We love the people here!

This has been such a busy week getting ready for the 24 missionaries who are coming tomorrow!  Glen was able to finalize the 9 apartments and get the gas and electricity ordered for all the apartments and get them mostly furnished. He was super busy all week and we often worked until 6:00 or 7:00. We weren't able to get as many couches as we had hoped, but at least they all have beds, tables, chest of drawers, supplies, and most of them have desks.  Maybe the missionaries will use their creativity to get couches or other furnishings that they need. 

Glen had an experience while he was delivering desks to an apartment.  While he was there for just that short amount of time to move the desks in, a man came to the apartment to replace the dishwasher.  Glen felt like it was a great blessing that he came at the exact time that Glen was there so that it could be replaced.  Pretty cool!

 I'm always amazed at the stories that the missionaries tell about how they went to some fast food place and a total stranger paid for their lunch because they were missionaries.  They talk about going to Wal-Mart and someone in the line pays for their things.  One set of missionaries even got new suits from a member in their ward who owns a shop!  The missionaries know they are very blessed and they're grateful for the members who give them so much.  Can you believe how nice people are?  We really do love the people here.

Sis. Black's father came to Las Vegas for a visit so she asked me if he could come to the office for a few hours to help me with anything I needed help with.  He's 87 years old and she needed to leave for a few hours, so she dropped him off at the office.  I decided to see if he could help me assemble the new missionary guidebooks for the 30 missionaries coming in February, and he said he would.  So I ran off all the copies (about 40 pages worth) the day before, which took me a few hours, and had them ready when he came.  And we were able to put them all together while we visited!  I was grateful for the help and Debbie was grateful for the opportunity for him to feel "useful".  It was a win win situation for all of us.

On Sunday we dinner with the Chapmans again.  We love them!  Seated at the table from left to right are Sis. King, Sis. Judd, Valerie Chapman, Elder Findlay, Elder Alford, Jay Chapman, Glen, and Zena.  What a lovely dinner it was, and the missionaries left a wonderful message about what Jesus Christ has done for us.  It was so good, and we hope that Valerie was touched by it!  We sure were.

On Monday night it was senior missionary FHE at the Blacks and Elder Dana and his wife were in charge.  He really wanted us to sing an old song he learned in his youth called, "Mormon Sunday School."  Glen borrowed a guitar from Nathan Jones and we practiced the song at home and at the office and Elder Dana was delighted that we would sing it.  It was so fun!  Sister Dana gave an excellent lesson about the new youth Sunday School program and it was so well done.  Plus we had a yummy dinner!

Our friends, the Trumans, were called as service missionaries to work at the Home Storage Center which is at the DI complex on Thursdays.  Can you even believe it?  We are both in Las Vegas serving missions!  So we are going to eat lunch together every Thursday, probably at the mission office, because it is so hard for us to get away.  It was the first time that Margaret had seen the mission office.  The missionaries in their ward just love them and they talk about them every time they come into the office.  Pretty cool, huh?

On Saturday night we had a RAGNAR get together at our apartment with our good friends from the ward. At Dianne Christensen's suggestion, we had a Cafe Rio potluck dinner and it turned out so yummy! We also watched the BYU basketball game.  It's so fun to have these friends who also love BYU sports! And---we're going to run the Las Vegas RAGNAR in November with them!  We just love them, so it will be so fun to be with them and continue our friendship after the mission.  They are SO excited to do it and had a lot of good ideas to make it fun.  They're pretty motivated, and this will be a good way for Glen and I to keep running and stay in shape, although our time to exercise  is so limited here.

Our bishop's wife emailed me and said the sweetest thing--she wrote, "I think you are an amazing Lady, and an inspiration and example for me of what I want to be like when we serve a mission. . . Thanks for all you do for our ward and especially for attending choir!  We need some fun singers and you fit the bill!!. . .You are the best Sister Missionary ever!"  Can you believe how sweet that is?  SHE is an amazing lady and we just love her.  We love the people here!  

Today we had an extra stake conference because we had Elder Ronald Rasband come who is the president of the Seven Presidents of the Seventy.  He gave such an amazing and inspiring talk about his experiences in Bosnia and Croatia where he was able to meet with the presidents of each country and explain to them our beliefs.  He talked to them about the importance of the family and the Bosnian president wept when Elder Rasband explained that we believe that families can be together forever.  He said, "My family members were killed in the recent war and that is the first glimmer of hope I have felt since then."  He also wept when Elder Rasband explained that couples can be sealed in temples for time and all eternity.  It was so touching, and his talk was mainly about families and how we need to focus our efforts on teaching and loving our families.  We were so grateful that we could be there--and what was awesome too was that when we got there, the Lemmons had saved us a place on a bench that was right between benches that had our missionaries on them, and the one in front of us, Elder Benioni and Elder Hoskins, had brought an investigator family.  They were a beautiful family from Mexico with four children, and it was their first time in church.  ALL of the children (ranging in age from 10 to a few months old) were so reverent throughout the entire two hour meeting that we were all amazed.  We met afterward and they were all so so sweet!  If they are baptized I told Elder Benioni that we wanted to be at their baptism!  He was so sweet to the family and it was evident that they loved him.  We love the missionaries here!

The Hand of the Lord

Transfers are one week from tomorrow, our second largest transfer in the history of the mission.  We were hoping that Glen wouldn't have to rent as many apartments as he did the last time we got this many missionaries (we were hoping that they could live with members here)  but that didn't work out, so Glen has been frantically searching for places for the missionaries to live.  What a search it is!  As of yesterday, (our p-day, but we worked about 10 hours trying to get apartments secured, furnished, and supplied) he only has one more apartment to secure!  The Lord has really blessed him to have apartments work out, and it has definitely been a labor for him.  

We talked about it early in the week and in our small way, we tried to compare ourselves to Nephi who was asked to build a ship.  We prayed that we would be given faith like Nephi had because we weren't building a ship, but we were helping to build a mission and we needed help!  Besides securing the apartments, we would have to furnish them, and since Christmas, very few usable furnishings were coming in to DI.  We were praying constantly that the Lord would guide us to a person or a place that could furnish us with chests, desks, tables, and couches. Glen had already worked out a deal with RC Willey for mattresses and bed frames that was a huge blessing.  Yesterday I felt that I should check on a hotel furniture liquidator and see if I could get anything.  What a blessing!  It looks as though we will be able to get the 50 or so chests from them at a very reasonable price, so we left there feeling grateful to see the hand of the Lord opening up ways for us to accomplish what we needed to.  Pray for us as we search for couches, tables, and desks!

While Glen was doing apartment securing yesterday, I went to Wal-Mart with a huge list of the supplies that we would need--vacuums (12), all kinds of cleaners, shower curtains and rods, toilet plungers, bowl brushes,  mops,  etc. etc.  My cart was completely overflowing and I hadn't gotten the vacuums yet.  I asked an employee if he had a big flatbed cart so I could get the vacuums, and he and another employee not only got the cart for me, but they put the vacuums on it and pushed it to the checkout counter and helped me put all the things on the counter, bag it, and push the carts out to the car.  Okay, just imagine--my one cart brimming over with bags and big squeegie-type mops sticking out all over, and a flat bed cart with 12 vacuum (in boxes)--how would it all fit in my car?  I said to the employees, "I'll just make two trips!"  And they cheerily said, "Oh, watch us--we'll get it all in there!"  And I watched in astonishment as they did--all of it!  The driver's seat had to be pushed way up as well as the passenger seat (which also was stuffed to the brim), but they made it! I can't believe I didn't get a picture of it, it was so amazing.  (I didn't get one because I was freezing to death, it was so cold!)  It was such a tender mercy, and I really felt the hand of the Lord helping me.  Glen couldn't believe all the things that were packed into the car when I got back to the mission office!

Another example of the hand of the Lord:  On Tuesday during our office devotional, a man rushed into the office with a long tan coat in his arms.  He handed it to me and said, "I just felt inspired that I should bring this over here this morning."  I thanked him sincerely, and he was gone before I could even ask his name. I knew that the missionaries wouldn't be able to use it because they have to wear dark coats, so I wondered what we were going to do with it.  On Thursday afternoon at about 4:00, a man came in who was looking for help from the transient bishop, and from his appearance, he really needed help.  He was shaking from the cold and told me that he had been to DI and found a coat and was wondering if the transient bishop could help him buy it.  I was devastated to tell him that the transient bishop's office had closed at 3:00--but then I remembered the tan coat in the back.  I went in the back to get it and brought it out to him and his face lit up like a little child seeing Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.  He put it on and it was a perfect fit, (it was fur lined and very warm) and he said, "This is the best thing that's happened to me.  God bless you, Sister!"  He left, rejoicing, and all of us in the office were rejoicing too, and marveling and what we had just been a part of.

On Wednesday, a package came in the mail at the office addressed to ME!  I couldn't believe it!  I opened it and it was this package of M&M's with peanuts--my favorite thing--with this sweet message on the front from Elder Parker and Elder Herlin!  Is that the nicest thing ever?  It made my day.

Then the next day a package came addressed to Glen and I and it was from Lindsey and Brandon!!  Oh, did that make our day!  It was chuck full of fun things that were so thoughtful.  It's amazing how a package can cheer a missionary up so much.  Thank you Lindsey and Brandon!

It came with this note from Lindsey describing the things that were in the package.  How we loved it!  That evening I was able to go with Sis. Carr and Sister Dewey to teach two families.  I just love going with them.  The first family that we went to have two sons, ages 11 and 12.  They reported to us that they had only missed one day of reading the scriptures during the past week and they loved it.  The next family Sister Carr challenged the 12 year old son to be baptized in February and he said he would try to be ready.  The messages these sisters shared with these families was awesome and the Spirit was so strong.  Missionaries are just so awesome!

We went to dinner with Jay and Valerie Chapman for Jay's birthday at an Italian restaurant.  So fun and so yummy!  What wonderful people they are.

It was our 39th wedding anniversary on Jan. 11th and Glen got me these beautiful roses!  We went to dinner and then saw the movie "Lincoln."  It was amazing!  What a fun anniversary.  It's so hard to believe that we've been married for 39 years and here we are on a mission!  It's so great to be his companion.  We really love that part of our mission.  What a great way to end our busy busy busy week.  

Happy New Year 2013!

I can hardly believe that it is already a new year!  "Time flies on wings of lightening; we cannot call it back" is so true!  As a family, we would always gather around the table and set new year's goals and resolutions every fast Sunday in January of the new year.  Some of our children would post their lists in a conspicuous place in their bedrooms to remind them of their goals and resolutions all through the year, and I loved reading them when I was in their rooms because it always inspired me to see what they were seeking to do and become.  I wanted to add some of the things on their lists to my own list!

This week as some of the missionaries have come to the office I have asked them if they had made resolutions, and most of them said that they had.  Some of them even shared a few of their resolutions and I was touched by them.  One said, "To be the best missionary I can be by using my time here wisely", and another said, "To be more like the Savior," and another said, "To love my family back home more."  

I read again the wonderful Oct. 2012 conference address by Dieter F. Uchtdorf and loved what he said: : 

“One day we will take that unavoidable step and cross from this mortal sphere into the next estate. One day we will  look back at our lives and wonder if we could have been better, made better decisions, or used our time more wisely. To avoid some of the deepest regrets of life, it would be wise to make some resolutions today. Therefore, let us:

• Resolve to spend more time with those we love.

• Resolve to strive more earnestly to become the person God wants us to be.

• Resolve to find happiness, regardless of our circumstances."

 I thought that what the missionaries shared with me was really in line with what President Uchtdorf had said.

I also loved what Joe J. Christensen said in the Ensign of Dec. 1994:   “We must not overlook the power that making good resolutions can have in helping make our lives happier and more successful—regardless of our past performance."  I was encouraged by that to make resolutions and goals this year while I am a missionary in spite of my sometimes disappointing efforts to keep resolutions in the past.  There are so many ways to improve!

We have been working hard to prepare for our next transfer in 2 weeks.  This week I was able to get 8 of the 9 zones on the transfer board finished as well as the transfer cards for the 24 new missionaries that are coming.  I also finished the four file folders for each missionary (a huge task) and nearly finished getting their  guidebooks ready.  There are three 18 year old elders that are coming in this transfer.  Then we learned on Friday that we will be receiving 30 more missionaries for our February transfer!!! We nearly died!  There will be only five weeks to prepare for this transfer since the MTC time will be shortened to two weeks (actually 12 days) starting in February.  After the February transfer the usual time between transfers will be six weeks again, thankfully.  This will certainly be our hardest transfer to date, and as I have talked to secretaries in other missions, it is the same for them.  We will surely need the Lord's help in preparing for these transfers because there will be so much to do.  As we were told in October after the announcement to "prepare for the tsunami", it is coming!  It's actually pretty exciting to be on the shores of the tsunami and watch it all unfold!  The missionfield is a pretty exciting place to be right now!

  

We were invited to a New Year's Eve party by our friends, Travis and Teresa Wilhelmson.  Our friends, Blair and Diane Christensen and Dave and Joni Robison were also there.  We had SO much fun talking and playing games with them!  We usually go to bed on New Year's Eve before midnight, but we were just having too much fun.  We also did a white elephant gift exchange and we really scored by getting a gift card to the Cheesecake Factory! 

Teresa had all these flavors to make Italian sodas--so yummy and fun!  We had a lot of fun treats.  My New Year's resolution to lose weight would have to start tomorrow.

On New Year's Day we had signed up for the elders serving in our ward, Elder Findlay and Elder Alford, to have dinner with us.  They are such awesome elders.  We made toasts to the new year, and after talking to them for awhile, they told us that it was a non-proselyting day for them, so we played "Mormon Mouthful" (the Mormon version of Madgab) with them.  It was so fun!

It has been a very busy week, and sadly I fell victim to the sickness that is going around and got a cold.  I prayed so hard that I would be able to continue to work, and the Lord really blessed me, as I was able to work every day.  I would come home exhausted and have to rest, but hopefully the worst is over and I will feel better this week.  The work goes on!  Hurrah for Israel!