April 14, 2024

I loved our District Council last Sunday night. It was our last one before transfers so that made it a little bittersweet because we knew some of them were going to be transferred. They all gathered at our house and we each took a turn telling about a Conference talk that we really enjoyed. To hear these young people so excited to hear the word of God through our Prophet and Apostles brings happiness to my heart. We love them so much!

Our prophet invited each of us to read the dedication of the Kirkland Temple in D&C 109. In our staff meeting on Monday one of our Assistants, Elder Soucy, shared a scripture passage from D&C109:55-57. It is about missionary work and pertains to today just as much as it did in 1836. It reads:

55 Remember the kings, the princes, the nobles, and the great ones of the earth, and all people, and the churches, all the poor, the needy, and afflicted ones of the earth;

56 That their hearts may be softened when thy servants shall go out from thy house, O Jehovah, to bear testimony of thy name; that their prejudices may give way before the truth, and thy people may obtain favor in the sight of all;

57 That all the ends of the earth may know that we, thy servants, have heard thy voice, and that thou hast sent us;

This week was the start of our 6 week cycle so it was a busy one. We started out the week Monday with going to pick up (8) more new cars and on Tuesday picking up a new pickup truck for the mission office. That makes for (14) vehicles in the last two weeks so the trick is to get them traded with the older cars. It is like a puzzle trying to keep track of who is where and who is going that direction and when the cars can get traded. We have traded (7) so far so only (6) more to go. It is hard for the missionaries to get too excited when they are just trading one Rogue for another Rogue. It will be more exciting when we get other models of cars in.

Even amidst all the chaos with the cars we still had the opportunity to go to the temple Tuesday night and then out to dinner. The Portland temple is closing for 6 weeks on April 29th so we needed to go now while it is still open. The grounds were beautiful as always and it was a great evening. We ended with a nice dinner at a Mexican restaurant.

I don't often post anything negative on this blog but I suppose in the interest of real life I should say that sometimes we just have bad days. Wednesday was one of those days for me. I was frustrated with some of the payment processes, people were irratating me, Jack was gone delivering a car, and the day was just generally not going well. We had an appointment for Jack's MRI and during the appointment we got a phone call from some Sisters who had just been in a pretty serious car accident. Thank heavens no one was hurt but the car was pretty badly damaged. We got the results of the MRI on his shoulder and are now waiting for an appointment with the doctor. Matt had an Ortho friend look at it and his recommendation was that Jack needs a total shoulder replacement! Not fun!!! We will have to decide if we are going to do it here or at home but it looks like his pickleball days are over for the foreseeable future.

Thursday was a better day. It was the start of transfers and Sister Larson and I took the (2) Temple Square Sister Missionaries to the airport in the morning. Sister Foster & Sister Anderson-Yandrow came to our mission for (2) months to do a proselyting mission but are now returning to Temple Square to complete their mission there. We loved having them and will miss them.

Two of the Elders in our District were also transferred, Elder McKee & Elder Davis. We will miss them too but look forward to seeing them at Zone Conferences. Elder McKee came in as an English speaking missionary but is now transferring to Spanish speaking. Elder Rowan is excited for him and may have even suggested to the President that this would be a good move. They called themselves The Three Amigos because they were all so similar in size and height.

When the Transfer Board drops on Sunday night it is the start of a busy week. Here are pictures of the Transfer Board just to remember what they look like. They need to be studied to find out where everyone is going. Then apartments and cars are moved around and Elder Larson and Elder Rowan need to make sure everything is in the computer right. I need to study them to get counts for Zone Conference lunches and figure out who to pay extra laundry money to. Sister Larson needs to send out leadership letters for any new assignments and we need to figure out how many trainers there are for the incoming new missionaries for our Arrival dinner. Busy, busy!!

Also on Thursday Elder Rowan & Larson drove luggage over the mountain and back for transfers and I got to sit in on a lesson with our "friend" Alicia. She has a 17 year old son with severe disabilities. At one point she asked how you could hear the voice of the spirit and the spirit was strong when I told her that as a mother of a child with disabilities I was positive the spirit had spoken to her as she provided care for her son.

There was some bad news on Thursday. My sister Diana and her husband Cary have been waiting to meet with a lung doctor after nodules were found in his lungs following a routine chest xray. Thursday they finally had that appointment and it was not good. The doctor believes he has lung cancer but needs to do a biopsy before confirming for sure. Love and prayers are being sent his way as we await the results.

Friday started out saying goodbye to (3) sweet sisters that we love. Sisters Larson & Harding & Hermana Larsen are heading home to start the new chapter of their lives. Hermana Larsen, in the cream colored dress, was assigned here in Newberg when we first arrived and Elder Rowan remembers that she was the 1st one to speak Spanish to him. She loves postcards and has sent them to the office missionaries every few months. Sister Larson was a contestant on American Idol and I will not be surprised if she makes it big as pop singer someday!

Later on Friday Elder Rowan and I got to go deliver some new cars to missionaries. While Elder Rowan was transferring over the ORCOM device I got to sit in on their District Council. It is so fun to see them working together to try and become better missionaries. They made me do a door approach and I thought I did pretty good after watching the missionaries do it so many times. As part of their studies they read Alma 5:19, "I say unto you, can you look up, having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?" I contrasted the way I was feeling Wednesday when Satan had taken hold of my heart with how I was feeling Friday and I will take Friday any day!! Even later on Friday we had dinner for our new arrivals. For the 1st time since we have been here we had no new incoming missionaries for this transfer. At the last minute we received (2) reassigned missionaries who are waiting for their Visas.

Saturday we were able to watch via Zoom the funeral of our good friend Dodd Greer. How grateful we are for modern technology that allowed us to feel a part of the service even though we were so far away. We loved everything they had to say about Dodd and echo their sentiments. He was a man who loved his family and showed it in the things he did. They honored him with a beautiful funeral service.

We were also able to go for a walk on Saturday at the Miller Woods Pond trail. It was nice to get out and enjoy a little of nature.

Finally, to end the week we attended our Stake Conference. We had a vising General Authority, Elder Isaac Morrison, and he was wonderful. You could feel the love flowing off of him. The sweet sister Athena who was baptized in November was asked to speak at the Saturday night session. She did amazing!! Elder Morrison told her he needs to take her to Utah to speak at General Conference. The Larson's have been like 2nd parents to Athena since she started taking the lessons and they were very proud parents Saturday night. Elder Morrison spoke about the Covenant Path and what it takes to return back to our Heavenly Father.