Week Ending June 20, 2009 Week # 4

The top of Lava Butte. Bennett was asleep in the car with Chalisa watching over him so Rachel could have a break.

Here we are in the lava cave. It was cold, but we had a good time and the girls were good hikers.

Here is our little Bennett. We sometimes refer to him as "baby Calica" because he looks so much like our Elder Calica.





I caught Kenna for the picture, but Macy was too fast. They can be such big teases.

The girls never seem to get tired of being together--cousins and friend forever. I love it! and them, of course.

This week we finished interviews with a trip to Redmond. I had the two districts in that area come to the same building (usually I travel to both Bend and Redmond to preserve the missionaries proselyting time, but with family in town I decided to save some of my travel time this time.) I had interviews with one district in the morning and the other district in the afternoon and we were able to arrange to have the relief society sisters in the Redmond stake provide a lunch for the 20 missionaries in the zones at the noon hour. It was fun to be with the missionaries and see the relief society sisters happy to serve these young men.

As I mentioned above, we were blessed to have our family in town this week. One of the things a mission president needs to balance with the heavy load of the missionary work is the need to keep his family in the forefront. Although we are taught to make sure we keep our own well being and our families first, there sure is a huge temptation to let them take a back seat. I think that is true throughout our life, i.e. letting less important although noble things take precedence over the really important things. The challenge in life is to determine which important thing we should focus on at that moment in time.

We were fortunate that our three oldest children’s families were able to arrange their schedules to come together in Sisters, Oregon for most of a week. (Note our son Ryan couldn’t get off work, but his wife and son came, and of course Clint didn’t take a break from his mission, but everyone else was there.) This put us with all six of our grandchildren in the same room for the first time. The Bennion family in our Eugene ward was kind enough to offer up their lovely “cabin” which is really a beautiful home in an exclusive resort called Black Butte for our family to use. While we were in the area we spoke on Sunday in the ward in Sisters. I interviewed the Elders in the area on Wednesday, and we handled many phone calls, e-mails, etc., but we were able to do many family things in-between. Chalisa was in charge of the gathering this year and she did a great job planning events.

Last year at this time we were in the MTC preparing to come here. I am sure we were a bit shell shocked and very unsure of what lay ahead. Well, a year later we feel much more sure-footed and are grateful for the Lord’s help in trying to make us equal to this large task. We feel His guidance regularly in our life and pray for the direction to do what we should.