching nerves so badly that he needs to get surgery. They will be leaving on January 22nd. We knew that this July we would become the senior office missionaries, but we didn’t think that by March 5th (the date when the other office couple is scheduled to leave) we would be the senior couple. That is really scary when you think of how little we know.
After dinner I watched the Audit training video and got a better feel for what I would need to do to get ready for the audit. I have had such poor experience with auditors from the county coming to audit WES that I don’t look forward to audits. This one, however, hopefully won’t be too bad. I have not done most of the work that will be audited, but I don’t want the mission to look bad. Things should be fine because the previous financial secretary was very organized.
I was so ready for Friday. We got up and did our scripture reading and then off to the office. Garn had another district training meeting to go to. I am happy for him because he loves getting out with the missionaries so much. It was a good week for me because I finally hit the bottom of my in basket. There are still many things to do and the basket will fill back up, but I haven’t seen the bottom of the basket for over two weeks. What a nice way to end the week.
Saturday we slept in. It felt so good to get a little extra rest after some of the short nights we had had this past week. We had a baptism at 11 to attend, so got our laundry done and a few bills paid and off we went. I had printed off a copy of the audit with sections that the President needed to look at in case the President and Sister Caplin happened to go to the baptism that we went to. He did and I was able to get the information to him so that he can arrange for an auditor. The baptism was wonderful and the music number was beautiful. Wish more baptisms had musical numbers.
We got a few errands done after the baptism and headed home as the snowflakes started. They were so tiny that it was hard to tell it was snowing, but we had been promised a big storm, so we were glad that we were heading towards home. We only had to get a few groceries and then we would be done for the evening. The snow was coming down a little harder by the time we got the groceries into the house, but still not “storm” category.
Now here is where the first of the letter comes into existence. THE BET. Dad bet a chocolate malt that church would be cancelled.
Sunday morning arrived and there was about 2-3 inches of snow on the fence rails, but I still didn’t think that was enough to cancel church. About 8:30 I got a text from the other senior couple telling us that our Stake President, President McConkie, had cancelled church for the stake. Garn won!
Everyone showed up at 1 and we had a good lunch. The senior companion of the elders’ threesome had gotten permission from President Caplin to do the sacrament, so we had a sacrament meeting in our apartment. We didn’t have little sacrament cups, so used paper cups and a plate for the bread. The young elders administered and passed the sacrament. It was a spiritual experience. Afterwards the elders took 20-30 minutes to share some thoughts about how important it is to follow the living prophet, and the sisters followed up with their talks that they were to have given on our premortal life. They asked the question of how knowing who we are and where all of us came from helps us when we work with people. Some wonderful thought were shared and one that I really liked was “when we remember who people really are—children of God—we realize who they can become. They have divine DNA and can become as God.” When we remember this, we treat people differently and help them to become who they are supposed to be. What a great day!
We got to talk with our children and we love that. We love you all and appreciate the choices you are making. Remember you are in our prayers.
Sending much love,
Mom
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