Pioneer Day Celebration

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Today we attended the stake Pioneer Day Celebration. They had a number of fun activities and a large number of folks attended. We got the opportunity to meet and talk with some of the members of the stake we did not previously know. The weather was wonderful and the children excited.

Children's tug of war at the Stake Pioneer Day Celebration

FT missionaries competing in but not winning the three legged race

Stick pull is always a favorite for all

Sister Heninger counseling the missionaries on something

This week we received a call from the couple who will be replacing us. We know that he is retired army and they are from Mapleton, Utah. They will be finished at the MTC September 12 and we expect to see them early the next week. We had an interview with President Passey this week as well and talked about the transition. We will plan to spend a day or two orienting the Millers when they get here. Our plan is to be out of our apartment the day before they arrive so that they can just move in. We will probably stay at Lori's in our trailer and commute for a day or two. It is only a 70 minute drive.
It is hard to believe that our mission is coming to a conclusion so quickly. It seems we just really got settled and into a routine. We do look forward to seeing family and friends again. The family members already have lots of requests for reunions, travel, and visiting that we will need to do.

The work here is ongoing. We continue to receive a trickle of new soldiers and we really do not have any more graduations for a couple of months. The challenge right now is getting some the soldiers out to our activities. We scheduled a temple trip to the Mesa temple for today and had some soldiers excited to go. Last week we realized that the temple is closed for maintenance until August 4. We would consider visiting the Gilbert or Gila Valley Temple, except they do not have clothing rental or a visitor center. There are often non-LDS soldiers who go with us. They are able to linger in the visitor center while we are in the temple. We will try again. I am just glad that we found out before driving the 3 hours to the temple.

Last week, RoLayne and I drove to the the only sizable body of water within a 100 miles or more from Sierra Vista. Patagonia Resevoir is about 50- 60 miles from Sierra Vista. It has some RV parking, campgrounds, and a beach of sorts.

The beach at Patagonia "Lake"

Not much water by Washington standards, but the most we have seen in a year

With the rain last week, the desert is beginning to blossom

Beautiful desert flowers around the perimeter of our apartment

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Today is our oldest son's birthday. I cannot believe that he is so........ old. That makes RoLayne and I so very..................OLD. That is ok, he is a great son with a wonderful family and we love him. Happy Birthday son.

Today in church a brother told an interesting story. His grandfather and 2 great uncles went off to World War II. One of the uncles was the pianist in the small branch. Since he was gone, his sister had to play for the branch. She only knew one hymn, Sweet Hour of Prayer. She played it every week. When the soldier came home, he found that the parrot that lived next door to the small building where the branch met started to sing Sweet Hour of Prayer every time the piano started to play. I thought that was a cute story. It apparently was a Spanish speaking branch because the parrot would sing in Spanish.

We hope that this posting finds all of you well and prosperous. We are still enjoying our mission and would not trade the experiences or time we have spent here.

One at a Time

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Recently, I was reflecting on how easy it is to get discouraged when things are not as fruitful or exciting as we would like. We sometimes begin to wonder if we are making a difference or touching anyone's life. I was preparing for my institute lesson this week and was disappointed that no one had attended the past two weeks. I was wondering to myself, how long should we continue to invite, encourage, send texts to remind, prepare lessons, and go set up and wait for soldiers to come and attend? As I started to prepare the same lesson that I had planned to present the previous two weeks, an impression came to me that I should prepare on a different topic. I felt that I should prepare to discuss the topic, "The  worth of a soul." As I researched, I found a wonderful talk by Elder Robert Gay, and put together a lesson on this topic. As I studied, I began to realize that perhaps the reason I was studying this topic was for my benefit as much as for the soldiers who might receive it.

As we proceeded to our institute class and began to wait, about 5 minutes after the time we were to start, I received a text from a soldier who asked, what time does institute end? I responded to him and a few moments later, I saw him and two other soldiers headed our way. I met him at the door and explained to him that he was the only soldier there and that he could come in and we could sit and talk together or he could head back home, his choice. He said, I will come in and talk. He is a soldier who has been attending fairly regularly since he has been here, but he told me when he first arrived that he had not been active for a long time. As we sat and talked, I asked him about himself and his background. I found that he was baptized as a teen because of a wonderful neighbor, that he is the only member in his family, and that he has been less active for the past two years. As we talked, I asked him about his conversion story, he began to tear up and it was apparent he felt the spirit and that his conversion was important to him. It was apparent that he was very tender still in his gospel knowledge. I asked if he would like to have the missionaries meet with him regularly and refresh what he knows and help him come to a better knowledge of the gospel. He jumped at the opportunity.

As we concluded the evening with a prayer, it became more clear to me how important each of our  Heavenly Father's children are and how much he cares for them. I understood why I  had prepared to talk about the worth of a soul. We are here to assist the children of our Heavenly Father, one by one to receive a testimony of the gospel and make covenants.

We attended the baptism today of a lady who is a wife and a mother. Her husband and in-laws are members and it was wonderful to see her enter the waters of baptism and covenant with her Heavenly Father.

Those of us who have the gospel in our lives are so blessed. If you do not understand what I have been talking about here, I invite you to seek out the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and ask them, do you have a message for me? I promise you that they do have a message that will change your life. Every soul is important to God. (D&C 18:10, 15-16).

This week we also got to meet the new Douglas missionary couple at our Zone meeting on Wednesday. They are a delightful couple, and will be a great asset to the mission and for the Douglas ward. They are from Colorado.

The Douglas missionaries with the new senior missionary couple

Then came the wind and the rain and the FLOODS

Friday, July 11, 2014

In the last week, we have received almost 6 inches of rain in Sierra Vista. Last night we had a storm that dumped almost 3 inches at our apartment complex. It got pretty exciting as the runoff water level reached to our door and was within 1/2 inch of coming through the front door. This storm lasted about an hour but it was incredible. We were driving home from the Coffee House Activity and we almost had to stop a couple of times because of low visibility due to the rain. By the time we reached the main gate and started down the main street of Sierra Vista toward home, the streets were flooded with as much as 6-8 inches of water. The way the city is designed is that all drainage flows to the streets which flow to these large drainage canals. The parking lot of our complex acts like a drainage canal for the complex leading to the street which leads to a large drainage basin about a block from the complex. Last night the parking lot was about 6 inches deep running swiftly. It overran the banks and came to our front door which is on the same level as our patio. It was exciting for a little while.

Our front patio last night during the storm

Flood waters lapping at our door

This week we attended two more graduations. One of the soldiers that graduated has been here almost a year. His family came down to be with him. He has been separated from his wife and two boys for more than a year, including basic training. He really had a difficult time sometimes because he is about 35 years old and most of these young soldiers are just out of high school. The army treats them often like they are even younger, telling them where to go, what to wear (even to bed) when they can eat, etc. They must always have a battle buddy with them wherever they go. Their rules and guidelines are set up to the lowest denominator, not for a 35 year old married man. The other soldier that graduated was a newlywed from Vancouver, Wa. He is a guardsman and will be headed to BYUI this fall.

One happy soldier graduating after a year long training program. Almost the first smile in a year

Happy to finally be reunited with his family

Guardsman graduate heading back to school at BYUI

Other than the weather excitement and the graduations, this has been a pretty ordinary week. We did get a call from Military Relations  in Salt Lake City to advise us that our replacement couple will be finishing the MTC experience on September 12, so we can expect to see them sometime the following week. This is a bit earlier than we had expected so we will probably be heading towards home about mid September. Our house will not be available until October 1st so we will take some time to visit family on the way home. RoLayne really  needs to hold those two new grand babies.

That is about all the exciting news for this week. We hope things are going well for you and we will look forward to seeing everyone in a couple of months. We will keep our heads down and try to work hard til then.

The Monsoons have arrived

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Well, as you can see below the monsoon season has arrived in southern Arizona. It is an interesting weather phenomena. We have lived in Washington for the last several years where it rains almost continually from October to the first of July. Here in Arizona it has been incredibly dry since we arrived last fall. I think it may have rained two or three times. Since the first of July, it has rained every day and from what I understand, this is what we can expect for the rest of July, August, and part of September. I know that these pictures of rain do not mean much for those of you in Washington, but this is the first real rain we have seen in 9 months

The parking lot in front of our apartment Friday afternoon

Last night we went to the fireworks here in Sierra Vista. They were good, but not quite as impressive as the Vancouver fireworks.

We watched from the car parked behind Walmart

It rained throughout the performance

Wednesday, we had our first meeting with President and Sister Passey. They are going to be wonderful leaders in the mission and we look forward to working with them. They told us that there will be a senior couple from Ft. Collins, CO arriving on the 12th of July to replace the Tanners in Douglas. Their name is Merrill. We look forward to meeting them and assisting them to get settled.

We completed our latest round of missionary apartment inspections. It is remarkable how well Sister Heninger has the missionaries cleaning and preparing for our visits. She does make treats for the ones that pass. Recently, they have all done a remarkable job keeping the places neat and clean. We are very proud of them.

This is one of the missionary places, it is in Hereford, a rural area about 10 miles from the heart of Sierra Vista

In the past two weeks we have received notice of 8 new soldiers arriving. With two more graduating this week, we really do need some new blood. We really hope that they will be active.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Today we did have three new soldiers attend church. Two of them are officers and we did not know about them. We are excited for the new soldiers that we get to know.

New soldier attended today

New officer attending the officer basic course

Another new Lt attending the Basic Officer Course

 

 

Sidenote:

Sister Heninger had to have a garden, so here is our garden.

RoLayne's Tomato plant. We have already gotten a few tomatoes from it

The first fruits of RoLayne's garden