Family Time

The evening we got our call (last Tuesday--August 30), my dad headed back home to settle into his familiar places and with his computer again.  This past weekend, my niece, Lisa, and nephew, Paul--her brother--flew in from Arizona to spend some time with dad and Karla (and fortunate for us because we are close, we got to enjoy them, too.) Lisa stayed with Dad and Karla and Paul stayed with us.  It was a quiet but sweet weekend as they spent time with dad and Karla.

On Sunday night, Jessica came with Liam and Zander
so we got this four generation picture.
Liam was very excited to learn that I had a dad.

Paul and Lisa with Dad

It was great to hear Paul and Lisa talk about their memories of Mom and Dad. Lisa is the oldest granddaughter (daughter of my brother, Mike) and then Jessica, Paul, and Jarom came in the next "batch" of grandchildren about three years later.

Mission 2.0: Two Phone Calls

I promise we are still serving on our current mission during the day, but we had two phone calls this past week also related to our mission in Bentonville.

The first one was on Thursday night with President Richard Collins--the mission president there:

On Tuesday, I sent a short email to President Collins about receiving our call to Arkansas Bentonville.  He responded that he was very excited.  He had been notified a few days prior that a couple had been assigned but they don't release the names until later (we assume after the call is accepted.)  He asked if we could talk to him on the phone on Thursday evening which we, of course, did.  He talked to us about opportunities to work in the office or working out in the stakes and talked about some possible options such as Sullivan, MO, or Ft. Scott, Kansas.  We also talked about Jena and what she might be able to do.

Second Call:

Then on Friday we got a text from Elder and Sister Moss who wanted to set up an orientation phone call with us over the weekend to give us information about being an MLS missionary, the MTC, and training meetings prior to the MTC.  Because we had some family coming in this weekend, I chose 5:00 pm [during the BYU football game--that's sacrifice :)] on Saturday afternoon.

They gave us a lot of information about preparing to serve as an MLS missionary including our 4-6 hours of pre-MTC training over Zoom and then the second week in the MTC.  One of our questions was can we take Jena to the MTC and they are going to find out for us.  We hope that she is able to attend at least some of it.  I know she would LOVE it!!

One fun thing for all of us as we were getting to know the Mosses who are senior service missionaries from Florida is that Elder Moss served in Hong Kong--the same time as Gary.  He started several months after Gary but served with the same mission president.  After our phone call, he sent these pictures from the mission "yearbook".  How fun is that?

Elder Moss (first one in second row)

Gary

We had a fun time talking about Hong Kong--one of my favorite places in the world.  They mentioned what a sweet mercy it was that of all of the senior MLS missionary couples called this week---I think they said there were 32 couples--that they got assigned to us--

They also mentioned that they had recently spoken to another couple assigned to our same mission who will start in November.  We asked them to share our information with them so that we can follow their mission experience as well.

We already have connected with one senior couple serving in the Arkansas Bentonville Mission.  The Ritters were in the MTC with Steve and Dana Bickmore back in April.  The Bickmores are serving in Rwanda, Africa.  We have exchanged messages with Ritters.  They work in the Institute in Fayetteville and will be leaving in April so we may or may not see them.  They are loving it there.

Small world!!

Mission 2.0---Zone Announcement

Our missionary portal now shows both of our mission and includes lots and LOTS of stuff we need to read and/or watch about being MLS missionaries.  

Meanwhile, we are still serving in real time in the Church History Library and the assistant zone leaders all thought Jena should announce our next mission call to the zone at the Wednesday prayer meeting.  She decided to write it out so she would get it right.  On the way to the library in the morning she told me. "Lots of pressure giving announcement."  She took her job seriously.  Everyone was very excited for us.

We also sent out an email to all of our missionaries because many don't work on Wednesdays.  It was fun to read their sweet responses as they shared our joy with our next assignment.

We came out of our bedrooms this morning--both wearing white shirts so we decided to take a picture at the library--the classic white shirt and skirt look.

(The blue lanyards hold our security badges allowing us to go around the Church History Library and other places we need to go on Temple Square.)

Back to work at our current assignment!

Hall Mission 2.0- The Call

On Sunday, August 28th, my "spy" in the mission department texted me that we were now showing "assigned" on the mission spreadsheet.  So, we were anticipating that our call would be delivered on Tuesday of this past week and we were not disappointed---at 9:58 am, we each received a text and then an email indicating that our call could be found in our missionary portal.

We had decided if it came in time that we would head down to the skilled nursing home where Dad was at and open our call with him and Karla.  We were able to have Scott and Tosha on Facetime--but couldn't catch Jessica and the plan for Ben didn't work out.

Our first call we opened in Gary's mom's back yard in masks..... so it a bit of a deja' vu  situation, we were also in masks because of Dad being at the skilling nursing center.

This time, I read the call.  It is really hard to continue to read the three paragraphs prior to the assignment paragraph---you really want to know the "where" and "what" of it all!

For us, it is:  ARKANSAS BENTONVILLE MISSION serving a member and leader support missionaries.  We report to the MTC on March 27 and leave for Arkansas around April 8th--so 2 weeks of training at the MTC.

It was different than last time  (as spiritual things usually are)--This time, the only way I can describe it was I felt this overwhelming of sweetness and peace.  Gary had been leaning towards Hawaii, I was hoping for Lubbock Texas, but Arkansas Bentonville suddenly felt like the right and only place for us at this time of our lives.

The Arkansas Bentonville Mission included NW Arkansas, a big part of southern Missouri, the SE part of Kansas and the NE corner of Oklahoma.  The exciting thing for me is that Springfield Missouri where Gary and I lived the first 10 months of our marriage is in this mission.  How cool is that!  And. we actually know the mission president slightly--Richard Collins was our financial advisor over the past several years prior to him being called as a mission president.  (and no, we did not request his mission nor did he request us.  He offered to but we said we wanted to be assigned without any special requests.) This mission was one of 7 we put as places we were interested in.  So the apostle who assigned us would not have known that we had lived there 45 years ago or that we knew this mission president.  Of course, our Heavenly Father knows and I think that is why I felt such a feeling of sweetness.  Springfield is a pretty place and we expected to live our lives there when we got married, but our life went in totally different directions than we first planned--and now we can go back for a brief season.  It seems just right and balanced in some way--even though it is not likely we will serve in the Springfield area at all.)

For the map lovers in my family,
here is the mission map.

Gary took us to Zupa's for a celebration lunch before heading back to the library for our afternoon meetings.  We hadn't told any of the missionaries that we had received our call....YET!

Gary not cooperating with our selfie
and then teasing Jena as I took her picture...

We had our weekly zone leadership meeting with our assistant zone leaders and we wanted them to be the first missionaries we told---After the opening prayer--I made the announcement and everyone was surprised and delighted for us!!!

No one more than Sister Dixon who is from Bentonville.  She returns home from her mission at the end of October so she will be there in April to greet us.  How fun is that!  Of course, I wanted a picture of Sister Dixon hearing the news, but thought it would be a bit obvious if I was pointing a camera at her so Elder Elder took this re-enactment photo of the moment--

We love Sister Dixon and are excited to share pieces of our new adventures with her.

Since then we are learning about lots of people with connections to this part of the world and to the mission.  One of our missionaries has a grand daughter who just arrived in this mission about 3 weeks ago.  How fun is that!

After our meetings that day, I spent the evening texting friends the news and also shared the following post on Facebook---after most of my friends and family knew  (except my Sister Lynette--she was having trouble with her phone and didn't read our sibling thread and didn't learn until Friday about our call.  I felt bad about that.)

"Sample from our lives: Today we opened our mission call for our next mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (more about that later in post). I was sharing the news at our mission office and one of the missionaries there said, "That is awesome. They are so lucky to be getting Jena...(pause) and you two as well. Of course, you will do great...." Yes, we think they are lucky to be getting Jena, too.

Who is "they"? The Arkansas Bentonville Mission!!!

We are so excited. This mission includes parts of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Special for us is that Gary and I spent the first ten months of married life in Springfield, MO, which is part of this mission so many years ago. It seems like a special sweet thing to go back to that beautiful part of the world. We have been called to serve as member and leader support missionaries, will start on March 27, 2023, and serve for 18 months. Another exciting thing is that the Bentonville LDS Temple will open early next year--a special time to serve! How blessed we are!

Ever wanted to see the Ozarks or visit Branson, MO, this is your chance to visit us, too! And they have fireflies, too!

For those keeping track, we will have about four weeks between ending our current mission and starting our next one. #missionadventures!"

The photo I included was from last summer when we attended the Jordan River Temple.

We have loved reading the comments people have posted on Facebook and appreciate so much the support of family and friends.  We feel so very blessed to be able to serve currently as missionaries and look forward to our next assignment as well.  Each will mark a "remarkable" period of our lives!  We are so blessed.

One quirky note:  When we had extended our current mission, we had changed our availability date to April 10.  That allowed us to spend spring break in Washington with Tosha and her family which was the first week of April.  Of course, we are now reporting on March 27th.  I told Gary that in a quirky way, that was another sign to me that this was the right calling for us.  We need to go when they need us.  (I know it is weird, but my mind works in these ways sometimes.)

One last note:  Bentonville Arkansas is getting an LDS Temple and it will be completed in the first part of the year.  There is a slight chance that we might be there in time for the Open House and the Dedication.  That would be amazing!  Temples bring such a blessing to the members of the Church in an area.  Here is a photo of the temple on the Church's website.

How great is our Heavenly Father and how blessed are we!

Watch for more Hall Mission 2.0 posts coming up!

More Views Of Temple Square Construction

They removed the coverings from the windows on the south side of the lobby of the Church Office Building which allowed a ground level view of the work done in that plaza.

It is quite a production with so many projects being done all over the place in addition to the temple itself.  The parking garages are being redone, all of the landscaping, fountains, and walkways.  Two large visitor centers were removed to make room for more garden space.  It is an amazing site to watch from the sidelines (you can tell that I find it amazing by how many posts and photos I have shared.)  Next week for a fireside, we get to hear from one of the supervisors involved in this project.  I am excited about that as well.  History in the making at every turn.

A look across to the east side of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building

East end of the temple
A bit of the spire peeking out
Hard to see but notice the splash of teal blue--
that was an umbrella on the top of the temple offering
some shade, we assume, to workers.
Always something new to see as work progresses.

You should come down and see this.  It is awesome! 

August Zone Social--Family Search Library

Last Monday, we invited our zone to go on a visit to the Family Search Library.  When you first arrive at the mission, you think that you will likely serve here because that Family Search is so connected to the Headquarters Mission.  But then you get assigned to the Church History Library and get busy learning all of the cool things about serving there that you somewhat forget about the great blessings located nearby in the Family Search Library....so we decided to do a field trip on Monday afternoon.

Here is the group we started with--
Gary and a few others joined us later.

Plenty of places to work...and if you have a question you push a button on the computer and someone comes to help you....we found that out because Jena pushed it!  Oops!

So many rows of books with genealogical information in them and they are not yet all scanned and some can not be scanned because of copyright rules.

The library has free book scanners which are open for the public to use.  They even will provide you a flash drive to capture your scans if you forgot one.  They also have places that you can digitize Super 8 tapes, video tapes, cassette tapes, and photos--all free just takes some time.

Not only are there computers everywhere and missionaries and staff to help you....there are pamphlets on all sorts of topics related to family history.  I could spend days here, just reading about family history topics.  There is so much to learn.

The Maps area was very cool...if you love maps like me!

The main floor "Discovery Zone"  Here you can set up a Family Search account, find famous relatives, take photos  with a variety of backgrounds, and other activities with Family Search.

Sister Cisneros is from Peru so she loved taking a picture with Peru in the background.  She sent it to her kids right away.

These are two examples of the "green screen" photos-----
 

Jena picked the Texas background for her and I.

This is the photo Sister Cisneros chose
Jena, Sister Dixon, Sister Cisneros, Sister Conlin, and me

I don't have a copy of the photo yet, but Sister Dixon and Jena took one with Arkansas as the backdrop....a glimpse of what was coming next for us......

We were glad that we went and I know that I am planning on taking my photos and getting them scanned before we leave Salt Lake.  What a great service and much faster than the portable scanner we have.