January 2023
1 week ago
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
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Kenneth W. and Nedra L. Fuller’s Mission Experiences
Beginning 1/4/10
January 4, 2010, Monday = We reported at 9:00 a.m. to begin our mission. The Polemans, Godfreys and Sister Powers were so excited to see us! It felt good to feel so wanted. We met lots of new people today; but probably will not remember their names, even with their badges; this is way out of our comfort zone. We have no idea what we are doing. We were given an overview of our jobs, which none of it made any sense. The people we are working with are such a welcome relief after the atmosphere I (Nedra) worked in at Higley High School. These people are so upbeat and positive and trying so hard to help the church get these Sr. Missionaries out as quickly as possible. We were told that the average time to get a Sr. Missionary out on their mission, or to the Missionary Training Center, was approximately 4 weeks. From the other end, we couldn’t understand why it took so long, but now we totally understand. There is so much research and paperwork to do prior to them being called! Also, we found out that the Prophet and the apostles meet together on Friday afternoon to pray and decide about the Sr. Missionaries where and if they will be called, then the twelve
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apostles decide where and when they will go and President Monson signs the call.
Our kids wanted to know what our mission rules are. We have two rules….One is that we can’t date others, and the other is that we can’t go more than a sixty mile perimeter from the Church headquarters. I guess they think that by the time we are a Sr. Missionary, we can pretty well do sensible things and obey the laws of the church and gospel…..
We went to our new ward to a Hello and Goodbye dinner for the missionaries coming in and the ones leaving. Sister Karma King from our Rittenhouse Ward in Arizona was there. It was such a surprise for her to see us there; she was so delighted to see us! We have been excited to see her since we got our call since we knew that she was in the Family History Mission. They had a program put on by the young missionaries and some of the older ones. The last performance was the best; the others were a bit corny! Ha!
January 5, 2010, Tuesday = We started work early today, at 7:00 a.m. instead of 8:00 a.m. and some of our instructions from yesterday started to make sense. I (Ken) talked to the Area President Executive Secretary today in Russia. I (Nedra) saw a gal in the restroom that looked familiar to me. I asked who she was and it happened that she lived in Western Charms across the street from the Thompsons, Tom and Luella. Luella was my Homemaking Leader when I was in the Relief Society Presidency many years ago when we were in the Bluffdale 2nd Ward. She has been President Boyd K. Packer’s secretary for many
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years; I think she said 14 or 15 years. Anyway, this gal, Sister Timothy, I think she said her name was, told Luella that we were in the Sr. Missionary Dept., so Louella came down to see us. That was very special; it was so great to see her!
An interesting phone call came in for (Ken) from a Stake President wondering what this fellow could do with his extra money that he had set aside for his mission since his mission wasn’t going to cost as much as he thought…..it turned out to be $90,000 extra. The Stake President was told to have him put it into the mission fund for less fortunate Sr. missionaries.
January 6, 2010, Wednesday = I (Nedra) worked on the list of missions today that were changing their money amounts as to the cost of their missions. I went over to meet the gal that does all the insurance investigation for the church. Her name is Eileen Ramjoue. It turns out that she was in the same ward as us a few wards ago when we lived in Riverton 9th Ward with Bishop Passey. After we got through, we went to Elder and Sister Godfrey’s Farewell dinner at PF Changs at 5:30 p.m. There was a nice crowd there; we could see that the Godfrey’s are very loved……
January 7, 2010, Thursday = We got to the Church Office building around 7:49 a.m. today. We always have a prayer, thought and scripture before starting our work in the missionary department, which
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really gets the day started. Today’s thought was given by Sister Godfrey and she told about the life of Al Capone’s lawyer. Even though he did some sinister deeds, he wanted the very best for his son. He was killed sometime later in a shootout, but his son, (referred to as “Lucky Eddy”), went on to become the first notorious fighter pilot in World War II by sacrificing his life for our country and his fellow comrades. The O’Hare Airport was named after him. It was a wonderful story………We all keep our thoughts in a binder to refer to or reflect on at a later date. We have been learning so much the past few days; I hope we are up to doing it on our own come next Monday. There are some things that we can receive help on, but some of the things are strictly on what we can remember. Sister Godfrey has a binder with step by step instructions for me (Nedra), so I should be alright. This is totally fascinating work, not the least bit of down time; no time for breaks and I usually can only get out of my chair to go upstairs or to go to the copy machine; (VERY busy!)
We heard from a couple of our kid’s today. Casey has been looking for a job that will support his family since they returned to Utah. Today he may have found that job working for Comcast as an Installer. Tifini was also offered a better position at her work on Monday. Kim won his court battle on Wednesday. The Lord is giving us and the family blessings. We love the Lord. Do what is right and the Lord will reward us and we will have joy.
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January 8, 2010 = Well, we started at 8:00 a.m. this morning. This was the Godfrey’s last day (our trainers). We all brought some sort of snack to share for our luncheon farewell party with them. We brought deviled eggs. They were a big hit, as they were gone before it was our turn to eat……. We trained hard and heavy. I (Nedra) surely hope that I can do what is expected come Monday morning when I am on my own…….there is so much to remember and I’m scared that I might not get the things done as quickly as I should to get these calls out and on their way…..Kenny seems to be doing just fine and is doing a great job with the incoming calls he gets regularly. We come home exhausted every evening, mostly from brain exhaustion! I do have to go upstairs to the next floor quite often, but that’s good, it is a change of pace and gets me out of the chair a little bit……..this helps my back have a bit of a rest. I’ll really miss Sister Godfrey, she is an amazing lady and friend as well as a good trainer……..
January 9, 2010=Saturday, finely! We were able to organize more stuff and go shopping. Got a Cell phone now, so we can end Virgin Mobile, from $138.00 to $45.00, which will help a lot!
We got some washing done and unloaded a few more boxes today. Kenny got to investigating as to why our bedroom was so cold and found that the swamp cooler that was in the window had about a three inch gap above it where the window was open! The landlady had put carpet pad around it, then covered the window with a heavy curtain so as to help keep the cold out. Kenny took the window cooler out of the window and shut it. Now it is nice and warm in the
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bedroom! Ha! The rest of the apartment doesn’t have any heat ducts, so we heat it with a space heater and a fan to circulate the air. It works! It is kind of a cute little apartment, but roomy. I would have preferred to be on the ground floor instead of a basement apartment, but it will do for now. We only pay $550 per month and that includes all utilities, so we really can’t complain……..Our landlady’s husband died in April, so she is pretty lonely. She got tears in her eyes when we said that we would rent it and gave her the rent money. She is just so grateful to have missionaries living in her basement apartment. She was out to see us off our first day, then a couple of days later we got a note from her wondering if we were warm enough and liked the apartment. She’s a very sweet lady of 86 yrs old.
January 10, 2010= Sunday. We slept in and were late for church at 1:30 p.m. This was our first time for church in Salt Lake City. It was a strange Ward; 275 full time missionaries, no kids and no YM or YW. It was Ward Conference, so we had our leaders in Sacrament Meeting to speak. It was so quiet, you could have heard a pin drop……..no kids to make noise. The young Elder missionaries are mostly Special Ed kids. One of them had a terrific singing voice (like an Opera star), but was always one beat behind the rest of us……We had a very good Sunday School Gospel Doctrine class. (They divide up the group according to alphabetical order). We were in the F through M group. There were some very learned people in that class……..we thought we knew quite a bit, but fell short next to these missionaries. One of the most learned was a young single missionary elder (he was amazing to listen
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to, so learned in the gospel and quoting scriptures)! We all met back together for Priesthood and Relief Society with the leaders again for a talk from President Monson that was broadcast on the screen. He is a phenomenal speaker! We just can’t ever hear him enough!
We were invited out to Kevin and Stacie Dawn’s for dinner. Stacie seems to be doing a little better, but is still pretty weak and overdoes too much. We had a spaghetti dinner with the salad and rolls that we brought. Don, Stacie’s dad had made the Potato/sausage soup that they serve at the Olive Garden Restaurant. It was delicious!!!!!! We had a great visit with them. Kevin brought out a suit and a sports jacket for Kenny to try on. They fit him perfectly! This will really help our budget so that we don’t have to buy so many suits. We didn’t get to bed until after 10:00 p.m.
January 11, 2010=Monday. This was the first day on our own at the Mission Office. It went ok, we remembered most of our responsibilities that we had been taught. We stayed until about 6:45 p.m., as Elder Godfrey, who Kenny is replacing needed to go over some mission costs with me before he left to go back home to Payson, Arizona where he and Sister Godfrey are from. We went to family night and had a speaker that was from Africa. What a story she had to tell! She told of her conversion to the church and the treatment that her family received during the rebel war over there about ten years ago. She has made a deal with Deseret Book to publish her story. Meanwhile, she has been going around to different Wards
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telling her conversion story. We got home at 9:10 p.m.; it was a long day!
January 12, 2010=Tuesday. Kenny was a little busier today, which he was thankful for. They have been having trouble getting our E-mail and computer names up and running. Finally, mine was all fixed by this afternoon. I remembered a little more today and got a bit faster at typing in all the information on the Sr. couples and sisters that needed to be entered. It is fascinating work and we are enjoying it. I’m sure it will be a lot more enjoyable when we get more acquainted and faster with all we’ve been taught. I know we’ll always be learning and trying to make things easier and faster. We work with some wonderful people who are extremely patient and kind. We go to lunch in the Church Office Building lunchroom every day. We generally have soup and water. It has always been good soup. We get to visit more closely with those we work and deal with; helps build our friendship and relationships. We’ve found that the men really enjoy their ice cream! Ha! We were through by 5:30 p.m. today. We just get so involved, that we don’t realize what time it is. Our schedule is normally 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. We usually have to be reminded when it is lunch time, as we are so busy doing our work. The time goes quickly, almost too quickly for all we have to do…….
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We headed for our apartment, but decided to go to a dollar store to pick up a few items that we couldn’t get last weekend and we also needed some gas. We found gas for $1.42/gallon; much better than what we were paying in Arizona. In Arizona, it was around $1.59 or so, usually higher. We came home, then I made dinner (burritos, green salad, green beans and cranberry/grape juice. We have been having trouble with the refrigerator here in the apartment. The freezer works great, but the refrigerator part won’t cool good enough, so we put some of our refrigerator items out on the step. They haven’t frozen, which surprises me, but they keep cold enough as to not to spoil. Stacie Dawn said that maybe her dad could find us a good working refrigerator for a decent price to replace this one.
January 13, 2010=Wednesday. We went a little early today because we have so much work to do. We thought if we went early, we could accomplish a lot more. Well, it turned out that we just were able to get into our computers before we were to go to our daily devotional meeting. The missionaries that were supposed to give the thought, prayer and scripture had forgotten it was their turn, so kind of adlibbed, which turned out even better. It was truly an inspiring morning devotional to begin our day…..We were able to remember even more today and Kenny was assigned to help me do a part of what I do to help speed things up, since he isn’t always as busy as I am. This should help a lot! At 12:00, which is our lunch hour, we went to the cafeteria, as we do each day to have our lunch. Today I had Brocolli/cheese soup with a homemade bread stick, water and
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Tapioca pudding (which is my downfall), I love it! Kenny had a chili- dog, fries and water. While eating, in came the General Primary Presidency and sat down near us. After we finished our lunch, I introduced myself to them and in turn they introduced themselves to me. That was an exciting thing in my day, at least…..Elder Poleman, whom we work closely with in our office is so very learned. He was explaining to us how scientists have explained how the earth was made, as he was to give a Gospel Doctrine lesson on it this coming Sunday in his ward. Very interesting! At 5:30, we went to the temple (Salt Lake) for Mission meeting in the Chapel. We didn’t have to dress in white, as we were just in the chapel to listen to the mission presidency give their talks. They were all excellent talks! We then came home and Kenny fixed hamburgers, yams and juice for our dinner.
We relaxed on the couch tonight and as I put my feet up, I noticed that my ankles were really swollen, probably from sitting so much today. I decided to sleep on the couch and prop my legs up on the pillow/arm of the couch to see if the swelling would go down by morning. It helped a little, but I didn’t sleep well…….for some reason I dreamed about Chinese torture all night long! I had been talking with Brother Godfrey today about his mission in China and I guess my mind just got carried away with Chinese thoughts……..
January 14, 2010=Thursday. I woke up early, 5:30 a.m. and got ready. We had plenty of time for prayer and scriptures, as we were dressed got ready and had our carrot juice for breakfast. The swelling in my
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ankels had gone down some…… We got to work, turned on the computers and started working. We get so engrossed with our work that the time just zooms by. Elder Poleman says, “Are you missionaries going to go to the devotional?” We hurried and made it in there. Someone always is assigned a thought, then a prayer and scripture goes along with the thought. Sister Read had the thought about a handicapped fellow who did everything he possibly could to make his life worthwhile in spite of his handicap of debilitating Osteoarthritis. Sister Danielson gave the thought and prayer. Both were very good.
We worked hard all morning. I had to go to floor 3 to have Elder Proctor translate a missionary’s record that was from Japan. It turned out that this fellow happened to be his missionary companion when he was on a mission there as a young man. We then went to the cafeteria and had a chicken sandwich with vegetables. It was very good, but then most of the food there is very tasty. We continued on with our work in the afternoon, then went to the Joseph Smith bldg for a Mission Quarterly zones a, b & c dinner. We had a potato bar, I mean a POTATOE BAR, with ice cream from the BYU creamery and cookies. Delicious! After we ate, we had a guest speaker who wrote a book describing the meaning of shepherds and sheep and explaining how the scriptures were written to describe the Jewish thinking of what their meanings were. It was so very interesting.
We came home immediately after so that we could be here in time for Casey, Dylan, Tyler and Mary deliver a bed to us. We have been sleeping on our air mattress up until now; which really has been
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alright. It is a queen one, so is pretty comfortable……Casey and Shauna offered to let us use their spare bedroom mattress and box springs until they got into a place and then would need to use it for Carleigh. This was very nice of them to let us use it for a while.
Our refrigerator, here in the apartment wasn’t working well, only the freezer and we were getting spoiled food from the refrigerator part of it not getting cold enough, so Mrs. Edwards, our 86 year old landlady had an extra refrigerator, so Tyler and Casey moved it into the apartment and took the other one up the stairs and put it in front of her shed at the side of the house. Mrs. Edwards lost her step in the storage room where the refrigerator was and fell. She really bruised her hand and arm. We were so worried about her for fear she had messed up her knees that she had recently replaced. We called her from work, then went to visit her when we got home. She said that she thought it was just bruised and swollen, not broken and her knees didn’t get hurt. We’re so glad, she is too elderly to have to go through too much.
January 15, 2010=Friday. We got to work a little early, not much…..This was the day we migrate all our work, the Poleman’s, Sister Powers, Eileen Ramjoue and ours together to send out for the call letters for the Sr. missionary calls. This was hectic, as we had 29 of them today, which is quite a lot….usually we have a bit less to do.
The Poleman’s left early, at 2:30 as Sister Poleman had a doctor appointment. She previously had breast surgery for cancer and has a
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quarterly checkups. She has been cancer/free for two years now. Sister Powers always leaves at 4:00. She is the mission nurse. We still had quite a lot of work to do, plus we wanted to look at our E-mails from Jeremy and Bea, my high school friend. Jeremy, our #2 son has this urge to help people (a very wonderful thing)…..He wants to put together a team of men and supplies to go to Haiti to help the people that are in need since the terrible earthquake there. He went to Mississippi after the hurricane there to help. It was such a great experience for him and the fellows that went, that he just has this need to go wherever he can to help people. I hope he won’t go for a few weeks until the debris, disease and stinch from the dead have been taken care of a bit; just go to help rebuild……I would hate for him to get sick or something happen to him and he couldn’t get out or have enough water and food. The idea is to help, not to go in and be a part of the casualties…….
We had a gift certificate for a restaurant that my Sister-in-law, Diane sent us for Christmas, so we used it to go to the Sizzler to eat. We had the Sr. steak, shrimp skewer, baked potato and rice pilaf and salad bar. Our Sizzler’s in Arizona closed, except for one in Flagstaff, so it was nice to be able to go to one here to eat. It was one of our favorite places when we lived in Utah four years ago. We liked the one in Sandy on 90th South and State the best, and after eating at the one in Bountiful, it was good, but Sandy is better and still our favorite. After that, we went to a Dollar Store and picked up a few more things that we didn’t bring and needed.
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January 16, 2010=Saturday. We got up around 9:00 a.m. We hardly ever sleep in, so it was nice to have a little extra time to do that. We washed and did some things around the apartment, then headed out to find me some missionary clothes and shoes and Kenny a suit. I found a jacket at J.C. Penny’s, a vest at Dillard’s, and three suit jackets at Macy’s. Now I need some skirts and blouses to go with them. We hunted for shoes at the mall, DSW and Famous Footwear and found some, but I need my orthotics to fit in them and they just didn’t have my right size. I wore my high heels the first day at the mission, and I thought I was going to die from pain that night when we got home from the Church Office building! So the search goes on for some flatter, more comfortable ones that I can wear all day and not be in such pain! We went to Mr. Mac’s to find Kenny a suit, but he decided he would rather purchase one in Bountiful, instead of Murray, as he will have to get the pants altered and would rather it be close than 30 miles away…… We were so tired when we got home, but decided to watch a movie. We watched “Iron Will”. It is a great movie! It was around 10:30 p.m. when we got to bed.
January 17, 2010=Sunday. We slept in again, but not quite as late. We unloaded a few boxes and did some more laundry and straightening. I asked Kenny to vacuum, as Casey, Shauna, Dylan and Carleigh were coming over and bringing us dinner. We got ready for church, then went to our mission ward that is west of the Conference Center. It is the 2nd Ward Mission Branch with Elder and Sister Laing as Mission Presidents. We had some very good talks from our newly formed high
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council and some of the names were read in that came with us to the mission two weeks ago, but ours wasn’t read in yet, must not have come yet. We then went to the Relief Society room for Sunday School and Relief Society meetings. Our Sunday School lesson teacher is excellent and the lesson was on the creation. There are some very smart people in our class that add a lot with their comments. Some of the younger Elder missionaries are very good as well. Our Relief Society lesson was on the creation as well. The sister that gave the lesson had it memorized perfectly, like a General Authority talk, or even better, plus she and another sister played the song about the blue-blue sky and the velvet rose, I forget the title; anyway it was just beautiful!
We then came home and cooked the rice and made banana bread for our dinner with Casey, Shauna and kids. It was a great dinner! Shauna had fixed “Opulent chicken”, French beans and rolls and we put it over the rice that we had made. Later, we made brownies with the separator pan that we gave Shauna for Christmas. Casey helped Kenny put something together to make the TV work, as we haven’t been able to watch TV since moving here, except to play a video, then he helped him rig something for us to pick up a motem so that we could get the internet going, as we haven’t been able to make that work since we moved here either…..They went home around 9:30 p.m.
We were tired, but Kenny got the TV working a little so that we could watch a couple of channels. We watched N.C.I.S., one of our favorite shows and some news, then went to bed around 10:30 p.m.
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January 18, 2010=Monday. We have the day off since it is a holiday; Martin Luther King day. We slept in a little, until 7:45, then I got up and decided to catch up with the journal writing since I hadn’t written in it since Thursday……..
After we shower, have breakfast and get ready, we plan to go and get rabbit ears for the T.V. so that we can get more TV stations and a motem for the internet, also do a little more clothes and shoe shopping…….
January 19, 2010=Tuesday. We got to work a few minutes early today; logged in and started on our list of missionary candidates. We thought we would have a bunch, but it turned out that there were only four. We got done early, so helped Sister Powers with some of her stuff.
January 20, 2010=Wednesday. We got to work a few minutes early again today. Brother and Sister Hawkins had the thought, scripture and prayer. Brother Hawkins’ thought was about a truck driver that thought he could keep going a little further, and a little bit more before refueling, but ended up running out of gas about 5 miles from his destination. It took a lot to get his truck running again. He likened this to us and how we think we can put things off until it becomes much more difficult to turn things around and start again. His
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neighbor wrote the book that he got his thought out of (A brother
January 21, 2010=Thursday, We got to work about 7:50 a.m. We just got started and Elder Poleman rang the bell to remind us to go to our
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morning devotional. It was our turn for the prayer, thought and scripture. I gave the prayer, Kenny gave a thought on the twin towers, how he remembers the day that the towers came down, where he was and the events that followed. I read a scripture in Nephi 26:5 which foretells of this very thing happening. Sister Danielson likened it the Sunami that happened in the Carribean and how equally devastating that was as well, and how unprepared the people were for anything even close to that happening. I asked if their was a plan in place for a fire escape, lockdown or earthquake in the Church Office bldg. When we returned to our office, Elder Poleman had his firechief armband on and was prepared to fill us in on the ins and outs of where we are supposed to go and what to do. Ha! He’s quite the joker! We enjoyed another day of inputting the information for the calls, then in the afternoon I received several papers from DMBA, the insurance to input for the calls for tomorrow. It is so very interesting!
Elder Poleman came over and sat down by us to tell us how helpful we have been and how much faster the process is going since we began. That was very nice of him…….We serve with some very great people!
At 12:10 we went to the cafeteria for lunch. Sister Powers didn’t join us today, as she had to go to the bank, so Elder Poleman, Kenny and I went down for our lunch. I had meatball soup and a salad, Kenny had turkey/noodle soup and a salad and waters. Elder Poleman had Prime Rib. Elder Dwayne Saviano, who is over the Sr. Missionary dept came to eat with us. We had a very interesting talk during lunch…….
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Elder Saviano told us about the process of sitting down with President Monson and the twelve to go over the mission calls and decide where to send everyone. He told us how incredible it was and how inspired these men are. He said that someone asked him how old men could be sharp since they were so old. He told us that they are incredible men, very sharp and on the ball and so very inspired! He loves his job.He is also a Stake President in his area. He is a very very busy man!
We left at around 5:10 p.m. today. It had been snowing and a rainy snow in the morning, not too much, but this afternoon it was dry and windy.
Mary, our daughter-in-law called as we were leaving and invited us to go out to eat with them Saturday night for their son’s birthday, (Colton, our grandson). He will be thirteen years old! He’s growing up way too fast!
I fixed hamburger patties, broccoli and a baked potato tonight when we got home, then did the dishes.
Sister Karma King who is in our mission and a friend from our Rittenhouse Ward in Arizona called us at about 6:00 p.m. and told us that our friend, Larry Chesley from that ward had been to see her. She asked him if he knew that we were on our mission; he didn’t, so she told him where we were serving. He came to Hill Air Force Base to have a catarac operation, Monday. Kenny called him and chatted a few minutes. He told us he would try to come and see us before he
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returns to Arizona; depending on how he feels……that would be GREAT………we think the world of him and his wife, Judy.
Kenny called Tif and talked to her this evening.
Kenneth W. and Nedra L. Fuller’s Mission Experiences
Beginning 1/4/10
January 4, 2010, Monday = We reported at 9:00 a.m. to begin our mission. The Polemans, Godfreys and Sister Powers were so excited to see us! It felt good to feel so wanted. We met lots of new people today; but probably will not remember their names, even with their badges; this is way out of our comfort zone. We have no idea what we are doing. We were given an overview of our jobs, which none of it made any sense. The people we are working with are such a welcome relief after the atmosphere I (Nedra) worked in at Higley High School. These people are so upbeat and positive and trying so hard to help the church get these Sr. Missionaries out as quickly as possible. We were told that the average time to get a Sr. Missionary out on their mission, or to the Missionary Training Center, was approximately 4 weeks. From the other end, we couldn’t understand why it took so long, but now we totally understand. There is so much research and paperwork to do prior to them being called! Also, we found out that the Prophet and the apostles meet together on Friday afternoon to pray and decide about the Sr. Missionaries where and if they will be called, then the twelve
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apostles decide where and when they will go and President Monson signs the call.
Our kids wanted to know what our mission rules are. We have two rules….One is that we can’t date others, and the other is that we can’t go more than a sixty mile perimeter from the Church headquarters. I guess they think that by the time we are a Sr. Missionary, we can pretty well do sensible things and obey the laws of the church and gospel…..
We went to our new ward to a Hello and Goodbye dinner for the missionaries coming in and the ones leaving. Sister Karma King from our Rittenhouse Ward in Arizona was there. It was such a surprise for her to see us there; she was so delighted to see us! We have been excited to see her since we got our call since we knew that she was in the Family History Mission. They had a program put on by the young missionaries and some of the older ones. The last performance was the best; the others were a bit corny! Ha!
January 5, 2010, Tuesday = We started work early today, at 7:00 a.m. instead of 8:00 a.m. and some of our instructions from yesterday started to make sense. I (Ken) talked to the Area President Executive Secretary today in Russia. I (Nedra) saw a gal in the restroom that looked familiar to me. I asked who she was and it happened that she lived in Western Charms across the street from the Thompsons, Tom and Luella. Luella was my Homemaking Leader when I was in the Relief Society Presidency many years ago when we were in the Bluffdale 2nd Ward. She has been President Boyd K. Packer’s secretary for many
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years; I think she said 14 or 15 years. Anyway, this gal, Sister Timothy, I think she said her name was, told Luella that we were in the Sr. Missionary Dept., so Louella came down to see us. That was very special; it was so great to see her!
An interesting phone call came in for (Ken) from a Stake President wondering what this fellow could do with his extra money that he had set aside for his mission since his mission wasn’t going to cost as much as he thought…..it turned out to be $90,000 extra. The Stake President was told to have him put it into the mission fund for less fortunate Sr. missionaries.
January 6, 2010, Wednesday = I (Nedra) worked on the list of missions today that were changing their money amounts as to the cost of their missions. I went over to meet the gal that does all the insurance investigation for the church. Her name is Eileen Ramjoue. It turns out that she was in the same ward as us a few wards ago when we lived in Riverton 9th Ward with Bishop Passey. After we got through, we went to Elder and Sister Godfrey’s Farewell dinner at PF Changs at 5:30 p.m. There was a nice crowd there; we could see that the Godfrey’s are very loved……
January 7, 2010, Thursday = We got to the Church Office building around 7:49 a.m. today. We always have a prayer, thought and scripture before starting our work in the missionary department, which
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really gets the day started. Today’s thought was given by Sister Godfrey and she told about the life of Al Capone’s lawyer. Even though he did some sinister deeds, he wanted the very best for his son. He was killed sometime later in a shootout, but his son, (referred to as “Lucky Eddy”), went on to become the first notorious fighter pilot in World War II by sacrificing his life for our country and his fellow comrades. The O’Hare Airport was named after him. It was a wonderful story………We all keep our thoughts in a binder to refer to or reflect on at a later date. We have been learning so much the past few days; I hope we are up to doing it on our own come next Monday. There are some things that we can receive help on, but some of the things are strictly on what we can remember. Sister Godfrey has a binder with step by step instructions for me (Nedra), so I should be alright. This is totally fascinating work, not the least bit of down time; no time for breaks and I usually can only get out of my chair to go upstairs or to go to the copy machine; (VERY busy!)
We heard from a couple of our kid’s today. Casey has been looking for a job that will support his family since they returned to Utah. Today he may have found that job working for Comcast as an Installer. Tifini was also offered a better position at her work on Monday. Kim won his court battle on Wednesday. The Lord is giving us and the family blessings. We love the Lord. Do what is right and the Lord will reward us and we will have joy.
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January 8, 2010 = Well, we started at 8:00 a.m. this morning. This was the Godfrey’s last day (our trainers). We all brought some sort of snack to share for our luncheon farewell party with them. We brought deviled eggs. They were a big hit, as they were gone before it was our turn to eat……. We trained hard and heavy. I (Nedra) surely hope that I can do what is expected come Monday morning when I am on my own…….there is so much to remember and I’m scared that I might not get the things done as quickly as I should to get these calls out and on their way…..Kenny seems to be doing just fine and is doing a great job with the incoming calls he gets regularly. We come home exhausted every evening, mostly from brain exhaustion! I do have to go upstairs to the next floor quite often, but that’s good, it is a change of pace and gets me out of the chair a little bit……..this helps my back have a bit of a rest. I’ll really miss Sister Godfrey, she is an amazing lady and friend as well as a good trainer……..
January 9, 2010=Saturday, finely! We were able to organize more stuff and go shopping. Got a Cell phone now, so we can end Virgin Mobile, from $138.00 to $45.00, which will help a lot!
We got some washing done and unloaded a few more boxes today. Kenny got to investigating as to why our bedroom was so cold and found that the swamp cooler that was in the window had about a three inch gap above it where the window was open! The landlady had put carpet pad around it, then covered the window with a heavy curtain so as to help keep the cold out. Kenny took the window cooler out of the window and shut it. Now it is nice and warm in the
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bedroom! Ha! The rest of the apartment doesn’t have any heat ducts, so we heat it with a space heater and a fan to circulate the air. It works! It is kind of a cute little apartment, but roomy. I would have preferred to be on the ground floor instead of a basement apartment, but it will do for now. We only pay $550 per month and that includes all utilities, so we really can’t complain……..Our landlady’s husband died in April, so she is pretty lonely. She got tears in her eyes when we said that we would rent it and gave her the rent money. She is just so grateful to have missionaries living in her basement apartment. She was out to see us off our first day, then a couple of days later we got a note from her wondering if we were warm enough and liked the apartment. She’s a very sweet lady of 86 yrs old.
January 10, 2010= Sunday. We slept in and were late for church at 1:30 p.m. This was our first time for church in Salt Lake City. It was a strange Ward; 275 full time missionaries, no kids and no YM or YW. It was Ward Conference, so we had our leaders in Sacrament Meeting to speak. It was so quiet, you could have heard a pin drop……..no kids to make noise. The young Elder missionaries are mostly Special Ed kids. One of them had a terrific singing voice (like an Opera star), but was always one beat behind the rest of us……We had a very good Sunday School Gospel Doctrine class. (They divide up the group according to alphabetical order). We were in the F through M group. There were some very learned people in that class……..we thought we knew quite a bit, but fell short next to these missionaries. One of the most learned was a young single missionary elder (he was amazing to listen
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to, so learned in the gospel and quoting scriptures)! We all met back together for Priesthood and Relief Society with the leaders again for a talk from President Monson that was broadcast on the screen. He is a phenomenal speaker! We just can’t ever hear him enough!
We were invited out to Kevin and Stacie Dawn’s for dinner. Stacie seems to be doing a little better, but is still pretty weak and overdoes too much. We had a spaghetti dinner with the salad and rolls that we brought. Don, Stacie’s dad had made the Potato/sausage soup that they serve at the Olive Garden Restaurant. It was delicious!!!!!! We had a great visit with them. Kevin brought out a suit and a sports jacket for Kenny to try on. They fit him perfectly! This will really help our budget so that we don’t have to buy so many suits. We didn’t get to bed until after 10:00 p.m.
January 11, 2010=Monday. This was the first day on our own at the Mission Office. It went ok, we remembered most of our responsibilities that we had been taught. We stayed until about 6:45 p.m., as Elder Godfrey, who Kenny is replacing needed to go over some mission costs with me before he left to go back home to Payson, Arizona where he and Sister Godfrey are from. We went to family night and had a speaker that was from Africa. What a story she had to tell! She told of her conversion to the church and the treatment that her family received during the rebel war over there about ten years ago. She has made a deal with Deseret Book to publish her story. Meanwhile, she has been going around to different Wards
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telling her conversion story. We got home at 9:10 p.m.; it was a long day!
January 12, 2010=Tuesday. Kenny was a little busier today, which he was thankful for. They have been having trouble getting our E-mail and computer names up and running. Finally, mine was all fixed by this afternoon. I remembered a little more today and got a bit faster at typing in all the information on the Sr. couples and sisters that needed to be entered. It is fascinating work and we are enjoying it. I’m sure it will be a lot more enjoyable when we get more acquainted and faster with all we’ve been taught. I know we’ll always be learning and trying to make things easier and faster. We work with some wonderful people who are extremely patient and kind. We go to lunch in the Church Office Building lunchroom every day. We generally have soup and water. It has always been good soup. We get to visit more closely with those we work and deal with; helps build our friendship and relationships. We’ve found that the men really enjoy their ice cream! Ha! We were through by 5:30 p.m. today. We just get so involved, that we don’t realize what time it is. Our schedule is normally 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. We usually have to be reminded when it is lunch time, as we are so busy doing our work. The time goes quickly, almost too quickly for all we have to do…….
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We headed for our apartment, but decided to go to a dollar store to pick up a few items that we couldn’t get last weekend and we also needed some gas. We found gas for $1.42/gallon; much better than what we were paying in Arizona. In Arizona, it was around $1.59 or so, usually higher. We came home, then I made dinner (burritos, green salad, green beans and cranberry/grape juice. We have been having trouble with the refrigerator here in the apartment. The freezer works great, but the refrigerator part won’t cool good enough, so we put some of our refrigerator items out on the step. They haven’t frozen, which surprises me, but they keep cold enough as to not to spoil. Stacie Dawn said that maybe her dad could find us a good working refrigerator for a decent price to replace this one.
January 13, 2010=Wednesday. We went a little early today because we have so much work to do. We thought if we went early, we could accomplish a lot more. Well, it turned out that we just were able to get into our computers before we were to go to our daily devotional meeting. The missionaries that were supposed to give the thought, prayer and scripture had forgotten it was their turn, so kind of adlibbed, which turned out even better. It was truly an inspiring morning devotional to begin our day…..We were able to remember even more today and Kenny was assigned to help me do a part of what I do to help speed things up, since he isn’t always as busy as I am. This should help a lot! At 12:00, which is our lunch hour, we went to the cafeteria, as we do each day to have our lunch. Today I had Brocolli/cheese soup with a homemade bread stick, water and
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Tapioca pudding (which is my downfall), I love it! Kenny had a chili- dog, fries and water. While eating, in came the General Primary Presidency and sat down near us. After we finished our lunch, I introduced myself to them and in turn they introduced themselves to me. That was an exciting thing in my day, at least…..Elder Poleman, whom we work closely with in our office is so very learned. He was explaining to us how scientists have explained how the earth was made, as he was to give a Gospel Doctrine lesson on it this coming Sunday in his ward. Very interesting! At 5:30, we went to the temple (Salt Lake) for Mission meeting in the Chapel. We didn’t have to dress in white, as we were just in the chapel to listen to the mission presidency give their talks. They were all excellent talks! We then came home and Kenny fixed hamburgers, yams and juice for our dinner.
We relaxed on the couch tonight and as I put my feet up, I noticed that my ankles were really swollen, probably from sitting so much today. I decided to sleep on the couch and prop my legs up on the pillow/arm of the couch to see if the swelling would go down by morning. It helped a little, but I didn’t sleep well…….for some reason I dreamed about Chinese torture all night long! I had been talking with Brother Godfrey today about his mission in China and I guess my mind just got carried away with Chinese thoughts……..
January 14, 2010=Thursday. I woke up early, 5:30 a.m. and got ready. We had plenty of time for prayer and scriptures, as we were dressed got ready and had our carrot juice for breakfast. The swelling in my
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ankels had gone down some…… We got to work, turned on the computers and started working. We get so engrossed with our work that the time just zooms by. Elder Poleman says, “Are you missionaries going to go to the devotional?” We hurried and made it in there. Someone always is assigned a thought, then a prayer and scripture goes along with the thought. Sister Read had the thought about a handicapped fellow who did everything he possibly could to make his life worthwhile in spite of his handicap of debilitating Osteoarthritis. Sister Danielson gave the thought and prayer. Both were very good.
We worked hard all morning. I had to go to floor 3 to have Elder Proctor translate a missionary’s record that was from Japan. It turned out that this fellow happened to be his missionary companion when he was on a mission there as a young man. We then went to the cafeteria and had a chicken sandwich with vegetables. It was very good, but then most of the food there is very tasty. We continued on with our work in the afternoon, then went to the Joseph Smith bldg for a Mission Quarterly zones a, b & c dinner. We had a potato bar, I mean a POTATOE BAR, with ice cream from the BYU creamery and cookies. Delicious! After we ate, we had a guest speaker who wrote a book describing the meaning of shepherds and sheep and explaining how the scriptures were written to describe the Jewish thinking of what their meanings were. It was so very interesting.
We came home immediately after so that we could be here in time for Casey, Dylan, Tyler and Mary deliver a bed to us. We have been sleeping on our air mattress up until now; which really has been
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alright. It is a queen one, so is pretty comfortable……Casey and Shauna offered to let us use their spare bedroom mattress and box springs until they got into a place and then would need to use it for Carleigh. This was very nice of them to let us use it for a while.
Our refrigerator, here in the apartment wasn’t working well, only the freezer and we were getting spoiled food from the refrigerator part of it not getting cold enough, so Mrs. Edwards, our 86 year old landlady had an extra refrigerator, so Tyler and Casey moved it into the apartment and took the other one up the stairs and put it in front of her shed at the side of the house. Mrs. Edwards lost her step in the storage room where the refrigerator was and fell. She really bruised her hand and arm. We were so worried about her for fear she had messed up her knees that she had recently replaced. We called her from work, then went to visit her when we got home. She said that she thought it was just bruised and swollen, not broken and her knees didn’t get hurt. We’re so glad, she is too elderly to have to go through too much.
January 15, 2010=Friday. We got to work a little early, not much…..This was the day we migrate all our work, the Poleman’s, Sister Powers, Eileen Ramjoue and ours together to send out for the call letters for the Sr. missionary calls. This was hectic, as we had 29 of them today, which is quite a lot….usually we have a bit less to do.
The Poleman’s left early, at 2:30 as Sister Poleman had a doctor appointment. She previously had breast surgery for cancer and has a
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quarterly checkups. She has been cancer/free for two years now. Sister Powers always leaves at 4:00. She is the mission nurse. We still had quite a lot of work to do, plus we wanted to look at our E-mails from Jeremy and Bea, my high school friend. Jeremy, our #2 son has this urge to help people (a very wonderful thing)…..He wants to put together a team of men and supplies to go to Haiti to help the people that are in need since the terrible earthquake there. He went to Mississippi after the hurricane there to help. It was such a great experience for him and the fellows that went, that he just has this need to go wherever he can to help people. I hope he won’t go for a few weeks until the debris, disease and stinch from the dead have been taken care of a bit; just go to help rebuild……I would hate for him to get sick or something happen to him and he couldn’t get out or have enough water and food. The idea is to help, not to go in and be a part of the casualties…….
We had a gift certificate for a restaurant that my Sister-in-law, Diane sent us for Christmas, so we used it to go to the Sizzler to eat. We had the Sr. steak, shrimp skewer, baked potato and rice pilaf and salad bar. Our Sizzler’s in Arizona closed, except for one in Flagstaff, so it was nice to be able to go to one here to eat. It was one of our favorite places when we lived in Utah four years ago. We liked the one in Sandy on 90th South and State the best, and after eating at the one in Bountiful, it was good, but Sandy is better and still our favorite. After that, we went to a Dollar Store and picked up a few more things that we didn’t bring and needed.
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January 16, 2010=Saturday. We got up around 9:00 a.m. We hardly ever sleep in, so it was nice to have a little extra time to do that. We washed and did some things around the apartment, then headed out to find me some missionary clothes and shoes and Kenny a suit. I found a jacket at J.C. Penny’s, a vest at Dillard’s, and three suit jackets at Macy’s. Now I need some skirts and blouses to go with them. We hunted for shoes at the mall, DSW and Famous Footwear and found some, but I need my orthotics to fit in them and they just didn’t have my right size. I wore my high heels the first day at the mission, and I thought I was going to die from pain that night when we got home from the Church Office building! So the search goes on for some flatter, more comfortable ones that I can wear all day and not be in such pain! We went to Mr. Mac’s to find Kenny a suit, but he decided he would rather purchase one in Bountiful, instead of Murray, as he will have to get the pants altered and would rather it be close than 30 miles away…… We were so tired when we got home, but decided to watch a movie. We watched “Iron Will”. It is a great movie! It was around 10:30 p.m. when we got to bed.
January 17, 2010=Sunday. We slept in again, but not quite as late. We unloaded a few boxes and did some more laundry and straightening. I asked Kenny to vacuum, as Casey, Shauna, Dylan and Carleigh were coming over and bringing us dinner. We got ready for church, then went to our mission ward that is west of the Conference Center. It is the 2nd Ward Mission Branch with Elder and Sister Laing as Mission Presidents. We had some very good talks from our newly formed high
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council and some of the names were read in that came with us to the mission two weeks ago, but ours wasn’t read in yet, must not have come yet. We then went to the Relief Society room for Sunday School and Relief Society meetings. Our Sunday School lesson teacher is excellent and the lesson was on the creation. There are some very smart people in our class that add a lot with their comments. Some of the younger Elder missionaries are very good as well. Our Relief Society lesson was on the creation as well. The sister that gave the lesson had it memorized perfectly, like a General Authority talk, or even better, plus she and another sister played the song about the blue-blue sky and the velvet rose, I forget the title; anyway it was just beautiful!
We then came home and cooked the rice and made banana bread for our dinner with Casey, Shauna and kids. It was a great dinner! Shauna had fixed “Opulent chicken”, French beans and rolls and we put it over the rice that we had made. Later, we made brownies with the separator pan that we gave Shauna for Christmas. Casey helped Kenny put something together to make the TV work, as we haven’t been able to watch TV since moving here, except to play a video, then he helped him rig something for us to pick up a motem so that we could get the internet going, as we haven’t been able to make that work since we moved here either…..They went home around 9:30 p.m.
We were tired, but Kenny got the TV working a little so that we could watch a couple of channels. We watched N.C.I.S., one of our favorite shows and some news, then went to bed around 10:30 p.m.
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January 18, 2010=Monday. We have the day off since it is a holiday; Martin Luther King day. We slept in a little, until 7:45, then I got up and decided to catch up with the journal writing since I hadn’t written in it since Thursday……..
After we shower, have breakfast and get ready, we plan to go and get rabbit ears for the T.V. so that we can get more TV stations and a motem for the internet, also do a little more clothes and shoe shopping…….
January 19, 2010=Tuesday. We got to work a few minutes early today; logged in and started on our list of missionary candidates. We thought we would have a bunch, but it turned out that there were only four. We got done early, so helped Sister Powers with some of her stuff.
January 20, 2010=Wednesday. We got to work a few minutes early again today. Brother and Sister Hawkins had the thought, scripture and prayer. Brother Hawkins’ thought was about a truck driver that thought he could keep going a little further, and a little bit more before refueling, but ended up running out of gas about 5 miles from his destination. It took a lot to get his truck running again. He likened this to us and how we think we can put things off until it becomes much more difficult to turn things around and start again. His
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neighbor wrote the book that he got his thought out of (A brother
January 21, 2010=Thursday, We got to work about 7:50 a.m. We just got started and Elder Poleman rang the bell to remind us to go to our
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morning devotional. It was our turn for the prayer, thought and scripture. I gave the prayer, Kenny gave a thought on the twin towers, how he remembers the day that the towers came down, where he was and the events that followed. I read a scripture in Nephi 26:5 which foretells of this very thing happening. Sister Danielson likened it the Sunami that happened in the Carribean and how equally devastating that was as well, and how unprepared the people were for anything even close to that happening. I asked if their was a plan in place for a fire escape, lockdown or earthquake in the Church Office bldg. When we returned to our office, Elder Poleman had his firechief armband on and was prepared to fill us in on the ins and outs of where we are supposed to go and what to do. Ha! He’s quite the joker! We enjoyed another day of inputting the information for the calls, then in the afternoon I received several papers from DMBA, the insurance to input for the calls for tomorrow. It is so very interesting!
Elder Poleman came over and sat down by us to tell us how helpful we have been and how much faster the process is going since we began. That was very nice of him…….We serve with some very great people!
At 12:10 we went to the cafeteria for lunch. Sister Powers didn’t join us today, as she had to go to the bank, so Elder Poleman, Kenny and I went down for our lunch. I had meatball soup and a salad, Kenny had turkey/noodle soup and a salad and waters. Elder Poleman had Prime Rib. Elder Dwayne Saviano, who is over the Sr. Missionary dept came to eat with us. We had a very interesting talk during lunch…….
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Elder Saviano told us about the process of sitting down with President Monson and the twelve to go over the mission calls and decide where to send everyone. He told us how incredible it was and how inspired these men are. He said that someone asked him how old men could be sharp since they were so old. He told us that they are incredible men, very sharp and on the ball and so very inspired! He loves his job.He is also a Stake President in his area. He is a very very busy man!
We left at around 5:10 p.m. today. It had been snowing and a rainy snow in the morning, not too much, but this afternoon it was dry and windy.
Mary, our daughter-in-law called as we were leaving and invited us to go out to eat with them Saturday night for their son’s birthday, (Colton, our grandson). He will be thirteen years old! He’s growing up way too fast!
I fixed hamburger patties, broccoli and a baked potato tonight when we got home, then did the dishes.
Sister Karma King who is in our mission and a friend from our Rittenhouse Ward in Arizona called us at about 6:00 p.m. and told us that our friend, Larry Chesley from that ward had been to see her. She asked him if he knew that we were on our mission; he didn’t, so she told him where we were serving. He came to Hill Air Force Base to have a catarac operation, Monday. Kenny called him and chatted a few minutes. He told us he would try to come and see us before he
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returns to Arizona; depending on how he feels……that would be GREAT………we think the world of him and his wife, Judy.
Kenny called Tif and talked to her this evening.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
2nd try
Wow, I got in for the 2nd time............. With my amazing daughters help!!! Let's see if I can do it all by myself next time!!!
Tifini posted our first blog in case anyone was wondering.........
We had our appointment with the Bishop last Tuesday evening
submitting our final papers to him. He hand delivered them to
the Stake President that evening, so we're just waiting.............
From this point, the Stake Presidency office is supposed to call
and arrange a meeting with the Stake President. It's out of
our hands now, so the wait is on.............
If it weren't for Tif, we would not have been able to create it.
She is amazing! It is astounding what can be done when one
knows how to do computer lingo, isn't it? It is quite obvious
that we didn't grow up in the technical world, but we're
learning little by little; frustration by frustration for those
who are teaching us............:)
We had our appointment with the Bishop last Tuesday evening
submitting our final papers to him. He hand delivered them to
the Stake President that evening, so we're just waiting.............
From this point, the Stake Presidency office is supposed to call
and arrange a meeting with the Stake President. It's out of
our hands now, so the wait is on.............
If it weren't for Tif, we would not have been able to create it.
She is amazing! It is astounding what can be done when one
knows how to do computer lingo, isn't it? It is quite obvious
that we didn't grow up in the technical world, but we're
learning little by little; frustration by frustration for those
who are teaching us............:)
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
The New Begining
We are wanting to begin a new life or adventure for the LDS Church. We have submitted our paper to go on an 18 month mission. I know... I know... what a long time to abandon our children, but we figure that they will be blessed because of our good works. We have always wanted to go on a mission when we grew old and now the time has come! We are now very much older so it is time. We want to accomplish this before the circle of life hits us!! We will keep you posted as to the progress with the papers. Hopefully we will be posting very soon with some fantastic updates!!! Peace out my friends and family, thanks for reading my amazing blog!
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