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Elder Nelson - Transfer Week and New Senior Couples

Dear Family,

Mission NewsThis was transfer week and as usual it was busy. We are still having problems with the phones after transfers. I am not sure of the root cause and the president wants me to find the answers.

Last Sunday Mom and I and President Caplin and Sister Caplin had a Zoom visit with a new couple coming to our mission in mid-September from Mesa Arizona. They seem like a wonder, faithful and high-powered couple. President Caplin wants to find the best place for them. They are called serve in the Member Leader Support (MLS). The challenge for us is to find assignments that will keep them busy. MLS missionaries in areas of high growth like the Philippines, West Africa and Brazil contribute greatly to the growth of the Church and to strengthen new leaders and new members. However here in Northern Virginia the Church is strong and members for the most part have been in the Church a long time. One of our MLS missionary couples went home a year early because they did not have much to do. The other MLS couple has very little to do during the day. Hence the need to understand the personalities and strengths of the couples and put them in the place where they can contribute the most.

There is also a live-at-home missionary couple coming to the mission the end of September. We invited them to come into the mission office and meet the senior missionaries in the office. At the request of President Caplin Mom and I visited with them. They (Elder and Sister Christie) are also strong and wonderful. They can only serve for six months because health and family issues. They are also MLS, but I think living at home, it is a little easier to keep busy doing productive things.

We had a discussion with Sister Bonner and Sister Taylor. We taught Johnathan. He is conversant with the Bible and has lots of questions. It takes a lot of time to get just a little bit covered. This is our second time teaching him. About 4 or 5 months ago when we taught him, the discussion was a bit bumpy. This one was a lot better. We actually got some ideas across.

Saturday we took a missionary to the airport. President Caplin likes us to take these missionaries to the airport. He has a lot of faith in Mom to bolster their spirits.

We attended a baptism of a husband in a part member family. He had been investigating for 10 years. There was very good support from the ward and a good spirit at the baptism.

After the baptism we went to lunch at David’s brother’s restaurant. I had sushi.

We ran to the grocery store, got home and prepared dinner for McKay’s sister Ashley and Jace.

Last night I participated in our mission presidency meeting. It was a good meeting. We made lots of decisions and many tasks were assigned. It started at 7:30 and I got home before 11:00. President Caplin asked me to conduct the meeting, so we could get through more items.

Fun StuffOn Sunday we had McKay’s sister and husband over for dinner – Ashley and Jace. They are excited about coming to the east coast and starting up school. Ashley will be finishing up her last year of law school and Jace is starting his master’s program in creative writing and poetry. And they are expecting their first child in March. We enjoyed our time with them. It was good to get to know Jace better.


We attended Rachael (Fredrickson) Peart’s daughter’s baptism. Jim and Susan Fredrickson came up for the baptism and it was fun to see them. They said to say hello. Jim could not believe that Emma was in high school.

WES NewsThis is Monday and we got a over $250k in orders today. Now we have to figure out how to get the work out.

Family NewsMcKay is helping Greg Wrubell

More next week.

Love you all,
Dad

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