A Sweet Story

The following happened when getting ready to hand out Christmas packages for our zone the Antelope Zone, and the Citrus Heights Zone, who had met together in our building.

We have a sweet sister from Tonga serving in our Zone. As we have gotten to know her, we have found out that her parents moved from Tonga to Hawaii when she was 7 years old, leaving her in Tonga with an aunt. I don't know what the family dynamics are in Tonga, but can you imagine doing that to one of your children? That was a very hurtful experience, and now that she is 22, she is still affected by that. (She is one of the kids Mom is helping to get into BYU Hawaii).

We had the Relief Society room set up where the missionaries would enter through one door, proceed to a table where our Senior Elders from the office, Elder Johnson and Elder Morgan, would find the package for the missionary. The packages were on a long table and in alphabetical order, sort of.  The missionaries would then continue on to the next table where Mom would hand them a "Goody Bag" prepared by the Relief Society sisters from the Rocklin Stake.  These sisters prepared 220 goody bags for our missionaries containing cookies, a small loaf of banana bread, 2 Mandarin oranges, and various candies.

They would then proceed to the next table where Sister Johnson would hand them an envelope that had their personal letter from home, a Christmas card from The First Presidency, a Christmas card from President and Sister Weston, and a picture of both "Half Zone Conferences" when Elder Kearon came to visit last October.  We then asked them to see Sister Morgan to sign a "Thank You" card to be sent to the Relief Society sisters that made the Goody Bags.

Elder and Sister Johnson, and Sister Morgan

They finish that off with a photo with the President and his family.

So this Sister missionary is at the end of the line of Sister missionaries, and quietly tells me that her mother told her that she had send 3 packages for her.  She then asks if she indeed has three packages there on the table.  I was a little slow on the uptake, but I guess she has been disappointed many times before and she did not want to get herself all excited if it was all going to be for nothing.  I knew that we had something for everybody even if parents had not followed through, so I told her to just go to Elder Morgan and Elder Johnson and see.

A few minutes later, I looked behind me, and here she was, beaming with a smile from ear to ear, carrying a stack of three boxes with a goody bag on top.   THAT MOMENT WAS PRICELESS!

Elder Morgan and I.  Waiting to go to the next location.

We love being on our mission, and we love our missionaries.  Last week, our Ward Mission Leader asked us if we could feed the missionaries assigned to our Ward on New Year's Eve Day.  We said "of course we would".  It's not like we are going anywhere for New Year's Eve.

This afternoon, the Spanish speaking Elders came by the office and asked if they could join the other Elders with us on New Year's Eve.  I guess it is hard getting a dinner appointment when everybody is out partying.  We are looking forward to having a great time with them.

This coming Monday, Jan 2nd, the Missionaries going home will be processed through the office.  A new batch will arrive from the MTC on Tuesday.  IT IS TRANSFER TIME AGAIN!


Thank you all for your love and prayers.  We have officially reached the halfway mark (already??).

Love,
Mom and Dad

We made it through Christmas

Dear family,
We are excited that this week is done.

We had our "Santa Run" where we delivered Christmas packages to the missionaries.  Three locations in the Northern half of the mission on Thursday, and 3 locations in the Southern half on Friday.
We met at the office at 600am to drive to Redding in Northern CA for our first delivery, and then went down to Chico, and then to Yuba City.  We made it home at 600pm, and we were in bed and asleep by 730pm.  Friday was a little easier because we did not have to travel as far.

Mom took care of accounting for all the packages and letters, while I took care of all the logistics of getting the right package to the right place.  I am sure glad Mom dealt with the parents because I may not have been as diplomatic.  You really become attached to the missionaries.  Mom started the process the middle of September, 3 months ahead of time, with an email to all the parents,  she then followed up with a letter.  She corrected the email and addresses by contacting the missionaries of those parents who had not yet responded, and send another notice.  Slowly but surely she contacted all the parents she could, even making multiple phone calls.  We pretty much got all the packages together, but the frustrating part was getting emails the week before the event asking if it was too late to send a package.  We went ahead and prepared gift packages for all the missionaries who did not have a package by our deadline.  If packages came later (which some did) we were not going to let "our guys" not get something because of their parents.  If they ended up with 2 packages, so be it.  We were not going to risk it.  As Mom wrote in her letter, she also ended up supplying 47 "personal letters from home".  That is 25% of our missionary force that did not get a personal letter from home.  That is very disappointing when you think about it.  These guys (and gals) sacrifice so much, tears come to your eyes when you hear their stories.

Well, the logistics part went very well.  We only had one package end up at the wrong place.  A package was packed in the bags for the first location, and it should have gone to the fifth location.  That was an easy "recovery".  Imagine if it had been the other way!!!  But that was the only mix up.  Everything else went smooth and everybody was happy.

After receiving their gift box and letter from home, it was pretty quiet.  Everybody was content.

They also had their picture taken with the Mission President and his family.

At Yuba City, all the girls wanted to have their picture taken.

After we came home from deliveries on Friday, we still had to host a Zone Gift Exchange party at our house.  These are the guys I called on to help me sort the packages, and to load the trailer.  I guess it is one of the missionary trademarks, but they are always willing and anxious to help us out.  We sure love them and think they are beyond wonderful.

The missionary receiving the gift had a Santa Hat pulled over their eyes, and had to unwrap and guess what the gift was.

Saturday was finally our day to vegetate and do nothing.  Well, there was laundry, grocery shopping, and cleaning house that we normally do on our "Preparation Day".  Well, there was also Mom practicing for her duet with the non-member organ guy for their performance on Sunday (It went great today.  We each had a part in the Christmas program).  And Mom checking on one of the Sister Missionaries in our zone.

Saturday evening we had a wonderful meal together and were able to do "Face Time" with Ross using our IPads, and seeing Lisa' family and Joie too who were gathered at Ross and Dixie's house for Christmas Eve.  After the musical performances, and the lighting of the candles on the tree in Cathlamet, I participated in the video conference by reading for everybody from Luke 2, just like when we are at home.  These are great gadgets.

That evening, after finishing the face time, we opened our presents, and called it a day.

Merry Christmas to everybody.

Love, Dad

A very busy week. Part 2

Dear Family,
Here is the second part of my letter.

The initial letter to the parents explaining the program we wanted to do went out the 1st of October, and presents have been trickling in ever since.  Now picture 190+ presents.  We stored them in our Utility Trailer because we did not have room at the mission office, but also for security.

On Tuesday we took the trailer to the office to sort the packages by Missionary and by Zone where that missionary serves.  That process would have taken Mom and I a good part of the day to complete.  But, again, the Lord provides.

Enter Elder Amatago, a big Elder from Samoa, and his companion, Elder Kober.  They came to the office to have their car fixed and so had a couple hours to kill.

Elders Amatago and Kober

We sorted the packages, got them bagged in heavy duty plastic leaf bags, marked by zone, and reloaded in our trailer in one and a half hours!!!!

We then used some of the Target Gift Cards we had received to buy things to make up additional gift packages.

That evening Mom and I had an assignment to teach a class in the Ward Relief Society meeting.  It was about the teachings of the Savior.

On Wednesday we did our normal office work, and that evening we fed the Spanish speaking elders.  They wanted a "Breakfast" Dinner.  Elder Leetham is from Colorado, and his companion, Elder Calderon, is from Mexico City, and not always comfortable speaking English. He is a very sweet elder.  After dinner Calderon helped load Mom's Rosetta Stone program on her computer.  He wants to become a Computer Tech after his mission, and knows his way around computers.  It is a program to learn Spanish, so they helped Mom with pronunciation of the first lesson words.  We also found out that our refrigerator quit working.

On Thursday, the first thing I did was call an appliance repair place to look at the fridge.  They came out later that morning and determined that the compressor was shot.  The repair estimate came to $760 and they suggested to just buy another fridge.  I could not get a hold of the landlord, but there was an old fridge that worked in the garage.  The problem is getting these two heavy appliances switched out.

Again, the Lord provides.  On my way to the post office, I run into 4 of our guys.  They are in our Zone, and we see them all the time.  When something happens, good or bad, they run to us to tell us all about it.  We are their surrogate parents.

So Elder Dryer and Whiting, and Elders Woodward and Gardner came over to help.  Elder Whiting even tried to get the water line to the ice maker installed, but we did not have any plumbers tape to make a tight seal and there was a slight leak.  When he disconnected the water line, he forgot which way to turn the water spigot to turn it off, and when he disconnected the hose it was still "on" and he got sprayed and soaked with water.  It was quite a mess.

Elder Whiting.

We were happy to have our fridge exchanged.

Tomorrow, Friday, we have our office Christmas Dinner here at our house.

This week sure has gone by fast.  Next week we will put on the final touches to having the gifts ready.  We will have to focus on the "personal letters" and create letters for those without.

On Thursday we will be hitting 3 areas in the Northern half of the mission for our Christmas program.  Two Zones will meet in a Stake Center where we will do our program, and then move on to another area where 2 Zones have gotten together, and then we do it again a third time.

Then on Friday, we do the same thing for the 6 Zones in the Southern half of the mission where we will go to 3 different stake centers where different zones have gathered.

Saturday will be Christmas Eve, and we will be ready to just vegetate.

Never a dull moment here, and you can see why time just flies by.

Until next time,

Love,

Mom and Dad

A very busy week. Part 1

Dear Family,
Here are a couple pictures of the kids during the Thanksgiving week-end.

Here is our Henri!

At the train museum, "The Girls" found Mrs. Claus.

Last Saturday, December 10th, we went again to Coloma, CA because they had a Christmas themed celebration of the Gold Rush that took place there.  It was a nice day.  There was no snow, and the sun was out.  They had a number of venders plying their wares, and there were a number of food booths with people in period dress.  There also was a band that was pretty good.  It was a fun outing for us.

This week has been busy.  We started Monday with our monthly Office Staff Meeting.  We always do lunch after the meeting, and we have 2 former Ward and Stake Relief Society Presidents.  You can imagine that it is always good.  

That evening we attended a Christmas concert at our non-member friend's Church.  He is the 15th century Organ builder that is married to a member and does the Organ/Piano duets with mom.  They had the Sacramento Strings group there.  They were very good, and mom and I wanted to go buy violins afterwards and learn to play like that.

Tuesday we dedicated to getting our Christmas Gift program organized.  We have asked missionary parents to send one modest present and a personal letter to their missionary through the office, where we would collect them for a special missionary Christmas program, and distribute the collected presents and letters.  

We have a number of foreign missionaries in our mission whose families are too poor to even pay the postage for a package.  We also have a number of missionaries who do not have parental support. Who are the only church members in their family, or, who have been disowned by their families for joining the Church.  We are totally aware of these missionaries, (there are about 30 out of 195 missionaries), and we are preparing gifts and personal letters for them.  We were prepared to mobilize our immediate and extended family to help with providing presents for these missionaries, but people have been so generous.  The Lord always provides for His own.  Missionary parents have send extra presents and gift cards for us to give to those who needed them.  Members have also asked how they can help.  Just yesterday, somebody gave the President $1000 to use for the missionaries.

There is much more to say, and this entry will be too long, so I will do it in parts.

I will be back soon.

Love, Dad

We had a great family visit.

As Mom wrote in her letter, we had a great visit with Ross and Dixie and their kids, and, with Joie during the Thanksgiving week-end.  We always give thanks for our blessings, and pray for our children and grandchildren. Especially for our Joie.  In preparing to leave for our mission, we worried about leaving her the most, and it was the reassurances from Lisa and Ross, that they would look out for her, that we felt okay with going on a mission.  We were blessed with that peaceful feeling that everything would be all right when we entered the MTC, and really have not given it any thought at all.  We just  knew things would be alright.

With Joie coming to visit us, we wondered how she would handle seeing us, and if there would be "a scene".  We need not have had to worry.  When the kids arrived the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and we first saw Joie, her reaction was like: "Oh, Hi. Where is the food?"  Our experience in the past, when we had not seen her for a couple of weeks, Joie would be sure to let us know.  She would holler and complain as we entered her house, and would push us out the door to have us take her to our house or for a ride.

This was another blessing.  She gave us no cause to wonder or worry.  We were again reassured that, SHE knew that we were on a mission, that we loved her, and that we had not abandoned her.

We made her bed on the floor in our room, and she slept fine THE FIRST NIGHT!  She was probably playing catch-up from the night before, in the motor home where she kept all of Dixie's kids up.

The following 2 nights we did not get much sleep.  She was up all night!  We might have gotten 3-4 hours of sleep each night.  Our home is not Joie Proofed like our house in Washington so we locked her in with us in our bedroom.  This kept her from roaming the house at night and from getting into the refrigerator.  It did not prevent her, however, from playing with all the light switches in the room, including the switch for the overhead fan.  Although over the years, I have learned to ignore her noises, a breeze from the overhead fan could not be ignored.

We loved having the kids and grand kids, and especially our Joie come for a visit.  A big "thank you" to Ross and Dixie for bringing her down.


It is hard to believe, but we are nearing the half way point of our mission.  It almost coincides with our 40th wedding anniversary later this month.  I might have said this in an earlier post about the 2 couples we serve with in the office, but the Morgans celebrated their 60th anniversary this year, and the Johnsons
celebrated their 50th.  Mom and I are "The Kids" in the office.  (That is until the "real kids" come to the office - our wonderful missionaries).

We hope you have a wonderful week.

Love,
Mom and Dad