Dear Family,
Another week has raced by. We missed talking with you last weekend but were thinking of you and hoping that you were having a great time being together. It has been fun to catch up a little as you came back into the world of having phone service. We are also grateful that you were able to travel home safely.
This week has been the week for rent payments and zone conferences. I should have gotten it ready the previous week so I could send it on Monday but didn’t get it quite ready. The previous Friday (12) was an MLC (Mission Leadership Council) meeting where Dad was to give a presentation on mission culture with regards to technology and I needed to inform the missionaries about a change in the funding of the missionary cards. His presentation was to be about 15 minutes and help the missionaries to understand the importance of why we have the guidelines we do for the use of the phones and other devices. He did such a great job. Afterwards President Caplin was so effusive with his compliments and he asked Dad if he would mind putting his presentation into a power point presentation so that when he gave this same talk at the zone conferences the missionaries could both hear and see the points being made. President then wanted to be able to print the presentation for the missionaries to be able to refer back to. In my unbiased opinion, Dad really did a wonderful job. One of the missionaries was talking with Dad and told him that he enjoyed the talk. Dad asked him what about the presentation did he enjoy and the missionary said he understood the “why” for the rules about technology usage. It wasn’t just a bunch of rules any more; it was a protection for the missionaries based on love.
Now back to this week. Dad spent a lot of time getting the power point ready and trying to refine the presentation. I was finalizing the rent so that I could get it sent with plenty of time for it to reach the apartment complexes.
We had a missionary who was returning home for school purposes a week or so early, so Dad had to make arrangements to get him to the airport. It was a little trickier to do because all of the senior missionaries were tied up with zone conference as was President and Sister Caplin. The senior missionary couples help with the inspection of the cars and some watch the office. He finally decided that our schedule would work to be able to take him. This missionary would be at the zone conference on Wednesday and our presentations were at the very beginning of the meeting. We would leave right after our part and take Elder Nielsen to the airport.
Tuesday we had our usual office meeting to try and coordinate our schedules and figure out ways we can help where help is needed. Mail is always a question. We are supposed to get the mail to the missionaries each week. With zone conferences, we can hopefully get the mail to the missionaries by taking it to the zone conference the missionaries will be at. We just hope that the missionaries remember to pick up their mail and supplies when they leave. At the end of the day we pack up the cars with the mail, teaching supplies, apartment supplies, and car supplies so we don’t have to stop by the office in the morning to load up.
Wednesday morning we left out apartment before 7:30 to make sure we got to Gainesville by 8:30. We were the first ones on the agenda and it wouldn’t look good if we were late. Dad’s presentation went very well. He had added some pictures along with the bullet points to help them visualize things better. And it did help. I thought the presentation on the previous Friday was great, but he did some more thinking and was able to make it even better. Maybe that is like our lives. We can have really good lives, doing good things, and being obedient. But if we take time to counsel with the Lord he can show us little things that we can change to make our lives even better. After Dad did his presentation and I explained that the missionaries would be getting their funding twice a month—on the 1st and 16th instead of only once a month (hopefully to help the missionaries budget their money a little better and have money to buy food at the end of the month), President Caplin had Elder Nielsen come up and bear his testimony before we took him to the airport. I thought that was kind of President because all of the missionaries when leaving have a chance to share their testimonies at a testimony meeting with those leaving at the same time. Since Elder Nielsen was the only one going home and was off schedule he wouldn’t have had that opportunity to do it. This way he was able to share his testimony with the missionaries he had been serving with this last transfer. Then it was time for us to take him and head for the airport. It is always fun to talk with the missionaries on-on-one when we take them to the airport and share some mission memories with them. This missionary was from Malad, ID so I felt a little connection with him. After getting him settled at the airport, we went back to the zone conference so that Dad could talk with another missionary at lunch time about some smart phone applications. After that we were off to the office to catch up on some of our office stuff. It always waits for me.
Thursday we went early to the zone conference. This time it only took 25-30 minutes to get there. This stake center was in the midst of large homes on large tracts of land. Whereas the homes in the area of the stake center the day before were smaller homes in a more rural area. There are lots of different economic areas—old tiny brick homes(1700’s) packed together, old rural homes from the same time period, new rural homes from new westward expansion, high rise apartment buildings, suburb apartments mingled with townhouses, modest homes in suburbs, and new BIG homes on lots of land out away from the suburbs, and the older rundown areas. I digress.
When we got to the stake center, the missionary cars were there with their hoods up, trunks open and waiting for inspection. I was a little grateful that we had to be inside and couldn’t be outside in the heat and humidity helping with the inspection. I felt a little guilty, but not too much. When we finished with the presentation we went back to the office to watch it. Sister Chesborough, our part time office helper was going to open the office when she got there at her usual time and we didn’t want her to be there by herself too long. When we got there, we found that we were the first ones there. We made better time than we thought and she was a couple of minutes later than she usually is. It all worked out fine until we got a call from the APs asking who was doing the lunch. It was 11 am and no one was there in the kitchen doing any prep. The zone leaders had gotten the tables set up, but nothing else had been done and they were getting nervous. We couldn’t get a hold of the stake R.S. president in charge of the luncheon. They decided they would call and order pizza and one of the senior sister missionaries went to the grocery store for plates, cups, and utensils along with salad. Then about 11:30 another of the senior missionary sisters saw a man coming into the building with a large plate of cookies. She asked if he had been assigned to bring them and he said yes. We now knew that the luncheon had not been forgotten, so we had to call and cancel the pizza order and tell our sister buying the salad etc. to forget about buying the items. We caught her at the check-out counter, so all was well. This is what we call flexibility. The pizza place had made 3 pizzas already, so we had to buy those, but that wasn’t too bad. The catered food came in and was set up at noon. We had made the assignment, but had not had further interactions with them. We should have guess that these people may have had it catered because they have the money to supplement the budget of $7/person for the luncheon. It was a barbeque place so they had smoked ham with all of the trimmings for lunch. It all worked out okay, but it did get the heart beating a little faster there for a minute or two.
It was a good day to be in the office because I was able to print the 97 checks and get them ready for the mail.
Friday was our day to stay the whole day at the zone conference. One of the senior couples comes in and watches the office so we can do that. They did the cars since we had to be inside and then they came over to the office to watch it for us. Wonderful people who are so willing to help. Again, it has been so hot this past week that I feel sorry for those out working on the cars in a parking paved with black asphalt. They come in looking pretty hot and tired. Although the presentations are the same, things seem to go a little bit differently. Dad did a wonderful job talking about mission culture. The missionaries came up with the definition of culture is something you do without thinking about it; something you do because it is what the group does. Then he said that we wanted to have a culture of love in our mission. Love for God and for our “friends”. First of all, if we love God then we need to keep his commandments. If we love our “friends” then we want to have the Spirit with us so that the truths we are teaching can be testified to the listener. The only way we can have the Spirit flowing through us as missionaries is for us to be clean and pure vessels. If we love our “friends” then we will do what it takes to be clean and pure so that we can be a worthy receptacle for the Spirit to work through. With that as the foundation, Dad went on to say that we monitor our actions so that we don’t get into trouble. He gave the example of the tiwi in the cars. They have cut serious car accidents by 95% because missionaries driving is being monitored. Dad told of the night he was driving back from the testimony meeting of our departing missionaries the week before. It was a 12 mile trip and he was reminded 12 times to “watch your speed”. He immediately slowed down and was able to do well. The next day when driving he put the car on cruise control (mission culture) and he didn’t have to think about his speed. It was now on automatic. Some of the things missionaries do to monitor their use of devices is to have their screens visible to their companion at all times, and before sending any kind of message their companion must read it. The opposite of monitoring is working in isolation and that is where people can get into trouble. The last step in using technology is to return and report. They have a stewardship of using technology wisely and righteously and the way they return and report is to do audits. Dad emphasized that we don’t do audits to “catch” our companions or get them in trouble, but as a safety net. We do this out of love for them. When a gymnast is doing hard things in the gym, they have a spotter to help the gymnast if they have an accident. They are able to help them land softer and without getting hurt too badly. We are all on the same team. We are all part of God’s army. We are fighting this battle together, arm-in-arm. If we are united in love, we are stronger and we can succeed. The purpose of these rules at this time is to help the missionaries get into good habits that will hopefully follow them throughout their lives so that they can return to Heavenly Father clean and pure. He, of course, did a better job of telling this, but I wanted to remember a little of it.
After out presentations, President Caplin was doing some teaching and he was really enjoying his missionaries a lot and I really enjoyed watching that. He is often a type A personality who gets lots of things done, but this day he wasn’t watching the clock as closely and was enjoying the moment of teaching with them.
We had a session given by the mission therapist (works for the church through family services) and one by the mission doctor and his wife. The therapist taught us how to deal with our stress through some breathing exercises. It was amazing to feel the effects of doing these breathing exercises with them. The doctor talked to the missionaries about tics (very common here), hydration in this heat, and the need for sufficient sleep. Both were good sessions.
One of our missionaries is a recent convert and her missionary was visiting in the area and had made arrangements to stop into zone conference at lunch time to say hi to her. She slipped into the chapel during the sisters’ session with the doctor. When the meeting was over and our Sister Clark turned to leave, she saw her missionary. The look of total love and joy that spread across her face was really very touching. Sister Clark couldn’t get out of her bench fast enough to go and give her missionary a hug.
We left after lunch to go back and get a few things done, but were told later by Sister Caplin that during the last meeting Sister Clark, her missionary, and the person that was baptized last week who Sister Clark had taught all bore their testimonies. All three of these sisters gave a lot of credit to their being baptized to the prepared missionary both with their gospel knowledge and their love for the one being taught. They took a picture of the three girls and it was like having a 3 generation picture. Sister Caplin said it was pretty powerful to show what can happen when we prepare both with the word and with the Spirit as we share the gospel. It is worth the hard work and preparation and rejection that the missionaries have when they get to see what the effect can be on someone’s life when the missionary was in the right place at the right time being obedient to what has been asked of them and was prepared. Our missionaries are pretty special. I never go away from a meeting without marveling at how articulate they are and how well thought out their comments are. This rising generation is something else.
Dad realized when we were leaving the office that he had left his brief case at the stake center. Ugh! We would have to get the building code to be able to get in and then drive the 30 minutes each way. Luckily, Dad called President Caplin to see if he had seen it there and possibly brought it home with them. They had it and it is MUCH closer to their home to get it. We went over about 9 and picked it up and then stood in their driveway visiting before we went home. The frogs in the pond were singing loudly and the cicadas were singing in harmony in the trees. They have more noise pollution at their home than we do with the train so close and so many cars driving. Either this year or next year the cicadas will be swarming and when they do they fly in big groups making it appear as if a dark cloud is coming in. Because they are in such large groups, they are so noisy that you can’t hear people talking to you. The thoughts of having a large cloud of insects flying around and bumping into me doesn’t appeal to me at all. I hope they come next year instead of this year.
Saturday we took our car in to a repair place to see if they could figure out why our air conditioner in our car isn’t working consistently. It is too hot now to play around with it not working well all of the time. Of course, when we took it in, it was working. Sometimes it is great, then it warms up for a little while and decides to start working again. Sometimes it is out for a day or two. They didn’t find anything wrong yesterday. When we went to pick it up the car to test it out a little, it was registering 109, but as we drove the car it went down to 99. It was really hot air at first then in about 10 minutes it started to cool down. It was mostly cool, but never quite cold.
We went to a baptism in the morning and then we had the day to do chores IN the house where it was cool. We did, however, have to run a few errands and I was more than ready to get back home.
Today we were supposed to take David, our “friend” to church, but he texted about 5 am saying that the heat had gotten to him and he wouldn’t be making it to church today. We were able to go to our ward for the first time in three weeks and that was nice. Dad, skipped the last hour of church to go and take David to work because he doesn’t have a car and it is very warm to have to walk all that way. On the way to pick up David the a/c went totally out. He was SO hot by the time he got back. Hopefully it will stay not working and we can take it in tomorrow and get it fixed.
We are on our way to eat dinner at a ward member’s home where all of the missionaries in our ward invited, so it is always enjoyable. We are taking a fruit salad. I do miss the California fruit. It seems to be fresher and tastier than the fruit we get here.
We are grateful that you all arrived home safely and you had a great time.
Love you all lots and lots,
Mom
Another week has raced by. We missed talking with you last weekend but were thinking of you and hoping that you were having a great time being together. It has been fun to catch up a little as you came back into the world of having phone service. We are also grateful that you were able to travel home safely.
This week has been the week for rent payments and zone conferences. I should have gotten it ready the previous week so I could send it on Monday but didn’t get it quite ready. The previous Friday (12) was an MLC (Mission Leadership Council) meeting where Dad was to give a presentation on mission culture with regards to technology and I needed to inform the missionaries about a change in the funding of the missionary cards. His presentation was to be about 15 minutes and help the missionaries to understand the importance of why we have the guidelines we do for the use of the phones and other devices. He did such a great job. Afterwards President Caplin was so effusive with his compliments and he asked Dad if he would mind putting his presentation into a power point presentation so that when he gave this same talk at the zone conferences the missionaries could both hear and see the points being made. President then wanted to be able to print the presentation for the missionaries to be able to refer back to. In my unbiased opinion, Dad really did a wonderful job. One of the missionaries was talking with Dad and told him that he enjoyed the talk. Dad asked him what about the presentation did he enjoy and the missionary said he understood the “why” for the rules about technology usage. It wasn’t just a bunch of rules any more; it was a protection for the missionaries based on love.
Now back to this week. Dad spent a lot of time getting the power point ready and trying to refine the presentation. I was finalizing the rent so that I could get it sent with plenty of time for it to reach the apartment complexes.
We had a missionary who was returning home for school purposes a week or so early, so Dad had to make arrangements to get him to the airport. It was a little trickier to do because all of the senior missionaries were tied up with zone conference as was President and Sister Caplin. The senior missionary couples help with the inspection of the cars and some watch the office. He finally decided that our schedule would work to be able to take him. This missionary would be at the zone conference on Wednesday and our presentations were at the very beginning of the meeting. We would leave right after our part and take Elder Nielsen to the airport.
Tuesday we had our usual office meeting to try and coordinate our schedules and figure out ways we can help where help is needed. Mail is always a question. We are supposed to get the mail to the missionaries each week. With zone conferences, we can hopefully get the mail to the missionaries by taking it to the zone conference the missionaries will be at. We just hope that the missionaries remember to pick up their mail and supplies when they leave. At the end of the day we pack up the cars with the mail, teaching supplies, apartment supplies, and car supplies so we don’t have to stop by the office in the morning to load up.
Wednesday morning we left out apartment before 7:30 to make sure we got to Gainesville by 8:30. We were the first ones on the agenda and it wouldn’t look good if we were late. Dad’s presentation went very well. He had added some pictures along with the bullet points to help them visualize things better. And it did help. I thought the presentation on the previous Friday was great, but he did some more thinking and was able to make it even better. Maybe that is like our lives. We can have really good lives, doing good things, and being obedient. But if we take time to counsel with the Lord he can show us little things that we can change to make our lives even better. After Dad did his presentation and I explained that the missionaries would be getting their funding twice a month—on the 1st and 16th instead of only once a month (hopefully to help the missionaries budget their money a little better and have money to buy food at the end of the month), President Caplin had Elder Nielsen come up and bear his testimony before we took him to the airport. I thought that was kind of President because all of the missionaries when leaving have a chance to share their testimonies at a testimony meeting with those leaving at the same time. Since Elder Nielsen was the only one going home and was off schedule he wouldn’t have had that opportunity to do it. This way he was able to share his testimony with the missionaries he had been serving with this last transfer. Then it was time for us to take him and head for the airport. It is always fun to talk with the missionaries on-on-one when we take them to the airport and share some mission memories with them. This missionary was from Malad, ID so I felt a little connection with him. After getting him settled at the airport, we went back to the zone conference so that Dad could talk with another missionary at lunch time about some smart phone applications. After that we were off to the office to catch up on some of our office stuff. It always waits for me.
Thursday we went early to the zone conference. This time it only took 25-30 minutes to get there. This stake center was in the midst of large homes on large tracts of land. Whereas the homes in the area of the stake center the day before were smaller homes in a more rural area. There are lots of different economic areas—old tiny brick homes(1700’s) packed together, old rural homes from the same time period, new rural homes from new westward expansion, high rise apartment buildings, suburb apartments mingled with townhouses, modest homes in suburbs, and new BIG homes on lots of land out away from the suburbs, and the older rundown areas. I digress.
When we got to the stake center, the missionary cars were there with their hoods up, trunks open and waiting for inspection. I was a little grateful that we had to be inside and couldn’t be outside in the heat and humidity helping with the inspection. I felt a little guilty, but not too much. When we finished with the presentation we went back to the office to watch it. Sister Chesborough, our part time office helper was going to open the office when she got there at her usual time and we didn’t want her to be there by herself too long. When we got there, we found that we were the first ones there. We made better time than we thought and she was a couple of minutes later than she usually is. It all worked out fine until we got a call from the APs asking who was doing the lunch. It was 11 am and no one was there in the kitchen doing any prep. The zone leaders had gotten the tables set up, but nothing else had been done and they were getting nervous. We couldn’t get a hold of the stake R.S. president in charge of the luncheon. They decided they would call and order pizza and one of the senior sister missionaries went to the grocery store for plates, cups, and utensils along with salad. Then about 11:30 another of the senior missionary sisters saw a man coming into the building with a large plate of cookies. She asked if he had been assigned to bring them and he said yes. We now knew that the luncheon had not been forgotten, so we had to call and cancel the pizza order and tell our sister buying the salad etc. to forget about buying the items. We caught her at the check-out counter, so all was well. This is what we call flexibility. The pizza place had made 3 pizzas already, so we had to buy those, but that wasn’t too bad. The catered food came in and was set up at noon. We had made the assignment, but had not had further interactions with them. We should have guess that these people may have had it catered because they have the money to supplement the budget of $7/person for the luncheon. It was a barbeque place so they had smoked ham with all of the trimmings for lunch. It all worked out okay, but it did get the heart beating a little faster there for a minute or two.
It was a good day to be in the office because I was able to print the 97 checks and get them ready for the mail.
Friday was our day to stay the whole day at the zone conference. One of the senior couples comes in and watches the office so we can do that. They did the cars since we had to be inside and then they came over to the office to watch it for us. Wonderful people who are so willing to help. Again, it has been so hot this past week that I feel sorry for those out working on the cars in a parking paved with black asphalt. They come in looking pretty hot and tired. Although the presentations are the same, things seem to go a little bit differently. Dad did a wonderful job talking about mission culture. The missionaries came up with the definition of culture is something you do without thinking about it; something you do because it is what the group does. Then he said that we wanted to have a culture of love in our mission. Love for God and for our “friends”. First of all, if we love God then we need to keep his commandments. If we love our “friends” then we want to have the Spirit with us so that the truths we are teaching can be testified to the listener. The only way we can have the Spirit flowing through us as missionaries is for us to be clean and pure vessels. If we love our “friends” then we will do what it takes to be clean and pure so that we can be a worthy receptacle for the Spirit to work through. With that as the foundation, Dad went on to say that we monitor our actions so that we don’t get into trouble. He gave the example of the tiwi in the cars. They have cut serious car accidents by 95% because missionaries driving is being monitored. Dad told of the night he was driving back from the testimony meeting of our departing missionaries the week before. It was a 12 mile trip and he was reminded 12 times to “watch your speed”. He immediately slowed down and was able to do well. The next day when driving he put the car on cruise control (mission culture) and he didn’t have to think about his speed. It was now on automatic. Some of the things missionaries do to monitor their use of devices is to have their screens visible to their companion at all times, and before sending any kind of message their companion must read it. The opposite of monitoring is working in isolation and that is where people can get into trouble. The last step in using technology is to return and report. They have a stewardship of using technology wisely and righteously and the way they return and report is to do audits. Dad emphasized that we don’t do audits to “catch” our companions or get them in trouble, but as a safety net. We do this out of love for them. When a gymnast is doing hard things in the gym, they have a spotter to help the gymnast if they have an accident. They are able to help them land softer and without getting hurt too badly. We are all on the same team. We are all part of God’s army. We are fighting this battle together, arm-in-arm. If we are united in love, we are stronger and we can succeed. The purpose of these rules at this time is to help the missionaries get into good habits that will hopefully follow them throughout their lives so that they can return to Heavenly Father clean and pure. He, of course, did a better job of telling this, but I wanted to remember a little of it.
After out presentations, President Caplin was doing some teaching and he was really enjoying his missionaries a lot and I really enjoyed watching that. He is often a type A personality who gets lots of things done, but this day he wasn’t watching the clock as closely and was enjoying the moment of teaching with them.
We had a session given by the mission therapist (works for the church through family services) and one by the mission doctor and his wife. The therapist taught us how to deal with our stress through some breathing exercises. It was amazing to feel the effects of doing these breathing exercises with them. The doctor talked to the missionaries about tics (very common here), hydration in this heat, and the need for sufficient sleep. Both were good sessions.
One of our missionaries is a recent convert and her missionary was visiting in the area and had made arrangements to stop into zone conference at lunch time to say hi to her. She slipped into the chapel during the sisters’ session with the doctor. When the meeting was over and our Sister Clark turned to leave, she saw her missionary. The look of total love and joy that spread across her face was really very touching. Sister Clark couldn’t get out of her bench fast enough to go and give her missionary a hug.
We left after lunch to go back and get a few things done, but were told later by Sister Caplin that during the last meeting Sister Clark, her missionary, and the person that was baptized last week who Sister Clark had taught all bore their testimonies. All three of these sisters gave a lot of credit to their being baptized to the prepared missionary both with their gospel knowledge and their love for the one being taught. They took a picture of the three girls and it was like having a 3 generation picture. Sister Caplin said it was pretty powerful to show what can happen when we prepare both with the word and with the Spirit as we share the gospel. It is worth the hard work and preparation and rejection that the missionaries have when they get to see what the effect can be on someone’s life when the missionary was in the right place at the right time being obedient to what has been asked of them and was prepared. Our missionaries are pretty special. I never go away from a meeting without marveling at how articulate they are and how well thought out their comments are. This rising generation is something else.
Dad realized when we were leaving the office that he had left his brief case at the stake center. Ugh! We would have to get the building code to be able to get in and then drive the 30 minutes each way. Luckily, Dad called President Caplin to see if he had seen it there and possibly brought it home with them. They had it and it is MUCH closer to their home to get it. We went over about 9 and picked it up and then stood in their driveway visiting before we went home. The frogs in the pond were singing loudly and the cicadas were singing in harmony in the trees. They have more noise pollution at their home than we do with the train so close and so many cars driving. Either this year or next year the cicadas will be swarming and when they do they fly in big groups making it appear as if a dark cloud is coming in. Because they are in such large groups, they are so noisy that you can’t hear people talking to you. The thoughts of having a large cloud of insects flying around and bumping into me doesn’t appeal to me at all. I hope they come next year instead of this year.
Saturday we took our car in to a repair place to see if they could figure out why our air conditioner in our car isn’t working consistently. It is too hot now to play around with it not working well all of the time. Of course, when we took it in, it was working. Sometimes it is great, then it warms up for a little while and decides to start working again. Sometimes it is out for a day or two. They didn’t find anything wrong yesterday. When we went to pick it up the car to test it out a little, it was registering 109, but as we drove the car it went down to 99. It was really hot air at first then in about 10 minutes it started to cool down. It was mostly cool, but never quite cold.
We went to a baptism in the morning and then we had the day to do chores IN the house where it was cool. We did, however, have to run a few errands and I was more than ready to get back home.
Today we were supposed to take David, our “friend” to church, but he texted about 5 am saying that the heat had gotten to him and he wouldn’t be making it to church today. We were able to go to our ward for the first time in three weeks and that was nice. Dad, skipped the last hour of church to go and take David to work because he doesn’t have a car and it is very warm to have to walk all that way. On the way to pick up David the a/c went totally out. He was SO hot by the time he got back. Hopefully it will stay not working and we can take it in tomorrow and get it fixed.
We are on our way to eat dinner at a ward member’s home where all of the missionaries in our ward invited, so it is always enjoyable. We are taking a fruit salad. I do miss the California fruit. It seems to be fresher and tastier than the fruit we get here.
We are grateful that you all arrived home safely and you had a great time.
Love you all lots and lots,
Mom
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