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!!