Saturday, December 28, 2019
Monday, March 19, 2012
February 18, 2012 A visit from Elder Christofferson & Elder Neilson
What an amazing morning we had on the morning of February 18, 2012. Elder Christofferson, of the Twelve Apostles and Elder Neilson, an area Seventy, came and spoke to all the missionaries in all 3 of the Houston, Texas missions. There was about 500 missionaries gathered together to hear these two amazing disciple's of Jesus Christ deliver their messages to us.
What a blessing it was to have been there.
Elder Neilson spoke to us about working together in companionship's. He also spoke to us about the atonement of Jesus Christ and that through the atonement there is hope for all of us. He went over 2 Nephi chapter 31.
Elder Christofferson explained to us how mission assignments are made. He said, if you've ever asked yourself, why did I get sent to Houston, Texas rather than ________ or ______, Elder Christofferson said, rest assure, you are exactly where the Lord wants you to be.
Elder Christofferson spoke to us about many things that morning. He spoke about:
He spoke about repentance. He said, repentance brings the spirit and the spirit testifies of the truth.
Elder Christofferson said, that it is the small daily things that we do that brings us closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
They greeted every one of us with a few words and a hand shake. We were all so spiritually fed that morning. It was wonderful!!
This is the front office where Ginny spends most of her time.
This is where Joe spends a lot of his time when he's not out helping the missionaries with their cars or their broken bikes.
What a blessing it was to have been there.
Elder Neilson spoke to us about working together in companionship's. He also spoke to us about the atonement of Jesus Christ and that through the atonement there is hope for all of us. He went over 2 Nephi chapter 31.
Elder Christofferson explained to us how mission assignments are made. He said, if you've ever asked yourself, why did I get sent to Houston, Texas rather than ________ or ______, Elder Christofferson said, rest assure, you are exactly where the Lord wants you to be.
Elder Christofferson spoke to us about many things that morning. He spoke about:
- Take advantage of companion study time
- Teach for understanding - Ask a lot of questions
- Don't preach, teach
- He made reference to Mark 10:14
- How do I become one with Jesus Christ
He spoke about repentance. He said, repentance brings the spirit and the spirit testifies of the truth.
Elder Christofferson said, that it is the small daily things that we do that brings us closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
They greeted every one of us with a few words and a hand shake. We were all so spiritually fed that morning. It was wonderful!!
Here are a couple of pictures of our work area within our office.
This is where Joe spends a lot of his time when he's not out helping the missionaries with their cars or their broken bikes.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
February 2012
We're getting pretty good at taking care of our duties on transfer week. It's hard to say goodbye to the missionaries that are going home. We become so close to each and every one of them. They are amazing young men and woman. It's also very exciting to get to know the new missionaries that are coming to the mission.
That's what transfer week is all about. The missionaries that have completed their missions return to their families and new missionaries come to replace the ones that have returned home. The missionaries that are still here in the mission, some of them will be transferred to a new area within the mission and will get a new companion. Transfer week is a very exciting time for the missionaries. It's also a very exciting and busy time for the whole mission.
Transfer week takes place every 6 weeks. I'm attaching a couple of pictures of some of the missionaries that have stayed with us the night before they leave the mission and some that stayed with us the day they arrived in the mission. The top 2 picture are of missionaries that have completed their missions & are going home. All the others are new missionaries just coming to the mission.
That's what transfer week is all about. The missionaries that have completed their missions return to their families and new missionaries come to replace the ones that have returned home. The missionaries that are still here in the mission, some of them will be transferred to a new area within the mission and will get a new companion. Transfer week is a very exciting time for the missionaries. It's also a very exciting and busy time for the whole mission.
Elder Newhouse, Elder Cui & Elder Cayus
Sister Van Tiendren
Elder Mitchem, Elder Duran & Elder Howell
Sister Perez, Sister Romney & Sister Green
Sister Ker, Sister Avery Sister Harper
Poor sister Ker, she was so sick. We all felt so bad for her.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Went to a Vietnamese New Year's celebration
They had a wonderful Lion Dance. They hired this group of Vietnamese dancers. Their costumes were amazing and it was so entertaining. The room had fun decorations and after the Lion Dance they served a wonderful Vietnamese dinner. Most of the food was really good, but some of it we didn't care for. I wish I had taken pictures of the food, but I didn't think about it until most of the food was gone.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
It's been a month
Tomorrow, Dec. 4Th, 2011 marks our one month anniversary for being in the mission field. It's been quite a month....... It's been difficult because Joe and I were needing to get trained by the couple that we are replacing, but unfortunately Sister Rogers was having some serious problems with her back and feet and she was having to go to many doctors appointments and having many test so she could find out what was wrong before they had to start on their long drive home to Utah.
The Roger's felt so bad because they weren't able to give us all the training that we so badly needed, and when we were able to do some training, it was constantly interrupted because there are always missionaries coming into the office for various thing and they want to talk with us.
The day after we arrived we were invited to the Mission Presidents home for dinner. The Roger's were also invited. President and Sister Saylin have 7 children. The oldest is 17 and the youngest is 6 months. Some of the children wanted to play games with us and some just wanted to sit and talk with us. After dinner we all sang a couple of songs together and President asked us and some of his children to bear our testimony. Then he and Sister Saylin also shared their testimony. It was a really nice evening and everyone made us feel so comfortable and so welcome.
Our first week here we had two days of Zone Conferences. Going to Zone Conference was really a wonderful experience. Our Mission President, President Saylin taught about the The Message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I've never heard it done in such an amazing way. It was so beautiful and so full of feeling.
The first day of Zone Conference lunch was brought in to feed all the missionaries by the ladies of one of the wards in our area. The second day of Zone Conference, the ladies from another ward were suppose to bring lunch, but something happened and they were not going to be able to do it. So the ladies in the mission office provided lunch. The missionaries in our mission have a really neat thing that they do at the end of the meal. They all stand together and sing a song to who ever prepared their meal and at the end of their song they sing a very fun THANK YOU FOR THE WONDERFUL MEAL. Then they line up and one by one shake hands with each person who prepared the meal and each one of then thanks you for the wonderful meal. It's really a fun experience.
In our mission, there are 161 missionaries. That's not counting all the Senior missionaries. On the first day of Zone Conference, half of the missionaries were there and the other half on the second day. Joe and I were introduced to all the missionaries in both session of Zone Conference because we will be working very closely with them.
The end of the first week we had a General Authority from our church, Elder Rasban come to speak to the missionaries in our area. What a wonderful experience that was. All I can say, is that by the end of our 1st week, we had been so spiritually feed. It was amazing!
We've been working really hard trying to learn all the things that we need to know to do our job here in the mission field. We start our day at the mission office around 8:15 and usually leave for home around 6:00. Some days a little earlier and some a little later. We are very busy doing a wide range of duties.
Joe's main job is taking care of anything to do with the missionaries cars and their bikes and making sure that all their drivers licenses are current.
He has a phone that he has to carry with him at all times. If any missionary in our mission has a problem, such as having an accident or locking their keys in their car or getting sick or hurt and needing to go to the hospital or any type of a car problem or bike problem, they are to call Elder Lambdin. He will advise them as to what to do, and in some cases he needs to go to where ever they are and help them. If one of them has to go to the hospital for something, then we both have to go to where ever they are. It could be as far away as 200 miles. He does a lot of other miscellaneous jobs as well. He's pretty busy most of the time.
Ginny's main job is being secretary to the President. I schedule all his interviews with all the missionaries. I record all the baptisms and make sure that they are sent into Salt Lake. I have to double check the report that comes back from Salt Lake to make sure that all the information that has been entered is correct. I then send a letter to all the people who were just newly baptized.
That's only a part of what I do. I have many other jobs just like Joe.
This past week was transfer week. Some of the missionaries missions were over and it was time for them to go home and at that same time we have all the new missionaries coming in. It's a very exciting time for all the missionaries. Plus many of the missionaries have their area and their companions changed. The first night the new missionaries arrive, they haven't met their companion as of yet. They are housed in different home for the night. Our home is one of the homes that the new missionaries come to. We had 3 new sister missionaries stay with us. It was fun having them. They are so excited to get started doing the Lords work and to see their new surroundings and to meet all the other missionaries. The missionaries are so anxious to see if their going to get changed, or if their going to be training one of the new missionaries. There are a lot of changes that take place at that time as well. It's all very exciting. They are amazing young men and women.
They are always coming into the office and sharing a spiritual thought or some amazing story with me. Sometimes they just want to talk to a grandma. They will even sometimes share something special that's in a letter from home or from a good friend.
I love being here for them, to help them in any way that I can. We're all here to help the Lord's work to go forward and to help one another. It's really hard work, but it's so rewarding. We couldn't do all the things that we are doing if it weren't for the Lord's helping hand. It's amazing how He has blessed us to be able learn so many things in such a short time and to be able to keep up with such a busy schedule. We couldn't do it without His help.
We're so appreciative of our daughter Shanna for writing on our blog for us for the past couple of months while we have been at the MTC in Salt Lake and traveling to Houston and then while we have been trying to learn our jobs here in the mission. We are now ready to take over the job. We still need to learn how to do things on this blog, but we'll get the hang of it soon.
The Roger's felt so bad because they weren't able to give us all the training that we so badly needed, and when we were able to do some training, it was constantly interrupted because there are always missionaries coming into the office for various thing and they want to talk with us.
The day after we arrived we were invited to the Mission Presidents home for dinner. The Roger's were also invited. President and Sister Saylin have 7 children. The oldest is 17 and the youngest is 6 months. Some of the children wanted to play games with us and some just wanted to sit and talk with us. After dinner we all sang a couple of songs together and President asked us and some of his children to bear our testimony. Then he and Sister Saylin also shared their testimony. It was a really nice evening and everyone made us feel so comfortable and so welcome.
Our first week here we had two days of Zone Conferences. Going to Zone Conference was really a wonderful experience. Our Mission President, President Saylin taught about the The Message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I've never heard it done in such an amazing way. It was so beautiful and so full of feeling.
The first day of Zone Conference lunch was brought in to feed all the missionaries by the ladies of one of the wards in our area. The second day of Zone Conference, the ladies from another ward were suppose to bring lunch, but something happened and they were not going to be able to do it. So the ladies in the mission office provided lunch. The missionaries in our mission have a really neat thing that they do at the end of the meal. They all stand together and sing a song to who ever prepared their meal and at the end of their song they sing a very fun THANK YOU FOR THE WONDERFUL MEAL. Then they line up and one by one shake hands with each person who prepared the meal and each one of then thanks you for the wonderful meal. It's really a fun experience.
In our mission, there are 161 missionaries. That's not counting all the Senior missionaries. On the first day of Zone Conference, half of the missionaries were there and the other half on the second day. Joe and I were introduced to all the missionaries in both session of Zone Conference because we will be working very closely with them.
The end of the first week we had a General Authority from our church, Elder Rasban come to speak to the missionaries in our area. What a wonderful experience that was. All I can say, is that by the end of our 1st week, we had been so spiritually feed. It was amazing!
We've been working really hard trying to learn all the things that we need to know to do our job here in the mission field. We start our day at the mission office around 8:15 and usually leave for home around 6:00. Some days a little earlier and some a little later. We are very busy doing a wide range of duties.
Joe's main job is taking care of anything to do with the missionaries cars and their bikes and making sure that all their drivers licenses are current.
He has a phone that he has to carry with him at all times. If any missionary in our mission has a problem, such as having an accident or locking their keys in their car or getting sick or hurt and needing to go to the hospital or any type of a car problem or bike problem, they are to call Elder Lambdin. He will advise them as to what to do, and in some cases he needs to go to where ever they are and help them. If one of them has to go to the hospital for something, then we both have to go to where ever they are. It could be as far away as 200 miles. He does a lot of other miscellaneous jobs as well. He's pretty busy most of the time.
Ginny's main job is being secretary to the President. I schedule all his interviews with all the missionaries. I record all the baptisms and make sure that they are sent into Salt Lake. I have to double check the report that comes back from Salt Lake to make sure that all the information that has been entered is correct. I then send a letter to all the people who were just newly baptized.
That's only a part of what I do. I have many other jobs just like Joe.
This past week was transfer week. Some of the missionaries missions were over and it was time for them to go home and at that same time we have all the new missionaries coming in. It's a very exciting time for all the missionaries. Plus many of the missionaries have their area and their companions changed. The first night the new missionaries arrive, they haven't met their companion as of yet. They are housed in different home for the night. Our home is one of the homes that the new missionaries come to. We had 3 new sister missionaries stay with us. It was fun having them. They are so excited to get started doing the Lords work and to see their new surroundings and to meet all the other missionaries. The missionaries are so anxious to see if their going to get changed, or if their going to be training one of the new missionaries. There are a lot of changes that take place at that time as well. It's all very exciting. They are amazing young men and women.
They are always coming into the office and sharing a spiritual thought or some amazing story with me. Sometimes they just want to talk to a grandma. They will even sometimes share something special that's in a letter from home or from a good friend.
I love being here for them, to help them in any way that I can. We're all here to help the Lord's work to go forward and to help one another. It's really hard work, but it's so rewarding. We couldn't do all the things that we are doing if it weren't for the Lord's helping hand. It's amazing how He has blessed us to be able learn so many things in such a short time and to be able to keep up with such a busy schedule. We couldn't do it without His help.
We're so appreciative of our daughter Shanna for writing on our blog for us for the past couple of months while we have been at the MTC in Salt Lake and traveling to Houston and then while we have been trying to learn our jobs here in the mission. We are now ready to take over the job. We still need to learn how to do things on this blog, but we'll get the hang of it soon.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
And they're off...
Today they started their drive to Houston! The van was [PACKED] !!!
They are really excited to get there, meet everyone, and start their work!
Please keep them in your prayers for a safe, uneventful drive.
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| Joe making sure that everything was packed tight! |
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| Ginny was adding a couple more items. |
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| Sealing everything up |
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| Time to go! 7 hours of driving today! |
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| Here they go. |
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| The van was a little low, it scraped the sidewalk. I hope they don't hit many potholes! |
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| HOUSTON, HERE WE COME!!! |
Friday, October 28, 2011
MTC
My parents went to the MTC, and had a wonderful time. They truly loved the experience. They learned so much. I am going to add their pictures from the MTC and they will add information about the images later. Enjoy the pictures!
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| Our lovely room at the MTC |
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| Our new friends from the MTC |
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| Our teacher, SIster Zitting. She co-taught the Preach My Gospel class with below. |
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| Elder Whiting he co-taught the Preach My Gospel class with Sister Zitting. |
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| Saturday P-Day, The Senior Missionaries can leave the MTC. We got into the 1/2 half of the BYU game for free :) |
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| Go Cougars! |
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| The BYU "Y" |
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| Raven in Provo |
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| Stack of books, created by Adam Bateman "His site-specific book sculpture in this exhibition is comprised of approximately 80,000 pounds of books — the equivalent weight of 30 to 40 cars — and resembles a geologic cross section of the Earth." For more information about this amazing piece of art CLICK HERE |
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| The BYU cougar at the BYU store |
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| Our Grandson's mailbox, while he was there. |
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| Our Mailbox while we were there. |
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| The hustle and bustle of the MTC |
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| The missionaries get SO excited to get their mail! This is a busy spot come mail time. |
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| Our new friends, Elder and Sister HORNE. They are serving in the Washington DC temple now! |
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