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.
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.
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