November 26, 2026

What a great Thanksgiving we had in the Pacific Northwest! Look at this great family we got to hang out with. Thank you Tracey for making it such a special day! We had great food, good company, a beautiful walk in the woods where I got to take a picture of my new favorite thing to take photos of, and Jack got to experience a new form of virtual reality! It was extra special to be able to see Hayden before he headed back to school and the night was topped off with watching the Barbie movie at the end of the night. What more could you ask for! :).

On a little more serious note about Thanksgiving I just have to share this scripture that our grandson Parker shared in his weekly missionary newsletter. It is perfect for Thanksgiving but I don't ever remember making note of that before. It is from Alma 26:37.

"Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen."

We hope and pray that our friends and family near and far had a good day too and felt the love of their Heavenly Father.

Our Thanksgiving did not begin at Tracey's house. Sister Larson organized a Turkey Trot and invited all the local missionaries to join her. Elder Rowan did not want to be left out so he joined in the festivities. I did not want to be left in the dust or hold anyone back so I opted to stay home and do some last minute food preparation. But Elder Rowan had a great time and it will be a cherished memory for him.

The weekend became even more special when we got to attend the baptism and confirmation of our friend Athena Lau. Athena is from down near Salem but attends George Fox University which is located here in Newberg. She has been taking the missionary lessons for almost two years and recently made the committment to be baptized. She is our hero! Her parents are opposed to her baptism and it took alot of courage for her to move forward. She is a devoted daughter of our Heavenly Father and we love her so much. She reads her scriptures, listens to conference talks daily, and tries to be a true disciple of our Savior Jesus Christ. Who does all that before they are even baptized? Sister Larson has grown especially close to her because she had the privilege of sitting in on her missionary lessons the past few months. Athena attends church here in our ward in Newberg when she is at school and we look forward to being a part of her journey.

Athena with the missionaries who most recently taught her--Sister Larson & Elders Reil, Weaver, & Henrie.

With Thanksgiving weekend drawing to a close it is time to start thinking about Christmas! Normally it takes several days for me to put out all of my Christmas decorations. Not so this year! We brought 2 or 3 decorations from home and inherited a small Christmas tree leftover from previous missionaries. I have discovered there is something to be said about keeping things simple and I am going to be very happy in our small apartment with only a few decorations.

Other random happenings are that we had a chance to make a quick visit to Silver Falls. I think I am going to go for the award for posting the most pictures of this place before we go home. It is always so beautiful!

And finally I just have to post about Newberg making the news this week. Every day on our way to the mission office we pass a Burger King. For a few months they have had an inflatible hamburger out front to grab your attention. Well, I guess one day the hamburger got away...... Have a great week everyone!!!!

November 19, 2023

Happy, happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and family!! We love you and think of you always. As we serve here as missionaries in the Oregon Salem Mission we have much to be grateful for. We feel your love and support every day!! We are grateful to those that reach out with an encouraging word and to let us know what is going on in your lives. We are so grateful for our children, their spouses, and our grandchildren. It has been so fun to have a visit from each family and to be able to share our experiences with them. We are grateful to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and for the Atonement of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We are grateful to have the health, stamina, and financial resources to be able to serve this mission.

Today at church I was reminded of the talk by President Nelson to the youth, "Hope of Israel." Incredible talk!! In it he asks, "Would you like to be a big part of the greatest chalenge, the greatest cause, and the greatest work on earth today?" He then goes on to explain what that is. It is to be part of the literal gathering of Israel. He says, "We want you to know that the gathering of Israel ultimately means offering the gospel of Jesus Christ to God's children on both sides of the veil who have neither made crucial covenants with God nor received their essential ordinances. Every child of our Heavenly Father deserves the opportunity to choose to follow Jesus Christ, to accept and receive His gospel with all of its blessings---yes, all the blessings that God promised to the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who, as you know is also know as Israel. My dear extraordinanry youth, you were sent to earth at this precise time, the most crucial time in the history of the world, to help gather Israel. There is nothing happening on this earth right now that is more important that that. There is nothing of greater consequence. Absolutely nothing."

We may not be youth but we can be part of this great work!! Serving as Office Missionaries is a part of that where we can help and support these young missionaries as they go forth to gather Israel! How grateful we are for this opportunity and the chance we have to work side by side every day with these great young people!!

Last week I told about the car accident with our Assistants where they hit the woman in the road. I thought I would give an update this week. It turns out it is harder to get a police report than we thought. They don't automatically share them and it takes time to request one so it may be weeks before we get it. But we do know that the woman was released from the hospital and we believe she is going to be okay. It wasn't the end of our traffic accidents though. Another set of Elders were hit from behind by a semi-truck on Thursday. Thank heavens they were not injured either. Elder Rowan is learning lots about body repairs and how expensive they are. He has made good friends with one of the owners of a local body repair shop and he said that this car will likely be totaled because of the extensive damage to the frame which isn't visible.

Even with all of the problems with the cars there have been tender mercies too. We received notice a while ago that we would be getting more new cars in 90-120 days. It hasn't been that long but this week we received notice that (4) of the new cars were available for pickup. Imagine that, (4) new cars to replace the (4) that need to be in the shop. They say there are no coincidences with the Lord and we know that to be true!! We picked up the new cars on Friday and here is a picture of Elder Rowan and some of the missionaries installing one of the ORB-Com systems in the car so it is ready for use. Everybody looks pretty happy!

In other news we said goodbye to the Delimonts this week. They were the only MLS (Member Leadership Support) missionaries in our mission. They were assigned to a small branch in Rockaway Beach which they loved. They did so much good and saw several baptisms during their time there. They also lived only a few blocks from the beach. How cool would that be? Our mission is looking for replacements for them so if you are interested we would love to have you :). They are from Missouri and will be reassigned to the Bentonville, Arkansas mission where they will serve from home. We wish them well!

Believe it or not I actually had time to attend a craft night for our ward Relief Society. They were offering the supplies to make this for free. Score! We were also having District Council that night so I was trying to hurry and if you look close you can see the error I made. Oh well, nobody will probably look that close and it will be fun to set outside my front door. We didn't bring many Christmas decorations with us so this will make a nice addition.

Other fun things going on this week were seeing some of our missionaries in the Church Music Festival, getting pictures from one of our returned missionaries with his girlfriend, taking "artsy" pictures of mushrooms in the grass of the church building, and having dinner at Sister Incze's.

Elder Wood & Sister Imlay. We anticpate this will be what it is like as we eagerly look forward to seeing "our" missionaries in the future.

Mushrooms in our church parking lot. It was just too good of a picture not to share.

Dinner at Sister Incze's. Notice the crowns, courtesy of the "poppers" Sister Incze provided. They reminded me of playing The Great Dalmuti with our family!

Finally, I have to express gratitude for this beautiful world that we live in. The sun was shining and the sky was blue so we just had to take a drive after church today. We don't know how many more of these days we will get as winter comes upon us. We drove through the beautiful hills of this beautiful Willamette Valley that we live in. We googled it once and do you know that there are over 700 wineries in the Willamette Valley? As you drive through the hills you get a feel for this. There are grapevines everywhere. All over every hillside. Even though we don't drink wine, the vineyards are a beautiful sight!

We were rewarded with a rainbow at the end of our drive today. God was smiling down at us:). If you look close you can see it was a double rainbow. It made me want to chase rainbows! Happy Thanksgiving!

From Elder Rowan:

Men are from Mars. This is what the women from Venus say. That doesn't mean anything but a way to start this epistle. From a man's point of view it was just another normal week for the Vehicle Coordinator. One of the cars which was stopped behind another car was hit from behind by a semi-truck. Nobody was hurt but the car will most likely be totaled. The car has about 7000 miles on it. We also picked up 4 new Volkswagon Tiguans. Four more cars coming next week. I have to set them up in the system and put the big brother device in them, then trade them out with old cars. The missionaries get excited about new cars. But the funny thing is the oldest cars are 2022's with less than 20,000 miles on them. Spoiled missionaries! God knows what is going on in all missions. Just one of the many little miracles I see every day here in Oregon. We needed 3 cars right now, and they came. Can you imagine being responsible for 160 teenage drivers. My hair is getting grayer by the minute. But I do love working with these young missionaries. Sister Rowan and I went on a car ride today through the country side. We just headed out of town on a different road we had not been on before towards a hill. We drove through beautiful hillside vineyard estates. Here in the Willamette Valley there are over 700 wineries, with wine tasting barns everywhere. It would be a great place to live if you were a wine drinker. We are having a blast here in Oregon. So, until next week, keep on truckin'.

November 12, 2023

Last Sunday the leaves were so pretty we had to go for a drive after church. The leaves are starting to come down now but the hillsides are still beautiful. There are so many leaves on the ground we wondered how they picked them all up here in Oregon. We found out when we watched them clean our church parking lot. They blew them all into long rows and then came back with a vacuum truck and sucked them all up. Ingenious!! I wish I had a picture of that. But here are some pics of the pretty leaves.

Our grandson Parker arrived in his mission in Ventura, California a little over a week ago and it has been so fun to hear how he is doing. Fantastic, by the way! His first assignment is Lompoc, California! I have actually been there so it is fun to visualize where he is at. He posted this picture on his Facebook page so Elder Rowan thought it would be fun to create a similar picture. He put on glasses to try and look like Parker. I don't think he can pull off the look quite as well :).

We had MLC this week where we fed about 45 missionaries. We always try to have extras because there is nothing worse than not having enough food. At our last Spanish Zone Conference we had a taco bar and ended up with lots of hamburger and chicken left over. So we froze it and for MLC we made Chicken and Ground Beef Taco soup with cornbread and salad. (We are trying to be thrifty with our resources). But in the end we made too much soup and the down side of that is that we have been eating leftover soup all week. I don't want to see Taco soup again any time soon :).

Okay, so I didn't eat taco soup every day. One day Elder Rowan had to take a bike to some Elders in Keizer so I decided to go along with him. It was the 3rd time in a week he took bikes to them. The first time they had the bikes for less than 2 days when someone stole the front tire off one and the rear tire off the other. Apparently the missionaries put a lock on the bikes but failed to go through the tires. Lesson learned the hard way! He took them two replacement bikes but turns out the missionaries were shorter than he realized and one of the bikes was too tall! So the 3rd time was the charm and lucky for me I could go because look where I got to go for lunch! Keizer is the only place in our mission with an In-N-Out Burger. I am not a diehard fan but I do enjoy them from time to time!

Sometimes we have harder weeks and are saddened by things that our missionaries go through. This was one of those weeks. One of our newer missionaries went home this week. He was suffering from severe depression and even became suicidal. We had no idea of his struggles until Elder Larson was asked to accompany him on a flight home and stay with him until he was with his parents. It just goes to show that we can't tell what is going on in other people's lives. I would have said this missionary was happy and adjusting well to his mission. A few weeks ago I mentioned that some of our Sister missionaries were in a car accident. They suffered from whiplash and concussions but their injuries appeared mild. The damage to the car was more than met the eye, however, and in the end the car was totaled by the insurance company. The Sister missionary responsible for the accident could not seem to recover and ended up going home 6 weeks early. We assured her she was loved and that accidents happen but she felt this was the best answer for her. Again, we were saddened by all she was going through. Friday night our Assistants were involved in a car accident with someone standing in the middle of the highway. It was dark, about 8:30 at night, and they did not see her. They hit her with the front driver's side of the car going 57 miles per hour. She was taken to the hospital but they think she is going to be okay. We are still gathering information and hope that is the case. We are concerned for our Assistants also and the trauma they will experience from something like this. It is during times like this that I am grateful to my Savior Jesus Christ and for the gift of the Holy Ghost that can bring us comfort. In John 14:18 it says, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." As we worry and are concerned for our missionaries I know that comfort can bring peace to both us and them. More from Elder Rowan: Hi all! How times have changed. At one of our Zone Conferences I had the Elders and Sisters check the oil level in their cars. More Elders than Sisters had never done that before. The Dads had taught their daughters how to do it. I had to teach missionaries where the dip stick was and how to read it. I get calls from missionaries asking what do do when they have a flat tire. I have to tell them where to go to get the tire repaired. Even missionaries with bikes ask what to do with a flat tire. I tell them to call the ward mission leader to find the bike person in the ward who can help them with their bike. I have to remember most of the missionaries are still teenagers with very little life experience. But they have great big hearts, strong spirits, love the Lord, and they are enthusiastic about bringing others unto Christ.

November 5, 2023

I did not take this picture but it is a picture of Werth Rd which is less than 1/2 mile from our apartment. It is a good representation of what the fall colors have looked like the last few weeks. Usually in Utah by now the colors are gone but they have just gotten at their best here in Newberg these last few weeks of October and the first week of November. I love how this picture shows all the trees and hills here in Newberg. It is just so beautiful! I want to engrave this image on my mind forever!

This past week was Zone Conference which we love. It was the 1st time since Larson's got here in April that we have had to do car inspections in the rain. Can I say that I am not a fan? Our 1st problem was how to haul our luggage and all our car inspection material back and forth to ZC without it getting wet in the back of the truck. In the end we decided we had no choice but to pull the trailer with everything in it to keep it all dry. Often we have to take bikes, lamps, rugs, etc. to the missionaries at zone conference. We lucked out with no rain on Wednesday & Friday but it rained heavily on Thursday. It was no fun to walk around with a hood up over our heads and carrying an umbrella. My feet stayed dry in my boots but the bottom of my dress got soaked. Guess I will have to look into a long dress coat :).

The rest of Zone Conference was great though! This time we talked about Conversion, Commitments, & Integrity. President Phillips reminded the missionaries what it means to be a "Successful Missionary." It does not say a "Successful Missionary," is one who has a lot of baptisms. Instead, in Preach My Gospel it says, "Your success as a missionary is measured primarily by your commitment to find, teach, baptize, and confirm people and to help them become faithful members of the Church who enjoy the presence of the Holy Ghost." We can't control how many people get baptized but we can control how committed we are. They invited each of us to ask ourselves, "how committed are you to your (missionary) purpose/covenants?" Then Sister Phillips issued an invitation to each of us to find a standard we may not understand or embrace and work hard to improve in it. This idea and invitation may have been extended to our missionaries but I find many life applications to it as well. As members of the church how committed are we? What can we work on to improve?

A trip over the mountain for Zone Conference would not be complete without stopping to do a little site-seeing. We made a quick stop at Zig Zag Falls with Elder & Sister Larson. We have been there before but they have not been. Pulling the trailer may have been a solution for the rain this ZC but we won't want to pull the trailer through the mountains on a regular basis so we are searching for a different solution.

Halloween was this week and we did not know what to expect. We ended up having no trick-or-treaters at our apartment but that was okay because we still had a great time. The missionaries were told to be in their apartments by 6:00 PM unless they had a member's house to hang out at and pass out candy or something. We had signed up to feed the Elders in our area since we figured no one would want to feed them on Halloween. In the end we expanded our dinner invitation to everyone in our District and area and had 17 of us crowded into our small apartment. But we had such a good time!! Some of the missionaries decided to dress up after President Phillips told us all the story of dressing up like a thermometer. Some of the Sisters dressed up like the Assistants. And then Elder Rowan, well he had to get into it somehow!! The highlight of the evening was an impromptu dance off we had. I wish I could share the video on this blog but that doesn't work. You will just have to imagine 17 missionaries all doing a 15 second dance move to Rootbeer Rag!!

The following is a post from Elder Rowan:

An epistle to the gentiles. HAHA . From Elder Rowan

And it came to pass, that in the beginning (of our mission), here in the land of Bountiful, the heavens were opened and it did rain. For a month or so we did get wet. Then the rains stopped and for six months we were dry. But alas, the heavenly floods will again be upon us. And the earth will return to its naturally green color. There is a reason the University of Oregon’s Mascot is a DUCK. It is raining right now and my phone shows it raining nine of the next ten days. At least unlike the missionaries, we do not have to work in the precipitation. ..

Sister Rowan is the writer for all our other blogs. So I will add in my two cents. I have been challenged by one of our children to add something every week. Boooring. Zzzzzzz. But I will try. Yoda says “Do or do not, there is no try”. I loved the MTC. It was fun learning from young returned missionaries (Elders and Sisters). The food was good and the Spirit was so strong in the meetings. But now we are here. This is what I do on an average Monday. I begin the morning by reading my emails that notify me which missionaries had a hard time driving safely last week. We have a Big Brother device on the cars that keeps track of everything the car does. Including not logging in with the card before driving, driving too fast, aggressively, no seat belt, hard stops, etc. I actually get notices every day. I then have to talk to the missionaries and warn them of consequences (loss of driving privileges). And encourage them to drive better. I then check to see if all the missionaries have entered their mileage from the day before and then remind them if they forgot. I check on cars needing oil changes and let the missionaries know to get it done. Then see if they sent me a copy of the invoice. Day and night I answer the missionaries on the phone asking questions about their cars, their bikes, (I am also in charge of bikes) their Big Brother card, and much more. I enjoy doing this for the missionaries. I really love when the missionaries come in the office. Their spirit lights up the room. We go to District Council meeting with the young Elders and Sisters every Thursday. It is great talking with them about the work they are doing each week. We meet with President and Sister Phillips and the Assistants and other Office staff every Monday morning. Great spiritual meetings discussing the needs of the missionaries. Sorry this is so boring, Sister Rowan has covered all this in our Blogs.

When we get home I will recommend to all those Seniors I talk to, to go on a mission away from home. The spirit is so strong that many times I am reminded of my Mission to Mexico. By the way I love talking to the Spanish Missionaries every time I see them. My Spanish has improved so much since coming here. I also go with Elder Larson (Housing Coordinator) to move missionaries out from one apartment to a new one. Pick up couches and big chair from the apartments and take them to the dump. We also take the missionaries luggage to the airport when they leave the mission and pick up the new missionaries luggage and take it to the office. I am leaving out so much that we do. We really get to the office before 8:30 and leave around 5 or 6 most days. Except on our P-day which is Saturday. We still go in many Saturdays for a few hours to catch up on things. My phone usually starts ringing Sunday night with requests for the missionaries who have their P-day on Mondays. Anyway, I testify that we are doing the Lord’s work. I feel his directing influence every day in the office when I am serving the missionaries. I could not fulfill my calling without God’s help (and Sister Rowan’s help of course). Next week I will add my testimony. I will end using an old phrase we used on my mission in Mexico. Keep On Truckin’