Dear Family,
Happy Father’s Day! Another week has come and gone, and the mission is still standing. We haven’t ruined it yet.
Monday, the senior sisters in the mission met up for lunch at a favorite Greek restaurant of one of the sisters. This sister and her husband were leaving for home on Friday and we wanted to say our good-byes. It was a good excuse to go party too. We had very good food and wonderful company. As we visited I became aware that our duties are certainly very different. Some of the sisters that are not in the office have to be really creative in finding things in the day time to keep themselves busy. Although, at times, it would be nice to be able to get caught up, I would never want to be not busy. We have things that need to be done all of the time and I never have to be creative to find something to do. That is a good thing because I am not always that creative.
While I was out with the “girls” Garn and one of the other office elders went to lunch to meet up with a man who came into our office a couple of months ago advertising his restaurant. The missionaries have been working with him, but are not getting very far, so Elder Nelson and Elder Larsen went to meet with him where he works. They made arrangements to pick him up for church this coming Sunday. Hopefully he won’t call with an excuse not to go.
The nicest thing about the lunches today is that we both brought home left overs and I didn’t have to do any cooking.
Tuesday Garn went to interviews to meet with the elders waiting to be interviewed and work with them on the auditing of their phones. We have iphones and the missionaries have androids, so he is trying to get up to speed on the Samsung phones that the missionaries are required to bring with them. While he was doing that I was back at the office working with the other senior sisters making final preparations for the Return and Report luncheon.
Wednesday was another going to interviews for Garn and I was left in the office to hold down the fort. It was a good thing because things were beginning to pile up. Now many of the utility companies are putting their bills on their portals and want us to go on line to find out what we owe. The only problem is that they use the email that the apartments have put for us and we don’t always know what that is. Also, if we have more than one apartment with the same email address with the same utility company, then our apartment complexes get intermingled. The same thing happens with the apartment complexes, so we need to figure out how to get our utility companies and our apartment complexes that are owned by the same companies or have the same companies do their utilities link all of our utility bills or our apartments so that we can get on their website and go from one account to the other. As it is, we get only one apartment complex or one utility bill, then we have to call the complex or the utility company to get the bill. That wouldn’t even be so bad except they often don’t answer their phones and want us to leave a message which they don’t answer. Now if you didn’t follow all of that and find it confusing, then you have the picture. It is confusing and getting our bills is getting harder all of the time. We will get if figured out, though. And hopefully sooner rather than later.
There were two elders that taught a lesson to a city council member in his home. He was so impressed with the elders and their coming out here, giving up two years of their life, and their message that he wanted to introduce them at the city council meeting the following day. He asked them to write a paragraph or two introducing themselves so that he could read it to the council. They called and told President Caplin and he told them to get in touch with Elder Nelson and he would help them. Garn asked the wife of our stake president, Sister McConkie, to write up a little something (she has a daughter on a mission right now.) Then he took her write-up combined it with a little blurb that the elders had written and wrote some thing that made it all sound really good. Although these missionaries were being introduced, the purpose of the introduction was to introduce missionaries in general to the people of Herndon. He came and asked a couple of us to listen to the finished write-up—we thought it sounded good then sent the copy to the elders. The council meeting has a live stream so that anyone wanting to listen to the council meeting can listen to it on the internet in their own home.
It was our turn to the clean the office today. Now it is a good thing to save the money of having someone come and do the cleaning and it doesn’t take too long, but it isn’t my favorite thing to do at the end of the day. In the evening we went shopping at Costco because we were all out of the basics like milk, eggs, and fruit. It had been a long time since we had had time to do any grocery shopping. Afterwards we stopped by Lowes to set a plant for one of the senior sister’s birthday gift.
On Thursday, Garn called the elders to see how it went and they said that it went really well. It would be nice if people hear the introduction of missionaries and have good feelings about them and may be willing to listen. It was good to have people seeing the good that the missionaries are doing.
We went with the elders to teach Nancy, but it was not a good night for her. I don’t know what was bothering her, but she was a little quiet and sad. Her boy Lucas was his busy, distracting self. He told his sister that religion was just a cult. I don’t know where he hears these kinds of things, but he is pretty hateful about church. I am feeling that although she wants her children to have the gospel, they are not quite ready for it at this point. She wants what she sees in her cousin who is a member of the church, but I don’t know if she will join the Church if she continues to have the lessons when her children, especially her son, around. He is so distracting that it is hard to keep a concept going. If she could gain a testimony, then in her own way teach the children, it may work. We really do care for her and she needs the gospel so much that I hope they can figure out how to teach her so that she can concentrate on the message and feel the truth of the message through the spirit.
On the way home we got a flat tire. Although that isn’t fun, I was so grateful that it happened when and where it did. How many tender mercies were shown to us that evening. 1st, it happened after the lesson at Nancy’s allowing us to go with the elders. 2nd it happened on a road (not a freeway) near a place where we were able to get off at an entry way into a apartment complex that had this exit gate locked so that we would not be hit—we were at a safe place to change the tire. 3rd there was still a little bit of light allowing us to see what we were doing. 4th it didn’t start raining until we were closing the back door of the car after putting away all of the tools for changing the tire. 5th we were close to home. And was feeling extremely grateful that I was not alone to change the tire. We drove home after changing the tire very grateful the kindness of the Lord to us. After we got home the sisters came to bring the phone charger for the church phone that they turned in. Garn is bringing in all of the church phones and the missionaries will be using their own. The church phones might be used by our visa waiters.
Friday we raced off to the office a little early so that I could get dropped off and Garn could go buy some new tires. The roads are so bad back here that even our missionary cars are going through tires a little sooner than how long the tires say they should last. Anyway, we have four new tires and a lighter wallet. We also discovered that we need an alignment of the wheels.
In our rush to leave early this morning, we walked off without our lunch, so we went to make a deposit for the office and stopped by the grocery store to pick up a sandwich that we could split and back to the office we went. I had to get the second budget sent into Salt Lake today—they sent two, but they looked so much alike that I didn’t realize there were two of them. I sent the one in on Monday, but had to do this one and get it sent in today. I worked on getting rent ready for July, but didn’t get it quite finished. Hopefully, I’ll get it finished Monday morning.
President came in to sign some of the papers that need his approval and while he was here, asked Garn if he thought there was enough work in the office to keep an elder busy who has a hurt ankle and has been told by the doctor that he needs to be off of his ankle for 6 weeks and then they will determine if he needs surgery or not. There is a lot to do, but I don’t know if it is something that can be handed off to someone. We have a hard time with having enough room and computers when we have the office elders and our part time local missionary in the office. As senior couples, we would have to take him home with us in the evenings because he would not have a companion other than us. I don’t know what Garn will tell the President. After everyone left, we cleaned the office and went home ourselves.
Saturday we went to the visitor’s center at the Washington D. C. Temple for a BYU symposium on the history especially in Washington D.C. Brother Lloyd Newell was the keynote speaker and talked about the history of the Tabernacle Choir especially in the Washington D. C. area. It was very interesting. He made the comment that of course all the members had to have current temple recommends; they were not paid; and are set apart when the join the choir. He said that there are many good choirs in the world, maybe some better technically, but it is the Spirit that touches the hearts of those who listen to the choir that makes them so good. He also mentioned that his position is not the preach the gospel in his spoken word, but to have messages that make people feel good and encourage them to live a good life. We also went to a lecture on how the Lord made it possible for a rag tag frontier army to beat the greatest navy and country in the world at the time. He pointed out scriptures that foretold of this happening. We are a country that was created by divine help. This was a very good lecture. We listened to 5 lectures including the keynote presentation, then had to leave to make a baptism.
It was interesting to see the temple in the midst of its renovation process. At the same time our temple in Oakland was getting ready for its rededication on Sunday. Wish this temple were open. The baptism was good and we enjoyed seeing the missionaries. What a joy it is to rub shoulders with these good people. On the way home from the baptism we stopped at the dollar store to stock up on table cloths for the luncheons that we do for the missionaries.
Now we are at home and finishing up the laundry. After eating dinner, I went to the post office to mail some birthday cards and then to the grocery store to get supplies for the Return and Report luncheon on Tuesday. We were both tired enough that we sat on the couch and watched a tv show together.
Today was a good day. The talks were good today and focused on fathers and father figures. Some of them talked about our Heavenly Father and showing love for him through our obedience to his commandments. The primary children sang a couple of songs and they did a wonderful job. Their sweet voices really do touch my heart. There was a woman that sang a solo who had a beautiful well-trained voice and she sang her song well. However, I didn’t feel the spirit with that music as much as I did the primary children when they sang. The thought ran through my head of the statements made by President Boyd K. Packer about using hymns for the music. I think it was the choice of the music that made the difference—certainly not her ability to sing well.
We came home and talked with all of our children. What love fills our heart when we think of you. Thanks for loving us so much.
Today was the day that we go to a member in our ward who invites the missionaries to their home once a month. It was fun to visit with them and the other missionaries. People are so good and sharing and we appreciate their examples for us.
We love you lots and lots,
Happy Father’s Day! Another week has come and gone, and the mission is still standing. We haven’t ruined it yet.
Monday, the senior sisters in the mission met up for lunch at a favorite Greek restaurant of one of the sisters. This sister and her husband were leaving for home on Friday and we wanted to say our good-byes. It was a good excuse to go party too. We had very good food and wonderful company. As we visited I became aware that our duties are certainly very different. Some of the sisters that are not in the office have to be really creative in finding things in the day time to keep themselves busy. Although, at times, it would be nice to be able to get caught up, I would never want to be not busy. We have things that need to be done all of the time and I never have to be creative to find something to do. That is a good thing because I am not always that creative.
While I was out with the “girls” Garn and one of the other office elders went to lunch to meet up with a man who came into our office a couple of months ago advertising his restaurant. The missionaries have been working with him, but are not getting very far, so Elder Nelson and Elder Larsen went to meet with him where he works. They made arrangements to pick him up for church this coming Sunday. Hopefully he won’t call with an excuse not to go.
The nicest thing about the lunches today is that we both brought home left overs and I didn’t have to do any cooking.
Tuesday Garn went to interviews to meet with the elders waiting to be interviewed and work with them on the auditing of their phones. We have iphones and the missionaries have androids, so he is trying to get up to speed on the Samsung phones that the missionaries are required to bring with them. While he was doing that I was back at the office working with the other senior sisters making final preparations for the Return and Report luncheon.
Wednesday was another going to interviews for Garn and I was left in the office to hold down the fort. It was a good thing because things were beginning to pile up. Now many of the utility companies are putting their bills on their portals and want us to go on line to find out what we owe. The only problem is that they use the email that the apartments have put for us and we don’t always know what that is. Also, if we have more than one apartment with the same email address with the same utility company, then our apartment complexes get intermingled. The same thing happens with the apartment complexes, so we need to figure out how to get our utility companies and our apartment complexes that are owned by the same companies or have the same companies do their utilities link all of our utility bills or our apartments so that we can get on their website and go from one account to the other. As it is, we get only one apartment complex or one utility bill, then we have to call the complex or the utility company to get the bill. That wouldn’t even be so bad except they often don’t answer their phones and want us to leave a message which they don’t answer. Now if you didn’t follow all of that and find it confusing, then you have the picture. It is confusing and getting our bills is getting harder all of the time. We will get if figured out, though. And hopefully sooner rather than later.
There were two elders that taught a lesson to a city council member in his home. He was so impressed with the elders and their coming out here, giving up two years of their life, and their message that he wanted to introduce them at the city council meeting the following day. He asked them to write a paragraph or two introducing themselves so that he could read it to the council. They called and told President Caplin and he told them to get in touch with Elder Nelson and he would help them. Garn asked the wife of our stake president, Sister McConkie, to write up a little something (she has a daughter on a mission right now.) Then he took her write-up combined it with a little blurb that the elders had written and wrote some thing that made it all sound really good. Although these missionaries were being introduced, the purpose of the introduction was to introduce missionaries in general to the people of Herndon. He came and asked a couple of us to listen to the finished write-up—we thought it sounded good then sent the copy to the elders. The council meeting has a live stream so that anyone wanting to listen to the council meeting can listen to it on the internet in their own home.
It was our turn to the clean the office today. Now it is a good thing to save the money of having someone come and do the cleaning and it doesn’t take too long, but it isn’t my favorite thing to do at the end of the day. In the evening we went shopping at Costco because we were all out of the basics like milk, eggs, and fruit. It had been a long time since we had had time to do any grocery shopping. Afterwards we stopped by Lowes to set a plant for one of the senior sister’s birthday gift.
On Thursday, Garn called the elders to see how it went and they said that it went really well. It would be nice if people hear the introduction of missionaries and have good feelings about them and may be willing to listen. It was good to have people seeing the good that the missionaries are doing.
We went with the elders to teach Nancy, but it was not a good night for her. I don’t know what was bothering her, but she was a little quiet and sad. Her boy Lucas was his busy, distracting self. He told his sister that religion was just a cult. I don’t know where he hears these kinds of things, but he is pretty hateful about church. I am feeling that although she wants her children to have the gospel, they are not quite ready for it at this point. She wants what she sees in her cousin who is a member of the church, but I don’t know if she will join the Church if she continues to have the lessons when her children, especially her son, around. He is so distracting that it is hard to keep a concept going. If she could gain a testimony, then in her own way teach the children, it may work. We really do care for her and she needs the gospel so much that I hope they can figure out how to teach her so that she can concentrate on the message and feel the truth of the message through the spirit.
On the way home we got a flat tire. Although that isn’t fun, I was so grateful that it happened when and where it did. How many tender mercies were shown to us that evening. 1st, it happened after the lesson at Nancy’s allowing us to go with the elders. 2nd it happened on a road (not a freeway) near a place where we were able to get off at an entry way into a apartment complex that had this exit gate locked so that we would not be hit—we were at a safe place to change the tire. 3rd there was still a little bit of light allowing us to see what we were doing. 4th it didn’t start raining until we were closing the back door of the car after putting away all of the tools for changing the tire. 5th we were close to home. And was feeling extremely grateful that I was not alone to change the tire. We drove home after changing the tire very grateful the kindness of the Lord to us. After we got home the sisters came to bring the phone charger for the church phone that they turned in. Garn is bringing in all of the church phones and the missionaries will be using their own. The church phones might be used by our visa waiters.
Friday we raced off to the office a little early so that I could get dropped off and Garn could go buy some new tires. The roads are so bad back here that even our missionary cars are going through tires a little sooner than how long the tires say they should last. Anyway, we have four new tires and a lighter wallet. We also discovered that we need an alignment of the wheels.
In our rush to leave early this morning, we walked off without our lunch, so we went to make a deposit for the office and stopped by the grocery store to pick up a sandwich that we could split and back to the office we went. I had to get the second budget sent into Salt Lake today—they sent two, but they looked so much alike that I didn’t realize there were two of them. I sent the one in on Monday, but had to do this one and get it sent in today. I worked on getting rent ready for July, but didn’t get it quite finished. Hopefully, I’ll get it finished Monday morning.
President came in to sign some of the papers that need his approval and while he was here, asked Garn if he thought there was enough work in the office to keep an elder busy who has a hurt ankle and has been told by the doctor that he needs to be off of his ankle for 6 weeks and then they will determine if he needs surgery or not. There is a lot to do, but I don’t know if it is something that can be handed off to someone. We have a hard time with having enough room and computers when we have the office elders and our part time local missionary in the office. As senior couples, we would have to take him home with us in the evenings because he would not have a companion other than us. I don’t know what Garn will tell the President. After everyone left, we cleaned the office and went home ourselves.
Saturday we went to the visitor’s center at the Washington D. C. Temple for a BYU symposium on the history especially in Washington D.C. Brother Lloyd Newell was the keynote speaker and talked about the history of the Tabernacle Choir especially in the Washington D. C. area. It was very interesting. He made the comment that of course all the members had to have current temple recommends; they were not paid; and are set apart when the join the choir. He said that there are many good choirs in the world, maybe some better technically, but it is the Spirit that touches the hearts of those who listen to the choir that makes them so good. He also mentioned that his position is not the preach the gospel in his spoken word, but to have messages that make people feel good and encourage them to live a good life. We also went to a lecture on how the Lord made it possible for a rag tag frontier army to beat the greatest navy and country in the world at the time. He pointed out scriptures that foretold of this happening. We are a country that was created by divine help. This was a very good lecture. We listened to 5 lectures including the keynote presentation, then had to leave to make a baptism.
It was interesting to see the temple in the midst of its renovation process. At the same time our temple in Oakland was getting ready for its rededication on Sunday. Wish this temple were open. The baptism was good and we enjoyed seeing the missionaries. What a joy it is to rub shoulders with these good people. On the way home from the baptism we stopped at the dollar store to stock up on table cloths for the luncheons that we do for the missionaries.
Now we are at home and finishing up the laundry. After eating dinner, I went to the post office to mail some birthday cards and then to the grocery store to get supplies for the Return and Report luncheon on Tuesday. We were both tired enough that we sat on the couch and watched a tv show together.
Today was a good day. The talks were good today and focused on fathers and father figures. Some of them talked about our Heavenly Father and showing love for him through our obedience to his commandments. The primary children sang a couple of songs and they did a wonderful job. Their sweet voices really do touch my heart. There was a woman that sang a solo who had a beautiful well-trained voice and she sang her song well. However, I didn’t feel the spirit with that music as much as I did the primary children when they sang. The thought ran through my head of the statements made by President Boyd K. Packer about using hymns for the music. I think it was the choice of the music that made the difference—certainly not her ability to sing well.
We came home and talked with all of our children. What love fills our heart when we think of you. Thanks for loving us so much.
Today was the day that we go to a member in our ward who invites the missionaries to their home once a month. It was fun to visit with them and the other missionaries. People are so good and sharing and we appreciate their examples for us.
We love you lots and lots,
Mom
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