Last Blog Post


Oh my goodness, our mission is over.  The last week was a whirlwind.  We finished training the new senior missionaries and they will be wonderful.

Quite a few missionaries stopped by for a hug and a picture.  That was really fun.  It was very emotional leaving.  In just a short time we really loved the new senior missionaries.  But life must go on.

We left Wednesday around 11:00 a.m. and drove to Hays Kansas.  Then the next day we drove to Denver and stayed a day and a half with Amy's family.  It was wonderful.  Then Saturday we drove home to Smithfield.  That night after we got here we went to our favorite local grocery store, Lee's.  Yahoo!

What's it like being home?  So far it's been a whirlwind.  We are cleaning and going through things.  We've made two trips to the DI.  I'm cleaning out my piano studio and making a huge mess everywhere I go.  There's no food in the fridge but there's lots of dust everywhere.

It was hard to leave and it was wonderful to leave.  We will miss so much about it.  We will never be the same.  Our faith is stronger.  We are soooo tired.  We felt so much love and gave so much love.  It was an extraordinary experience.

Last Saturday we finished cleaning our apartment and then moved into a missionary apartment.  It's in pretty good shape because missionaries haven't actually lived here yet.  It was for Sister Wilson, But when she went home we took all the nice furniture out and turned it into a missionary apartment.  We are sleeping in twin beds that are ok, but not great.  I have aches and pains because I'm a big baby and like a comfortable bed.  Life for us has changed a lot.  The Harrisons arrived Saturday night and moved into our duplex.  I think they are very happy with it.

Monday we each had a day to train Sister Harrison and Elder Harrison.  Then the Nelsons arrived and  Tuesday we were each training two people.  I don't know everything the secretary does, but I trained her what I could.  Then she has spent some time on the phone with our former secretary, Sister Dodds.  President is also doing some training with her.  We have both been working hard this week with our new trainees.  It's a new kind of stressful, but it's going really well.


 I've had an unusual number of houses to close and to open.  I've been trying so hard to get them done so Sister Nelson wouldn't have to deal with them.  I've worked and I've prayed but the landlords just couldn't get their stuff done.  One day when I was working with Sister Nelson, I saw an email pop up that was from a landlord I had been waiting for.  I was so excited I started cheering.  And I had the funniest feeling and the clear sensation that God was telling me he appreciated my prayers and hard work, but he had a different time line in mind that would be better.  It's actually been good that we've been able to work on almost every weird thing that might be required of her while I'm here to help.  It's definitely a gift from God that I couldn't see.  Then the next day another email popped up from the other landlord I'd been waiting for.  In one short week she's had to open a house, close a house, sign up for utilities, cancel utilities, call a landlord about a problem, update Imos, update my spreadsheet, update info for the president, find a new inspector,  and a bunch of other stuff.  It's crazy but I can see God's hand in it.

Yesterday Chris and Elder Harrison had to go to the office for 4 hours for the yearly audit.  Then we went to Joplin to do phone audits.  We drove our own car.  They have a daughter who lives there so they went to visit her when we were done.  We went to the Precious Moments chapel and gift shop that is in the area.  It's kind of interesting.  We bought a Happy Anniversary Precious Moments because it was our anniversary yesterday, 47 years.

We went to church today in Anderson for the last time.  It was so nice and so hard.  They asked us to bear our testimonies.   That was sweet.  Lots of the members came and hugged us and asked us to come back and visit.  It was an emotional day. We will miss this beautiful part of the world.  We will miss hearing their testimonies and prayers in different languages and being reminded that God can understand all of us.   We will miss hearing their stories of conversion.

Goose parade outside the office window

Really?
We got a baptism paper without a birth date.  When we asked the missionaries for the date they said, she looks to be about 50 or so, just put 1968.  What?
End of Story:  I told the president this story just because I thought it was funny and he said he knows what's going on.  The husband of this lady had a bad experience with a church using his personal information so he doesn't want his wife to give us her birthday.  OK, I totally understand that, but why didn't the missionaries give that explanation?  In the meantime, Sister Davison is making calls and sending texts all over the place trying to find out her birth date.  Oops!

Quality Conversation
One day this week our UPS delivery man came in the office while we were in the conference room having our prayer.  I was praying and when I heard him come in I hurried and ended the prayer.  We 3 (Chris, me, and the mission nurse) walked out into the main area and I said, "You almost had to pray with us."  He said, "Oh, do you pray?"  We said yes and then he asked, "Who do you pray to?"  He also wanted to know what we believe about Jesus Christ.  Elder Johnson gave him a good explanation.  We gave him a Book of Mormon.  He'd always heard bad things about it, so we explained they are not true and encouraged him to read it.  Sister Davison told him he won't find anything that goes against what he already loves and believes.  It will just add to it.  She's a convert and shared a little about that.  The Spirit was so strong and I keep thinking what a blessing it would be for him if he'll just read it.  He has a college degree in Christian Ministries, but he likes working for UPS.  I know what a hurry UPS delivery men are in.  He listened so patiently and when I said, we hope we didn't take too much time.  He said this would all go as his lunch time.  But he clearly wanted to hear it. We pray for him now.

Graveside service
I went to a graveside service this week.  It was a cute white haired lady in our Anderson ward that died.  She was born in 1930 so about the same age as my mother would be.  She and her husband sit in front of us at church.  They are so cute.  She uses a suitcase for a walker.  I love it!  Her husband goes up to bear his testimony and it takes about a half hour to shuffle up there.  Then he says, "Bet you thought I wouldn't make it!"  She just bore her testimony a week ago and then this Sunday she died.  It was such a lovely service.  Brother Patrick gave a short talk on the Plan of Salvation and it was so short and so succinct and so inclusive.  He didn't miss anything and even though it was a sacred moment I wanted to jump up and down and cheer Hosanna!  Yes!!! We know that!!!  Thank goodness!!!

After the service was over the man standing behind me said, "I'm so glad you were right in front of me.  You have a beautiful voice.  You kept us right on."  I said, "No one in my life has ever said that to me.  This is going on the family text."

Moving
No more computer.  No more internet.  I had to write this at the office.  Today is Friday and we have the car halfway packed.  You can see below our refrigerator is very empty.  Tonight and tomorrow we will finish packing and cleaning the apartment.  The new tenants arrive tomorrow night.  So we'll be just in time.  This is starting to get real.  It's been weird packing the car.  It seems like just yesterday that we arrived. And it seems like we've been here forever.

Today is Friday.  This is how our refrigerator looks.  

Brother Bingham  (who works in our office sometimes) put this on the computer he uses.  

We are busy at the office and busy at home gathering ourselves together to move out of our apartment.  We will move out probably Friday and clean on Saturday. We will move into a missionary apartment for the rest of our mission. Finally, we'll be REAL missionaries.   A new couple will move into our apartment but we don't know for sure which day they'll arrive yet:  Sunday or Monday.  We did some major cleaning yesterday and then I took a wonderful nap. When I woke up I helped Chris work on miles, opening envelopes and organizing everything.  Then he entered them into the computer.  It was a busy day.

 Chris is busy being the vehicle coordinator and the Finance Secretary.  I'm busy being the Secretary and the Housing Coordinator.  We've pretty much settled into it and God is helping us stay calm and stay focused.  At least we don't have to worry about finishing strong.  We don't have time to be lazy.

This is Sister Braaten on the right (our former vehicle coordinator), Sister Wright in the middle (our former mission nuse), Sister Braaten's daughter on the left.  Sister Braaten and her daughter have just packed up and are ready to head home to Washington.  On the way, they stopped in Utah with a U-Haul full of stuff for a lady who had a storage unit full of her stuff here.  The things we do!  It was an ordeal.  They are now home safe and sound.

This letter is funny on several levels.  We don't mess around when we take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ.

This is a goodbye dinner for the Carrs on the left who were here being our SERVICE specialists.  It's also for Sister Braaten, second in from the right.  I think it's probably OUR goodbye dinner too.  Notice we have our coats on.  It was freezing in there.  President and Sister Strong are at the end of the table.  Sister Davison, our new nurse is first one on the right.  

This is how we make the transfer loop and assign missionaries to the correct loop.  It's quite a project.  

This is Sister Carroll from Smithfield, Utah.  We call her Sister Smithfield.

This is Elder Moeai.  He's from Hana on Maui.  Now we'll for sure have to go back to Maui and drive the road to Hana to visit him.  He served in our ward in Anderson the first few months he was here.  He was sooo homesick, but he's adjusted and doing great.  We loved seeing him on the transfer route. 

I loved our hymn in Sacrament Meeting today.  We're so thankful for God's love and help.  We're so thankful we can pray.  We're so thankful that Jesus Christ helps carry our burdens.  We're so thankful for the comfort and witness from the Holy Ghost.

Father, cheer our souls tonight;
Lift our burdens, make them light.
Let thine all-pervading love
Shine upon us from above.

Calm the surges of the soul;
Bid the dark waves backward roll.
Let us all thy mercies feel
Thru the pow'r thou dost reveal.

Bless our loved ones far away;
Grant them health and peace, we pray.
In their hearts let holy light
Beam to guide their steps aright.

Let implicit faith and trust
Help us know thy ways are just.
May thine ever-tender love
Lead our hearts to thee above.

The Transfer Day from H E Double Toothpicks!

This will be short and sweet(?).

Thursday was transfer day. Let's just say it was a perfect example of vast projects with half vast preparation. The perfect storm.

We arrived at the Mission Home early and had plenty of time. Just as we were leaving with all the new missionaries President wondered if I could get a loaner phone for a new missionary. "Sure." So we stopped at the office on the way to the first transfer point and went in and picked up a phone.

When we got to the Bentonville Stake Center were had two new cars that were supposed to be delivered to new areas. One of the areas is pretty much local and one is five hours away in Missouri. Only one of the cars had a TIWI device installed. (Did I mention that this was our Vehicle Coordinators last day?) So we waited while she went back to the office and grabbed a TIWI. When she got there I hurried and installed the TIWI in the car that did not have one. Before you're done you have to call support (in India, of course) and get it paired up with the correct car. Of course, we could not get the TIWI to pair properly. The car I was working on was the one going to Missouri. So I made an executive decision and sent the other car, with the TIWI, to Missouri (5 hours away) and kept the bad TIWI local so I could deal with it another day.

While I'm installing the bad TIWI, the Elders in Fort Smith call to inform me that they have an extra car because the records are wrong and their is already a car for the Mena missionaries. So I tell them to drive both cars to the transfer point and we'll deal with it there.

Off we went.

While I'm driving I get a call from the missionaries on their way to Missouri and they inform me that there is actually no TIWI in their vehicle either. Ugh!

So now I've got a car in Springdale with no way to get it to Bentonville and two cars with missionaries driving around with no TIWI.

In Springdale we decide that the Springdale Zone Leader can drive the extra Fort Smith car to Bentonville on Saturday  when they come to MLC meeting.

During the day one of the missionaries going home calls and says President told him he could borrow a car for the day. (Remember, I'm driving!) So I tell him to get the keys for a Malibu we're selling but to be back at the Bentonville Stake Center by 4:00 PM. We'll meet him there.

When we get back to Bentonville 8 hours later, at the end of the day, someone hands me the SIM card (phone) for one of the Branson areas. The Elder that was serving there forgot to take it out of his phone before he left to go to Ava. Branson in two hours away. Ugh!

So we're all done and we finally round up the missionaries who are going home (It's always a real problem because they just want to talk and talk and talk). And the elder in the Malilbu is no where to be seen. He needed a companion for the day so he took one of the brand new missionaries with him.

So we've now got this new missionary's companion with us at the end of the transfer loop and he has no companion. So we wait and wait and wait.

Finally some sister's call from the mission home to let us know that the missionaries and the Malibu are there.

We load up three elders and two sisters in a mission mini van and head for the Mission Home where we get all of that sorted out.

Whew! We're done. We just need to re-fuel the rental van and turn it in to U-haul. There are no gas stations between the mission home and U-Haul. So we can go left out of our way or right out of our way for gas. I pick left. When we get there, they have NO GAS! So we retrack to right and get gas and then turn in the van.

Now we're really done.

We're home recovering. Feet up. Did I say, "Whew?"

My phone rings. There are two missionaries stranded at the Bentonville Stake Center with no ride to their apartment.

I went in my PJs and picked them up and delivered them to their apartment.

THE END!

We are cleaning daily cleaning
We are very busy doing our work and getting ready for new senior missionaries to come.  We decided to clean out the office so they won't be confused by miscellaneous stuff.  We are going through all of the file drawers and shredding tons of stuff.  We figure we've been here long enough to know if it's useful or not and the new missionaries won't.  I opened one big file and felt overwhelmed right away.  Man, what is all this stuff?  I'll never know what to do with it.  But I decided to go after it anyway.  In reality, it was really easy.  It was mostly 2 drawers full of old stuff from the previous mission.  We don't use any of it.  We recycled and shredded most of it.  We called Salt Lake and found out we only have to save ordinance records for 1 year, so we shredded a lot of that too.  Things are shaping up in the office at the Arkansas Bentonville Mission.  That's our story and we're sticking to it!

Terra Studios Field Trip
Yesterday we cleaned our apartment and then we went to Terra Studios for a little field trip.  It's an outdoor art studio about an hour away.  Here are a few pictures. This is where they make the bluebird of happiness.

This is a labyrinth.

Bluebird of happiness

Dinner with senior missionaries
In the evening we had a dinner for a few of us outgoing missionaries.  We went to a local Italian restaurant and it was so fun to visit and talk.  President had us each say something we'd learned or were surprised about.  And something that had changed us and we wouldn't ever forget.  So much fun to listen to each other!

Our Service Pilot Program
I've mentioned before that we were picked a year ago to be one of 10 missions in the world to do a pilot program of service in our mission.  All missionaries do 10 hours of service per week, some are assigned to do 20 or 30.  And some are full time service missionaries. Before it ever started, president was having some feelings that we should try doing service in our mission.  Then Elder Ballard called him and we were assigned to do that service pilot program.  Then we had a senior couple come into our mission who were experts in Just Serve and they took off and got all the missionaries going with service.  This is the Lord's work and it's so fun to see all the things that fall together to make things happen.

Our test year has ended and Elder Ballard is happy with our results.  I'm including below the letter that President Strong wrote to all of the missionaries about it.

ABM Service Test Update -

Congratulation and Thank you!

Elders and Sisters,

It was almost a year ago we began our service test in the mission.  Recall, the purpose of the test was to:

1. Determine if doing service made your missions more meaningful and increased the likelihood that all missionaries can successfully complete their missions.
2. Build bridges of goodwill and understanding in the communities we serve in.

Since then, you've done a great job going out and getting the job done.  Missions have been saved and improved.  Hearts and minds in our communities have been changed for the better. We've been sharing your great work with the Church and providing perspective on how you all feel about the test to help them evaluate whether this is something they want to continue and possibly expand.

This week, I received word from the Missionary Department that Elder Ballard has decided the test was successful, is ending the test, and is asking us to continue serving this way as the way we operate permanently. He is very happy with what we are experiencing and doing here. 

I am grateful and excited to move to this approach permanently.   Thank you to all of you and to Elder and Sister Carr and Sister Strong and to the Smilies and Sister Van Slooten for making this a great success.

An important note.  Though this service is not for the purpose of proselyting, we are finding, teaching, and baptizing people through service.  A great thing!

I believe this will not only bless your lives, but the lives of the missionaries that will follow you here for years to come.

Much love and gratitude,

President Strong  

You may recall that last week Sister Johnson said that she was sick. She ended up not going to church. It also happened that we had pretty good rain/sleet/snow on Saturday. Consequently, the people in the Anderson Ward who live in the east end of Macdonald county could not get to church on Sunday either. As it turned out there was really no one who could really play the piano a church. So our wonderful Relief Society President played for Sacrament Meeting; one finger; maybe two at times. After the prelude she hurried down to me and asked if Sister Johnson was coming to church. I said, "No." Dummy me, I didn't even think to volunteer to play. Anyway, it was sweet and a real example of humility and willingness to give what you can give.

So the families that couldn't get to church were the same ones I put in my little diagram a while back who are really the backbone of the ward. So we did Primary A Capella with only seven children. Needless to say it was great to have everyone back today. I don't know what they'll do when we leave. Primary was always without piano when we got here. Today the Bishop told Sister Johnson that he got a letter from the First Presidency saying that we would not be allowed to return home!

This is our new Mission Nurse, Sister Davison. She is from North Carolina and so nice and cute. We love her already. She loves red and black checks. Most things she owns are red and black checks. It's pretty cute.

She has been such a blessing. She is willing to do anything we need done. So she has now become the Referral Secretary as well. She'll take over recording baptisms and ordering supplies and a couple of other miscellaneous tasks.

The other day we rearranged the office. We are getting rid of all the junk that we know no one has used since we got there. It needs to be done and the people who are coming won't know what is junk and what is not.

These are our assistants. Someone gave them these blankets for Christmas and they brought them to the office the other day. Sister Davison tried really hard to talk Elder Yeates out of his.

This is Sister (Hermana) Zhingre and Sister Walton. Hermana Zhingre got here last week from the Temple Square Mission. She's here for two transfers (3 months). Sister Walton was assigned by the president to be her companion. When they met at the office Hermana Zhingre told Sister Walton that she seemed familiar to her. Turns out they sat by each other in missionary prep class at BYU. Little things like this mean a lot to us.

Saturday morning (yesterday) we had a missionary go home. The president was out of town doing interviews all day so he came and stayed with us. The president said he'd call us around nine Friday night so that he could meet with Elder Wheeler. We waited and waited. Finally at 10:00 Sister Strong called and wondered when we were coming over to their house. So we hurried over there and got back home around 11:00. This would all be Ok except we had to leave for the airport at 4:30 AM.

I think we look pretty good considering the time and the amount of sleep.

 MISSIONARY EXPERIENCE