1.31.26 Missionaries Everywhere!! Cassie.

 Retired/Missionary Life. Sunday.

HAPPY SABBATH!! Here! Have a Jesus picture! He LOVES you!!!

We attended Sacrament Meeting. One of the folks that we are working with gave a talk and did incredibly well! It's so exciting to see people progress in their faith.

Next up was Men's Meeting. I got to teach the lesson. My Spanish goes down a notch when I've nervous, but I got through it and they are a very supportive, loving, patient bunch. My lesson was on finding the one similar to how Jesus went after the one sheep.

Missionary Correlation was after that. Always fun to meet with a bunch of the younger missionaries. It's so exciting to hear their successes.

Back home in the afternoon, I kind of cleaned out the fridge and made a salad out of it. Read. Studied Spanish. Watched some church videos. Prepared a lesson for this week. Took a nap. Talked to Hanna's brother for a while.

And after a dinner of Pizza, we watched another great football movie, probably the best movie ever made, Remember the Titans. One of my favorites. So many lessons to be learned from that real-life movie.

Enjoy the Jesus Picture! He's looking really happy in this picture. Folks must be making good decisions!

Retired/Missionary Life. Monday.

Hey! We're at an AirBnb tonight! Hanna is always up for a new Airbnb adventure. The dogs adjust really well and love to explore the entire place. And the host left an "animal towel" creation on our bed, but we're not sure what kind of animal that actually is!

Why an Airbnb? Because we had a Senior Missionary Monthly potluck, hangout, have a lesson meeting at the mission home that went until past 8pm. And we have Zone Conference in North Spokane at 8:30 in the morning. We saw no reason to drive all the way home just to get up before dawn and come back in. So, here we are. Ready to rest.

What we did today....planned out our chaotic week. Made up a delicious menu. (Thank goodness we almost always cook more than we can eat so we have easy to warm up leftovers for those busy days.) Created a shopping list. Typed it into the Safeway app. Pressed submit, and watched money leave our bank account.

Also, I did up the family books and paid the bills. Feels like work used to feel, but was not work.

They were taking pictures of us at the Senior Gig. I'll pass them on once they are posted. All for your enjoyment!

Retired/Missionary Life. Tuesday.

Woke up in an Airbnb. Frivvy and Gussy were thrilled with the mirror. Although they wouldn't hold still for the shot of them gawking at themselves in it.

We spent most of the day in Zone Conference with other missionaries from Colville, North Spokane, Mount Spokane, Downtown, South Hill, West Plains. Always fun to see all the cars being inspected. (Toyota must love missionaries...) We listened to good music, were edified by great speakers, and got caught up with missionaries we hadn't seen in a while.

We had one lesson planned for afterwards, but it cancelled just as we left the church. Oh, the life of a missionary!

Took the boys for a walk on the Centennial Trail. Picked up the groceries. And at home, we unpacked, ate leftovers, and got caught up on the reading.

Tonight we are tired, but exhilarated!

SPECIAL FOR DEL AND ELLA:

So, Sunday afternoon we got a call from Larry. "The girl you referred to the missionaries is getting baptized right now!"

WHAT?????!!!!!!

The first part of December, I got contacted by a guy we know that lives out here. He has been in our home a few times to trim Frivvy's nails. He is not a member of the church. But he does follow my stuff on FB and you know that I do talk church on there a bit. He said there was neighbor girl, about 19, that needs some help. The state removed her from her parents home when she was young due to drug abuse. Her grandmother tried to raise her after that, but recently she kicked her out because she was doing bad stuff. He said "she's really starting to get into some really dark stuff and is going to ruin her life. Is there any way you can send someone from your church over to talk some sense into her??"

I told him about the Sister Missionaries that serve here and how they may be able to connect with her because they're about the same age. He called it a long shot (I agreed) and gave me her contact info. (Cassie Priestly). I sent it via text to the Sisters and also sent it to them via the church's referral system because the mission holds them accountable for referrals there. I also told them it was a long shot and they would essentially be cold calling her and hoping she wants to talk about the church.

A few days later, we ran into those Sisters at Zone Conference and they told us they had texted her just a few minutes after getting the referral (this had to make the Mission Leaders very happy...) and they had been chatting back and forth and they thought they had gotten her to agree to read the Book of Mormon. They also called it still a long shot.

We heard nothing more until Larry called Sunday night, six weeks later. SHE GOT BAPTIZED!!!!! Literally a life saved!! Just from my scrawlings every night and a neighbor who thought our church was good enough to help her. And two bold Sister Missionaries!!

At her baptism, she right out asked what she would have to do to be a "Sister Missionary"...... Wow!! Huge Miracle! We didn't see THAT coming! PS - Does that count as a baptism for us old missionaries???

Retired/Missionary Life. Wednesday.

We taught three awesome lessons today, the last one at the temple where we gave a temple tour to someone the Sisters are teaching. Great day to be a missionary!

Between lessons, we made time to walk on the Centennial Trail. This kept the boys happy, because other than happily playing with the missionaries through the truck window, they really have no opinion of missionary work.

Also, here! Have a couple of pictures of a young deer at the Highlands. Enjoy!

Retired/Missionary Life. Thursday.

After all the running around of the past several days, and probably running faster than we should, we took a down day. Hanging around the house all day except for walking the boys.

In the morning I did my reading and studying and took a nice nap. After lunch and the walk, I worked on taxes. Hanna's Mom's State Estate Tax Return, which was quite fun. We had estimated taxes due of around 17k, but I whittled that down to $0 after going through the books and looking for exclusions and deductions and researching it a bit. And then I whittled our own "amount due" (which really ticks me off because I seriously don't want to pay them a cent more...) from just over $1,000 to $11. It felt good. I used to do this type of work for a living and insisted on saving my clients enough taxes to pay my bill. Still got the touch.....

In the evening (after Hanna made up a batch of her scrumptious Chicken Vegetable Soup) we watched a pre-recorded football game. Georgia vs Ole Miss playoff game. Good one to watch.

Pictures? That's AI's version of me working on taxes, Hanna trimming Frivvy's paw hair while he was distracted with the football game (he loves watching football!!), and Gus spending the afternoon under my desk while I did taxes. Enjoy!!

Retired/Missionary Life. Friday.

1. Got my back decompressed and adjusted while Hanna got a massage at our favorite Chiropractor's.

2. We worshipped in the temple. Always good to take a resting breath of fresh air.

3. Picked up my orange tie that I had spilled crap on.

4. Picked up legal drugs from the Pharmacy and bought some Keto bread and Keto muffins.

5. Enjoyed a nice sunset as we fought traffic all the way into downtown.

6. Visited and had dinner with Luigi and Brooklyn and our youngest grandchild. Always a good time!

Retired/Missionary Life. Saturday.

1. Believe it or not, today was Old Folks Go To Breakfast Day. So we joined myriad of other old people and went to Gateway Cafe in Plummer and scarfed down some scrambles. (yes, I did indeed substitute a side salad for the hashbrowns...)

2. Walk on the Trail of the CDAs and filled up with cheap Idaho gas.

3. Hanna bathed the dogs. They love water and the muddier the better. If they get close to a puddle or pond, they are in! But to have a shower? Doesn't make them so happy. I'm trying to understand this conflict.

4. Stake Conference in the evening where we were edified by various leaders and members of our church talking to us. We reconnected with several folks we hadn't seen in a while and gave a ride to our new friend who joined the church just last week. Very sweet experience!

5. It was tough having a Saturday with no football..........but I got through it.

MORE FOR JUST DEL AND ELLA:

Just as we were getting ready to leave for conference, the Sisters texted. "Cassie is having a rough day, really wants to go to conference, but doesn't have a ride, Can you???" Of course we can. So we actually got to meet her in person finally. She told us her story all the way to the church. Abuse. Neglect. Thoughts of Suicide. Being thrown out. And then the Sister Missionaries coming along because we, for some reason, asked them to. She was incredibly upbeat and cheerful and positive. Once there, she had to go say "hi" to just about everyone in the building (she is a total extrovert). On the way home, she talked about her plans to be a missionary some day and was writing notes of her testimony in her journal which she intends to share next Sunday, which is testimony meeting here. Oh yea......she graduated from WA Virtual Academy, wants to be a Marine Biologist, and was really excited when I told her you, Ella, helped come up with the Orca Mascot. Giving her a ride was a great experience and great payoff for being open about my beliefs.

And.........totally confidential until tomorrow at about 10:30am, but Larry has been called to be 2nd Counselor in the Stake Presidency.