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.