The Lord Will Hasten His Work

It's so exciting to hear everyone talking about the announcement of the ages for missionary service!  It seems like the interest has been pervasive and it's so fun for everyone to join in on what their perspective is.  Glen found this quote this week that was so awesome, I wanted to share it.  See if you can guess who said it:  

"We believe, as the time draws near, the Lord will hasten his work, and nations will soon be gathered into the fold for Christ.  The work urges and is becoming very much enlarged and extended, and requires a commensurate accumulation of men and means, and expansion of mind and energy, ability and perseverance.  The Lord our God is our strength. . . blessed forever be his holy name; great and wondrous are his ways.  Let all nations give heed to his servants, for they are preparing the way for his coming. . . for this is the Lord's work."  Pretty awesome, huh?  Try to guess and the answer will be given later in this post.  (Are you SO excited to find out?)

But for now, we had our four month anniversary on Friday of going into the MTC.  Can you believe it?  It has flown by, and yet on the other hand, it seems like forever ago that we had another life.  Our mission is officially one-third over.  By the time we go home we feel like we will finally have learned what we're supposed to do.  Anyway, here are a few of the highlights of the week.  

On Sunday night, we had dinner with one of our ward missionaries, Nate Jones and his wife Deng, pictured in the middle.  Wow, the dinner was simply superb and we learned that he is quite the chef.  Elder Alford and Elder Vieira were also there and it's always so fun to talk to them.  On the right side is a couple from Hawaii, Mike and Carol Keanaaina, who were visiting. We had a such a great evening with them.  We LOVE having dinner appointments!

On Monday, we received three new elders into our mission who are visa waiters.  That means that they were  called to Mexico but their visas didn't arrive in time for them to go there, so they were sent here to work until their visas come through.  They are awesome elders, so we hope they can stay here for a while!  I had to process them for our mission and prepare their orientation materials for them and Glen and I oriented them.  Jared was also a visa waiter before his visa for France came through and he spent a few months in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri--and that mission was probably really sad to have Jared go, just as we are always sad when the visa waiters leave.  One of these elders said, "I really like it here.  I wouldn't mind staying here for my entire mission."  What a great attitude!

This large glass sign is in the mission office above my desk and is visible to everyone who comes into the office.  Since the mission formerly included Reno and its surrounding areas, there was a big star on the glass for Reno (where Glen's hand is) and Las Vegas.  As missionaries and others would come into the office they would frequently ask why the star for Reno was still there, so one day I asked Pres. Black if the star could be removed.  He said that he thought it should.  To make a long story short, Glen and I researched it for a few months and Glen wondered if he could etch the glass where the Reno star was.  But then he could see that the white part of the glass wasn't etched, it was sandblasted,  so he did more research and took it to a glass man who did a beautiful job of taking the star out.

And voile --here is the finished product!  The star is now only visible for Las Vegas.  I know you can barely see it--the bottom of it the picture sadly wasn't in the picture, but you get the idea.  What's so great is that it would have cost over a thousand dollars to have the glass redone, but by just taking the star out, it saved the mission that much money!  Hurray for Glen!

I've mentioned a few times how every missionary loves mail and REALLY loves packages.  These two awesome elders, Elder Johnson and Elder Barlow knew that Elder Wong hadn't received a package since Christmas.  So they put together a package for him which was actually twice the size of this one, but I sent it to Elder Wong before I remembered to take the picture!  Anyway, they wanted to let Elder Wong be excited to get a package and they worked hard to make it a nice one for him.  Can you believe they would do this?  So so thoughtful and kind.  They are so sweet and amazing.  And funny thing--a few days later a small package really did come for Elder Wong!  

And speaking of mail, we got the most adorable letters from Jade and Brigham.  Oh, it made our day!  Don't you just love children's artwork?  There is nothing like it in the world.  We just cherished it!  This one is from Brigham.  Thank you Jade and Brigham!

This one is from Jade.  Don't you love the hair,  the eyelashes and the lipstick?  I also got letters from our stake that they did at the General Relief Society Meeting, and that was so nice of them!  Thank you Crestwood Stake Relief Society!  

On Tuesday it was election day and all of us were white knuckled with nervousness about what would happen.  We were so disappointed with the results, but as Sister Conder said at the devotional the next day, "We're here to focus on our work as missionaries, not to be overcome with the emotions of a bad outcome of the election."  I thought that was so true and put things into perspective.

On Friday as we drove home from the mission office, it was dark and we could see runners with vests on and running lights on their heads--and it dawned on us--it was the Las Vegas RAGNAR!!  Adam and Lisa and Brandon and Lindsey had done this RAGNAR the year before!!  The course went right by our condo on Vegas Drive!!

On Saturday evening it was our adult meeting for the Redrock Stake conference.  I thought it was an awesome meeting.  One sister spoke and said that one of  the stake presidency spoke several years ago and she put into practice what he taught that night and she was so grateful.  He said that as he was growing up his mother would say individual prayers with her children each morning as they left for school (they all left at different times) and ask the Lord to bless and help them and give them strength to withstand temptation.  He would think about his mother's prayer all day and it really helped him.  This sister has been doing this for years now and feels strongly that it has really helped her kids.  I just loved that.  There were so many other good things said at this meeting--I really love Saturday night meetings for stake conference!  After the meeting we went over to some friends  house to watch the BYU football game and chat.  It was at Blair and Diane Christensen's house (pictured on the right) and Travis and Teresa Wilhelmsen and Nathan and Bethany Jones were also there.  It was just so much fun!

We were asked a few months ago to speak in a Logandale ward, which is about one and a half hours from Las Vegas by Bishop EVANS (our current bishop in Layton is Bishop Evans!) who is pictured in the middle.  He asked us to speak on missionary work and we were happy to do that.  We drove to Logandale, which is located in Moapa Valley in a beautiful and peaceful location.  The church building is new and beautiful, as you can see, and we had such a wonderful experience there.  The members were so sweet and friendly and this bishop is just amazing.  He told us that there are 10 priests on the rolls and all 10 are fully active!  The pride of living in this area (good pride) was evident in everyone we met.  Bishop Evans told the congregation that after he met us at the mission office he could feel our enthusiasm and hard work and he was impressed to ask us to speak.  So sweet!  Pictured here are also Elder Steenstra and Elder Dowdle who serve in the area.  We just loved going there and meeting with these good people.  And that's how Glen found the quote that I quoted above--while preparing for his talk.  And who said those magnificent words?   Drumroll. . . . 

Brigham Young in 1852!  Pretty amazing, huh?  We are all active participants of seeing the Lord hastening his work and it is incredible!