Week 7

February 26, 2017

Dear Family,

The first part of this week was about the best of my mission so far.  The last half of the week has been disappointing.  Isn’t that the way life goes.  After a great spiritual high – a low can set in.  Let me tell you about the good stuff of this week.  It was our Zone Conference time.  Tuesday, we had the first zone conference.  It was held in my own Stake Center at 8:45 a.m. We were to read to ourselves for the first 15 minutes Chapter 4 in Preach My Gospel.  We opened the meeting by singing “The Spirit of God like a Fire is Burning”.  How I love to hear those predominately male voices singing in a way to call down the powers of heaven. It was powerful!! The President led a discussion on how we can recognize promptings of the spirit and act on them.  He had two stories from his own life. One involved his being impressed to pull into a rest area on his way home from Phoenix.  His wife asked him why they were stopped and he didn’t know.  It wasn’t until they were about to turn onto their own road that he could see the police investigating a wreck down the street.  A car full of drunks had been speeding down the road and lost control of their car and wrecked.  President realized if they had come to that intersection earlier they would have been t-boned by the drunks and he would have not survived.  

The other story is too long to relate here, but involved the calling of a new bishop and the healing of the new bishop’s wife. He also shared stories of missionaries in our mission who were impressed to go to unlikely places where they were able to find people who wanted to hear about the gospel.

All of us that work in the office were able to encourage the missionaries to do a better job of answering the phone politely, filling out baptism reports, cleaning their apartments and their cars, and filling out accident reports.

Next, the assistants gave good training on using the Book of Mormon effectively in answering concerns of investigators.  They led role playing using the Book of Mormon in their door approach.  They also demonstrated telling the story of the Book of Mormon in 20 minutes or less using the illustrations in the front of the book. They had each companionship teach each other with the illustrations.  There is a good challenge for some of you for a family home evening.

Missionaries were called on to give their 5 minute talks that all are supposed to have ready.  They did amazing jobs.  Sister Hancock showed a video on table manners after which we all ate our lunches a little self-consciously.

After lunch the President talked on our goal of 3 baptisms per ward.  He explained the importance of coordinating with the Ward mission leaders. He had demonstrations of how busy bishops are and how they need help from all Ward Council members to identify possible investigators.

Sister Hancock inspired us with her talk entitled “In the strength of the Lord.”  Growth comes by struggle

1. Prepare heart and mind

2 Learn by study and by faith

3. Turn our God given gifts and talents into service

4. Live with honor.

Wednesday was a wonderful repeat of Tuesday.  We met in another Stake Center not too far from where I live but this zone also included missionaries serving from Blackfoot.  This time the opening hymn was “Call to Serve” it brought to my mind the time in the fall of 2015 that while singing this song, I tearfully asked the Lord if I was too old to serve. The reassurance that I received on that occasion is the reason I am here, so happy to be serving.

I was looking forward to Friday’s conference that was to be held in Montpelier.  Thursday, we woke up to another winter wonderland of snow.  The President said that he didn’t want the office staff to risk driving up in the mountains.  He was going to just take the assistants.  I am wondering if he and the assistants were able to go because Friday the snow hammered us all day. Friday morning when I tried to leave for the office my tires spun on the ice coat under all the new snow.  I have a steep slope to drive out of my carport.  I park in backwards so I can pull forward up the incline to get out.  My new snow tires have made it easy in the past to pull right out, but Friday’s underlying ice made it impossible.  I was snowed-in all Friday.  Fortunately, the storm cleared on Saturday and we had blue skies and sunshine.  I was able to shop and get ready for my Sunday School class this morning.  I was going to be super prepared this time!!

Jennifer Finlinson stop by on her way home from James’ Dance competition.  She went by my house to pick up some things I wanted-- Dad’s portrait from my bedroom, my favorite recipe book and my quilting ruler, so I could draw bricks on my tower I was making for my Primary lesson on King Benjamin.

When I got to church I learned that the YM and YW would be teaching Primary, so that all teachers could go to the teacher training class.  So now I have experienced teaching with no preparation and preparing with no teaching!!  Another disappointment!!  Oh well.

I hope all of you have survived the storms of the past week: record snow in Cache valley, record rain in CA.  I think of you all often and pray for your happiness and success. I am so grateful to be here serving the Lord in his important work.

Love and hugs to all,

Grammie

Zone Conferences

Week 6

February 19, 2017

Dear Family,

Today is Dad birthday and I don’t even know where to begin to say what he means to me. Just I miss him and long for the time when we can be together again. But in the meantime, I am grateful to be on this mission. I have especially enjoyed this week.  We had 7 new missionaries arrive on Tuesday. They came from the airport to the mission office about noon.  After they had labeled all their luggage, been given pillows and other bedding, as needed, we fed them a lunch. The cultural hall looked cute with heart balloons and valentine décor on the tables. We served big sub sandwiches that were ordered and brought on long wood planks.  They didn’t come from Subway but a local sandwich shop and they were really good.  Next summer I will order some for us when we get together.

After lunch, we took them upstairs and they were each interviewed by President Hancock.  While they waited their turn Sister Hancock and the mission nurse who is also a Sister Hancock visited with them. When they were all interviewed, they had their pictures taken with President and Sister Hancock.  I think I need to bring a stool for Sister Hancock to stand on – at one point she was sandwich between her tall husband and an elder his same size and nearly disappeared she is so little.

We then we had a short meeting where President Hancock bore his testimony and each of us in the office had a few minutes to teach them what we expected of them. I didn’t try to handle all the aspects of filing out baptismal records; I only begged them to not write the month as numbers as in 2/4/17, but to always date 4 Feb 2017 and emphasized the importance of filing out the records themselves, not asking the convert to fill them out. They all looked like we should have had “naptime” instead.

I was invited to dinner at the mission home that evening.  It is a lovely home that I drive past when I go to my stake center. It has a large room downstairs where we met after dinner.  The assistants gave a power point presentation about Idaho and the history of the church in Idaho. President and Sister Hancock told them a little about themselves and we saw pictures of their family working together on their ranch. Afterward, they had pictures and nice things to say as they introduced each missionary’s companion.

The next morning they had to be at the mission office by 7:30. The leftover cookies (I made heart cookies and Sister Christensen made chocolate chip cookies) from yesterday’s lunch were set out along with fruit while they waited for what is called the “Train” to pick them up. The train consists of the mission van plus a truck pulling a trailer for their luggage. The train goes first to Blackfoot to drop off the new missionary assigned there and it picks up any there that are to be transferred elsewhere.  It then comes back to the mission office and picks up everyone going east (Soda Springs, Paris, Afton) The missionaries in Cokeville, Wy. Meet the train in Afton.  Missionaries in American Falls come north and pick up their new companions at the mission office.  Everything seemed to go smoothly.

Wednesday, I had send out emails to the families of the new missionaries letting them know their missionary had arrived safely and showing them the pictures of their son or daughter with the Hancocks.

Brother Rasmussen came in to teach me how to do that. He is a former Executive Secretary in this mission who is very tech savvy.  He is kind enough to come whenever we are having computer challenges.  He solved the problem last week of my computer shutting itself off and when I would turn it back on, it said it was not shut off properly. He helped me get the photos into a place where I could access them to attach to the letters I sent. He helped me a few and then I was able to do the rest on my own. Whether I can remember all that I learned until the next six weeks when I have to do it all again remains to be seen.

The happiest moment of the week was when President Hancock came in and told me that the missing package I had forwarded to a sister in Cokeville had finally arrived.  That was answer to a lot of prayers, the Sister’s, her parents, and MINE!!   The package contained a new camera that was sent by her mother about a month ago, I forwarded it weeks ago, and have worried about it constantly since learning it had not showed up. I am so relieved that I didn’t do something wrong in the forwarding process!!!

Next week there will be three Zone conferences.  Tuesday, the first one will be held in my own Stake Center here in Pocatello. Then we will have one in Soda Springs I think and the last one is Montpelier.  I will have about 5 minutes to impress on them the importance of getting the baptism records to me promptly and accurately.

Today, went well in Primary.  Sister Elliott that I team with showed up.  I called her Friday to see how she wanted to divide up the lesson.  She said she would teach the whole lesson this week and then I will have it next week. She didn’t come in to opening exercises until they were almost over.  I was panicking that I would be teaching unprepared again.  She had been feeding her baby during opening exercises. She has a darling baby girl named “Rosie” that I got to hold while she gave the lesson.  Sister Elliott is really good with the kids.  I can learn a lot from her.

Thanks again for all the Valentines, and flowers from Emily and Cherie.  You made me feel loved and cared for.  The Gospel is true!! And so are you!!

Love and hugs,

Grammie

Week 5

February 12, 2017

Dear Family,

I managed to get my newspaper out Monday - only 5 minutes late.  Monday was a busy day.  President Hancock and his wife came in for a meeting of office staff to talk about the upcoming new arrivals and transfers.

Tuesday, was busy I was short one baptism form for January, so I called the Elders and asked them to read their copy over the phone, so I could send it in.  About the time the Elder had finished reading it all to me while I made a copy, the original arrived in the mail.  The elders hadn’t mailed it until last Thursday. Grrrrrr

I have a lost package that was forwarded to a Sister with a camera in it. I went to the Post Office and got some clarification on which things can be forwarded and which cannot. Which was helpful to me, but I will have to have her parents to supply the tracking number on their receipt.  I am sick about this package which I logged into our office and that I marked as being forwarded, but she still has not received it.

The Bailey family in my ward invited me to come dinner. Brother Bailey is a Radiologist and they have five children ages from 12 to 2. They had Brother Bailey’s father staying with them, also.  He is a Neurosurgeon based in St. Louis who comes on a regular basis to do surgeries in the Pocatello Area. Father and son told amazing stories of their trip up the Amazon.

I feel like this has been a productive week for me. Each missionary apartment has a book containing mission staff phone numbers, a bit about the President and the mission area.  Information about vehicles, emergency evacuation plans, health tips, urgent care sites, etc. These books had not been updated since the mission was divided last July.  Sister DeWitt had begun making copies of some pages and they were all in a box under my desk in somewhat of a disarray.  So this week I filed the extra copies and got rid of the box.  I put together 4 new books for new apartments, and made 60 copies of the pages that needed updating. I have put them in envelopes for the housing couple to distribute to the various couples over housing in their areas. It was good to have a job that had a beginning and an end leaving a sense of accomplishment.

Thursday evening, David Linford’s niece, invited me to dinner. They have a family of four girls – brought back lots of memories.  They were just darling.  After dinner, they sang and played the piano for me.  A fun night to feel a part of a family.

Last week a member of the bishopric asked me if I would teach Primary.  He told me I would teach with another woman who he assured me would get in touch with me during the week. When the weekend was fast approaching, I tried to get in touch with the member of the Bishopric.  Without a ward list I was helpless.  I asked David’s niece Rebekah who is in my Stake but not my Ward for the phone number for brother Stoddard.  When I called, I got the father of the member of my bishopric, who is serving a mission in Georgia.  We had a good chat and he told me his son was in Mexico, but should be home by Sunday.  I tried to call the Bishop, who didn’t answer, so I left a message.  Well morning came and I headed to church not knowing what would be expected of me.  The Bishop apologized for not getting back with me.  He didn’t see his message until too late at night to call.  He pointed out the Primary president to me.  I was able to visit her for a minute before Sacrament Meeting started.  She told me just to come to the Primary room after Sacrament and sit with my class.  When I got there, she handed me a manual and told me what lesson we are on and assured me the other teacher would be here shortly.  I saw on the roll that I have 3 little boys in my CTR 4 class.  They were so cute and sat so quietly through opening exercises. I thought why do we need 2 teachers for 3 little boys.  Well class-time came and no teacher, so I followed the boys to our class room.  It was soon obvious that these busy little boys had enough of sitting on chairs.  I tried my best to teach “The Restoration”, the President slipped me some pictures for them to color and some treats to bribe them with.  I survived but came away thinking I need a whole new set of skills.  I haven’t been in Primary for over 25 years. WOW!! Send ideas for teaching moving objects, which best describes my little boys. After Primary, the president told me she had a text from the other teacher that she had been in the hospital with kidney stones.  That’s a good excuse for not showing up.

After church, I was invited to dinner by a senior couple in the Ward.  They were formerly service missionaries in the IPM mission office. It was good to have a crockpot pot roast with potatoes and gravy.  Seemed like a real Sunday dinner plus I enjoyed visiting with them. They invited me to an empty-nesters fireside tomorrow night where someone from the local Greek Orthodox will tell us about Greek history and their religion.  Sounds intriguing, I will probably go.

Congratulations! To Michael for getting his eagle award!!!!

I love you all and take joy in the fact that we are all striving to follow the Lord’s plan of happiness. The gospel is true and will bring us the greatest amount of joy in this life as well as eternal happiness in the life to come.

Love and hugs,

Grammie

Week 4

February 5, 2017

Dear Family,

Monday, I was able to get the newsletter out even though it was about 20 minutes past my 10:00 am deadline.  The reason to send it by 10:00 am is so the missionaries will get it when they are at a computer to write their families. One of the AP’s came to help me get President Hancock’s schedule changes into the newsletter.  The conclusion was it should just be sent as an attachment.

One of the Senior Sister missionaries heard that Sister DeWitt was admitted to the hospital on Saturday and operated on immediately. She wasn’t certain of the exact cause, but thought it must have been a bowel blockage because she was having so much trouble keeping food down. In addition, they removed a part of her bowel. I can’t imagine how awful that drive from Pocatello to Winslow AZ was with her being so ill. Thankfully, her son had flown up to drive her home.

Tuesday morning, I heard that the Senior missionaries didn’t get the newsletter.  I forgot that they are on their own mailing list not the regular IPM(that’s Idaho Pocatello Mission, an acronym I will use a lot in my letters during the next 18 months) missionary list. I found the proper list and corrected my mistake.

My biggest challenge of the week occurred when a Bishop of one of the Wards came to the office to find out why a new convert in his ward was not showing up on the Ward records yet.  He was baptized on Dec 17th which was before my time. Sister DeWitt was out of commission to call, but she had posted a phone number to call Salt Lake with questions about baptismal records. After calling Salt Lake and being told they didn’t have a record, I located the original form the missionaries had sent in, but I couldn’t find the print-out that comes like a receipt when the form is sent to Salt Lake.  So, I decided to just fill out the form again and send it in.  The Bishop went away happy because his new convert was already showing up on the ward list on his phone.  Now he could give him a calling in the Ward. Whew! Crisis passed!

When I had trouble finding referrals, after I had entered them in the computer, someone suggested I call Sister Walz in the Idaho Falls Mission who Sister DeWitt had trained prior the division of our mission.  She proved to be very helpful and I am comforted that there is someone to explain things to me.

One of the happiest things to happen this week was a call from the Idaho Falls Mission asking me to contact one of our missionaries that had taught a family in Idaho Falls last year before our mission was divided. I was to call the Elder and let him know that the parents in that family took out their endowments the night before and this morning they were going to be sealed together as a family.  I called the Elder who was obviously pleased. I thought of the plaque in the San Jose mission home that says something like “I will leave my family for two years, so other families can be together for eternity”.

When I sat down in the Chapel this morning and looked at my program, I was delighted to see there are about a dozen missionaries out serving from my new ward. Then I noticed that one Elder is serving in the Vanuatu Port Vila Mission. “Vanuatu is a mission all by itself!!!” I felt tears come in my eyes for joy! When Tam and I were serving our mission, Vanuatu was a far-off part of the Fiji Mission. Some of the special memories of our mission occurred on the islands of Vanuatu. I remember the “Family House Night” we shared with a village on the island of Ambae .  Ambae was the island where I looked out the window of our 20 seat plane, and said to Tam, “That must be an old airstrip from WWII that grass has grown over.” I no sooner said the words than the pilot spiraled down and landed on that grass field. Back to the Family House Night – That was the night that as honored guests we sat in front of everyone while we ate first. There was a table piled high with bread and I expected to see some little child come grab a piece. But the children all waited patiently until all the adults had eaten and they were allowed to go get their dinners.  That was hard for me to watch; it seemed so backward from the way I was used to letting the little ones have food first. After dinner, we gathered under a thatched roof for a lesson, and sang some hymns.  I remember feeling during the singing of “The Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning” that the spirit was so strong that the thatched roof could be in danger. It is one my happy mission memories.

Another unforgettable night on our mission tour of Vanuatu was our trip to the island, Tanna.  We met with the saints in a place called Whitesand, that was were Tam got black sand in his shirt pockets from the fall out in the air from a nearby volcano. That night we were driven in the back of a pickup truck to a village higher up on the mountain.  It was dark when we arrived.  We were shown to a lovely thatched roof cottage by candlelight. Our only light in the cottage was from candles by our bedside.  How romantic I thought.  That is until we were just about asleep when a large bang startled us.  The volcano was spitting up rocks. And so, it continued through the night. Just when we were finally asleep, the big boom of the volcano would wake us up again.  Then in the morning light I could see the caterpillars that had fallen from our thatched roof and landed on our pillows.  Great memories!! Make me grateful for my cozy apartment with electricity, running water, and no caterpillars on the ceiling.

I am grateful that today is Fast Sunday, and I was able to bear my testimony of the Savior as an official missionary.  I do love the Savior and know that he is the great Creator that was willing to come to earth in humble circumstances to save us all.  I am eternally grateful he appeared with the Father to the boy Joseph Smith and organized his church for our day.  What a privilege it is to belong to Christ’s church.  How grateful I am for His resurrection and temple covenants that allow me to look forward to being with Tam and all of you throughout eternity. I love you all!! The Gospel is True!!

Love and hugs,

Grammie