What shall we do now?
First let me just say "Spring is
not Here" despite our wonderful weather.
(Sorry, much of this may be a repeat of past blogs. Not much to report)
Many Senior missionaries serve their mission
being assigned to a place with assigned hours, just like a regular job.
As MLS missionaries we are often asked, “What
do you do?” They wonder
what WE do to keep busy and how we serve.
As MLS missionaries we are here
to serve in any way we can. As for us we like to think of ourselves as “Jack of
All Trades”! We will do whatever you
want or whatever you can get us to do.
On Fridays we work in the mission
office and box up and get out the missionaries, “Needs List”.
At this time the mission office has no janitor, so the mission office people are trying to
keep up everything beside the office work, vacuuming, cleaning the bathroom and hauling off trash.
We now go in early and do this saving
them the extra work. We give rides to friends for the missionaries,
check cleanliness of missionary’s apartment (house checks).
We ran home for Veva's check up and picked up some wonderful sourdough bread from my grandson's (Layton) wife (Kaci) and shared it with the missionaries as we did house checks. We gave it to them on Thursday and by Saturday morning, this was all they had left. So, so good sourdough!
We clean out apartments when
missionaries leave and haul off their trash plus put back in the apartment items that are missing.
In our assigned ward we keep the bulletin
board up to date with ward announcements. Once a month we teach Sunday School. We provide
childcare for after church classes and sometimes during church.
On Thursday after YMCA, we provide extra food for those in need in our ward (we're
known as the vegetable pushers).
We take pictures of new members coming in for the bishop’s office (sometimes we're called the headhunters).
We continue
to minister to the members in the care centers that are not being reached. Two of the sisters are not in our boundaries but have their records with us.
We continue to volunteer for service projects
that come up.
In talking to the Stake Pres. I asked about all the food that the church had been sending to Los Angeles. He informed me that that would stop. The church is now at a point that the members are needing the food from their Bishop Store houses, and they no longer will be sending out food.
Finished product which will be handed out to the cars as they come in for the food.
We attend Senior Missionaries celebrations at the
Pres. home. We have been able to provide the main dish (smoked turkey sent all the
way from Bunkerville to California), and drinks from the YMCA.
As you may be aware or remember as the Rowley's went home, they asked us to take their place in preparing the Zone Conference meals. We did the first Zone Conference and prepared meals for 120 missionaries on Tuesday and 120 on Wednesday.
This means we order the food and then pick it up at the Pres. home and take it to the mission office and try to fit it in the fridges (or our own fridge) until we take it to the conferences.
(That is Costco's order and on the day of the conference we stop at Smart and Final to pick up the rest of the food. (Getting it all in the car takes great planning)
The day of the conference we have GREAT Senior missionaries who come in to help us as soon as the missionary's car checks are done.
What a beautiful sight!
Such wonderful people all working together to further the Lord's work!
Just half of the missionaries we fed.
Job done and we're tired, BUT we need to pack up leftovers to take home and find a place for them before we rest!
With our Zone Conference done on Tuesday this time (2nd one we did), we were able to help with checking missionary's cars on Wednesday. (We didn't have to do Wednesday's cooking because the regular man was off his vacation and he covered Wednesday, like he usually does.)
We say goodbye to checking the cars at Zone Conference.
We have now been asked to do the Luncheons at Zone Conference. We were informed that the next one in May will be the last for our Pres. and so they want us to do both days and to make it special.
The one in July will be our new Pres. (Lord Newel) and they want us to do both days and to make that one special as well!
I know, I know I can't cook... but you see they are desperate for someone to do it and all they have is Sister Snyder and I (Jack of All trades).
As I said before, we went home for Veva's 6 months checkup. While there we picked up Sourdough bread and cinnamon rolls from Kaci Woods. (Layton's wife) she sells them online.
We brought some back to the missionaries that we do house checks with and to our YMCA group. By the time I remembered to take a picture of the spread we had laid out it was the end of the day, and it was almost gone.
Veva wanted a picture of one of the drunks who come each Thursday to the YMCA. This is the one who showed up today. The beautiful part is they do not come drunk anymore! We really enjoy them when they are sober. It's the little guy in the middle. He is also the one that fell and hit his head when we first came (he was drunk then).
Avi insisted that I take a picture with him also. By the time we took the picture he had tears in his eyes Avi told me. God really does love all of his children....
This may not interest you, but I found it interesting. This peanut butter that was donated to the YMCA for us to handout was made WHERE???
A Product of India! I was very surprised...
Also, at church we are still working through the combination of English and Spanish language in church. The missionary sisters tried this in one of our Gospel Doctrine classes.
As Cinco taught the class, the sister missionaries repeated his words into their phones and the app translated his lesson onto the white board for the Spanish people to read. I thought it was creative, but the sisters said it was hard work. I do think there was less Spanish participation in class that day. But we all are trying to bring unity in this new adventure.
Remember this car..... do you see them often? We do
It still amazes me when we see this car drive by without a driver! The best part is that someone here tried to steal a car like this, but couldn't because they didn't know how to drive it. Dumb crazy crooks!
Across the street two young people order this car and it pulled up with NO driver and then took them away. CRAZY!
If there was ever a problem, how do you report? Who do you say it is?
This is our Johnny Mask. He dressed up for church. I told him he looks like a gangster and is now ready to do another movie.
(Yes that's our Sister Snyder and Bart in the background)
Guess who showed up in our ward for church this past Sunday?I went up to her after church and ask her is she happened to have a sister living in Mesquite, Nevada.
She said "I live in Mesquite and I am a member of your ward there!" By the time church was over she had told my daughter Jennifer where she was and that we had met. (This is Sister Tausinga)
As we close and say goodbye, once again we end with a loving picture of our Sister Elisabeth Child. She was telling us goodbye as they were leaving the mission field.
Goodbye and farewell till we converse again......
