Lasts and Last Minute

We have had our last transfer sending 23 missionaries home and receiving only 8.  This resulted, as you can imagine, in a few area closures. In the next two groups the mission will loose 18 and 30 respectively. These last few groups are those that came in on the "WAVE" after the age change announcement. We don't know at this time how many will come in.  This influx of returned missionaries trying to get back into college is effecting those who are trying to get into BYU as well.  It seems that the majority who are being accepted are those who went there before their missions.  It appears that the emphasis of "every member a missionary" will be much needed in maintaining the teaching pools of the mission.

Also on the list of lasts were the last leadership council, last interviews, except for emergencies, last minute transfers, last zone conferences, and last minute lunches with former missionaries from Belem and area secretaries, plus anyone else who we can squeeze into the last two weeks.

We participated last Saturday and Sunday in our last Stake Conference in Itaqua stake.  It was under the direction of the Area Seventy, Elder Leal, and was perhaps the best one yet.  The choir was super good and set the stage for a reverent, spirit-filled meeting. His teachings were direct and straight from his training meetings with the Brethren at the last General Conference. It is always such a humbling experience to speak when the Spirit is so strong.  Sunday will be our actual "last" Stake Conference meetings and last Fireside Sunday Evening.

 On May 28 the movers came to pack up our  4 bags and pictures which we were sending home instead of hauling them all the way to California and back to Utah with us.


 This week the painters are at the house sprucing it up for the new couple, so I guess all that is  left is to pack our bags, pick up President and Sister Silcox and head for California.

I had to take one last picture of

our Christmas Poinsettia.  It started as a little three inch plant in the house at Christmas.  Lia, our housekeeper planted it outside in February and it has continued to grow and brighten this corner of our veranda.  By Christmas it should be a wonderful addition to the holiday decorations.


We are so grateful for our wonderful, dedicated office staff  and APs that have taken care of so many details associated with the everyday workings of the mission as well as the changeover to a new president .  We can't imagine life in the mission without them.

Our appreciation and love also goes out to our wonderful housekeeper Lia who just comes and does her magic and leaves without any fanfare.  She has certainly lightened my load not having to worry about maintaining our wonderfully comfortable apartment.

So many blessing filled days in this short term mission!! This will probably be the LAST time we will write until we see you all again.  Thank you again for your love and support. This mission has been such a wonderful blessing in our lives!!!

The Merry Month of May

I am always amazed that so much time has passed since I updated this blog.  Seems like the months that we are on the road for interviews or zone conferences we are hardly home long enough to think about anything else.  Such has been the case this month.

The week following the Conference with Elder Clayton we spent a wonderful two days in the temples with our missionaries.  Through their efforts we were able to complete 171 more endowments for the Chester side of the family.  The missionaries are always so excited to be able to be part of our lives and provide such a great service.  In the short time we have been here, according to my calculations, we have been able to do the work for about 400 of our ancestors. As you can see by the pictures, the days that we go to the temple bring so much happiness and meaning into our lives.

It was so great to visit with most of you on Mother's day.  Brother and Sister Saturnino, who are the miracle workers who do the food for us anytime we have an event, invited us to have lunch with their family on Mothers day.  President and Sister Dalton and their daughter from the S. P. Interlagos mission were also there.  It was great to visit and compare notes with them.  They were at one time in Deb's ward in Tracy.

Because of the expenses in transporting the missionaries to the Conference and the Temple this month we decided it would be better to take the Leadership Training out to each zone instead of bringing them all into the office, so we put our two assistants in the car with us and went on the road doing two mini training sessions a day for 5 days. Normally only the Zone Leaders and Sister Leaders are invited to this training, but this time we included the District Leaders and were able to do a lot of practicing with the missionaries.  We hope that that will be helpful to them on how to better train their Zones and Districts.  It was exhausting for the two of us but part of the work.

The GOOD NEWS this week is that we received our Travel Plans!!!

 and  Brother and Sister Silcox, our replacements, have received their visas and travel plans as well!!!   Looks like everything is official now.  The movers will be here Thursday to pick up the suitcases we are sending home. We are excited but still have transfers, another Zone Leaders Council, 3 Stake Conferences and a Fireside to keep us busy until we leave the end of June.

So happy for Craig, Jean and Family as Craig is called today to be a counselor in the Bishopric! One of those wish we were there days.  Love to you all.

Mission Lows and Highs

Since our last entry, we spoke in another Stake Conference and headed out in the evening to present a fireside in yet another part of the mission.  Turned out that it had been cancelled because it was scheduled with an Elder who went home on this last transfer and the new Elders had not followed through with the arrangements.  Fine, we thought, lets go home and have a quiet evening enjoying a piece of the cake I had made on Saturday.  Things are just never that simple in the mission field.  As we headed home, we receive a phone call that one of our Elders had gone missing.  The Assistants got on it right away and by 9:30 pm the Elder had returned to his apartment and called in.  He just got fed up with his companion who didn't want to work and was hanging around the church building and went out to make street contacts by himself.  Turned out he returned with 5 promising contacts. Needless to say in the end after interviews, etc. they were both transferred by the following Tuesday when we had a new missionary, a visa waiter, come into the mission and the President spent the day driving all over the mission, shuffling missionaries around.  I think I have said before that any transfer is like a domino effect.  It's never easy!

During the week we were dealing with the transfers, we received a call that one of our Sister missionaries had fainted.  With a member`s help, she was taken to a doctor who said that she needed to immediately go to a psychiatrist.  We brought her and her companion to our home, called the mental health medical advisers and the next day, took her to the psychiatrist.  Turns out she had been treated prior to the mission and was on medication for serious mental problems, but had stopped treatment and taking her meds, assuming that the mission and the Lord would solve all her problems. It seems that none of this was reported on her mission papers that she submitted.  I can't begin to tell you how many times this happens, according to the mental health advisers.  We put her on a plane Thursday morning accompanied by our wonderful medical adviser, Dr. Swensen and his wife and in a few hours she was at home where she will begin treatment again and yet have a full, successful life.

After such a turbulent week, Friday we had a wonderful three hour Special Conference in conjunction with the Brazil Sao Paulo North Mission with Elder L. Whitney Clayton, one of the 7 presidents of the Seventies and his wife,  as well as Elder Aidukaitis of the Area Presidency and his wife.  Two zones of our missionaries gave a special musical number which I had the privilege of directing.  We sang the Medley of "I Know that My Savior Loves Me" and "I Know that My Redeemer Lives".   For us, the teachings of this Conference were a confirmation that all we had been trying to teach in the few short months that we have been here was what our missionaries needed to hear and was reinforced by these great brethren at this conference.

We left the conference feeling rejuvenated and happy to be where we are and  grateful for all of these special experiences.  

No Stake Conference today, just the wonderful privilege of meeting in a Fast and Testimony meeting with the Saints to renew our Covenants and be blessed by the Spirit.  More blessings coming this next week as we attend two sessions in the temple with our missionaries.

Happy Mothers Day to each of our dear daughters and Jean!  We send our love to all of you!

Orchids and Missionaries

As I looked at the calendar last month I could not believe that the days had flown by so fast. We were able to get to the annual orchid show in Liberdade, the China town of Sao Paulo, long enough to soak in the amazing beauty and diversity of these flowers.  I just wish I could grow them in arid Utah.

The other highlight of the month was a reunion with our Belem missionaries.  The large chapel by the Sao Paulo temple was filled with missionaries, their spouses, and their darling children, our adopted Brazilian grandchildren.  The afternoon was spent watching a video of days in Belem, visiting, singing and feeling the spirit of the mission, drinking pink Guarana Jesus that comes from one particular area of the north, and taking pictures.  Former missionaries came from the surrounding areas and as far as 1000 miles away and even Idaho.  It is such a joy to hear of their after mission successes and continued service in the building of the Kingdom.

Our weekends were filled with Stake Conferences, and we began our 3 week long run of missionary interviews which we have just finished.  As you know that involves a lot of travel for us.  This past week as we were on the highway headed up north we had a little scare.  We were passing a large dump truck and just as we were even with it, one of the truck tires exploded with a loud blast and shook our car a bit.  No damage to us or our car but just one more experience to write home about.

We managed to squeeze in another Fireside.  Those always provide another adventure in our lives.  We never quite know just what to expect.  In this case it turned out that the address was correct but when we arrived there was no chapel to be seen.  We drove around a few blocks without success and then called the Elders.  Turned out it was a rented building, which we finally located.  As we use a power point with videos,  having the technology, screen,  electrical outlets etc is always tricky.  In this case the screen was improvised with a portable chalkboard covered with a white cloth, I think it was probably also the Sacrament cloth,  We had electrical power, the right kind of adapter plugs and were able to remove the mic from the pulpit  as needed to use as a portable mic and  to reach the sound from the videos on the computer.  You have to be creative in the mission field.  If it had been totally up to us this could have been a disaster.  Thankfully, it was the wonderful young men in the ward who had put together the program to teach about the importance of the Faith in God program and their preparation to serve missions, who came to the rescue and made it all work  They also sang a hymn in English for us and brought a beautiful spirit to the meeting.

We are getting ready now for transfers again.  This month we will loose 15; 11 Brazilians and 4 Americans and gain 15 or 16.  It seems we never know exactly how many are arriving until the day before it happens.  The Americans continue to trickle in a few at a time.  (Transfers were finished yesterday and we are enjoying a nice, quiet, rainy day in our peaceful apartment finally posting this blog.)

We are so proud of all of our family missionaries Bryce, Tynan, Cameron, and Andrew serving at this time and want them to know what an inspiration they are to us.   I have used some of their exemplary missionary experiences to teach our missionaries here occasionally.

Spiritual and Physical Refreshment

This has been a fun week and a week filled with the Spirit on both ends.  We started off the week with a Stake Conference in a Stake close to home, a Fireside Sunday night in our stake and a Stake Conference to end the week in Sao Jose dos Campos about 2 1/2 hours away.  The latter involved a change in the Stake Presidency so we had the privilege of being taught by Elder Leal, a 70, and President Aidukaitis of the Area Presidency.  Pres. Aidukaitis is really a fun but very powerful speaker. Of course, at each conference we had the opportunity to share our testimonies.  I am always so touched at the inspired words that Dad gives and sometimes even at my own as we try to speak as the spirit directs.  So many blessings, so many tender mercies that are indescribable but real and personal.

We always are so blessed as we mingle with the Saints to encounter our missionaries from Belem and renew the "fire" of that time in our lives.  This weekend we have both had tender moments with a couple of our current missionaries and felt the Spirit as we listened and gave counsel to them.

As we participated in these Stake Conferences I wrote down today some of the things that have improved as we have watched the Church and its members "Grow up into him in all things..." (Ephesians 4:15).  Some of the changes I noted were:  good choirs; pianists; chapels filled to the brim for Stake Conferences, even with the need for two sessions in some cases; talks that indicated understanding, testimony and covenant members. Seasoned leaders and an abundance of returned missionaries to strengthen the Wards and Stakes. We feel that the church is strong and can "Carry On" and continue to grow as they work to be, personally and as a Church, self-reliant and self sustaining.  I think we have mentioned before that this is the emphasis of the Area at this time. For us the past 55 years and more recently the past 15 years that we have been involved in the work here has been a great revelation of the Hand of the Lord moving across this country to gather his Children to the Stakes of  Zion and eventually Home.

On the lighter side, after  working over transfers last week, Dad woke up one morning and said, "I need to drive to the BEACH today."  The drive there was beautiful as we came down through the hills.  The purple flowering trees and the falls on the way were amazing.

 

As we got down to the coast we took a ferry over an inlet to the beach area of Guaruja where we had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the bay, and were refreshed!

                                        

This area actually use to be part of our mission until as recently as two years ago when the Santos Mission was created.

A Week in the Life....

These passed 10 days have been filled with a few more different challenges and experiences than usually occur over such a short period of time.

Mon. Feb 16:  We had two elders out of commission, one with a back problem and the other with knee problems. We brought them into the office for a 2 week extended stay to get treatment. Two of our Assistants went out to take their places. Happy to report they are both improving and one of them will go back into the field with the next transfer. It looks like the other Elder will work as an assistant secretary and continue with medical treatment until he goes home in September.  He really wanted to be able to finish his mission and so far the church medical staff are in agreement with that. It rarely happens that way.

Tues. Feb 17-18:  Carnival and Zone Conference. We did not see or hear much of Carnival around here. It was pretty quiet. However, because of a conflict with her companions, a Sister who was in a trio,  decided to take off on her own after the Zone Conference. Of course that was extremely worrisome for us, especially because it was Carnival night and there are a lot of people in the streets drinking etc. She was finally located about 11:30 pm in another area where she had served. She stayed  with the Sisters serving there and the next day we picked her up and took her out to an area in the interior.  Things must be working out as we have not heard  any complaints so far.  

To add a little more interest to the week, we had a Brazilian Elder come down with the Chicken Pox.  

As it is said, “ And all  these things shall give thee experience.”  Honestly at our age we are not quite sure why we need experiences like this now.  I guess we are still lacking in something or other. 

Feb. 20 -22. Reprieve!  We spent the weekend in a Mission Presidents Seminar under the direction of the Area Presidency and were filled and rejuvenated. The focus of the area is on becoming self-reliant as an entire country in all aspects of the church. As part of that they hope to contribute 7000 youth and couples to the missionary force this year. Once again as we have said before, we consider it such a privilege to serve at this time of the acceleration of the work.

I had a chance to visit for a few minutes with Cameron’s (Elder Chester) mission president and to hear of the great work he is doing in Fortaleza. This week the letters from Tynan and Bryce were so exciting and we are so grateful for the dedicated service of each of them and the choice experiences they are having.  Can't move on without saying also how proud we are of Adam and his outstanding accomplishments in his military training.

Feb. 24. The last of this series of Zone Conferences.  Love the Zone Conferences and the chance to be up close and personal with the missionaries.  

Feb.25. Dad was out in the interior with the Assistants giving training to the Zone Leaders, District Leaders and Sister Leaders. Did you know there are Sister Leaders in the missions now?  They are a great help in training the Sisters in ways in which the Elders are limited.

    

We had a huge tropical depression come through, high winds, lots of rain and hail. 

Knocked the power out for most of the afternoon and evening in our area and left many streets flooded.  Other than slow going, Dad and the Elders made it home OK, after the worst part of the storm was over. Its great that we live on the second and not the thirteenth floor of the apartment building.  

Our New Dodge Journey 

Feb. 26:  As I am writing this, the clouds are beginning to billow up and we are probably in for another round this afternoon. So  we will send you our love and get this off before the power goes off.

Happy US Valentines Day!

January ended with 18 missionaries going home, 13 new missionaries arriving and many being transferred to new areas. We always think that “ this transfer will not be all that big” but it's like a domino effect, especially when there are so many leaving. The meeting with the new missionaries and their trainers was very special. The new trainers are some of our best missionaries and the Spirit in that meeting was one of Love and dedication. That same spirit was there as we met with those missionaries being transferred. We are definitely beginning to see a change for the good in the mood and the culture of the mission.

February brought with it an upsurge of an intestinal virus that has plagued many of us since the onset of the new year. The missionaries, even though they feel rotten, hate it when I say they have to stay down for 3 days. Probably the worst medicine I could recommend. I say plagued us, because I also had it.  Dad says he hasn't had it because “coke” kills all the germs.  I think it is really due to the poor water quality here.  Thank goodness all missionary apartments now have bottled mineral water in them. It's when thy are out or having lunch in members homes and they make juice for them that is the problem. From our experience in Belem the education of the members just takes a long time. Probably longer than we have here. I am giving education on the whole subject as part of my trainings this month in the Zone Conferences.

I had a wonderful birthday talking to many of you and preparing my birthday lunch with our staff. I am rarely home long enough to do any major cooking and at my age I don’t seem to be able to whip it up like I used to. One of our assistants ask me if I always made my own birthday dinner. I assured him that I did not but one of the advantages of doing so was that I could make what ever I wanted to and what ever I liked. And I did. We had pulled pork sandwiches, macaroni and cheese (Donna’s great recipe), coleslaw with pineapple in it and chocolate cake. 

Elders Melo, Regeher,,Kaopua, Hong, Hill, Raylande 

Saturday and Sunday we participated in the first of the Stake Conferences for the first half of the year,  visited one of our Sisters in the hospital, nothing serious, and spent the day getting ready for Zone Conferences which start this week, and of course Dad was reading missionary letters.

Tuesday and Wednesday we had zone conferences in the two zones in the interior of the mission. The conferences for this round are based around the  “Attributes of Christ” section of Preach My Gospel as well as trainings in finances, key indicators in reports and keeping their houses clean and in order.  We also showed the film “ Meet The Mormons”, which they really enjoyed.

We send you are love and wishes for a HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!! 

Interview Month

Interview month is always a demanding, but at the same time, a joyful experience to get out and communicate one on one with our missionaries.  Sometimes we feel distanced from them, I guess I do more than Dad, because of the way the rotation is stretched out over three months.  With 10 zones it takes about 3 weeks, usually Tues., Wed, and Thurs, of each week, to get about 20 interviews a day done. As soon as all of the interviews are done Dad gets started on the transfers which will happen next Tuesday.

This month we have been able to pretty much attend the regular Sunday Meetings, although in a different ward each week depending on where we are needed, generally to put out fires or help missionaries.  Last week we were invited by one of our Belem Sister missionaries to attend the meetings in the morning in her ward and then have lunch with their extended family, of which another one of our missionaries is a part.  Our Sister, in the pink on the left, served at the same time as the one on the right, our Elder Itoi. They returned home about the same time and she ended up meeting and marrying his brother.  So one big happy family as you can see!

 We spent a wonderful day  reminiscing about the Belem mission etc. We topped the day off giving a fireside in one of the adjoining wards where our Elder Itoi is the counselor in the Bishopric. It was really such a special day!

The last two Sunday evenings we have given firesides focused on uniting the missionaries and members in the work of Salvation.  The Stakes and Wards  are beginning to put together their mission plans and Dad has been working closely with the Stake Presidencies in this regard.  We probably won`t be here long enough to see the results of this emphasis, but it is a great privilege to be a apart of "Hastening the Work".

Our weather has been crazy the last couple of weeks: torrential rains, hail, thunder and lightening storms, the hottest day on record in the past year in Sao Paulo, and power outages.   In spite of all that, Dad did manage to get a few minutes in the pool on his P-day.

That pretty much covers our adventures for the past 2 weeks.  Pretty hard to describe our experience today trying to find a chapel on a road that doesn`t exist in the GPS.  Such is life in Brazil.

2015

We finished the year, 2014, with two outstanding zone conferences with our missionaries, followed by time with the family via SKYPE on Christmas day, and then with our extended family in the "Christmas Miracle" activity on December 31 also via SKYPE.  It was so great to see everyone up close and personal and hear about each family.

 Thanks to all who worked so hard to make this happen.  We also had visits during the holidays from two of our former Belem missionaries (both of whom are busy Stake Presidents now) and their families.
What could be better than spending time with our loved ones, albeit via the marvels of technology in most cases.  The best part of all for us was the news that Bryce would be returning to the mission field  and  that Annie and Adit (we love him already) would  be getting married in July.  It will be close, in that we leave Brazil on the 1st, but we are planning to be at the Newport Beach temple with all who can make it July 3rd.

The New Year brought a touch of the flu which has been going through the mission and which I am just now getting out of my system  At least Dad has been preserved and is now in the midst of the round of interviews with the missionaries.  Since our last transfer we are down to 199 missionaries.

Of course, we took the time out to watch the New Years parade and the Rose Bowl, and on Saturday we were able to go to the Sao Paulo temple for a session.  The peace and quiet is always so refreshing and allows for the reception of inspiration and revelation which  we are so dependent upon. We will forever be grateful for the preparatory eleven months we had in the Recife Temple prior to this calling.

We look forward to the coming months and the special opportunities to encourage, teach and guide these special emissaries of our Lord at this very exciting time in the history of the world.  In spite of all that is wrong in the world, the Gospel shines bright as a beacon to guide us onward and upward. We are not going to "Sleep through the Restoration" (Pres. Uchtdorf) and are so happy to be a vibrant part of it all.

Our Love and wishes for a   HAPPY 2015!!! to all.

Christmas 2014

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