Week Ending May 30, 2010 Week # 5

President showing the depth of the plowed snow at Crater Lake

Crater Lake (Elders Jones and Christensen are on the far right).

Elders Turner, Mackey, Bitter and Tanner having finished a great zone conference lunch.

Elder Hereth did a "rap" about missionaries in the OEM. It was pretty good. We were all amazed at how well he did because he is so soft spoken. Those quiet elders are always full of surprises.

Sisters Wilson, Stoehr, Thain, Longhurst, Jolley, King, Cutler and Kaufusi love zone conference and a chance to be together for a few hours.




Elders Henry and Engen wondering why I keep taking pictures, but they were willing.

This is the week we complete another round of multi zone conferences. Holding zone conferences is such a way of life for today’s missionaries. It was so sporadic when I was a young missionary. I think it is great to have regular teaching and growing times available for these good missionaries and Sister Macdonald and I love to see them. Many times I feel overwhelmed at their trust and love for us. I received some comfort this week when I remembered the counsel we received in the MTC that “you are good enough.” At first I remembered thinking it was far from a compliment, but those are exactly the words I needed to play back in my mind when I saw these young people looking to us for counsel and advice. It is comforting to remember that most of the great work in the church is done by people with a simple testimony who are willing to work. Well, I think that defines the two of us just right. We have a testimony of the truth and we are willing to work. We pray that the Lord will help us overcome our weaknesses and assist us in doing all that He would have us do.

We left a few hours earlier than usual for zone conferences so we could take the assistants to Crater Lake. There is lots of snow there this time of year making it a whole new kind of beautiful. This is an amazing creation.

For those who are regular readers of this blog you may remember that last zone conference we challenged all of our missionaries to re-read the Book of Mormon by the end of May. As we visited with each of the missionaries during interviews and while we talked with them at this round of zone conferences, it was apparent that this counsel was well received. So many of the missionaries spoke positively about the impact this had on their lives. When I spoke this time I encouraged the missionaries not to feel bad if they didn’t complete their reading at the same speed as others. Some people would much rather read and study each detail and others of us are slower readers. The important thing is that we each study the gospel and try to grow closer to our Savior each day.

In the last two weekends we have personally been able to witness a dozen of the many baptisms that are occurring in this area of the church. One of these baptisms was in the small town of Cave Junction. For several months the stake president and I have talked about opening this town to full-time missionaries. In the past, missionaries from Grants Pass would get out there occasionally, but without regular time there the work was not progressing as fast as we felt it could. Three months ago, at the prompting of the spirit, I sent two great missionaries out there (one was a zone leader I released to take on this assignment). In that time frame 15 people were found, taught and baptized in that one small ward alone. It is great to see the work of the Lord move forward.

In our mission song there is a verse that says, “we don’t even mind the rain.” This spring, (which has been much wetter than last year) that saying has been put to the test. At one of our zone conferences Sister Macdonald publically admitted in her talk that this particular verse in the song is a lie and she DOES mind the rain. I joked back with her and told her she wasn’t supposed to say that until we were back home. All in all things are great, but we are anxiously awaiting the return of the beautiful dry days that greeted us the last two summers.

Week Ending May 23, 2010 Week # 4

Just a few of the falls we saw on P-day with the Giles. It was a beautiful day, not too hot and not too cold. We even saw the sun for a while.

With the week having less solid commitments and structure to it, Sister Macdonald and I were grateful to have some time to work on much needed talk preparation for a regional young single adult conference we were to speak at on Saturday evening and to also have some time to plan our talks and presentations for zone conferences next week. The YSA conference we spoke at had just over 200 people in attendance and it was fun to interact with all of those young people. Their enthusiasm for life in general and their love of the gospel is amazing.

This is also the week that Sister Macdonald and I divide and conquer a little bit. I worked on planning for zone conferences and transfers with the assistants for a couple of days, and she caught up on some needed shopping to be ready to make homemade treats for those having birthdays this transfer period (she makes something for every missionary with a birthday coming up prior to the next zone conference and hands them out at our zone conferences.) She also started the shopping needed to prepare a nice dinner for our departing missionaries (we have 17 going home) and a lunch for the incoming missionaries (we have 18 coming in.) While these events are still a week and a half off, the preparation starts early. I am glad she is so organized and such a good cook. The missionaries (and I) are treated very good by her!

Last Saturday, our usual preparation day, Sister Macdonald and I enjoyed a hike at Silver Falls State Park with Elder and Sister Giles. They are serving in the office here from our home stake and return home in July. Silver Falls was a place they wanted to see before they returned, and we were happy to go with them. We were able to hike a few miles and see 8 different water falls within the park. It is a beautiful place, and the weather was perfect. On Monday our missionaries in the Capital zone, located in the greater Salem area, were planning to hike the same park, and invited me to go with them. I was happy to be able to go with them and have a chance to interact with these good missionaries in a less formal way, getting to know them better. I was also glad because the group of about 15 that I hiked with went in a reverse route from most of the missionaries and I was able to pick up a couple of missionaries who had become separated from their assigned group. The good news is we didn’t lose any.

I was again glad for the calm assurance that comes to me during the transfer process. I could feel that there were parents and other loved ones at home praying for me to be inspired as I petitioned the Lord as to where their missionary should serve. These young people, like all of us, come from very diverse back grounds and abilities and the Lord somehow is able to use each of their best selves to further this work. It is great to watch these missionaries grow and develop. I am eternally glad for good people who have helped me grow throughout my life, and hope I am helping some of these missionaries do the same. This “growth” is a life long process that I am still working on diligently and still have a long way to go.

Week Ending May 16, 2010 Week # 3

Elder Tui'one is home and he took his mom on a date to the temple. What a wonderful son!

This little waterfall is unmarked and on the side of the highway. Just one of the many treats we see as we drive around for interviews.

A view from the bridge in Mapleton on the way to the coast for interviews.

Sister Macdonald returned to Oregon on Monday and with her came a degree of normality back into my life and the mission. She flew into Portland (as the flights there are less expensive than flying into Eugene) and our friends, who are serving as the mission president in the Portland mission, picked her up and drove her to Salem. The four of us enjoyed dinner and a wonderful visit together. Then Kaye and I stayed in Salem to begin interviews there on Tuesday morning. It was fun catching up with everything that went on this past week and hearing first hand how things went with the wedding, luncheon, reception, family, etc.

The interview schedule this week took us to Salem, Corvallis, Eugene and then Coos Bay. Sister Macdonald was fully back into the swing of her duties without missing a beat and was happy to be with her “family” here. We had the opportunity of having dinner with the Salem stake president and his wife on Tuesday night and then meeting with their high council later that same evening.

We had one transfer this week. We have had three wonderful temple square sisters come into our mission for 12 weeks each over the last year. The temple square mission typically sends the missionaries who serve there out into various missions so they can see the full spectrum of missionary work. At temple square they become excellent at teaching introductory lessons, but don’t have the opportunity while they are in SLC of seeing someone’s life fully change as they accept the gospel completely. Their transfer schedule is three weeks off what our transfer is, so when we send them back to Salt Lake and they don’t send us another sister, we have to transfer sisters mid-transfer to straighten things out. Sister Macdonald and I brought a sister back from Corvallis with us (who had been serving with two other Sisters there) to serve in Springfield. She is taking the place of the sister who returned to Temple Square. Both of these sisters have been out just 9weeks and knew each other at the MTC. I am sure they will do great together.

Interviews with our good missionaries, of course, cover a wide range of topics and concerns. Normally there is an opportunity for us to lift and build them up after they have had a challenging experience of two. There are also insightful glimpses into the great work they are doing. When I asked one elder what he had learned from his first companion he told me he learned to “man–up” and work hard, from his second companion he learned manors, and from his current companion he learned to better follow the promptings of the Spirit. As he and I discussed this evolution of who he is and what he can become I think we both better understood the essentialness of learning and applying these principles as we go through life. I then told him it would soon be his job to teach these principles to others. The cycle of life and learning is great. See it, Do it, Teach it.

Week Ending May 9, 2010 Week # 2

While President was in Oregon I was able to see some of our returned missionaries in Utah. It was a lot of fun to get together at the Strattons.

Soccer games for my granddaughters were on the list of musts. It was so much fun to see them play. My daughter had to keep telling me, "Be calm, it's just a game." I guess I'm a little competitive?!

The Dinosaur Museum was a must and we had a great time. Bones! Look! We found dinosaur bones! I love living life through their eyes.

This week Sister Macdonald was in Utah to attend our son’s wedding. For those who may not be aware of the rules that go along with being a mission president, here is one bit of information. When I accepted this calling I agreed to stay in the mission field and not return home even for significant family and personal events. While it was a little easier for me to agree to this a couple of years ago when it was just a theory, it was pretty difficult when it came down to practice. It is however, nice to live in the era of technology that allowed me to get a video clip of the wedding luncheon in almost real time and to be at the reception via Skype. My oldest son read the little write-up that I had asked him to at the luncheon. Then, unbeknownst to me, he asked everyone everyone who had their cell phones with them to send me a text telling me that they missed me. I had my phone on vibrate and felt a text come in. It was from a number I didn’t recognized and I was puzzled. When I got through reading that one another 30 to 40 new texts had come into my inbox. I then figured out someone had thought it would make me feel a part of it all - and it did. Thanks son. It was also fun seeing and talking via Skype with so many friends who came to the reception.

After having spent so much of my business career and my church work doing things alone, it was strange to again be alone on this week's interviews after having been with Sister Macdonald almost continuously for the last two years. This was the week with a lot of driving Tuesday through Friday (Roseburg, Grants Pass, Medford, Klamath Falls and Bend / Redmond). While it was great to see the missionaries, it was obvious that they all missed seeing Sister Macdonald.

In addition to the interviews, I enjoyed a steak lunch on Tuesday in Grants Pass with the missionaries and the stake presidency, speaking at a youth fireside for the Medford Stake youth on Tuesday night, taking some missionaries out to dinner in Klamath Falls who didn’t have a dinner appointment on Wednesday, and attending a baptism in Bend on Thursday night. Being busy was a great antidote for loneliness and a bit of self pity that had crept in.

Sunday I drove out to Florence and visited with a great family who are scheduled to be baptized in a couple of weeks and I attended church there as well. I also enjoyed having dinner at the Giles, a senior couple from my home stake, who were kind enough to have me over for dinner while I am “bach-ing” it. I also caught up on reading the weekly letters to the president and some other duties of running the mission.

When my newly married son and his wife said goodbye to me over Skype at the end of their reception, I said I was sorry I couldn’t have been there. He joked with me and said “you could have been here, but we would have all lost a lot of respect for you.” It was comforting for me to know they missed me, but understood and supported me not being there. It was good to know all of my children and their spouses where in the temple with my eternal sweetheart and with Clint and Tava on that special day. Life is good - even if it is a bit lonely right now.

Week Ending May 2, 2010 Week # 1

Looks a little like President is strangling me. He had actually just finished kissing me--camera was a little slow (or he was too fast!)

Awe, the Zone Leaders under control and ready for work.

Elder Tui One's family made this beautiful blanket for us. We certainly don't deserve this kindness, but we do love it.

It was a beautiful day at the Portland Temple. We are looking forward to the wedding next week.





Thank you Sister Hansen for stopping in to say hello. We hope you had a wonderful visit back in the OEM. It was so good to see you.

While the highlight of our week may sound like it has little to do with missionary work, it is in fact the very essence of missionary work. This week our son and daughter in law to be (they are getting married on May 7, 2010) traveled to Oregon for a visit and for her to receive her endowments in the Portland temple. Her parents also flew in and met us in Portland on Saturday. I say this is the essence of missionary work, because every missionary understands that it is not just the covenant of baptism, but actually temple covenants and then eternal life that we really hope the people we meet and teach will embrace. Somewhere there are missionaries to thank for teaching her father and my parents the gospel so that these two could enter the temple and begin an eternal life together. We enjoyed being with them for a couple of days before going to the temple, and I will always be so grateful to the two of them for their willingness to come here so I could be a part of that beautiful experience.

We held Zone Leaders Council on Tuesday of this week and once again it was an example of seeing the Lord’s involvement in directing this work. When I meet with these young leaders in this mission I am so impressed with their desire to seek the Lord’s direction in what they do and to help by offering their advice on how things can improve. This week we looked at a few things that we have always done and asked if doing them helped in reaching our goals or not. As discussions unfolded I was pleased to see that the decisions made were better than the ones I would have thought to make, or that I would have made alone. My testimony of the benefits of counseling increased. It is good when people gather together and use their collective reasoning to come up with a better solution, but it is great when that reasoning is combined with heartfelt prayers and the spirit blesses your thoughts with His assurance that you are going in the right direction.

As a follow-up to last week’s posting, Sister Macdonald and I have had several discussions with the elder who lost his mother to cancer. He is strong and is being supported and loved by his fellow missionaries, ward members and the peace that can come through the Spirit of the Lord. On Friday of this week he participated in the funeral over the web and was able to see and hear the rest of the funeral as well. We continue to keep him and his family in our prayers.

With this week being a bit less structured we also enjoyed having some missionaries over for dinner, I took some out to lunch and made a trip to visit with two that needed some shoring up as well. I have felt the need to have less of my time committed and structured so that I can act on the immediate influences of the spirit and reach out to those the Lord tells me need help at that moment. I have heard “You can pretend you care, but you can’t pretend you were there.” I hope that as much as possible I will be there when my personal ministry prompts me to go.

This week we had another visit from a missionary who had returned home over a year ago. This sister and her new husband were visiting the area after finishing school at BYU and before heading to the east to begin their careers. She had been such a great missionary and it was so fun to see the two of them happy in life and excited about the future. We feel so blessed.