A Real Work Week, Sort Of

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Today is the day we get ready for Sunday. RoLayne is busy preparing items for the meal that we share with the soldiers after meetings on Sunday. This week we had our first opportunity to work at the Turn Around Shop. This is sort of a exchange store. Folks can bring in anything that they would like to donate, very much like a Goodwill or Deseret Industries.  The volunteers then sort through everything, keep what is useful and throw the rest out. Generally, the folks are pretty careful to only bring in things that are useful. The difference between the Goodwill Industry model and The Turn Around model is that only active duty or immediate family members of active duty can come in and take what they need without any cost. They are allowed to come in once a week to “shop” for items. It is a neat idea for the young families and seems to be popular with some. The shop is sponsored by the chaplain's office. This week we found out that our primary contact and ally at the chaplain office is going in for some very serious surgery next week. We expressed our concern for her and hope and pray that things go well for her. She is the secretary to the head chaplain and pretty well runs the place. We have offered any assistance that we might be able to provide in her absence. Her assistant was pretty well overwhelmed on Tuesday when we were there, but was able to give me a call on Thursday and give us an update on Jo. We drove to Tucson to pick up a few items out of the trailer and do some shopping at Costco. We got a chance to visit for a few minutes with our daughter Lori but left before the kids were out of school so did not get to see them. Today is our youngest daughter Lisa’s 29^th birthday. We tried to call her but she must be out doing something fun with her husband because she did not answer.

Last night, the ward that we meet with had their trunk or treat activity. I think that they had half of the town at the festivities. One of the ladies put it on some kind of social media site where she has several thousand followers. I think that many of them showed up. It was fun and we met a few people. Today, bright and early we went out to a little town named Huachuca City and worked at their city offices as  well as along the highway digging up turf and weeds from the hardpan around the buildings and trimming trees and loading branches into large dumpsters. It was the stake service day. I have included some pictures of our missionary district after the project. 

Our District Missionaries at the Service Project

RoLayne Working

Ken Working

Sunday, October 27, 2013

  

We had a wonderful meeting today with the soldiers. There is such a good spirit with these young men and to watch them participate in the meeting, speaking, administering the sacrament, leading the singing, praying. It was very touching. We are really growing to love and care for these men. They remind me of the “ Sons of Helaman”. They are going through a very trying time but they are all volunteers. I would be proud to serve alongside any of them. Most of them are returned missionaries. I am going to include a couple of photos of these young soldiers. After the meetings, Sister Kovacs and RoLayne  feed them a light lunch. Today they had deviled eggs and tossed salad.  

The newlywed picture is of a young couple who have been married just a few months. She lives in an apartment alone down here and sees him for just a few hours on the weekend, no overnights. In the photo of four young men, three are returned missionaries and the one on the far right is not a member but is a fine young man. His buddies refer to him as a dry Mormon. Today was his first day at our meetings. He seemed very comfortable and said that he would be back next week. 

Newlyweds, he is a soldier in training 

Four new soldiers in our group

Our First Sunday and Tender Mercies

October 20, 2013

Today we had our first meeting with the Serviceman’s group. It was very a spiritual environment. Most of these young men and women are restricted to the Post, cannot wear civilian clothing, use any personal electronics during the duty day, or even ride in a car except under certain circumstances. We had a small group today of about 10 soldiers. We have Sacrament meeting and then a combined Priesthood/Relief Society. Following that, we had a light lunch with them. They are mostly young 23-28 years old and many are returned missionaries. We met the couple that we work with at the group. They are a really nice couple. Brother Kovacs is a retired army officer who manages a Northrup Grumman facility here in Sierra Vista.

I had an interesting experience that I wanted to share with my grandchildren concerning the tender mercies of Heavenly Father toward those who are striving to be obedient.  I was playing golf yesterday at the local golf course and as I mentioned in my blog post yesterday, I lost my brand new sunglasses. I searched for about an hour yesterday but to no avail. I could not remember where I last had them.

Last night as I prepared for bed and said my prayers, I asked Heavenly Father that if it was his will, I would really like to find my glasses. As I was lying in bed, the thought came to me; I know where my glasses are. It was a location that I had already searched but I received a firm thought that I should go back and look again in that spot. Today, after church I told grandma about my thought and that I would probably go back tomorrow morning and look. She said, why not go look right now? Following her counsel, I drove to the golf course, borrowed a golf cart, and went out to search the location that I had thought about. When I arrived at the location, I walked down into a small gully and stood right where I remembered that I had been. I looked down and right next to my foot were my glasses.

Now, some would say that it was just a coincidence. It was not! There is no doubt that I was lead to that spot. We need to never doubt the power of prayer. More important, when you receive a prompting, do not delay but act on it. I have had many of these kinds of experiences in my life. Heavenly Father does not always answer our prayers exactly like this, but he will answer us in his own time and in his own way. Do not doubt!  He loves you and wants to bless you!

I hope that all have a good week. We would love to hear from you. You know our email address, use it.

I once was lost but now I'm found....The glasses

Getting Organized and Settled

Friday, October 18, 2013

It is Friday and we have been here since Tuesday afternoon. We spent Monday trying to get the trailer and ourselves ready to leave for Sierra Vista. We packed our vehicles, yes I said vehicles. We brought the 5^th wheel trailer to Lori and Dusty’s home to store while we serve so the truck was stored with the trailer. We then drove the Rainier down from the MTC. It is a good thing, as we loaded both vehicles to the brim in order to get the stuff we brought in the 5th Wheel to Sierra Vista for our mission. 

Tuesday, we met with President and Sister Killpack who are our mission leaders. They were very gracious and put us at ease immediately. They reviewed the mission rules and standards, most of which do not apply to us senior missionaries. They answered our questions, then took us to lunch. We had a nice lunch at a Mexican restaurant, then we parted ways and headed down I-10 toward Sierra Vista. It is about a 1.5 hour drive from the mission headquarters to our apartment where we met Elder and Sister Day, the missionaries we replaced. They are a wonderful couple who has been here for the last 18 months. They were obviously loved by all, including their neighbors and the missionaries. We spent about and hour and a half with the Days, including a tour of the base. We tried to soak up as much information as we could in the short time they were with us. We unloaded all our stuff into the apartment and sat down to relax for a few minutes Tuesday evening. During the next hour or so, as we were trying to eat our dinner, we had 8 missionaries stop by to welcome us to the area. They are all wonderful young folks. One of the elders in our district is from Orem and knows Jacob Wadsworth. We also have 4 sisters in our district, two live in our complex. We attended our first district meeting with the young missionaries on Wednesday. They are incredible and the church has them so organized, I was really impressed how the district leader led the discussion. Yesterday was spent mostly shopping and getting the apartment straightened and set up. There were many things to buy and get set up. I think we are in pretty good shape. The apartment is nice. It is a two bedroom, so if anyone wants to visit, we do have a place for one couple to sleep. Today was really interesting. We went to the chaplain’s office to introduce ourselves. I thought that it went extremely well. We met the head chaplain’s secretary with whom I made and instant connection. She worked at the Strategic Air Command (SAC) headquarters for many years, about the same time I was flying tankers in SAC. We chatted and reminisced for a few minutes and then talked about the opportunities here. She was very friendly and kind. She took us to meet LTC McFarland, who is the Chaplain assigned to the LDS soldiers. We had a long chat with him about many things, he was very friendly and cordial. He then took us in to see the Colonel who is the head chaplain in the Garrison. His name is Ken Godfrey. He too was friendly and cordial. All in all, I thought it went very well. RoLayne contacted Sister Kovac, who she will be working with to prepare the luncheon for the soldiers on Sundays. For now, we plan to continue to work with the “Turn Around” volunteer organization weekly and to participate in the Coffee House activities once a month. I am not sure exactly what the Coffee house is, but I do not think it has much to do with coffee. It is sponsored by the Chaplain’s office and I think that they like our participation in both of these activities. We finally stopped by the golf course today to check it out. It looks like a fun course, wide open, rough greens, but very cheap. $20 for 18 holes with a cart, hard to beat the  price. I hope to try it out soon. If all goes well, we will get internet later today so that I can post again on the blog as well as send out some email.

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Well, we did get the internet connected so we are on line. Please feel free to email us anytime. Oh, yes, and I did make it to the golf course, see picture below. I played several holes, then realized that I had lost my prescription sunglasses so spent about an hour looking for them. I did not find them so gave up and came home. The course is not in very good shape right now but it was nice to hit the ball again. We are looking forward to meeting with the soldiers tomorrow and meeting some of the people of the ward. Except for the missionaries, we have not met any local members yet. I will post a few more pictures for you. They seem to be popular. Thank you for all your support. We really are looking forward to getting to work.

Mountain View Golf Course

Elders and Sisters Heninger and Day

Fun Farmers Market held Thursdays year round

Home Sweet Home, Bottom right apartment

Montego Bay Complex

Office, Lounge, workout room

Pool and Hot Tub

In Transition

Friday, October 11, 2013

We have now completed our MTC training and experience. This has been a marvelous experience, but we are ready to move on to our next adventure. Last weekend was wonderful. I expect you all enjoyed General Conference as much as we did. We attended several sessions with more than 2,000 of our closest friends, (missionaries in the MTC). In addition to the conference sessions on Sunday, we attended a departure devotional along with 775 missionaries who left for the mission field this week. They are an amazing group of young people. RoLayne and I sat by three young sister missionaries on Sunday. One was from Italy, going to Temple Square, another was from Panama, and the third, was from Thailand also going to Temple Square. They were delightful, excited young women. Later Sunday night, we had another devotional featuring a BYU vocal group called Vocal Point. They bore testimony and sang several hymns. It was very inspiring. Monday, we started our second and final week of training. Church Education System (CES) folks from Church Headquarters came in to teach us about teaching Institute and Seminary. It was excellent training and whether we teach or not, it will be most helpful in studying the gospel or for preparing talks. The tools and techniques they taught were incredible and the seminary students these days are so knowledgeable in the gospel. They have so much deeper knowledge than we did at their age. 

The last three days the folks from Military Relations came in to orient us and teach us how to facilitate Resiliency Training and Addiction Training. They also went over the Senior Missionary Rules and Standards. Today, we went to Church Headquarters and met the Director of the Military Relations Division for the Church, Frank Clawson. It was an inspiring day. We also got to visit with and say goodbye again to Amy, Lisa, Eric, and Kim’s family. We had dinner with Kim’s family Friday night. We are really going to miss all of our grandchildren. We are leaving tomorrow morning to drive to Arizona. We have an appointment to meet with President Killpack on Tuesday at noon. This past two weeks has been a spiritual high. I am convinced that we will have a great work to do.

Sunday, October 13, 2013                                                                                  

We left Provo at about 7:30AM yesterday and drove about 750 miles all the way to Tucson. We spent last night at Lori’s house, sleeping in our trailer. We attended church with Lori and family today. We met a brother who is serving a service mission handling all the housing for the missionaries. He and his wife are in Lori’s ward. It is amazing the chance meetings we keep having. Yesterday as we were enroute, we stopped at Scipio, which is simply a service station along the interstate in central Utah. We got out of the car and bumped into another couple who was in our Military Training group. They were on their way to Montgomery, Alabama. 

Tomorrow, we will have a down day to get ready to visit with the mission president on Tuesday, then head on down to Sierra Vista and get settled, then get to work. We will try to keep you posted. We are so grateful to all of you for your prayers and support. Please feel free to email or call us as you have time. We are loving our mission and grateful for the opportunity to serve. We know that there are many young service men and women that need our assistance and support and we are committed to give all that we have to serve them and the Lord. 

I will add a few pictures below;

In front of the World Map at the MTC

Elder and Sister Pett, Instructors for MR training

All CES and Military Relations Missionaries in our Group. Heningers Right Front