Week Ending July 11, 2009 Week # 1

I love this picture. True personalities are really showing through. Did I just admit to that?

Now we look like missionaries. It's a little scary, but I see them change just this quick fairly often. All you have to do is go from meetings to lunch time. They are very well behaved.

Laura and Thales Smith, Andrea Stratton and Tom

Thales is Tom's counselor that is over the senior missionaries. Sister Stratton works in the office and we wouldn't survive without her either.

We thoroughly enjoyed each other's company for the day. Dinner was good too, but the visiting was the best. Thanks to the Smith's for putting everything together.

Strattons, Dixons, Romeros, Kirkhams, Macdonalds, Christensens, Schulthies, Smiths

This is just after our meetings at the Chapel in North Bend. You can see the ocean from here.

The Dixons help in the office. We wouldn't survive without them. Here they are at Shore Acres. It was such a beautiful garden.

On Sunday night, July 7, 2009, I received more than the normal amount of phone calls from various missionaries with a wide variety of issues and health problems. Most of them could be handled over the phone. With one of them I asked my counselor in Roseburg to go visit a set of elders there. They turned out to be fine and I was grateful he was close enough to be there quickly. The one call that caused us the most concern was a call from an Elder who had been out only five days. He was calling from the emergency room of the hospital in Prineville (never a good place to be calling from). His companion was having an appendicitis attack. He was a bit nervous, but was handling it great. Prineville is about 2.5 hours away from us. I called the stake president in the area who was good enough to go visit with them. He met them after they arrived at the hospital in Redmond, about 30 minutes away from Prineville, where the stake president livesand where there was a surgeon to take care of the elder. The stake president knew the surgeon and after the appendectomy was completed he spoke with the doctor and called the missionary's parents to update them.

The next day Sister Macdonald and I drove to Redmond and spent a couple of hours with the elderand his district. He had been released that morning. We bought an ice cream cake from DQ and they all seemed to enjoy it. I was glad it went so well and that he was healing quickly. We have talked with him a couple of times this week and now he wants us to quit mothering him and just know that he is okay.

Tuesday was our zone leader’s council (ZLC) and Sister Macdonald always has a fair bit of food to prepare for that meeting. She was able to pull it all off like a pro even though her Monday prep time was significantly reduced since we drove up to Redmond. In addition to the normal items covered at ZLC I led a lengthy discussion on Christ-Like Leadership. It was great to lead these young men through the scriptures and discussion on how to lead their zones in love and try to do it the way the Savior would. They were so receptive to the idea and each contributed wonderfully to the discussion.

Normally this week allows a lot of catch up time as it is between interviews and Zone Conferences, but we added a seniors conferences into our schedule. We have 7 senior couples serving in the mission (we could use a lot more) . We have two sets in the office and five in various towns in the mission. Most of them are along the coast and one in Lakeview. The Lakeview couple had a son and his family scheduled to come visit them so they didn’t make it over to Coos Bay where we held the conference. However, the other six couples and my counselor, Thales Smith and his wife Laura, made it too. We had a chance to get to know them all better and train them in the expectations of being a senior missionary. We taught them that they don’t need to live by the exact hours of a young missionary, but they should make sure they get their hour of individual study time and their hour of companionship study time too. We then enjoyed an hour and a half or so at Shore Acres, a beautiful botanical garden by the sea. We all had dinner together before everyone headed back to their respective areas.

Sister Macdonald and I had traveled over to Coos Bay the day before the senior couples and interviewed the missionaries in the Pacific Zone earlier in the morning. After we finished the interviews and before the seniors conference we all had lunch together. It was great to see the young elders and the senior missionaries visiting throughout lunch. That and attending a portion of a combined district meeting on Friday, with some of Sister Macdonald’s homemade banana bread, was most of the interaction I had with the younger missionaries this week.

Oh, one more thing I should report. Saturday the assistants came by with a picture album. They had collected pictures from all of the missionaries who wanted to contribute to it. They had written personal notes on the backs of some of their pictures, to celebrate our one-year mark. It was a nice surprise and something we will enjoy looking at through the years. We think Sister Stratton might have had something to do with it too. She's a sneaky one. It's wonderful.

Week Ending July 4, 2009 Week # 6

This is a view of Dorena Lake. The "smooth" was killing Tom, perfect for skiing.

I snatched a picture of the Strattons while we were taking a break to take in the scenery and the wonderful scents.




Tom hurried ahead (so like him) and got a picture of the rest of us coming down the road.

Sixteen new arrivals this month. Not a record by any means, but more than we've had in a while. It's good to have so many excited missionaries join us. Sister Wilson looks just like Amber Harper, one of my favorite Laurels from years past.

Aren't they handsome! Oh it is difficult to say good-bye, but so wonderful to be in the temple with them. It is with great fondness that I refer to them as "My Boys".

Activities the night before going home. This arm wrestle went on F-O-R-E-V-E-R! Everyone watching refused to let them call it a draw, so they kept on, dripping with sweat, until Elder Turner triumphed.





Then after a very short rest Elder Turner accepted a challenge from Elder Hazelett. This wrestle also went on for a while. Elder Hazelett won.





Elder Wood at the airport taking his "Sinatra" pose. How we will miss his impressions of famous people. Can't wait to see him on the big screen.

We have just had another round of transfers. We were excited to say hello to a great bunch of new missionaries and sad to say good bye to some we have really come to know and love. That is what happens on transfer week and we are learning that we just have to adjust to the emotion of it all. We did have dinner with Elder Livingston (who had been my assistant) and his companion, Elder Bosen, on Sunday, June 28. We were able to offer more of a personal goodbye. One of the departing missionaries took the time, as some others have in the past, to write us a very nice personal letter about the difference that Sister Macdonald and I had made in his life. We will keep that letter, as we have the others. We were grateful that he took the time to write it.

The 4th of July fell on a Saturday this year, which is the day we try and take as a preparation day. We enjoyed a bike ride from Cottage Grove up to Dorena Lake with the Strattons. We started early so the heat wouldn't get bad. Two elders were kind enough to loan us their bicycles so we could go, but if Sister Macdonald decides she wants to go on rides more often, perhaps we will buy a couple of bikes to keep here. It was about a 16 mile round trip with a fairly gradual upward climb on the trail on the way to the lake and a welcomed decline on the ride back down. The ride around Dorena Lake was beautiful. I will admit that when I saw smooth water and only a few speed boats out on the lake, my thoughts went back to wonderful days of boating with family and friends. If someone would have offered me a ski rope and a quick ski, I am positive I would have easily given in to that temptation. Being with the Strattons made me realize how you can see the exact same thing and have different thoughts - as he could only think of fishing. :>)

As we always do with the departing missionaries, we enjoyed a trip to the temple on Wednesday. The calmness we feel there is always so pleasant. It is a joy to live close enough to the temple, both here and at home, to go regularly. We are grateful to be able to send our missionaries home on that high note. We pray that it will set a pattern of regular temple attendance that they will follow in their life once they return home.

Week Ending June 27, 2009 Week # 5

Sister Brickey is a proud winner of Paper-Rock-Scissors. It was an easy win for her. Such confidence!

Elder Fife, our area medical advisor, is instructing the group on stretching and the need to exercise regularly.

Elder Tanner was a winner of Speed, a basketball competition. Such humility.





Elder Guerrero was another winner of Paper-Rock-Scissors. The missionaries have so much fun with this competition, pure fun.

Elder Nielson was another winner in Speed. There were three separate days of competition with three different groups of missionaries.

Elder Burningham was the winner of Paper-Rock-Scissors. He beat last year's champion.

Elder Zebley won Speed. Fun to see him do so well in basketball. He is extremely talented at the piano.

Elder Goodman watches unidentified elder and Elder Kauvaka participate in Paper-Rock-Scissors, waiting to see which one he will play against.

President?! Have you discovered Rogaine? No. It's a visor with hair attached. From a distance it looks pretty good.

Look closely at the tie. It is young Pres. Macdonald wearing a flower in his lapel. Yes, a school dance picture with the girl cut out! The mystery girl? It wasn't me! Elder Peterson knows who she is. President knows who she is. I know who she is! Are we keeping her a secret? Hi Leona! Obviously you were in on this. What a great laugh and trip down memory lane for both of us.

We so enjoyed this round of multi zone conferences (MZC). We had them in Medford, Corvallis and Eugene on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday respectively. Once a year we have an “activity zone conference” (which basically means we have the first three hours in traditional MZC training and the couple of hours after lunch in various activities). Some of these activities are morale building and organized, and an hour or so is pretty much open for basketball and frisbee etc. We ended the MZC, once again, with what has now become a tradition, a rock-paper- scissors tournament. It seemed to be something the veterans looked forward to since last year. When finished with the activities everyone seemed happy and ready to go back to work.

We were privilege to have Elder and Sister Fife come to this round of MZC. He is the area medical advisor and is also such a capable church leader. He has served as a bishop and a stake president. Sister Fife is every bit his equal. He had talked to me about their desire to come to one of our zone leader's councils to train the zone leaders on the importance of exercising daily and how to do it. I was afraid the water would not get to the end of the row if only the zone leaders heard the teaching and asked if they might have time to come to a round of our MZC and teach all of the missionaries. The Fifes were kind enough to agree. In the first part of the conference they taught the theory of exercising and in the afternoon, when everyone had changed into “play clothes,” they had the practical application and showed everyone a few exercises they could do without equipment. I pray that our missionaries will exercise more regularly with this reminder. On a personal note it was great to spend three days with the Fifes and have them teach our missionaries. We also saw first hand how dedicated they are to each other, to the gospel, and to a daily exercise regiment.

As always, as part of our MZC the incoming and the outgoing missionaries take a few minutes to share their testimony with all of us. These testimonies are always wonderful but I want to mention one in particular. Elder Reid was released as a zone leader three transfers ago and has been training a new elder for the last two transfers. He had his district and zone sworn to secrecy and no one let his companion know how long he had been out. We normally leave companionships together for two transfers and during my last interview his companion asked if there was any way they could stay together one more transfer. Knowing what was happening I was noncommital and said, "we will see." Well, when Elder Reid stood to speak as a departing missionary his companion was shocked. He said to his companion, "I guess we don’t get to stay together another transfer," and then shared a heartfelt testimony. I am so impressed that neither his words nor his actions let anyone know he was about to go home and that he worked hard to the end.

As part of my teaching in this set of MZC I referenced a talk entitled “The Role of Members in Conversion” by Elder Dallin H. Oaks. Attached is a web address where you can find that talk, or if you have trouble opening it you can also find it in the March 2003 Ensign pages 52-58 or at:

http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=6eb476e6ffe0c010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD


This is not a talk that I previously had in my personal library but I believe I was led to it for a divine purpose. In this talk Elder Oaks reflects on President McKay’s motto of “Every Member a Missionary” and also President Hinckley’s challenge to double the number of convert baptisms. As I read this talk I noted that since President Hinckley issued the challenge, baptisms in the church have not doubled, but have stayed fairly constant or even had a small decline some years. Baptisms in our mission (other than the last year and a half or so) have followed that same trend almost every year since this challenge was issued. I firmly believe that as missionaries work together with the members in their areas we will be able to meet the challenge that a prophet of God issued, and we will double the baptisms in this mission. I also know we can retain these new converts in church activity. I am happy to note that many of the weekly letters I receive from our missionaries are commenting on how member missionary work is picking up and that there is a certain “BUZZ” about missionary work in the wards they are serving. I know it is the local leaders that are creating that Buzz.

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.

Week Ending June 13, 2009 Week # 3

Wow! What a great picture. This is a sunset on the coast. It wouldn't be anything without those elders though. What do you think?

Elders: Lunt, Zebley, Simpson, Burningham, Lenz, Turner, Jenkins

Lopez, Bartel, Losser

What a great looking bunch of elders!

This week I met with three of the four stake presidents in the north as we were doing interviews in the area and I talked with the fourth president on the phone. It is great to have their input and to witness their significant growing interest in missionary work. Much of the talk is on the growth among the Spanish speaking people in the mission. One of the stakes created a Spanish Branch this last Sunday. It is fun to be a small part of this growth.

In addition to doing interviews for a couple of days in the north, we accomplished most of the work on transfers this week. Once again the Lord works well to let me know His will in the transfer experience. It is so helpful to get the weekly letters from the missionaries and know how they are doing, which leads to thoughts on where changes should be made. A few of the missionaries haven’t caught the vision of writing regularly to me. It really limits my ability to help them in their growth.

On Monday the zone leaders in the Corvallis Zone arranged to have their missionaries use the Oregon State Beavers indoor football practice area to play some football and frisbee. I went up and played for a few hours with them. The facility is a full football field size and it is, of course, artificial turf. It was fun to play with the elders and to feel what running on the artificial stuff is like. The next day at interviews some of the Elders complained that their muscles were sore. I felt much better that it wasn’t just their old mission president who was feeling the affects of using some different muscles. Actually I was surprised those tough 20 year olds would admit to any weaknesses at all.