Fairs and Temples

11 August 2014

It was the biggest group of arriving and departing missionaries I have dealt with so far....49 total.  It is quite exciting to see them come in and sad to say good-bye.  The arriving group, even though very large is more quiet, sit on the sofa, and feeling exhausted.  The departing group is laughing, playing the piano and up moving around.   Sadly within 3 days two of our new missionaries had gone home.  .  

 I feel I have gotten the hang of all there is to do.  Sometimes the Mission President will ask me to play detective and find out why something has or hasn't happened....i.e. why he received notice of a certain visa waiter to be transferred to Brazil....the mission he was called to.....but then so much time had passed and we had yet to receive his passport/visa or flight itinerary.  Usually our work is the same routine from transfer to transfer,

We went to the Iowa State Fair this past weekend.  This fair is geared toward farmers....mostly.  Lots of tractors....new and restored.  I found a small Ferguson tractor like my dad had and I used to drive on the farm.  We could never afford the big John-Deere tractors which is what you see in Iowa and the Case II.  Huge ones!  Also, they have all the animals and 4-H groups you could think of.  Big horses, miniature horses, sheep, pigs, cows, etc.  Pork is big in Iowa.  A lot of the food stands had some kind of pork to see.  Bacon was baked with  fries, chips, eggs, around the steak and pork chops.  We were there about 3 hours and then we got tired of walking so went home. 

This Idaho farmer never had a tractor like this!

Old restored Ferguson tractor like my dad had.  (to my brother, Myron....this was the kind of  tractor I was driving on "that"day!)

Cool sand sculpture at Iowa State Fair (you can see how important pigs, corn, soy and Mcdonalds are to Iowans)

17 August 2014

We are having a Mission Tour (with Elder Godoy of the Seventy) in September .  It's a big deal for the Mission....I hear.  He send us his agenda.  They have a couple of Zone Conferences to be able to meet with all the missionaries, he goes out with some of the missionaries doing their work (that would be awesome and scary at the same time).  He chooses 4 missionaries from each Zone Conference to interview.  The office staff and APs  meet with him for a short while.   His job is to encourage and uplift the missionaries.  Sounds good!

This mission is doing well in finding people who want to be baptized.  I think people really are looking for more in their life and seeking for truth. 

Elder Stringham and I visited the Winter Quarters Temple, visitors center there and also the Kanesville Tabernacle in Council Bluffs.  It is very humbling to visit these places.  The temple has art work depicting the pioneers as they crossed the plains....on the walls as pictures and also in their stained glass windows.  There is such a reverent feeling there.  The temple grounds contains the cemetery where many pioneers were buried, having never reached the Salt Lake Valley.   Two names that stuck out were a 90 year old woman and a 1 day old baby boy.  Some buried there were never identified.

Outside Winter Quarters Temple

 

Reading names of those buried there.

A special tribute to the "unrecorded dead".  For some reason this choked me up a little.

This statue to me symbolizes the hardship and the sacrifice made by so many!

Here is a sweet story sent to me by the couple that we replaced in the Mission Home, Elder & Sister Gardner: (Sandee...you met them when they stopped in Colorado)

If You Think The Lord Isn't Aware Of His Children, You Gotta Read This!

"A member of our ward shared this amazing experience that he had this week. He was in an airport and was trying to find a kiosk that would allow him to charge his phone. He still had plenty of battery strength, but felt he should charge it nonetheless. He found several kiosks, but they were all full. He finally found a place and was sitting across the table from a young Chinese woman who seemed visibly upset. She was on the phone with an airport employee trying to explain her situation. The problem was that she spoke very little English. He heard her repeat the word 'Mongolian'. The employee did not speak Chinese Mongolian. My friend wanted to help, but did not speak Mongolian either; however, he had a friend who had served a mission where he had to learn the Chinese Mongolian language. My friend (Russ) called his friend (John) and explained the situation and asked if he would be willing to help translate so that this young woman could get her problem resolved. John agreed, so Russ gave his phone to the young lady (YL) & said "Mongolian" and pointed to his phone. The YL hesitantly took the phone and soon began chatting very rapidly while Russ just looked on. After a few minutes, the YL began crying almost hysterically. Russ was wondering what John could have said that made her cry, but just waited, knowing there was nothing he could do. The YL would stop crying and seemed to gain control over her emotions, only to start crying once again. Russ was totally bewildered! The conversation lasted about 15 min. & a smiling, teary-eyed YL handed back the phone to Russ. John was pretty emotional too as he explained to Russ that this YL was a girl he had taught while on his mission and he had baptized her and her whole family! She was on her way to the MTC in preparation for a mission!!! He had also helped her resolve her airport problem. "

Missionaries are noted for collecting special conversion stories .

We love you all!