January 28, 2024

Another busy week in the books! Last Sunday we had dinner at Sister Incze's with all five Elders in our ward and then we had District Council with our new District Council Leader, Elder Jack Nielsen. He is young and has only been out 7 months but he is already doing great. Later Sunday night Sharon & Paul came back to spend another day with us. Our plan had been to take them to the Old Columbia Hwy to see Multnomah Falls and some of the other falls along that highway. We also wanted to have lunch at the lodge. With the freezing rains we have been having we knew that it might be tricky but it was even worse than we thought. The lodge was closed and when we got there we found out that even the Old Columbia Hwy was closed. We knew we could see Multnomah Falls from Hwy 84 so we headed over that way with the hopes we could walk up to the viewing area but even there the parking lot was was frozen and too icy to walk on. We snapped some pics from our car and moved on to other activities.

Thank goodness we also had plans to drive up to Tracey's and have dinner so the day was saved! We made a quick drive by the Portland Temple and were saddened to see that the temple grounds had lost some beautiful trees in the ice storm. Apparently heavy ice and strong winds don't mix and there were trees down all over Portland and Washington. We had a great dinner of Marsala Tikka Chicken, courtesy of our mission president's wife (it was her recipe), and a fun time visiting with Tracey's family. We were sad to have Sharon & Paul leave the next morning. We wish they could have stayed longer.

The rest of the week was taken up with Zone Conferences. We were in McMinnville, Lebanon, & Redmond. The weather was really rainy so Sister Larson and I opted not to check the tire tread on the cars during car inspections. Elder Rowan & Elder Larson still topped off the windshield wiper fluid and after seeing how wet they were we were happy with our decision.

At Zone Conference Sister Phillips decided to be a little more secular and teach the missionaries how to conduct music. It was surprising how excited the missionaries in each conference seemed about it. Such a good skill for them to know. I have to admit I even learned a few things since I am not musical. I tried to practice at church today though and I still don't know what I am doing :). I know we are not supposed to take pictures in the chapel but I just had to snap this.

We also talked about relying on the spirit and the President warned that he would call people up to share a 1-2 minute experience on relying on the Spirit. I knew there was a chance we could be called upon so I thought of an experience but I really didn't think he would call on a Sr Missionary. You can imagine how surprised I was when he called on ME! I am glad I was prepared and that the spirit directed me on what to say.

We also do work when we travel around to the zone conferences. I am in charge of coordinating all the luncheons with the Stake Relief Society presidencies so I check in with the kitchen, gather up receipts for reimbursement, and make sure everything is under control for lunch. Elder Larson takes housing supplies to missionaries over the mountain and sometimes, like this time, we have to empty an apartment and bring everything back in the trailer to the storage unit. It was dark when we got to Bend and we were extremely grateful that the Housing Mentors had packed everything up and there were missionaries to help load the trailer.

Our ride back over the mountain was uneventful until about an hour from home. Then things got interesting as Elder Rowan started getting phone calls about car problems. It had already been a bad week for cars. We have to keep reminding ourselves that these missionaries are still teenage drivers for the most part. We expected accidents when the freezing rain hit, but no, these were just accidents from missionaries being careless. Last week we had one set scrape the side of their car on another person's mirror when backing out of their carport, another mashed the front headlight when they hit the pole in their carport, and yet another hit the gas instead of the brakes and ran head on into a tree. But back to the car problems on the way back from zone conference. Poor Elder Rowan. He was going back and forth between two different car problems. One set of Elders "accidently" got their car stuck in a ditch and were afraid to try and get it out. It was so far in one of the tires was off the ground. Elder Rowan had them call a tow truck to pull them out and when the tow truck driver arrived he asked them what they knew about God. That lead to a whole missionary lesson that Elder Rowan heard them giving as he waited to talk to them. It ended with them setting up a teaching appointment with the driver and the missionaries are convinced it was meant to happen so they could meet this person. The other car problem was a more serious car accident but thankfully no one was hurt. Our Elder was going the wrong way on a oneway street and when he tried to pull into a driveway to get out of the way he was t-boned. Like I said, a bad week for cars!!!!!

Our missionary miracle of finding an apartment for the Bready's fell through when our apartment manager was let go and with her went the verbal agreement we had for the apartment. We scrambled to come up with another solution and are grateful that a nice AirBnB presented itself and we were able to secure a nice place for them to stay until their apartment is ready. We were sad to have one of our brand new missionaries go home but hope he can resolve his issues and come back to join us. President Phillips always instructs the new missionaries that if they have serious transgressions they have not repented of that he wants them to repent early and not carry that guilt throughout their missions. He tells them, "Not on my watch!" It takes lots of courage to come forward and confess your sins.

One of the blessings of getting to know all these missionaries is that sometimes we get to Zoom in to their homecomings. We had that opportunity today with Sister Imlay. She gave a wonderful talk on the Atonement and reminded us of what President Henry B Eyring said about knowing if the Atonement of Jesus Christ was working in our lives. He said, "If you have felt the influence of the Holy Ghost today, you may take it as a sweet evidence that the Atonement is working in your life."

After each zone conference luncheon a picture is taken of the whole group. Here are the pictures from these zone conferences.

January 20, 2024

The cold weather continued most of the week. Last Sunday night we were supposed to have a Sister's Devotional but this was the day church was cancelled and missionaries were ordered not to drive. It forced the Sisters to get creative and move the meeting to Zoom. It was not nearly as special as being in person with these wonderful Sisters but we will take what we can get. We discussed the different names of our Savior and then each told experiences about studying about our covenants this transfer.

Monday was still really cold (15 degrees) and icy but we all managed to make it into the office for our Staff Meeting. Afterwards the Elders entertained us with NOSE WAXING!! Our District Leader promised to do something (to be determined) if our District met it's goal of passing out 100 Book of Mormons during the transfer. I am not sure how nose waxing ended up being the consequence but in the end our District gave out 150 copies of the Book of Mormon and not only our District Leader and his companion but also the Assistants all wanted to prove they could be "real" men and wax their nose hairs. The Sisters all cheered them on and snapped lots of photos. You will notice that Elder Rowan is not pictured and that is because he refused to participate in public. Chicken!! Pictured are Elders Jacobsen, Reil, Cordray, Wilde, & Larson.

It was also Transfer and New Arrivals this week and even with the cold weather everyone made it where they were supposed to go. We had lots of missionaries in the office and I couldn't help taking a picture of Sister Asher and her scriptures. I don't think I have ever seen anyone's scriptures look so well used. These missionaries work hard and study hard!

Other happenings in the office were that I finished the 2023 Oregon Salem Mission Annual History. I have passed it on to the president now for his approval and am just waiting to see if it is okay. Elder Rowan has been working hard to get all the newer missionaries their TIWI cards so they can drive. He also had to take one of our reassigns to the airport at 3:00 AM on Thursday which was scary because the roads were just barely starting to improve. The parking lots were so icy this week that Elder Rowan had a minor fall with his feet going out from under him. He was getting out of the truck and was able to grab hold but wrenched his arm in the process. It is the same arm he had rotor cuff surgery on. We are praying that he just pulled the muscles and will heal with no permanent damage done. Here is a pic of what our office parking lot looked like. You might think that is just a skiff of snow but it is really a solid sheet of ice.

Thursday was an EXTRA special day for us because my sister Sharon and her husband Paul came to visit on their way to see their son Andrew. We picked them up late Wednesday night and took Thursday off so that we could spend the day with them. Even though it was cold and rainy we still made a drive out to Cannon Beach so they could see the Oregon coast. We had a great day visiting and were even able to meet up with my cousin Tom for lunch at Mo's in Cannon Beach. Of course we had to finish the day off with a stop at Tillamook for ice cream on the way home. They will come back late Sunday night and we will get one more day to hang out with them.

The week would not be complete without departure and new arrival pictures. We only had (3) missionaries departing this transfer. Probably the smallest amount since we got here. One of the departing missionaries, Elder Rugerio, was one of our favorite missionaries. He was the only Hispanic missionary in our mission and was also assigned to speak Spanish. He was quite the charmer and we will miss him. One of the other departing missionaries, Elder Thompson, already has his wedding date set nine weeks from now, on March 30th. We wish him the best.

We ended the week with our new arrival dinner. We got (4) regular assigned missionaries, (3) reassigns, and (2) Temple Square missionaries who will only be here (2) transfers. They look like a great bunch. We said goodbye to our District Leader Elder Cordray and his companion Elder Wilde. They are "white washing" our area which means that (2) new to the area missionaries will be assigned to Newberg. We look forward to getting to know these new missionaries. We always learn so much from them!

January 14, 2024

This week has been a strange one. On Monday we were able to meet back with the Phillips for our Office Staff Meeting after two weeks off for Christmas & New Years. It was nice to be able to discuss the mission needs and catch up with everyone. One of the topics we discussed was the new senior couple, the Breadys, coming in February and the fact that we have no housing available for them. Elder Larson presented (7) different solutions for housing but none of them were ideal. What we wanted was another apartment in our complex but the last time Elder Larson talked to management there were no openings and none expected. We settled on having the new couple stay in a hotel for 3-4 weeks until Sister Incze leaves but none of us liked that solution for obvious reasons. On Wednesday morning I had to call our apartment manager about some financial issues and decided to be extra friendly and ask how things were going and if the complex was still full. Miracle of miracles, the manager told me they had just received notice of someone moving so they would have an apartment available for us. Even on the ground floor like we were looking for!! It truly is a Mission Miracle!

Elder Rowan got his Mission Miracle on Monday when he was able to beat some of the young missionaries in pickleball! Our newer Assistant, Elder Jacobsen, has been razzing Elder Rowan about pickleball for weeks now. He really wanted to play against him and was sure he would beat Elder Rowan. In truth they only got to play (2) games and are tied at (1) to (1), but Elder Rowan will take that as a win that they didn't destroy him. Of course Elder Jacobsen wants to complete the set.

Tuesday Elder Rowan & I were able to go out teaching with the Assistants to Nancy's. I have been with the missionaries about (3) times now to see Nancy and she is just not making much progress. She says she wants to be baptized but has not truly had that change of heart to move her forward. Her mother was a member and her sister is currently active. I asked Nancy why she wanted to get baptized and she said she wanted to be right with God and that she wants to be sealed to her mother and other family members. I could tell that being sealed to her family was really her driving force. It is a strong motivator but somehow she needs to have that spiritual witness to change her heart. The missionaries promised her that if she read her scriptures and continued comining to church it would come. We are praying for her. She reminds me alot of my mom and her journey back to church. It made me go home and read what I had written about being sealed to my mom. The tears still flowed even though it was almost (2) years ago now. We had so many tender mercies that day.

It is time for the Mission's Annual Audit and as Financial Secretary I am in charge of overseeing that. This week I received training on it from Salt Lake because it is due by March 1st. Each area of the office has a section on the audit--Housing, Vehicles, Technology, Medical, & Financial. Each of us has been reviewing our sections for a few months now so that there are no surprises on the audit. I think we will all do fine but there is something about the word "audit" that makes everyone panic.

Tuesday was our Spanish Zone Conference and time to feed the missionaries again. The menu this week was Teriaki Chicken, Mac-N-Cheese, Salad, Rolls, & Heavenly Cake. It seemed to be a hit and we planned just right. Everyone had their fill but there was very little left. These Spanish missionaries are pretty close to each other since they are in the minority in the mission. We have about 21 Spanish missionaries right now. They always rearrange the tables so they can be closer together and look at this selfie they are taking.

I have mentioned before that the Sr Missionaries have been challenged to give away a Book of Mormon. Well, this week Elder Rowan met his goal! He had a meeting with Dave, a bike guy and non-member, to get some bikes and work on some of the bikes we already have. Dave worked with Elder Weed on bikes before Elder Rowan so he knew we had bikes for our missionaries but really didn't know much more than that. Elder Rowan asked him if he knew anything about what we did and when he said no, Elder Rowan gave him a Book of Mormon with a little handout (prepared by Elder Larson) in it that explained what the Sr Missionaries do, why we do it, and why the Book of Mormon is important to us. Dave happily took the book and it was so easy. Why can't we do it more often? This is not the best picture but I was taking it on the sly.

I am feeling really bad that I have not given a Book of Mormon away yet. I am the only Sr Missionary to fail now. As I explained before, I interact with non-members hardly at all. So I had this brilliant idea this week that I would try to put myself out there and meet some people who were not members. I decided I would go to the Senior Citizen Center. I looked them up online and found a calendar of their activities. On Fridays at 10:00 AM they play Hand & Foote. Perfect! I know how to play that. I played with my Mom & Dwight, my sisters, and my Canasta friends. So on Friday I bravely walked into the Center and joined (4) others in a game of Hand & Foote. I would love to say it was a great experience, that they loved me, and were really interested in who I was and why I was wearing the missionary tag. But the truth is that I felt like an outsider, they could care less who I was, and they didn't ask me one question about myself. In all fairness, this probably needs to be a long-term project to get to know people. But it was very discouraging and I am not sure it is worth the effort. I am still thinking about it. The game was (3) hrs long and I have work to do in the office :). It didn't help either that I walked in and won every hand!

This weekend the dreaded ice storms have finally arrived. School was let out early on Friday in anticipation, the stores were crowded Friday morning, and then we waited. For a while it looked like Newberg might not get it but it finally hit on Saturday morning. I woke up to the sound of ice rain hitting the windows. Missionaries have been ordered not to drive, church has been cancelled, and as of Saturday afternoon we have been indoors all day and it is 15 degrees outside. Part of me wants to go out driving just to see how bad it really is but that is not the example Elder Rowan wants to set. This is the post our District Leader put out only to be caught messing around on camera an hour later. Those missionaries!! But in their defense they posted later that they had given out 10 Book of Mormons and this was the best day ever! Our social media sisters were being obedient also about not driving so we invited them over to use our wifi so they could do some online work. I love how they are sitting side by side. Missionary rules state that you are supposed to see each others online activity at all times.

Since church was cancelled today the Larson's invited all the missionaries living in our apartment complex over to a Come Follow Me discussion and light lunch. There are 11 of us currently living in our complex. It was nice to get out of the apartment and even nicer to have a great discussion.

We found out today that Tracey and her family have been without electricity since early yesterday. Thank heavens they have a backup generator but it does not power the heater for their home. So here they are all huddled around a little space heater they have. With the temperatures in the teens it has got to be cold! We tried to get a picture of the freezing rain/ice and this is the best we could do. It is like little tiny pieces of pepple ice.

January 6, 2024

Today is our 10th month anniversary in the mission field! The time is really flying by. We are in the middle of winter here in Oregon now. We did not know what to expect and kept hearing these horror stories of ice storms, snow, etc. So far we have been very fortunate and we have not had any ice storms or snow and the weather has stayed in the mid 40's most days. We have had rain most every day but not all day so that is good. Sometimes we even have blue skies! One of the things we have been most surprised about is how green everything still is. Actually everything is getting even greener than it was even a month ago. I suppose all the rain has played a part in that. The lawns are REALLY green, there is lots of green shrubbery, the ferns are green, and of course there are the evergreen trees, pine trees, etc. The only thing missing is the leaves on many of the trees. I took these pictures today just to document how green it is in January.

New Year's Day was mostly a working day for us but we decided to play hooky later in the day and go to a movie with the Larson's. We saw Boys in the Boat. It was really good! Apparently it is a book alot of people have read but not us. It was clean, well made, and inspiring. We would recommend it!

Tuesday we had MLC which meant we had to provide dinner for 40 people. We decided that since it was so close to the holidays we would treat it like a party and have pizza, salad, and soda (which also meant we didn't have to cook). We debated where to get the pizza because we have limited options here in Newberg with the budget we have. In the end we drove 25 minutes away to McMinnville and got pizza at Winco. Who knew they made fresh pizzas at a reasonable cost ($9.00 per lg pizza). We covered them with blankets and then raced back to put them in the oven to keep warm. We had Fat Boys for dessert and there you go! Couldn't have been easier!!

Elder Rowan and I kept busy this week driving around the mission delivering cars. We are fortunate right now to have a few extra cars so if someone's car needs to go into the shop we can run a loaner out to them. One day we drove about 40 miles south to Silverton to take a car to some sisters and the next day we drove 52 miles north to take a car to the Elders in Vernonia.

Thursday evening was District Council which is such an inspiring meeting for us. We love them! This week Elder Cordray assigned each companionship to give a 5-7 minute talk on one of the Christlike attributes in PMG, Chapter 6. We were assigned the attribute of "Patience." I can tell you it was an exercise in patience for Elder Rowan and I to work together and come up with a talk we both could give. In the end it was a positive experience and I think we did well and really grew from it. Our District has been working on a goal to give out 100 Book of Mormons this transfer. Yesterday they achieved the goal with two weeks to spare. I mentioned last week that we had been challenged to give out one each as Sr. Missionaries too. Elder Larson gave his out last week and Sister Larson gave one to our mailman yesterday. Elder Rowan and I have failed so far. My problem is that I rarely interact with someone who is not already a member of the church. I have to find a way to widen my social circle here. Even in the office I sit at the back of the office and not at the front desk to greet the delivery people and random people who may stop in. I am continuing to pray for help to accomplish this goal!

Speaking of goals, it is a new year so time to re-dedicate ourselves to the things we want to do. Of course getting our eating under control always hits the list. It has been hard on the mission to watch what we eat when there are so many meals, treats, etc. every week and this is evident by looking at us. It has been incredible to dedicate so much time each day to personal study. We love listening to conference talks, podcasts, & Come Follow Me. I am especially loving reading the Book of Mormon every day. A habit I was never able to develop in the past. Our Mission President said he read the Book of Mormon 5 times this year! He is my hero! I have always been an avid reader and usually spent some time every day reading a novel. This is a habit I have given up on my mission and have not read any non-fiction since we left home. Instead I have replaced my novels with books to help me become a better disciple of Jesus Christ. Here are a few I am working on right now.

On Saturday we were able to attend the temple which is always a bonus for us. We ran into some ward members there this week, Bro & Sis Dibble. In talking to Sister Dibble she told me that she paints the back of Book of Mormons for the missionaries. These are hard cover editions and usually she paints the First Vision but sometimes does mountains, streams, etc. if the missionaries request them. She has promised to paint one for me and I am excited. It will be a cool souvenir from our mission.

This week we heard some sad news about one of Jack's friends from high school. Chris & Lili Anderson lived in our ward when we were first married. Jack went to high school with both of them and Chris was in his ward growing up. We did not see them often over the years but kept up with them through mutual friends. They live not far from us in Draper. They were on vacation in Florida in mid December when Chris suffered a pulmonary embolism and died instantly at the age of 71. My parting words for this blog is to cherish each day and make sure your family knows you love them. You never know when it may be your last day!