The End of May

Can it really be?  I'm afraid the answer is yes.

Thought to Ponder:

"Our desire to share the gospel takes all of us to our knees, and it should, because we need the Lord's help."

—Neil L. Andersen, "It's a Miracle"

I am definitely on my knees regarding the e-mail I sent to you to ask your help in deciding how to respond to my e-mail friend.  Hoping your answers and my prayers will guide me to the right words.
I am going to do this blog in parts...because I am very tired and want to take a nap:).  But I thought I would quickly go over our week, what I can remember at this point, and then take a break.  Monday was transfers - seemed like half of the mission moved, but maybe not.  Dad and Elder Terry were involved in driving missionaries to and fro, so Elder Rout held down the office with the 3 of us sisters...me, Sister Terry and Sister Rout.  Seemed like I worked non-stop throughout the day, but can't honestly say what I did.  I think most of it was trying to determine where the missionaries are now located - a challenge which continued through the end of the week.

Tuesday was more of the same, but missionaries were departing so that made a few changes in what was going on.  The Church shut down the financial systerm for the missions, I guess to work upon it, and left Dad feeling like there wasn't much he could do.  He had prepared ahead and done all that he could before the shutdown occurred.

Wednesday was arrivals and the president moved the whole arrival "ritual" to the stake center because the numbers were just far beyond what the mission home could accomodate.  Since he agreed to take 9 visa waiters at sort of the last moment (I can't remember if it was Thursday or Friday before), they came in on a flight that was supposed to be 30 minutes later than the other 26.  Unfortunately that was in the middle of all the weather woes due to tornadoes, etc. and the second flight  ended up late out of SLC, and therefore late out of Portland to Eugene so their actual arrival was more than an hour after the first group.  Which really wouldn't matter much other than it takes time to feed everyone their lunch and for the president's interviews and prayer that decide who will be paired with whom.  Since some of our trainers come from very far away, there is always a concern about them being able to get back home - and this time there was snow happening in the passes (yes - in May!) to worry about too.  Also, because we were at the stake center instead of the mission home, we were supposed to be out of the building by 6 (it was Wednesday, so it was Mutual night) - but in actuality it was after 7 as we finally cleared everything out.  They were very patient with us, for which we were grateful. Arrivals are always special to me and I miss having them in the mission home as it is always so close and comfy there with a very special Spirit, but this was was so Spirit-filled too... it is hard to describe.  The trainers and the senior missionaries were asked to sing (EFY medley of Sisters in Zion and Armies of Helaman - in case you are familiar with it - I was not) once all the new arrivals were in the chapel and the president and his wife seated.  It was very hard to sing as I looked out over those wonderful faces and at the faces around me - such a heavenly experience.

Back at the office on Thursday and Friday I spent hours and hours mostly on getting all of the held mail out after calculating carefully where everyone was.  So that was MY contribution for the week:)!

Yesterday was kind of a recuperation day for me; Dad went to Roesburg to put a new light fixture up in the kithen area downstairs and to fix the toilet which had been filling super-SLOWLY.  I did my prayers, scriptures, exercise, and muddled about the apartment doing some of the clean up things while he was gone.  When he came back we went grocery shopping for the week ahead.  Since Charlotte and Seth were not able to join us for the weekend, we invited one other office couple over for dinner tomorrow... and I do think I will go into the office for a couple of hours in the morning to work on some of the backlogged stuff.

Church was a blessing, as always - the Spirit is so strong in this ward and I am very grateful for being placed here for this mission period.

Family Notes:

If you've been on Facebook you know that Jim and family partcipated in the Carry the Load walk today and are doing more tomorrow.  It is a sad and yet good time - so grateful that there are so many who will do such a thing to remember those who have given their lives so that we can be here.  "Team Caterpillar" makes us all proud and grateful to have them in our family.  If you didn't see the pictures, I will try to add them to this blog, or some of them.  Plus the picture of Tanner who fell asleep at lunch at preschool:)!

Just didn't have any more energy!

At the start on Sunday...

At the end on Sunday...

So very proud of this family and their efforts!




Christi told me they have picked up their lambs for the upcoming Lamb Show.  One of them, I think it is Michael's, apparently does not like the idea of walking.  At all.  So Michael may have his hands full. We wish him good luck with it.  Christi said that she and Ammon (not sure if any others) are headed to Utah for medical appointments on Tuesday... and she sounded pretty busy from now until then, so we hope she can get some rest before she heads out.

Sara has posted some awfully cute pictures of her girls on Facebook - Abby looks like a professional show girl and Payton looks great too.  Following in their mother's footsteps...although at a much younger age than their mother started:)!  Josie, apparently along for the ride, looks...well, like, you tell me:)?

 I have tried to get these pictures to be next to each other but give up - I hate BLOGS! It takes me 4 to 5 hours to just get the simplest things done...why???????

Abby ready to show!

Looking Good!

Payton's first  show...

Josie...

Emily has her hands full with work plus her little one, yet  I received another letter from Eli (Thank you big boy!) and a phone call today:).  Poor Eli was looking forward to a friend's birthday party all week, picked out and wrapped the present himself, then came down with a fever just an hour before time...so did not get to go.  Em says he gets to have a "make up" party at their house when he is all well again.  Meanwhile we are praying that Rose will not get whatever Eli is fighting - which now includes a yucky cough.

Haven't heard much from Steve and Holly, but saw on Facebook that she was quite happy to mark the end of the school year:)!  We wish her a wonderful summer!  Come to think of it... I think everybody is out of school now???

Charlotte and Seth were supposed to come down to visit this weekend, but Seth ended up quite sick in the earlier part of the week - enough to keep him from work:( - and then Charlotte started coming down with either the same or a similar thing... so their visit is postponed, regretfully.  We are hoping they will be able to schedule another weekend sometime soon and look forward to seeing them whenever that is possible.

I called Mary today and found out that, besides work, which she does a lot of, she is planning on heading to Indiana this week (Wednesday?) for the grand opening of the store in Indianapolis.  She says it has been open for a week and a half and seems to be doing well - so that is good.  She sounds like she is doing well, but had no news, according to her:).

Love to all - you are GREAT!