"My Missionary Commission"

I love this quote by Bruce R. McConkie entitled "My Missionary Commission".  I read it often and it really affects me every time I read it.  Glen will often say to me, "We are full time missionaries!  Can you believe it?"  This is what it says:

        "I am called of God.  My authority is above that of kings of the earth.  By revelation I have been selected as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is my master and He has chosen me to represent Him--to stand in His place, to say and do what He Himself would say and do if He personally were ministering to the very people to whom He has sent me.  My voice is His voice, and my acts are His acts; my doctrine is His doctrine.  My Commission is to do what He wants done; to say what He wants said; to be a living modern witness in word and in deed of the divinity of His great and marvelous Latter-day work.  How great is my calling!"

How great is our calling!  Now that things have calmed down a bit and we know a lot more than we used to and we are settling into more of a routine, we want to do more with our commission as missionaries than to work in the office every day.  At the office we do things for the missionaries and see them a lot--and we would also like to be missionaries by being able to be with people more.  Today we are going to meet with the missionaries assigned to our ward and with the bishop to discuss what can be done in our ward with missionary work.  We're pretty excited to do this.

Also, Glen, as the district leader of the office missionaries,  is really encouraging our district to memorize things together.  First, he asked us to memorize the names of the nine zones in our mission in alphabetical order.  He kind of makes a game of it.  Then he asked us to memorize the zone leaders of each zone.  Only Glen and I can do this so far, but we practice it in our devotional with everyone each morning.  Next he is going to ask them to memorize my purpose as a missionary, and then the few verses of Joseph Smith's first vision as presented in Preach My Gospel.  I love that we're doing this!  It's fun to do it together.

And here's some of what happened during the week in a nutshell:

On Sunday night, Elder Weekes (left) and Elder Vieira came over to celebrate Elder Vieira's 21st birthday.  He told us at church that it was his birthday and he loved chocolate cake, so we invited them over to celebrate.  He is from Portugal and is an excellent missionary, as is Elder Weekes.  They're the zone leaders of the Redrock Zone!  (which we memorized!)  We also have missionaries from Scotland, Tonga, Mexico, Guatemala, Canada, Africa, Chile, and Germany.  Pretty cool, huh?  

On Monday, we got a new missionary with only three days notice--we were notified on Friday that he was coming, so we needed to all the preparations for him to come and Glen and I had to stay at the office until 6:30 on Friday to get ready.  He also was told on Friday that he would be coming, so he had to make lots of preparations too!  He had been at the MTC months before but had an injury there and went home.  He was told on Friday that he was being reassigned to our mission.  We have learned that the mission field changes very frequently!!  Another elder also left early again this week.  So so sad.

 On Monday evening we went out to dinner with Pres. and Sis. Black and the rest of our district for FHE.  We were laughing so hard at some of the things being said that as we left, a couple who was also at the restaurant said to Sis. Black and I, "Hey, you're having way too much fun on your missions!  I should tell the mission president!"  (They were members.)  I said, "There's the mission president right there!"  It was a fun evening, and I can't believe I forgot to take a picture!

Glen wanted to make homemade tortillas one night, following Danny's example.  They were good, but oh, too much work!   

The ward party at our new ward--the Buffalo ward of the Redrock Stake.  See Elders Weekes and Vieira? It was supposed to be held outside, but lo and behold we had a rare huge rainstorm and we had to go inside.    Our building is the exact same design as our building in Layton--crazy, huh?

When we moved into our condo, we found that the fridge was leaking quite badly.  Glen finally had some time to fix it, and it was a lot of work, taking a few hours.  But hurray for Glen!  Our fridge is fixed!!  Thank heaven for his many skills.

On Friday night, two couples from our ward came over to our condo for game night.  They're so nice!  They had invited us to play games with them and said, "Which house should we play at?"  It got quiet, so I just volunteered to have them come here, but knowing that we generally don't get home on Fridays until 6:30 or so and they were coming at 7:00.  But we had so much fun and we hope we get to do it again!

On Saturday, our p-day, we again went shopping, did the laundry and cleaning, and Glen went to deliver furniture to some elders' apartments with a member of our ward.  Then we went to Redrock Canyon, just west of Las Vegas and it was a pretty cool canyon.  The red rock looks kind of like the Lake Powell area, and is quite a contrast to the desert landscape that surrounds most of Las Vegas.  Pictured above are petroglyphs on the rocks but they're hard to see in the picture.  Sometimes you can see burros on the road leading up to the canyon, as Glen did as he was making deliveries a few weeks ago, but there were none to see yesterday when I was with him! :(   This canyon is what our stake is named after.  

It felt so good to have a calmer week and to feel more organized.  We were even able to pick up our newly framed picture of our family and hang it up!  It feels heavenly to have it here.  I had another episode of homesickness this week, so it's good to be able to see our family in the picture.  

What a great week!

After our adventures last week, I can honestly say that we're starting to understand things somewhat better now.  H U R R A Y!!!!  For instance, remember the 130 + letters that I sent out?  About four of them came back with a note or phone call from the bewildered parents wondering why they got an empty envelope!  I honestly couldn't explain it, because Glen and I worked on the letters together (remember the 12 hour days?) and we know we matched every envelope with a letter.  Glen thinks we may have put too much sponge water on the seal of the envelope, causing it to actually not seal and the letters falling out.  Who knows?  I was so embarrassed! And then Glen mistakenly took money out of the PFS cards (which are like a credit card with the missionaries' monthly allotments on them) that the new 28 missionaries were given instead of adding money to their accounts, so when they went to use their cards at stores, they found that they had no money on them!  The mission office phone rang off the hook with confused missionaries (and guess who answers the phone?  That would be me.) and Glen having to explain what had happened. . . 

So when I saw this picture, it totally reminded me of US!   This is what President Black must be thinking.  But this week went much better!  We're still on a  learning curve, but it's getting less steep each week.

Last Saturday we drove to Mesquite, which is a part of our mission, and visited my sister Vickie and her husband Dell.  They just bought a home in Mesquite a few months ago, so it was so fun to visit them.  They teach the gospel essentials class in their ward and they are having some fun experiences with that.  

The next day, Sunday, we were invited to dinner by a member of the ward who has married a member of another faith.  Apparently they have the missionaries over for dinner the second Sunday of each month.  Yes!    So we were there, along with Elder Weekes and Elder Vierra, (the missionaries assigned to our ward and also the zone leaders) the couple who invited us, (the Chapmans) and two other sisters.  It was so fun!  Sister Chapman (the member of another faith) was quite stiff when we first got there, but Glen got talking to her and totally warmed her up.  It was fascinating to see.  Somehow Glen is able to win all of the sisters over here.  They all just really like him.  When President Black was at the mission office on Monday, Sister Conder (who's working area is near to Glen's) said to him, "Thank you for sending such a nice couple to work in the office with us.  The feeling here is so much different now."  She really likes Glen and appreciates his good naturedness.

Elders Weekes and Vierra were making contacts in the park last week and Elder Vierra left his backpack on the back seat.  Within the 20 minutes that they were gone, someone took a rock and broke out their window and took the backpack with his ID in it, his camera, and  the scriptures that Elder Weekes had had since he was 8.  Elder Vierra is from Portugal, so I am helping him get his information from Portugal to get a new driver's license.  They were such good sports about it though!  They said they hope the thief reads his scriptures.

One of the highlights of missions is zone conferences.  I had heard about them but didn't know a thing about them, so I was excited to go to our first one here.  They go from 9:00 a.m. to about 4:00 p.m. so I wasn't sure how long I would be able to go for, since I'm in the office from 8:00 to 5:00, but Sister Conder covered for me so I could go.  It was so so so amazing.  All the new missionaries since the last zone conference were asked to introduce themselves,  and Glen and I were also asked to bear our testimonies. Then the zone leader spoke, and President and Sister Black spoke.  All three talks were so wonderful, and some videos were also shown, which made such an impact.  The picture above shows (from left to right) Sis. Young, Glen and I, Bro. and Sis. Anderson, (1st counselor in the mission presidency), President and Sister Black, Sis. Anderton, Sis. MacDonald, (sister missionaries working in employment) and in the back is Elder Dana, who is the vehicle coordinator.

The stake Relief Society provided our lunch (which I arrange for as part of my duties) and we sat by four of the sister missionaries.  It was so fun talking to them!  The sister missionaries are such a great asset to the mission.

 Some of the zone leaders and the assistants.  Elder Humphrey, pictured in the middle, is an assistant to the president, and is such an inspiration to the mission.  He has a severe stuttering disability, such as the one depicted in the movie, The King's Speech, that King Edward of England had..  But Elder Humphrey continues to do missionary work so faithfully and humbly, at times acknowledging how difficult it is for him.

After lunch we sang, "Army of Helaman, and sang the words, "And we are NOW the Lord's missionaries to bring the world His truth!"  It was such a touching moment for me--I was quite choked up.  

 After lunch, we did role plays with making contacts and several other things.  Here is Elder Schmidt, who we met at the MTC while we were there, role playing making a contact with us.  He's only been here for one week, and he's already a great missionary.  Our testimonies of missionary work were really strengthened after this marvelous zone conference.  We loved every minute of it!  But then we had to go back to the mission office and work until 6:30 because at the zone conference Pres. Black told us that we are getting a new missionary in on Monday--with only a weekend's notice!  We had to go prepare all the things he would need as a new missionary.  And sadly, we lost a missionary this week who had only been here a short time.  It was hard on everyone involved.

The sun going down over Las Vegas on our way home.  A picture doesn't do it justice!

On Saturday, we had a real p-day!  It was so great!  We did laundry, cleaned our condo, went shopping, and then drove to Mt. Charleston, about an hour's drive, and found a whole different world in the mountains west of Las Vegas.  We stopped here at the visitor's center to get info on a hike that we could take.

We did the Mary Jane Falls hike, which was about as challenging as hiking up Y-Mount.  We had spectacular views, and when we got to the top, there wasn't much water coming from the falls, but it was still beautiful.  While we were there, we started talking to a lady who was there geocaching.  That is where someone has hidden a "treasure" and someone else finds it by using his gps.  We asked her if we could help her find it, and we looked for quite awhile.  

Finally it was Glen who found it!  It was hidden behind a log. Inside is a log book for people to sign once they have found it, and other small "treasures" that you can take or add to as you wish.  It was so fun!

Then I was able to find the next one, about a half a mile apart.  Here, I'm showing the contents of the geocache that I found.  Then we talked to this lady about the gospel the whole way down the mountain.  She was a firm born-again Christian, who told us some interesting things.  Glen was awesome in the things that he said to her.  We quite enjoyed our conversation.

Doesn't it sound like we had a better week?  We totally did!  Hurrah for Israel!!

Where have we been?

What an adventure we've been having!  We have been so so so busy learning our new office duties and so overwhelmed that we have hardly had time to catch our breath!  Today, finally, I think we're coming up for air and we're going to take a deep breath.  So that's where we've been--working so hard that I didn't have time to write!  (And also, we didn't have the internet. . . what did we used to do BTI? [before the internet])

It's been two weeks since I've written, so I hope I can remember everything that's happened (at least that I want recorded).  It's hard to believe that we've been on our mission for a month now--the time has just flown and we have learned so much.  We'll never be the same.

On Monday, July 30th, it was Glen's birthday!!  We were still staying at our little casita, so I couldn't make him a birthday cake or anything.  But as usual, he was a good sport.

 Here is Elder McMillan in our little room just behind the reception room of the mission office with his birthday lunch.  He's with the Zobells, the missionaries who are training us.  Only two more days of training with them!

 On Monday evening we had a departure dinner for the Zobells, an arrival dinner for us, and a birthday party for Glen all wrapped in one at the mission home.  President and Sister Black made an amazing dinner for us.  Seated from clockwise are Glen, Sister Conder, Brother Conder, Sister Cantwell, Sister Young, and the Zobells.  We are in the dining room.

 In the kitchen area are from clockwise, Pres. and Sis. Black, Elder Humphrey, Elder Mathis, (the assistants), Sis. Anderton, Elder and Sister Dana, and Sis. McDonald. The four sisters work in the employment center next to the mission office.

Glen is "blowing" out his birthday candle ( aah, spoon that is) while everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to him!  It was fun to celebrate with everyone.  After dinner, we all gathered in the family room for a Family Home Evening.  President Black showed us a video clip and then had us introduce ourselves to the other senior missionaries and then the Zobells bore their testimonies as a farewell.  It was a wonderful evening.

Some of the beautiful cards and artwork Glen received from our family and the grandkids.  Oh, don't you love children's artwork?  We love getting it in the mail!  Everyone was so nice to him for his birthday.

Here is Elder McMillan at his workplace at the mission office with more birthday greetings from the Stevens in the background.  He spends a lot of time here figuring out finances, working with the missionaries with their money cards, apartments, furniture, and going through their cell phone records.  Since we have another 22 missionaries coming in for the next transfer, he has to find another 11 places for them to live and then furnish them and equip them.  He's been ordering a lot of mattresses, bed frames, vacuums, desks, dishes, pots and pans, etc.!  He is busy!

 This is my workspace, at the front of the office.  I spend 90% of my time here!  Transfers were on Monday, Aug. 6, and what a day it was.  It was my job to provide lunch for the 28 incoming missisonaries and help orient them to some of the mission office procedures.  Glen also oriented them to finance, and of course Pres. and Sis. Black oriented them all day!  We saw the elders that we had met at the MTC while we were there, and it was so fun to see them in the mission now.  It was an unbelievably busy day and we were so tired.  But now I had to send 130 letters to the new missionaries' parents, the new assistant, the new zone leaders, the new district leaders, the 28 new trainers, and all of their parents.  We worked 12 hour days for 4 days to get all of this accomplished, plus getting their new apartments ready for them.  We even worked on our p-day.  Our training with the Zobells was over, and I was on my own to figure a lot of these things out.  It was mind staggering to me to do all that I needed to do!! 

When we would go home from the office, I would think about all the things that needed to be done and I felt so overwhelmed.  On Monday morning I was reading Alma 38:5:  "I would that ye should remember, that as much as ye shall put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your. . .troubles. . ."  I read it over and over.  I felt that to the very degree that I had faith in God, to that very degree he would help me in my duties that needed to be done.  I can't express in words how much that helped me.  I felt such a burden lifted from me, and yet I knew that the work still needed to be done and it was me who had to do it.  But oh, how it brought peace to my troubled heart!  I was able, with the Lord's help, to get all of the letters done, plus still learning my other responsibilities.

In the midst of all of this, we were able to move into our condo. We finally feel somewhat settled but we still don't have internet access, which is another reason why I couldn't write on this blog. Hopefully we'll get it on Monday!

One of the neatest things we have been able to do here so far happened last Saturday.  We attended the baptism of the sister in the middle of this picture, Sister Diaz, in our ward that we loved so much.  (Now that we have moved to our new condo we aren't in this ward anymore, but I'm sure we'll love it just as much!)  On both of her sides are some of the elders who taught her, and on the end on the right is her son who actually baptized her.  Her son was tracted out by the missionaries last year and he accepted baptism, and now, a year later, he was able to baptize his mother!  The baptismal service was simply amazing, and the entire chapel was filled by the ward members in her support.  It was so spiritual and so beautiful--we have just never seen anything like it.  The field really is ripe and already to harvest here in Las Vegas and the missionaries yield an amazing harvest!  The members here are also so supportive of the missionary effort, that again, we have never seen anything like it.  We just love it!