April 23, 2023

What a great week we have had! This week was our Mission Tour which means that a General Authority came to tour the mission and give the missionaries instruction. Our visiting General Authority was Elder Peter Johnson and his wife. He was so great and so personable! On Thursday night the senior couples got to go out to dinner with him and his wife. It is not every day we get to dine with a General Authority and it was pretty awesome! The rest of the week was busy with Elder Rowan getting 14 new cars ready to switch with older cars that the missionaries brought in to the mission office when they came for special Zone Conferences with Elder Johnson. Then on Friday the transport company came and took away 12 old cars to sell so now we have a little more room in our parking lot. We have an additional 14 cars ready for transport and only 5 more new cars to trade out. It will make a total of 50 cars changed out. What a big job this has been for Elder Rowan but he has done great! We prepared meals for the missionaries on Wed, Thur, & Fri. 100 on both Wed & Thur, & 70 on Friday. This was Sister Weed's last week to be in charge of meals and it was bittersweet for her. I let her take charge and was just there to help and support all I could. My turn is coming soon enough.

Last night on one of our mission facebook pages I saw the following:

It is a great question to ponder. Our missionaries were given several talks by General Authorities to pre-read in preparation for the Mission Tour. One of them was "Peacemakers Needed" by President Nelson. During the Mission Tour I had the opporturnity to sit in on a discussion with the missionaries and our Mission President about this talk. IT GAVE ME HOPE! The Mission President invited the missionaries to share their thoughts on the talk and one by one their hands went up to add their thoughts to the discussion. It was absolutely beautiful and powerful to hear what they had to say. I sat and wept as each one expressed a desire to follow our prophet and to try to follow the doctrine he taught. And what beautiful doctrine it is as our Prophet taught about the need for peacemakers in the world. Our missionaries talked about how they could apply the talk in their companionships, in dealing with people they meet, and in their future families. One missionary said that before his mission his philosphy was "My way or the highway!" but as he has served and tried to become a better disciple of Christ his heart has been softened and now he understands the doctrine of being a peacemaker. The growth these missionaries experience on their mission will change their lives forever!! And that gives me hope. They are the rising generation and they will be incredible!

In one of the discussions Elder Johnson lead he told our missionaries that the greatest potential for finding "friends" to teach was the members. He also said it was the most under-utilized. It made me think about what a failure I have been in helping the missionaries find someone to teach. He told the missionaries that when they teach "friends" if they want to show charity, the pure love of Christ, they need to have HIGH LOVE + HIGH EXPECTATIONS. I think that is the problem many of us have. We love our friends, family, and neighbors so we have HIGH LOVE, but we have LOW EXPECTATIONS. We don't even offer them the opportunity to accept the gospel. He shared the story of Christ telling the rich man to go and sell all his possessions and give to the poor. He knew that it would be a hard commandment for the rich man to follow but he still told him to do it. Why? In Mark 10:21 it says, "And thou shalt have treasure in heaven." Christ did not shy away from the invitation, he still issued it, because he loved the man enough to want the very best for him.

Yesterday we went for a little outing to check out some of the local sights. I love getting out and having the chance to talk to random strangers. We went up to Oregon City, about 20 miles away, to check out Willamette Falls. We found a fun little path to walk after riding up the Oregon City Elevator. It is an elevator tower in the middle of the city that takes you from the bottom of a cliff up to the top. It looks a little like the Space Needle. It is so random! Along our walk we even found a beautiful Magnolia Tree.