Yesterday I participated in two baptisms. In the morning, Dulcy was first married to her boyfriend and father of her daughter, then baptized. One of the Relief Society sisters made her a beautiful bouquet of roses, and I made wedding cookies for refreshments. Today she was confirmed a member of the Church in Sacrament Meeting.
In the evening, Farzareh was baptized. It was odd how this came about. The AP's got a phone call last Sunday from the Roseville Mission saying that an investigator had moved into our area and was ready to be baptized. The sisters assigned to our ward asked me to go with them (not sure why) to visit her. She's Iranian and had converted from Muslim to Christian about 5 years ago. She was in an apartment with no furniture--we sat on the floor. She's just undergone a divorce and was there with her two sons, handsome and charming boys. She's living here temporarily, and has purchased a condo several miles away. Her understanding was that she would be baptized in the Roseville Mission on Saturday night (last). She was actually baptized in the ward where her condo is, which is in our mission but in an adjoining stake. I drove the biking sisters. Sister Agavale played the piano and I led the music. One of our elders baptized her (his first), and the bishop from her old area in Roseville spoke. It was one of the sweetest baptisms I've attended. I think her sons will be right behind her.
In between baptisms, Judy Sisco and I saw Les Mis. It's still, in my opinion, one of the finest things written about the nobility of the human spirit. The movie version followed the Broadway production very closely, and I wasn't disappointed.
An emotional, uplifting, satisfying day.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
CHRISTMAS
After Santa's run on Saturday, over 40 packages came into the office on Monday, Christmas Eve. The office elders and assistants donned their elf hats and reindeer antlers and set off, again, to deliver Christmas cheer.Elders Haufano and Walker
Christmas Eve was spent at the home of ward members, who served us a prime rib dinner on Spode Christmas china. Wonderful!
On Christmas morning I hosted the six "little sisters" in our zone for breakfast. One of them brought her family's traditional Christmas morning bread. I made rice pudding and served egg nog with 7-up, neither of which was a hit. But we had a good time. They left to go skype with their families, then wash their bedding. Seems they had slept on the floor of the living room and made a nice fire in the fireplace early Christmas morning...without opening the flue. I've been there and done that. Undaunted, they planned another fire for Christmas night and were pretty sure they could pull this one off. The office elders and assistants apparently had a sleepover, too. They took the tree from the office to their home, so they could sleep underneath it. Kind of a sweet mind picture.
It rained all day. Just as I was climbing into my flannel PJ's for an early night, the biking sisters called me to see if I would pick them up from the church where the zone was playing basketball. Still tucking "kids" into bed...
Star of Bethlehem flowers
And through it all, the work went on. We had 18 baptisms last Saturday, and 4 on Christmas Day. A "white" Christmas and the promise of a happy new year.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
HO HO HO
I'll try recap Christmas so far in the California Sacramento Mission.
Last week every missionary met with their zone at the Mormon Center for temple zone conference. Christmas pictures were taken, instruction given, Christmas lunch provided by local Relief Societies, and a temple session was attended. These conferences were held Tuesday-Friday, to accommodate everyone.
Meanwhile, back at the office, the last-minute packages started pouring in. On Monday alone there were close to 200 delivered. After weeks of carefully logging in each package, color-coding it by zone and placing in the proper "pile," things got out of control. A sweet 87-year-old woman came in to help me. She's very sharp and energetic and has great organizational skills. I didn't discovered till midweek that she couldn't tell hot pink tape from florescent orange.
Some missionaries received 10-12 packages; others nothing. We have 192 missionaries, so do the math. We waited until the last minute to shop, since boxes were still arriving daily. Some moms had called me ahead of time to ask for the names of Island missionaries who wouldn't be getting gifts from home, so we had extra help. On Thursday night, after zone conferences and hauling and stacking boxes all day, we went shopping to buy pajama bottoms, sweaters, etc. Friday night was spent loading the trailer. I should mention here that it has been raining, seriously raining, for days now, so the loading and unloading was done in a downpour.
We left yesterday morning at 6:20 a.m., and finished our Santa run at 8:00 p.m. After all the planning, there were still some missionaries who received nothing. Some whom we had shopped for received packages yesterday, and the office elders waited at the office for mail delivery and then caught up with us with the day's deliveries. But other packages that had been logged in for an individual didn't materialize. We had some generic gifts to give them with no name tags but it was still hard to see one face in every group with nothing from home. It's not a perfect world yet. Everyone did receive a shopping bag full of hygiene items, candy, socks, etc., which we spent Monday night assembling.
Whew! Santa's job is really hard. And it's still raining.
But the up side of the week was watching the missionaries sing together, hug one another, and bear testimony of the meaning of Christmas and the joy they feel in being here, serving their Savior. (Much like a spiritual Who-ville!) Like them, I'll never forget my Christmas in the mission field.
Last week every missionary met with their zone at the Mormon Center for temple zone conference. Christmas pictures were taken, instruction given, Christmas lunch provided by local Relief Societies, and a temple session was attended. These conferences were held Tuesday-Friday, to accommodate everyone.
Meanwhile, back at the office, the last-minute packages started pouring in. On Monday alone there were close to 200 delivered. After weeks of carefully logging in each package, color-coding it by zone and placing in the proper "pile," things got out of control. A sweet 87-year-old woman came in to help me. She's very sharp and energetic and has great organizational skills. I didn't discovered till midweek that she couldn't tell hot pink tape from florescent orange.
Some missionaries received 10-12 packages; others nothing. We have 192 missionaries, so do the math. We waited until the last minute to shop, since boxes were still arriving daily. Some moms had called me ahead of time to ask for the names of Island missionaries who wouldn't be getting gifts from home, so we had extra help. On Thursday night, after zone conferences and hauling and stacking boxes all day, we went shopping to buy pajama bottoms, sweaters, etc. Friday night was spent loading the trailer. I should mention here that it has been raining, seriously raining, for days now, so the loading and unloading was done in a downpour.
We left yesterday morning at 6:20 a.m., and finished our Santa run at 8:00 p.m. After all the planning, there were still some missionaries who received nothing. Some whom we had shopped for received packages yesterday, and the office elders waited at the office for mail delivery and then caught up with us with the day's deliveries. But other packages that had been logged in for an individual didn't materialize. We had some generic gifts to give them with no name tags but it was still hard to see one face in every group with nothing from home. It's not a perfect world yet. Everyone did receive a shopping bag full of hygiene items, candy, socks, etc., which we spent Monday night assembling.
Whew! Santa's job is really hard. And it's still raining.
But the up side of the week was watching the missionaries sing together, hug one another, and bear testimony of the meaning of Christmas and the joy they feel in being here, serving their Savior. (Much like a spiritual Who-ville!) Like them, I'll never forget my Christmas in the mission field.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS
Would anyone believe that I've been too busy to blog? December has been a whirlwind and promises to get even wilder.
Last weekend I flew to Hollywood where I met up with Cheri Reynolds and we drove to the wedding of Nancy and Omar's son, Aron. Quite the party. Featured at the reception were professional dancers, complete with swords and such, performing to Middle Eastern music. The food just kept coming. Fun to see old college roommates.
Transfer week came at a challenging time. I started holding the mail a week ago. Being December, it's been much heavier than usual, so it was piling up around the office by the time I got back to town. Now we're holding all packages so we can deliver them on December 22. Yesterday we received 8 new missionaries, and today we sent home 14. Included in those being released were Elder and Sister Clifton, who have been my dearest friends and supporters in the office. Also leaving is my buddy, Elder Henderson, who made me laugh every single day. (Hope that's not why he was transferred...) I'll miss them all, but will be too busy to notice for awhile. Yesterday and today were 14-hour days, including dinner for the "ins" and "outs." Tomorrow I'll be a companion to a young sister from Christmas Island, whose flight isn't until Friday evening.
She's one of the islanders I took for a ride on the light-rail because they thought they might never have another opportunity to ride a train. It was like taking kids on their first merry-go-round. She's also been one of the biking sisters.
A lot more has happened, but I'm too tired to think about it. Will write later.
Last weekend I flew to Hollywood where I met up with Cheri Reynolds and we drove to the wedding of Nancy and Omar's son, Aron. Quite the party. Featured at the reception were professional dancers, complete with swords and such, performing to Middle Eastern music. The food just kept coming. Fun to see old college roommates.
Transfer week came at a challenging time. I started holding the mail a week ago. Being December, it's been much heavier than usual, so it was piling up around the office by the time I got back to town. Now we're holding all packages so we can deliver them on December 22. Yesterday we received 8 new missionaries, and today we sent home 14. Included in those being released were Elder and Sister Clifton, who have been my dearest friends and supporters in the office. Also leaving is my buddy, Elder Henderson, who made me laugh every single day. (Hope that's not why he was transferred...) I'll miss them all, but will be too busy to notice for awhile. Yesterday and today were 14-hour days, including dinner for the "ins" and "outs." Tomorrow I'll be a companion to a young sister from Christmas Island, whose flight isn't until Friday evening.
She's one of the islanders I took for a ride on the light-rail because they thought they might never have another opportunity to ride a train. It was like taking kids on their first merry-go-round. She's also been one of the biking sisters.
Sister Teerime, my companion of two days. (Quite a change in the amount of "togetherness" between her and my other companion...always within sight and sound.)
A lot more has happened, but I'm too tired to think about it. Will write later.
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