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.

Week Ending June 6, 2009 Week # 2

Friends from Orem came for a visit. The Strattons and I took them to Hendricks Park.

Lunch at the mission home after interview in Eugene area. Something we do only once in a while because of time.

The elders invaded the sister's picture at zone conference. They make the picture, don't you think? Bosen, love the glasses.

As I mentioned last week, we held our Correlation Council Meetings on Saturday and Sunday of last weekend. I have enjoyed meeting with the stake presidents regularly and seeing a positive change since I arrived in the commitment that both the Area Seventy and the Stake Presidents have towards missionary work. It is wonderful to see their whole mind set more engaged in missionary work and the blessings of helping people find the gospel of Jesus Christ. This along with well-trained missionaries is causing missionary work to improve in every area of the mission. Because of all this we are being assigned more missionaries to work in our mission.

I should mention that we took an actual Preparation Day this week and enjoyed a hike through Silver Lake State Park. It was a five mile hike where we passed eight water falls, some with well over a hundred foot drop. The whole walk was just beautiful. The Strattons from the office came with us and we enjoyed the scenery, the company, and the break. Our cell phones didn’t even have reception in the area, so the break was complete and somehow the mission went on just fine without us. I think I should learn something from this, don’t you?

This week was full of one of our favorite activities, interviewing missionaries. We visited with about 65 missionaries and on the whole found them excited to be engaged in the work. We also attended the baptisms of four people in the Eugene area that were held in three different services. It is interesting to see how people differ in making their commitment to be baptized. Of course no one knows the gospel fully when they are baptized and for that matter even years later we are continuing to learn, but some act quickly when they feel the spirit prompt them to be baptized and others wait until they have worked out more of the questions in their mind. As a result, one of the people baptized this weekend had been attending church for a month and another for 5 years. The others were in between, but for all of them the spirit was evident in their lives.

While we were doing interviews in the Medford area we had the blessing of being invited to the Medford Temple President’s home for dinner. President and Sister Hanson are delightful people. He served previously as a counselor in the mission presidency and they both worked in the office for over a year while the Fugals were here. We were thrilled to become better acquainted with them and to feel of their goodness.

Before we have our interviews with our missionaries we spend 30 minutes or so in the scriptures having “companionship studies” together. Normally I will assign a chapter to read before hand and then we will discuss the various impressions each felt while reading these versus. This transfer we have been discussing the Articles of Faith. I have been impressed, as I usually am, with the thoughts and insights these missionaries share. I am grateful for the insight I receive into their greatness as they share their personal thoughts with me and the other missionaries in the room. I find this to be a great lead into the time I get to spend visiting with them one-on-one.

Week Ending May 30, 2009 Week # 1

Elders Peterson and Goodman at zone conference--willing to not run away from my camera.

Elder Howard is giving tie tying lessons to Elders Larsen and Fawcett before they go home. You'd think they'd know how after two years. Actually, it was a new way.

Elders Judkins and Bosen had to show me this thing they can both do--kick themselves in the forhead. It happens so fast, I just couldn't capture it (photographer I'm not), but I had to put it out here for everyone to know about. Now and then they kick themselves a little too hard and end up on the floor. What is that saying about men never grow up? I love it!

With transfers behind us we started the new transfer cycle with our zone leader council. As is always the case we had 4 or 5 new zone leaders with us. Also, Elder Livingston who was just released as my assistant is once again serving as a zone leader. It is my hope that the missionaries can recognize this for what it is, the pattern they will see throughout their life of being called to “visible” callings with added responsibilities, then being released and moving on to less visible callings. It is so great to be with these good young men and see their desire to do all they can to carry forth this work. They are so teachable, but also very knowledgeable about missionary work and they truly do want to do all that is asked of them.

Normally this week is a bit of a catch up week but with Correlation Council Meetings beginning down in Medford on Saturday we rearrange some of our interviews. This way we don’t have that long drive just for one long meeting. So we did interviews on the coast and then in Klamath Falls on Thursday and Friday respectively. It is always good to see the missionaries.

Last Zone Conferences (which we held a couple of weeks ago) we taught about the need to have shorter (preferably 20 minute, but no longer than 30 minute) but still “spirit-filled” first lessons. It the short period of time since this was taught to our missionaries we are already hearing about the impact that is having in return visits. They feel the special something the missionaries bring with them (i.e. the spirit of God) and the missionaries don’t outwear their welcome by staying too long.

On Friday night I went out teaching with two missionaries and saw them put into practice this principle. Perhaps they were a little nervous to have the mission president with them, but they taught great and when we went to the next “soft” appointment and they weren’t available the Elders quickly had a plan to still be productive. Although the press of our day-to-day activities doesn’t allow as much personal teaching to investigators as I would like, I am very grateful for the times I can get out and for the high quality of teachers we have in the mission.

At our last Zone conference we also taught about the “Doctrine of Everything.” Elder Sybrowsky had taught me the difference between doing “Anything” for the people we are teaching and doing “Everything” for them. As I studied this out I determined that to do anything to help someone is an act of desperation, but to do everything to help someone is a principle of dedication. Dedication is a much more powerful tool than desperation. I know the Lord has done everything for me and I hope I can be a useful tool in giving something back.