Good Morning Family,
As I look back over this week, I’m not sure what we really did. We were busy, but mostly catching up on things that got pushed aside from the week before.
Monday morning we started out early with Dad taking the elders who live in our apartment complex grocery shopping. Mondays are their P-days and they are on bikes, so we volunteered to take them shopping at 7 am before we went into the office. I stayed home and worked on our lunches so we could still get into the office on time.
I got a call from Barbara saying that she and Christie were back so Christie could have her surgery on Wednesday. They checked her into the hospital on Monday for tests. It is amazing what can be done.
On Wednesday the zone conferences got started. They were originally scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, but then we got notice that President Bennett, the president of the North America North East Area was coming for a conference and we weren’t having zone conferences. On transfer day we got notice that President Bennett had his assignment changed and he was not coming. Now what to do!? The reserved buildings had already been given up, the relief society sisters had been told that they didn’t have to do lunches for zone conferences, but it is required that the president meets with the missionaries (in a group for training) at least once each transfer. We scrambled to get buildings rescheduled and figure out what to do for lunches. Since we already had a building scheduled for Friday with President Bennet, we kept that building and just had to get a building for Wednesday and Thursday. We were blessed with good sisters being willing to be flexible and go back to the getting a luncheon ready for the missionaries for two of the zone conferences. That left only one of the lunches for the office crew to take care of. We stayed at the office and held the fort down there while the other two couples went to the zone conference. It is both good and bad—good because we get caught up on a lot of things, but bad because we don’t get the association with the young missionaries. The sisters doing the lunch ordered Chick-Fil-A for lunch because the missionaries love it. There were some of the box lunches left over so they brought back a lunch/dinner for Dad and me. That was nice not to have to figure out what to do for dinner.
Talked with Barbara and found out that Christie’s surgery went well and she only had a square band aid on the top of her head. Pretty amazing what they can do with surgeries now. They were hoping that she would do well enough to travel home in a week from surgery—maybe even sooner.
We went to the Thursday conference and were so impressed with the young missionaries and their preparation. The office senior missionaries were in charge of the lunch for the conference and we took the lazy way out and ordered pizzas from Costco then made salads and brownies and rice crispy squares. We helped with the car inspection when we got there and then went in and listened to the zone conference until it was time to go pick up the pizzas. There were either more missionaries than we had planned on or they were hungrier than usual because we had no food left over. That makes it easier for clean up, but I worry that they may not have gotten quite enough.
We went back to the office and I worked on getting some of the bills paid. Then we went home and I worked on taking care of our personal bills. It felt good to get that done.
Friday we were in the office again and it was a very nice morning. It was quiet and peaceful, and I was able to get some things done that had been pushed to the back plate because they weren’t quite as pressing. That felt really good. It was fun to be there with Dad—a very pleasant morning.
One of the other office couples got back just in time for us to go read the Book of Mormon with Nancy. We had a surprise when we got there—her daughter who is away at school was there. She had come home on fall break and we got to visit with her as well as have her read with us. It was a good reading and we go slowly enough that we can talk about what is happening and discuss what this means in our own lives. After we were done she was talking a little about her son who is having trouble in school. There is something not quite right about him—doesn’t read social cues well and says inappropriate things—says what he is thinking without filtering anything. He had called one of his friends fat and the teachers were concerned about that. With the emphasis on not bullying people, this could get Lucas in some trouble at school. As a protective mother, I think Nancy doesn’t want her son labeled, but I hope she will get some help with him. I’m not sure that she is willing to admit that there is something wrong, but is getting more ready to get help. I suggested that it might be helpful for her to have someone (trained) help her come up with appropriate responses in dealing with him and ways to help him. Her husband died a year a ago and she is dealing with this situation all by herself. I asked her if it would be helpful to feel like there was someone helping her and Lucas with solutions and she was open to that. Right now I think she is feeling a little alone with all of the teachers/principal ganging up against her. Wish I could find a counselor who could help diagnose his problems and give Nancy appropriate ways to deal with her son and ways to help him.
When driving home we got a call from some sisters who had problems with their toilet. They had tried everything they knew and then called the managers for help. The managers needed the name of the leasee as week as the phone number of the leasing party. They knew it was a corporate lease and tried all of the names they could think that the Church would have their name listed, but didn’t get it right. I told them I would see what I could do. Their phone came up showing the Fairfax sisters and they are the ones that live in our apartment complex, so I stopped by our office on the way home and found out how we are listed. I called maintenance when I got home, but couldn’t get the right name and apartment numbers for maintenance. I would go back to the office to get the name as it was listed on the lease. Before doing that I wanted to eat dinner and then I would go take care of it. When I got to the office, I looked at the housing board and noticed that these sisters didn’t live in our apartment complex and the apartment address was correct to for another complex. (So much for telephone caller ID for our mission phones). I got the name of the Church as this apartment had it listed and then called maintenance. I was able to get things taken care of and hopefully when these sisters got home for the evening they would have a working toilet.
While at the office I got another call from some sisters asking about funding on their cards. As I checked the card of the new sister who just arrived from the Philippines and found that it was listed as “card issued” and it should be “active”. This should be done before the missionaries reach the field so they have money for food as soon as they get here. I sent an email to Salt Lake, but the financial part of IMOS is down until Monday, so I’m not sure when she will get her card working.
I got another call from Barbara saying that they are going home tomorrow. I could hardly believe having brain surgery on Wednesday and flying across the entire country to go home on Saturday.
We were moving slower Saturday morning but did do grocery shopping in the morning and then came home to get ready for a 2-hour meeting with President Bennett on member centered missionary supported missionary work. Hopefully, we as members will get the vision that we are the ones that have friends in our neighborhoods, work places, school activities etc. that we can share what we have with. It was a good meeting.
From there we went to a baptism of a young man who met the missionaries on the campus of George Mason University. The missionaries invited him to attend an institute class and the rest is history.
When I got home I got a call from some elders that were having trouble making ends meet because of having to use the bus each week to attend district council. We are having more and more bike areas and the logistics are getting trickier getting missionaries where they need to be. The bus trip costs each missionary $4 each way so that ends up being a little less than half of their food budget. From my short vision, this doesn’t seem quite fair—the bicycle elders have to buy their bikes, their bike equipment and then any costs for public transit if they need to go places that are too far to bike while the car elders get a free car, gas paid for by the Church, and all repairs taken care of by the mission. Something will have to be figured out.
Just a thought I learned this past week: This past week as we have been studying Come Follow Me I ran onto a pod cast that directed me to a talk given by Boyd K. Packer in the April 1995 conference titled “The Shield of Faith.” It was a little uncanny his wording when viewed with the current things that are taking place in the Church recently. He is talking about taking on the whole armor of God as talked about in Ephesians 6. He talks about the role of parents in teaching their children the gospel. He says that in order that children are not tossed to and fro by “cunning craftiness” the “shield of faith is to be made and fitted in the family. No two can be exactly alike. Each must be handcrafted to individual specifications.”
“It takes the steady strength of a father to hammer out the metal of it and the tender hands of a mother to polish and fit it on.” The Church can help teach about the materials from which we make the shield and can even learn how to assemble and fit them together. “But the actual making of and fitting of the shield of faith belongs in the family circle. Otherwise it may loosen and come off in a crisis.”
“This shield of faith is not manufactured on an assembly line, only handmade in a cottage industry. Therefore our leaders press members to understand that what is most worth doing must be done at home.”
Does this sound a little familiar? Home centered, Church supported. The article is wonderful and I would encourage you to read it. I guess this idea of home centered, church supported is not new, but we are getting serious about implementing it.
Love you all,
Mom
As I look back over this week, I’m not sure what we really did. We were busy, but mostly catching up on things that got pushed aside from the week before.
Monday morning we started out early with Dad taking the elders who live in our apartment complex grocery shopping. Mondays are their P-days and they are on bikes, so we volunteered to take them shopping at 7 am before we went into the office. I stayed home and worked on our lunches so we could still get into the office on time.
I got a call from Barbara saying that she and Christie were back so Christie could have her surgery on Wednesday. They checked her into the hospital on Monday for tests. It is amazing what can be done.
On Wednesday the zone conferences got started. They were originally scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, but then we got notice that President Bennett, the president of the North America North East Area was coming for a conference and we weren’t having zone conferences. On transfer day we got notice that President Bennett had his assignment changed and he was not coming. Now what to do!? The reserved buildings had already been given up, the relief society sisters had been told that they didn’t have to do lunches for zone conferences, but it is required that the president meets with the missionaries (in a group for training) at least once each transfer. We scrambled to get buildings rescheduled and figure out what to do for lunches. Since we already had a building scheduled for Friday with President Bennet, we kept that building and just had to get a building for Wednesday and Thursday. We were blessed with good sisters being willing to be flexible and go back to the getting a luncheon ready for the missionaries for two of the zone conferences. That left only one of the lunches for the office crew to take care of. We stayed at the office and held the fort down there while the other two couples went to the zone conference. It is both good and bad—good because we get caught up on a lot of things, but bad because we don’t get the association with the young missionaries. The sisters doing the lunch ordered Chick-Fil-A for lunch because the missionaries love it. There were some of the box lunches left over so they brought back a lunch/dinner for Dad and me. That was nice not to have to figure out what to do for dinner.
Talked with Barbara and found out that Christie’s surgery went well and she only had a square band aid on the top of her head. Pretty amazing what they can do with surgeries now. They were hoping that she would do well enough to travel home in a week from surgery—maybe even sooner.
We went to the Thursday conference and were so impressed with the young missionaries and their preparation. The office senior missionaries were in charge of the lunch for the conference and we took the lazy way out and ordered pizzas from Costco then made salads and brownies and rice crispy squares. We helped with the car inspection when we got there and then went in and listened to the zone conference until it was time to go pick up the pizzas. There were either more missionaries than we had planned on or they were hungrier than usual because we had no food left over. That makes it easier for clean up, but I worry that they may not have gotten quite enough.
We went back to the office and I worked on getting some of the bills paid. Then we went home and I worked on taking care of our personal bills. It felt good to get that done.
Friday we were in the office again and it was a very nice morning. It was quiet and peaceful, and I was able to get some things done that had been pushed to the back plate because they weren’t quite as pressing. That felt really good. It was fun to be there with Dad—a very pleasant morning.
One of the other office couples got back just in time for us to go read the Book of Mormon with Nancy. We had a surprise when we got there—her daughter who is away at school was there. She had come home on fall break and we got to visit with her as well as have her read with us. It was a good reading and we go slowly enough that we can talk about what is happening and discuss what this means in our own lives. After we were done she was talking a little about her son who is having trouble in school. There is something not quite right about him—doesn’t read social cues well and says inappropriate things—says what he is thinking without filtering anything. He had called one of his friends fat and the teachers were concerned about that. With the emphasis on not bullying people, this could get Lucas in some trouble at school. As a protective mother, I think Nancy doesn’t want her son labeled, but I hope she will get some help with him. I’m not sure that she is willing to admit that there is something wrong, but is getting more ready to get help. I suggested that it might be helpful for her to have someone (trained) help her come up with appropriate responses in dealing with him and ways to help him. Her husband died a year a ago and she is dealing with this situation all by herself. I asked her if it would be helpful to feel like there was someone helping her and Lucas with solutions and she was open to that. Right now I think she is feeling a little alone with all of the teachers/principal ganging up against her. Wish I could find a counselor who could help diagnose his problems and give Nancy appropriate ways to deal with her son and ways to help him.
When driving home we got a call from some sisters who had problems with their toilet. They had tried everything they knew and then called the managers for help. The managers needed the name of the leasee as week as the phone number of the leasing party. They knew it was a corporate lease and tried all of the names they could think that the Church would have their name listed, but didn’t get it right. I told them I would see what I could do. Their phone came up showing the Fairfax sisters and they are the ones that live in our apartment complex, so I stopped by our office on the way home and found out how we are listed. I called maintenance when I got home, but couldn’t get the right name and apartment numbers for maintenance. I would go back to the office to get the name as it was listed on the lease. Before doing that I wanted to eat dinner and then I would go take care of it. When I got to the office, I looked at the housing board and noticed that these sisters didn’t live in our apartment complex and the apartment address was correct to for another complex. (So much for telephone caller ID for our mission phones). I got the name of the Church as this apartment had it listed and then called maintenance. I was able to get things taken care of and hopefully when these sisters got home for the evening they would have a working toilet.
While at the office I got another call from some sisters asking about funding on their cards. As I checked the card of the new sister who just arrived from the Philippines and found that it was listed as “card issued” and it should be “active”. This should be done before the missionaries reach the field so they have money for food as soon as they get here. I sent an email to Salt Lake, but the financial part of IMOS is down until Monday, so I’m not sure when she will get her card working.
I got another call from Barbara saying that they are going home tomorrow. I could hardly believe having brain surgery on Wednesday and flying across the entire country to go home on Saturday.
We were moving slower Saturday morning but did do grocery shopping in the morning and then came home to get ready for a 2-hour meeting with President Bennett on member centered missionary supported missionary work. Hopefully, we as members will get the vision that we are the ones that have friends in our neighborhoods, work places, school activities etc. that we can share what we have with. It was a good meeting.
From there we went to a baptism of a young man who met the missionaries on the campus of George Mason University. The missionaries invited him to attend an institute class and the rest is history.
When I got home I got a call from some elders that were having trouble making ends meet because of having to use the bus each week to attend district council. We are having more and more bike areas and the logistics are getting trickier getting missionaries where they need to be. The bus trip costs each missionary $4 each way so that ends up being a little less than half of their food budget. From my short vision, this doesn’t seem quite fair—the bicycle elders have to buy their bikes, their bike equipment and then any costs for public transit if they need to go places that are too far to bike while the car elders get a free car, gas paid for by the Church, and all repairs taken care of by the mission. Something will have to be figured out.
Just a thought I learned this past week: This past week as we have been studying Come Follow Me I ran onto a pod cast that directed me to a talk given by Boyd K. Packer in the April 1995 conference titled “The Shield of Faith.” It was a little uncanny his wording when viewed with the current things that are taking place in the Church recently. He is talking about taking on the whole armor of God as talked about in Ephesians 6. He talks about the role of parents in teaching their children the gospel. He says that in order that children are not tossed to and fro by “cunning craftiness” the “shield of faith is to be made and fitted in the family. No two can be exactly alike. Each must be handcrafted to individual specifications.”
“It takes the steady strength of a father to hammer out the metal of it and the tender hands of a mother to polish and fit it on.” The Church can help teach about the materials from which we make the shield and can even learn how to assemble and fit them together. “But the actual making of and fitting of the shield of faith belongs in the family circle. Otherwise it may loosen and come off in a crisis.”
“This shield of faith is not manufactured on an assembly line, only handmade in a cottage industry. Therefore our leaders press members to understand that what is most worth doing must be done at home.”
Does this sound a little familiar? Home centered, Church supported. The article is wonderful and I would encourage you to read it. I guess this idea of home centered, church supported is not new, but we are getting serious about implementing it.
Love you all,
Mom
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| Keri and McKay (and girls) with Derek and Jessica (and kids) in Tampa. Keri and McKay went to Florida because McKay works in the radio booth for BYU games. |
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| Greyson's baptism Elder Carper, Greyson, Elder Foster, Elder Tahi, and Sister Caplin |
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