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.