The Five Month Mark

Can you even believe we've been on our mission for five months?  In some ways it seems like it has flown by and in other ways it seems like we've been here for a long long time.  But we feel like we're catching on and we're having a wonderful time.  Oh how we love the missionaries and are so inspired by them!  We have had so many unique experiences here.

One of my responsibilities is to take calls concerning blessing requests.  We probably get two or three a week where someone calls and asks if the elders can go to the hospital and give their loved one a blessing.  I then call the zone leader in the particular area where the hospital is located (there are SO many hospitals here) and they then call the elders in their zone to perform the blessing.  This week I had a call from the hospital saying that the mother of a middle aged patient wanted the elders as quickly as possible to come because the patient was in critical condition, so I immediately called the zone leaders.  About 45 minutes went by and the hospital called back saying that the patient had just died!  I called the zone leaders again to tell them and they said that they had just arrived at the hospital and would still go to see the mother of the now deceased patient. They went to CCU and met with the distraught mother, who wasn't a member of the church, but the patient was, and gave her (the mother) a blessing.  They talked for awhile and then the mother requested to meet with them to be taught.  It was quite the experience for the elders and for me to see the wonderful attitude that these elders had about the difficult situation.  I also get a few calls each week for the elders to perform some sort of service for someone, and when I call the elders, they always respond so eagerly, no matter what the service is.  I'm so impressed by them.

Tomorrow is our 4th transfer--we can hardly believe it!  We are only getting seven new missionaries (whew!) so it won't be too bad.  I have already started my many letters to missionaries and to parents that have to be done at transfers.  I also completely finished redoing the entire 2013 calendar (it took hours and hours) that had to be changed because our transfer dates were being changed.  That also meant that I had to change every missionary's departure date, and I'm 3/4 finished with that huge project.  There is never a dull moment here!

We had a really fun week in spite of all the work that had to be done.  Let me share some of the highlights:

On Sunday we were invited to have dinner with JB and RaNae Watsabaugh, a wonderful convert couple who have also served a mission.  We loved hearing their conversion story and were inspired by their examples of faithfulness and dedication.

On Monday morning a 17 yr. old boy walked into the office and told me he wanted to become a member of the church and wanted to know how to do it because he had stopped at the Bishop's Storehouse to get food and they told him he had to be a member to receive food.  I asked him if he knew anything about the church and he didn't even know we were Mormons. It sounded like he thought this may be a club of some sort.  I talked to him for about 20 minutes and he told me he hated his dad and that he was mean to his dad, and all other sorts of awful things.  I gave his name to the missionaries who made an appointment with him, but he stood them up.  It seems that he only was interested in the food and it was such a sad, sad situation.  But you never know!

Monday night we went to a Christmas concert at Artemus Hall on the UNLV campus.  We were pretty excited to see where the UNLV campus was, and the concert was really good.  NOTHING like the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert, but really good nonetheless.

On Tuesday morning, I got to do the FUNNEST thing ever!  Elder Weaver of the Highland Hills Zone asked if I would participate in the zone training meeting by being an "investigator" who would ask "questions of the soul" to each companionship in the zone to give them practice in responding to those questions.  Sis. Conder agreed to cover the office for me and I went to the nearby church where the meeting was held and got to see firsthand how a zone training meeting went.  I just loved it!  Elder Weaver was so encouraging to his zone members and showed so much love for them.  I loved how the missionaries responded to "my" questions and it was a great experience for me. 

The Highland Hills Zone.  I love these missionaries!

Elder Weaver.  He is going home on this transfer and I will really miss him! He was dressed this way for something he was teaching before I got to the meeting--this is not missionary attire!

On Tuesday night we went to the temple and it was wonderful as usual.  We always go straight from the office and then eat dinner at the temple, and the temple cafeteria gives us missionaries a full dinner for $3 each--can you believe that?  The dry cleaners not far from us also give us our dry cleaning and do Glen's shirts for free.  Such wonderful blessings!

On Thursday night we had an awesome experience.  Our stake, the Redrock stake, puts on an annual live Christmas nativity, held at a beautiful venue called Opportunity Village--held outside.  You just couldn't believe this nativity--the set was magnificent, it had live animals (horses, goats, sheep), a live baby Jesus, and the most incredible costumes I've ever seen.  It had narration and beautiful music and the actors were well rehearsed.  It lasted about 35 minutes and was so touching it just brought tears to our eyes.  The picture above shows the angels appearing to the shepherds and singing hosannahs--they are on top of the building!

The shepherds respond with awe.  Can you see the sheep?

The shepherds come to Bethlehem.

The wise men came in on magnificent horses, but we couldn't get a clear picture of them--but it was so impressive!  They present their gifts to the baby Jesus.  Can you believe these costumes?  Mary was such a beautiful girl and Joseph and Mary played their parts so well.  It was so touching.

The crowd was so big that we couldn't get near the baby Jesus to take a picture.  But we got one with the wisemen!  We were so grateful to witness such a beautiful production.  The story of the birth of Christ is just beyond words and our feelings were so tender.

On Friday night we got to see Jack Jeppesen, our beloved back door neighbor!  It was so fun to see him and visit with him, and he was able to take some things back to Layton for us.  Thank you Jack!

On Saturday we drove out to Pahrump where four of our elders are living and check out where they live.  Since it is on the way to Death Valley, we drove there also and had so much fun.   In fact, it was the elders who encouraged us to go there!  It really is such a unique place, and is actually in our mission boundaries, even though it's in California.  It's the hottest place on the earth!

The visitor center people told us that it is usually 120 degrees daily in the summer, but you can see that it was a perfect 72 on Dec. 8--the day we were there.

After going through a couple of visitors' centers and touring the area a bit, we hiked up Golden Canyon and did a 4.3 mile loop.  It was so fun to be able to enjoy the beautiful (in its own way) area and feel so renewed. The landscape is a bit different than Adam's Canyon!

The view of Death Valley from the canyon.  It's a huge valley!

Glen's gps registered an altitude of minus 281 feet below sea level--and the sign said it was minus 282 feet below sea level!  Pretty close!  

The white in the background is salt.  It reminded us a lot of the Dead Sea area which is 1388 feet below sea level.  Glen said, "We went to Death Valley and came out feeling alive!"  What a great way to celebrate our five month mark on our mission!