October Arrivals

October transfers are officially in the books.  We have 18 new missionaries welcomed, fed, trained and off sharing the good word.  

We made three trips to the airport on Monday.  It began Monday at 3:30 a.m. as we took our dear Sister Na to the airport to catch her flight to Korea.  She was here for one transfer while her paperwork was processed in order to get her to Seoul, where she was called.  We love her, she is fabulous, and we told her if they ever pull the missionaries out of Korea, we get first dibs on getting her back.  She and her companion, Sister Van Valekenburg stayed here on Sunday night in order to make the early morning a little less early than it would have otherwise been.  We will miss her.  

We were back at the airport at 9:15 a.m. to welcome 14 missionaries from the MTC.  This is such an exciting morning.  We absolutely love the excitement of waiting for the plane to arrive and anxiously await the moment we spot our little army descending down the escalators.  Their energy is contagious.  

We got this group to the mission office and Scott started interviewing them, and I was off to the airport for the third time to collect our Mexico MTC missionaries. We had three coming from Mexico City on two different flights.  Luckily they landed within a half an hour of each other.  

After a long day of travel, interviews and other necessary business, they are ready to meet their trainers. I may have described this process before, but it is one of my favorite moments of our mission.  As Scott and I lead all of the new missionaries into the Relief Society room, their trainers and other missionaries are all standing singing "Called to Serve". It is moving and powerful and I think I will never get tired of that moment.  

After they get paired up with their trainers, we go to the temple for pictures. This is a great group of Elders and Sisters. 

Sister Barrera training Sister Singer, and Sister Kaufusi training Sister Baker

Sister Baird training Sister Simpson and Elder Pingel being trained by Elder Burrows

Elder Whiting trained by Elder Oh and Elder Jones trained by Elder Ricedorff

Elder Larsen trained by Elder Howlett and Elder Anderson trained by Elder Perry 

Sister McDonald training Sister Searle and Elder Gove, trained by Elder Brown

 Sister Clark being trained by Sister Wilkins and Sister Cha training Sister Gilbert.  

You should have seen Sister Gilbert's face when it was announced she would be serving in a Hmong ward.  She was shocked to say the least, since she doesn't speak Hmong, but she will be marvelous and will see amazing miracles. 

Sister Coombs training Sister Leavitt and Sister Ellsworth training Sister Lund

Elder Tayler being trained by Elder Thomas and Elder Carter being trained by Elder How 

Elder Guadarama, trained by Elder Chase  & Sister Van Valkenburg training Sister Sherman

 There is never a bad time or place for a little training! Also, I had to drive the assistant's truck to the airport for our Mexico City missionary pick up so we could fit all of their luggage in.  They are trying to convince me that I secretly loved driving their truck (Tiwi and all) and they are certain that I'd love to trade them for my Volvo.  

Today we brought them in for a full day of training and a delicious lunch prepared by the office staff, and now they are off and ready to convert the world, or at least our little corner of the world. 

The picture on the left is one of my favorites of the week.  We saw one of the sister's cars and this was taped to their dashboard.  "Go to the Edge where Miracles Occur"  That was the theme of our Meet the President meeting over three months ago.  It made me happy to see they are still using it as motivation to get out there, give all they have and more, and then to stand still and see the hand of God working miracles through them.