Dear Family,
Another good week has raced by with birthdays, transfers, teaching with the missionaries, and baptisms. And I am sitting here trying to remember everything.
Monday was a long day. Garn was out talking with missionaries talking about their phones and usage. He has been tasked with coming up with a mission plan for the wise/righteous use of technology as well as checking with the missionaries about their device usage as it shows up on the reports from Salt Lake. It has been a fast learning curve going from knowing how to makes phone calls, texting, checking emails etc. to knowing how to conduct audits of the phones, transfer sim cards from phone to phone, find lost data, and fix broken phones. I was trying to get bills with problems paid, our senior dinner assignments for the mission home get together sent out, and answering the front office phone.
Tuesday was another office day. We were trying to things ready for zone conferences. We take all of the mail for the zones that will at the zone conference thus saving us a trip to the zone leaders later. Garn was again tied up with talking with the missionaries about phones and checking to see if they were aware of missionaries that had extra phones. We have a really thoughtful self reliance senior missionary couple who come and watch the office one of the days so that Garn and I can go to one of the zone conferences. So we needed to make sure that they were still planning on coming on Wednesday. We left the office a little before I was quite done, but some of the work I can take home and do there. So that is what I did today. In the evening while Garn was working on WES stuff, I worked of office stuff.
Wednesday we ran into the office so that Garn could do a couple of reports for President Caplin before we headed out to the zone conference. Before we go in to the conference we have to check all of the missionary cars. Garn and I check to see that all of the cars have their windows roll up/down, the horn works, windshield wipers work, tiwi works, parking lights work, head lights work, turn signals work, brake lights work, back up lights work, and record the mileage. Other senior couples check the air pressure, fill the fluids, and check for cleanliness. With all of us working we can get the 20+ cars done in about 1-1/2 hours. We went in and listened to the last of the main meeting and then they were split up into groups to share some successful ways they use to find “friends” to teach. They also shared how memorizing the doctrinal points in each of the lesson along with the scriptures supporting these points has helped them be better teaching missionaries. We came away, as usual, impressed with the obedience and goodness of these young men and women. Then we all went back into the chapel for the wrap up.
President Caplin was asking the missionaries why they thought it was important to memorize scriptures. One of the answers given really impressed me. One of the elders said that in studying the life of the Savior he noticed that when the Savior was asked hard questions he often answered, “as it is written” and then went on to explain an answer. Our elder said that if we are to become like the Savior, we must do as He did. The Savior knew his scriptures. We need to know our too. I had not made that connection before.
I was glad that when in the mission tour when President Caplin had mentioned the need to memorize scriptures, I had been impressed that I needed to do that. Garn and I had started our first scripture the week end before this zone conference so were doing as we had been counseled. We, however, are moving at a much slower pace than these young missionaries who seem to be able to memorize so quickly. But we are trying.
Garn had committed to taking two elders home from zone conference because they are bike elders and their ride to the conference would be gone by the time they were ready to go. One of the elders had a meeting that would take 2 hours, so we waited with his companion so we could take them home.
We got back to the office in time to check our emails and pack up to go home. It’s a good thing I can get on the Church web site and do some of the things I need to do from home. We got a FUN call from Olivia and Malia so we could watch them open birthday presents. They are getting so big and growing up really fast. That is one thing that we miss by being here—our grandchildren.
Thursday we were in the office with only the part time missionary. With fewer people in the office we sometimes get more things done, but it isn’t nearly as fun.
Last week Brynn graduated from elementary school and is now in middle school--again. Somewhere in this week Emma graduated from middle school and is now in high school! And Sarah is now in middle school having gradated from elementary school. Where does the time go? Everyone is growing up.
Friday Garn and I were alone at the office and that is really quiet! He was working on watching all of the training videos for phones and I was getting rather frustrated with the inability to get copies or at least a view of the bills (usually utility bills that they charge us). I will get this figured out before I leave. Two sisters had asked us if we could come and do a church tour with one of their friends at 5:00. On the way there we got a call from them (who were also on their way) saying that a girl that they had been teaching and had quit teaching had shown up at the church wanting to talk with them. They wondered if I would go with the girl and talk with her so that they could do the tour and Garn would go with them. This young lady has depression and some split personality problems and in some of her actions had scared them a little. President Caplin had suggested they turn the girl over to the ward missionaries to teach. I visited with the girl a little and asked her if there were questions that she had or something she felt she needed. She had lost her Book of Mormon and wanted another one, so we will try to get her one. I talked to her a little about her mother and brother’s interest the gospel. They have none; in fact her mother doesn’t like the Mormons. I asked her how that worked with her taking the discussions and she said that her mother loved her and let her take the discussions, but don’t try to convert her (mother). I walked her out to the car where her mother was waiting and asked her if it was all right for her daughter to have a copy of the Book of Mormon and she said yes. The missionaries said that it depended on the day they talked with the girl how she felt about getting baptized. My opinion is that I’m not sure she is accountable. I went back into the church and joined the tour/mini lesson. It was good to see how comfortable the sisters were talking about the Church building and what we do in each room. We are going to meet them Monday at 6:15 for a 1st discussion with Isaiah. We will see how that goes.
I was supposed to deliver a reimbursement check to a sister who helped with the zone conference luncheon on Wednesday, but totally forgot about it after the tour. I remembered it as I knelt down to pray that night.
Saturday I printed a check that I needed to FedEx and had the reimbursement check and went to get those delivered. I dropped Garn off at the office so he could finish up his Mission Plan for the Safe/Righteous Use of Technology so he could send it to President. As I delivered the checks, I got to see parts of Virginia that I hadn’t seen yet. There are some pretty big homes with land here. I had to watch the gas mileage indicator and compare it to the google ap that told me how many miles I had to go. I got back and got gas and picked up Garn just about the time he was ready to go home.
We did a little cleaning and then got ready for a baptism. This baptism was a little different in the fact that the 14-year old Korean girl was so scared to get baptized because she didn’t want all of the people looking at her. It helped when one of her friends arrived. She did get baptized and after the baptism she was a different girl—not the shy, wanting to go home girl she was at the beginning. We had three sets of missionaries at the baptism besides the missionaries teaching the one getting baptized. Each of the three other sets had a “friend” that they had brought. We have not been to baptisms before with so many investigators there. It was very nice.
Today was Sunday and we had a good day at church. The missionaries that cover the ward we attend had a friend there, so I invited her to come with me to Relief Society. It was nice to have her go with me to Relief Society. The bishop’s wife came up to me after Relief Society and asked me who the girl was sitting next to me in Relief Society. I told her a little about her and she then went to meet her and welcome her. She is such a good example of fellowshipping I have ever seen. She is often the first one to go up to people to welcome them. Their family is wonderful with taking new members under their wing to make sure that they get well founded in the Church/ward. What good examples we have in our lives! Thanks for all of yours.
That about does it for another week. Know that we think of you often and pray for you daily. We love you lots and are so grateful to have you in our lives.
Love,
Mom
Another good week has raced by with birthdays, transfers, teaching with the missionaries, and baptisms. And I am sitting here trying to remember everything.
Monday was a long day. Garn was out talking with missionaries talking about their phones and usage. He has been tasked with coming up with a mission plan for the wise/righteous use of technology as well as checking with the missionaries about their device usage as it shows up on the reports from Salt Lake. It has been a fast learning curve going from knowing how to makes phone calls, texting, checking emails etc. to knowing how to conduct audits of the phones, transfer sim cards from phone to phone, find lost data, and fix broken phones. I was trying to get bills with problems paid, our senior dinner assignments for the mission home get together sent out, and answering the front office phone.
Tuesday was another office day. We were trying to things ready for zone conferences. We take all of the mail for the zones that will at the zone conference thus saving us a trip to the zone leaders later. Garn was again tied up with talking with the missionaries about phones and checking to see if they were aware of missionaries that had extra phones. We have a really thoughtful self reliance senior missionary couple who come and watch the office one of the days so that Garn and I can go to one of the zone conferences. So we needed to make sure that they were still planning on coming on Wednesday. We left the office a little before I was quite done, but some of the work I can take home and do there. So that is what I did today. In the evening while Garn was working on WES stuff, I worked of office stuff.
Wednesday we ran into the office so that Garn could do a couple of reports for President Caplin before we headed out to the zone conference. Before we go in to the conference we have to check all of the missionary cars. Garn and I check to see that all of the cars have their windows roll up/down, the horn works, windshield wipers work, tiwi works, parking lights work, head lights work, turn signals work, brake lights work, back up lights work, and record the mileage. Other senior couples check the air pressure, fill the fluids, and check for cleanliness. With all of us working we can get the 20+ cars done in about 1-1/2 hours. We went in and listened to the last of the main meeting and then they were split up into groups to share some successful ways they use to find “friends” to teach. They also shared how memorizing the doctrinal points in each of the lesson along with the scriptures supporting these points has helped them be better teaching missionaries. We came away, as usual, impressed with the obedience and goodness of these young men and women. Then we all went back into the chapel for the wrap up.
President Caplin was asking the missionaries why they thought it was important to memorize scriptures. One of the answers given really impressed me. One of the elders said that in studying the life of the Savior he noticed that when the Savior was asked hard questions he often answered, “as it is written” and then went on to explain an answer. Our elder said that if we are to become like the Savior, we must do as He did. The Savior knew his scriptures. We need to know our too. I had not made that connection before.
I was glad that when in the mission tour when President Caplin had mentioned the need to memorize scriptures, I had been impressed that I needed to do that. Garn and I had started our first scripture the week end before this zone conference so were doing as we had been counseled. We, however, are moving at a much slower pace than these young missionaries who seem to be able to memorize so quickly. But we are trying.
Garn had committed to taking two elders home from zone conference because they are bike elders and their ride to the conference would be gone by the time they were ready to go. One of the elders had a meeting that would take 2 hours, so we waited with his companion so we could take them home.
We got back to the office in time to check our emails and pack up to go home. It’s a good thing I can get on the Church web site and do some of the things I need to do from home. We got a FUN call from Olivia and Malia so we could watch them open birthday presents. They are getting so big and growing up really fast. That is one thing that we miss by being here—our grandchildren.
Thursday we were in the office with only the part time missionary. With fewer people in the office we sometimes get more things done, but it isn’t nearly as fun.
Last week Brynn graduated from elementary school and is now in middle school--again. Somewhere in this week Emma graduated from middle school and is now in high school! And Sarah is now in middle school having gradated from elementary school. Where does the time go? Everyone is growing up.
Friday Garn and I were alone at the office and that is really quiet! He was working on watching all of the training videos for phones and I was getting rather frustrated with the inability to get copies or at least a view of the bills (usually utility bills that they charge us). I will get this figured out before I leave. Two sisters had asked us if we could come and do a church tour with one of their friends at 5:00. On the way there we got a call from them (who were also on their way) saying that a girl that they had been teaching and had quit teaching had shown up at the church wanting to talk with them. They wondered if I would go with the girl and talk with her so that they could do the tour and Garn would go with them. This young lady has depression and some split personality problems and in some of her actions had scared them a little. President Caplin had suggested they turn the girl over to the ward missionaries to teach. I visited with the girl a little and asked her if there were questions that she had or something she felt she needed. She had lost her Book of Mormon and wanted another one, so we will try to get her one. I talked to her a little about her mother and brother’s interest the gospel. They have none; in fact her mother doesn’t like the Mormons. I asked her how that worked with her taking the discussions and she said that her mother loved her and let her take the discussions, but don’t try to convert her (mother). I walked her out to the car where her mother was waiting and asked her if it was all right for her daughter to have a copy of the Book of Mormon and she said yes. The missionaries said that it depended on the day they talked with the girl how she felt about getting baptized. My opinion is that I’m not sure she is accountable. I went back into the church and joined the tour/mini lesson. It was good to see how comfortable the sisters were talking about the Church building and what we do in each room. We are going to meet them Monday at 6:15 for a 1st discussion with Isaiah. We will see how that goes.
I was supposed to deliver a reimbursement check to a sister who helped with the zone conference luncheon on Wednesday, but totally forgot about it after the tour. I remembered it as I knelt down to pray that night.
Saturday I printed a check that I needed to FedEx and had the reimbursement check and went to get those delivered. I dropped Garn off at the office so he could finish up his Mission Plan for the Safe/Righteous Use of Technology so he could send it to President. As I delivered the checks, I got to see parts of Virginia that I hadn’t seen yet. There are some pretty big homes with land here. I had to watch the gas mileage indicator and compare it to the google ap that told me how many miles I had to go. I got back and got gas and picked up Garn just about the time he was ready to go home.
We did a little cleaning and then got ready for a baptism. This baptism was a little different in the fact that the 14-year old Korean girl was so scared to get baptized because she didn’t want all of the people looking at her. It helped when one of her friends arrived. She did get baptized and after the baptism she was a different girl—not the shy, wanting to go home girl she was at the beginning. We had three sets of missionaries at the baptism besides the missionaries teaching the one getting baptized. Each of the three other sets had a “friend” that they had brought. We have not been to baptisms before with so many investigators there. It was very nice.
Today was Sunday and we had a good day at church. The missionaries that cover the ward we attend had a friend there, so I invited her to come with me to Relief Society. It was nice to have her go with me to Relief Society. The bishop’s wife came up to me after Relief Society and asked me who the girl was sitting next to me in Relief Society. I told her a little about her and she then went to meet her and welcome her. She is such a good example of fellowshipping I have ever seen. She is often the first one to go up to people to welcome them. Their family is wonderful with taking new members under their wing to make sure that they get well founded in the Church/ward. What good examples we have in our lives! Thanks for all of yours.
That about does it for another week. Know that we think of you often and pray for you daily. We love you lots and are so grateful to have you in our lives.
Love,
Mom
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