January 30, 2017

I was blessed that I would see "miracles" - while it wasn't in the lives of those we work with, our first "miracle" was Monday in getting our rental car back to the Reagan Airport.  My companion and I have gotten used to having one drive while the other navigates with a GPS, but each of us had to drive separately.  Our plans were to stay together, but by the 2nd time of getting separated, we each were praying we would meet up at the same place, in spite of the pouring rain and lack of experience on the D.C. freeways!  We made it!!  And it seemed miraculous to us, and an answer to our prayers!

We got back in time to have our couch replaced by the elders and have them help us get our internet hooked up in our apartment.  What great guys they are!  Then we went to the Senior Living Center to hear Sister Gourley, who is 85 years old, play "Oldies but Goodies" for the people living there while they ate dinner.  Three of the ladies there are sisters in the 2nd ward, and they seemed appreciative of us coming to visit them, and we enjoyed meeting many others.    

 Sister Gourley and Sister Brown at the Sr. Living Center

Tuesday we went to the elementary school where Sister Hayes teaches Kindergarten, and had a great time working with some of the teachers, reading to or working with reading groups.  It was fun doing "Once There Was a Snowman" with the kids (Hey - they don't know it's a Primary song!)  The kids are so cute and eager to learn!  The rest of the day we visited some of the other sisters in the ward and got to know them better.  What a beautiful spirit radiated from Sister Jenkins as she told us her conversion story while working in D.C. about 15 years ago.  Now she is retired and raising 2 grandsons, and her own autistic son - they were so well behaved and polite, she is a marvel!

We pick a certain area of the ward each day and focus on sisters there that day, to try to save on the traveling.  There are some beautiful, large homes with rolling lawns and then some apartments so close together, fairly small town homes or apartments - it is so interesting to see all of these different areas of Charles County.  Some sisters are pretty needy, others seem to enjoy our visit, and some aren't home so we just leave a note, hoping to catch them another time.  We also have been leaving them little bags of Valentine candies, which they love!  One day we stopped to eat and heard the men in the next booth talking about religion and how to reach people, so on our way out we left them "pass-along cards" and told them we were missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ.  It took some courage but them seemed very nice about it, that we are all serving Christ!  Our missionary badges help and give us more confidence to speak up and say who we are!

So Thursday we found our way to the Silver Springs Stake Center for Zone Conference, and met with the missionaries there, listening to Pres. Johnson speak, as well as his wife and some others.  We had lunch and visited with some of the other senior missionaries, and got the 72-hour kit they had put together for each pair of missionaries.  While we were in that area (over an hour north of our place) we felt it would be a good opportunity to go to the temple nearby.  They only have one session every hour, so we were able to do some names in the Initiatory first, then do a temple session - so very special, and love this beautiful temple.

We were excited to see the temple at night from the freeway - it stands out remarkably as you are driving on the freeway, such a beautiful sight for all to see!  Then we learned what the traffic is like on the freeways of D.C. during rush hour, and inched our way along to get 20 miles to a meeting at the Bishop's Storehouse in Upper Marlboro, taking us 1 1/2 hrs.  There we met the Relief Society presidents of the other wards in our stake and they all understood why we were a half hour late!  Getting home the other 20 miles was a breeze at 9:00 at night.

It was nice to go to the White Plains 1st Ward Sunday, where we tried to visit with the people we could.  Then we went to the 2nd ward meetings, followed by their "Munch and Mingle" which they hold quarterly.  They have a potluck for everyone, a chance to visit with each other - since they are spread so far apart by distance.  This gave us another opportunity to meet other sisters in the ward and introduce ourselves to them.  The homeless sister we had been trying to locate was there, so we set up a time to take her to lunch - interesting situation!

One of my favorite visits of the week was to the Bowies.  How interesting to sit in their home of  3 generations and hear about their history and conversion story.  They also talked about their son-in-law, an Air Force pilot, who come to find out is Jim Price, whose family grew up with our children in Mesquite, NV.   What a small world!  We have known and kept in touch with his parents, Tom and Barbara Price, for many years, even after they moved to Logan, UT.  The Bowies live on Dr. Samuel Mudd Road, so we are looking forward to going back during the daytime to see Dr. Samuel Mudd's house.  He is the doctor who set John Wilkes Booth leg while he was trying to escape after killing Pres. Abraham Lincoln.  Fascinating history in this area!

January 25, 2017

This has been quite a week of getting into an apartment and getting our cars here, while still trying to visit people and feel that we are serving others.  Last week (although it seems like a month ago!) we were able to meet Sister Bonnie Ramon, our Stake Relief Society president, and find out what she would like us to be doing, focusing on, etc.  She is a wonderful lady, so full of the spirit and excited to have us here, and we discovered, she is the one who got this program initiated for senior sisters to come and serve - how inspired!  We met with her a couple of times, as well as the ward R.S. president (Sister Becky Michaela) of the White Plains 2nd ward, to go over names of sisters to visit, their situations and needs - very worthwhile meetings.

Our other main goal for this week was learning to find our way around the very large area of Southern Maryland using our GPS's - wow, amazing! (way out of our comfort zone, for sure!)  We were able to go to the Washington D.C. temple (how beautiful it is!), about 45 miles northwest of where we are and feel the power and spirit of this holy place - what a blessing for the people of this area!  Afterwards we went an additional 10 miles to our temple office, and met with office people and Pres. Johnson there.  We were pretty proud of ourselves, not getting lost too many times and knowing now that we could do it when needed!

When we had to leave our hotel (our first home of our mission!) Wednesday, due to it being booked for over a month for the Inauguration, and our apartment was not ready yet, we were SO grateful when Sister Ramon invited us to stay at her home for the following few days.  It was great to have a place to stay, but mostly getting to know her (and her husband) better.  We had a chance to visit with them extensively about their family, who we both knew, etc. - amazing in the church the connections you make!   What a wonderful couple and example to people in the church!

Then we began our visiting!  Wow, so many sisters to find!  Some were so excited to have us visit, others not home, others "lost", but we tried our best to find them, traveling 10 to 15 miles between places at times from Golden Beach to Hughesville to LaPlata.  We really used our GPS, nicknamed "our liahona" to guide us as we traded off driving and navigating!

Then Saturday, our driving experience paid off!  We had to drive to the mission office in Potomac for a training meeting (and to get a key to our apartment - yay!),  and hurried back to Waldorf, an hour away, to finally move into our apartment!  It was worth the wait, to have it clean, freshly painted, and new queen-size beds for us to use!  We each have our own bedrooms and bathrooms, which is nice, and being on the 3rd floor, they say it is safer, and we know we will get some good exercise (no elevators!)  I appreciate having a safe place to stay and the simpleness of it all - we are not distracted by material things!  The challenge now was not having access to the internet and realizing our dependence on it!  We didn't have time to settle in long, as we had to return to Suitland (25 miles north) for the night meeting of Stake Conference.  It was well worth it!  So inspirational, as we listened to a couple of recent converts (their testimonies and appreciation of the gospel are so strong!), our mission president and his wife, and two of the stake presidency.  Pres. Sakai is such a sincere and humble man, it was humbling being there with him!  The spirit was so strong!  We made it home safely to our own beds (for the next year!) - so many things to be grateful for this week!

Sunday was the morning session of conference, which was broadcast to our local chapels, since they are so far spread apart.  Then our next great blessing, the safe arrival of our cars!  We have been calling and texting with the truck driver who was bringing them all week, and were so grateful to see them unloaded and have them to drive again.  The elders graciously came and unloaded our belongings that we had packed in the cars, carrying everything up 3 stories for us!  We owe them!!  We didn't get extra visiting in, but were so grateful to finally feel settled.  Bishop Stevens and his wife of the White Plains 1st ward invited us for dinner that evening, which was also a great blessing.  We enjoyed getting to know them and listening to the elders give a discussion on the Restoration.  It has been a long week full or many blessings and little miracles - so much to be grateful for!

Week 1 - Getting started!

While not quite what I expected for my first week in the mission field, it has been a great and humbling week as I learn to look for and accept my responsibilities.  After completing my week at the MTC, Brad, Keriann and I met up with Daylen and Ashley for dinner - they were going to surprise me with the place!  And of course!  We went to Los Hermanos, our traditional dinner for our missionaries!  This is where we usually went as a family when taking our children to the MTC, so the boys decided it would be the place we should go for my farewell dinner before leaving the next day on my mission!  What fun!  It is a great tradition carried forward, and a terrific dinner, followed by fried ice cream, of course!

Brad took me early to catch my flight to Washington D.C., such a breeze going through security and I had time while waiting to reflect on the inspiring week in the MTC.  It's interesting how you are taken out of the world for a few days to prepare to go into the world to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  There is such a different feeling just in leaving the MTC, the spirit is so strong there, and you just want to feel it all the time!  I hope I can strive to have the Lord's spirit with me throughout my mission as I felt it there!

My flight was almost four hours, but went quickly.  Near the last hour I enjoyed visiting with the fellow sitting by me who was a Muslim from Libya - such a interesting person.  He just finished his Civil Engineering degree at the University of Idaho in Moscow, told me about his wife (a Christian from Poland) and a little about them.  I told him why I was going to Washington D.C. and a little about the church and he was very interested in the church apps I showed him on my ipad, wrote down how to get them and said his wife would be interested to have them.  He was interested in my large family and said they wanted to have a large family (he is from a family of 9 children, who are all in Libya still).  He was such a nice person and so interesting to talk to!
  
As I was waiting at the airport for my luggage, I was surprised to see a sister with a missionary tag, and it was Sister Johnson, the mission mother, there with her husband, who quickly introduced themselves.  While they hadn't received the message that I was being picked up by my daughter, they seemed rather relieved, and asked if I would like to stay with her until my companion arrived on Wednesday.  After helping me with luggage and loading it into Stacie's car, we assured them that we could pick up Sister Brown on Wednesday (they had transfers on that day, so were happy to know she would be taken care of!)  I was able to spend the next few days with David and Stacie and their 3 beautiful children, so cute, full of energy and fun to be around!  I helped Daniella (their au pere) some and tried to help with meals, feeling useful where I could.

Then Wednesday afternoon Stacie took me to meet up with Sister Brown.  We got the rental car I had reserved and took off for Waldorf, MD, with the great help of a GPS.  Pres. Johnson had called me earlier in the day and told me they had a hotel room reserved for each of us there and I reassured him we would be fine.  We kept busy getting somewhat settled (in a hotel room?), shopping a little and learning our way around.  Friday we met back with Stacie in Springfield to get the things we had left in her car, and this helped us to improve our navigational skills and learn where the Mt. Vernon Stake Center is.

Saturday was the highlight of the week when we met for a mission conference with both the North and South Washington D.C. missions.  After meeting a number of sisters and elders in the mission, we had a mission wide picture (with almost 200 in it) and with the visiting authorities - Elder M. Russell Ballard, Elder Ronald Rasband (both apostles of the Quorum of the Twelve), 4 of the Seventies (Elders Bennett, Meurs, Perkins and Yong) and several area presidents.  What a conference!  We got to shake hands with several of them, then went into the chapel for the conference, which was tremendous to hear from so many of the General Authorities speaking just to us missionaries!  They commented that this was pretty historic - seldom do they have this many authorities together in a mission (or 2 missions combined, as we were) at one time.  I have written and recorded in my notebook many of the teachings and challenges they gave to us, such a powerful spirit there!  What a great way to start the mission and feel of the Lord's blessings and help!

Although it was about a 45 minute drive each way, we certainly felt the Lord's blessings and help in our travel, and that the weather was not the predicted ice and snow for that day - only rain!  We certainly felt uplifted and spiritually fed, and hope to utilize the messages learned there with us throughout our mission!  I am enjoying being with Sister Brown, she is so sweet, humble, dedicated and full of the desire to serve the Lord.  I feel fortunate to work with her and we are both learning together, discovering our responsibilities, talents and weaknesses - so much to learn!  (I need to learn how to add pictures, maybe next time?)
         

       

Week in the MTC

I had such a marvelous weekend with family and some friends I was able to visit.  Friday night we had a get together at Ralph's (my oldest brother)'s house, which several of the children and grandchildren came to, along with Mont and Eileen, and a number of nieces and their families - so good to see them all.  Then Sunday night we had a special dinner and family home evening at Brad's house - especially loved the grandchildren singing and the great advice from those who had served missions.  What a wonderful spirit and send off for my mission!  Then the boys gave me a beautiful blessing to help me through the mission - I appreciated it so much!! Stacie, Maurie, Daylen, and Brad, and their families were all there - 26 of us in all.  It was really terrific, and the grandchildren had so much fun with their cousins!  Then Monday morning Maurie's family, Stacie and Bradley all took me to the MTC to drop me off at the curb and give me one last hug!  So great!  Although I will see Brad's family again on Friday, then Stacie's family next Saturday in Virginia.

Now today is my last day in the MTC.  I feel a little overwhelmed at all there is for us "senior missionaries" (there are about 60 of us here this week) to learn!  It has been exciting learning how to use technology, our ipads and phones, to find scriptures quickly, then add pictures, videos, conference talks, etc. to teach lessons, give talks, etc.  It is exhilarating to see all the young missionaries and their enthusiasm and eagerness, and they are always willing to help us any way they can!  I have seen Sister Fiso twice and she is so  excited!

I have a very nice companion, Sister Marta Brown, from West Jordan, Utah.  Her husband passed away 4 years ago from a stroke the week he had it, and she has been working at the Jordan River Temple until it was closed for renovation.  She is easy to be around and comfortable to be with.

We had a wonderful devotional Tuesday night with Sister Bonnie Oscarson speaking - marvelous!  Then Wednesday night (since my car hadn't been picked up to be shipped), we went to the Provo City temple with a number of other senior missionaries.  It was a beautiful experience, especially since it has been just one year since DeLos passed away.  So glad I could go to the temple!  Last night my sister, Charlene, came down from SLC and we were able to go to dinner at Olive Garden.  It was nice to see her and have a chance to visit.

Everything is going well, in some ways I hate to leave here and the wonderful spirit that is here in abundance, but in other ways, I am ready to head out on my new adventure - prepared or not!  So Washington, here I come!!