Dear Family,
February is here! Happy Birthday to Lis and wishes for a very happy year. We have had so many changes in the office lately that is making me feel a little unsettled. By the 5th of March we will be the senior office couple. Yikes! We don’t know enough to be the senior couple. The vehicle/reference couple have always been scheduled to leave on March 5th, but the other couple was supposed to be here until the end of July. They, however, went home two weeks ago so that he could have back surgery. Another senior couple were brought into the office from being a MLS missionary couple to take over the housing duties, and with the shortage of nurses we thought they would finish their mission in the office. On Thursday, Dad received a change of missionary assignment in his email. A senior couple were being assigned to our mission. The Sister was a nurse. They had been assigned to the Philippines, but were now coming here. Wow! We are in the middle of a cold spell with temperatures dipping down into the single digits. Can you imagine the reshopping they will have to do before they come? They are scheduled to enter the MTC on February 4th—tomorrow. When Dad shared that news with me, I felt a little sorry for the missionary couple that had come into the office. They had always complained about now having anything to do in the day time and now they were busy (almost overwhelmingly so). Also, being in the office we are so much more aware of what is going on in the mission. I knew they would miss it.
Back to the events of the week. It has been a real up and down week. On Monday I got a phone call from the President asking if I could talk for a minute. He had received a call from legal counsel in Salt Lake with an eviction notice and a court date for February 8th . He didn’t have any details, but wondered if I would have time to do a conference call with him and the lawyer from Salt Lake. As we talked I was able to discover which apartment was involved (at first they wondered if it was the mission office that we had the problem with). It was a new apartment that we had just started leasing the end of October. I was also able to piece together the scenario. Long story short—the apartment complexes like to do all of their billing on their website (portal) instead of mailing or emailing their bills to us. Most of them will at least email and let you know that the bill is ready and for you to look at it. We cannot get onto their portals because they require an email address for the user ID—different from any other apartment complex--and because we have nearly 100 apartments and don’t have 100 email addresses, we are, therefore, unable to access any of the portals. We have been successful paying our rents in the past by paying our rent automatically because we know how much the rent is. The utility bills are different. We need the bills to pay the utilities because they are different each month. The other apartment complexes email their bills. This being a new apartment had never sent us a utility bill (water), and we did not realize we hadn’t received a bill because we had received the electricity/gas bill from the gas company for this apartment and thought we had paid everything. Some apartments have three utility bills, some two, and some one. Because the utility bill didn’t get paid on December 1st, there was a late payment. Finally, on January 11th we got a notice from our missionaries that had been posted on their door that if we didn’t pay what we owed we would be evicted. I called the apartment complex to find out what the story was and was told the story. I told them that I would cut a check and get it into the mail, but it probably would not get there until Friday. (At this time they told me they had received the January rent—just the utility payment was missing). She told me that we had taken care of it in good time and it would not go to the lawyers. Not so. President had to talk with a local stake president to get the name of a local lawyer to help us out. What a way to end a Monday. Nothing like a lawsuit to make one feel competent and useful for the mission.
Tuesday, I got a call from the local lawyer and went through the scenario and letting him know that we were all paid up. He said he would call and talk to the lawyers of the apartment complex to see if they would drop the case since everything was current. He thought it was a case of one hand not knowing what the other hand was doing.
There was supposed to be a snow storm hit the area around 3:30, so many things were shutting down to get people home before the storm hit. It is amazing how little snow or cold weather it takes to shut things down here. It did start snowing big beautiful flakes, but it wasn’t sticking to the road yet. We finally did decide to go home about 4:30 and take home some work that we could do from there.
Wednesday we went to a zone conference. We helped with the inspection of the missionary cars and our job was to check all the lights, horn, mileage, tiwi, wipers, and windows of the cars. Dad was really concerned about the cold, so I told him he could sit in the cars and check the mileage, turn the buttons and switches while I stood outside and checked to see if everything worked. With my big coat and gloves I was happy and Dad was happy in the cars.
We were then able to go in and listen to some of the talks. President and Sister Caplin wanted to share with us some of the teachings they had received just before they came on their mission. One of their dear friends is the head of the Church History Department and invited them to come and see some of the original manuscripts of the Book of Mormon that were written in Oliver Cowdrey’s hand writing. They said what a wonderful feeling it was to hold the pages (in protective coverings) and realize where they had been. One of the pages they held was the one with 1 Nephi 3:7 on it. That has become their favorite scripture because when things get difficult here, they remind themselves that the Lord will always prepare a way for them to accomplish what he has commanded them to do. That applies to all of us.
Then they showed the video of Elder and Sister Holland giving their part of the training. President Caplin said that the entire First Presidency and most of the Quorum were during this training. Elder and Sister Holland stressed the importance of the Book of Mormon being the foundation of missionary work. It should be the foundation of people’s testimonies. Elder Holland said that D&C 4 is a much quoted missionary scripture, but that D&C 5:4 explains just how important the Book of Mormon was and is. The Lord gave Joseph the gift to translate the Book of Mormon and he was told that he should not think of any other gift until he had fulfilled this first gift—for He will grant Joseph no other gift until after the translation is finished. Now when we think of all of the things that Joseph needed to do—organize a church, get temples built, get missionary work started, get the priesthood restored, get ordinances performed, etc. etc. it puts into perspective how important the Book of Mormon is for this work to get done.
Sister Holland shared how much she loved the Book of Mormon—so much that she often slept with it under her pillow. I think the time she was talking about was a time she had been very sick almost to the point of dying and she received great comfort from having it physically close to her. As I was listening to this video, I was wondering what my feelings for the Book of Mormon were. Did I think of it as important as the Lord had when he gave Joseph the translation as his first job. Did I receive comfort from the words in it and even comfort from its physical closeness? Our reference secretary (she orders all of the supplies for the missionaries) shared that many of the pass-along cards and booklets are going by the wayside and missionaries are to be using the Book of Mormon as their teaching material. Things are changing and I feel an urgency in the work.
Thursday we were in the office mostly by ourselves and sometimes that is nice because there are fewer interruptions. I am still trying to get ready for the audit and will be glad when it is successfully over. In the evening we went and picked up Dad’s suit pants that were being altered. When they did them in Santa Clara they got them too short (that is the style now), but I thought they looked a little like flood water pants. Later in the evening President Caplin called Dad to see what he knew about the new couple that had just been assigned. They talked for a little about what to do and how to arrange people. We weren’t even sure if the new couple had been informed about the change of their assignment, so President couldn’t call them and discuss their skillset and what they would prefer doing. Dad said he would call at 10 in the morning and see what he could find out.
Friday was Lis’s birthday. Wishing you a Happy Day and a wonderful year.
Dad was able to get in touch with Salt Lake and they said that the change had been overnighted to them and they would check to see if the couple had gotten it. A little later they called and said the couple had gotten the change and were excited. Now President could call them and do some planning. Always some excitement.
I received a call from the local lawyer telling me that the apartment complex lawyers were going to cancel the lawsuit and all was well. Heavenly Father was certainly good at helping us straighten out this situation. While waiting for this matter to be straightened out, I had decided that I would have to call the complex every month about the time the utility bills would be posted to see what our bill was and then mail it to them. Before calling, however, I had to wait for our lawyer to give me the ok to talk with them. After I got that ok, I called to see what time of the month the bill would be posted so that I could call them and they said don’t call. Maybe you could just put $100 extra into your rent payment each month and that should be plenty. I then asked if it would be all right if I called quarterly to see if the amount was sufficient or if there was an overage and they agreed to that. Hopefully this will take care of this apartment.
Saturday we had a baptism that the missionaries invited us to attend. It was with the Spanish missionaries. When we arrived we saw a young man who had been baptized about 6 weeks before. He was here at this baptism baptizing his parents. Now a whole family has accepted the Gospel. What a wonderful service it was. Although we could understand very little of the talks, I felt the Spirit in my heart and knew that the things they were talking about were true. I had never had that experience before, but was grateful to feel the truths even without hearing and understanding with my ears.
Today was another good day at church. There are great people in this world contrary to what the news broadcasts. Again, I am grateful for the Come Follow Me study program. How much we have enjoyed this study!
We love you all so much and pray for you daily.
Much love,
Mom
February is here! Happy Birthday to Lis and wishes for a very happy year. We have had so many changes in the office lately that is making me feel a little unsettled. By the 5th of March we will be the senior office couple. Yikes! We don’t know enough to be the senior couple. The vehicle/reference couple have always been scheduled to leave on March 5th, but the other couple was supposed to be here until the end of July. They, however, went home two weeks ago so that he could have back surgery. Another senior couple were brought into the office from being a MLS missionary couple to take over the housing duties, and with the shortage of nurses we thought they would finish their mission in the office. On Thursday, Dad received a change of missionary assignment in his email. A senior couple were being assigned to our mission. The Sister was a nurse. They had been assigned to the Philippines, but were now coming here. Wow! We are in the middle of a cold spell with temperatures dipping down into the single digits. Can you imagine the reshopping they will have to do before they come? They are scheduled to enter the MTC on February 4th—tomorrow. When Dad shared that news with me, I felt a little sorry for the missionary couple that had come into the office. They had always complained about now having anything to do in the day time and now they were busy (almost overwhelmingly so). Also, being in the office we are so much more aware of what is going on in the mission. I knew they would miss it.
Back to the events of the week. It has been a real up and down week. On Monday I got a phone call from the President asking if I could talk for a minute. He had received a call from legal counsel in Salt Lake with an eviction notice and a court date for February 8th . He didn’t have any details, but wondered if I would have time to do a conference call with him and the lawyer from Salt Lake. As we talked I was able to discover which apartment was involved (at first they wondered if it was the mission office that we had the problem with). It was a new apartment that we had just started leasing the end of October. I was also able to piece together the scenario. Long story short—the apartment complexes like to do all of their billing on their website (portal) instead of mailing or emailing their bills to us. Most of them will at least email and let you know that the bill is ready and for you to look at it. We cannot get onto their portals because they require an email address for the user ID—different from any other apartment complex--and because we have nearly 100 apartments and don’t have 100 email addresses, we are, therefore, unable to access any of the portals. We have been successful paying our rents in the past by paying our rent automatically because we know how much the rent is. The utility bills are different. We need the bills to pay the utilities because they are different each month. The other apartment complexes email their bills. This being a new apartment had never sent us a utility bill (water), and we did not realize we hadn’t received a bill because we had received the electricity/gas bill from the gas company for this apartment and thought we had paid everything. Some apartments have three utility bills, some two, and some one. Because the utility bill didn’t get paid on December 1st, there was a late payment. Finally, on January 11th we got a notice from our missionaries that had been posted on their door that if we didn’t pay what we owed we would be evicted. I called the apartment complex to find out what the story was and was told the story. I told them that I would cut a check and get it into the mail, but it probably would not get there until Friday. (At this time they told me they had received the January rent—just the utility payment was missing). She told me that we had taken care of it in good time and it would not go to the lawyers. Not so. President had to talk with a local stake president to get the name of a local lawyer to help us out. What a way to end a Monday. Nothing like a lawsuit to make one feel competent and useful for the mission.
Tuesday, I got a call from the local lawyer and went through the scenario and letting him know that we were all paid up. He said he would call and talk to the lawyers of the apartment complex to see if they would drop the case since everything was current. He thought it was a case of one hand not knowing what the other hand was doing.
There was supposed to be a snow storm hit the area around 3:30, so many things were shutting down to get people home before the storm hit. It is amazing how little snow or cold weather it takes to shut things down here. It did start snowing big beautiful flakes, but it wasn’t sticking to the road yet. We finally did decide to go home about 4:30 and take home some work that we could do from there.
Wednesday we went to a zone conference. We helped with the inspection of the missionary cars and our job was to check all the lights, horn, mileage, tiwi, wipers, and windows of the cars. Dad was really concerned about the cold, so I told him he could sit in the cars and check the mileage, turn the buttons and switches while I stood outside and checked to see if everything worked. With my big coat and gloves I was happy and Dad was happy in the cars.
We were then able to go in and listen to some of the talks. President and Sister Caplin wanted to share with us some of the teachings they had received just before they came on their mission. One of their dear friends is the head of the Church History Department and invited them to come and see some of the original manuscripts of the Book of Mormon that were written in Oliver Cowdrey’s hand writing. They said what a wonderful feeling it was to hold the pages (in protective coverings) and realize where they had been. One of the pages they held was the one with 1 Nephi 3:7 on it. That has become their favorite scripture because when things get difficult here, they remind themselves that the Lord will always prepare a way for them to accomplish what he has commanded them to do. That applies to all of us.
Then they showed the video of Elder and Sister Holland giving their part of the training. President Caplin said that the entire First Presidency and most of the Quorum were during this training. Elder and Sister Holland stressed the importance of the Book of Mormon being the foundation of missionary work. It should be the foundation of people’s testimonies. Elder Holland said that D&C 4 is a much quoted missionary scripture, but that D&C 5:4 explains just how important the Book of Mormon was and is. The Lord gave Joseph the gift to translate the Book of Mormon and he was told that he should not think of any other gift until he had fulfilled this first gift—for He will grant Joseph no other gift until after the translation is finished. Now when we think of all of the things that Joseph needed to do—organize a church, get temples built, get missionary work started, get the priesthood restored, get ordinances performed, etc. etc. it puts into perspective how important the Book of Mormon is for this work to get done.
Sister Holland shared how much she loved the Book of Mormon—so much that she often slept with it under her pillow. I think the time she was talking about was a time she had been very sick almost to the point of dying and she received great comfort from having it physically close to her. As I was listening to this video, I was wondering what my feelings for the Book of Mormon were. Did I think of it as important as the Lord had when he gave Joseph the translation as his first job. Did I receive comfort from the words in it and even comfort from its physical closeness? Our reference secretary (she orders all of the supplies for the missionaries) shared that many of the pass-along cards and booklets are going by the wayside and missionaries are to be using the Book of Mormon as their teaching material. Things are changing and I feel an urgency in the work.
Thursday we were in the office mostly by ourselves and sometimes that is nice because there are fewer interruptions. I am still trying to get ready for the audit and will be glad when it is successfully over. In the evening we went and picked up Dad’s suit pants that were being altered. When they did them in Santa Clara they got them too short (that is the style now), but I thought they looked a little like flood water pants. Later in the evening President Caplin called Dad to see what he knew about the new couple that had just been assigned. They talked for a little about what to do and how to arrange people. We weren’t even sure if the new couple had been informed about the change of their assignment, so President couldn’t call them and discuss their skillset and what they would prefer doing. Dad said he would call at 10 in the morning and see what he could find out.
Friday was Lis’s birthday. Wishing you a Happy Day and a wonderful year.
Dad was able to get in touch with Salt Lake and they said that the change had been overnighted to them and they would check to see if the couple had gotten it. A little later they called and said the couple had gotten the change and were excited. Now President could call them and do some planning. Always some excitement.
I received a call from the local lawyer telling me that the apartment complex lawyers were going to cancel the lawsuit and all was well. Heavenly Father was certainly good at helping us straighten out this situation. While waiting for this matter to be straightened out, I had decided that I would have to call the complex every month about the time the utility bills would be posted to see what our bill was and then mail it to them. Before calling, however, I had to wait for our lawyer to give me the ok to talk with them. After I got that ok, I called to see what time of the month the bill would be posted so that I could call them and they said don’t call. Maybe you could just put $100 extra into your rent payment each month and that should be plenty. I then asked if it would be all right if I called quarterly to see if the amount was sufficient or if there was an overage and they agreed to that. Hopefully this will take care of this apartment.
Saturday we had a baptism that the missionaries invited us to attend. It was with the Spanish missionaries. When we arrived we saw a young man who had been baptized about 6 weeks before. He was here at this baptism baptizing his parents. Now a whole family has accepted the Gospel. What a wonderful service it was. Although we could understand very little of the talks, I felt the Spirit in my heart and knew that the things they were talking about were true. I had never had that experience before, but was grateful to feel the truths even without hearing and understanding with my ears.
Today was another good day at church. There are great people in this world contrary to what the news broadcasts. Again, I am grateful for the Come Follow Me study program. How much we have enjoyed this study!
We love you all so much and pray for you daily.
Much love,
Mom
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| Christmas flowers finally blooming. |
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| Garn checking mileage. |
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| Garn honking horn. |
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