Journey Joys

This has been another great month. I can't believe that its time to send in another update for the newsletter.  So off we go again telling about some of our joys.

• We began the paperwork to be volunteers at the hospital.  While we were reading a binder and doing an open book test, two different volunteers came up to us and said, "We love the Mormons.  We welcome you and want you to know that we admire and love working with the Mormons."  That puts a little pressure on us to be sure we don't mess anything up or offend anyone.
• Still working with Blue.  He has had some wonderful, spiritual experiences.  I have come to realize how hard it is to put lives back together.  I have also come to realize how our Heavenly Father is totally interested in the details of our every day life.  Craig is so patient with Blue and his theories. 
• We have been teaching a class for military members and others who face similar deployment challenges.  Its title is "Becoming a Self-Reliant and Resilient Family."  We have four couples attending.  Three of the soldiers leave in October for Afghanistan.  The fourth soldier leaves in March to go to Alabama.  He is a lawyer and will be involved in a major case.  He is estimating he will be gone three months or longer.  It has been a good class and has given us the opportunity to get to know some members better.  
• We are in the process of planning a Home Evening gathering for all LDS military members.  We have secured the place and we now need to begin the advertising and planning.  We are excited to see all the LDS military families gathered together.
• We were able to read all about President Gilbert's inauguration at BYUI.  I remember well Elder Bednar and Elder Clark's inauguration.  I am so grateful for the years I served at BYU-Idaho.  I love telling everyone all about the university and its mission.  

We thank you all for watching over our home, especially Kelsie Walker who keeps a very close eye on it.  It is such a good feeling to know that neighbors and friends are close by if we need anything.  Every week we comment on how wonderful FaceTime is because we can literally see our grandkids growing up.  We pray that you will all be involved in missionary work in some way.  We really do understand how hard that is in Rexburg but we hope you will all search your families and hearts for people the missionaries can teach.

Journey Joys

This has been an interesting week.

• A trip to the Oakland temple is certainly one of our joys.  There were only two brothers and four sisters in our 4:00 session. Once again, Craig and I were blessed to be the witness couple. If you know anything about us, you know we love attending the temple.
• We had two families commit to being at church on Sunday.  It was one of those days that I truly felt like a missionary because neither one of them showed up.  It was disappointing but as missionaries you just pick yourself up and move forward.
• We went with the sister missionaries to teach a lesson and had a wonderful experience. Brother ___ bore a very strong testimony of how the Holy Ghost testified to him of the truthfulness of the gospel.  He also told us of his hopes and dreams as he moves forward.
• We met with the base chaplain, Chaplain Cannon.  We had a very nice visit.  I don't think we'll be getting any information to help us find our missing souls.  He took us to the hospital to check out  the possibility of doing volunteer work.  We have quite a bit of paperwork and red tape to go through in order to give some of our time.  Plus, we have to take our shot records in to make sure everything is current.  I'm sure that in the end, this will also be part of our joy.
• We were blessed to be invited to give a FHE lesson for a family.  Brother _____ is deployed in Afghanistan and won't be home for another month.  We were greeted at the door and welcomed with a lot of enthusiasm.  We did a short lesson and then provided the treat.  We chose to do rootbeer floats.  By the time we left, we were pretty well liked.  We like to think they enjoyed the lesson as well as the floats.  The kids in this family are so sweet and we loved being with them.
• We appreciate everyone's prayers.  We enjoy the elders and sisters here.  They are hard working  missionaries.  We search for missing members, transport missionaries as well as investigators, attend baptisms, teach Sunday lessons, and meet with ecclesiastical leaders.  As a more mature (senior) missionary, we do just about a little of everything. 

Hope you all had a wonderful week and remember that our daily journey needs to be filled with joy.

District Meetings 9-15-2015

Travis Air Force Base Air Museum

We took the sisters to the Air Museum (They wanted to see what the air base was like.)

Mission Update

Things are good here.  We keep busy every day but we do our own scheduling so if I am tired, I take a nap.  We go with the elders a lot to visit inactive members.  We have seen all kinds of living conditions and all kinds of people.  We have met so many people who got their feelings hurt and so they don't come to church again.  We have traveled distances to do service and also tried to help the neighbor next door.  Next to us we have a Hindu family, upstairs from us are two Afghanistan brothers, next to them is, I'm not sure.  She wears a berka outside but in her apartment she does not.  What a big, wonderful world we live in.  It all makes me appreciate Rexburg even more.  It helps me count my blessings every day.

It has now been two weeks since we went by the chapel on base to see the head chaplain.  We left a business card and they told us they would call to schedule an appointment.  Even though we have called and followed up, we still have no meeting with the chaplain.  We have hit a brick wall in trying to find airman. And we really need the chaplain's help. 

Our monthly mission report will probably never be like the young elders and sisters because technically we are not proselyting missionaries.  We work more with military families who need a visit, part-member, inactive or just anything we can do for a bishop.  However with two stakes, we are spread pretty thin.  We have experienced wonderful baptisms and we have lists of people we pray for.  We teach lessons but they are usually in unexpected situations.   For example, we were transporting a semi-active member to a job interview the other day when he asked us about the fall.  Craig proceeded to give the missionary lesson on the Plan of Salvation.  I must say, Craig is good at explaining things and can answer and teach expectantly.

We miss home but are grateful for the opportunity to serve our Heavenly Father in California.

2015 Family Pictures

Bluehawk's story

This is the segment that I send in for the ward monthly newsletter.

This month I want to share with you the story of a young man named Bluehawk.  One of our bishops in Vacaville asked us to go with the elders to see if there was anything we could do to help.  He had served in the military and had been deployed a couple of times.  He was suffering from PTSD and had depression. The bishop received a phone call one evening from Bluehawk asking for help.  He had been living with his sister while looking for a job here in California.   However his sister was killed in an automobile accident and Bluehawk was left on his own.  He lost the apartment because he couldn’t pay the rent, which made him homeless.  The night that he called the bishop, he was on the streets and alone and scared.  He asked for help and the bishop came through.  He put him in a long-stay motel until he could assess the situation.  We visited him a couple of times with the elders to get some background. We learned his parents had passed away several years ago and so now with his sister’s death, he was truly alone.

One young man from the singles ward went to pick him up for church and saw the conditions he was living in.  By that I mean the neighbors he had.  While Bluehawk was in the car with him, a couple of other tenants started banging on their car windows and so they got out of there.  When they got to the young man’s family and home, he told his parents about their encounter. His parents offered to have Bluehawk stay with them until they could figure something out.   Bluehawk went to church with the young singles in the family and has been looking for a job.  We have now met with him several times and this last time he asked Craig for a blessing.   He attended a baptism with us and really felt the spirit. 

We have learned so many things through our experience with Bluehawk.  We have realized that we have been blessed in so many ways.  I personally have wondered if I would have the same Christian heart and take someone into my home and help them get back on their feet.  The Lord truly blesses us all and we need to be aware of those blessings and give thanks.  So, to our Cresthaven family, we ask you to pray for the missionaries.  Please ask and seek to see the every day tender mercies that are all around you.  The Lord will bless us all, if we but ask.