March 31, 2024

Happy Easter! I hope everyone is having a wonderful day filled with thoughts of our Savior, fun with family, and good food to enjoy. Yesterday I was blessed to have a Sister's Devotional with the young Sister missionaries in our area. The Sister Training Leaders plan the devotional and this time it was centered around "Because of Him: An Easter Message." We were asked to prepare to share what our 'Because of Him' is. It was a beautiful meeting and a great way to prepare for Easter! These are some of the ideas that were shared:

Because of Him I can have joy!

Because of Him I can have peace!

Because of Him I can be forgiven and give forgiveness!

Because of Him I can live again!

Because of Him I can be resurrected!

Because of Him I can see my loved ones again!

Because of Him I can have hope!

What is your 'Because of Him?'

In our family we have Rainbow Jello on Easter. I was introduced to Rainbow Jello when we moved into our ward almost 40 years ago. It symbolized the beginning of Spring and became a fun Easter tradition for us. This year all my children kept the tradition alive in each of their individual households. Ryan & Rachel's families are together for Easter so they only have one batch between them but that still means we had (4) households with Rainbow Jello. I asked them to all post their pictures and this is what we came up with. So fun! :).

We had a fun day with Tracey and her family yesterday. Hayden was home from college for the weekend so we met them out at the coast for lunch and hanging out on the beach for a while. We were hoping to get in a little hike with them but it just wasn't in the cards. We decided to take a back way over to the coast. It was a beautiful drive through the forest but when we got about 3/4 of the way there we ran into a landslide. A tree slid off the hillside and mud, rocks, and the tree were completely blocking the road. We had no choice but to go back all the way we had come, about 75 minutes, and start over. That meant it was about lunch time when we met them. It was a beautiful day for the coast in March but in March you don't stay at the beach long anyway :).

Monday was our lucky day because we got to have more dental work done by Tom. He has been so generous with us. This time he replaced another of my older crowns and a bridge for Elder Rowan. While Elder Rowan was getting worked on I had the rare treat of going out to lunch with Tracey and really having a chance to visit.

Tuesday was Spanish Zone Conference which Elder Rowan especially enjoys. Since the Spanish missionaries eat with the Spanish members all the time we decided to do a tradional Easter dinner for them of ham, funeral potatoes, carrots, rolls, and cheesecake for dessert. It was a hit! We had just enough ham and carrots left over to have with the Sr. missionaries for our Easter dinner today.

The rest of the week was spent doing the usual work in the office. Paying bills, talking to missionaries about their driving records, etc. I process the Proselyting Supply orders and this week for the first time we had no items on back order. We have been waiting for XL Triple Combinations since July and they finally all shipped! Elder Rowan went on a teaching appointment with the Elders to a Pastor that has been studying the Book of Mormon and loving it. He was pretty nervous but the lesson went well. Unfortunately the Elders have decided they have to give their "friend" back to the Lord because he is not progressing and that is always a sad day. Elder Rowan and Elder Larson had fun modeling the Taylor Swift pj's that Sister Incze ordered for her granddaughter that came here by mistake. On Friday we had the Larson's and (2) Spanish Elders to dinner that we have grown especially close to. They are Elder Larsen and Elder Schenck. Both of them are from not far from us in Utah so hopefully we will see them again when they return home long after us.

Today has just been a nice day. We had a nice meeting at church and then came home and were on the phone with some of the kids for almost 3 hrs. Then the Sr missionaries came to dinner and we played some games after. Then it was time to head to District Council. Sometimes it is hard to go out on Sunday night but these times with the young missionaries are always really special and we are glad we made the effort!

March 24, 2024

The highlight for me this week was that I got to sit in on (2) lessons with the missionaries. The local missionaries are teaching their friend Mossimo. Mossimo is 19 or 20 and has really been enjoying the lessons. He was even on "date" but the missionaries had not given him the Word of Wisdom, Chastity, or Tithing lessons. They started with the Word of Wisdom lesson last week and things started to fall apart. Mossimo said he no longer had a desire to drink heavily or party with his friends but he didn't see what was wrong with having an occassional drink with them and he was not sure he wanted to give that up. The missionaries were really concerned about him and we discussed him at District Council. I advised them that Mossimo had not had that change of heart that would propel him forward and they needed to give him time. They invited me to the lesson to share my own conversion story of when I felt that "change of heart" and to inspire Mossimo to seek after it for himself. We were all surprised at the lesson when Mossimo said the Word of Wisdom was not going to be a problem for him and seemed eager to move forward. We advised him that the Word of Wisdom came from a modern day prophet and that we had General Conference coming up where we could hear for ourselves counsel from our current prophet. This experience with Mossimo reminded me how much easier it would be for the missionaries to teach a member referral. Usually a member referral would already know the hard stuff like the Word of Wisdom, Tithing, & Chastity. It would not be new information to them of what is required to become a member of the Church. We need to do better in sharing with our friends and neighbors.

The second lesson was with Lonnie. The Elders found Lonnie but he was in the area for our Social Media Sisters so they turned him over to them. He had one lesson with the (4) of them before the lesson I sat in on with just Lonnie and Sisters Bodily & Jacobsen. Lonnie is probably in his late 20's and has had a bit of a rough life. He was meeting with the missionaries because he wanted a better life. In his 1st lesson he had been invited to pray so the missionaries followed up to see if he had tried praying. He indicated he had not. Just the idea of praying felt weird to him. Talking to someone who was not really there? And then what if he said something wrong, or didn't use the right language? We talked to him more about prayer and invited him again to try praying. Then we moved on to the Plan of Salvation. We asked Lonnie if he had any questions about life that he hoped the missinaries could answer for him, like where did we come from, what is the purpose of life, and what happens after this life. He said no, although maybe the purpose of life interested him. He was like a blank slate. He does not know about Jesus Christ or have any religious background. The gospel of Jesus Christ could change his life! We will see if he continues to show any more interest. In our study of Come Follow Me this week we came across the scripture in 2 Nephi 32:8 that reminded me of Lonnie.

"And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray, ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirt teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray."

"But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of they soul."

It is so fun to have a grandson on a mission! We are able to Message with him in real time on his P-day because we are his grandparents and that is great! Parker, or Elder Rowan, is teaching a 15 yr old young man, Harold, that has had similiar ups and downs as Mossimo. No matter how much these missionaries want things to go fast you just have to wait until the friends are ready and have received that confirmation for themselves. It was fun to talk with Parker and share these common experiences.

We continue to be grateful for our mission and how and where we are serving. The new couple, the Bready's, have friends called to serve an MLS missio in Portland. They are assigned to an inner city ward that apparently is really scary. They are too scared to even walk around the area they are assigned to and are already counting down the days after only a month. We pray for them that they will learn to love the people they are serving and look back on their experience knowing why they are there.

Things in the office went well this week. There were a few frustrating problems in finance but I have learned that if I pray about them and wait a day or two the solutions will usually come. I also cut Elder Rowan's hair this week for the 1st time since the missionaries cut it, using the techniques they taught me. It went pretty well and I was amazed at how much faster it was. I still need to learn a few things and gain more confidence but I was pleased with the outcome. After this picture we worked on the sideburns a little more and think we have that down now too!

On Thursday we had surprise visitors in the mission office. President & Sister Tateoka, former mission presidents in the Oregon Salem Mission, dropped by for a visit. They served here from 2016 to 2019. They said the unoffical rule for mission presidents is for them not to go back for 5 years. We had a great visit with them and it was so fun to hear their stories and learn how some things were different and some things the same. They corrected a few mission "rumors" we had heard and were just lovely people. We took them into the mission president's office and had him sit in his chair for old time's sake.

One of the beauties of being here for over a year now is that we know what to expect for the weather, the flowers, the landscape, etc. We were here last year at this same time. So, for instance, we know that now is Cherry Blossom season. On Friday we needed to go to Salem to deliver a bike to some Elders so we took advantage of our time in Salem to go over by the State Capitol where they have 151 Cherry Blossom trees. We hit it at just the right time and the trees were beautiful in all their splendor.

On Saturday we headed into Portland to take advantage of a Christmas gift from our son Matthew. On our way out to dinner we decided to check out the Cherry Blossom trees down at the Portland Waterfront. We have wanted to walk along the waterfront since we got here and this was the perfect time with the Cherry Blossom trees in bloom there too! We can report we did not fear for our safety but I was a little nervous wearing our name tags and wondering if someone was going to confront us. But all was well and it was a great experience!

March 17, 2024

Spring has definitely been in the air here in Newberg the past few days. We have enjoyed sunshine and even a day or two of 70 degree weather. It has been fun to walk the area and identify the spring plants that are in bloom. There are Magnolia trees, Camelia bushes, and even Azaleas in bloom. These are not plants we have in Utah and I am loving them.

The beginning of the week was cold, cloudy, and sometimes rainy which was not good as we underwent the "Great Apartment Switch" this week. With Sister Incze's leaving it was time to move the Bready's out of the Airbnb and into their apartment. We called it the "Great Apartment Switch" because the young Sister missionaries moved into Sister Incze's apartment while the Bready's moved into theirs. It was a complicated move trying to arrange carpet cleaning, pack up (2) apartments, and then move everything from one apartment to the other. Then there was the day that the Bready's actually moved their stuff in too. Elder Larson managed it all and I am sure he sighed in relief when it was all done. I stayed in the office mostly alone for two days while everyone else did the dirty work so I do not have pictures of the whole event. The next few days I worked with Sister Bready training her on some office duties.

In between helping with the moves Elder Rowan was busy handling car problems and drove to Lebanon to help with a car, then to McMinnville the next day to help with the same car, and then to Portland to take them a Transit Van. I was able to get out of the office and go on some of these outings with him so that was fun. While in McMinnville we also met up with some Sisters and helped them with their car which was a small miracle we were there at the right time to be of assistance.

We had the (6) Sister Missionaries over for dinner one night since their apartments were still in chaos after the big move and that was fun. Somehow I managed not to get a picture of all of them but it was fun to get to know some of them better. We have (3) new Sisters in our area for this transfer. Each missionary is so special and unique and each has a story to tell. Elder Rowan was outnumbered (7) to one but he managed to hold his own.

We have loved the opportunity we have had to grow spiritually this week. Every week is incredible being submersed in the gospel daily but this week was extra special. The Come Follow Him podcast we listen to was wonderful and then Sister Larson suggested we also listen to the All In podcast with Tamara McFadden this week. In the podcast Sister McFadden talks about what she has learned about our Savior following the tragic death of her 16 year old son. It was powerful and inspiring and rightly called, "He Lives". Saturday night the Sisters in our Stake were invited to a special Fireside with Kenneth Cope where he sang and shared his testimony of the Savior. Then Sunday we attended the Women's World Wide Broadcast where we heard from our Relief Society Presidency and our beloved prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, regarding the power of the priesthood that we as sisters have access to. It has been a spiritual feast heading in to the Easter season and we have loved it!!

Friday we heard from our dear friends Dodd & Cathy Greer. Dodd has been fighting cancer for many years now and has finally been put on hospice. Dodd is in terrible pain and our hearts and thoughts have been with them as they go through this horrific trial. Jack has known Dodd most of his life and we became good friends with him and Cathy when we lived in the same ward during the early years of our marriage and then raised our families together, having children the same sex and years as each other. Cathy made me my cherished Christmas porcelean nativity set and we have supported one another though the ups and downs of life. When Jack was in need of a job and didn't know what kind of work to pursue Dodd gave him his first job in surveying and the rest is history. We will be forever grateful for the love and support they have shown to our family and hope they know how much we love them.

We were able to attend the temple yesterday with thoughts of them on our mind and pray that they can find peace and comfort in the gospel and knowing that families can be together forever.

March 10, 2024

Happy Anniversary to us!! One year on our mission! As we reflected this week on the past year we have been filled with happiness because we have LOVED our mission and being in the service of our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ! Originally we were called to serve for only one year but we can't imagine going home at this point. We finally know what we are doing, we know most of the missionaries, and we are in the rhythm of things. We are so grateful we have another six months left to serve! We tried to think of a good way to celebrate the occassion but it was a busy week so we will come up with something later.

It was time this week for Sister Incze to leave and we are going to miss her. She is going to be living not too far from us in Sandy so we aren't saying goodbye for long, we will see her soon. We honored her Monday in our Office Staff Meeting and we hope she knows how loved and appreciated she is.

As I mentioned last week, this week was a busy one. On Tuesday we had MLC and fed 45 missionaries. We planned a little more of an elaborate meal and had teriayki chicken, fried rice, stir fried vegetables, and rolls. For dessert we had Carrot Cake cookies from Julie Schupe. Now that the Breadys have arrived we will have an extra pair of hands to help in the kitchen which will be nice.

There is no end to the talents the missionaries in the field can develop. We get to enjoy many musical numbers and I am amazed at how many beautiful voices there are. We hear cello pieces, guitar numbers, and they all seem to play the ukelele. This week I was surprised with even another talent as one of our Sisters presented me with a balloon animal. Turns out she is learning how to make them and is getting pretty good at it!

The rest of our week was taken up with Zone Conferences in Forest Grove, Salem, & Bend. We love attending Zone Conference and feeling of the energy and testimony of our missionaries. The mornings are busy as we conduct car inspections and make sure everything is going well with the lunches the Stake Relief Societies provide for us. We were blessed this time around with sunshine. It was cold but manageable so long as we were standing in the sun. We were just excited it wasn't raining.

Zone Conferences are always special but I especially loved the focus of this one. Sister Phillips talked to the missionaries about what it means to "Think Celestial" and brought it back to the Doctrine of Christ. Then President Phillips talked to the missionaries about preparing themselves for General Conference. We were all instructed to prepare a 1 or 2 minute testimony about a conference talk we especially liked and then told that President Phillips would call people up at random to share their testimony. The spirit was strong as the missionaries shared their thoughts and I came away with such hope for the future hearing the strength of their testimonies regarding living prophets and apostles. It also made me excited for upcoming General Conference too!

Taking care of cars continues to be busy for Elder Rowan because there always seems to be problems. But Elder Rowan is so kind and patient with the missionaries. I am always encouraging him to take a harsher approach with them but he just can't do it. The missionaries love him and it is fun at Zone Conference to see him in his element visiting and joking with them. Even finding that they have duct taped their hood down while waiting for repairs doesn't faze him.

Elder Larson had a birthday while we were in Bend so took the opportunity to go out and celebrate. He was a good sport and we had a great time.

The rest of the weekend has been busy too. We got to go watch Alyssa play volleyball and today we will go to Tracey's to have dinner with her after we drop Sister Incze off at the airport. Last week I talked about all the Sister Missionaries that went home. It has been a special morning because we have been able to Zoom in to hear a few of them give their homecoming talks. How fortunate we are to live at this time where we can do that. We love them and are so grateful we can hear them report on their missions.

We had a fun afternoon with Tracey and the girls. Here are a few pictures from our walk in the woods.

March 3, 2024

What a week! This week is called Transfers, Departures, & New Arrivals and is always busy! There is such a mixture of happy with the sad. Before I start on all that though I just wanted to give a shout out to Elder Rowan! He is so funny! As Vehicle Coordinator it is his job to reprimand the missionaries for driving violations. Reprimanding anyone is just not his style so he has come up with a style that works for him. That style includes sending GIFS with little messages along with his text reminders about their driving. I saw several of these on his phone this week and just had to share.

We started out the week having the Elders over for dinner on Tuesday because we knew some of them may be leaving Newberg. Turns out we were right because Elder Reil is going to Bend to serve as a Zone Leader. Elder Reil was here in Newberg when we 1st got here, left for a transfer or two, and then came back as an Assistant. He has spent a total of 10 months here in Newberg so we have had a long time to draw close to him and he and Elder Rowan share a special bond. We love him and are excited he gets to go to Bend. He has always wanted to serve over the mountain.

The other (2) Assistants will stay the same and maybe it is a good thing one of them is leaving. They just have too much fun together. Here is a typical day in the office!

Transfer Day is always a busy day in the office with missionaries coming and going. At times it gets downright crazy but we enjoy the opportunity to visit with some of the missionaries we don't see often. Some come into the office to wait for their new companions and then return to their areas, some are hanging out until the next day to be Trainers, and some arrive in Newberg to work in that area. Here is a picture of the missionaries as they just got back into Newberg in the Mission Transit.

It was a little scary for Elder Rowan and Elder Larson to be driving over the mountain in the truck and trailer because there was 42 inches of snow expected in the Santiam Pass over the later part of the week. It was slow going and snowed most of the way but they made it safely.

While they were gone we spent time in the office visiting, trying to do our work, and preparing a meal on Friday. Sister Larson and I spent time setting up a scanner for Sister Bready and were pretty proud of ourselves when it worked. I also wanted to create a Kahoots game for District Council with Book of Mormon questions and was able to do that with the help of (2) young sister missionaries. Who said Senior Missionaries can't be "techy"?

Friday morning was time for Departing Missionaries and this time was especially hard. We had (9) Sister missionaries going home and (1) Elder. Those (9) Sisters were the heart of the mission and we are going to miss them. We will especially miss Sister Finlayson who was Spanish speaking and lived here in Newberg for about (5) months. She challenged Elder Rowan to improve his Spanish and he loved talking to her. Sister Walker was one of our Social Media Sisters and lived here the whole time we have been on our mission. She taught me about overcoming fear and was always so kind to make sure she acknowledged me each day. We love these Sisters but know how happy their families are to get them back.

With Departures also come Arrivals. We can't control the weather and on Friday morning we had a major snow storm that delayed flights. The new arrivals had to skip their visit to the temple grounds and come to the office for their incoming pictures. Change is never fun but it all worked out. We did our trainings and still managed to have dinner on schedule. We look forward to getting to know all these new missionaries.

In the midst of all the commotion of the new arrivals we were also reminded that our Heavenly Father loves us and is mindful of us. Sometimes it takes a collective group effort and that is what happened on Friday. Our young Elders have been teaching a 15 year old young man who has been very receptive to the lessons. On Friday they felt prompted to reach out to him about coming to church on Sunday. He replied that he was not doing well and was even considering taking his own life. You can image how concerned the young Elders were. They were hoping to talk to President or Sister Phillips to get direction on what to do but they were tied up with the new missionaries so they came to the Senior Sister Missionaries. After reading the texts we were concerned too and discussed ideas on what to do. The Elders had already tried the Suicide Hotline and did not get the help they were looking for. We considered a welfare check by the police but they did not know the young man's address. It was then that we turned to prayer for answers and received the promptings of the Holy Ghost on how to proceed. In the end the young man was okay for now and we were grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the access we had to the powers of heaven.

We had fun plans for Saturday to take a field trip out to the coast with the new senior missionaries but our plans were cancelled because of weather. We had a snow storm here in Newberg and out at the coast both Friday and Saturday. It was the 1st time I have seen snow just like home here. In the end we spent the day at home and in the office getting some things done and that was okay because it is a busy week again next week.