Dear Family,
We are watching the hurricane coverage and praying that the hurricane doesn’t hit the Florida coast. As we have prayed for a good outcome with this hurricane, we have been so grateful for the change in direction of the path of the hurricane. We pray that it will not hit land before the intensity goes down. We certainly have Derek and Jessica in our thoughts and prayers.
This week has been a quieter one with fewer meetings to attend and fewer responsibilities outside the office to perform. The weather has cooled down quite a big and with the lower temperatures comes lower humidity—rather pleasant.
Tuesday we had our senior missionary “district council” meeting. An aside, when President Caplin found out we were meeting and discussing our schedules and how we can help he said that he was unaware that we had a “rogue” district. I guess we will from now on be in the rogue district. Anyway, we met and discussed our plans for the week. One of the senior brethren said that we ought to have a goal to get out and see if we could be the top “finding” district in the mission. We would go about our daily routines with the idea of seeing if we could find people for the missionaries to teach. We would keep track of all of our finding who start taking the discussion. If we find lots, we get to feel good about our efforts and the missionaries will have more people to teach—win-win. Also at the Mission Presidency Meeting on Sunday, Dad volunteered himself and Elder Larsen to talk to their bishops about getting their wards more involved in finding people for the missionaries to teach. One of the counselors in the mission presidency also volunteered to talk with his bishop about it. Hopefully the bishops will catch the vision that the best teaching comes from friends of church members.
We received written permission to leave the mission and go to Kent and Lindsey’s wedding in November, so we are grateful for that. We will fly in on the Friday before the wedding and then fly back on Monday. It will be good to see all of the family.
Wednesday was a quieter day with some of the senior couples out of the office taking care of things that needed to be done. The housing secretary is trying to find a new apartment for one of the new senior couples arriving the second week of September. The place they are being placed is in the southwestern portion of the mission and there are very few apartments and they are all low cost housing and we don’t qualify for them. That leaves some older town houses. Hopefully we will have a place for them to live before they get here. The President also stopped by the office to take care of some things and give Dad a few more tasks to do.
Dad has been working on getting an elder’s bike shipped home to him. The bike got loaned out after the elder left to an elder whose bike broke a chain. Then the helmet and front light got loaned to another elder and the back light was loaned to another elder. Dad went to pick up the bike, not knowing about all of the other accessories that he needed to get. By the time he picked up the bike, made another two trips getting the rest of the equipment that needed to shipped back he had spent many more hours than he wanted to. The job still wasn’t done. He had to find a place that would package the bike; take to them and then pick it up and then arrange for the mailing company to come and pick up the packaged bike. We can see why the missionary couples before us said they were not in the bike business and that the missionaries would have to take care of their bikes when they go home.
On Thursday it seemed that we were inundated with packages at the office—big ones too. One was a bike that a new missionary had ordered. It came with a pretty damaged package and we were concerned that it might be damaged, but the missionary still wanted it. We found out that it was his dad’s bike and he wanted it. So Dad and I drove the bike to him. With that bike out of the office we now have only the one that we are waiting to have picked up on Tuesday. We are almost bikeless in the office!! President’s chair in his office was peeling and looked more than a little tacky, so we had arranged through facilities to get a new chair. President was sure that he needed my chair and that I should get a new chair. He said that he was there so rarely that it didn’t make sense for him to have a new chair. My feelings about that were that the president’s office should look nice. It wasn’t about getting a new chair for President Caplin, but getting a new chair for the office of the president of the mission. Anyway, a couple of the senior sisters in the office picked out a chair that we thought looked nice, but wasn’t showy—a simple leather office chair. When it arrived on Thursday it was a larger chair than the picture showed. It looks very nice in the office, but I can use as my defense that I can’t have it because it is too big for me to sit in comfortably. We got the chair all set up with the help of all three senior missionary elders and into the presidents office. After we were all gone, the president came by the office to pick up the mail to take to interviews on Friday. He called Elder Larsen on the phone about a housing question and Elder Larsen asked him how he liked the new chair. He was surprised because he hadn’t noticed that he was sitting in a new chair!
Friday was a nice quiet day with time to work on projects that will sharpen the saw hopefully making it easier to do the work. The nurse and the other senior sister had to take an elder to the doctor, so they were gone. The housing secretary was out trying to find apartments, and the vehicle secretary was out running errands for the cars. That left Dad and me to the office for a great majority of the morning. Both of us had projects to work on so it was a nice, productive time. Dad has been getting more and more projects to do for President. It works well for both of them. Dad likes doing the things he is asked to do instead of stuffing envelopes and President Caplin appreciates the off load of tasks that he doesn’t have time to do.
Although we were both tired when we got home, we decided to do our grocery shopping tonight leaving us more time on Saturday to do what we would rather do. We did a really fast trip and got just the bare essentials because the Hermanas were coming for their mail at 9:30. We made it!!
Saturday arrived bright and early, but I didn’t have the discipline to roll out of bed at 5:55 am, so I turned off the alarm and rolled over and took a little nap. We read our Come Follow Me, then Dad went on a walk and I started doing a little cleaning, got the laundry started, and pulled out my machine to do a little mending. When Dad got home he worked on his presentation for zone conference next week and I finished up the laundry. By this time it was time to get ready to go to the baptism up the northwest corner of our mission. It was well worth it to be there. The man being baptized just glowed and he had so many family members there supporting him. His wife is being taught, but was not ready for baptism yet. The closing prayer was given by the grown son (not a member) of the man who was baptized and it was beautiful.
We had made arrangements to go meet Elder Seeley’s parents today, so drove to the south west corner of our mission. We felt as if we were leaving civilization as we travelled further and further into farm country. Since we were a little early we decided to check to see if we could find Moo Thru. It is about 11 minutes further down the highway from the Seeley’s. There was a line at the ice cream place and we didn’t want to eat ice cream before dinner, so we looked at the menu and then went back up the road to meet the Seeley’s. It was a beautiful place. The house and barn and other out building were situated on about 2 (or more) acres of land. They had a large covered area where they had three long picnic tables with lounging chairs around the edge. Sister Seeley caters wedding receptions, so they had a chandelier hanging in the middle of the covered structure. Their was room for another large glass topped table of too one side with the rustic outdoor kitchen on the other side of the table. None of this was on top of each other. In another area was a jumper house for the kids to use, a playground with a tunnel slide and swings and a barn with baby goats and the too friendly dogs. It didn’t seem like there were very many people there, but then we looked around and began adding up all of the people there and it was 30-40 people. What a fun place to have a family get together. We had a wonderful time visiting with their family and the friends from their ward who had come to say good bye to one of the daughters who was leaving to go back to Idaho.
As we left, the mother gave us some cheese she makes. It isn’t block cheese, but a softer cheese that she adds herbs and spices to and puts it in a container. It appears to be a soft, spreadable cheese. She also gave us about 2 quarts of raw milk. Of course we had to stop on the way home to buy peaches so Dad could have peaches and cream—a memory from his past.
We talked with Kent and Lindsey this morning and got more details on their plans and it is fun to see them get more and more excited. We are excited for them.
Today we had a good fast and testimony meeting and Sunday School lesson. It seems that the teachers are getting better and better in their approach as time goes on.
After church we talked with the bishop about getting the ward involved with inviting people friends to do normal and natural invites. Dad had envisioned having ward missionaries called to do that, but our bishop felt that they were still trying to fill positions and if we wanted to get this off the ground, it might be better to ask the ward counsel (the A team—his words) to do this. He was excited enough about this that he wanted Dad to draft an email this week so it could be sent out to the ward council. We are having stake conference next week end and the bishop felt that would be a good thing to invite people to. Dad will draft the email, send it to the bishop and he will look it over and tweek it as needed and send it out. He was saying there is the primary program, stake and general conference, lots of special programs for Christmas etc. He about had it planned before we left his office. He is a really committed man and I think that having a daughter on a mission gives him an extra push towards missionary work.
We came home and talked with Derek about conditions there in Florida and are grateful that things are looking better than they were last week. They will still get plenty of rain and wind, but nothing like it would have been if a category 5 hurricane hit land just where they live.
We have been talking for a week about taking brownies to our new neighbors and finally I got some baked. I’m not too happy with the brand we used because no matter how much I cook them, they are always a bit too gooey. I must be losing my touch. We need to get them plated and delivered.
Know that we love you and pray for you daily,
Mom
This week has been a quieter one with fewer meetings to attend and fewer responsibilities outside the office to perform. The weather has cooled down quite a big and with the lower temperatures comes lower humidity—rather pleasant.
Tuesday we had our senior missionary “district council” meeting. An aside, when President Caplin found out we were meeting and discussing our schedules and how we can help he said that he was unaware that we had a “rogue” district. I guess we will from now on be in the rogue district. Anyway, we met and discussed our plans for the week. One of the senior brethren said that we ought to have a goal to get out and see if we could be the top “finding” district in the mission. We would go about our daily routines with the idea of seeing if we could find people for the missionaries to teach. We would keep track of all of our finding who start taking the discussion. If we find lots, we get to feel good about our efforts and the missionaries will have more people to teach—win-win. Also at the Mission Presidency Meeting on Sunday, Dad volunteered himself and Elder Larsen to talk to their bishops about getting their wards more involved in finding people for the missionaries to teach. One of the counselors in the mission presidency also volunteered to talk with his bishop about it. Hopefully the bishops will catch the vision that the best teaching comes from friends of church members.
We received written permission to leave the mission and go to Kent and Lindsey’s wedding in November, so we are grateful for that. We will fly in on the Friday before the wedding and then fly back on Monday. It will be good to see all of the family.
Wednesday was a quieter day with some of the senior couples out of the office taking care of things that needed to be done. The housing secretary is trying to find a new apartment for one of the new senior couples arriving the second week of September. The place they are being placed is in the southwestern portion of the mission and there are very few apartments and they are all low cost housing and we don’t qualify for them. That leaves some older town houses. Hopefully we will have a place for them to live before they get here. The President also stopped by the office to take care of some things and give Dad a few more tasks to do.
Dad has been working on getting an elder’s bike shipped home to him. The bike got loaned out after the elder left to an elder whose bike broke a chain. Then the helmet and front light got loaned to another elder and the back light was loaned to another elder. Dad went to pick up the bike, not knowing about all of the other accessories that he needed to get. By the time he picked up the bike, made another two trips getting the rest of the equipment that needed to shipped back he had spent many more hours than he wanted to. The job still wasn’t done. He had to find a place that would package the bike; take to them and then pick it up and then arrange for the mailing company to come and pick up the packaged bike. We can see why the missionary couples before us said they were not in the bike business and that the missionaries would have to take care of their bikes when they go home.
On Thursday it seemed that we were inundated with packages at the office—big ones too. One was a bike that a new missionary had ordered. It came with a pretty damaged package and we were concerned that it might be damaged, but the missionary still wanted it. We found out that it was his dad’s bike and he wanted it. So Dad and I drove the bike to him. With that bike out of the office we now have only the one that we are waiting to have picked up on Tuesday. We are almost bikeless in the office!! President’s chair in his office was peeling and looked more than a little tacky, so we had arranged through facilities to get a new chair. President was sure that he needed my chair and that I should get a new chair. He said that he was there so rarely that it didn’t make sense for him to have a new chair. My feelings about that were that the president’s office should look nice. It wasn’t about getting a new chair for President Caplin, but getting a new chair for the office of the president of the mission. Anyway, a couple of the senior sisters in the office picked out a chair that we thought looked nice, but wasn’t showy—a simple leather office chair. When it arrived on Thursday it was a larger chair than the picture showed. It looks very nice in the office, but I can use as my defense that I can’t have it because it is too big for me to sit in comfortably. We got the chair all set up with the help of all three senior missionary elders and into the presidents office. After we were all gone, the president came by the office to pick up the mail to take to interviews on Friday. He called Elder Larsen on the phone about a housing question and Elder Larsen asked him how he liked the new chair. He was surprised because he hadn’t noticed that he was sitting in a new chair!
Friday was a nice quiet day with time to work on projects that will sharpen the saw hopefully making it easier to do the work. The nurse and the other senior sister had to take an elder to the doctor, so they were gone. The housing secretary was out trying to find apartments, and the vehicle secretary was out running errands for the cars. That left Dad and me to the office for a great majority of the morning. Both of us had projects to work on so it was a nice, productive time. Dad has been getting more and more projects to do for President. It works well for both of them. Dad likes doing the things he is asked to do instead of stuffing envelopes and President Caplin appreciates the off load of tasks that he doesn’t have time to do.
Although we were both tired when we got home, we decided to do our grocery shopping tonight leaving us more time on Saturday to do what we would rather do. We did a really fast trip and got just the bare essentials because the Hermanas were coming for their mail at 9:30. We made it!!
Saturday arrived bright and early, but I didn’t have the discipline to roll out of bed at 5:55 am, so I turned off the alarm and rolled over and took a little nap. We read our Come Follow Me, then Dad went on a walk and I started doing a little cleaning, got the laundry started, and pulled out my machine to do a little mending. When Dad got home he worked on his presentation for zone conference next week and I finished up the laundry. By this time it was time to get ready to go to the baptism up the northwest corner of our mission. It was well worth it to be there. The man being baptized just glowed and he had so many family members there supporting him. His wife is being taught, but was not ready for baptism yet. The closing prayer was given by the grown son (not a member) of the man who was baptized and it was beautiful.
We had made arrangements to go meet Elder Seeley’s parents today, so drove to the south west corner of our mission. We felt as if we were leaving civilization as we travelled further and further into farm country. Since we were a little early we decided to check to see if we could find Moo Thru. It is about 11 minutes further down the highway from the Seeley’s. There was a line at the ice cream place and we didn’t want to eat ice cream before dinner, so we looked at the menu and then went back up the road to meet the Seeley’s. It was a beautiful place. The house and barn and other out building were situated on about 2 (or more) acres of land. They had a large covered area where they had three long picnic tables with lounging chairs around the edge. Sister Seeley caters wedding receptions, so they had a chandelier hanging in the middle of the covered structure. Their was room for another large glass topped table of too one side with the rustic outdoor kitchen on the other side of the table. None of this was on top of each other. In another area was a jumper house for the kids to use, a playground with a tunnel slide and swings and a barn with baby goats and the too friendly dogs. It didn’t seem like there were very many people there, but then we looked around and began adding up all of the people there and it was 30-40 people. What a fun place to have a family get together. We had a wonderful time visiting with their family and the friends from their ward who had come to say good bye to one of the daughters who was leaving to go back to Idaho.
As we left, the mother gave us some cheese she makes. It isn’t block cheese, but a softer cheese that she adds herbs and spices to and puts it in a container. It appears to be a soft, spreadable cheese. She also gave us about 2 quarts of raw milk. Of course we had to stop on the way home to buy peaches so Dad could have peaches and cream—a memory from his past.
We talked with Kent and Lindsey this morning and got more details on their plans and it is fun to see them get more and more excited. We are excited for them.
Today we had a good fast and testimony meeting and Sunday School lesson. It seems that the teachers are getting better and better in their approach as time goes on.
After church we talked with the bishop about getting the ward involved with inviting people friends to do normal and natural invites. Dad had envisioned having ward missionaries called to do that, but our bishop felt that they were still trying to fill positions and if we wanted to get this off the ground, it might be better to ask the ward counsel (the A team—his words) to do this. He was excited enough about this that he wanted Dad to draft an email this week so it could be sent out to the ward council. We are having stake conference next week end and the bishop felt that would be a good thing to invite people to. Dad will draft the email, send it to the bishop and he will look it over and tweek it as needed and send it out. He was saying there is the primary program, stake and general conference, lots of special programs for Christmas etc. He about had it planned before we left his office. He is a really committed man and I think that having a daughter on a mission gives him an extra push towards missionary work.
We came home and talked with Derek about conditions there in Florida and are grateful that things are looking better than they were last week. They will still get plenty of rain and wind, but nothing like it would have been if a category 5 hurricane hit land just where they live.
We have been talking for a week about taking brownies to our new neighbors and finally I got some baked. I’m not too happy with the brand we used because no matter how much I cook them, they are always a bit too gooey. I must be losing my touch. We need to get them plated and delivered.
Know that we love you and pray for you daily,
Mom
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| A look at the backyard. |
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| Garn with his peaches and cream. |
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