I think it was a week ago Thursday we were at the office finalizing transfers that were beginning on Monday and Scott got a call from Elder Kevin Pearson who is a member of the Quorum of the Seventy and the new area president for the North America West and North West areas, which is all of California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii. He had a free weekend and so he told us he'd like to come and visit our mission on Thursday of the next week, which was the day after transfers. We had our Mission Leadership Council scheduled for the Friday and so he said he'd join us for that. Which was awesome, but also added a little pressure since we were planning on preparing for MLC after transfers were over. We always try to prepare trainings that are spiritual, uplifting, motivating, etc. But the pressure to do that is amped up a bit when a General Authority is going to be joining you. Especially when you have very little notice and even less time.
In addition to that, it was a big cooking week. I had to fix dinner for 30, for the new incoming missionaries and the office staff that help welcome and process them on Monday night. Dinner for 12 on Tuesday night for the departing missionaries, lunch for 16 on Thursday for the new leader meeting, dinner for Elder Pearson at our home on Thursday night and prepare enough chicken salad to fill croissants for 50 for the MLC lunch on Friday. We didn't have any grass growing under our feet this week, that's for sure.
On Monday we welcomed 14 new missionaries to the mission. It is such an exciting day when we get to welcome these excited, enthusiastic new missionaries to Sacramento. It never gets old.
I'm reaping the benefits from this blog. Hermana Nielson got off the plane and handed me a bag of Reisen candy and said she had heard it was my favorite. I kept asking her where she heard that and she was pretty sheepish about telling me. She finally said she saw it on my blog, I forget what I put on here, but I must have mentioned that being my favorite candy at some point, and it got me a nice sweet treat.
We got this group off to the office and Scott and I waited for one more elder who was coming from the Mexico MTC. Elder Wells was coming from Mexico through LA and the plane from LA landed and everyone came down and all of the luggage besides two pieces were collected from the luggage carousel and they didn't have name tags on them, but we didn't have our missionary. It brought back memories of a year ago when we lost Elder Chase who had come from the Mexico MTC and missed his plane in LA. We started checking with the office and with the airlines to see where our missing Elder was. About 15 minutes later he came down the escalator. He had lost his wallet, we think in LA and he had to wait for everyone to get off the plane and for the crew to check the plane to see if they could find his wallet. Not the best welcome to Sacramento, but at least he made it safe and almost sound.
We have about a three hour training they have to sit through, which isn't the most fun in the world. Scott and I usually do our trainings first so we can get out to the parking lot to participate in the transfer line up that is going on while the new missionaries are being trained. It is so fun to see all of the missionaries coming and going, picking up new companions and saying goodbye to the old ones. This time I missed that because in addition to my regular training, I had to do the training on Adjusting to Missionary Life. It is a booklet the church has put out to help missionaries, well, adjust to missionary life, socially, emotionally, etc. We have a wonderful counselor from LDS Social Services who helps us with some issues and he usually does this training but he was out of town so it fell to me. Luckily I had done a zone conference on finding balance a few transfers ago and used a lot from Adjusting to Missionary Life so I didn't have to prepare a whole new training.
I have so many favorite things that we do here, but one of them is when we march the new missionaries into the cultural hall, all of the trainers are in there singing called to serve, and then we match them up with their companions, have lunch and head to the temple for pictures.
Grateful to have these 15 new missionaries here with us in Sacramento
Sister Tatafu training Sister Law Sister Rowley training Sister Dickson
Hermana Keller training Hermana Bowen Sister Simonsen training Sister Ho Ching
Sister Fausett training Sister Bayless Hermana Melendez training Hermana Nielsen
Sister Ellsworth training Sister Knaphus Elder Carter training Elder Caldwell
Elder Miller training Elder Hansen Elder Lilly training Elder Wells
Elder Kemp training Elder Everett Elder Henry training Elder Hart
Elder Steel training Elder Peterson Elder Coleman training Elder Balser
Elder Bailey training Elder Allred
We got the new missionaries and their trainers off to their areas and came back up to the temple with the departing missionaries.
After our temple session we came back to our home for dinner and a departing testimony meeting. That is a sacred meeting, I love sitting with these seasoned missionaries and listening to their strong testimonies and the things they have learned and how they have grown over the past two years. This is the first time we haven't had any sisters going home and I kind of felt like 'one of these things just doesn't belong'. I told them I felt like I was crashing priesthood meeting. However, at the end of the meeting, since they were all Elders, I asked them to sing "Ye Elders of Israel" for me for the closing song. That was powerful and it's a tender moment I will never forget.
The next morning it was off to the airport bright and early. The night before they leave we give them a Book of Mormon to write their testimonies in and we ask them to find someone to give the Book of Mormon to as they are traveling home, to make one final contact as a set apart missionary.
I kept snapping pictures of Elder Nelson trying to give his Book of Mormon away. Turns out this first family was someone he knew from one of his wards, the second contact was not interested, to say the least, but he was trying.
I know I'm a broken record when I continually say how hard it is to send missionaries home, but it is and I'm sure I'll never stop saying it!
It was really hard saying goodbye to Elder He. He is from mainland China, he couldn't even tell his friends what he was doing in the United States and he had a whole packet of things he could and couldn't do as he went home to China. He had to take off his name tag as soon as he got on the plane and couldn't talk to anyone about the church. He was a fabulous missionary and was heaven sent here to help with all of the Chinese people we have here. I don't know when we will see him again, so this one was tough. I told him though that I think when China opens to missionary work he is going to be one of the first Mission Presidents in China.
Elder Morin Elder Nettesheim
Elder Christensen Elder Lillian
Elder Manley Elder Nelson
Hugs all around and they were off. I did have to smile, and hold back the tears at the same time when I found this one last selfie of our assistants on my phone after Elder Nelson had left. All of these returning missionaries were terrific and they will be sorely missed in the mission.
Wednesday after the airport drop off we had about 36 hours to prepare for our visit from Elder Pearson. In that time we also had a meeting on Thursday morning with the missionaries who will be returning home next transfer, to help them finish strong and expect and ask for final transfer miracles. We also had a meeting for our new District and Zone Leaders, followed by lunch. Then if was off to the airport again to pick up Elder Pearson.
We brought him back to our home and had dinner with him and just visited the entire evening. He was amazing. He was kind and thoughtful and had great vision for the work in California. It was a wonderful night and we felt so blessed to have him in our home.
Friday morning we had Mission Leadership Council at our home. It was such a privilege to have Elder Pearson join us for that meeting. Scott started it off with a great discussion about the use of Facebook Messenger in the mission, then the assistants did a training on using the Book of Mormon in contacts and teaching, I did a training on the Role of Hope in Leadership using the examples of Nephi and Joshua to find patterns they could apply in their own leadership responsibilities, and Scott finished up with a good training on the importance the Savior places on baptism. After that we went to lunch and then Elder Pearson took the rest of the afternoon. He taught non stop from 1:30 to 4:00. It was like drinking from a firehose, he gave us such great counsel and ideas to think about and implement. It was an amazing meeting and we all felt so blessed to have him join us.
Lunchtime with Elder Pearson, Scott, and President Bitnoff
My awesome lunch helpers, Elder and Sister Gunnell and my friend Carrie Crockett
A few weeks ago Sister Coombs and Sister Bustos showed up somewhere with these twin mustard skirts. I had ordered one and told them when it came we had to all wear them at the same time, well, MLC was that time and it turns out, mine wasn't as mustard as I thought it was. Sister Gunnell also had the mustard theme going.
This was Sister Wilding's last MLC, which makes me very sad, and this is what it looks like outside of our house after MLC. I'm sure our neighbors wonder what goes on every 6 weeks when lots of Toyota Corollas with bike racks pull up and park up and down the street.
After MLC we took Elder Pearson to Roseville to meet up with President and Sister Ward and then we treated ourselves to a nice dinner out.
On Saturday and Sunday we had the Sacramento Stake Conference. We just have to laugh when we think of our lives. We had to speak for 20 minutes on Saturday night in Stake Conference and the way our lives go, we started thinking and preparing for it Saturday afternoon. In our old lives we would have been preparing for weeks.
This was the most unique experience we have had yet in a Stake Conference. The Stake President is amazing, he is such a great President and one of the things that makes him so perfect, especially for that Stake is that he is a little unconventional. So Saturday night went fine. For Sunday he had contacted Scott a few weeks ago and told him that he wanted to stress the unity that members needed to have with the missionaries and so for his talk on Sunday he would like to stand at the pulpit with Scott and just kind of bounce ideas back and forth. He said he usually doesn't prepare a written talk, he just has ideas and goes with them (which he can do because he is an incredible public speaker and very well spoken.) He told Scott that he seemed like he is good on his feet too and so they could just get up there and have a little fun together. Then he said "we'll just see what happens, it's kind of like the wild wild west out here." They also have two session of conference. One at 9:00 a.m. for half of their Stake and one at noon for the other half.
Sunday morning we arrived bright and early, and I didn't have a care in the world. Until we walked up onto the stand with 10 minutes until the meeting started and President Cassinet came up to us and said "I've come up with a new scheme". And proceeded to ask us if we remembered the old game show on TV called 'What's my Line'. I didn't, but apparently people came on the show and said what their occupation was and then there was a celebrity guest who asked questions to find out which one really had that occupation. So, he says he'd like he and Scott to stand at the pulpit and to both introduce themselves by their names and they would both say they held the keys to missionary work in the Sacramento Stake. Which he does. Scott holds the keys for the missionaries, but the Stake Presidents hold the keys over missionary work in their Stakes. His goal was to reinforce to his members that is takes both missionaries and members, or both sets of keys, to effectively do missionary work. Then he looks at me, with a gleam in his eye, and says "now, this is where you come in. You are going to be the celebrity guest who asks us questions to help figure out which of us really does hold those keys". I responded that I would be happy to do whatever he would like me to do, and asked him what questions would he like me to ask. It was when he responded, oh, you'll come up with some good questions, and then he was off and the meeting was starting that just a tiny bit of panic set in. I hate to admit I didn't get a lot out of the first hour as my mind was running a hundred miles a minute trying to come up with questions that I could ask about each of their priesthood keys. Oh, and he also told me to ask questions that would make him win, because he is the key holder. Needless to say, it was the most unconventional Stake Conference we have been to, with the three of us standing at the pulpit, with me as a 'celebrity guest' participating in a 'game show' I have never seen, and wasn't given much warning about. I think it went ok, at least we had people laughing and they probably won't forget it.
I failed to post this picture of a wonderful baptism we were able to attend last Saturday
And that was our week in a nutshell. The work continues to roll forth, we continue to be anxiously engaged, and our missionaries continue to be a great source of joy for us.
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