A cute girl and more missionaries

                                                       Levi

Levi on her scooter

Sister Stradling and Sister Keith

END OF MISSION IS COMING

February, at our Senior Missionary Meeting, we were told that Salt Lake has decided to end the Senior Missionary Couples Activation Missions in the Pocatello Idaho Mission on June 30, 2012. So we only have a few more months. We have met so many wonderful people and have enjoyed working with them. We are so very THANKFUL we were able to serve the Lord in this way. We encourage everyone (young and old) that can to serve a mission. The MTC (Missionary Training Center) was so inspiring and wonderful and it just got better as we did our mission.

A Neat Family in Rexburg South Stake

The Haws Family

The older children are adopted, they met them when they went to Ethiopia for their honeymoon to work in the orphanage. A wonderful family.

More Neat Missionaries

Sister Dingle

Elder Mendes

Elder Weeks

Archer Ward

A sweet family we met in the Archer Ward

Gage, Lindsay, Jasmine, Riley and Hadlie

The Archer Ward had a delicious Christmas Dinner and Program.

More Missionary Fun

 

December 2011 Missionary Zone Conference

Sister Owens (from Texas), Sister Johnson (from Texas), Sister Stradling (from Arizona) and Sister Koka (from Tonga). These Sister are in our District.

Sister Colton, Mission President’s wife, a wonderful lady.

President Colton, a wonderful man.

A group of us got birthday congratulations and a $5.00 gift card to Wendy’s. That was not the whole group.

They had a talent show, this is a group of Elders and Sisters from our area, they did a Tonga dance. Not sure who won but they were great.

Halloween with a cute family from South Rexburg

We had a garden full of pumpkins, so we invited this family

over to carve some.

Tristian is so cute and had a fun time too (as long as I didn't pick her up).

Ashley's pumpking with horns

Sister Butler's

Brother Butler's

They have other children that couldn't come so we sent them home

with 4 more pumpkins.

Potato Harvest in South Rexburg

These are pictures from Lee Sutton's Potato Farm in South Rexburg



It was very interesting to see how potatoes are harvested



They dig them up first, then another machine comes along and put the potatoes
in a pile, then another machine comes along and picks them up and
puts them on the truck.

The truck then takes them to the potato storage building

As the truck unloads the potatoes workers pull out any stalks or weeds

The potatoes are then piled up in the storage building until sold.
This building is HUGE! He has several huge buildings and when harvest is
over all the buildings are full of potatoes. It is temperature controlled.
Thanks Lee for letting us see how it is all done.

MORE WONDERFUL MISSIONARIES WE HAVE MET

Out on the Job

Sister Price Cleaning up after District Training
Elder and Sister Valoura who serve in the Henry Fork Stake as activation missionaries

Sister Maschek and Sister from Mongolia at district meeting

Elders and Sisters at District Training meeting

Elder Clarke taking couple pictures at special Activation Mission Training meeting on 2nd Saturday of the month in Idaho Falls

Sister Buhrmester finishing notes after Saturday training meeting.

Brett - one of the friendliest brothers I ever met.

What a Kick Off

On Sunday we met with the Idaho Pocatello Mission Presidency; the Rexburg Idaho South Stake Presidency; and some of the Bishops, High Council and Ward Mission Leaders. We were introduced to our assignment and given a charge and direction for our efforts. The Stake leaders are ready to help anyone and everyone within their boundaries that need help. The love that they show for their members is very impressive. My sweet companion and I are chomping at the bit to get started. We thank you for your sustaining thoughts and prayers.

Mission Training Center

Last day of district classes. The Burnams were heading to Russia; We are going to Pocatello and the Bohne's are headed to the Chezk Republic.
Elder Pike one of our excellent instructors

This is one half of the cafeteria that feeds over 2000 three times a day.


My sweet angel companion about to enter into the MTC building .

We only have to go this far.

The Morning before we left to the MTC from our daughter's home in Lindon, UT.

What a week. It has been a long time since we have had such intense training. We met many new people and were amazed at the many bright and shiny young men and women preparing to go on their mission all over the world. There were also a good selection of Senior Missionaries. We also had a great devotional given by Elder Patrick Kearon and his wife. His English accent was delightful.

We are now Missionaries

This afternoon at 4pm we went to the home of President Phillip Wightman, our Stake President, and were set apart as full time missionaries in the Idaho Pocatello Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We received blessings and promises that if we do our best to follow the directions contained therein we will have a successful mission experience. We need your prayers to help sustain us in this effort. Thank you.

Here we go Again!

In our last post we indicated that we had submitted papers for another mission. And guess what? We received our call letter signed by President Monson a week ago. We will be serving a Live At Home Member and Leader Support mission in the Idaho Pocatello Mission. Our assignment will be to work with less active individuals and families in trying to bring them back into the fold and prepare them to go to the temple and be sealed. It should be a real challenge for us. We are certainly excited to say the least.

Next week we will go to the Mission Training Center in Provo, Utah. We will be staying there and will finish that part of our training on Friday. I'm certain it will be very intense. A week from Sunday we are to meet with Mission President Colton, President Howard, Elder Clarke and a nearby Stake President (and maybe some Bishops) and start planning our effort. We expect to be assigned to a Stake somewhere nearby Rexburg so we will be able to attend meetings etc., with the people we will be working with.

One might ask why would we want to do this? Why not just sit back and play golf, travel and plant gardens, etc.? The reason is simply that I know that everything that relates to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. When I pick up the scriptures and read them I know that they contain a history of mankind's effort on earth. I know that those who have written their experiences were there and they saw what they saw. I have a testimony that the Book of Mormon is Another Testament of Jesus Christ and that we have modern scripture provided to us by living prophets. I know that Joseph Smith was the instrument by which the Church of Jesus Christ was restored to this earth after the great apostasy and that he saw Our Heavenly Father and Our Savior when they appeared to him as a 14 year boy. I have a testimony that these events did really happen, are continuing to happen as prophesied, and that if one jot of the things that are written are true, then all of it is true.

I know that Our Father in Heaven provided this earth for us to receive our bodies and to come here to experience life and to exercise our free agency. We have the choice to either accept or reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We can choose to have faith that the Savior came to earth, lived and taught us the Gospel Plan that will bring about eternal life. We have the opportunity to accept that he paid for our sins with His blood and overcame death for all mankind by being resurrected. We have a choice to be baptized by full immersion by one who has authority from God, as he showed us by His example; to receive the Holy Ghost and to endure to the end of our lives or not. It is up to each of us individually. All I can do is testify that I know that the Plan of Salvation; (ie. the Gospel) is real and it is there for each of us as individuals to act. In fact, I know these things to be true and I testify of them in His Holy Name - even Jesus Christ, Amen.

That is why we are doing this mission.

THE END

Our mission is over, we had a wonderful experience! We worked with some wonderful people and highly recommend this type of mission.

We have submitted paper for another mission, more information to come.

Angel Gowns

Madison Memorial Hospital has had the Humanitarian Room make several things for them. Recently they asked us to make these little gowns and blankets. Madison Memorial has more births than any other hospital in Idaho, therefore they have more stillborns. They asked us to make little (they look like doll gowns they are so small) gowns and blanket holders so they could put the stillborn babies in them for the parents to hold before the bodies are sent away. We decided to call them Angel Gowns. We make them in girl and boy colors.

Car Trouble

We were delivering meals on Thursday and were about halfway through the route when steam started coming out from under the hood. We pulled over and Glenn checked under the hood and couldn’t find anything wrong. We decided to try and get back to the Senior Center and take our car the rest of the route. Thankfully, we made it back with out the car catching on fire and got the rest of the meals delivered. The car is now in the shop for repairs. I know the Lord was watching out for us, there was so much steam coming out that I thought there would be a car fire.

Blizzard hits Rexburg

The week of Thanksgiving a blizzard hit Rexburg. The blowing snow made it hard to see, the roads were closed all around Rexburg. The Senior Center and Humanitarian Center were both closed all week, we could not deliver meals to anyone.

Packing School Kits - Hard Work

We received an order from Salt Lake for 4 pallets of school kits (1920 kits). There was a great deal of confusion regarding what exactly the structure of the back pack would be. Would it be the old or the new style? Should we unpack a pallet full of old style backpacks or what? Anyway, we started in a panic to cut and sew the new style backs with cords for straps. We also ordered a large supply of materials including backpacks from Salt Lake so we could start packing them. Guess what, when the order arrived we found the old style bag was just fine. In order then to fill the order I set up an assembly line and we got to work. As of this entry we had completed about 1200 kits of the 1920 needed.

Jason Ricks ready to go to work
Items to be placed in the backpack include - 450 sheets of paper in spiral notebooks, 4 pencils, an eraser, a pair of sissors, a pencil sharpener, a box of colored pencils, and a ruler. We also add a card with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints spelled out in about 10 different languages.


A completed pallet of 480 school kits. (very heavy)
The pallet is then wrapped with cellophane and delivered to the trailer for shipment.