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!