Things I didn't get pictures of:
On Valentine's day we had a Spanish culture meeting with all of our Spanish speaking Elders and Sisters. We do this about twice a year and Brother Martinez, who used to be in the mission presidency, helps them understand the cultural differences of teaching Latinos. What I love the most though is that he teaches them the promises that are specifically for the Latinos that are found in The Book of Mormon. It's a great meeting. We have some wonderful Spanish speaking missionaries, we have 14 Spanish Speaking Hermanas and as of today, they have all been here for 6 months or less. We tell them they are young and mighty. I took Valentine Cookies to at least celebrate the holiday a little bit. We also did a surprise stop in at one of the Zone's District Council Meetings to drop off some Valentine Cookies, after we were able to sneak in a very nice Valentine lunch.
We had a great 4 week meeting, which is when we meet with our missionaries who have been here for 4 weeks and their trainers. I love this meeting and seeing the growth in the new missionaries in just a few short weeks, but this one was a little unique. As we were walking out the door to head to the meeting our phones started blowing up. We were getting texts from family and former missionaries asking us if it was really true that missionaries could call home every p-day. We hadn't heard a word about it. So we were frantically reading the news bulletin as we were driving to the meeting, and trying to figure out what the missionaries knew and what we were going to be walking in to. We got to the meeting and you could tell they all knew about the new news. Scott hit it straight on and just said, let's talk about the elephant in the room, and talk about the new directive on communication. It was interesting to see the different reactions in the room. The new missionaries looked like it was Christmas morning and honestly, most of the trainers were a bit skeptical. I had several of them tell me they didn't really know if they wanted to call home every week. We told them it was completely in their control and they could call if they wanted to, or they wouldn't have to call if they didn't want to call. It will be interesting to see how it all settles in. I think most of the missionaries called that first week. I know some will feel like they want/need to call every week and some may not call that often. We are still getting a few directives from our leaders to help us figure this whole thing out. It was an interesting week of learning for us. We were on the phone or texting lots of mission presidents, who are all trying to figure out exactly what it means and how to move forward with it all. I told a few of my friends who are serving that we are starting to feel like pioneers. We have pioneered sisters wearing pants, and now missionary calls home every week. We are just buckling our seatbelts for whatever may be next. President Nelson wasn't kidding when he said to take our vitamins, the only problem is we haven't figured out how to apply the second part of his statement, which was to get some rest!
We had the Sacramento Stake Conference the weekend of the 16th and 17th. President Cassinat was released as the Stake President. We have loved getting to know President and Sister Cassinat. They are incredible leaders and have become good friends. It was wonderful to be there for both Saturday and Sunday. Elder Steven Snow was the presiding authority that weekend and he was great. We were invited to a dinner prior to the Saturday night session, which we spoke at. We were looking around trying to figure out who looked nervous or uneasy and couldn't pinpoint anyone. Imagine our surprise when they announced the new Stake President on Sunday and it was President Cocker. We weren't surprised that he was called because he is incredible, he had been one of President Cassinat's counselors. We were surprised because we had sat with he and his wife at dinner on Saturday night and they were cool as cucumbers. We even commented on the fact that they were too composed to be in the mix. We were thrilled with his call, though and will love working with he and his lovely wife.
We had other various meetings, I was finally able to go to our ward's book club, and the ward auction they had for a fund raiser for youth activities this year. We also were able to have a date night, Alex, Allie and Preston gave us tickets to Evita for Christmas and last Friday was the night of the play and we loved it.
Things I did get pictures of:
The Saturday morning before the Sacramento Stake Conference we were able to go to Elk Grove for a wonderful and miraculous baptism. We were happy that we had to stay down that way for the Sacramento Stake Conference later that day, and we had a few hours to kill. So we went with the Elk Grove Zone for their seeking Saturday. Their goal was to invite as many people to church as we could in the space of 2 hours. I was teamed up with Sister Graham and Sister Bayless. We had So. Much. Fun. Sister Bayless is from Arkansas and Sister Graham is from England. Sister Graham uses her darling accent to her advantage. It's a great conversation starter. (although I am still blaming her for our rainy weather that she brought with her 6 weeks ago. She says it feels like home to her, so we think it's her fault. Ha Ha) We didn't have a lot of luck, but we did have a few interesting conversations. We happened to knock on a former friend's door. We had the names of the husband and wife. The wife opened the door and thanks to the spirit we didn't ask for the husband. We started a good conversation and found out her husband had passed away a year ago. We didn't get a return appointment, and she didn't want to come to church, but we think we brightened her day and she was a lovely woman. Then we went to a house where a man had been a potential friend, knocked on that door and asked for him. The woman who answered told us he had passed away last fall. She wasn't his widow but was his long time live in significant other. We couldn't believe we knocked in to two widows. We were hoping we weren't bad luck. It was a fun day working with these two darling sisters.
Elk Grove Sisters
After a few hours of work, we just couldn't pass up an opportunity to stop at Leatherby's for an ice cream cone. For the record, we shared this one!
Last year we those annoying people who completely brag about their weather, as if we had anything to do with it. We were loving all the sunny warm days, and we are being slapped in the face this year. We woke up and had this sleet-y/ snow on the car. We know we can't complain to our friends in Utah, but we are really ready for some of that sunny California weather we came to love so much last year. We also got a fun visit from our former Elder Westra. It was so great to see him and visit for a while. I can't stop saying how much we love visits from our former missionaries and it is always so great to catch up with them. We sure love him.
Since the Mission President here is a former retailer, we work holidays in this mission. So the missionaries were out to work on President's day and took their p day the next day. As a side note, the missionaries love working holidays, especially Monday holidays. They call them miracle Mondays because they always find so many people at home.
Our new mission couple, Elder and Sister Chenn arrived in the afternoon on President's day. We were so grateful they made it safely with the storms in the Sierra Nevadas. The Chenn's are going to be working with the Chinese groups and we are so grateful to have them here. There is much Chinese work to be done here and we know it is going to move forward with the Chenn's at the helm. We had a lovely visit with them, and love them already.
On President's day, Scott got a lot of texts from missionaries wishing him a happy President's Day. It was so cute, we have the best missionaries. We got a text from Hermanas Melendez and Freeman, and Sisters Bustos and Richins asking what we were doing that afternoon around 4:00, which is dinner time. I asked them what they had in mind and they said they wanted to meet us at Chick Fil A to take President to dinner for President's day. We met them, but we obviously didn't make them pay for us. It was on us. But, after dinner they gave President this package. A little backstory: One of the first times I was having a talk with Hermana Freeman she told me that her brother plays football for the Denver Broncos. I told her that President is a big Bronco's fan and he was going to be excited to hear that.
So, they gave him this package and you should have seen the look on his face when he pulled out this Bronco jersey. They had 'coach' printed on the back of it, and had number 19 because it is 2019. It was so darling of them to do this for him. I told them I don't think I have ever seen him so thrilled with a gift in the 35 years we have been married. It was incredibly thoughtful of them.
We worked our transfer board last Tuesday. This is a picture of our assistants, who tape their ankles every time before we work the board. Elder Ricedorff has been our assistant since June. We have loved having him, he has done a magnificent job training and helping missionaries and helping us. He has three transfers left and so he is going back out to work for his last few transfers. We called Elder Fischetti to replace him. We are blessed with great mission leaders.
Elder Ricedorff's last supper
That night we went out teaching with some sisters in El Dorado. They wanted some back up with a difficult friend of theirs. We were so grateful we had gone with them. It turned out to be a man who was trying to Bible bash and convince these sisters that they were wrong. I was glad we were there to help, but also, surprised about some of the things they face out there. We called our son Preston after that lesson and told him he was our hero for serving in the South where he ran in to people like this all of the time. As we returned home, this is what we saw as we got out of our car.
We had been 'heart attacked' with bananas by the sisters serving in our ward. A little back story: Sister Shaw and Sister Weckesser have this running banana joke with President. One week they wanted to know if he really read their weekly letters and so they both included some random sentence in their letter about bananas. He picked up on it and commented back to them. So since then they have had this banana joke. We knew immediately who had 'banana heart attacked' us. At our front door, they had written on a heart "we really like banana bread". We laughed so hard, but knew we had to do something back. I was either inspired, or it might have been that I had a bunch of brown bananas, but the week before I had made several loaves of banana bread and put them in the freezer. I grabbed a loaf and wrapped it up all fancy and we took it to their apartment and left it on their front porch before they got home for the night, with a note that said "We love banana bread too". They about died laughing when they came home and found a loaf of banana bread waiting for them an hour after they 'banana attacked' us. We received this picture that night. We had a fun time with that one!
They both got transferred out of our ward this transfer so we can move Elder Geng, who is from China, up here to cover our ward and the Chinese group. Luckily we had already signed up to have them for dinner the Sunday before transfers, rest assured, I had banana pudding for dessert.
It was fun having them for dinner, it was a busy day. We had to speak in the East Sacramento Stake Conference with Elder Steven Bangerter, ran home for dinner with the Sisters and then took off for a New Member Fireside in Stockton. I love those New Member Firesides. There is nothing like listening to new members tell how the gospel has completely changed their lives for the better. If we ever get frustrated, we just need to listen to a few of these new members to help bring us back to center and remember why we are doing what we are doing.
Sister Clifford and I at the East Sacramento Stake Conference, looking like we had coordinated our outfits!
This is the only picture I got from our amazing day last Saturday. Not to minimize this picture, it was the centerpiece from a lunch we were able to eat with Elder Holland, which I'll talk about. But this centerpiece was made, box and everything, by a lovely woman in the Folsom Stake. It was above and beyond and represented the love and respect members have for Elder Holland and the apostles and leaders of the church. I was very moved by the love that was put into every last beautiful detail. Not to mention the gourmet lunch (complete with a printed menu) that members lovingly prepared. This alone was humbling to be a part of.
So, to the meeting... We were blessed to be able to be in a meeting with Elder Holland on Saturday. He was here for a regional Priesthood Leadership Meeting. There were 6 Stakes included and Elder Holland, Elder Bangerter and Elder Dorius were there to train the Priesthood and Women Auxiliary leaders. It was a spirit packed meeting and we kind of kept pinching ourselves that we were able to be there to be taught by Elder Holland. He taught so many amazing things, but mostly the spirit was incredibly strong. I realized that he is exactly like he is in his conference talks. I have thought that he spends hours crafting the language of his conference talks, and I'm sure he does. But he talks that way in real time as well. He was answering questions and throwing out his Elder Holland-isms right and left. One of my favorites was when he was testifying of the truthfulness of the gospel and he passionately said "I have not given my life for a Fairy Tale, I know a few things, I have been to a couple of pretty good schools, they even made me the president of a pretty good school. I've read a few books, I am not a dumb person, and this gospel means everything to me. I would not give my life for a Fairy Tale!!!" He also left an apostolic blessing which made me finally understand a scripture that has always had me a little puzzled. In 3 Nephi 17, when the Savior is with the Nephites, the record says that the Savior prayed for the people and 'the things which he prayed cannot be written...' I have always wondered why they couldn't write what he said. I knew they couldn't convey the spirit, but at least they could give us an idea of the words he used. As I was listening to Elder Holland leave his apostolic blessing, I just put my pen down. I had been taking furious notes, and I just stopped. I had the thought about this scripture. How there is no way I could convey to anyone who wasn't there the things he said because of the spirit that was there. I finally understood why they didn't even try to write it down because that's how I felt with this meeting with Elder Holland, and I can't even begin to imagine how it would have felt to have the Savior there praying for us. It was such an amazing blessing to be included in that meeting.
The Sisters in the Folsom Zone, where we live, have been asking me to join them for a p day activity this whole transfer and it has never worked out. Three of the six of them got transferred this transfer and so I had them over for breakfast on Monday morning before transfers. It was so great to be with them and just sit around the table and have some fun conversations.
Once the sisters left, it was time to prepare for transfers. Yes, transfers are upon us again and we were able to pick up 8 amazing new missionaries that afternoon.
Sister Saole brought us these beaded leis straight from Hawaii
Round One with our first group from the Provo MTC. President and the Assistants took this group back to the office to get started on interviews, and I waited at the airport for round 2: our Hermanas from the Mexico City MTC
I was SO grateful to Sister Mair for preparing dinner for the incoming missionaries this time. It was wonderful to just go and pick them up without worrying about cooking and delivering food to the office prior to going to the airport. She had a wonderful dinner waiting for us, and since it was Sister Saole's birthday, Sister Doig had made this darling birthday cake for her.
Since there were only 8 of them, they were done early in the office and so we had arranged for them to go out teaching with some missionaries for the night. The sisters then went to sleep at Sister Beck's home. Sister Beck is a gem, and loves housing the incoming and outgoing missionaries. She makes my life so much easier, I am so grateful for her. She sent me this cute picture of the incoming sisters who stayed with her Monday night.
We had another rainy transfer day. This is the second one in a row, and only our second rainy transfer day since we arrived here 20 months ago. It complicates transfers a bit, but the missionaries never complain and always have smiles on their faces.
Another delicious transfer luncheon prepared by Sister Goodwin's darling daughter, Sarah. She was inspired to serve a buffet of warm soups on a cold, rainy day.
Sister Bustos training Sister Saole Hermana Freeman training Hermana Hall
Sister Stillwell training Sister Prettyman Hermana Lewis training Hermana Bretzing
Hermana Miller training Hermana Williams Sister Weckesser training Sister Fifita
Elder Hermansen training Elder Miskin Elder Erb training Elder Wall
After the temple it was off to our home for dinner and a testimony meeting. This is really one of my very favorite 24 hour periods of our 6 week transfer cycle. It is so fun and energizing welcoming the new, fresh and excited missionaries, and it is incredibly humbling and inspiring spending time with seasoned, and consecrated missionaries. What a blessing it is for us to spend their last night in the mission with them. My testimony is always strengthened by theirs.
Our banner is filling right up!
Sister Beck's cute picture of our departing Sisters on their final night
California Sacramento Missionaries #Behappy
Elder Shafer
Elder Jackson
Sister Eliason
Sister Mitchell
Sister Roberts
Hermana Melendez
Sister Richins
Hermana Sutherland
Sister Hansen
Hermana Keller
Hermana Singer
Sister Simonsen
Sister Root
Getting final instructions from President, and they are off. The only thing that makes it ok to send them home is knowing the excitement waiting on the other side. I love getting pictures of their happy reunions with their families texted to us after they have arrived home.
We also had to say goodbye to Sister Oast last week, hopefully for a short time, as she went home to heal from an injury. We hope to have her back soon.
And that, in a very large nutshell, has been our past two weeks. It's hard to believe March is upon us. Time moves at a fast pace out here, and we are loving our time spent with missionaries and members here. We feel very blessed.
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