On Monday we were able to get our house put together and Ethan and Preston were such a great help. They hung all of the pictures in the house while we were able to get things put away and organized. That evening we were able to have all of our senior missionaries come over for FHE. We got to know them better as we all just kind of introduced ourselves, watched a little video from a talk Elder Holland gave at the mission president seminar, and had a delicious and festive fourth of July dessert Sister Gunn brought. We have such wonderful and dedicated senior missionaries, and they all love serving here. If anyone is contemplating going on a mission, after seeing how much fun it is for them, I would highly encourage it. However, we met with the office couples today to find out their responsibilities, and do they ever work hard! I had no idea the behind the scenes intricacies of running a mission. They are invaluable and we could never do this without them all. We are so grateful for them and all they have done to help us try to figure things out. We love them all so much already and will be forever indebted to them.
Tuesday was the Fourth of July, but it was a work day for us. We had our first Mission Leadership Counsel, or MLC at our home that morning. I decided I should try to make a good impression and so I made cinnamon rolls for them for breakfast. They got here around 10 that morning. We had met several of them already, but wow, did we inherit a great force of missionaries. We could not have been more impressed and it made us so excited to be involved in this work with them. We had training for a few hours, then the office sisters brought lunch and then Scott and I did some training and we finished up around 2:30. The theme of the meeting was being able to be directed by the spirit in all that we do. They all had to be in by 7 that night because of the holiday, and so they got together at the churches with their zones and were able to take the training to the zones.
We have a great room upstairs that is big enough to hold MLC. There is so much power combined in one place.
We were told at Mission President's Seminar that it is the wife's job to keep their husbands balanced and that there needs to be a proper balance between being a mission president and a husband and father. So, I told Scott he could be the mission president until 4:00 on the 4th of July and after that he was going to be a dad. We were able to go to downtown Sacramento for a nice dinner that night. We were going to stay in town for fireworks, but we were all too tired, Even Ethan and Preston thought it would be better to go home and play some games.
I have to write a little bit about the meeting. Before we came out, we had kind of planned this meeting, and I had even written a talk out. As we got here, it didn't seem like what I had planned was what the mission needed. Scott had been planning on talking about vision and miracles and so we decided the whole meeting should be focused on Christ and on miracles. On Sunday morning I was woken up with a line running through my head that I had heard from our neighbor, Brandon Henrie, over 10 years ago when he got home from his mission. He had told of a miracle he had been a part of in opening the country of Slovakia for the preaching of the gospel. It is an incredible story and the line I woke up to was a question his mission president had asked them before they went into Slovakia. "Have you gone to the edge where miracles occur?" I hadn't thought of that for years and felt very inspired to us that in my talk. I contacted Brandon's mom, my dear friend Danette and asked her to send me the details. That kind of turned into the theme of the meeting. The meeting went as follows: I showed them a power point presentation introducing our family, then we had Preston and Ethan share their testimonies and experiences of miracles from their missions. The zones had prepared a musical number at each meeting, and then I spoke and talked about the miracle of Christ feeding the 5000. I talked about D&C 35 about the miracles God will bring about in the last days using the weak things of the world, and how their arm shall be His arm. I then told Brandon's story about the Slovakia miracle and asked them if they were ready to go to the edge where miracles occur in our mission. I explained that that meant we are willing to go as far as we think we can go, and give all we think we can give, and then we go to the edge and give a little bit more, and that is when miracles occur. Scott spoke next and gave amazing counsel on this being the Lord's work, agency, faith and miracles. He was so inspired and I could tell the missionaries were hanging on his every word. They put so much faith and trust in their mission president. He then challenged them to find and recognize the miracles God is sending to them every single day. He told them that every night, between 9-10 p.m. we will keep our phones open and they are to call us and tell us their miracles of the day. That seemed to light a fire underneath them. The first night, we had only made it to half of the mission, and both of our phones were ringing off the hook. They were so excited to call us and report their miracles to us. It was fun to hear them talking of how they went to the edge that day and what happened because of it. We have facebook in our mission and each zone has a facebook messenger group. They have been reporting miracles on that, and the most common hashtag is something along the lines of #gototheedge. We had one energetic companionship make a video of their miracle and at the end one of them said "are you feeling edgy?" It has been super fun to see how they have taken this and run with it. I can testify it was the spirit that spoke to me early Sunday morning. We had an amazing two days and were so grateful to be able to meet each one of our missionaries. We love them so much and have already been so blessed by their faith and diligence and obedience.
Wednesday, July 5, 2017
Cordova and East Sacramento Zones
Elk Grove Zone
Sacramento Zone
Elders Thompson and Watts, who look like twins,
but aren't related.
Thursday, July 6, 2017
North Sacramento and Carmichael Zones
El Dorado and Folsom Zones
This is what you find on your camera after the Elder's have taken the group pictures
We always joke that Scott has 'people' to help him wherever he goes, and the assistants have not disappointed. They do it all.
On Thursday after our training, Scott and I went out teaching with some missionaries in the Elk Grove Zone. He went with the zone leaders, Elder Yorgason and Murphy and I went with the STL's, Sisters Cundick and Barnes. We went and taught the first lesson to one of their YSA's and her grandmother. It was so touching to hear them present the first lesson and bear strong testimony of it's truthfulness. They were great teachers and you could feel the Savior's love for these sisters they were teaching. I am learning a lot from these missionaries.
I have to follow up on the contact we found last week when I was out with Sister Turner and Sister Morris. I had my first day miracle when we contacted the sweet sister from Nigeria. Sisters Turner and Morris called us today, so excited about their miracle. They met with her and taught her about the restoration. When they told her about Joseph Smith she asked them why no one had told her this truth before. They read her Moroni's promise and she said that seemed to her like she needed to read and then find a private place to pray about it. They are going back to teach her on Tuesday and if I can make it, I am going to go with them. I was so excited, it made my entire week. Miracles are alive and well in the California Sacramento Mission. #gototheedge
As we were finishing dinner, Preston got a text from Emily Cox telling him that the Cox family, friends from our ward, were driving through Sacramento and were stopping to eat close to our home. We were able to meet up with them for about 10 minutes while they finished their dinner. It was so fun to talk to them for a few minutes and see people from home.
My friend Danette texted me and asked me if we were happily exhausted and that is the perfect description of how we have felt each day. We are happy during the days, and we are sleeping very well at night. We love this work and are so grateful to be serving with these wonderful missionaries in the best mission in the world.
Love this! There is never a dull moment in your busy day. And "Are you feeling edgy?"...the missionaries must be fun to be around and positively full of life, respect, and dedication to the work.
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