Loving This Spring Weather

Loving this Spring Weather

15 March 2015

The weather is wonderful  - in the 70's - and predicting 80 degrees tomorrow. (Monday).  Sunshine can sure lift the spirits.  I took a little drive, hunting down maps of Iowa at rest stops, down I-80 and I just wanted to sing it was so bright and sunshiny.  There is no green grass yet, but lots of blue skies.   I'm feeling better since my last letter, but it will take awhile to get back to normal....so I've been told. 

Missionary work is moving along.  Some weeks we get lots of baptism and then others...not so much.   The office work is always busy.  Elder Stringham is busy closing apartments (our numbers are down) and moving furniture to storage.  I am trying to reach some parents who moved from Hawaii to the Marshall Islands so I can send them the Elder's itinerary, and also, their Bishop and Stake President.  The Elder is hoping they email him this info on Preparation Day on Monday.  Sometimes they don't have internet where they are living.  We want someone to be at the airport to pick up this returning missionary as he steps off the plane.  If I don't hear from one of them, I just can't assume that they received my mail or emails. 

29 March 2015

Sorry....we got busy  in the office.  There are changes being made in two of the Stakes so we are trying to decide which areas belong to which missionaries and which ones will be closed.  (Well not me...but the President and the Assistants)  This will be a big time computer changes for the reports, the Zone Conferences, the Mission Leadership Conferences and housing! 

My health is doing well.  I am feeling blessed to have good doctors!

I love learning about the sweet people whose baptisms I submit!  I just submitted one of a 45 year-old lady who worked with a member of our faith in the hospital.  He is an anesthesiologist, her job I am not sure of.   During some small talk she asked him what plans he had one night.  He said he was going Home Teaching  She asked what that was and he explained it all to her.  Another time she asked  him again what his plans were.  He said he was preparing for a trip to Omaha Nebraska Temple.  She again asked about the temple.  She asked if anyone could go in.  He explained that before it is dedicated visitors were welcomed to an Open House.  She wanted to know where there was an Open House for a LDS Temple.  The Phoenix, Arizona temple was holding an open house so she caught a flight to Phoenix, toured to temple and then went to the grounds/visitors center of the Mesa Temple and to the Gilbert Temple.  She had such a sweet feeling and a spiritual experience in Arizona, that she  got back she found the member and asked how she could become a member.  We had some very excited  missionaries there and she was just baptized last weekend. 

Yesterday we attended a baptism of a young 18 year-old man who was baptized by his best friend.  He had been coming to church for quite awhile.  He never really wanted to join until recently when he was thinking seriously about his life.  The friend was so teary-eyed through the whole program and ordinance and made us all emotional.

Mondays are Preparation Day for the young missionaries  That is when they email their parents.  Most parents must be sitting by their computers waiting for the email to come through.  If these missionaries are having a bad day or feeling grumpy about one thing or another  they tell their parents.  So Monday afternoons, evenings and Tuesdays we get a lot of calls from worried parents.  Sometimes  of their concerns are really legitimate.  Other times it sounds concerning, but by the time the President or his wife talk to the missionary it has been resolved or they didn't mean to make it sound so worrisome to their  parents. 

We are getting a lot of Easter packages and cards.  Some parents have clever ideas!  I posted this on facebook/instagram, but want to put it in the newsletter because I will keep these forever!

An Easter Egg shaped package sent to one of the Elders  It was quite heavy.  Last year we had a small plastic-type egg sent through the mail.    (Excuse the messy desk area.  It was a very busy day and I had several projects going on at once.)

We are enjoying our mission.  Some days are hard, every day is busy, but there are just a lot of sweet moments and wonderful memories!  We love you all so very much!

Trying to Make Sense of it All!

1 March 2015 

Hardly know where to begin.  This last week was the biggest and most chaotic transfer ever -- a perfect storm of problems.  31 missionaries going home and 16 coming in.  A lot of preparation goes into transfers.  Unfortunately not everything can be done in advance.  For us Monday through Friday of transfer week is so busy that we often work 10+ hour days.  Our Mission Office is responsible for all travel arrangements getting the new missionaries to Iowa City to meet their new companions and for the departing back to the Mission Home in Des Moines --- luggage and totes. Here they are fed a great meal, have a testimony meeting, interviews with the President, and special video made up from all the pictures sent in from the missionaries, and dessert.  They are given a special departing packet with their travel itinerary, list of their assignment history, a letter from the President, map of Iowa, odds and ends from their personal file, CD of their letters to the Mission President and a list of all the missionaries in the mission for the past two years and copy of the special DVD video.  Everybody is so busy.  Everything has to work perfectly for it all to go smoothly.  Usually there are only little hiccups that come up, but not this time.  So much went awry. 

First, the  Sister who prepares and oversees the meals in the Mission Home got very sick, and her mother (who helps in our office once a week) was in the hospital.  So the Mission President's wife, Sister Jensen was scurrying around trying to find someone else to help out for 2 days of meals.  That is a lot of work to feed missionaries during the transfers. 

Second, the Sister who helps make the DVD video had big troubles with her computer and was late getting it to us to review and copy. 

Then, I was somewhat stressed having given the lesson in Relief Society that Sunday before.  I felt like I was in a dream and couldn't focus.  Monday, I was not feeling well but couldn't put a finger on why.....just blamed it on stress.  That is the day of our biggest Staff Meeting to prepare and go over final details.....always lasts half the day.  I stayed late to get as much done as I could.  Tuesday, I knew something wasn't quite right.  My heart rate was racing and pounding and I felt so dizzy and light headed.  Even though we were so busy, I felt prompted to call the doctor and get an appointment that day.  Good thing!  She did an EKG and did some blood work and then came back and told me she was sending me to the Emergency Room.  I guess my Hgb had dropped from 13.3 to 6.6 from the week before.  I was losing blood somewhere and they suspected one of my gastric varices.  They treat that very seriously so the ER was waiting for me when I arrived.  The next 6 hours are a blurr. My Hgb was still dropping.   I guess I didn't have all the usual symptoms of someone with GI bleed.  No...I never felt nausea or vomited up blood.  Was asked  100's of questions.  One question I remember vividly was if my heart stopped would I want them to give me compressions!!  "Well, yeah!"   An endoscopy was done to see if the medication to stop the bleeding worked.  It did.  So many different doctors and nurses coming and going.  I never once felt a dooming feeling like I wasn't going to make it.  But, after awhile your logical thinking starts to take over.  I am a nurse and I know what all this could mean.   

Well, so much for all the office work to be done.  I was in the hospital until Thursday night.  So much for the CDs and the special DVDs to give to all the missionaries.  One copy was made so they could show it after their testimony meeting.  We usually go over to the Mission Home, do our training and help with the meals.  Elder Stringham spent the first day pretty much at the hospital with me.  He left late, went back to the office to prepare MSF cards for the missionaries (their debit cards) and also their medical cards.  The Shelleys are busy with getting missionaries to and from transfers and they had their hands full this transfer.  Still she managed to do my training.  Elder Stringham got the departing packets to the Mission Home.  The necessary stuff got done....the fluff did not.  So we will be mailing out the CDs and the DVDs. 

At the airport....Des Moines airport is not very big....they struggled getting all these missionaries checked in and luggage weighed and paid for.  The airline employees seemed overwhelmed and a little uptight.  24 missionaries were on the  same flight to Salt Lake City.  That must have been a fun flight!  They barely had enough time to get checked in before their departure....despite being there 3 hours early.  Sister Jensen was almost in tears because she did not get to even hug them good-bye.  She loves and mothers them all for 2 years and waits until the very end where she is allowed to give one big hug to the Elders.   

To make things worse during all this we got more snow on transfer day.  The transfer meeting in Iowa City was late getting started because of snow and ice.  So here we have a little snow storm with Elders and Sisters driving cars, big vans with missionaries and trucks with loaded trailers.  That was a little nerve wracking.   Me....I am sitting in a hospital bed watching the snow come down, thinking about all that is going on in the mission, trying to distract myself with TV cooking shows (while being on a clear liquid diet) and feeling so useless!!!! 

And I have to mention that during all this chaos President and Sister Jensen found time to come visit me in the hospital and see that food from the Mission Home meals was saved for us.  We had enough for 3 meals.   I am in awe that they do so much and care so much for their missionaries.

Friday I went back to work thinking I would just work a half a day.  Not to be.  Too many things to do and problems to solve.  Still quite anemic, but it will improve over time. 

Been thinking about the blessings of all this!  I will have to get back to you on this one.  I'm sure there is something to be learned and in time I will understand.  I hate to fall through on my responsibilities!  I hate it more when it disrupts other people's schedules and causes them more worry and they have to do my work!  I am feeling humble...after all I survived a medical emergency.  Once I get caught up on everything life will get back to normal...."missionary life normal" that is.

Here is a bittersweet story!

3 months ago we received a new missionary with mega medical problems and food allergies.  He  had been sent for a "trial" mission in another state for 3 months first to see if he could handle it.  He so wanted to be a missionary!!  He did well so he was sent here to Iowa.  He was enthusiastic, hardworking and fun to have around.  The President felt impressed to send him to a certain area with a certain trainer.  In this new area was a Sister who had similar food allergies and in her gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, etc. kitchen she made him bread (a recipe from this Elder's mom) and a special dish each week that he could eat for several meals.  This Sister and her husband had fond feelings for this Elder because he reminded them so much of their son who had been killed 9 months ago in Afghanistan.   Sadly, the Elder's health deteriorated, both physically and mentally.  He was struggling.  This past transfer he was released and sent home.  He lives with his mother only because his father is deceased.  All of us in the office, the APs, President and Sister Jensen and many elders who knew this Elder were heartbroken.  We all knew how hard he tried and how much he wanted to be a missionary.  The Brother and Sister in his area felt sad but made sure this Elder knew he had not failed.  Today at church we learned that the couple will be having their son sealed to them in May in Utah.  They have asked the Elder to stand in for their son when he is sealed to them.  They love him so much and took such great care of him while he was here.  They felt that this missionary was sent to them because this helped them in their grief.  This is a testimony to me that the Lord had a hand in where this Elder was sent -- both to this mission and to the area.  This young Elder will always have a friend here!!  And since this couple also have family in Utah, I bet they see him each time they visit Utah.  I truly believe that the Lord cares more about the intent and desire of the heart and not just how much we accomplish.

Well, we still know that what we are doing is important!

Love you all!