On The Road Again.....

Sunday, January 12, 2014

I should probably add a picture of our car in this post, as we have driven almost 1,000  miles this week. 

We started off Tuesday, driving to Central, Arizona. Where is Central, Arizona you ask? And why would we want to go there? As it turns out, Central is where the Gila Valley Temple is located. We had a 8:00AM session on Tuesday morning with our zone. That meant we left home at 5:30AM as it is a two hour drive. It is a beautiful temple and the folks there were very friendly. We enjoyed a very full session.

The Gila Valley Temple, located in Central, Arizona

Young Elders of the Sierra Vista Zone

Sisters of the Sierra Vista Zone

Senior Missionaries of Sierra Vista Zone

Elders serving in our Ward with us

After the session at the temple, we all gathered at a local pizza parlor with another zone for lunch. I bet that was the busiest lunch crowd they have had in a while. There we about 24 hungry missionaries at a pizza buffet. 

Hungry Missionaries at the Pizza Parlor

Because of the temple trip, we missed our weekly service at the Turn Around Point. Wednesday, we were up again early for a drive to Benson, about 45 minutes away for Zone Training with President and Sister Killpack. It was a wonderful day of training. One of the things that they discussed was how to avoid and get rid of bed bugs. Apparently, there has been an infestation in the mission.

Thursday, I got a call from the mission president. He told me that a pair of sister missionaries in our area had bed bugs and were really upset. He was on the road and asked if I could lend assistance to them. They are staying in a member’s home and they are going to have to fumigate it. Fortunately, the members are not living there presently. The sisters are staying with another pair of sister missionaries. We visited with them and tried to calm them. I gave a blessing to one of the sisters. I think they are doing better. Apparently, one of the sisters brought the bed bugs from her last apartment, so she was especially upset.

Friday was a preparation day for Sunday so, RoLayne spent most of the day cooking and preparing the Sunday meal for the soldiers. Friday night was the Chaplain’s Coffee House activity. It was a worthwhile venture as we did meet another new soldier that we had not previously met. I got his name and number and invited him to church. Friday night we also got news that Elder Holland’s assignment had been changed and that he would not be in Arizona to speak with the missionaries.

Chaplain in center, Assistant Chaplains on either side, at Coffee House

Another Chaplain, left at the food table

Saturday we were up early and drove to Tempe for the conference. It was really interesting to see three missions meeting together. When I was young and on my first mission, we never even had our entire mission meet together, as the mission spread over four different countries. The keynote speaker was Elder Jim Wright, an area authority seventy. Elder Wright's wife spoke and said this meeting was like buying tickets to the Beatles and when you show up, you get the Dixie Chicks. She said, I hope you like country western. Elder Wright said it was the first time he had ever been compared to a country western group. He did a really nice job, especially because he only had several hours notice to fill in for Elder Holland. The three mission presidents and their wives also spoke and were all very inspiring. As soon as the conference was over, we jumped in our car and headed back to Tucson, where we stopped to feed our Costco habit. We had to get a shot, two for RoLayne, to finish up our mission preparation shots. It took us about an hour and a half to get that done. As we waited, we watched the effects of “Obamacare” first hand as the pharmacy folks were having to deal with a lot of upset patients whose plans have apparently changed with the new year. Not a pretty sight. After getting our shots and doing some shopping, we were off to Lori’s for a moment then home. A long day, but very spiritual with the three missions.

Today was a pretty normal Sunday, however, it was the last Sunday for several of our soldiers who graduate this Thursday and move on. We will really miss them!

Inspections continue....

Saturday, January 4, 2014

This week was mostly filled with vehicle inspections as the soldiers were still gone on holiday break until Friday. We completed 13 vehicle inspections. We use a checklist and go over the vehicles and check condition, fluid levels, paperwork, etc. We also take the opportunity to make sure these young people know how to check fluids, tire pressure, and a few basic things about an automobile. It was fun to see another part of the mission, Willcox, AZ. I must say, there is not much there however, population is about 4,000.
 

Sister Heninger checks the license plate for proper stickers.

The missionary vehicles we inspected in Willcox

Sister Heninger checks the trunk for cleanliness and organization. 

Tomorrow, we are really looking forward to see the soldiers back at church after their holiday. We really miss them as they add real energy and joy to our lives.

Next week should be exciting. Tuesday, we are going to the Gila Valley Temple for an endowment session with our zone missionaries. Our session is at 8:00AM and it is a 2 hour drive, so we will be up and gone early. Wednesday in Benson, AZ we have Zone Training with President Killpack. This will be our first zone training session. I think we meet with 2 or 3 zones for this. Friday, we will be at the Chaplain’s coffee house reception with the soldiers. That is always a fun night as we mingle with the soldiers and the other volunteers. Saturday, it will be up and out of here early to drive to Tempe, AZ to meet with Elder Holland. I am sure that will be a richly rewarding event. I will report on the highlights next week.

We were grateful and excited to receive the results of  the Vancouver East Stake indexing effort. What a faithful group of folks with great leadership to index more than six million name in the past year. And what can we say about the outstanding effort by our ward to exceed one million names. That is an amazing accomplishment. We felt honored to have participated.

As always we miss our family, loved ones, and friends, however, we would not rather be anywhere else right now. We know that we and our family have been so blessed because of this missionary experience and the prayers of all. It is really difficult to explain the joy of being a full time servant of the Lord. There are so many unique and interesting experiences and insights that come our way. If you have the ability to serve, do not delay. Take the opportunity now. You never know what the future holds. I do not know if you will regret not serving, but I can promise you that you will never regret serving, regardless whether you can serve full time or part time. It does not matter.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Our meetings today were really good with the soldiers. We had one new soldier who is from Boise, Idaho attend today. He only lives about a mile from where we lived in Boise. He graduated from the same High School my kids attended. I thought, perhaps we might have known him or his family........then I started to calculate. When we moved from Boise, he was three years old. Probably did not know him. It was really good to see the soldiers back and to meet with them. We had a spiritual testimony meeting and a wonderful meal provided by Sisters Heninger and Kovacs afterward.  

Enjoying some casual conversation with the soldiers

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Twas the morning before Christmas and all through the mission, all Elders and Sister missionaries were driving to Tucson. I know it doesn’t rhyme, but it was the best I could do. More than 300 of us gathered at the Tucson mission headquarters for a conference. It started at 10:00AM sharp. We heard testimonies from Elder and Sister Larsen, and Elder and Sister Raehl. They are the two counselors in the mission presidency. It was very inspiring as Sister Larsen shared a story about planning and preparing a trip to Italy, only to get off the airplane and find that she was in Norway. She compared her life to this story as she was recently diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer. She said she was not planning on the trip to Norway, but was making the best of it. It was a very touching and inspiring testimony. Sister Raehl told us about how she and her husband were baptized 45 years ago on Christmas Eve. 

Feeding 300 missionaries

Following these inspiring testimonies, we all went into the cultural hall and were feed a wonderful breakfast. 

Senior Missionaries of the Arizona Tucson Mission

Following the breakfast, we all went outside and they lined everyone up by height, then directed everyone into a group and took a group picture of all 300 plus of us. Senior missionaries got the prime seats in the front as always. They are so good to senior missionaries. Following the photo session, we returned to the church for a 300 missionary white elephant exchange. 

Almost 300 young missionaries exchanging White Elephant Gifts

Senior Missionaries monitoring the gift exchange

That was interesting. They then did a version of the 12 days of Christmas with the 11 zones plus senior missionaries. It was called, “In the first month of my mission, the president gave to me” and so on. Each group had to come up with what the president gave them on their day. Some examples were, “A Spanish dictionary, three phones a ringing, 5 broken bikes” and so on. We then returned to the chapel for a devotional which was presented entirely by the missionaries, except some final comments by the President. I was wonderful as many of the missionaries shared their musical talents and others shared some miracles they had experience. It was a very spiritual meeting. 

Our Dear President and his Wife

At the end, President Killpack told us that he had a present for all of us. The present was that Elder Holland is coming to Phoenix on January 11 and he is going to speak to missionaries in the 5 Phoenix area missions. They have also invited the Tucson missionaries to come up. We will be busing up to Phoenix for this meeting. The missionaries were understandably excited.

Missionaries receiving gifts from home

At the end of the conference, the missionaries picked up their mail and gifts from home. Sadly, some of the missionaries did not receive any gifts from home. The mission home anticipated this and some of us had the opportunity to play Santa for some of these wonderful young missionaries.

Wrapping Gifts for missionaries

Following the conference, we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning with Lori’s family before returning home to Sierra Vista. As you can imagine, we had a wonderful Christmas.

Grandchildren enjoying Christmas

It is interesting how we constantly experience missionary moments. I was in a restaurant the other day and one of the hostesses threw up her hands and said, “I am a member of the church. Can you tell me where I should be going to church?” On Christmas Eve, I was in Walmart looking for a Christmas card, an elderly lady said, “Oh I see you are with the Latter Day Saints.” She went on to tell me about her neighbor who was a member and what wonderful people they were. We talked for about 10-15 minutes. She was a sweet 86 year old lady. She said that her neighbors had invited her to one of their Wednesday night meetings (missionary discussion) and how impressed she was with those young men. I got her name and the name of her neighbor. As it turns out, she lives in Dusty and Lori’s ward and the neighbor used to be the ward mission leader. She really loves those neighbors. We really can touch lives just by being visible and friendly.

The soldiers will be returning January 2. We have really missed them but hope that they all had a wonderful holiday break. They surely needed it. We are anxious to have them return.

Our love and thoughts are with each of you as we begin a new year. May you each have a joyous and prosperous Happy New Year!

Mexico......Ole'

Saturday, December 21, 2013

No, we did not make it to Mexico….but almost. This is as close as we got. We were in Douglas AZ, which is right on the border. We went down to inspect missionary vehicles, one of our new responsibilities. We stopped in Bisbee as well. It was really interesting. There is a long street right on the border with a bunch of fast food restaurants and a Penneys store. There were a number of people walking back and forth across the border to shop. We did not cross the border because RoLayne did not have her passport with her….and, it is against mission rules. It was a nice drive down and back this morning, but not real scenic, except for the large open pit mine in Bisbee. It was also the coldest day since we have been here. It only reached 45 degrees today and it was windy. RoLayne has been busy the past few days baking cookies to take to our neighbors. It is more baking than I remember her doing in a long time. I think she is done for the holidays at least.

All of the soldiers have left the base so things are a bit slow there. We did stop by the Base Chaplain’s office and were able to visit with the lady who is the secretary to the chief chaplain. She has been out sick due to surgery since we got here. We met her on her last day of work in Mid-October. The surgery was to remove a 40 lb tumor from her stomach area. It was cancerous, but was fully contained in a kind of sack. She showed us a picture of the tumor. It looked like a basketball. She is doing amazingly well. They had to remove one kidney, part of her liver, and part of her colon. Since it was all contained, she does not have to have chemotherapy. She is going back into the hospital on January 6 to have a hip replacement however. She is quite a lady.

We invited the couple that we work with on post over for dinner this week. It was really nice. We have become very good friends.

The bishop asked us to visit a sister in the ward whose husband is a civilian working in Afghanistan. He has been working there for 5 years. She deals with a lot of depression. I hope our visit helped to cheer her up. I cannot imagine being separated that long from family and loved ones. I think he comes home once or twice a year for a couple of weeks. We asked the bishop again if there was someone that might benefit from a visit from us. I am hopeful that we will get more opportunities now.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Today we attended the Huachuca ward for all meetings as the soldiers have left for the holidays. The missionary couple responsible for the LDS addiction program in this area came to our sacrament meeting. They actually came to see us and see how the addiction program is going on post. Unfortunately, there is not an active program on post. We talked about starting one. We are going to attend some training and meetings in Tucson to get better acquainted with the program so we will be better prepared to act as a group leader if needed. We had some training in the MTC, but it was very basic.

We have received Christmas and birthday wishes from many of you, for which we are most grateful. We do love and miss all of you and wish you a very Merry Christmas.