Week Ending September 26, 2009 Week #6

A fairly large group of new missionaries. We are happy to have them. It will allow us to open some new areas--growing is good. A group anxious to get to work.

It was a beautiful day to be at the temple. We had a great time being out on the beautiful grounds. There weren't many flowers though. Most of the beds were in preparation mode for the winter flowers.

We had fun showing President's family around the area. We also went out to the coast. It was mostly just good to be together.

It's been another transfer week. Of course the usual things happen, we rejoiced in seeing the new missionaries, loved going to the temple with the departing missionaries, and hated to say goodbye to eight elders who have become our friends and made such a huge difference in the lives of many people here in Oregon, including us. It is great to see the changes that occur in their own lives as well. This week I will point out some of the unusual things of the week as well as a sampling of some of the questions/comments I received. However, similar things happen each transfer week.

One of the changes of this transfer, as well as the past couple of transfers, is that we are getting more missionaries into the mission than we are sending home. This is in harmony with the church’s plan to send more missionaries to more productive areas. This mission has been blessed to become such an area. We welcomed in 14 new missionaries this week, and sent home eight, plus one mini-missionary. As a result we opened another two new areas and have a couple of companionships serving with three elders in the same area.

We also sent sister missionaries down to Medford for the first time in several years. We sent a trusted sister who has been out almost a year, along with a brand new sister. While they will be somewhat isolated from other sisters, they will have the benefit of serving near the temple. It is, in fact, in their ward boundaries and I know that will be a blessing to them.

Missionaries learn to quickly love whatever new area they are assigned to, and gratefully take on their new assignment with enthusiasm. By saying this I am also keenly aware how much they dislike leaving the area they are currently serving in. Some examples of this are evident in the following statements I heard this week:

From a sister who had served nine months in her current area (which is longer than any other sister serving in any area of the mission currently), “Are you really sure I am needed in the new area? I could stay longer you know.” I assured her this new assignment had been prayerfully made and she would do great in her new area.

From an Elder when I called to tell him of his new area, “What would you say to me staying here one more transfer?” Of course this is after all of the other transfers have been prayerfully planned and announced. I told him “That train has already left the station.” And then I assured him he would do great in his new area.

There are many other similar examples and I am not unsympathetic to their honorable desire to stay with their companions whom they have learned to love and appreciate, and serve where they know and love the people. But in order to move the work forward various changes are regularly needed. We really love these missionaries, and love the fact that they love the work and people so much!

In the mission president’s handbook we are taught that the number one responsibility we have is for the well-being of our families. I am grateful that with all the Brethren have to do, and with all they realize we have to do, they emphasize that responsibility. We are blessed to be assigned to a mission close to our families and almost on the same time zone which makes occasional visits from them, and phone calls easy to accomplish. We are further blessed that they want to see us, and will make time to do so. This week my three sisters and my step-mother made the trip to see us. They arrived the evening after we had sent off our retuning missionaries and we had a few free days to visit with them. It goes without saying that there were several needed phone calls and a few other short interruptions, but all-in-all we had time for a great visit. Kaye and I are thankful to them and their families for the efforts necessary to get them here. We missed them when we sent them off on Sunday.

My two younger sisters will be upset with me including this detail, but I am still a teasing big brother so here we go. One of our delightful sister missionaries, whom I have learned to love even more this week, saw us at church and asked the youngest of the family if I was the baby of the family.  That just goes to show you how much these wonderful missionaries learn to love their mission president and his wife, and even become a bit blind to the facts at hand.

Week Ending September 19, 2009 Week # 5

This is Elder and Sister Evans with us at Zone Conference in Eugene

All of the Sisters were together for Zone Conference, so we took a picture with Sister Evans. We had a break-out session with just the Sisters that was really good for all of us.

Zone Conference in Central Point

Zone Conference in Eugene. Good luck recognizing anyone in this one!

Elder David Evans of the 1st Quorum of the Seventy was assigned to tour our mission this week. We left our home on Wednesday morning in order to pick up him and his wife, Mary, at the Medford Airport around noon that day. After lunch we had a two hour meeting with my assistants, the District leaders (DL), and the Zone leaders (ZL) in that area. They all seemed to enjoy meeting with Elder Evans in a smaller group and having an opportunity to ask questions.

Since we were done a bit early, we caught the 5:30 session at the Medford Temple together. It was a nice, settling event for the week and it is always a blessing to have the spirit of the temple in our lives. In weeks 4, 5, and 6 we will have a few opportunities to go to the temple because of the Mission President Seminar last week, and going with the departing missionaries next week, but we were happy to get another trip in when Elder Evans suggested it. We also enjoyed a dinner together in Jacksonville.

On Thursday morning we had our first of two multi-zone conferences. In order to maximize instruction time Elder Evans had us disburse with some of the practices that we have traditionally done in Zone Conferences. We skipped some of the quotes we normally do, as well as hearing from incoming and outgoing missionaries. After we had an opening song and prayer we got right into having him teach us. This change has caused me to rethink what is required and what isn’t required at zone conferences.

As we drove back to Eugene on Thursday, late afternoon/evening, the Evans were both quite impressed with the beauty of the drive. I think we have become Oregonians in our hearts, and are now used to the beauty of the green everywhere. While we never tire of the beauty, we just aren’t quite as surprised by it anymore. It will be different when we go back to the desert of Utah. Then we will be shocked back into the reality.

During the Friday session of zone-conference we didn’t have time for a lengthy meeting with the DL and ZL but did have a brief meeting with the Zone Leaders afterwards. At the two conferences much of the same information was taught, but emphasis was put more on one area than another. The key take-a-ways were to teach with the spirit, ask for referrals from everyone and then follow through with them, and to make sure we give our heart, might, mind and strength with an emphasis on using our mind. We should be smarter in all that we do.

At the end of conference we dropped the Evans off at the airport to pick up a rental car for the next couple of days as he was to preside at the Springfield stake conference over the weekend. We joined them for the two sessions on Saturday, and then spoke at the Sunday session of stake conference in the Lebanon stake. It is interesting to me, that in two plus days together we got to know each other fairly well and feel like we have new friends. They were gracious in offering to do anything they could to help with our children while we are serving on this mission. Anyway, when we said goodbye on Saturday night, we knew we and the mission were better off because they came.

Week Ending September 12, 2009 Week # 4

Here is President doing role-play and being instructed by Elder Scott. Talk about pressure! He did a great joy.

A group picture of all of those in attendance at the seminar.

The large plane in the back is the Spruced Goose built by Howard Hughes during World War II. It was never used and is made completely from wood. It is enormous!

Anyone recognize her? She now lives in Portland, same ward as the mission president, with her husband and little girl. They stopped in to say hello. The mission training videos have made her famous and she is very gracious about is.

To say we had a spiritually high week would be a significant understatement. There were several different events that helped us feel the spirit in our lives this week. In order of occurrence they were as follows: working on transfers, the mission president seminar and all that goes with that, the death of our dear niece (Sister Macdonald’s brother’s daughter) attending the Salem stake conference, and hearing about our son’s missionary homecoming report.

Arguably the transfer experience was not significantly different this time than working on previous transfers, but the sprit is so evident each time we work on transfers that I feel compelled to include it in my growth experiences of the week. As I worked with my assistants on transfers this time, I reflected on the scripture in Moses that describes the difference between the Lord’s plan and Satan’s plan. Satan's goal was to receive personal glory as evidenced by his statements, "Here am I, send ME. I will do it. Give ME thine honor."; versus the Son who said, "THY will be done, the glory be THINE forever." I hope I, along with our missionaries, will always be among those the Lord can depend on to send anywhere to do anything He asks, depending on us to go out and get it done then freely give HIM the glory. As I worked on transfers I felt assured that many of our missionaries are that type of person who will do whatever is asked of them.

From Wednesday to Saturday we were in Portland for a mission president seminar, conducted by Elder Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy, and Elder Arnold of the 1st quorum of the Seventy. On Friday and Saturday Elder Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve joined us and presided at the meetings held those days. We were joined by the other eight Mission presidents and their wives that make up the Northwest Area (Alaska, Washington, Oregon and one Canadian mission.) We were taught well and left feeling even more committed to the great work we have been called to do. On Thursday we all went to the temple together and felt such peace there. There is a sweet feeling of camaraderie and knowing you are involved in an eternal work. Many of these mission presidents and their wives are now life-long friends of ours. We took pages of notes and we will refer to them many times over the coming months. My missionaries would have been happy to see me in the “role playing” mode, but this time I was the "teaching missionary” and Elder Scott acted as the “Mission President” in reviewing how we did. It was humbling, but a lot of fun and I grew a lot from it.

While we were at the mission president’s seminar we received noticed that our niece had passed away. She was twenty nine at the time , the same age as our oldest daughter. They were born a few weeks apart and had grown up together and were friends throughout life. She was married to a good man and had three beautiful daughters. She had cancer for a number of years and has been so valiant in learning what the Lord had in store for her and her family. We regrettably were not able to be there for the funeral but were well represented by three of our children and their families. We are so grateful for the gospel in our lives and theirs and a sure knowledge that the Lord lives and that there is life after death.

Sunday we were able to attend and speak at the general session of stake conference in Salem Oregon. Elder Scott Grow of the seventy presided and he along with the stake president and President and Sister Shultz of the Portland Temple also spoke. I was able to meet a former member of my home stake who had moved to Salem as well as a woman who used to work for me in Orem. It is fun to be able to see old friends when we travel throughout the mission. The meeting was one of spiritual uplift and growth.

While we were speaking in Salem our son was speaking in Orem and reporting his mission. Throughout the day we heard from several friends, family, and ward members who had been in attendance about how much he had grown and how well he did in speaking. We are glad that our family continues to grow as we serve here.

Weeks Ending August 29 & September 5, 2009 Weeks #2 & 3

A great message and a favorite photo op just outside Monroe, Oregon

Here is our sweet little Taylee.

Sister Parker and her father returned to the mission to visit. They stopped to visit us at the mission home and have lunch. It was great to see her!

Here's Elder Howard. It was great to see him too! We miss our missionaries when they go home.

Here is one picture of the collision. Thank goodness for airbags and seatbelts, and of course, angels that watch over missionaries.

When we came on our mission we knew we would miss some key family events, but we also felt assured our family would be blessed by this opportunity to serve. On Sunday August 30, 2009, while we were in Klamath Falls to speak at a stake conference, we were blessed with another healthy granddaughter. She was born into the family of our oldest daughter and her husband. This was their fourth child and our seventh grandchild. Of course we wanted to be there, but are blessed to live in a time of almost instant information. That morning at 3:54 a.m. a text came telling us they were being admitted to the hospital; at 4:44 a.m. another text announced that the baby had arrived. Gratefully we slept through both of those text messages. At 6:15 a.m. we received a phone call giving us all of the details of the new one’s arrival; and at 7:19 a.m. we had a photo of the beautiful new baby on our cell phone. It made us feel a little closer to all of it.

We had two very full weeks of interviews. We changed the order of some of our interviews in order to better accommodate a stake conference speaking assignment on the weekend of August 29th and 30th and to make time available to attend a mission president seminar being held in Portland, September 9-12. We started with interviews of the Sisters and Elders in the Eugene zone on Tuesday and Wednesday (August 25th and 26th) and then on Thursday, the 27th, we interviewed the Elders in Roseburg and Grants Pass. That evening we had a delightful dinner with the stake president in Medford, President Woodley, who lives in Ashland, and the missionaries who serve in that area. An investigator and neighbor of the Woodley’s also joined us. The missionaries told me they were a little nervous to be teaching in front of us and the stake president, but they did a great job. I am so grateful to have a good relationship with the stake presidents in our mission and it is great to see them personally involved in missionary work.

Sister Tawney Parker came back for a visit and brought her father along. It was great to see her and meet her father as well. Thye took time to have lunch at the mission home. She is missed.

Friday, the 28th we interviewed the missionaries in the Medford and Central Point area. One of our great missionaries who went home in May, Elder Jacob Howard from Mesa, came back to go through the Medford temple with a person he had baptized while he served in Klamath Falls. He flew in late on Friday night and we were able to meet him for breakfast Saturday morning before we left Medford to travel over to Klamath Falls. In Klamath Falls we would interview the missionaries in that area on Saturday morning before stake conference. We really enjoyed our time with the missionaries. Then our attention turned to the stake conference.

The stake conference in Klamath Falls had Elder Walker, an Area 70 from Washington, there as the presiding authority. I had met him a couple of times before at mission president’s seminars. It was nice to be with him and President Paul Stewart, the stake president. We enjoyed all of the sessions we went to and one or both of us spoke at all of them. The grandmother of an elder from our home stake, Elder Sellars, that I had set apart as a missionary two and a half years ago, lives in that stake and introduced herself to us. When we met with her, it made us feel more at home since we indirectly knew someone there.

After stake conference we traveled to Bend and interviewed the missionaries there on Monday. They switched their P-Day around to accommodate the Monday interview schedule. We were very grateful that our two missionaries from that area who were in an accident that totaled their car, were safe and that neither they, nor the other driver were injured. When we saw the picture of the wrecked car we were grateful they were on the Lord’s errand and received his blessings.

• We finished interviews in Corvallis, Salem, and Coos Bay on the 1st, 2nd, and 4th respectively. While I don’t think we will purposely try to plan to put that many interviews back-to-back again (we interviewed over 170 missionaries in a week and a half) it was nice to get out and see them all and to see how they are doing. We sure do love these missionaries.

We were able to finish the month of August with more lessons taught and more people committed to baptism than we have ever had. We are so grateful for the blessings of protection, both physical and spiritual, that the Lord continues to bless our good missionaries with. We clearly see the hand of the Lord in all of our efforts and are humbled to be a part of all of this.