In August, Mike and LuAnn Faerber started serving in our mission. We knew them back in Plano, Texas, so it was a sweet experience to see them as new missionaries here. The first week of September, we passed each other in the hallway and had someone take this picture of us.
in my blog. My last post was on September 5 (Labor Day). It is not because life has been so dull and boring that I didn't have anything to write about. Actually quite the reverse was true---the last two months have been amazing with highs and lows and life--it just keep on happening!
The one thing that I can testify about is that I don't know how anyone manages the demands of life without the framework of the gospel and the unfailing gift of the Holy Ghost--to guide, to comfort, to testify, to reassure, and the list goes on and on. I and we have been so blessed.
I probably have 2000 photos over the past two months to look through and to remember some very important things in my life. I hope that in some way you can see this testimony as I share the common and the extraordinary events of the past two months. I know that the passing of time has blur some of the details and I may forget some of the sweet moments but I am determined to do the best I can.
And backing up to the first week of September....let the memories "roll."
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.
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| 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. |
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| Paul and Lisa with Dad |
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?
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| Elder Moss (first one in second row) |
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| Gary |
Small world!!
