Late or early?

19 July 2013

Thought to Ponder:  You have probably heard this before...but as I read it for our devotional earlier this week it seemed to me to offer the answer to any problem we might be having:  After the  Prophet Joseph’s death, he appeared to Brigham Young in a dream or vision.  Brigham asked him if he had a message for the Brethren.  Joseph said, “Tell the people to be humble and faithful, and be sure to keep the spirit of the Lord and it will lead them right.  Be careful and not tun away the still small voice; it will teach them what to do and where to go.”

July Birthdays/Anniversaries:  (I think maybe I have forgotten to mention these?)

Devin and Isis Albert had their 10th anniversary on July 2nd

Mary Hauser (Aunt Mary) had a birthday on July 5th

Bill Oliphant (Uncle Bill) had a birthday on July 9th

Kanon Bogart had a birthday on July 12th   (son of cousin Heather)

Jennifer Boldrey has a birthday on July 25th

Mission Notes:   This past week has been a little more relaxed as the Salem Mission office has kind of gotten in the groove of the work that needs to be done.  We get calls from them a little less frequently and they seem to be doing well.  They have their first transfer day on Monday, their first missionary departures on Tuesday and their first new missionary arrivals on Wednesday - so it will be quite a week for them. (We might get a few more phone calls - we’ll see.)  I have packaged up all our mailing labels for the missionaries that were in our mission and are now in theirs and am mailing them to their mission office today.  Until now I have been forwarding mail that was still coming to our office directly to the missionaries’ addresses because we knew where they were...as of Monday, we can no longer say that:).  Now I will just be forwarding all the mail for those missionaries directly to their mission office.  Hopefully the number of letters for them will gradually drop off to none before too long.

As for our office, we are getting ready for our largest number of arrivals ever... I think the number was up to 37 at last count.  But we have a couple of weeks to go before that happens.  Elder Terry, our housing coordinator, has been unbelievably busy trying to get new apartments, get them furnished, etc.  President Young was in the office a few days ago and was looking at things on Elder Oliphant’s computer and wanted to know why we had spent so much money.  He got the reply of how many new apartments were being set up and furnished at his direction:)!  No more question.  He has been working hard to figure out how the Lord wants this large number of missionaries disbursed across this state and how to help them reach and baptize even more people.  Personally, I feel the burden is really on us as members to step up and find people for these missionaries to teach.  Time to open our mouths and share what we have.  I feel bad saying that because I feel I am such a poor example of what we should be doing.  But I also feel totally worn out at the end of each day and rarely have contact with anyone outside the church - except our mail carrier and those who deliver packages to the office:)!  Ah well - my time will come, right?

Family Notes:  We had a good visit with Jeanie, Taylor, DJ, Colin and Tanner on Saturday, Sunday and Monday last (no blog last week...sorry).  They arrived Saturday just past noon and got slightly settled into our apartment then we went to Subway for lunch, followed by the Children’s Science Museum - which kept them pretty well occupied for the next two and a half hours or so.  Lots of hands-on activities:).  Then we went back to the apartment and picked up some food and our new little bar-b-que and went to a park to make our dinner (hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, watermelon...) and to let the kids play.  Actually we drove to 2 parks and let the kids choose which one they wanted to go to.  The park was filled with people but we managed to find a free picnic table and set up our stuff; the kids fit right in and found others to play with and seemed to have a good time.  Our little bbq worked great - we really like it.  It is a Weber and is very portable; small in size but perfect for the two of us and cooked four hamburgers and a few hot dogs quite well!

We enjoyed having them with us at church; again, the kids fit in really well and quickly found their proper classrooms after Sacrament meeting.  Jeanie ended up in the nursery with Tanner - but couldn’t really go there until he woke up:). Brought back memories...    Home again we had beef stroganoff for our meal, done in the crockpot, and then just relaxed.  We took the kids to the smaller park to play awhile and then went back to the apartment.  Played Phase 10 until we got tired of it:).  (And it took us a couple of rounds to figure out we had to have 10 cards each...we’d started with 7.  Just had the cards, no rules:).  We had played Bananagrams Saturday:)

Monday we got up late (for us) and had breakfast together; Jeanie & the kids packed up all their stuff and loaded the car.  Then she followed us to the mission office where they got to meet the people we work with and see a little of what we do there.  Colin and Tanner seemed to enjoy our little garden area.  Afterwards they headed for Portland; talking with Jeanie later she said they visited the capital in Salem and she showed her kids around areas in Portland where she used to live.  They flew home on Tuesday...to a grateful husband and father:)!

Jim called his dad on Tuesday...said there was a possibility of perhaps moving to a new job location.  We will wait for him to give us the actual details when he’s got stuff to report:).  I got to talk with Charlotte; she sounded good.  They were getting ready to leave for the Grand Tetons and Seth’s family’s reunion - which sounded like a lot of fun.  Sad we didn’t manage one this year for the Oliphant side.  Charlotte is involved with Girls Camp again and not feeling too comfortable with what she’s doing...so we should all send prayers her way to help her out:).

Tuesday was an unusual day in the office as there were NO referrals and virtually NO mail.  Good day for catching up on things, but did make me feel a little useless!

Wednesday I got to visit with Christi while I was driving to the mission office.  Yes, me - driving.  Almost unheard of since we came up here.  I actually made it there just fine:).  Dad had left earlier in a mission car to take one of our elders up to Portland to be fingerprinted, part of his requirements to be able to stay in the USA.  He was supposed to do it in Las Vegas, but if you show up at a different office, with your appointment letter in hand, that meets their requirements.  That happened for another elder and all they did was re-schedule the appointment for another day and time.  Very inconvenient in the mission field.  Dad and our elder were blessed, in that they actually did the fingerprinting and didn’t put him off to another time.  Anyway, back to Christi... it sounds like the kids are all involved in their summer activities and several have been doing horse stuff as well.  Ammon actually got first place in a roping contest. (Not on a horse...I think it was one where you are standing on the ground.)  He has recently been working on that skill and must be doing well!  Michael seems to be working towards serving his mission at the new age of 18 and is working hard on the farm to earn his money:)!  Christi is in that stage of life where there rarely seems to be a free minute...I think I remember being there once upon a time:).

Sara gave us the baptism date for  Abby - it is set for August 31st!  We lucked out because that is actually Labor Day weekend.  We have tickets to fly to Utah Friday evening and back here on Labor Day:)!  Looking forward to seeing Abby and all her family so very much...I am excited!   That reminds me that Christine has also given us a baptism date - this one for Melissa!  Hers is scheduled for November 30th - which happens to be just after Thanksgiving... so we are going to try to make it work to be there for Thanksgiving AND the baptism.  

Emily connected with me before I left the office on Wednesday and it was fun to hear of Eli’s first experiences with swimming lessons...which of course he is thoroughly enjoying.  Things sound good down there in Carlsbad...although they too stay more than busy.

I visited with Mary last night and she’s still working hard for Sub Zero; I saw a Facebook post that they are supposed to be on Shark Tank again...but she hadn’t heard that, so now I need to go back and look for it.  She is still doing her aerial stuff and her parkour (sp?) - says she is doing good with both.  She is progressing with her goal of making it onto the Ninja TV show:)...

Guess that’s all for now - we feel very blessed that our family members are all doing so well and thank the Lord daily for that and many other things.  Love to all:)!!!!