Week Ending January 31, 2009 Week #2:

The Lowry's have the missionaries over for breakfast on Pday the week of transfers. They have been doing this for !!!!years. Sister Lowry also packs lunches for those who will be in the transfer van all day. They love the missionaries and really go the extra mile to take care of them. The missionaries love them too.

Elder Dixon is one half of one of our office couples. He takes care of the vehicles in the mission--HUGE job. Here he is in his ninja turtle gear inspecting vehicles at a zone conference. We all love Elder and Sister Dixon. She takes care of the mail. What missionary doesn't love mail.

Have our elders gone hip-hop?!!!

Brother Bennion, a retired dentist and ward mission leader, is always looking out for the missionaries and their teeth. He has endless energy for missionary work.

We had the opportunity to have Alan in our home and get to know him a little. We are so happy he was baptized. Look at those smiles.







We started the interviewing process in earnest this week. I had about 70 “interviews” and Sister Macdonald did the same number of “visits” throughout all of Eugene and in Roseburg, Grants Pass and Medford. The main difference in these two discussions is that the missionaries know they are being interviewed by me and Sister Macdonald is just nice to talk to. We aren’t trying to play “good cop bad cop” but because she is so sweet and perhaps more non threatening (not that I try to be threatening) it is great for the two of us to compare notes afterwards. I think in this manner we are really able to help the missionaries much better than I could alone. Once again this is a good time in our lives to be so connected in the work we are doing and to be of one mind perhaps more than we ever have been before.

I wanted to talk a little bit about the medical issues that Sister Macdonald primarily takes care of. She was used to raising our children and having them ask if they should do this or that for this aliment or that. In more recent years she has also done a great job sharing this knowledge with our children and their spouses for the grandchildren. She now has about 170 young people who call her for the same advice. We are blessed to have willing help from Sister Andrea Stratton in the office who is a nurse, one of my counselors, Gary Stewart who is a retired doctor, also Elder Fife a wonderful area medical doctor who is extremely qualified and helpful when asked, and to have so many members of the church who are doctors and are willing to help the missionaries whenever they are asked.

Some of the medical things that have been done since we have been here include: knee surgeries – both in the field and at home, an Elder who came from one of the islands came missing a front tooth and a kind dentist provided a beautiful new smile for him at no charge (it has made such a big difference in his attitude and his smile), sprangs, colds, migraines, rashes, torn this or that, deep cuts, and a host of other medical needs. I would be lost without her –she is great!

Speaking about doctors I went to see one a week or so ago because of pain I was having in my left shoulder (this is the one that I have had surgery on twice.) The doctor is a member of the church and before I saw him I explained my history to him over the phone. When I saw him he was very impressed with the therapy I have been doing for the last 25 years and was shocked at what good shape the shoulder was in. All of this I was extremely happy to hear until he used the words that I have never previously heard from a medical provider, at least not directed at me. I am fearful I will now hear it more often. He had the nerve to say “For a man of your age …” While I am grateful all I needed was a cortisone shot and a few new therapeutic exercises, I am not sure I will be able to forgive him for the “man of your age” comment. :>)

Again this week, in addition to being the mission president and his wife, we had some opportunities to be missionaries. We helped teach an investigator in our home, and also helped teach a lesson at the baptism for a man we have helped fellowship who has also been taught some in our home. This work is great.