As I sat down to update my blog, I thought it had been at least a month since I have written, and when I looked at my calendar and realized it's only been a little over two weeks I really can't believe it. We have had a lot of wonderful opportunities and events take place in the past two weeks or so, both personally and missionary related. I'll try to recap the highlights of the things that have happened in the mission over the past few weeks.
One of the highlights of serving here, besides being with the missionaries, is getting to know wonderful people who live in this area. Our relationships with the members we have the opportunity of knowing and loving is a blessing we don't take for granted. In our mission we have 11 Stakes and Scott will say, those 11 Stake Presidents are some of his dearest and closest friends. They are remarkable, as are their wives. I wish I had as much direct contact with their wives on a monthly basis as he does with the Stake Presidents. That doesn't happen but we were able to have almost all of them to our home for dinner a few weeks ago and it was such a delightful night. Our wonderful Area Seventy, Elder Dorius and his wife also joined us. Having lived in the same place for over 30 years, I haven't had the blessing or experience of expanding my circle very far. I love the people I have lived and served around for most of our married life, and now my circle has just been expanded. There are such good people everywhere, and we are and will continue to be blessed with these friendships with these good, good people who are now in our lives forever. I wish I had snapped a picture of all of us that night, but I didn't. Needless to say, they are remarkable and we are blessed by them in significant ways.
We are also blessed by the good members here. The people in the ward where I live are so kind and good. I wish I could be the kind of friend I would like to be, but my time constraints are great. That doesn't seem to matter to them, I am ministered to on a regular basis, even when I can't give much back. And it isn't confined to our ward members. A few weeks ago we were invited to Sunday Dinner at the home of Brother and Sister Ruiz. They have the missionaries in their ward over for Sunday dinner every week and we were blessed to be invited. Brother Ruiz owned his own catering business in the Bay Area for over 20 years. He cooked for large corporations and individuals as well. We have been to a lot of great restaurants here in Sacramento, but this may have been the best meal we have eaten. We thought we were in a 5 star restaurant. As good as the food was, hearing their conversion stories and being in their home was even better.
On Monday, October 22 we had 17 new missionaries arrive from the MTC. What a blessing it is to have new, excited Elders and Sisters.
We keep trying to figure out the best way to train them and their trainers and it is a continually changing procedure. Because our mission is so much bigger geographically now than it used to be, this time, so they didn't have to come to the office from far away twice, we tried training the trainers on Tuesday morning, while the new missionaries were also being trained and while transfers were going on in the parking lot. It was busy running from one place to another, but it all got done and I think went pretty smoothly. Tuesday transfer days are always super busy, but also fun and exciting.
It's always fun to see missionaries meet up with former companions and sad to see them have to say goodbye to companions they have loved. And it's really fun for me to be a part of it and see so many of our missionaries all at the same place. Although it is not a time to hang around and chat. Our Assistants have this running like a well oiled machine. You are lucky if you have a chance to snap a quick picture. They probably transfer 60-70 missionaries in less than an hour. It is an admirable organizational feat.
Once transfers are finished, we introduce the new missionaries to their trainers, which is always such a fun time. The trainers and the new missionaries are on pins an needles waiting to be matched up. I love it. Then we all eat lunch together, the new, the trainers and the departing missionaries. It's fun for the new missionaries to be with those they are replacing.
Our office Elders and Sisters are incredible. No one would understand the intricacies of transfers if you haven't worked in a mission office. There is so much behind the scenes work that goes into making things run smoothly. We could never do this without them. This is how they organize all of the missionaries luggage, bikes and mail for them.
Here are our new missionaries and their trainers
Elder Thacker training Elder Erb Elders Osborne and Anderson training Elder Foster
Elder Frost training Elder Jensen Hermana Singer training Hermana Cappillo
Sister White training Sister Schokker Elder Mandisodza training Elder Clark
Sister Gunter training Sister Christensen Sister Rose training Sister Deland
Sisters Lund and Maldanado training Sister Weckesser Sisters Crane and Leavitt training Sister Oast
Sister Stephens training Sister Decker Sisters Shaw and Dossett training Sister Chang
Elder Carter training Elder Bradt Elder DeGraffenried training Elder Decker
Elder Brown training Elder Hancock Elder Rodriquez training Elder Farmer
Elder Barton training Elder Watson
New Missionaries October 2018 Transfer
We got our new missionaries and their trainers off to work and then met our departing missionaries at the temple where we went through a session with them.
As always, we came back to our home after the temple, had dinner and a testimony meeting with these remarkable, seasoned, consecrated missionaries.
Signing the departing missionary banner!
Sister Wilding and President Hymas both have a tendency to worry a little more than I think they should. We have these anti worry objects in our home and Sister Wilding wanted a picture with President and these reminders as she headed home to the real world.
Saying goodbye to our returning missionaries is the worst part of the transfer. This time we had to say goodbye to some more really great ones that we love so much. They are leaving holes that will be hard to be filled.
Sister Schaaf Elder Caldwell
Elder Mecham Elder Perry
Elder Hammond Elder Groll
Sister Wilding Sister Kackstaetter
We had a few fun visits from former missionaries as well. We were able to go to lunch with the former Elder Howland, and Sister Hanekamp and we were blessed to have the former Sister Cundick and her cute husband stop by the house for a visit. We love to see former missionaries and are so grateful to see them when we can.
Mission Leadership Council was held on Tuesday, October 30. Our theme was 'Step Up and Kneel Down'. I talked about raising expectations, and Scott talked about prayer, the Zone leaders talked about meaningful exchanges and I had a breakout session with the Sister Training Leaders and Scott and the assistants kept the Zone Leaders. We love MLC and love having the missionaries in our home. I am also so grateful to my friends, Carrie Crockett and Joy Wright and Lisa Hull for cooking and serving lunch for us.
The next morning Scott and I were off early to catch a flight to Portland Oregon for our semi annual Mission Leadership Seminar. We LOVE this week that we get to spend learning from General Authorities and from other Mission Presidents and their wives. It is nice to get our bucket filled for a few days, and it's wonderful to be with people who are in the same boat as we are in. It's amazing how close you can get to people you only see twice a year when you gather for spiritual enlightenment and support. We feel so blessed to be able to associate with such wonderful, consecrated people who have become dear friends to us. We can't wait to see them all again in 6 more months.
We had a few hours to spend exploring Portland before we headed to the Portland Temple. It is one of the most beautiful temples I have ever seen, inside and out. Also, the weather was perfect fall weather, no rain, except while we were in the temple, and the leaves were gorgeous.
On the first full day of training they had some missionaries from the Portland mission join us to help with role plays and other trainings. They were darling and it made us miss our own missionaries. We, of course had to snap a picture and send to their moms.
We had some time that night to get out and look around a bit. We had heard about Voodoo doughnuts and decided to take a walk to find them. I'm not going to lie, the walk there was a little unsettling, lots of homeless people on the streets. And once inside we felt a little more unsettled. Maybe the name Voodoo should have been our first clue. This may be heresy but we thought they had been a little oversold, but it was an adventure and we can say we've been there.
We have been blessed with some wonderful experiences while we have been here, sometimes we have to pinch ourselves as we get to rub shoulders with great leaders and get to learn at the feet of them.
We were all lined up for our group picture and Elder Uchtdorf wanted to step out and take a picture so he could have it on his phone.
Elder Klebingat
Elder and Sister Kearon
We had the best food and the sweetest help while we were at the hotel for the seminar. This is a picture of Rosa and Tatyana, who were delightful. And my friend, Sister Patterson who is such an example to me of being a missionary with anyone and everyone. She was amazing with Rosa and Tatyana and taught me a lot about not only being nice, but about sharing the gospel as well.
And finally, I just had to share this picture. Scott's brother is a mission president in Argentina and he FaceTimed him the other day. I walked over to say hello and I had to do a double take. They look so much alike I thought he was talking to himself. It made us chuckle!
One of my biggest takeaways from our seminar would have to be that this work is moving forward at a fast pace. With President Nelson at the helm we are all witnessing that.
Elder Kearon said "We can all sense an unfolding of the Lord's church on the earth. It's an extraordinary time to energetically take the gospel to the world. The gospel is moving forward with a great sense of urgency. There is discomfort in that urgency as well as resounding joy.
Elder Pearson said it this way: "You'd have to be absolutely tone deaf if you didn't recognize that this is a new and exciting time of moving forward with more and more restored truth, and adjustment to practice and policy. The restoration is ongoing. Adjustments will continue to happen. This is a new day."
President Nelson has said there are two significant things yet to happen, as promised by God. 1. The gathering of scattered Israel, and 2. The Second Coming of the Savior. And the Savior can't come until Israel is gathered. How grateful we are to be full time gatherers at this exciting time.
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