Week 53

January 28, 2018

 

Dear Loved Ones,
 

This has been a busy week in the Mission. Tuesday, we went to Montpelier for a Zone Conference and met in the beautiful Montpelier Tabernacle. It has an amazing ceiling, and woodwork. Also contains two original paintings by Minerva Teichert. A local member explained to us the recent upgrades made to make it more seismologically sound, and said that the two paintings are worth more than the cost of the rest of the building. I made a collage of pictures I took, so I took a picture of my college to send to you.
 

I rode to the conference with the Robisons and enjoyed visiting with them.  They served a mission on the islands of Majuro and Kiribati which your Dad and I had visited on our mission. We had fun sharing experiences there. They are the vehicle coordinators, so they do car inspections at Zone Conferences, but they are thru in the morning, so they leave after lunch.  I need to stay to take notes in the afternoon, so I rode home with President and Sister Hancock. President Hancock asked me if I had ever seen the geyser in Soda Springs. I told him I had not.  He said well it should be going off in about 10 minutes, so we went to see it. Afterward, he drove around the mountain to the spring that has naturally carbonated water that gives Soda Springs its name.  I had a taste of the water – it was like drinking Perrier. People often bring Kool-Aid to take away the mineral taste, but it didn’t taste as bad to me as Mesa water.
 

Wednesday, I went to Blackfoot for another Zone Conference and drove myself. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. President Hancock took the group picture for me, but I am so sad I didn’t get a picture of the beautiful table decorations. The tablecloths were royal blue and every table had a different Snowman or group of Snowmen. The Sisters were at a table with a mechanical Snowman like Dad’s funny drinking guy that shook. This snowman put his hat off and on with one hand and twirled beads with the other as he wiggled his hips.  He was hilarious!! I thought the Sister were going to die laughing.  I hope one of them took a picture for me to add to our history.
 

Friday, our Zone Conference was in the Alameda Stake Center which is right by the Ridley’s where I grocery shop. Nice to be close to home. The morning portion of each conference was devoted to videos from the Missionary Committee about Using Devices in Missionary Work. Our mission is one of the 162 missions beginning to use smart phones.  All month we have had parents calling and asking, “Are you really wanting missionaries to have smart phone?” And for weeks now the phones have been arriving. The Assistants and Zone Leaders have theirs operating. The missionaries hoped that theirs would be set up at Zone Conference, but it was decided it would take too much time to do so many at once. President has interviews next week and the Zone Leaders can help set up the companion not being interviewed.  We will see how that works out.
 

Afternoon session, Sister Hancock gave a great lesson based on a story of one of their family camping trips. They found a rattlesnake that got injured, so President cut its head off and Sister Hancock put the body in a bag to show her grandchildren. When they took the body out they could tell there were little unborn baby snakes inside. President Hancock opened up the body and six little snakes came out. Babies are more dangerous because they have teeth and can’t control their venom and they don’t have rattles yet to warn you.  Her point was that even little things can separate us from the direction of the Holy Ghost. Stay safe on your device -even little diversions can interrupt inspiration.  This was also a good lesson for me. I waste too much time on my computer at night. Good lesson to use it as a tool and turn it off instead of wandering through political discourses, stories of lost animals or children or any other non-productive sites because I am bored.

 

Love to all of you,
 

Grammie/Sister Shill

 

P.S. I also sent a picture of the cute table settings at the Alameda Stake. They used authentic potato sacks... the theme was "Have a Spudtacular Mission"

They served us a potato bar and the ice cream served looked like a potato but was just vanilla ice cream shaped like a potato and rolled in cocoa mix. I love it when they go out of their way for the missionaries. The woman in charge of this meal is a recently returned Mission President's wife and you could feel the love she has for missionaries.

 

 

Week 52

Dear Loved Ones,

 

It has been a busy week in the mission.  Monday night was the farewell dinner and testimony meeting with the missionaries going home.  This is always my favorite mission event.  It is so inspiring to hear the spiritual growth of these young people. Hard to say goodbye to some you have gotten to know well and to realize you probably will never see them again.  It was hard for me to say goodbye to Sister Maldonado who is returning home to Puerto Rico.  She hopes to come back to BYU Idaho and do animal science.  Time will tell.

Tuesday morning, we all gathered around our computers to watch the announcement of the new First Presidency. I am delighted that Elder Oakes will have the opportunity to be in the First Presidency as he is next in line to be the President. I am happy for the Uchtdorf’s that they will have more traveling assignment in Europe where they can visit family and friends. I will miss his talks at Women’s conference, because he really “gets” women.

Tuesday afternoon, I went to lunch with my new friend Daisy Christensen. She is a delightful person and had an amazing story to tell me. She lives in an apartment in the basement of her Sister’s house that their Dad is paying for half. Her sister is an alcoholic and her friends brought her home the other night and told Daisy to watch her that they thought she was in real trouble. Daisy didn’t know what to do for her, so she said to her sister, “If I were this sick, I would want a Priesthood blessing”.  Her sister agreed that might help.  So, Daisy called her Home teacher and he came over and gave her sister a blessing. Before Daisy moved to Pocatello she prayed that she would have a dedicated Home Teacher. The Lord answered that prayer. Her Home Teacher was just released as the Stake President. After the blessing and visit with her sister.  Her sister said that she would be alright with someone nonjudgmental like that coming to visit once a month. Daisy was so thrilled with her sister’s response. It validated her feelings that she was right in coming to Pocatello.

Wednesday, our five new missionaries arrived. Four Elders and one sharp Sister. The Elders also seem like they will be successful missionaries. The office staff gives them a little briefing and then they go to the mission home for dinner and the Assistant’s give a little bit about Idaho and missionary work. Sister Hancock has a presentation about their family and then the missionaries each get an envelope that tells them who will be their companion and where they will be serving.  It is always a fun night.  I get to go and take pictures.  I am so grateful President Hancock lets me attend these special nights.

Thursday, was Transfers and those days can be hectic for President, the assistants, and the housing coordinators, but not too bad for me.  Though I did have three baptism reports brought in.  That’s always a happy thing.

Thursday night was Relief Society “Girls Night Out”.  We went to the home of a women in the Ward who is the wife of a counselor in the Bishopric.  She may have a job in R.S. I don’t know because I am in Primary. It was a fun evening – everyone brought snacks. Yummy salsa, chips, veggie trays, fruit etc. After we all had time to eat and chat she gathered half of us on the bench under her huge bay window that overlooks Pocatello and the other half on chairs creating a circle.  She then had us all share what was meaningful to us in 2017. Did we discover a scripture that helped us? Or anything else we would like to share. It was a good experience.  Most of the sisters had very insightful comments to make. Others were not pressured to share if they didn’t want to.  Great night!!

Friday, I treated as my P-day cleaning, groceries etc. so I was free to drive to the Idaho Falls Temple (with President’s permission). I had a family name that Family Search had given me, so I did Initiatories and Jennifer and I did an endowment session.  I listened to a great book on the way to the temple call “The Holy Invitation”.  There is an article by this author in the December issue of LDS Living. It is a great book especially for those going to the temple for the first time to give them some perspective.

I was home in plenty of time for my Saturday night Stake Conference meeting.  I love those meetings there is always a special spirit there.  Today was our Stake Conference centered on Charity. The Stake President used the same quote from Marvin J. Ashton that I told you President Hancock used in Zone Conferences. His counselor gave a wonderful formula to the youth or those struggling with their testimony. He termed it BDK Believe – Do – Know. He illustrated this with several quotes from John in the New Testament, including the story of the woman at the well. She ran to tell her friends that she had found the Messiah. They believed her so they acted on that belief and when they had come to the Savior they then knew for themselves. If you only believe what your parents or others tell you that is enough if you will “do” the Lord’s will you will come to know the Savior for yourself.

Hope you all have a great week.  I will be going to Zone Conferences this week so I am looking forward to great experiences.

 

Love to all,

Grammie/Sister Shill

Week 51

January 15, 2018

Dear Family,

I am sorry to be slow writing.  I have a new Sunday schedule. I go to church at 1:30 p.m. instead of 8:30. It has many advantages – more time to prepare my Primary lesson, time to start dinner so I can invite friends over, the possibility of sleeping in. The liabilities are the temptation to procrastinate lesson preparation or wake-up time, not having my afternoon to write letters home, and children that are hungry and tired in Primary.  I have a delightful class of 5 girls and 2 boys just like my family. One little boy talks incessantly, the other boy I feared I offended last week when he wasn’t feeling well. Thankfully, he was cheerful and helpful this week, and didn’t seem to have a grudge about my misunderstanding him last week.  The bishop’s daughter seems a full year older than the other girls.  She helps her friend, Anabelle, read when called on and knows the answer to any question. I will enclose a picture I took this week. Two of the girls were not there. Left to right they are Anabelle (I was very careful to only write 1 ”n” in her name. 2 “n”s upset her. The label for our class door misspells her name. Next is Olivia Allgood (that is really her name) she likes to sit next to me in opening exercises and make my upper arm flap just like her grandmother’s. Next is Makenzie, the Bishop’s precocious daughter. Christian Swift is the older brother of Elliott in my last class. Last but not least is Payson.  If you wonder what he is putting in his mouth -it is a bird nest treat that I made melting butter, marshmallows and chocolate chips and stirring in Chinese noodles. I formed them into nests and put in jelly bean eggs.  We had a story in the lesson about a boy whose father worked at a bird refuge and whose rowdy classmates wanted to destroy a nest and break the eggs. Maybe I did the wrong thing by starting the lesson with the nest (treats) that they destroyed (ate) along with the jelly bean eggs!

Not much to report about the mission, last week was the calm before the storm. Tomorrow we say goodbye to 5 missionaries. Two of them are 2 transfer missionaries that have received calls to regular missions. One Elder is going to the North Washington, D.C. mission with headquarters in Potomac. The Sister is going to Milwaukee. Wednesday, we get 5 new missionaries and then transfers on Thursday.

Saturday, I took the two Sisters that live in my apartment complex to lunch.  They are amazing missionaries and I enjoy visiting with them.

Sunday night, I attended the Interfaith Fellowship Service honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The president of the Fellowship is also our new Primary Chorister and she is terrific at both those jobs. I get involved because of my work on the Public Affairs committee. I have enjoyed all the events I have attended.  I met another LDS woman who is new to Pocatello.  She is recently divorced and she enjoyed hearing about some of the happy events in Marsali’s life this past year.  She is going through some difficult times.  Her name is “Daisy” I told her that will be easy for me to remember because I have a Daisy in my family.  I’m taking her to lunch tomorrow after we hear what President Nelson has to say.

After I got home I watched the YSA fireside with Elder and Sister Uchtdorf. I have never heard her speak before and she is as charming as her husband – they are quite the exemplar couple.

Love you all,

Grammie/Sister Shill

 

Week 50! Happy New Year

January 8, 2018,



Dear Ones,

I can’t believe that we are eight days into the new year and I haven’t written to you all yet!  My apologies. It is wonderful to live in the Technology age where I felt like I had a window into your New Years Eve celebration.  Thanks, Talmage and Danae for hosting it, and thanks Sally for making the computer magic happen. At my age it was also nice to be able to turn the volume down as you rang in the new year. So fun to see you have a good time! And wonderful views of new baby Cora. What a little beauty!!

Just to follow up on my advice to think of the Book of Mormon as you plug in your phones to recharge, how about leaving your Book of Mormon by you charger. I know we all need a spiritual recharge as regularly as our phones. In Preach My Gospel there is a quote from President Gordon B Hinckley that I love, “Without reservation I promise you that if you will prayerfully read the Book of Mormon, regardless of how many times you previously have read it, there will come into your hearts . . . the Spirit of the Lord.  There will come a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to his commandments, and there will come a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God.” I know as we read it’s pages the Spirit of the Lord can refine us, we will make better decisions, and we will begin to hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Yesterday, I taught my new class about what it means to “hunger and thirst after righteousness”. We had a great story in the manual about a boy who came home to find two cookies left by his mother.  One for him and one for his brother. He made a bad choice and ate them both. The lesson pointed out that righteousness is “choosing the right”. If this little boy had been as hungry to choose the right as he was hungry to eat that cookie, he would have made a better choice. I thought that was such a good definition of “hungering and thirsting after righteousness”

This was a busy week for me at the office.  I needed to finish up the Mission History for 2017.  I had typed up the last Zone Conferences, but I still had pictures to identify and mount.  I also needed to take all the pages of the copy that is sent to Salt Lake out of their plastic covers. Salt Lake wants all the pages unconnected in any way.  I am sure they probably have some way to digitalize them if they are free. The naked pages made a smaller pile that fits into a folding file. Finally, on Thursday I took both the “book that stays in the mission” and the folder of pages for Salt Lake and set them on the President’s desk. I was sure I could hear in my head a drum roll and trumpets as a gave my best effort of the year and laid it on the desk.  I had to take a picture for my own scrapbook that I will enclose.

Speaking of a scrapbook, I realized that with all I have done to document the year for the mission – I had only stuffed things in a loose-leaf notebook for myself.  So, I went to Hobby Lobby and bought myself a real scrapbook to put my mission memories in.

I hope all of you are off to a wonderful new beginning! I liked Sally’s goal for “the Living Christ” and Danae’s challenge to read straight through the Book of Mormon.  I did that last year and found it helped to orient all that occurred into patterns. You really see the pride cycles doing it that way. I had just finished reading straight through the Institute manual on the Book of Mormon. I determined to go back and read both concurrently, so I have begun doing that at night.  I am still studying in Preach My Gospel in the mornings. I love reading multiple scriptures on the same topic. I am so blessed to have time to do this. Grateful to be on this mission but will be glad to not miss family events like yesterday’s baby blessing. Love to Jeff, Cassidy, and baby Jane and to all the rest of you!

Love,

Grammie/Sister Shill