A Great Conference Week-end

Thought this picture says a lot.  We have it up in our bathroom

We hope all of you are safe and healthy right now.  It seems no group is immune to this COVID-19.  We haven’t hear of any one we know contracting this and hope it stays that way.  We pray for all of you each day.  We look forward, as requested from our prophet, President Russll M. Nelson, to fast as a world on Friday, April 10th - Good Friday.  United prayers and fasting can have a miraculous effect.

This was our first full week working at the Mission Office.  I think we both are feeling pretty comfortable in our tasks.  We both have previous experience in that type of setting and it is proving super helpful.  Walt is a wiz on the computer and is my go to guy when I get stuck.  I’ve had to re-learn a few programs like Excel, Word, etc.  I have spent the last year or so working with the programs on Macs.  It isn’t taking long to recall my skills.  The first week felt a bit overwhelming but that is disappearing.  There are still some challenges, but we are up to the task.  It’s always good to learn new things.

We like being an intricate part of the mission office.  It’s great to be helpful in a time of constant changes.  This coming up week we have 27 missionaries returning home and transfers.  The transfers are mostly to cover the holes created by 47 missionaries leaving in the past 3 weeks.  With no new missionaries coming in, it should be interesting to see what adjustments to the mission will need to be made.  

Walt is the Vehicle Coordinator.  He takes care of all aspects of the mission vehicles - mostly trucks.  This includes repairs, oil changes, accidents/incidents, gas cards, and mileage. There are 97 vehicles.   Each month each missionary companionship completes a DVR (Driver vehicle record) and sends it to the Coordinator (now Walt).  There is a lot to the process.  Since my working isn’t abundant right now, I am helping him with the paperwork.  Things like keeping track of who has sent theirs in, verifying the receipts of gas purchases on the form and through their gas card statements.  I also helped him get his accident reports filed in an organized manner.  This is my favorite.  I just love office work and organization.  It’s nice to be able to help him out.  

My duties include mail, referrals (not sure how to do that yet.  I haven’t gotten any), Baptismal records, buying supplies for the office, and ordering names tags.  So far the name tags and supplies have taken most of my time.  There have been some baptisms, but feel that might be slowing down with the restrictions from COVID-19.  The missionaries are trying their best to proselyte through technology and share the gospel.  It is challenging right now.

We had the best April Fool’s joke this year.  We woke up to a couple of inches of snow.  It’s Spring! - April fools - maybe still winter.  We only had a couple of super cold days, but now the temperatures are getting better.  We still get a lot of wind, but at least the sun is shining.  The back (all our windows and sliding glass door in our new apartment faces the South so we get sunshine the whole day. 

The quilt Sister Erickson gave us.

Wednesday was Dad’s and Richard Smith’s birthday.  Two people born on the perfect day for their personalities.  We also celebrated the 32nd anniversary of our family getting sealed for time and all eternity in the Washington DC temple.  Michelle was five and Beth only 4 months old.  What an amazing experience that was for us.  The following day (April 2nd) was our 38th wedding anniversary.  We don’t get caught up in too much hoopla for such things.  Our goal has always been to be together the whole day.  No problem this year.  We kept visiting one another through out the day.  In Walt’s office, we can kiss since it’s more private.  Hee Hee!!

We did get brave and order take-out from Olive Garden.  We had gotten a gift card for a couple of restaurants for Christmas.  It worked out well since they have curb side service. Just used hand sanitizer.  

We have felt we were all done with any shopping - for groceries is all we do.  Friday we were talking to Kate and she was mentioning how flour is one of those items all stores are out of.  For some reason, needing flour hadn’t crossed my mind and we didn’t have that much.  We keep thinking we only need to prepare for two weeks of isolation, but as things worsen, we want to only be at home or at work, no public contacts.  So we braved it and went to find flour.  We did find some wheat flour; which should do fine.  So that is our last shopping trip (only the fourth time we have said this.). Whatever we have will be sufficient for several months; hopefully to the end of our mission.  I told Walt we can always go on the “Survivor” diet - rice.  We have plenty of that. 

One of our food storage shelves in the 2nd bedroom closet

With the new recommendations to wear masks in public, we found some patterns online and ordered for curb pickup some material and elastic from Joann Fabric.  Our order is finally ready and will get the curbside pickup.  We have a sewing machine that came with the apartment and am sure we can figure it out.  It’s a pretty old one.  It will give us a project to work on.  Last night we wanted to go for a walk and wanted to be responsible citizens, so we grabbed some handkerchiefs to make do for a face mask for now.  We looked more like bandits.  It was a good laugh.  We never saw a soul, so just wore them around our necks and were ready to cover when necessary.  It was a bit chillier than we thought and it was there for keeping our faces warm.

Coronavirus Bandits

That is all the news for this week.  We don’t have that much adventure or excitement going on these days.  When it’s warmer, we will probably go on a hike or two.  Probably looking for trails less populated than the last one.  We will try to take some pictures this week of the office and the Wilds.  

We would love to hear how you all are doing.  Just send a small reply to this email and let us know how you are getting through these crazy times and that all is well with you.    

The last thing to comment on is the General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  We have this twice a year - April and October.  In last October’s Conference, President Nelson asked us to prepare for a very special April 202 General Conference.  It would be a memorable experience.  It is the 200th anniversary of the vision Joseph Smith received in a grove of trees from Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ.  What a miraculous experience and event.  It was the beginning of the restoration of Christ’s church on this earth.  What blessings we have experienced in our lives because of this restoration.  Our faith is our lives, and we try our best to follow the Savior.  The Conference has been truly up lifting.  The main theme I have gotten from this Conference and others messages shared from our Prophet is to “Hear Him.”  Hear the Savior and his message for us - learn of Him, follow Him.  We are encouraged to recognize how we personally Hear Him, and “ to take steps to hear Him better and more often,”  No matter our choice of faith, we can ALL do this.  It’s a personal thing.  The Savior knows us personally and we should know Him in the same manner.  

Along with this thought was our counseling to work to increase our capacity to receive personal revelation.  This takes daily effort through prayer and studying His words, the scriptures.  They say when you need to talk to God - pray.  When you want to have God talk to you - read your scriptures.  I have had so many experiences with that and especially reading and studying the Book of Mormon this year.  It is truly another witness of our Savior and His teachings.  

We pray you each continue to be safe and cautious through this very unprecedented time of such a thing as this insane virus.  We want all of you to be healthy and safe.  We are doing all we can to do the same.  

We're sorry there are not more pictures.