I feel like a broken record every time I update this blog and say, 'it's been a busy week' but I guess that is life in the mission. We have had the pleasure of doing interviews over the past few weeks. I am trying to figure out my role in the interview process. During our first round of interviews I had a one on one conversation with each missionary to get to know them. I loved it but I didn't know if it was awkward for them or not. I am not the mission president and don't have authorization to 'interview' them but it was good to get to know them. The next round of interviews I had to miss a few of the days, but on the days I was there I just talked with them as a group while they waited for their interviews with Scott. I had several ask me why I wasn't talking to them individually. So, this time it was back to a one on one with Sister Hymas. I would talk to one of the companions while the other was in with President, and then we would switch. We really want to have a personal relationship with each one of our missionaries and I realized that the group that came in 2 transfers ago, when I didn't chat with them one on one was the group I knew the least. I have had fun chatting with them again this time. But I decided that I needed to have a purpose in addition to just chatting, so this time I gave each missionary an index card and had them write a message to their family. I took a picture of each one and then we texted (or I emailed later if they couldn't remember their mom's cell phone number) the picture to their mom or/and dad. I absolutely loved getting surprise pictures from people who would run into my kids on their missions and so I thought it would be a fun surprise for all of the missionary parents. The missionaries had fun thinking of what message they wanted to send to their families too. Take a look at these beautiful, happy faces. This is what we get to see every day. Aren't we lucky!?!
A few other random interview pictures. When we pulled up to the East Stake building we saw this goat looking over the wall that divided the church from the house on the other side. We weren't really expecting to see a goat in the middle of Sacramento. It startled us just a bit. Also, we had one day that we did two zones in one day. We thought we had enough time to grab lunch, but we also needed to go to Walgreens and get our flu shots. Well, the shots took longer than we had anticipated and in order to be on time for the second half of interviews, we had to buy the only thing we could find for lunch at Walgreens. My kids used to beg for lunchables, and after having one the other day, I'm sticking to my opinion that they are pretty disgusting and there is a reason they are a 3rd grader's dream lunch!
I always take cookies to interviews and this month, being November, had to be pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. They aren't Scott's favorite but the missionaries love them. In fact, last week we interviewed the Carmichael Zone. Elder Hallmark, one of the zone leaders asked me if I could make more pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for MLC, which was held this week. We turned that into an object lesson. We are always telling the missionaries that no one is going to listen to the gospel unless we ASK them. So, at MLC Scott called Elder Hallmark up and had me read D&C 4:7 "Ask and ye shall receive..." He then told the group that Elder Hallmark ASKED me if I would make more cookies for MLC, I said yes, and followed through with my commitment. Then we pulled out a big tray of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. He told them Elder Hallmark would not be getting cookies that day if he hadn't asked!
Pumpkin cookies for days!!!
Sister Baird and Sister Simpson looked so cute and color coordinated, I just had to snap a picture.
Elder Forte and Elder Young Yen are the Zone Leaders in North Sacramento. They don't have many dinner appointments and have been asking me if we would come up and take them out to dinner one night. "Ask and ye shall receive"! We took them to dinner the other night after their zone interviews and had a finding miracle during dinner. Our waiter was a young man named Greg. He was so nice and asked us why we all looked so nice and dressed up. Of course that led to a discussion on who we were and why we were in Sacramento. He was so interested, and long story short, he gave the elders his address and phone number and told them he would love them to stop by and tell him more about our church. They gave him a Book of Mormon and he was so grateful and told them he would go home and start reading it and when they came over he could talk to them about it. It was amazing. I was joking with them and told them it didn't seem like missionary work was that hard if they had people like Greg always asking them about their message and being so receptive. They were quick to tell me something like that has NEVER happened to them before. I can't wait to hear what happens with Greg. We told them that is one baptism we won't miss!!!
We have been blessed with amazing senior missionaries. One of our missionary couples, Elder and Sister Mu are going home this month, as well as our mission secretary Sister Stohl. Elder and Sister Mu have almost single handedly expanded the Chinese work in this mission ten fold. When they got here, the Chinese work was in need of a lot of help. They are native Chinese speakers and have worked tirelessly to move the work forward. We don't have Chinese language missionaries that are called to speak Chinese, but we do have 4 missionaries, in addition to Elder and Sister Mu who are native Chinese speakers. We were amazed about this when we first got here and figured there was a reason they are all here. We are working hard to support the Chinese group and since the Mus have gotten here it has really exploded. We even have an English speaking missionary, Elder Woodward, who has been here for almost 2 transfers, who is assigned to the Chinese group with his trainer, Elder Chen. You should have seen his face when he heard he was going to be working with the Chinese group and Scott asked him how his Chinese was. But he has delved right in and, with the help of Elder and Sister Mu, they have seen miracles. He has already baptized three people. Last Saturday night we were able to go to the baptism of 5 Chinese people. It was a miracle to see the hand of the Lord with these wonderful people. Afterwards they had a little farewell party for Elder and Sister Mu. This is a great story. The group leader of the Chinese group had been in a Chinese branch in Salt Lake City where Elder Mu was the branch president. When he moved to Sacramento he knew they needed help with the Chinese group and so the small group they had started fasting and praying that they would get a Chinese speaking missionary couple to help them. He even called Salt Lake and begged them to send some missionaries to them. They prayed for a couple of years and one day he got a call from Elder Mu who told him they had received a mission call and they were coming to Sacramento. Elder and Sister Mu were kind of disappointed because they thought they would go somewhere with more Chinese people, but the Lord knew where they needed to be. After they got here, we started getting more native Chinese speaking missionaries. It was a very special night to see 5 Chinese people enter into the waters of baptism, and to see the impact one missionary couple and 4 Chinese speaking missionaries and their English speaking companions have had on so many people. We are going to miss Elder and Sister Mu very much.
The Chinese baptismal program. And I've even got a Chinese name tag, but I'm afraid to wear it for fear someone will think I really do know Chinese and I don't know a word of it!
We had a dinner party with all of the senior couples at our home on Monday night, as a farewell dinner for Elder and Sister Mu and Sister Stohl. I've talked about the Mus, but I need to say how much we love Sister Stohl as well. She was the secretary when we first got here and we didn't have a clue as to how to run a mission office, let alone a mission. Sister Stohl patiently walked us through every step. She was so positive and helpful. I would often get a note or a text from her telling me how much she loved me and what a good job we were doing, even when we didn't know what we were doing. She would lovingly remind us of something that needed to be done and ask what she could do to help us. She has helped so much with food, for the arriving missionaries and missionary meetings. She has been invaluable to me, helping me with departing dinners as well. She even went to San Francisco with me when we had to take Sister Na for her passport. She has done everything to help us be successful and to help us know what we are doing. We could not have survived our first month or so without her and I will love her forever and be forever in her debt. The missionaries love her too and we are all going to miss her so much.
We had MLC on Tuesday of this week. I love MLC, it is a time to counsel with our mission leaders and for us all to learn from each other. They are amazing. Here is an example. Scott and I taught about the 3 elements that make up a testimony of the Book of Mormon. We need to know, to feel and to do. Neither of us are very tech savy and so we use a trusty white board. This is what it looked like after we taught.
About two hours after we posted a picture of this on the leadership facebook messenger group, this is what Sister Koller had done and posted.
They are just SO much better than we are in every way!
These are our wonderful Sister Training Leaders. They have a big responsibility. We have had so many new missionaries come in that all but one of the STL's are training a new missionary, and at the same time doing all of the duties of a STL alone. We don't have the luxury of keeping a companionship of STL's together and so they are going solo and doing a great job. What they are doing is hard, and a lot of pressure, but we never hear a complaint from this group. I feel blessed to be surrounded by such powerful, positive women of God.
This is the kind of pictures I often find on my phone when I give it to Elders to take a picture. They amaze me with their teaching ability, their powerful testimonies and their strength, and they also make me LAUGH! We love and are blessed by each and every one of them!
I just wanted to close with a very special experience that we had last night. We have so many missionaries working so hard to bring people to the waters of baptism. We are blessed to witness the zone unity in every zone, and it is heartening to see how much they love and work well together. It is also inspiring to see how each of the mission leaders are inspired and use their enthusiasm and personalities to motivate and move the work forward. The Sacramento Zone had a goal this transfer to get 10 baptisms as a zone. They used #amentotheten in all of their correspondence and they have been so excited and have all been working so hard. We got a call from the zone leaders tonight telling us that they have had 7 baptisms with 2 more firms, which puts them at 9. The zone decided to have a zone fast in order to have one more of their progressing investigators ready for baptism by next week. They had everyone pray about their progressing investigators, those who have had the lessons and been to church, and send in their names. At 8:30 we joined them via messenger video as they gathered together either physically or electronically as a zone to unite in mighty prayer and begin their fast. Elder Woodward offered the prayer and prayed for each individual name, there were about 16, and prayed that at least one of them would be prepared for baptism by next week so, if it was God's will, they could reach their goal of 10. Even as we knelt in prayer with them 40 miles away, we felt the strongest spirit. They all have such faith that as they fast and pray, after they have done all they could do, that the Lord will provide. We have such love and gratitude for them and for the opportunity that our faith and testimonies have to be strengthened by these wonderful, faith filled missionaries. We are truly blessed. #amentotheten
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