Before The World Changed

As I pulled these pictures to add to this blog post, I almost couldn't believe this life that is depicted in these pictures.  Pictures of large groups of happy missionaries together, pictures of us hugging missionaries, pictures that depict life before the world changed for us a week ago.  But, I'm not going to focus on that in this post.  That will be for my next one, but I definitely wanted to document the great things that happened pre 3/12/2020.

We had a really fun Downtown Sacramento P Day with the missionaries closest to going home on March 2.  We love this day, it is so fun to be with our missionaries just having fun, enjoying our beautiful city and the beautiful weather we had that day.  As always, we started with breakfast at the Wissemann building, headed to Sacramento to begin our day at the Sacramento history wall underneath the overpass between Old Sac and Downtown.  

We headed up to the Golden One Center, DOCO and then off to the State Capitol

We went to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament and then back to Old Town for some shopping and lunch at Round Table Pizza.

The next day we worked the transfer board, it was a tough one, but it all worked out. Because there was so much to do, we didn't have dinner until a little later than normal. We were all ready to break our fast. We had a tri tip that we had gotten at Lockford Sausage. They marinate it there and it was so delicious!

The next day we had a Spanish Culture meeting with all of our Spanish speaking missionaries.  They love when President speaks to them in Spanish, although most of the meeting was in English, to make it go a little smoother. 

I have a Spanish name tag that says Hermana Hymas, but I seem to always forget it when I am with Spanish missionaries.  Elder Grover asked me if I would remember to wear it, and because I did he had to get a picture with me.  I feel a little like a poser when I wear it because I'm definitely not an Hermana. 

After the Spanish meeting we had a practice for our Missionary Restoration Fireside. We had all of those who were performing special musical numbers practice those.  It made me cry when I heard each one of their beautiful songs.  We were so excited that day, and we had no idea what was ahead of us relating to the firesides. I'm glad we didn't know that day what was ahead. 

Scott hates to match with me, but when we unintentionally do our sister missionaries love it, and always want a picture. 

The week we do the transfer board is usually my big cooking week.  I try to make all of our interview cookies, and a lot of the food for the departing dinner and anything else coming our way.  I looked at all I had made that Thursday afternoon and thought, 'someday it's not going to be normal for me to bake this much in one day, but that's not this day.' (And yes, that is my TV on, it's my one day I ever turn it on, and Netflix 'Anne with an E' is a great way to pass a baking day.)

200+ oatmeal chocolate chip, white chocolate chip and butterscotch chip cookies, 4 dozen rolls and two cheesecakes. 

We had a Stake Conference in the Sacramento Stake that Saturday night.  It is kind of sad thinking of that now.  The Stake Conferences the first part of this year are the last ones we will attend and I was so looking forward to all of them.  We thought they might be the last time we would see some of the members we have come to love so much while we have been here.  We loved being at the Sacramento Stake Conference, again, I'm glad I didn't know then that it would probably be our last Stake Conference.  All of these normal things I took for granted a week or so ago, I wouldn't take for granted now. 

Our friends Troy and Lisa Hull in our ward invited us for Sunday dinner where Troy and Stan Bastian made us paella that they learned how to make on their missions in Spain.  It was incredible and the company was even better. So grateful for good friends.

Monday we had transfers and had 14 new missionaries come in and join our mission.  This is our 24th transfer and we had a first.  We got a message from the Mexico City MTC that morning that one of our Hermanas who was supposed to arrive got sick and wasn't going to be able to travel.  We felt so bad for her, but we were able to help her feel part of the incoming activities, thanks to technology. 

The remaining two Hermanas came in around 2:30, the rest from the Provo MTC came in around 4:30 so we had two different arrivals on Monday.

The next group arrived and were warmly greeted, delivered to the mission office, fed, trained and sent out to work. We love this arrival day. 

The next day we trained them and introduced them to their companions.  Since Hermana Nelson was still in the Mexico MTC, we introduced her to her companions over Facebook messenger, and had her join the trainings through technology. 

It was off to the temple for pictures with their companions and then they were off to work.

Sister Hutchins training Sister Lindsay                     Sister Nicoll training Sister Va'enuku

Sister Weckesser training Sister Finck         Sisters Steinmetz and Decker training Sister Lee

Hermana Bretzing training Hermana Beck       Hermanas Cappillo Montes and Osmond training Hermana Smith

Hermanas Udall and Valedespino training Hermana Ashcroft.  Sister Taylor training Sister Peapealalo

Hermana Willden training Hermana Rowland      Elders Erb and Allred training Elder Keller

Elder Decker training Elder Dowell                          Elder Larsen training Elder Hobbs

                                             Elder Seely training Elder Xiong

Pre temple training from President Hymas. Again, we had no idea this might be our last time taking missionaries to the temple. 

Dinner and the final testimony meeting at our home that night.

This is one of my favorite nights, followed by one of my least favorite mornings.  We are so sad when we send these great missionaries home, but are so happy for their families on the receiving end. 

 Sister Dickson and Sister Bayless had an early flight so it was off bright and early with these two.

Then it was time for round 2.

Sister Knaphus

Sister Law

Sister Christensen

Sister Ho Ching

Elder Obray

Elder Miller

Elder Thacker

Consoling those who are left behind!

As we got in the car to leave the airport, we started getting calls and messages about our fireside that Sunday and the following two Sundays to see if they were still on due to President Nelson's announcement that all Stake Conferences had been cancelled as well as any congregations for General Conference.  That was when the world started changing for us. But that's another post.  

We still had one more trip back to the airport that evening to pick up Hermana Nelson, who got over her sickness and was able to fly in that evening, just two days late.  President had a teaching appointment so I went and picked her up, we met him for dinner (when we could still dine in) and then we met her companions up at the temple. They were so excited to get her here and so were we. She is going to be a wonderful addition to our mission, as are all of our new arrivals.  We love them all so much. 

  Hermanas Speas and Christensen training Hermana Nelson

That's the way the world was, just one week ago today.  It seems like a year ago that we were taking these pictures and taking for granted our gathering time.  It makes me want to cry to think how much life was going to change, and how little we knew about it at the time.  And for that I am grateful.