4-26-25 We're Assigned to Do What???
Retired Life. Sunday.
Easter! On this morning, the women approached the tomb with spices and found it empty. Two angels there told them Christ had risen.
HE IS RISEN!!
We were up early to go to the church for a last-chance practice with the Choir for today's Easter Performance. The Easter service itself was next and was incredible. Afterwards, we ran home, put the ham in the oven, then took the Sacrament over to Hanna's Mom. (I included a very nice picture of her from the Easter Celebration held at the Assisted Care Facility.) Then we ran back to town to the church where we met with our Stake President and were set apart as full-time missionaries. (We feel a bit overwhelmed with the spirit and excited and can't wait to get to work!)
Back at home, I made up a batch of my famous Potato Salad while Hanna created a bunch of deviled eggs, baked some rolls, and put finishing touches on the ham. And the kids arrived. Justin and his boys and Luigi, Brooklyn, and my buddy, August. We had a great meal. Had some great talks.
And then they left because they have school, work, etc. tomorrow and we collapsed in relaxation and read a bit and watched an Easter Video.
Hope you all had a great Easter!
SPECIAL ONLY FOR DEL AND ELLA:
Blessings from my setting apart: I will take families to the temple. To have the strength and energy to serve the mission and also take care of Hanna. Hanna was called "my treasure". I will feel joy. Blessed with the power to give people blessings and the courage to say what I am prompted to say in those blessings. To see other's as Christ sees them. That my testimony will be strengthened. That my children will grow in faith.
For Sister S-L: Blessed with the healing that she desires so she can fully serve. With words in her mouth and thoughts in her mind as needed. To be able to see other's hearts and that they can see hers. That her own testimony will be strengthened. That she will be happy to serve where ever we are assigned and will understand why.
SPECIAL POST:
I woke up this morning to find that I am a full-time missionary! I am still amazed that the Lord is allowing us to serve this mission.
We loved our first mission in 2018. We made so many good friends in Clearlake, CA. We felt like we did so much good. We witnessed lives changing. Our focus was on taking families to the temple. On our way home, we discussed how there was nothing more in this life that we could do that would have a greater purpose than serving a mission and bringing people closer to Christ. We planned on devising an exit plan for our business and going out to serve ASAP.
Several weeks later, that plan came crashing down as I was diagnosed with cancer. Our focused changed. Plans were delayed. Nine months later, the "lil smokey" sized tumor on my prostate was completely eradicated. (I am still cancer free, thanks to prayers, support of friends and family, and great medical professionals.) As I recovered, we started making exit plans once again.
And then Covid hit. We scrambled just to keep our business above water and operational. All other plans were put on hold. No one felt like talking to us about an exit plan.
Just as Covid was leaving, Hanna was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. She was given 24 months to live and told she would never walk again. We quickly exited our business, changed our focus once again, and I discouragingly proclaimed "we will never be able to serve another mission now..."
But here we are. Three years later. Retired. Mostly healthy. And no detection of any cancer thanks to prayers, miracles, support of friends and family, and great medical specialists.
As part of that journey, we committed to attending the temple weekly if we could. It was key in our recoveries and being able to be a missionaries today. This quote touches me this morning and is absolutely true. I testify of it.
"... here is my promise. Nothing will help you more to hold fast to the iron rod than worshipping in the temple as regularly as your circumstances permit. Nothing will protect you more as you encounter the world’s mists of darkness. Nothing will bolster your testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement or help you understand God’s magnificent plan more. Nothing will soothe your spirit more during times of pain. Nothing will open the heavens more. Nothing!" --Russell M Nelson
Retired Life. Monday.
We actually had a discussion about changing the name of this nightly post to "Missionary Life." Still thinking about it. For us now, Retired and Missionary are synonymous.
We used to have a pretty set missionary routine when we served before. Since we weren't sure of our duties or assignments yet, we winged it today.
I read a bit. Took the boys for their walk. Fixed breakfast (bacon and eggs). Cleaned up the kitchen from yesterday's dinner. Showered. Read some missionary stuff and scriptures. Ate lunch (salads). And then we drove into the Mission Office. There we were introduced to all the staff and had a meeting with our Mission President and his wife. (This was more interesting than expected because he worked as an SEC Attorney defending large CPA firms, including the one I started my career with.) Anyway, we have been assigned to the Spanish Congregation that meets near our own Congregation in the Spokane Valley. There we will be providing support to leadership and visiting those that have needs or have been missing for a while. They told us there is no language barrier, that most of the congregations speaks fluent English. Regardless, my old Spanish may be put back to work. We will meet with the local leaders soon (hopefully tomorrow) to get lined out.
We also will serve as the Mission's Assistant Housing People, helping keep the missionaries housed and off the streets.
Back home, we had Chicken Soup for dinner, made a few phone calls. Started filling in our calendar. Talked about daily schedule adjustments. And then decided to chill for a while and watched a prerecorded football game. (S Carolina vs Clemson rivalry).
Hey...the only picture I took today was of the pile of dirty dishes. Sorry. But enjoy!
Retired Life. Tuesday.
We did a good job of cramming our usual "old people must have food" day into a "must get some mission work done also" day.
It went like this: Breakfast, Plan the week (the best we could given what we know about our assignment so far), create yummy menus, make up a grocery list, order the groceries on line, take the boys for their walk, take a short nap, shower, drive to town, eat lunch (salads and Rummy) at Darcy's (I'm not usually a chicken oriental salad type guy, but it sounded good to me today and was very good,) pick up more drugs at the Pharmacy, drive to mission office, meet with mission housing coordinator for a couple of hours, pick up groceries, drive home, Ribeye Steak for dinner, read and study missionary stuff. That's a long list...
From our meeting, we learned that the mission has 15 housing Stewards that inspect the apartments the younger missionaries live in every six weeks. And then they send reports to the housing coordinator. He is swamped and overwhelmed. He has right around 70 apartments to manage! We are here to help! We will touch bases with each Steward every six weeks to see how they are doing. And within the next month, we will travel the mission (from Bonner's Ferry to Colville to Cheney to Pullman to Lewiston to CDA and all those places in between) to personally meet each Steward, do some training, and try to make the process more efficient. (As CPAs, we are experts at organizing processes to make them more efficient.) This will be a fun assignment!
Pictures below (at least one needs an explanation...):
- A couple of homeless missionaries. Sad. We are here to prevent this from happening!! (Thanks Grok for the drawing...)
- I created our Colorful Missionary Week Schedule that will help keep US on track and efficient all week long.
- Hanna intentionally trying to look like Vanna White, showing off our delicious salads.
- Gus, the Missionary Dog. How many missionaries get to go out missionarying with their cool dogs? (Frivvy is on the seat taking a nap and didn't want his picture taken.)
- Dinner
Retired Life/Mission Life is really good.
Retired Life. Wednesday.
We had no official appointments today and no one to teach yet, so we spent the day at home studying, preparing, and doing stuff around the house. Stuff like taking the boys for their walk (Gus is pretty well trained on his halty now, no more pulling), scripture study, reading, writing (I'm working on my Life History), saw my first Yellowjacket today, so put up the trap and ordered more. Put new tabs on the JEEP and the trailer. Fixed the flags around the dog fence. Ordered a new tire for my lawn trailer. Put together the lesson we first show folks when we first visit so we are totally prepared when the time comes (using the same we used in CA, great video and brings in the spirit fast), and the big task: about a week ago, our old Washing Machine gave up the ghost. The new one will arrive tomorrow. So, we had to move stuff in the laundry room to make room for it, suck the water out of it with the shop vac, etc. All ready now. In the evening I paid bills and updated the books. Plus we watched an episode of Heartland.
Here is what Grok thinks we look like when we have companionship study time. And a non-Grok picture of what our huge puppies do while we study.
Retired Life. Thursday.
First off, it looks like Spring has finally arrived in Fairfield. Pictures of our new flowers for proof.
The big event today was the arrival and installation of Hanna's new washing machine. She was impressed that I wasn't upset when it broke down. We have an emergency fund for stuff like that....no big deal. The boys were banished to the deck while the men did the installation. Sad faces. But before they left, they were allowed to look into the laundry room. Gus is curious. Frivvy has his usual content face on. BBQ ribs for dinner.
The rest of the day was spent in minor projects around the house. I installed a house number sign on our porch so the delivery people won't get confused. Moved the 100s of pounds of sand bags out of my truck and into the garage. Hung a picture of Hanna and me standing on top of Mt St Helens. Moved the ladder from the pantry to the garage to get it out of the way finally. Researched apps that are capable of using AI to look at a picture of a plate of food and tell me how many calories, carbs, and protein I am about to eat. And most important of all, I went thru all the TV shows we like that we have committed to not watch while missionaries and made a chart showing what episode and season we left off on.
In the evening we met with the President of the Spanish Branch for nearly two hours. We went over a lot of members of his congregation and identified those that need a visit from us for various reasons. Most folks in the congregation speak Spanish (we were told most were bi-lingual), so I need to get brushed up on that and Hanna needs to find a tutor. (He suggested one for her). He requested that we testify in church Sunday...in Spanish... This isn't what we asked for or expected, but it is definitely where we are needed, and that is how missions work. We are excited!
It is good for retired folks like us to have an important purpose and a challenge, otherwise they don't last long. We have lots of both and are looking forward to being around for a long, long time.
Retired Life. Friday.
Today exemplified what will for the next 18 months be our typical Friday.
Up early to take the boys for their walk. Then off to Spokane where we met in District Council. A group of about a dozen missionaries. (including another Senior Couple from Northern California...they serve the Chukk folks.) We have several lessons and presentations and discuss ways to help each other be successful. (Hanna thinks it will be a good idea to bring treats from here on out...this sort of thing is what makes her a great missionary!)
We then ate sandwiches in the truck. And then worshipped in the temple.
Went Fancy Like for our date night dinner.
And then back home, we spent the evening doing our missionary reading and studying and preparing. I worked on using OneNote to create a system to track everything about the families we will be working with. That we can have on our phones and on our laptops. Needs more work. Not getting it to Sync. Yet.
One of the messages given to us by the District Leader was the story of Jonah, only adapted to one of today's missionaries. I could relate. At times this week I felt like Jonah, on our way to Nineveh. As you likely know, he was scared and hesitant to go there as the Lord had asked him. Tried to go somewhere else that was easier. Ended up in the belly of a large fish. (Nasty). We won't end up in the belly of a fish, I promise, but we are trudging the trail to Nineveh with apprehension. Teach what we teach in Spanish? Listen to folks' needs in Spanish and try to understand? Causes knots in my stomach. But, in the end, Jonah was obedient and went to Nineveh, a very wicked and dangerous place to work. And.....he was very successful. The entire town, including the King, repented and the town was saved. That story gives me hope. We can and will be successful with these people. And bonus, they are as friendly as all get out. Nothing wicked or dangerous about them at all. We'll need their patience. They have plenty.
So, what hard things has the Lord asked you to do and were you willing to do it? How often did it turn out successful?
Great Scripture: "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."
Now I need to go try to dream in Spanish.....
Retired Life. Saturday.
Mission or not, we still went to "old peoples go to breakfast" day. Mostly because neither of us felt like cooking it. Gateway does a great job. And then we walked on the Trail of the CDAs.
In the afternoon, we drove in to Spokane and watched our Stake's production of Savior of the World. Great performance and worth the wait.
Savior of the World is a portrayal of the resurrection of Christ and his life after He was risen. Two of the last things He said was "Feed My Sheep." And "...lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Those scriptures touched me and are relevant to me as I serve as a missionary.
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