President Rau gave us a wonderful gift--umbrella hats! If you don't care what your hair looks like, they are perfect for the Oregon weather. How very typically humorous of him. We've actually already put them to use. The Raus have become very good friends. 
The newly wed couple look very happy and everyone seemed to happy for them. We will miss having Janice around. Regular readers of our blog will recognize this week’s travels as the route we often take at the start of a new transfer cycle. This week’s road trip included stops in Roseburg, Grants Pass, Medford / Central Point, Klamath Falls, and Bend / Redmond. While in the Medford area I inspected one of the missionaries’ apartments that had been reported to be less than perfect. Although it was still in need of some work, it was much better than I had heard it was. They seemed to have taken their promise to Sister Macdonald to heart and had given it a good cleaning.
This transfer one of my assistants, Elder Groskreutz, and I have been training the missionaries on the Doctrine of Christ. This training includes the scriptural background on that doctrine, as well as training and practice on the application of inviting people to come unto Christ through the waters of baptism. As we taught the missionaries, Sister Macdonald visited with each missionary for a few minutes to see how things were going with them, their area and their companionship. I am so glad that she is able to travel with me, and take such a hands-on approach with the missionaries. If in her visits she uncovers an issue or two that she thinks I need to visit with a specific missionary about, I will do that after we complete our teaching and before we leave to go to the next town. As the schedule for mission presidents now has us doing more teaching and less interviewing, Sister Macdonald’s involvement helps to make sure critical issues are not left unresolved for too long.
The teaching we did this week, and will do in the other zones next week, is part of the emphasis on some of the fundamentals of Preach My Gospel that the missionary department has asked mission presidents to teach to missionaries and help them to understand. Since we started this in July some of the missionaries have heard and/or taught this lesson several times. Others who are new have never heard it before. This makes teaching it a little of a challenge to keep it interesting for everyone, but I think it was well received. Elder Groskreutz was a great partner to teach with, and although I have now heard, studied, or taught this well over a dozen times I was personally strengthened each time we were able to teach.
In addition to being with our missionaries we were able to visit with most of the stake presidents in the stakes we visited. A couple of the presidents were traveling and unavailable, but we again enjoyed our time with those we were able to meet with. The presidency in Grants Pass invites all of the missionaries together once a month to let the presidency know how missionary work is going in their stake. Then they have lunch together. When our travels align with this meeting, as it did this week, they invite us to join them. We went out to dinner with President and Sister Wright from the Central Point Stake and the Perdues from the Redmond Stake had us and the Raus from the Bend Stake over for dinner at their home. We will miss our regular association with these good people that we have come to love.
On Saturday we stayed over in Bend for an extra day and attended the wedding of Janice and Guy. Janice has worked as our housekeeper for a few months and agreed to marry Guy after a fairly short whirlwind courtship. It was good to be there, although it was quite a departure from our normal missionary efforts, and I think they were pleased that we had come.
Sunday I felt impressed to travel out to Junction City and attend church there. It is only about 30 minutes away, but we had never been to that ward, and it was fun to be there. It was also fun to see the missionaries there – particularly Elder Bauer who had served as my assistant, and will go home next month. That evening we attended a baptism for a good man that my current assistants have been teaching.
This transfer one of my assistants, Elder Groskreutz, and I have been training the missionaries on the Doctrine of Christ. This training includes the scriptural background on that doctrine, as well as training and practice on the application of inviting people to come unto Christ through the waters of baptism. As we taught the missionaries, Sister Macdonald visited with each missionary for a few minutes to see how things were going with them, their area and their companionship. I am so glad that she is able to travel with me, and take such a hands-on approach with the missionaries. If in her visits she uncovers an issue or two that she thinks I need to visit with a specific missionary about, I will do that after we complete our teaching and before we leave to go to the next town. As the schedule for mission presidents now has us doing more teaching and less interviewing, Sister Macdonald’s involvement helps to make sure critical issues are not left unresolved for too long.
The teaching we did this week, and will do in the other zones next week, is part of the emphasis on some of the fundamentals of Preach My Gospel that the missionary department has asked mission presidents to teach to missionaries and help them to understand. Since we started this in July some of the missionaries have heard and/or taught this lesson several times. Others who are new have never heard it before. This makes teaching it a little of a challenge to keep it interesting for everyone, but I think it was well received. Elder Groskreutz was a great partner to teach with, and although I have now heard, studied, or taught this well over a dozen times I was personally strengthened each time we were able to teach.
In addition to being with our missionaries we were able to visit with most of the stake presidents in the stakes we visited. A couple of the presidents were traveling and unavailable, but we again enjoyed our time with those we were able to meet with. The presidency in Grants Pass invites all of the missionaries together once a month to let the presidency know how missionary work is going in their stake. Then they have lunch together. When our travels align with this meeting, as it did this week, they invite us to join them. We went out to dinner with President and Sister Wright from the Central Point Stake and the Perdues from the Redmond Stake had us and the Raus from the Bend Stake over for dinner at their home. We will miss our regular association with these good people that we have come to love.
On Saturday we stayed over in Bend for an extra day and attended the wedding of Janice and Guy. Janice has worked as our housekeeper for a few months and agreed to marry Guy after a fairly short whirlwind courtship. It was good to be there, although it was quite a departure from our normal missionary efforts, and I think they were pleased that we had come.
Sunday I felt impressed to travel out to Junction City and attend church there. It is only about 30 minutes away, but we had never been to that ward, and it was fun to be there. It was also fun to see the missionaries there – particularly Elder Bauer who had served as my assistant, and will go home next month. That evening we attended a baptism for a good man that my current assistants have been teaching.
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