We have done A LOT of interviews! We are almost done, we have two zones left which we will do tomorrow and Thursday, but in the past three weeks we have interviewed about 150 missionaries. A few missionaries have asked us what a typical week looks like for us. We don't really have a typical week. We have a typical 6 week schedule. I often say we have the most irregular, regular schedule every six weeks. We have things we do every week, but we never know what is going to come up that isn't scheduled, and we never cease to be surprised. We had something come up the other day that we just looked at each other and said 'by this time we would have thought we'd seen it all' but we haven't and it just keeps our lives interesting in between all of the scheduled events we have.
It might be interesting for us to look back on some day, so a typical transfer cycle looks like this: We have 42 days in each transfer cycle. We have 11 zones so that is 11 days of interviews, not including the departing interviews Scott does for the departing missionaries. Each of those interviews is about 45 minutes long and so when we have large groups going home, that is a lot of time. I often accompany him to those interviews and have a final chat with the departing missionary if they want me to be there. We have 3 days of zone conference, not including Zone Conference prep time. We have 1 day of MLC. We have 6 Sundays, Scott generally meets with all 11 Stake Presidents each month and that takes about 3 Sundays. Since we have 11 Stakes, that means we speak in a Stake Conference 22 Saturdays or Sundays out of the year. We also have a 'Come and See' Devotional for new members to share their testimonies and either Scott, one of his counselors or I speak as well, every 4th Sunday night of the month. Other meetings we have each transfer cycle are: Mission Health Council, New Leadership Meeting, A Final Transfer Meeting for missionaries going home that transfer, A 4 Week New Missionary Meeting for missionaries who have been here for four weeks and their trainers. A Train the Trainer meeting, An Office Staff Meeting once or twice a transfer, and a Transfer Planning Meeting with our assistants to plan the direction for MLC and Zone Conferences for the coming transfer. We also have a Family Home Evening once a transfer at our home for all of our Senior Missionaries.
There is a lot of preparation put into transfers. We try to keep track of things missionaries tell us in interviews, Scott reads 175 missionary letters each week. We read the missionary recommendation for each incoming missionary, we send each missionary a bio page to fill out and send back that we read, and I send each parent an email soon after their missionary enters the MTC asking them for information about their missionary that will be helpful for us to know and I compile all of these things so we have a good idea of who they are before they arrive here. We have a day where the assistants come and we work the transfer board, but the process starts long before that day. We have 3 days that comprise transfers from incoming, training and departing missionaries. We go to the temple with departing missionaries and have a dinner and testimony meeting with them. I do a lot of cooking, and when we have a spare night or Saturday we like to go out with our missionaries. Saturdays will usually find us at a few baptisms or out working with missionaries. We spend a lot of time in the car traveling back and forth. In the past 10 days we have been to Lodi, Stockton or Manteca 6 times, which is about an hour and a half each way. We also usually have one P day a transfer that we either go to a Zone Activity, take missionaries on our Downtown Sacramento Tour, or try to get together with them one way or another.
We don't have a lot of time for any grass to grow under our feet, and we are so grateful for all of our Senior Missionaries who help us get it all done. Someday I should document everything they do, behind the scenes to keep this mission running. I really had no idea all that it takes, and I am so grateful for each of them and the things they do, that allow us to do the things that we do.
People ask us if we have P days, and we say we have P hours. We had one afternoon free the Friday before General Conference and I really wanted to go to Apple Hill. Ever since I can remember, one of our October General Conference traditions (Elder Holland talked about them, and we all have them, right?) is that we eat a snack of apples and cheese, and when you live by Apple Hill, it makes that tradition even better because we get fresh off the tree apples. Apple Hill in the fall is one of my favorite things about living in Sacramento. I absolutely love going there, and not just for the apple fritters, but they don't hurt.
I loved General Conference so much. I went in with a few questions and I felt the spirit answer every one of them. My challenge is always after conference, trying to maintain the spirit that I felt, and implement the changes I feel inspired to make. We invited our assistants, Elder Thacker and Elder Brown, our office elders, Elder Obray and Elder Nevitt and the Folsom Zone Leaders, Elder Wadley and Elder Steel over for breakfast on Saturday morning and to watch the Saturday morning session of General Conference with us.
After conference on Sunday night, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, we got to participate in our very first mission reunion. Sister Fausett and Sister Wallentine, and probably others that I don't know about, put it together and it was so wonderful to see so many of our former missionaries all in one spot. I actually got a little emotional talking to them. All of the feelings of the intense love we have for each of them came rushing over us, and it was magnified because there were so many of them together all in the same spot. As we prepared for our mission I knew my favorite part would be the relationships we developed with our missionaries and I knew I would love them, but just as when you have your first baby, you think you are prepared to love that baby, but you simply can't be prepared for the love you feel once that baby is in your arms. That's how I feel about our missionaries, I just had no idea how much we could love them, because we didn't know them. It was a treat to see them, to talk to them and to know they are together supporting each other and that they are still walking the path, and helping each other along that path.
Our mission family picture
Just a few snapshots I took from my phone while we were FaceTiming.
The following photo represents our survival of the Great California Power Blackout. I'll explain.
The Monday after conference we had a lot of apples left over and so I made some apple pies as part of our family mission plan. Our ward has asked each family to come up with a family mission plan, and the sisters in our ward invited us to do it. I'm ashamed to say that we have lived here for over 2 years and don't know many of our neighbors. No one in our neighborhood takes care of their own front yards and so it is rare that we see people outside, and we are rarely home and so that doesn't help. As part of our mission plan we committed to get to know our neighbors and what better way to do that than to take a warm apple pie with us. So, I spent the day baking, and also making these three pans of lasagne to put in the freezer for a dinner we were having a few weeks later. I knew I wasn't going to have another time to cook and so I did a lot of it that day. We did deliver the pies, and it went well, and I put the lasagne in the freezer. The very next day, we heard about the plan for PG&E, our electric company, to turn off power to close to a million people in California to avoid a wildfire due to wind blowing faulty power lines, which could spark dry foliage and start a fire. Scott kept saying he had faith our power wasn't going to go off, but I thought we should be prepared just in cast and had him buy some ice and flashlights. Sure enough, Tuesday night they turned off our power. We were hearing it could be off for up to a week. My biggest concern were my lasagnes in the freezer. I wasn't going to lose those lasagnes. We are lucky that we had a freezer in the office that we were able to take them, along with some other freezer things, and put them in there. We piled our refrigerated things into a big cooler and hoped for the best. We were also lucky that we have an office where we can hang out. Wednesday and Thursday after our interviews we just took our computers with us and went to the office to work. We got home around 9:30 each night and just went to bed. The crazy thing was that about a mile up our street the lights were on, so we could never quite figure out their reasoning on whose power they turned off and whose they kept on. We only had about 8 companionships that were affected, so we were happy about that. It really wasn't as bad as we thought it might be, we were only out of power for about 48 hours, we had anticipated it being much longer than that, but we can say we were part of the hotly debated and hugely unpopular California blackout of 2019. And I'm happy to say I got to bring my still frozen lasagnes home with me on Friday!
On Saturday of that week we went down to Lodi to speak in the Saturday night session of Stake Conference. We stayed down there overnight in order to attend the Sunday session. President Anderson, the Stake President and his counselors were getting released and a new Stake Presidency called and we wanted to be there to support them. We, especially Scott, has gotten really close to all of our Stake Presidents. They have become good friends to him and he looks forward to seeing them each month. We will miss our close association with President Anderson and his wife Vicky, but know we will be friends forever.
Last week was Zone Conference week. I love zone conferences because we get to see all of our missionaries in the course of three days. I even love preparing for them because we never fail to receive revelation as we prepare. I often think, I wonder if it is going to come this time, because I am not sure what I am supposed to say, and God never fails to help us, to inspire us and to let us know exactly what our mission needs. I really love that feeling and I don't ever take that process for granted. I'm so grateful that God cares about each of our missionaries and that he allows us to be the instruments that get his word to them. It is an exhilarating experience each and every time.
We missed our friend Patrick Twomey who usually comes to zone conferences and documents them with wonderful pictures. He was out of town and so the task was left to us. I took some, Elder Thacker took some, but we didn't get as many good pictures as we have when Patrick is there snapping away.
Zone Conference Day 1: October 13, 2019: East Sacramento, Elk Grove, Cordova and Sacramento Zones
Sacramento Zone
Elk Grove Zone
Cordova Zone
East Sacramento Zone
We love our members and are so grateful for their kindness to us. The Elk Grove Stake always goes above and beyond when they serve us lunch. Look at the way they decorated the tables and the food was delicious.
Just one of the many selfies I found on my phone
Zone Conference Day 2: October 16, 2019: El Dorado, Folsom, Carmichael and North Sac
Carmichael Zone
El Dorado Zone
Folsom Zone
North Sacramento Zone
Another delicious lunch prepared by members of the El Dorado Stake
Same drill, different faces. Clean apartments, cars and birthdays...
Today's selfies. I think my phone is a community phone! It's always fun when I look through my pictures to see who has had it in their possession for a minute or two.
Sister Shu from Hong Kong and her new companions, Sister Olsen and Sister Christensen
Hermana Morales from Mexico and her new companions, Hermana Bretzing and
Hermana Freeman
And Sister Deng from China. Her companions are Sister Prettyman and Sister Peters, but they were at that zone conference and took off with her before I could get a picture of her with them.
That evening we had a nice experience. We were able to have a lesson at our home with a young 14 year old girl that some Sisters were teaching. About 16 months ago she came to a lesson at our house as her dad was being taught. He was taught several lessons in our home and we came to love him so much. He has since joined the church, received his temple endowment, and recently took his daughter with him to General Conference. The missionaries who taught him, who are now home, were so great with him and his daughter that now she has decided she is ready to learn more about the gospel. It was fun having them taught in our home and seeing the full circle of where her dad was and how far he has come and how much the gospel has blessed his life.
Early the next morning we were off to Manteca for Day 3 of Zone Conferences where we met with the Lodi, Stockton and Manteca Zones.
Lodi Zone
Stockton Zone
Manteca Zone
President had a few departing interviews after zone conference and so we got home rather late. We were up early the next morning headed to San Andreas in the Lodi Zone. When we do interviews in the Lodi zone we go to two different places. The mountain zones are about an hour away from Central Lodi where the Stake Center is located. So instead of them driving to the Stake Center, we drive to them. I am so glad we went up there the day we did. The San Andreas ward was preparing for their Halloween party and it was like nothing I had ever seen. They were transforming the entire church building into scenes from Harry Potter. It was unbelievable. They were inviting the entire community out. The man who was the inspiration behind all of this work said "I'm not a very good member missionary, but I can do this to get a lot of people into the church building". We told him that was being an awesome member missionary. We all just serve from our strengths. Elder Decker and Elder Foster sent these pictures of the finished project.
We finished there and headed to Lodi to interview the other half of the zone, and then after interviews I got to be Hermana Hall's companion for the night. She and Hermana Bowen had called me the night before, Hermana Bowen was going to a baptism and Hermana Hall needed a companion for the evening and I was grateful it was me. I really wish I spoke Spanish, but I did what I could and it was a great night. She is such a good missionary and we had a lot of fun together.
There are four sisters who live in what we affectionately refer to as 'The Galt House'. They are always telling me how fun it is to live in the Galt house and they have invited me to come and visit on several occasions. I was so happy that I finally made it to visit the Galt House during our time together.
Saturday morning we were thrilled to have a visit from our former Sister Sariah Tatafu. It made us realize how much we miss having her here in the mission. We love her to pieces.
Sunday morning we were blessed with another visit from former Elder Schwensen. It was so great to see him, to visit and get caught up. We told him he is still quoted in the mission. It was Elder Schwenson who coined the phrase "less drama; more baptisms". We sure love him.
We also got to see our three Hermanas all dressed up in their finest Mexican dresses for the event, and of course, I found a few more selfies on my phone!
Monday, for P Day I was able to go to lunch with Hermanas Osmond and Elizondo and Sisters Ball and MacQueen. We had such a fun afternoon. It was just what I needed after a really busy week. It was nice to relax and feel like I was at lunch with some girlfriends.
We had the senior missionaries come for FHE last night and Elder and Sister Niven gave a great lesson with 20 things they have learned since being out on a mission. We laughed at some of them, and we were spiritually touched by some of them. It was a great night spent together.
Today we had our Mission Health Council and our 4 Week New missionary meeting. We usually have that meeting in the morning and Sister Mair does lunch afterwards, but since we had to rearrange our schedule a bit this week, we did it in the afternoon, after lunch but before dinner and so she brought pie for a pre dinner snack. The missionaries loved it!
And finally, we took Elder Miskin and Elder Burnett to dinner tonight. We are so sad we have to say goodbye for a time to Elder Miskin. He has had a bulging disc for the past 6 weeks and we have tried everything we can out here to fix it, but we have run out of options. So he is going home and we are hoping and praying that it isn't long before he is up and walking again and can come back to us. We sure love him and want the best for him.
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