Week Ending July 25, 2010 Week # 1

All the comings and goings of this week and I never had my camera, so here are some more pictures from July's zone conferences. Here is a sister's photo from Eugene.

Elders Cluff and Lenz publicly acknowledged Elder Christensen's weight loss. He lost weight and Elder Cluff...well...a...



Elders Allsworth and Bitter are having tie tying instruction. Always learning something new.



Elder Huber in talking about his "greenie," Elder Milligan, with his usual style.




This bunch is headed home soon. For a couple of them this is there last zone conference so they decided to have a farewell picture. Elder Guerrero is already gone. Elder DePonte isn't in the picture because he was at a different zone conference. I'm already missing them all.

We started off this week by having a final dinner on Monday night for Elder DuPonte who went home a few weeks before his group to accommodate some family travel plans. It was fun to see him, and since the group was just him, we enjoyed hearing a lot about his mission. An office couple took him to the airport on Tuesday morning as we left early that morning to start teaching the zones throughout the mission the new curriculum. We were sorry not to be able to see him off, but we are sure he did just fine without us.

On Tuesday we taught the missionaries in the Roseburg zone in the morning and that afternoon we met with the stake presidency and the missionaries in Grants Pass. After our combined meeting with the stake presidency we taught the missionaries. Then we headed to Central Point and had a nice dinner with two sisters who went home a few months ago who were back visiting, Sisters Thompson and Cutler, at the home of the Idiarts’ son. Sister Macdonald stayed with them a little longer and I went to a baptism in Medford and to visit with an elder whose father has cancer and is not expected to live a lot longer. After I told him the news, he called home and talked to his family. The gospel makes it possible to hear and handle that type of news, but it doesn’t make it easy. Later that week the elder decided to go home a few weeks early (early August instead of his scheduled late August departure) to be with his family. We pray for him and his entire family.

Wednesday we taught the missionaries in the Temple zone in the morning and afternoon. We taught two of the lessons from the new curriculum and also enjoyed attending the Medford Temple in the late afternoon. Sister Macdonald and I have been trying to reach out to missionaries who have gone home and we have had a hard time tracking them all down, so this week Sister Macdonald signed up for an account on Face Book and has been in touch with many of them that way. I am so glad that she took that initiative and that she spends the necessary time to continue caring and loving these good “sons and daughters” of ours .

Thursday we drove to Klamath Falls and taught one of the lessons from the new curriculum (the zone leaders had taught one lesson before we got there). After meeting with the missionaries we enjoyed going to meet with a minister and his wife that some of the elders there have been teaching. We shared our testimonies with them and invited them to pray about the truthfulness of what we shared and what the missionaries have been teaching them. It was good to feel of their love for our Savior and their genuine interest in what we are teaching. We pray that they will receive a witness of the truthfulness of this gospel. That night on our way to Bend, we enjoyed a dinner with Elder and Sister Brinkerhoff, our Area 70, who were at their summer home in Sun River.

Friday we taught two more lessons to the missionaries in the Cascade zone and then we were ready to head home. It was really good for me to be able to spend more time in actual teaching of these missionaries, but I know Sister Macdonald missed the informal visits she normally has with them while I interview their companion. I believe that as the missionaries apply what they are being taught that not only will they become more effective missionaries, but much more importantly they will personally become more fully converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our week ended on Sunday the way it began, by having Elder Guerrero come by for dinner before leaving on Monday. We love these good young people (the ones a bit older too) and find it hard to say goodbye. In addition to these reported activities we enjoyed a missionary fireside on Sunday and a chance to interact with ward members at church. Summer has come in full force and we are enjoying warm days and sunny skies. All is well in beautiful Oregon.

Week Ending July 18, 2010 Week # 6

Our new missionaries for July. It never ceases to amaze us what a small world it is within the church. Immediately upon meeting these new missionaries in the airport, connections are being made with friends and family in common back home. As always, a great group.

It took a couple tries to get this picture. Some of the elders kept rolling out of the range of the camera. What a bunch!




These two pictures reminds me of the difference of when my children were awake and asleep. At the moment they are absolute angels. Sleeping? That would be safe, more likely plotting.

I will start with something that should have been reported with last week’s entry. On Sunday July 11th I was able to attend a couple of different baptisms. One in Springfield and one for 5 people in Salem. Since Sister Macdonald needed to prepare meals for incoming missionaries and for zone leader’s council, we determined that I would go to these baptisms without her. I then decided to call Elder Orgill, a missionary who was in a companionship with three missionaries in Cottage Grove, to accompany me on the ride to and from Salem. He could leave and not have the work in that area interrupted. It was fun to visit with him on the way as we drove. He completes his mission next month and I was happy to have this extra time with him.

I especially wanted to go to the baptism in Salem because one of the baptisms was from a small town that I had an impression needed missionaries a couple of months ago. As I was driving through Independence, Oregon in May, I felt a strong impression that there were people in that town who were ready to hear and accept the gospel. This is a small town south of the Salem area that didn’t have missionaries in it, but had both English and Spanish speaking missionaries assigned to it. When I mentioned my impression to the missionaries assigned there, they were excited for the guidance I had given them, and they started spending a little more time in that area. There have now been a few baptisms from that town, both English and Spanish speaking. I anticipate more in the future.

On Monday night the Watsons arrived in Eugene to take on the office duties that the Giles have been doing. Since they will be taking over the apartment the Giles are living in, we have been blessed to have them stay here for the week until the Giles head home. Although we have both been busy, we have enjoyed the chance to visit a little in the evenings and catch up with each other and on all the news of our good friends at home.

Tuesday the new missionaries arrived (only 8, a normal size group for non summer months, but a small group for July) and no missionaries went home. It is hard to believe that it has been two years since the transfer when we had no missionaries come in – time flies. We will have some of the August group (26 in total) start to go home over the next few weeks as some are going home a bit early for school, etc. We will miss them.

We had a great zone leader’s council and were able to introduce (yes the FedEx package finally arrived) the new schedule for teaching by the mission president, versus just interviews. It was fun to be very involved in this training and I look forward to rolling it out throughout the mission. On Friday I went out to Coos Bay and taught the whole zone the same thing I had taught the council and enjoyed very much the interaction with the missionaries. Of course, I have always understood that my job was to teach these young men and women, but having this organized structure has made it easier and much more effective.

Other things we were involved with that we enjoyed this week were going out to dinner with the new stake president and his wife here in Eugene, attending more baptisms, meeting with all of the stake presidents in the Eugene area as they met with the zone leaders, feeding some young missionaries and a farewell dinner for the Giles and a welcome dinner for the Watsons which we were blessed to have the Idiarts attend as well. We enjoyed several calls from our former missionaries and the former area medical advisor; we must not forget to mention the wonderful calls with our family. There are so many good friends we have made along the way that will be ours for always. Life is great.

Week Ending July 11, 2010 Week # 5

Elder Christensen introducing Elder Shumway--explaining his love for cars.

Sister Idiart enjoying the R.S. Pres. new baby while we have lunch. This is the grandchild of Elder and Sister Rosenthal who used to be in the office.

Sisters Glasgow and Abbott in their homemade T-shirts: "I'd take a bite for a baptism". This idea came from a near dog bite while tracting.

The Paynes were here for their last zone conference. They are headed home. I cried off and on all day. I always hate good-byes. We will truly miss them.

Elder Lunt brought part of his family to see the mission. It was good to meet them and to see him. We had a great visit.

This was the week of zone conferences and we followed our regular schedule of being in Medford, Corvallis and Eugene on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. This was also a week filled with news about changes on “how to run a mission”. Those changes will be discussed below. We felt like zone conferences went very good and we were able to feel the spirit at each one of them. We really enjoyed interacting, teaching and role playing with these missionaries of ours. We were blessed to have the two new stake presidents in our mission speak as well as some other local leaders. I asked them to speak on not becoming an “ALARM,” my acronym for A Less Active Returned Missionary. Each speaker approached it very differently, and each did a great job! Sister Macdonald and I would be heartbroken if any of these missionaries we have grown to love became less than they should be when they go home. There was a spirit of love and cohesiveness at all of the conferences that was heartfelt and left us feeling like this was one of the best zone conferences we have held.

We were also authorized to announce that our mission will be having an apostle come and that we will hold a mission wide conference with him in September. The apostle will be doing this conference in connection with some training for the local leadership. Of course the announcement was met with fond anticipation and questions about who it was going to be. Although I know who has been assigned, I have not yet been authorized to share that information with the missionaries because of possible schedule changes that can occur.

After zone conferences we made two to three changes to the transfer board based on inspiration I had felt after visiting with a few missionaries at zone conferences. I also made leadership calls for next week. It felt good and I am very hopeful about this next transfer.

This week I was speaking to the Watsons after they had finished their two weeks in the MTC. They are coming to work in the office to take the place of the Giles who are almost done with their year here. After correlating their arrival time here, etc., they told me they had heard that the schedule of meetings within the mission for mission presidents was changing. They told me the schedule would now be to interview missionaries every other transfer (except for “as needed” visits in between) and to hold zone conferences every other transfer as well. I had heard nothing about this and was surprised to have heard it through the “back door.” I called the missionary department and found out that my Fed-Ex package had not been delivered because the delivery man could not find the office (it is downstairs and a bit difficult to find.) They e-mailed much of it to me and I will get the package next week. The basic plan is to free up some of my time so that I can spend more time teaching in smaller groups. I have always understood my job was to teach and I have done that, so I am excited to move this plan forward.

In addition to the normal running of the mission we have enjoyed phone calls and or Skype calls with our children and are so glad they are so supportive of our service here and don’t cause us any concerns or problems. We love them and think they are all great – that includes their spouses who we count as our own, and of course our adorable grandchildren. We also enjoyed receiving several phone calls from some of our returned missionaries and having one drop by with his family this week. Another good week for the Macdonalds and the OEM.

Week Ending July 4, 2010 Week # 4

President and Sister Dyches are such good friends. They always lift our spirits and help us want to be better. We love them.

Taking a break from working on the transfer board, Elder Christensen is working on President's back (too many pull-ups?).

Elder Leet and his wife came by. We had a wonderful visit, just too short.

Happy 4th of July. I realize that it may be well past Independence Day when you read this, but we just returned from church and enjoyed singing various patriotic songs and are grateful for the many freedoms we enjoy in this great land. Perhaps the freedom we are most grateful for and focused on right now is the freedom of religion and all that means in helping people find their way back to our Heavenly Father. What a great land this is. I am thankful to our Heavenly Father who has given us such a great land to live in, and that we can live here the way we choose.

For a couple of days I worked with my assistants on transfers, zone conferences, and zone leader’s council. As always we had a calming feeling come over us and we received some specific direction to guide our thoughts and make the changes we felt the Lord would have us make. On the day when we had almost all of the transfer decisions made for next week, there was still one elder whose next area hadn’t been decided upon. I felt a need to keep him on the side lines until clear direction was given later. (As a side note we planned on having several missionaries serve in three-some companionships because next transfer we send home six more missionaries than we have coming in, and it didn’t make sense to open an area for six weeks and then close it when we lost those six. I thought we could just decide later to place him in another three-some.) That next day an elder needed to go home unexpectedly and this elder was able to transfer there a couple of weeks earlier than normal transfers. He was already in a threesome and it was very easy to move him right away. For me it was another sign that the Lord continues to direct this work.

This week we had the former Elder Leet and his wife come to our ward and then come by our home afterwards for lunch and a nice visit. They have been on a whirl wind tour through the area and we were grateful to see them for a few hours. It is great to see these young people grow, mature and make good decisions in their life. We know of one or more of our former missionaries coming through here over each of the next three weeks. We look forward to seeing all of them.

On Saturday Sister Macdonald and I were able to go to Portland and see the play, Lion King along with the mission president and his wife from the Oregon Portland Mission. We have grown to love those two so much and we enjoy any chance to be with them. Getting to know them is just one more of the many blessings we have received in coming to the Oregon Eugene Mission.