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.
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