The Long View

Someone asked us the other day if our mission was like a series of peaks and valleys, meaning that some weeks or days were busy, like a peak, and some were more calm, like a valley.  We just kind of laughed and said 'not so much on the valley part, but lots of peak time'.  The past few weeks have definitely not been like the calm of a valley.  

Just about a year ago we had the idea to do something different with our interviews that transfer.  We decided that during interviews, or really any time in the transfer, we didn't have a lot of time with each missionary to really answer questions or to do any role plays or in depth training. So we decided to try something new.  We decided to do what we called zone interviews that transfer.  We spent about 3 hours with each zone, we asked them for their questions, we tried to answer them, we did role plays with them, we laughed with them, we learned with them and it was nice for us to be able to spend a good amount of time alone with each zone.  

We had the assistants conduct a discussion at an MLC a few months ago and had them ask the mission leaders what President and I could do to help the mission move forward.  One of the things they said was that they wanted us to do zone interviews again. So, the past few weeks we have been busy spending quality and quantity time with each zone.  It has been wonderful. It was interesting to gather questions from each zone prior to meeting with them. Some questions crossed zone boundaries, but many were unique to where they are serving.  It made us realize that we teach to a large group at Zone Conference, but this allows us to get more specific with the questions and challenges that come with each unique zone and area. It was fun to just have open discussions, I think we learned more from our wonderful missionaries than they learned from us. And we had a lot of fun in the process. 

Three weeks ago we met with 8 of our zones.  We did two zones per day, one in the morning and then we rushed to another zone and spent the afternoon with that zone.  After we finished up President made himself available to anyone who needed a one on one interview with him.  We came home every night pretty tired, but also so happy that we got to interact in such personal ways with each of our missionaries.  We took a break from our interviews the next week for zone conferences, then last week we were back at it with our final three zones down south.  The only pictures I took from any of our zone interviews were these two.  We happened to have our interview with Folsom the day of Sister Decker's birthday and Sister Dickson made her a cake to celebrate. And when we went to Lodi, Hermana Christensen and I were in matching skirts so we always have to get a picture whenever there is twinning going on.  Although I full well know, Hermana Christensen wore it better!

We've also spoken in the Sacramento and the Folsom Stake Conferences the past two weeks, had our 5 week new missionary meeting, took 25 missionaries downtown for a Downtown Sacramento P Day activity, and had a handful of visitors that we were happy to see. I've got a lot of pictures to share, but I have to start with our day yesterday.  

About a year ago we were blessed to go up to Ione for a baptism of the Shelton family, Will, Sierra, their daughter and son, they also had a daughter who was too young to be baptized.  It was a day that touched our hearts, to see an entire family enter the covenant path.  

We have tried to follow their progress a bit and to see how the ward embraced them and helped them along has been inspiring.  As they have been helped, they have also helped others along the way.  Yesterday we were blessed to go to another baptism in the same ward, of another family, the Kellers.  A father, Scotty and a mother Kristy who had two darling little girls, too young to be baptized.  It was so touching to see this couple, who had wanted to get baptized for a long time, come out of the water and be changed. The bishop told them they looked different, and they did. When Bishop Busi asked them to say a few words, Scotty was so choked up, he could hardly speak and talked of the change his life had taken and thanked people in the ward for helping him change.  He felt such relief from the feelings of guilt he had carried for a long time.  Kristy spoke of the sense of belonging she felt as she embraced the gospel.  It was a wonderful baptism.  What made it even more special, is that Sierra, who was baptized last year at this time was the one they chose to give the talk on baptism.  She talked to them about the path they were now blessed to be on, the path that her family had walked over the past year.  She then, through her tears, told Scotty and Kristy that she hoped to be able to go to the temple with them in a year, as she and Will were doing later that day.  

Last night we were blessed to be in the temple with many members of the Ione ward, and with Will and Sierra for their temple sealing.  I can hardly express the feelings we had, as we saw them take their first step onto the covenant path a year ago, and then to be there with them last night as they were able to seal their family together for eternity.  Seeing them sealed as a couple was so special, but when they brought their 3 beautiful children into the room, there wasn't a dry eye in the room. They weren’t the same family they were a year ago.  It is nice to be here for as long as we have in order to see the long view, to see people baptized and to follow their progress to full activity and to the temple.  It was definitely a journal entry day yesterday and it reminded us of the blessing of doing what we do, day in and day out.  It is because of people like the Sheltons, and everyone else whose life has been blessed by the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Tonight was another one of those 'long view' nights.  We have a Spanish Missionary fireside once a quarter and we had that tonight.  Hector Lugo and Gerardo Montes both spoke at it.  We were able to have Gerardo taught in our home, and Hector, who introduced Gerardo to the missionaries joined us in those lessons and so they have both become dear friends.  They have both gone through the temple and to see them speaking tonight was a thrill, to see the change the gospel has made in their lives, in their very countenances was so special.  The gospel changes people from the inside out, I love being a witness to change.

 One final 'long view' story.  We first met Kaitlin Arnold just after she was baptized. We had heard about her but we weren't able to attend her baptism.  Every month, on the fourth Sunday, we have a Fireside that we encourage our missionaries and members to attend and to bring less active members and the friends they are teaching to 'come and see' what we have to offer; to see how the gospel of Jesus Christ has changed lives.  We generally have 3 recently baptized members speak at these 'Come and See Devotionals'.  We started holding these over a year ago and Kaitlin was one of our first speakers.  I was so impressed with her, we have followed her progress and continue to be amazed at the incredible young woman she is.  I was able to attend her Missionary Farewell a few weeks ago.  She is now in the MTC and will be serving in the Salt Lake City South Mission sharing the incredible message that changed her life just a little over a year ago.  We are so proud of her.

A few more special moments before I get to the overload of pictures from Zone Conferences and Downtown Sac P day.  Hermana Elizondo came to us over 3 months ago as a 2 transfer missionary.  She was called to serve 2 transfers and then could get reassigned here or to another mission after those 2 transfers.  She is incredible and delightful and our many prayers were answered when she got her mission call to continue serving in the California Sacramento Mission.  We were thrilled. Since she hadn't gone to the MTC prior to coming, we sent her off a few weeks ago to have her MTC experience and we got to pick her back up 2 weeks ago.  It was a different experience waiting for her at the bottom of the escalator because we knew and loved her already.  As I hugged her I said "welcome home" and she said "it does feel just like I am coming home".  As happy as we were to greet her, and we were very happy, I wish I had a video of when we met her back up with her two companions.  It was pure joy and I am so grateful I got to be a witness of the love and happiness between these three darling, happy Hermanas. 

Last Saturday we had a free morning and so we had the Folsom sisters to our home for breakfast.  Any time we can be around missionaries is a very happy time for us.  We love them all so much. 

We had zone conferences September 4, 5 and 6.  I really love zone conference weeks because we get to see every single one of our missionaries sometime in those 3 days.  Since we are studying one Christlike Attribute every transfer I got to train on Hope.  It was good for me and I loved learning and trying to apply this attribute which sometimes just gets lumped in with Faith, but it is such a stand alone attribute of so much power and, well, Hope.  

President talked about what makes a successful missionary, and it's not the numbers, it is fulfilling our purpose by having a commitment to invite others to come to Jesus Christ.  It is manifest in the way we obey, work, love and have the spirit guide us.  And the assistants talked about how to begin teaching.  We also had some very wonderful departing testimonies and also talks from missionaries who were called up to share what they have learned about this transfer's Christlike attribute of Hope. 

Zone Conference Day 1: El Dorado, Folsom, Carmichael and North Sac Zones

 El Dorado Zone

 Folsom Zone

 Carmichael Zone

 North Sacramento Zone

 Sister's Picture

Elder's Picture

Clean Car and First Gas Logs turned in awards

Happy Birthday to these Elders and Sisters

Singing our thanks to the wonderful Hmong ward and others who provided us such a delicious meal.

Elder Lilly's final zone conference, he and Elder Thacker did a great job in their training

Zone Conference Day 2: Lodi, Stockton, and Manteca Zones

 Lodi Zone

 Manteca Zone

 Stockton Zone

 Sisters

Elders

Cars and Birthdays

Zone Conference Day 3: Cordova, East Sacramento, Sacramento and Elk Grove Zones

 Cordova Zone

 East Sacramento Zone

 Sacramento Zone

 Elk Grove Zone

 Sisters

Elders

Cars and Birthdays

 Finally a picture of Brother Twomey on the other side of the camera!

I love this picture of Brother and Sister Astle who coordinate all of our zone conference lunches.  They have been doing this faithfully for over 10 years.  We love them!

As soon as Zone Conferences were over, our focus shifted to our Downtown Sacramento Preparation Day, which was the very next Monday.  We take a group of missionaries that are closest to going home downtown for a fun and hopefully informative P Day.  We want them to get to know the city they were called to serve in.  Some of them never get to see this part of their mission.  We had a great day with 23 soon (ish) to be departing missionaries.  The way it fell, we had an all Elder's P day this time.  Grateful that Elder and Sister Mair came along so I wasn't completely outnumbered.  

We started with a quick breakfast at the Wissemann building the morning of September 9.

First stop: The walkway that connects Old Sacramento with Downtown.  Scott talked about the mural that shows the history of Sacramento, including Sam Brannon, and early Pioneer settler who fell out of step with Brigham Young, and his life didn't go so well after that. 

Then we were off to Downtown, The Golden One Center, DOCO and a walk to the State Capitol.

We never quite know what we are going to get when we go to the State Capitol.  Last time we couldn't get inside because of a ceremony for fallen officers.  This time we got inside, but we were met with a LOT of protesters.  It was the final week of the legislative session and there were a few VERY vocal groups inside trying to influence the legislators, and apparently doing it by seeing how loud and vocal they could be.  They prevented us from seeing the Governor's office and the bear that stands guard, and we also weren't able to get into either of the legislative rooms, but we still saw a lot of things.  I read afterwards that there were several arrests made, and apparently it got even louder and more heated after we left.  

 I loved this picture of all of the Elders lined up overlooking the rotunda.  If you look very carefully there is one lone woman standing in the middle with all of them.  She is wearing a white shirt so I didn't even notice she wasn't one of them until after I had taken this picture.  

Following this picture, we were going to go into the rotunda, which had cleared our and quieted down for a minute.  As we were walking in, a security guard stopped us and said "You have to stop right here".  We said ok and thought she was keeping us from going any further for a security reason.  When all of the Elders had gathered, she said "I just had to stop you because you all just look SO good." Then she went on about what a wonderful, good looking, respectful group of young men they were.  I felt like a proud momma!

We made a stop at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament and then headed back to Old Sacramento. 

The obligatory photos in front of the iconic Tower Bridge and then off for some free time in Old Sac, which always includes a stop at one of the candy stores there. 

In my zone conference training, just a few days before, I used the scripture from Ether 12:4 which describes Hope as an anchor and much of my training had an 'anchor theme'.  Elder Fergusson and Elder Rowland found this anchor and told me they would never see an anchor again without thinking of Hope.  

We had lunch at Roundtable Pizza and then we were off, and they were off to finish out their P Day.  We had a great day with these good Elders.  

Speaking of Candy Stores, this picture is for my 'love where you live' section.  We just had the cutest popcorn/candy store open in our El Dorado Town Center.  We try to go down there at least a few nights a week to walk around the little lake there.  It helps us clear our heads and keeps us moving.  Unfortunately, or fortunately, it depends on how you look at it, this store opened the week after all of our grandkids went home.  Guaranteed, next time they come to visit, this will be one of the first places pop takes them. 

This was a fun mission connection.  My dad served as a mission president in New York City about 25 years ago.  When they were here visiting they were telling us about one of their sister missionaries who they thought lived somewhere in Sacramento, but they had lost touch with her.  Imagine my surprise a few weeks ago when we were in our ward and said hello to someone we hadn't seen there before.  Turns out, it was my mom and dad's Sister Lopez, from their mission.  It was so fun to make that connection and to send this picture to my parents, along with her phone number so they could reconnect. It was the day's tender mercy for sure.  

And finally, I seem to save our visitors for last.  We had quite a rush of visitors the last few weeks of August.  I think many of our former missionaries were trying to fit in a quick trip before school started for them.  It was wonderful for us to be able to see so many of them and meet many of their parents as well.  

 Sister Clifford (Emily)

Elder Larsen (Hagen)

Sister Roberts (Makayla)

 Elder Murphy, and we finally got to meet his darling girlfriend, Maddy who we have heard so much about, and is every bit as good as he told us she was!

And, finally, in my 'free time' I was able to get my favorite wall in our house updated.  These little faces just make me happy every single day!!!

We miss them, but we love this work, we love our missionaries, we love the good members here, so many of whom have become dear friends, we love where we live, and we especially love our Savior, whose name we get to wear every day.  We are abundantly blessed!