Perhaps the biggest news for us in missionary work this week had nothing to do with the Oregon Eugene Mission, but with our favorite missionary serving in the California Riverside Mission. Our son Clint who has been out 13 months was called to serve an English speaking mission and therefore had no Spanish training in the MTC. Although he had been in Spanish immersion in grade school, and took Jr High Spanish, and one year of Spanish in High school, he has not used or studied Spanish since then. And yes, he was transferred to be a Spanish speaking missionary this last week. We are glad for the confidence his mission president has in him, and pray that he will be blessed with the gift of tongues. At the same time he has been called to serve as a zone leader, so he will have his hands full.
Now on to the OEM.
This was a week # 4 with the remaining interviews being completed and the beginning of planning out the transfers and preparing for next week zone conferences.
Specifics for this week – ending 10-10-08
Some of the interview schedules are altered from time to time in order to be able to meet with Stake Presidents while in the area. This last Saturday we met with the Pacific zone in between conference sessions and with the stake president and the zone leaders just prior to priesthood session. It is good for me to get to visit directly with the stake presidents and feel their commitment for the work. They are great! I so enjoyed conference and the messages often seemed geared to missionary work or to a specific missionary that I am working with.
We ended up over-nighting in Coos Bay on Saturday so we could spend Sunday in Brookings and visit with the senior missionary couple there (who is leaving in a couple of months) and also with the Bishop and ward mission leader (WML) in that area. In between sessions of conference on Sunday Sister Macdonald and I met with the Bishop and the WML – who are so committed to the work and are working to have people prepared to be taught. Brookings is so far away from the rest of the missionaries that sending a couple there is the only thing that makes sense, and we have no more couples coming. I felt so bad to know how prepared the people are to be taught and then to have to tell the local leaders that I could not send anyone until more senior couples agree to come. We lose another senior couple in January where the story is exactly the same. That will leave us with only one senior couple out proselyting and we are supposed to have eight. The truth is we could use a lot more than eight!
From there we finished interviews over in Klamath Falls and then went up to Bend. We stopped in a little town called LaPine where the local leaders have requested missionaries (they found an apartment and have arranged people to be taught as well.) Again this area might be best for senior couples, but I plan to send the Elders there as it is closer to town and they won’t be all alone. Along the way I met with other great stake presidents who understand missionary work.
The end of the week I worked on transfers with the assistants and Sister Macdonald started working on the cooking required for the next couple of weeks. The transfer experience is both exhausting and invigorating at the same time. I know the Lord is very concerned about each individual missionary and the people they will interact with, so I try very hard to be a worthy tool in His hands.
I have now been here long enough that I feel like I know the area, have met several times with most of the stake presidents, and know a fair bit about these great missionaries. Each one is a unique child of their Father in Heaven and wants to do what is right. It is fun to see them be so willing to take on any new assignment, and also be willing to “lift where they stand.”
The weather here is starting to turn a bit colder and we are starting to see how everything stays so green here.
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