Dear Family,
The week has flown by so quickly that I can’t figure out what we have done besides catch up. Monday started out with Dad taking the elders in our complex to do their grocery shopping at 7:00 am. While they did their shopping, Dad bought a couple of pies to take the senior get together that evening. Our weekend had been busy enough that I didn’t get a dessert made and this way he got to have some pie.
We are trying to get new apartments that are more centrally located in the areas because we are having more and more missionaries (elders) using bikes. That means a lot of looking and negotiating for our housing secretary and then a lot of set up for a new property in the system for me. We will have to close down some apartments, but we are having the total number of missionaries that we have going from the low 170’s to 190 by December.
We had a wonderful get together with the seniors and got to get caught up on all of their activities. We are aware of what the office couples do, but those who serve out in the stakes and wards we hear less about what they are doing. Our two new couples are really doing well and bringing less actives back and finding people for the missionaries to teach. It seems we live in a very small world in the church. While we were still at home, we had the missionaries to dinner and one of them was from Gainesville which is in our mission. We have been able to go and visit with him and his family since we have been here. So when the new couple who are serving in the Gainesville stake got here we told them about the Seeley family and told them to go and meet them. As it turns out they are now teaching the oldest son who is ready to come back to the Church.
I also got to visit with Sister Caplin and ask her how the meeting with Elder Bennett and the Farsi saints went on Sunday. She said it was fantastic. There are about 20 or so Farsi members of the church here in the area and they were invited to attend this special meeting with Elder Bennett. You may remember (or not) that we were to have Elder Bennett come last week for a conference with our missionaries and we cancelled zone conferences for the meeting. At the last minute Elder Bennett was reassigned and we had to scramble to put the zone conferences back in place. Well, the reassignment for Elder Bennett was a meeting about the gathering of these (middle eastern) people. At the Sunday meeting here in Great Falls, Elder Bennett told those in attendance that there is nothing of greater importance in the gathering of Israel than the gathering of the middle eastern people. They were counseled to go home and write in their journals to remember these experiences.
We had a friend from home come to visit us on Thursday evening. He had come back here to do some genealogy work and to go to a workshop in Maryland. It was fun to visit with him in the evening and then on Friday he came into the office with us to see what it was like. Dad had him help with some of the things that he does in the office and then Ralph took us to lunch. He wanted to take us to a place that we don’t go a lot—which is not hard because we don’t eat out. Anyway we went to a Lebanese Bistro and had a good meal and a better visit. He left shortly after lunch for Maryland and his conference and we went back to the office. Then we went to read with our friend Nancy in the Book of Mormon. She seems to appreciate it a lot. Hopefully it is because she feels something as we read.
Today was also our day to clean the office. It is certainly an easy thing to do and only takes about ½ hour, but I don’t like doing it—probably because it comes at the end of the day when I want to go home, not clean an office, but it does save a lot of money and I think we do as good of a job as the professional cleaners that we had before.
Saturday was another early day. We had a 2-hour broadcast for all of the missionaries serving in the North America Northeast Area originating at Palmyra with Elder Bennett, Elder Christofferson, and President Ballard. The thought that struck me most was President Ballard’s closing comments to the missionaries when he told them that they are working really hard and missionary work is hard work, but when they consecrate their service, their time, their love of the people, and their minds to the Lord, then the work doesn’t seem like work any longer. They will go home tired from their dedicated service and get off the airplane and get a big hug from their mother and then drop into their own bed and sleep. He said they will be worn out in the service of their God, but they would be full of joy. It seemed that the brethren talked about joy a lot in Conference and here it was again.
We came home and did a few chores and then went grocery shopping. We decided to watch a movie together after getting the shopping done and it was fun to sit and relax together.
Sunday was a full day. Our company arrived just in time to go to church with us and then we came back for a quick lunch, then everyone pitched in and we cut up the fruit for the fruit salad we were taking to dinner. It was time to go back to the church for the broadcast for all of the North American North East Area. This time is was originating from Boston and Elder Bennet, Elder Christofferson, and President Ballard spoke. Again, President Ballard’s comments hit home again. He talked about this country being a promised land and that only with the help of the Lord was it able to be established. At the end of the talk, he told all of us that we needed to turn to God and pray for our country. He counseled us several times to pray for our country. A good meeting.
We went directly to the Carlile’s for dinner. It was the monthly missionary dinner that they do and they said that we could bring our company with us.
That about does it for another week. Sorry that I’m so slow getting it off. I didn’t get it done before company came Sunday morning and only had a few minutes here and there throughout the week to work on it.
Love you lots,
Mom
The week has flown by so quickly that I can’t figure out what we have done besides catch up. Monday started out with Dad taking the elders in our complex to do their grocery shopping at 7:00 am. While they did their shopping, Dad bought a couple of pies to take the senior get together that evening. Our weekend had been busy enough that I didn’t get a dessert made and this way he got to have some pie.
We are trying to get new apartments that are more centrally located in the areas because we are having more and more missionaries (elders) using bikes. That means a lot of looking and negotiating for our housing secretary and then a lot of set up for a new property in the system for me. We will have to close down some apartments, but we are having the total number of missionaries that we have going from the low 170’s to 190 by December.
We had a wonderful get together with the seniors and got to get caught up on all of their activities. We are aware of what the office couples do, but those who serve out in the stakes and wards we hear less about what they are doing. Our two new couples are really doing well and bringing less actives back and finding people for the missionaries to teach. It seems we live in a very small world in the church. While we were still at home, we had the missionaries to dinner and one of them was from Gainesville which is in our mission. We have been able to go and visit with him and his family since we have been here. So when the new couple who are serving in the Gainesville stake got here we told them about the Seeley family and told them to go and meet them. As it turns out they are now teaching the oldest son who is ready to come back to the Church.
I also got to visit with Sister Caplin and ask her how the meeting with Elder Bennett and the Farsi saints went on Sunday. She said it was fantastic. There are about 20 or so Farsi members of the church here in the area and they were invited to attend this special meeting with Elder Bennett. You may remember (or not) that we were to have Elder Bennett come last week for a conference with our missionaries and we cancelled zone conferences for the meeting. At the last minute Elder Bennett was reassigned and we had to scramble to put the zone conferences back in place. Well, the reassignment for Elder Bennett was a meeting about the gathering of these (middle eastern) people. At the Sunday meeting here in Great Falls, Elder Bennett told those in attendance that there is nothing of greater importance in the gathering of Israel than the gathering of the middle eastern people. They were counseled to go home and write in their journals to remember these experiences.
We had a friend from home come to visit us on Thursday evening. He had come back here to do some genealogy work and to go to a workshop in Maryland. It was fun to visit with him in the evening and then on Friday he came into the office with us to see what it was like. Dad had him help with some of the things that he does in the office and then Ralph took us to lunch. He wanted to take us to a place that we don’t go a lot—which is not hard because we don’t eat out. Anyway we went to a Lebanese Bistro and had a good meal and a better visit. He left shortly after lunch for Maryland and his conference and we went back to the office. Then we went to read with our friend Nancy in the Book of Mormon. She seems to appreciate it a lot. Hopefully it is because she feels something as we read.
Today was also our day to clean the office. It is certainly an easy thing to do and only takes about ½ hour, but I don’t like doing it—probably because it comes at the end of the day when I want to go home, not clean an office, but it does save a lot of money and I think we do as good of a job as the professional cleaners that we had before.
Saturday was another early day. We had a 2-hour broadcast for all of the missionaries serving in the North America Northeast Area originating at Palmyra with Elder Bennett, Elder Christofferson, and President Ballard. The thought that struck me most was President Ballard’s closing comments to the missionaries when he told them that they are working really hard and missionary work is hard work, but when they consecrate their service, their time, their love of the people, and their minds to the Lord, then the work doesn’t seem like work any longer. They will go home tired from their dedicated service and get off the airplane and get a big hug from their mother and then drop into their own bed and sleep. He said they will be worn out in the service of their God, but they would be full of joy. It seemed that the brethren talked about joy a lot in Conference and here it was again.
We came home and did a few chores and then went grocery shopping. We decided to watch a movie together after getting the shopping done and it was fun to sit and relax together.
Sunday was a full day. Our company arrived just in time to go to church with us and then we came back for a quick lunch, then everyone pitched in and we cut up the fruit for the fruit salad we were taking to dinner. It was time to go back to the church for the broadcast for all of the North American North East Area. This time is was originating from Boston and Elder Bennet, Elder Christofferson, and President Ballard spoke. Again, President Ballard’s comments hit home again. He talked about this country being a promised land and that only with the help of the Lord was it able to be established. At the end of the talk, he told all of us that we needed to turn to God and pray for our country. He counseled us several times to pray for our country. A good meeting.
We went directly to the Carlile’s for dinner. It was the monthly missionary dinner that they do and they said that we could bring our company with us.
That about does it for another week. Sorry that I’m so slow getting it off. I didn’t get it done before company came Sunday morning and only had a few minutes here and there throughout the week to work on it.
Love you lots,
Mom
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