"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!

Our first week here!

Did I say in my last post that I was a little overwhelmed?  I take it back--I am a LOT overwhelmed!  There is so much to learn!  So much.  I am at the computer for several hours a day, answering the phone and directing calls a lot, responding to emails, forwarding the missionaries' mail that comes into the mission office, (which is a lot) preparing for the 28 missionaries that we will be receiving in 8 days, (which is a ton of preparation) sending letters to parents, organizing meetings for Pres. Black, and organizing luncheons for the zone conferences and leadership training.  And more.  What a learning curve!  Now our children are giving me the same pep talk that I used to give them for the last 30 years--"You can do this!  You can do hard things! You'll be fine in a few weeks!"  Okay then. . .

We only have two more days with the office couple who is training us, and then we are ON OUR OWN!!  Except for the help that we know we will receive from Heavenly Father.  Which we will need.  Me far more than Glen.

We have a lot of people who come in to the mission office--different kinds of visitors, former missionaries who have served there who are visiting and come in with their families, and of course, the missionaries themselves.  I love seeing all of them.  Each missionary brings in his/her unique spirit and I love to talk to them.

On Tuesday, after our work at the mission office, we had dinner with Carl and Margaret Truman, our good friends who have moved to Las Vegas.  It was really good to see them and their new home and fun to visit with them.  I was so distressed that I forgot to take a picture with them!

Wednesday afternoon, after I had another spell of overwhelmitis, the postman came with his usual large delivery.  There was a green 2-liter pop bottle filled with green treats with a cute missionary tie (made of paper) on it with the missionary's name and the mission office's address on the tie.  There were a few missionaries there, hoping it was for them, but. . . drum roll. . . it was for US!  Everyone was green with envy. . . (heh, heh)  So thank you very very much, Brandon and Lindsey!!!  It really helped to overcome my illness for the day.

The other office couple, the Conders, got a kick out of the package from Brandon and Lindsey.

It's so cute, huh?  

On Wednesday evening we also went to the Las Vegas temple.  It's a beautiful temple and we enjoyed the session so much.  But again, I was so distressed because I forgot to take a picture--a symptom of being brain dead at the end of a very busy day.

On Friday, we went to dinner with the office couple, the Zobells, and they showed us the condo that we will be moving into this week (after they move out on Wednesday) and the area that surrounds it.  For those of you who know Las Vegas, it is in the Summerlin area, which is really a beautiful area.  We will be in the Buffalo ward in the Red Rock Stake.  We're excited to move into a more permanent place because we have been living out of only our suitcases since July 9, but we have mixed feelings about leaving the ward that we have attended only twice--we've become quite attached to them!  Here's another reason why---

We were invited to go with the youth to their boating activity at Lake Mead.  I was pretty sure I didn't want to go because. . . well, we're missionaries. . .yes, we had been given permission to go to Lake Mead. . . but it was a YOUTH activity and I didn't want to crash their party. . . but . . .  Glen said, "Hey, it's our p-day, we were invited and I want to go, unless you want to spend the day in our little casita. So we went.  It was such a blast!  We were there all day and got to know a lot of wonderful people and strong, strong youth.  See why we're getting attached?

As I mentioned earlier, we were asked to speak in the ward sacrament meeting today, along with the young elders assigned to this ward, who are just awesome.  The Spirit was really strong in the meeting, and so many of the members came up to us afterward and thanked us and told us that it was an incredible meeting.  We were quite touched.  Then the Sunday School lesson was on Alma 32-34, with a lot of missionary overtones, and the last block was combined Relief Society and Priesthood, with another couple missionary who had served in Africa telling of their experiences.  So what a great missionary block!  We're anxious now to track the number of referrals the missionaries get after such an emphasis on missionary work.  There is also a sister who is being baptized this Saturday, so we're so excited to go to her baptism.

We arrived in Las Vegas

 On Friday, we loaded up the car and truck and left for Las Vegas!  It was so sad to leave the grandkids again.  We picked up Jared at Primary Children's Hospital, where he works, and he helped us drive down.  The plan was to take the loaded truck and car, and then Jared would drive back the truck.  Lisa made us some zucchini bread, which was SO delicious, and we munched on it on the way.  Thanks, Lisa!  The trip went so fast because Jared engaged us in such fun conversation, and before we knew it we were there!  We arrived at 9:45 p.m. or so, and the Blacks (the mission president and his wife) were there to meet us.  It was so sweet!  We opened the car door to a blast of heat and it was 97 degrees--that late at night!

We are staying at a "casita"--a room over an extra garage of the home of a stake president.  It's there, in the background behind Jared.  It's about the size of a hotel room and has twin beds, a couch, and a kitchenette with a microwave, small fridge, and toaster oven.  There isn't a stove or oven, but it's nice and very adequate.  Jared slept on the floor even though Glen and I wanted to share one of the twin beds and have him take the other twin bed.  That is so like him.  He left early the next morning to drive back to Layton, probably without getting much sleep.  Thank you so much Jared, for taking all that time to help us move here!  We had a great time with him and really appreciated it.

On Saturday we got settled in the casita, ran errands, and found the mission office, which we learned is in a large Deseret Industries complex very much like the one in Layton.  It's only about five years old and looked really nice.  That night we went to a stake pioneer day celebration, which was so well done and well attended, and had such a variety of activities which involved the kids and the youth and it was really fun!  We were very impressed with everything.  We met several of the elders in the area and one of them said, "You have some pretty big shoes to fill because the Zobells do a great job."  Another one asked, "So are you tech savvy?"  Gasp!!!    

On Sunday we went to church at the ward where our casita is--not the ward where we will be as soon as we move into the condo.  The ward was amazing and vibrant and there was even a family there who we knew from Layton!  We were asked to speak in church the next Sunday, even though it will be our last Sunday there!  That evening, we went to the Blacks for a yummy dinner and visited with them for a few hours.  It was an awesome evening.

On Monday, July 23, we started our office training at the mission office.  When we got there at 8:00 a.m., we were greeted with this bouquet of flowers and welcome sign!  Can you believe how sweet?  Here we are in the mission office with the Zobells, the couple who is training us.  Our first day was a little overwhelming, but pretty fun.  I had NO idea how much it took to keep a mission running.  All the behind the scenes work that the office people do really enable the missionaries to actually teach and make the best use of their time.   We have a ton to learn, and the Zobells are really helping us.  I have to trust in the Lord to help me as I learn my new responsibilities.  Glen seemed to catch on really fast to his.

In front of the mission office with Jerry and Debbie Black, the mission president and his wife.  They do an amazing job!

Our MTC training is over!

Oh, what a happy and sad day.  Our time at the MTC is over and so is our office training!  Yikes!  I feel like I don't know enough to run a mission office!  The training covered so much material and so many areas.  Glen learned about housing missionaries, how to distribute money to the missionaries, how to set up and pay vendors, how to take care of the cars, how to set up new areas, etc. etc. I learned how to do missionary letters to parents and to the missionaries themselves and others, mission newsletters,  recording transfers, including entering and departing missionaries, convert records, and many other things.  Whew!  Will I remember all of this?  Our teachers told us several times that we were a group that caught on fast.  (They probably tell all the groups that!)  This is a picture of our district for the office training.  From left, the Jensens, us, the Smigelskys, and our teachers, Sis. Hunter and Bro. Bennett.  They taught us so much and were so patient and knowledgeable!

Some fabulous surprises---On Tuesday we got a wonderful letter from Glen's sister Carol.  How fun to get mail at the MTC!!  We just loved it.  On Wednesday we got a letter from Jade, Brigham, and Lily--it was so adorable and really brightened our day and meant so much to us because we had been working so hard and our brains were fried.  Thank you so much Carol, Jade, Brigham, and Lily! We felt so loved.  We also got a package from our dear friends, the Rigbys--a box full of chocolate chip cookies! Oh, talk about heaven. Thank you so much, Kim!   Now I understand  how great it is for missionaries to get mail and packages.  

I must express my feelings about the MTC.  The Spirit of the Lord is so strong here it's unbelievable. Glen and I sang in the choir for the Tuesday night devotionals (Vaughn J. Featherstone was our speaker this week) and it was an awesome experience.  The younger missionaries and the senior missionaries are so very inspiring!  At each meal we sat by many different senior missionaries and always left the table amazed and in awe of the sacrifices that they had made to be here and of their many talents.  They were all going to such diverse places with such diverse assignments:  military relations, leadership,support,and activation, medical, office, (like us) perpetual education fund, public relations, visitor's centers, temples, church history sites, and so many others.  It was incredible. It was very evident that senior couples really do add a great force to the missionary army!  What an indescribable blessing to be here for the last two weeks.  We will never forget it!