June 25, 2023

Each week I start out wondering if I will have anything to post about the coming week and then suddenly the week becomes full! We started out the week having the Larson's and Sister Incze over to play games on Father's Day so we wouldn't feel all alone on a holiday. We taught them to play "Swoop," a new card game Matt's family taught us last year and a fun time was had by all.

On Tuesday we had another Sister's Devotional. I think I finally figured out we will have these prior to each transfer because it is a chance for the sisters in the area to share with one another what they have learned during that transfer. It was at a member's home about an hour away. The home and yard were beautiful and after threatening rain it turned out to be a beautiful evening. We played some cornhole, had s'mores, and visited around the fire pit. There was even a Big Foot! I almost cancelled on going because it was so far away but in the end was so grateful I went. Each sister in the group shared something she had struggled with during the transfer and how relying on the Savior had helped them through the challenge. It was so inspiring and I came away committing to turning my insecurities over to the Savior too. Yes, even as Sr Sisters we still have insecurities. Mine tend to be about not being outgoing enough, fun enough, etc. As I have prayed about it all week and asked for help, I have felt the Savior boost my confidence and make me better than I could be on my own. The Savior loves us and will help us even with the small stuff if we are humble enough to ask!

Our (6) wk cycle started over again this week only this time the Larson's and us were all on our own. On Sunday night the missionaries learned who was being transferred and where. Then on Thursday the big move happened with people moving to their new areas. In our mission whenever someone goes to Bend, Oregon it is referred to as "Over the mountain." Elder Rowan and Elder Larson help the Assistants move those who are going "over the mountain." The Assistants transport the missionaries in our big 12 passenger van and Elders Rowan & Larson haul all the luggage in our truck and trailer. It is a long day. They start at 6:45 in the morning and don't return until after 5:00 that night. They drive 3.5 hrs each way with multiple stops along the way.

Then on Friday morning the missionaries departing get taken to the airport and again Elder Larson & Rowan transport all the luggage in the truck and trailer. This transfer we had (7) missionaries leaving. We had grown close to (2) of them, Elder Bain & Sister Allred so it was bittersweet to see them leave and move on with their lives. I guess we better get used to it.

Once they drop off the departing missionaries then they wait at the airport for the arriving missionaries and bring all of their luggage back to the office. We got (13) new missionaries this transfer. The President & his wife take them to the temple visitor's center on their way back to the office and then they arrive back at the office for training and to meet their new companions. In the meantime Sister Larson and I are back at the office getting to hang out with some of the new missionary trainers and preparing dinner for all of them. It is a fun day! The President invited us in to witness the new missionaries meeting their trainers. He has the new missionaries stand one by one and calls out their trainers name who then runs forward to give them a big hug and welcome to the mission. It is a sweet experience. Here is a picture of our trainers for this transfer.

Saturday Elder Larson asked Elder Rowan to help him close one apartment and move all the furniture to a new apartment. They had the help of a few missionaries so that was good but it was still a long day. They left at 8:00 AM and got back at 8:00 PM. The Sr Sisters did not want to sit around all day waiting for them so we packed up the car and drove over to Lincoln City to see the Kite Festival on the beach. It was a beautiful, windy day just perfect for kite flying. We loved it and tried not to feel too guilty!

On a sad note, Amy's sweet mother, Bonnie, passed away last night. We have spent most family gatherings and holidays with Ed & Bonnie and we will miss them. Ed passed away about 1.5 years ago and now Bonnie is gone. We are glad that she is out of pain and reunited with her sweetheart but know this will be hard for their family. We are so grateful for the gospel and the knowledge we have that families can be together forever! There is a good chance Parker will get his missionary call this week so our throughts and prayers are with them during this difficult time. I just want to be there to give them a big hug! It is hard to be far away!

June 18, 2023

Happy Father's Day! We got to celebrate last week with Tracey and her family because my niece Terissha was in town and came to visit! Visits with Terissha are always a party and it was good to see her. She is one of the most loving, hardworking, generous women I know. She currently lives in Utah but used to live in Washington so she was in town for work and to visit with some friends. She said she couldn't show up empty handed so she brought flowers for BOTH Tracey and I and also showed up in a Mustang convertible!! Of course Tracey's girls wanted to drive it and Terissha kindly agreed. I told Danica she looked like a Barbie in a Barbie car except the car wasn't pink! I took my flowers to the office so that I could enjoy them all week.

This week we made dinner for the Spanish Zone Conference. It was sloppy joes, chips, watermelon, salad, and ice cream drumsticks. Elder Rowan is loving this Spanish connection and speaking with the missionaries whenever he gets a chance. He brought a Spanish Book of Mormon and some Spanish pamphlets home from the office and tries to read them every night before going to sleep. He says the Spanish is coming back more every day.

This is Sister Conrad below. She is one of our Spanish speaking missionaries. Her mother and I served together in the Draper temple so I have felt a special connection to Sister Conrad! She radiates such light and happiness and sings like an angel! I always give her an extra hug for her mother.

President and Sister Phillips enjoying their ice cream drumsticks!

Since Sister Romney was finally leaving for Peru this week the President gave permission for our district to attend the temple. It was so special to attend the temple with some of our missionaries. It is transfers next week and these missionaries have all been here for a while so we may not get to spend a lot more time with them.

I should probably start recording the names of the missionaries because I am sure I will start to forget. They are Sisters Romney, Larsen, and Womack. Then Elders Place, Pierce, and Williams. Elder Place is 6'11" and has the distinction of being the tallest in the mission. Elders Pierce and Williams are our current Assistants to the President.

The rest of the week was pretty run of the mill except that we had the Elders from our ward for dinner on Thursday night. They are the (4) in our District which also includes Elder Bain, who did not get to attend the temple with us. Elder Bain goes home with the next transfer so I asked him what he wanted for dinner. I was surprised when he said Tater Tot Casserole! Really!! I don't think I have made that since the 80's but I made it for him and he said it was just as good as his moms! Small moment of happiness.

Elder Rowan gets lots of phone calls about the cars and is always happy when he can answer the questions. Oregon has quite the system here with traffic cam tickets. We were notified of a ticket some missionaries got two years ago that was never paid. The missionaries turned right on a red light without coming to a stop. We can log in and see the video of the violation. Since the missionaries are long gone home we were advised to just pay it since the ticket is in the name of the church. But just a few days later some of our sister missionaries got the exact same ticket!!! And these are not cheap tickets, the fine is $265.00. The policy is that the missionaries have to pay the tickets out of their own pockets, not with church funds so these are not fun phone calls for Elder Rowan to make. In this case there were (4) sisters in the car so they will split the ticket (4) ways. Sad learning experience!

June 11, 2023

What a fun week we have had!! We just love our missionaries so much!! We started out the week with MLC (Mission Leadership Council) on Tuesday. It is a fun chance for us to visit and catch up with all the Zone Leaders and Sister Trainer Leaders. We prepared lunch for them and it was great! Since we are going into summer we decided to buy fried chicken, then we had Instapot Mac-n-Cheese, watermelon, salad, and cookies. Sister Larson has a friend who loves to cook and has lots of money. So for our MLC's she has been making these fantastic, enormous cookies that she bakes at home in Utah and mails to us!!! It is crazy but they are sooo good and the friend loves doing it so who are we to argue :).

Then on Wednesday some sweet sisters down in Salem invited us and the Larsons to dinner. Elder Larson and Elder Rowan had helped set up a new apartment and get it ready for them and they were so grateful they wanted to have us to dinner. We enjoyed dinner with Sister Burt, Sister Finlayson, Sister Petersen, and Sister Anderson.

The fun did not stop there! On Friday we attended our 1st District Council with the missionaries from our District. District Council is a 1.5 hr meeting the missionaries have once a week with the missionaries from their District. It was amazing because these missionaries are amazing! They discussed Miracles from the week, people they were teaching and wanted us to pray for, how they were doing on their goals, and then they counciled together on the things they could do to help the mission be better. They settled on being more humble and seeking the Lord's will in all things. The sister in the middle in this picture is Sister Romney. Her original mission call was to Peru but she has been waiting (7) months for her Visa to come through. It finally came this week and we are so happy for her. She has been a great example of patience and faith as she waited. We will miss her!

The Sisters in our District are Hermana's, meaning they are Spanish speaking missionaries. They have been visiting a less active brother named Pablo. Pablo is about 60 years old and quit going to church a few years ago. He tells the Sisters he wants to come but so far has not made it. So the Sisters asked Elder Rowan & I to come with them to visit him that evening. We were excited to be asked and said yes, for sure! We had a nice visit with Pablo. His friend had died the day before and we were able to say a prayer of comfort with him. The Sisters also shared some scriptures with him about death, resurrection, and the Plan of Salvation. I think he felt better when we left and it was a special experience. Then on Saturday the Sisters in our area decided to have a picnic lunch and invited all of the Sr Sisters too. It is always fun to hang out with them!

It is rose season in Oregon so after our picnic we went to the Portland Rose Garden. It is free at Washington Park. We timed it just right and all the roses were in full bloom! It was beautiful and we were so glad we went.

One last thing before I close for the week. We had our own little personal miracle this week that we are so thankful for. We have had the same email account for 20-25 years and on Tuesday Microsoft deactivated our account because of possible fraudulent activity. All my emails were gone and I could not log in to our account. They provided several ways to get the account back. One was an old email I no longer have access to. The other way was to answer a series of questions to prove who we were about the history of our account. Remember now, this account was set up 20-25 years ago. I could not remember if it was in my name, Jack's name, the name John, etc. I tried (3) times and failed. Chris tried once for me. Finally on Thursday night before we went to bed I asked Heavenly Father to help me remember what we needed to make the account work. I don't usually ask for secular things like this in my prayers. I don't feel like Heavenly Father really cares about that kind of stuff. But it was going to be such a major hassle if we could not get the account back. All of our bills, automatic notifications, etc. our tied to that email. The next morning I tried one last time and it WORKED! My email is back and life is good. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for being in the details of my life.

June 4, 2024

Wow, in 2 days we will have been on our mission for 3 months! How fast the time has gone. This week our grandson, Parker James Rowan graduated from high school!!! Where did those 18 years go? It was hard not to be there in person but how grateful we are for modern technology! We were able to log into the graduation site and watch it all from the comfort of our living room. We got it on our phone first and then were able to cast it to our TV. I sent pictures I took of the TV screen to Ryan and he said to keep them coming because they were better than he could get from his place at the graduation! We are so proud of Parker. He graduated in the top 10% of his class and has accepted a full ride scholarship to Southern Utah University which he will attend after his mission.

This was a quieter week in the office for Elder Rowan and I but not so for Elder Larson, our Housing Coordinator! This week he dealt with bed bugs and CO2 detectors. Some of the Sisters woke up several mornings in a row with bites all over their legs. They sent pictures and it really did look like bed bug bites so they quickly moved them to an empty apartment that just happened to be very close by. The landlord came and checked the property but so far no bed bugs have been sited. We are waiting now for the bed bug dog snifer! Who knew there was such a thing! Then several days later the CO2 detector in the new apartment for these same Sisters went off. No one knows why it went off but upon further investigation it was discovered there were no gas appliances, heaters, etc. that could have set it off. But the next morning the Sisters complained of headaches, not feeling well, etc. so now it was time to call in the Fire Department to check for CO2 levels. Everything checked out fine so now we are wondering if these sweet Sisters are a little too well acquainted with googling symptoms :).

This week I have been thinking again about the gift of Charity. It is something Elder Rowan and I pray for every day so that we can feel love for every one around us. Our prayers are being answered as we feel such love for our missionaries especially. I marvel at the hugs and "I love you"'s I see Elder Rowan exchange with all the Elders he comes in contact with. I read a talk this week that sited from Moroni 7:47-48. In verse 48 I never picked up on the word "bestowed" before. Charity really is a gift and if we pray for it, our Heavenly Father will "bestow" it upon us.

47 "But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen."

For Elder Rowan's birthday we were able to sneak away for a weekend at the coast this week. We left early Saturday morning and started with a stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. After ice cream (even though it was only 11:00 in the morning) we headed to my cousin's house in Rockaway Beach. We had a great visit with my cousin Tom and his wife Delta before heading along the coast to stop at multiple beaches. We stopped to check into our hotel at Manzanita Beach, then visited Neahkahnie Viewpoint, Cove Beach, Hug Point, and finally ending up in Seaside. The Oregon Coast is beautiful and it was a beautiful day with sunshine and blue skies. We had never been to Seaside and were surprised by how big and touristy it is. We had some great Fish & Chips before heading back to our hotel to watch the sun set.

We started the next morning with a nice walk on the beach and then headed to church at the little branch in Rockaway Beach. It is a small building and their normal attendance is about 30, except in the summers when their numbers swell. There were about 100 of us there this Sunday. We got to visit with the (3) Elders who go between the Branch and a ward in Tillamook and also a Senior MLS couple assigned just to the Branch. The Senior couple are the Delimonts and they were nice enough to have us over for dinner after church. We had a great visit and it was fun to get to know them better. On our way home we attempted to do the Three Capes Scenic Route but ran in to a few problems along the way. The 1st cape, Cape Meares was closed for some unknown reason. We have been there before and there is a nice lighthouse and some beautiful cliffs but right now you can't even drive over to it. Next we went to Cape Lookout. This is a nice area with a campground and some great hikes. There are some cute little cabins there that might be fun to stay in sometime. Last, was Cape Kiwanda. This is located in Pacific City and has its own Haystack Rock (not to be confused with Cannon Beach). It also has a 240 ft tall sand dune! All in all, we had a fun weekend exploring the Oregon Coast!