Four Month Mark Part 2

July is also birthday month.  This great gift came a few days before my birthday from my kids and grandkids. Perfect gift for a grandma = all her precious grandkids smiling and so happy! It is a treasure which makes me smile from ear to ear every time I look at it! I love these kids!!!

I was thinking my birthday without my family would be a pity party kind of day, but my companions had other plans and surprised me with a surprise party at work to celebrate the big 65! My desk was decorated when I got to work with signs and balloons and confetti all over the office. Shortly after lunch, cars began pulling in and people started pouring into the office. A few of the senior couples, all of our District and some friends that we've made here came to celebrate with cake and ice cream. It was a great surprise and fun day.

 Fake blowing out the candles as we can't light a flame in church buildings!

New friends in new places = happy birthday!

                                                                                                                                                                                Great birthday dinner celebrating at Tahoe Joe's with my companions and the Assistants, Elder Kahuhu and Elder Cameron.

 

We finished the day by going to the temple and doing sealings. It turned out to be a wonderful, wonderful day filled with love and joy and service!

 

This week I had the incredible opportunity of going on splits with Sister Briggs. This is so much fun and so spirit lifting. I hope to go out with the young sisters more often and learn to be more bold. Sister Briggs is on a Spanish speaking mission, so it presents it's challenges. Our first appointment spoke perfect English. The second was a headquarters referral that the sisters had tried to find at home before. When we got there, an old woman came to the door (not our referral) and Sister Briggs talked with her in Spanish while a pit bull was on the other side of the gate barking and trying to jump over it and eat us alive! We had a prayer with her from outside the screen door and were going to leave when a car pulled up and four kids and a man got it. The man walked around the other side of the house to avoid us, but the two teenage girls came and talked to us and invited us in. One was the daughter of our referral. We talked with them about Christ and prayer and Sister Briggs was trying to set up and appointment to come back when the Mom would be home - when the Mom pulled in the garage, so she came in and was very welcoming. She hugged each of us and we had a prayer with her and the girls. Sisters Briggs and Salisbury have an appointment to go back and visit with her tomorrow night. She knows some Mormons and was very willing to have them come back. Who could resist the beautiful smiling face of Sister Briggs. She radiates love and light. I had the Spanish speaking missionaries at the office translate a short testimony for me so I could add it if needed - it wasn't that night - but I'm sure will be in the future.

I wanted to share with you a very special experience with prayer that I was blessed to participate in this week.  The family of my great niece who is 17 is moving to Georgia from Virginia today. Matt is in the Army and has been reassigned.  Their daughter Jessie, who is 17, didn't want to go and chose to run away last Friday. They have been heartsick and frantic in trying to locate her and bring her home before they had to leave. They requested prayers and the faith of all their friends and family.  I experienced a prayer experience last night that I shared with Jessie's mother and want to share with you.

"Megan - I just want to share a special moment with you. Last night I went out on splits with some sister missionaries. When we got back to their house they were locked out so I stayed for awhile with them until the other sisters came with the keys. In the mission we have a prayer request phone line where the missionaries call in requests for the mission to pray for investigators or members who need help. As we were waiting, I asked these four sisters if they would pray for Jessie. One of them said, let's pray now. The five of us knelt down in the driveway of that home and Sister Odor (from El Salvador) voiced the prayer. The spirit was strong in letting us know that Jessie would come home. When we stood back up after the prayer, Sister Odor looked at me and stated so matter of factly that it took me by surprise - "Jessie will come home before the family has to leave in the morning."

 

God loves us - He knows us - He knows and loves your family. "

 

Jessie reached out to her parents this morning and they are on their way to their new home in Georgia today - with their beautiful daughter joining her parents, grandparents and three brothers who love her dearly.

 

I know it wasn't our prayer alone last night that brought her home, but rather the combined prayers and faith of family and friends. I am grateful for the confirmation of the Spirit last night that Jessie would be OK.  Truly God does know each one of us and wants to bless us . All we have to ask in faith and He pours out blessings. I love Him. I love each of you.

Sisters Odor, Salisbury, Briggs and Johnson
 

 

 

Four Month Mark

It seems as though I was just on here posting that it was my three month mark and here we are into August already.  A lovely gift so far in August is a moderation in temperatures. July had only six days that were under 100 and more like 108 to 109. August so far has been temperate in the high 90's and the long term forecast for August shows only two days of 100. I never thought that I'd think the high 90's was temperate - but it is what it is and I am grateful.

July has been a busy, fun month. Once again, most of what I post on here will be a repeat of Facebook and email posts. Pioneer Day is obviously not a state holiday in California, but it is a church holiday in all church offices, so our office was closed. We took advantage of the day off and requested permission from President Gelwix to leave mission boundaries and go the coast overnight. We had such a great time. We left midday on the 23rd and went to Cayucos, a little (and I mean little) town. We stayed at a cute little motel call the Seaside Motel. It only had about 12 rooms, each decorated in a different theme. We were in the Birdhouse Bungalow.

 

Sister Henrick got the bed under the tree!

                                     

                                         





                         The Cayucos Pier.

 
 

 

      Sunset from the pier looking through the fog.

The Elephant seals at Cambria.
Morro Rock.
Touching it is supposed to bring good luck. So we trudged past all the do not touch signs and touched it anyway!





It was such a nice getaway. We were blessed to be able to take this little oasis break from the heat and enjoy the cool beach temperatures and the beauty of the coast.

 

Three Months in Fresno

Today marks three months since I arrived in Fresno. Our mission president told us last week that Fresno is a good place to gain a desire to be righteous because once you've survived a summer here you know how hot it is going to be in hell. I heartily agree with his assessment of the weather here. A Utah summer afternoon thunderstorm would truly be a delight. It only got up to 104 degrees over the week-end and that almost feels cool. We got down to 70 this morning and Sister Henrick was chilly!!

My apologies to my family and friends that I sent my emails to this week, but I am going to repost them here because I don't have alot of time to spend on the blog today.

Written July 5, 2013

The past month of the mission has been for the most part busy. I am finally getting over the homesickness and digging in for the long haul and loving what I am doing. Thanks to those of you whose shoulders I leaned on and cried on over the phone. You got me through the hard part. I love you ALL.

 

The EC is slow, slow, slow right now. We have a database of about 1600 candidates who have registered on ldsjobs.org at one time or another. When we are not teaching a workshop or helping someone who walked into the office, we are trying to reach each candidate by phone or emailing them to find out if they are still job searching or if they have a job, or if they just quit trying. We are trying to come up with more ideas of how to get people into our center. It is in a not so convenient area of Fresno as far as getting here. We don't have a bus stop close by. The centers that do have a bus stop are busy, busy with walk-in traffic all day. Our boss is petitioning the city bus line for a bus stop somewhere close to the building. As we are in the middle of an industrial park, I don't think that will happen though. Sister Henrick and I taught the workshop last Tuesday. We had three people attend - 2 women and Elder Hernandez who with his wife serve here as service missionaries four afternoons a week. He is going to being teaching the workshop in Spanish fairly soon. That will be a great asset for the Spanish speakers in the area. We are also trying to get the word out to the proselyting Elders and Sisters that if they have investigators or members they are working with who need a job, to please send them our way. 

 

As you saw from my Facebook posting, we went to Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon last Saturday. It was beautiful up there - about 20 degrees cooler than here in the valley - so it was an enjoyable day away from the stifling heat.  Those trees are so massive and majestic - it is incredible to stand next to them and feel like an ant compared size wise. God created all things - and those beautiful giant trees solidify my testimony  of that. Massive and incredible don't even describe them.  If any of you come to visit, Yosemite and Sequoia are must-sees on the list of things to do.

Elder Dunford 

Tuesday night we went to the mission farewell testimony meeting for 14 missionaries going home. We said good-bye to some very special missionaries, but these three people have especially been high on the list of amazing missionaries. Elder and Sister Danley returned home to Roosevelt, UT; Elder Dunford  returned home to SLC. One of the Elders going home was from New Zealand and requested that he an another Elder be permitted to perform the haka as a farewell tribute to the mission.  It was wonderful. I posted it on FB, so most of you probably saw it. 

When we got back to our apartment we had a text from the Elders serving in a YSA ward inviting us to a baptism, so we got cleaned up and off we went. It was such a nice baptism. All baptisms, but especially convert baptisms, have such an amazing spirit about them. The young man who was baptized is Brandon. The Danley's, a senior couple who went home yesterday, tracted Brandon out four months ago and found a 25 year old man with such a hard life and an addiction problem, who was so prepared for the change in his life. Danley's worked with him taking him through the 12-Step Addiction Recovery Program and the Elders in the YSA ward taught him the lessons. What a joyous day in his life. He radiated pure JOY when he came up out of the water. To be clean and free of his past and be able to start anew is a great blessing for this young man. Please pray for Brandon as he has a couple of family challenges facing him in the next two weeks that he needs extra strength to get through. He also needs a job - so we are praying for and working with him to help him in his search for a better outcome in his new life as a follower of Jesus Christ. 

 

Our 4th of July was rather a different one from a home-style Kaysville 4th. Our ward had a pancake breakfast - outside where it was already 90 degrees at 8 am. It was a good breakfast and we sat at a table with a family we hadn't met before, so we have some new friends in the ward. They had flag ceremony and singing of the National Anthem and after the breakfast a kids bike parade that was really fun to watch. 

We have made friends with a young member couple in our complex who have a little boy named Dustin. He is 3. He was riding his scooter around our complex and told his parents he wanted to ride over to "the Sister missionaries" house to show us his scooter. They told him he could see us at the church. We hadn't seem them at the breakfast but when we were leaving I felt someone poking me on the back and turned around and it was Dustin.  Such a cute little guy. I think when the Clark's come to visit that we will have to have a play date with Tyler and Dustin.

We invited 5 families from our complex to the breakfast, but sadly none of them came.  After the breakfast, Sister Ure and I headed to the mission office to work. 35 new missionaries came in on Wednesday. Yesterday was their training. I didn't want to sit home all day and Sister H. wanted to rest, so I went with Sister Ure and just helped wherever I could in the office. I did some filing and some organizing files and later in the day got trained to enter the new baptismal records so that they have a membership recorded. I spent a couple of hours doing that and got to go back Friday for a few more hours. The mission had 78 baptisms in June. It was a busy and fun day being there with the new missionaries. We didn't get home until after 8. We had a bite to eat and were saying companionship prayers when we heard the volley of the finale of fireworks at a high school about a mile from our house. So, we missed them completely. Not to worry though, there was a family out in the cul-de-sac in front of our house that put on a pretty good show. Sister Ure and I crashed their party and enjoyed visiting with them and watching some pretty cool fireworks on the ground instead of in the sky!

 

I want to share a thought with you that Jeremy, our acting office manager shared with us. His Elder's Quorum president speaking in church last week, told of overhearing his 5 year old son berating himself and calling himself stupid. The Dad stopped him and said to him "Tyson - no one is allowed to talk to my son that way! Not even you." Later that week the Dad was doing something and was frustrated with himself and muttered under his breath and aloud demeaning words about himself and being an idiot. Something we all do - right? Well as he was talking to himself, the Holy Ghost spoke to him and said "Michael - No one is allowed to talk to my Son that way! Not even you."  We have a loving Heavenly Father who created us!! Think about how we make Him feel when we think or say demeaning things about ourselves. We ARE His sons and daughters. HE LOVES US! We are created in His image. He knows each of us personally and wants us to be happy and succeed. I love you all and pray daily for the same things for you - that you know how much HE loves you and how much I love you.

Written July 8, 2013

One of the things President Gelwix has requested of the mission is that every morning at 7:55 a.m. all missionaries in the CFM kneel in prayer to seek blessings on this mission. We have been asked to pray for four specific things in this prayer.

1. The investigators
2. The missionaries of the CFM (currently serving, at the MTC, have received calls and are awaiting their turn at the MTC and those who have not yet received their calls but are foreordained to come to this mission)
3. That the members within the CFM will become more converted to sharing the gospel with friends and family
4. That the missionaries will have the FAITH TO BAPTIZE

Marcie asked me to think of an example of faith preceding the miracle for a talk she has to give next week. After getting off the phone with her I had this voice message on the mission phone. Anyone in the mission who feels that a miracle has occurred can call in and share it with all the mission.

The Elders in the Hanford area called and said: "We met a miracle family that we found about a month ago. They had solid baptismal dates for the end of this month. We had been working with them to quit smoking and to prepare themselves to be baptized. Yesterday we got a call from them and they dropped us. They told us that they didn't feel like it was for them and they didn't want to come to church anymore.  It was a devastating call that we received,  not only to us but to our ward mission leader and to many other members of the ward. We talked to them and convinced them to come to church at least one last time and to confirm their feelings through prayer and to ask God if it was the thing that they should do. And we began to fast. We let most of the ward members know what was going on and a lot of the members of the ward were fasting and praying that something would change their hearts and that through the spirit they would change their mind.

 

The fast and testimony meeting that we had today was the most spiritual that we've seen in a long time in the ward that we are in. They left after Sacrament meeting and didn't stay.  As we arrived at our dinner appointment we received a text from them that simply said  "We've decided that this is the church for us."

  

I know that this is a miracle that is caused by faith, prayer, fasting, and being worthy, committed, focused and obedient.

 

Miracles occur over and over every day in each of our lives. We just have to look around and consider what is happening to have witness born to us. In the mission field we may be more aware of them because we pray for them each and every day. I personally have seen so many already - my experience with Sherry the lady who came into our office and Heavenly Father gave me the thoughts and words to say and to pray for. The orange juice just happening to be in the refrigerator when I needed it desperately. All miracles - big and small. Heavenly Father is so good to us. He loves us - He knows us personally - He wants us to be happy. 

The One Essential Thing

On Friday, June 14th, we had a seven zone conference with a full day of training by Greg McKeown, a renowned national motivational speaker. His subject was essentialism - or identifying the essentially important things in your life and cutting out the non-essential but still important things. It was an incredibly spiritual and valuable training which I am grateful to have attended. The abundance of "good" things so greatly consumes our time and resources that we lose sight of the focus and the one thing that should be essential to us at this time. For all of us there, that one essential thing of course is being missionaries and doing with obedience what we were called by a prophet of God to do.

I have been struggling with homesickness and discouragement the past few weeks and so appreciate the timing of this day of training and being included with the mission in the training. Our boss in Sacramento says the missionaries in her office are not invited to anything that the proselyting missionaries do. We are blessed here in the CFM to have leaders who recognize that all the missionaries in this mission need the same blessing of the spiritual training and the strength derived from gathering as missionaries. Being with the young Elders and Sisters is in itself an incredible spiritual boost. They are all so cute and so dedicated. This day has helped me focus back on why I am here - what I felt when the Spirit confirmed to me that I was to serve a mission and when I received my call from the Lord. I have been selfish and prideful and want to rid myself of those traits and fully serve the Lord's children in the Fresno area. I love the Lord and want only to do his will.

The northern four zones had their training the day before ours, so this is only about 2/3 of the missionaries in our mission. By the end of this year, the total number of missionaries will be 286! A huge mission indeed!!

Brother McKeown ended his portion of the presentation with his testimony, which, with the exception of the Prophet and the Apostles, is the strongest testimony I have ever been present to hear and feel. The Spirit filled out hearts and minds with pure witness that everything he bore witness to was true.

President Gelwix was wrapping up the long day of training (8:30 - 6:30) with his closing testimony when he paused for a few moments and then while choking back emotion shared something he said he had never shared with anyone except Sister Gelwix and an apostle. He told us that shortly after they arrived in the mission two years ago he had shown to him by the Lord the vision of what this mission could be in terms of bringing latter-day saints into the Lord's church. He bore testimony so strongly and powerfully that we were all in awe. While he was still speaking to everyone's surprise a young Elder stood up and interrupted him. With a very shaky emotional voice, he declared that he supported President Gelwix and the Lord in the accomplishment of that vision for this mission and would do everything in his power to do whatever President asked. Before he was done, another Elder stood up and with tears streaming down his face declared the same commitment. Within 30 seconds, that chapel full of missionaries was all standing, most of us with tears streaming down our faces, listening to President trying to finish his testimony through his tears. We concluded the meeting by remaining standing and singing "I Believe in Christ" and a kneeling prayer. There could have been no one in that building who did not feel the Holy Ghost bearing witness. It was tangible and incredible!! I am so blessed to have been there and am grateful for the witness borne to me that day of the importance of what I am doing here. Whatever it is that I am to do for the next 16 months, I pledge my heart and soul to doing it. That one essential thing is Christ. I love Him. His work must be my work. 

These beautiful flowering trees are abundant around here right now. I don't know what they are but they are gorgeous.





Missions are made of miracles!! Last week two Elders in our mission prayed to know who they would baptize next. Their answer was go fill the baptism font. As they filled the font a name came to them of a man who was a former investigator. They contacted him and he wanted to be baptized ASAP. He was baptized 4 hours later. Miracles do happen and miracles are born of faith. These miracles are available to all who have the faith to seek them.

Farewell and Welcome

Elder Diaz

Transfer/new missionary arrival week is here again (every 6 weeks). It is an exciting week for the mission. This week brought 30 new Elders and Sisters to the CFM - the absolute best mission in the world!  An amazing coincidence (I don't believe in coincidences) is that one of the new missionaries I talked to was Elder Diaz from Chile. I told him that I had a nephew, Elder Ballantyne, who had served in Chile. He was so excited that he almost jumped out of his chair! He said "I love Elder Ballantyne, he is my friend." This young Elder will be an amazing addition to the CFM. He will be teaching in Spanish, as that is his native tongue, but had to go to the language training for six weeks to learn some English at the MTC.  You can see the light and glow of the gospel in his face. I was asked to go to the mission home and help with some computer work on the new missionaries the night of their welcome dinner at President and Sister Gelwix's home. The missionaries are fed a yummy meal following a detailed etiquette lesson  by Sister G. I was invited to join them for dinner and it was so much fun. Young missionaries who love the Lord have an incredible spirit with them. It was an honor to be with them that night.


Elder Parker/Sister Ure

Before the excitement and joy of welcoming new missionaries comes the farewell to valiant missionaries who are headed home. We had 19 leave this transfer. Tuesday evening was a spiritual feast as we got to hear all 19 bear their testimonies. One was from New Zealand, one from Tonga, and the rest from all over the U.S. Amazing missionaries - all of them. Headed home this transfer were some pillars of the mission - Sister Jamison, one of the Sister Coordinators; Elder Parker, our zone leader; and one of the Assistants to the President. The first split I went on was with Sister Jamison - to Spanish speaking homes. It was an amazing experience of listening to and learning from the spirit.  

Sister Jamison 

We had something going every night this week. Our social life is incredible! And - it's all good! Monday we had our first dinner guests in our new apartment. We invited two of the senior missionary couples in our area for a great dinner of pork roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, salad, green beans and lots of fresh fruit. I forgot to take pictures of the events of the night, but have pictures of the two couples.


The Danley's from Roosevelt, UT

The Aldrich's from New Hampshire

Last Saturday (May 18th) we drove up to Merced which is about an hour north of here and taught a Career Workshop there. When we got back, we went to Sister Ure's uncle's home for dinner in the yard. I saw my first pomegranate tree! Their yard had orange, lemon, mango, pomegranate, apple, palm and lots of evergreen trees. It was so nice to eat outside under the shade of the tree.

Pomegranate blossoms and baby pomegranates!
 

Another of the beauties of this area is the vast amount of produce, fruit, nuts and just about everything else you can imagine growing. I truly believe that Fresno is one of the bread baskets of the world because of the amount of agriculture here. It is beautiful. Everywhere we go there are trees in blossom. The freeways and neighborhoods are lined with walls of oleander in every color imaginable. This is not a very clear picture, but shows a wall of flowers on the way home from work.

 

My companions, Sister Ure and Sister Henrick are great women. Sister Henrick has been sick for over two weeks. We hope she is on the mend now. Please pray for her. Sister Ure is teaching me much about being bold in proclaiming and sharing the gospel. We do not leave a store or meet someone without talking to as many people as we can and giving them a pass-along card. I hope some of her courage rubs off on me. I have given out a few, but missed opportunities also because of fear. We are in the last gathering of the Lord's children and we must be bold in proclaiming and sharing the gospel. I challenge you to keep some pass-along cards in your purse or pocket and speak to every one you see. You never know when the Lord will open the way for you to open your mouth and give someone the gift of the restored gospel.

 

I love serving this mission. I know this is where I am supposed to be and that as I am obedient and listen to the Spirit, I will be an instrument in the Lord's hands in proclaiming his word. I am so very grateful!

We Are a Threesome Now

 

Sister Henrick, Sister Ure and I

SISTER'S CONFERENCE MAY 9, 2013

What a handsome wait staff!

It's truly awesome to be with all these beautiful young sister missionaries. Sister missionaries ROCK the California Fresno Mission.

Moving Day

WOW - where has the time gone? We have had a busy couple of weeks. We moved to our new apartment and we love it! Britta's home was beautiful and had a beautiful yard. Our new home has it's perks too. We got our new companion last Saturday and this necessitated a move to larger quarters. We moved about 7 miles north of where we were to Clovis. We're in a three bedroom, two bath apartment in a gated community. The apartment had been newly painted and carpeted for us to move in. The mission housing missionary spoiled us rotten by furnishing our place comfortably. We had a crew of young, strong Elders who moved out stuff from Britta's and unpacked and assembled furniture here. These are some pictures of the moving crew followed by our new digs.



Elders hard at work
 



Cute Elder Dunford

Elder Williams



Sister Williams and Britta supervising the assembly of our kitchen table and chairs!



The whole moving crew!

We love these Elders. They helped us so much and saved us a ton of work!

This is the finished project - still a work in progress................ The complex has a swimming pool and hot tub, but this body doesn't do bathing suits anymore so I won't be spending any time there. (Of course when it's 115 degrees for a month straight, I reserve the option to change my mind. I solemnly promise that if I do, there won't be any pictures of the sight on this blog!!


Front entrance



I have had some amazing experiences already on this mission which have cemented my testimony that I have a purpose and a true calling from the Lord to be here. Words have literally been put into my heart and came out of my mouth with the Holy Ghost guiding me in how to help people who come in to the Employment Resource Center. I would not even call it prompting by the Holy Ghost,as it was a literal and real experience of being used as an instrument in God's hands to say and do those things to help that individual person in that individual situation. I am grateful to be an instrument in His hands.