Mothers Day

We had Ross visit us again this week, but this time he brought Dixie and the children with.  We saw them at General Conference a month ago (a week after we left home), and so we have not yet experienced the "being away from family" effect that Senior couples talk about.  Of course our relative proximity has great bearing on that.  Add to that all the conveniences of the stores we are accustomed to shopping at and no language barriers or communication difficulties, and we are really in an environment very similar to home.  Our concerns are very manageable.

The missionaries get to call home on Mother's Day and on Christmas Day.  Since the missionaries don't have phones other than the Mission Cell phones which can only be used for mission related calls, they have been instructed to go to a member family and have pre-arranged with their families to call them there.  The President, probably in a moment of weakness, said it was okay to use Skype as a way to video conference with parents at home.  This permission was not openly discussed, and so I have fielded several calls from parents seeking confirmation if it was true.  What the parents don't realize, is that the member family where the missionary hopes to receive their call from home at, may not have the Skype program and video camera needed to have this two way call.  The Missionaries, of course, are way ahead of me in today's technology and they'll for sure have all that figured out.

We have a number of foreign missionaries in our mission.  They come from Chile, Australia, Mexico, American Samoa, Western Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Bolivia, Argentina, and the Philippines.  I made arrangements with a long distance provider to secure calling cards so they can also call home on Mothers Day.

We are having a great time.  We take every opportunity to tell the missionaries how wonderful they are and to reassure them of their worth in Heavenly Fathers's eyes.  They are wonderful "kids" and we love everyone of them.

This coming Saturday we will be attending an All Mission Conference with Elder Christofferson of the 12 Apostles. It will be held in Gridley, a town about 90 miles North of us, which is a central location for the mission area.  Elder Christofferson will be there for a Stake Conference that Saturday/Sunday.  In addition, we will also have Elder Hallstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy, and Bishop McMullin of the Presiding Bishopric.  A lot of "heavy weights" for one meeting.  Makes you wonder what else is happening that week-end.

I will keep you posted next week if I find out anything.

Love,
Dad