FIRST HOSPITAL TRIP

Both of us routinely get numerous calls from missionaries every day.They begin as early as 6:30 AM and some have started as late as 9:30 PM. We are both trying to teach by example that not all communication needs to be done by phone, that email and texting can meet many needs better.  

 

Thursday evening about 8:30 PM Eileen got a call from a distraught young sister missionary wanting to know what she should do.  Her companion had started feeling bad the prior evening, but now, 24 hours later, was having serious problems.  As it turned out, the young sister was taken to the hospital in an ambulance and we were there late that night. Eileen spent much of the next day with the sister in the hospital. 

 

Eileen has spent most of the last week working with this sister missionary and a few young elders who may need minor surgery.  These potential procedures almost always require the missionary to be sent home to get their needed medical care. However, all of these missionaries want to stay, and if required to go home, want to come back as soon as possible.They all seem to love serving as missionaries, their companions and Missouri.  I didn’t see this same attitude with all the missionaries we served with in the Philippines.  

 

This week Eileen and I each had our first opportunity to talk to a non-member about the Church.  Our callings have kept us so busy that we just don’t associate much with anyone other than missionaries. Eileen got her hair done here for the first time and her hairdresser is a member of the Community of Christ (fka Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or RLDS).  I got to spend time with a truck driver who was picking up five of our cars for resale.  He is Baptist and his wife is Catholic. After talking for a half hour, he told me that his son had “joined the Mormon Church” in a nearby state several years ago.  Given the number of cars we have, my guess is that I will be seeing him again. 

 

I (Eileen) remember a time when we were serving in the Philippines, when  our mission president's wife told me that there were times that at night she thought to herself, I am so tired, I can't do this one more day. Yet in the morning she had renewed strength to carry on her responsibilities.  I can totally relate to that feeling. This week I was dealing with some serious issues with several missionaries potentially requiring them to return home. One night as I came back to our apartment I thought, I hope it will be a quiet night as I am so exhausted.  Shortly afterwards the phone rang and we were off to the hospital for an emergency.  As we returned home late that evening, there was a beautiful lightning storm. No rain accompanied the storm, it was rather magnificent to watch. The next morning as I drove back to the hospital, listening to the tabernacle choir singing "Our Savior's Love", I saw a huge flock of birds flying across the sky.  For some reason, perhaps because I was so in need of some reassurance, I felt powerfully of God's love towards me and also the missionaries I am here to serve.  I also was profoundly grateful for my good companion who had shuttled me to several visits with sick missionaries.

Many years ago when I was elementary school aged, I traveled to some church history sites with my family.  One of the places we visited  was Independence, Missouri. We attended fast and testimony meeting on Sunday.  That day, many Samoans bore their testimonies stating they were there to build the temple in preparation for the Savior's second coming. I was pretty confused and asked my father what they were talking about. He explained that this is the area where many great events will occur in the last days. I never dreamed that someday I would be living and serving in this area as a senior missionary.  

We have been in Missouri for 5 weeks now. During three out of the five weeks in sacrament meeting, the topic of the New Jerusalem and building up Zion in preparation for Christ's second coming has been addressed. Today a young man gave his mission farewell. He is Samoan and will be serving in Samoa.  There were a number of Samoans in the congregation. I wondered if perhaps he might be related to any of the individuals I heard bear their testimony nearly 55 years ago. 

I am responsible for paying the bills. I currently have 68 unpaid bills on my desk.  I have spent hours trying to get the missionaries to pay their $10 copay for Dr's visits. I was happy when I was able to find out that 8 bills have now been paid. 

There was a beautiful chapel at the hospital including a stained glass window of the Savior. This display inside the chapel had a songbook with many of the same songs we sing in our church.

Selling off the cars

OBEDIENCE

 

 Zone conferences are a three day event that takes place every six weeks.  However, due to a visit from our area President last month (our first week here), that zone conference was delayed several weeks to accommodate Elder Wong’s schedule. While at that conference, Elder Wong noticed that we had young elders from different zones helping with the car servicing and inspections that I (Russell) am responsible for.  He suggested to President Sommerfeldt that we should not use the young elders time doing that, which direction President Sommerfelt relayed on to me.

 

I was quite distressed at the thought of taking care of over 90 vehicles, about 30 each day of all future zone conferences, by myself.  I knew Eileen would help me, but she needed to be inside the zone conference where the young missionaries would talk to her about their medical problems.

 

Trying to be obedient but also trying to find a way to still accomplish the tasks assigned to me, I approached some of the senior missionaries.  With the help of our Senior Missionary District Leader, we were able to take care of the vehicle servicing and inspections at zone conference this past week.  In fact it went better and faster than when we had the young elders participating.  The senior sisters can be quite effective motivators for the young missionaries to clean the cars both inside and out.  

 

I am very grateful for the senor elders and sisters who helped me out this week.  And I’m grateful for the direction given by Elder Wong.  He was right and I was doubtful, and I’m learning.  In the process I also found a senior elder who knows how to back up a trailer.  Having to back up the trailer during transfers has been keeping me awake at nights.  God was aware of both my needs and provided solutions to them.  I got two blessing out of being obedient once.

 

Twice a month we have our senior missionary family home evening.  A potluck dinner is held and we have a special presentation by a member of the group.  This past Monday President and Sister Sommerfeldt shared a little about their lives and what miracles have occurred to bring them to the point where they are now.  President Sommerfeldt  asked us if anyone remembered the story about the two little girls who President Nelson had operated on as a young cardiac surgeon. Both girls passed away shortly after the surgery and the family was quite bitter towards him and the Church as a result.  

 

The Hatfield family lives in the Sommerfeldt’s stake in Utah and the  Sommerfeldts knew the family quite well. They related the following story.  Several years ago, when President Nelson was the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, he had a dream where the two young girls came to him saying they were not sealed to anyone and could he please help make it happen.  President Nelson contacted President Sommerfeldt, who was then the Stake President, requested that either he or the family’s ministering brothers approach the Hatfield family and ask them if they would be willing to meet with Elder Nelson. Previously the family had declined similar offers to meet.  

 

This time they accepted the request, forgiveness and  reconciliation occurred and the family returned to activity in the Church. President and Sister Sommerfeldt had the wonderful opportunity to be present in the Payson Temple when the Hatfield father and a proxy for his deceased wife were sealed to the deceased two daughters. It was a good reminder to me (Eileen) of how forgiveness can bring healing to the soul.

 

This morning we listened remotely to our stake conference in Utah during which Dan Wadley was put in as our new stake president. Dan and Lisa live around the corner from us and we have a great deal of respect for both of them.

 

Dan is an ultramarathon runner, sometimes running races as long as 100 miles long.  In June, he was going for a run while on vacation in Puerto Rico. He went into a full cardiac arrest.  He was defibrillated several times and on life support in the ICU with a very grim prognosis. Our stake had a fast for Dan.  Lisa told me that she was expecting to lose her husband. As our ward knelt in the chapel to offer up a prayer for Dan and his family, Dan started becoming responsive and the breathing tube was removed from him.  It is truly a modern miracle that he is alive after all he has been through. Even more of a miracle that he will be able to function in the very busy role of stake president.  Today in his talk, he thanked our stake members for the prayers offered up for him and vowed to serve the Lord knowing that the fact that he is alive today is truly a miracle from on high. 

Elder Covington is a service missionary who is brilliant with computers. I was so grateful for his help in getting my computer working with my two monitors and the office printer.

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These sisters prepared food for one of our zone conferences. The husband of the sister with the apron cooked 50 pounds of BBQ pork for the missionaries. The missionaries loved it.

Senior missionaries getting ready to do their thing. Sister Dunham and Eileen doublechecked the paperwork in every car as the missionaries rolled in. It gave Eileen an opportunity to meet the missionaries. 

Our new stake president Dan Wadley

AN INSTRUMENT IN GOD'S HANDS

When I (Eileen) was being set apart for my mission our stake president said some very memorable things to me.  He mentioned that I would be given the healer’s art and that I would feel the love of the Savior towards His missionaries. This past week I have felt of those blessings.  We have 180 young missionaries in our mission with 32 senior missionaries. I have been trying to put names with faces when I have an opportunity to meet or get a call from missionaries. When a missionary calls in and I am at my computer, I can pull up their file and look at their picture.  I like to do this while I review their medical history and am trying to determine how best to help them.

Last Sunday I noticed a young missionary signing during the hymns in sacrament meeting. I was touched as I observed certain words of the hymn and the accompanying signs in American Sign Language. Two days later this missionary called me and was quite ill. I referred him to the ER.  I found myself feeling so concerned about him, as if he was my own son or grandson, even though I had only met him once before. My thoughts turned back to my setting apart. Is this what Christlike love feels like?  This missionary had a rough couple of days. I heard this morning that his companion is sick, but I have not yet been able to reach them to find out how they are doing.

 

Friday, I talked with a missionary who was really struggling emotionally. My heart was really drawn towards this missionary.  I was grateful that the Church has procedures in place to help when a missionary is having a difficult time, either physically or emotionally. 

 

A number of Church General Authorities and Officers have spoken in recent years about how sometimes God works through us to bless the lives of others.  In the scriptures we read about numerous examples of willing and eager individuals to do God’s will, such as Paul and Nephi.  We also have a few examples of those who are less willing or reluctant to do so, like Jonah.  This week I (Russell) was taught a lesson on this by a fellow senior missionary and my interaction with two cars.

 

Since I’ve been here we have a car in the lot (a fenced area within the Facility Management (FM) group’s buildings) that has had a dead battery.  Until this last week things have been too busy to deal with it. I had been told that for that particular model, I would have to have it towed to the dealership because jumping the battery from one car to another would negatively affect the other car. While at the lot I ran into a senior missionary, Elder Moses, in FM. He understood my issue and said he could recharge the car without another car being involved, and that he would be happy to do it for me.  I was relieved at not having to spend the time and money to have it towed and then go and retrieve it.  For me, Elder Moses was a great blessing on a difficult day, a good example of a willing tool in God’s hand. 

 

That night I had difficulty sleeping well.  I was concerned about a lot of things regarding the mission cars.  Some guys fondly dream of cars, not me.  By 4:30 AM, after being awake for two hours, I decided to just get up and go into work.  That morning I reconciled all the cars vehicle identification numbers to those in the computer system.  More on that in the next story.  Once the lot was open I went back down to see about moving a white car that was parked next to the trailers we use for going to and from the airport.  During the night I had been concerned about either me or one of the young elders hitting the car with the trailer when we were trying to back the trailer into its parked position.  The car had been parked in the same spot since I first arrived and Elder Hegvik had no idea who owned it.  I found out it was a Church owned car for the LDS Social Services manager that he only used when going out of town.  After speaking to him about moving the car to a better parking spot, he told me where to find the keys and please move it for him.  I could not get the car to start.  It was a hybrid, like mine, but it would not start for me.  Calling the LDS Social Services manager, he was convinced that the battery was not dead and that because it was a hybrid that I just didn’t know how to start it. Frustrated, I concluded that I was just too stupid to start the thing, admitted that to him and he said he would come in from home and move it.  Later that day he called to say that indeed the battery was dead and that getting it recharged had taken him several hours because it was a hybrid.  He also said that for him it was a blessing that he found out.  On Monday he has planned to take two colleagues for a week to Saint Louis for work. Had this not happened, the three of them would have shown up on tomorrow morning only to find that the car had a dead battery.  Unlike Elder Moses, who had been glad to help me, I was not so happy about my involvement in the event and found the whole thing frustrating.  As I look back on it, my part in the blessing for the LDS Social Services manager was one that I only reluctantly participated in.  Shame on me, I need to do better.

 

On a light note, during my reconciliation of the 96 cars in our mission and the Church Visitor Center (which I manage), I discovered that the new truck we have now had for over a week does not belong to us.  The dealership just saw the name of the Church and assumed that all four new vehicles were ours.  My predecessor liked the new truck since it had running boards and I was just too new to understand that Chevy King Cab Silverado’s don’t just fall from heaven.  

What did you say?  We have been driving a truck which doesn't even belong to our mission?  OOPS!

                                      Elder and Sister Moses, the couple for FM here in the area.

We had the wonderful blessing of attending the Kansas City Temple with several other senior missionaries from our mission on Saturday.  Afterwards we went to a Mexican restaurant as a group.  It was a very nice break to be in the temple again.

I (Eileen) passed this house while going on a walk yesterday morning. I thought it was very unique and unlike what we would typically see in Utah.  As I passed the next house a 3 legged dog tried to attack me.  Thankfully there was a fence between me and the dog.

Our oldest grandson Andrew (middle) had his mission farewell today. While we were sad to not be there with him, we were able to watch the farewell via zoom. His brother Cameron (far right) also spoke. This grandma bawled her eyes out all the way from Missouri.  I am proud of these two young men. 

THE CAR FOB

I (Eileen) have been told that our positions are the two busiest in the mission other than the mission president and his wife. That certainly seems to have been true this past week. Sister Hegvik who was supposed to be training me came down with COVID.  She has been wonderful about helping over the phone and with charting, but it just wasn't the same as being trained in person.  With transfers, missionaries leaving and new missionaries arriving it seems like life has been quite busy for us this week. 

With all of our missions I have never seen a missionary transfer like this one.  It was quite fun to watch. All the missionaries gathered in the gym of the stake center. At exactly 10 AM they were able to look at their phones and see where they would be assigned and who their companion would be.  There were many shouts of joy with hugs and backslapping going on. Certainly there must have been some missionaries that were kind of disappointed, but I didn't see them.  On Saturday after the new missionaries arrived they were assigned their trainers. President Summerfeldt kind of made a game of it, finding something unique about the trainer and new missionary to match them up.  Each missionary seemed happy with the matchups. I hope that excitement continues through the duration of their companionship, as it will make my job as the nurse meeting their emotional needs much easier. 

My (Russell) intent was not to say much this week, and follow my mother's advice about if you don't have something nice to say then don't say anything at all.  Last Monday morning at our meeting with the mission president he asked how things were going.  I responded that it was okay but that I really didn't know since I didn't yet know what I didn't know.  Tomorrow when he asks at our meeting I now have a better idea of what I don't know and it is a lot!  With transfers and my driving the truck and trailer for three days, I'm struggling to keep up even with working in the office all seven days this week.

While it is usually Eileen that has the phone calls until late into the evening, last night it was my night to have nine calls after we got back home at 4:30 PM from the office (Saturday is supposed to be our preparation day).  One call that started out as particularly distressing turned out to be one of those events that remind you just how involved God is in our lives.  One of our new trainers (who I had just been with earlier in the day) called at 7:45 PM to say that he had lost the key to his car.  He further explained that he actually had not yet seen the key fob to his newly assigned car.  He said the prior elder who had the car told him he had left the key in the car that morning at the church during our meeting.  The elder/trainer explained to me that when he pushed the ignition button, that since the car started that he decided not to worry about finding the key immediately.  And since the car continued to start each time during the day they knew it must be in the car somewhere.  I said, "So you have not been locking the car when you have been leaving it?" To which they stated the obvious, "No."

But now, with it starting to get dark, the car would no longer start and they couldn't find the key anywhere.  They were quite a ways from home with a car they couldn't lock.  I told them to take a few minutes and retrace everywhere they had been since stopping the car, pray and then call me back in 20 minutes if they couldn't find it and I would go get another key for their car at the office and then drive to where they were in Kansas, bringing them another key fob.  I was not happy but trying to be a decent missionary in front of my wife and the elders on the phone, a task I'm not sure I accomplished.  When they called back after ten minutes, they said they had found the key fob!  The departing elder had put it on the windshield under the wiper.  Which means the driver of the car was looking past it every time he drove.  We were all happy and grateful, believing our prayers had been answered.  They could get home, and Eileen and I were spared from our first drive to Kansas and back in the dark.  

While the elders were feeling pretty sheepish about the whole situation, I related to them an experience about how I had done a similar thing several years ago.  While serving in Senior Missionary Services (Missionary Department), one January morning in 2015, after backing the car out of the garage on our way to the Church Office Building, I realized that it was garbage day and I had not taken the trash cans to the street.  I got out of the car, left it running and put my car keys on the hood of the car while I brought the trash cans out.  Then I got back in the car and we drove to Salt Lake.  After parking the car I went to lock it and couldn't find my keys.  Remembering I had set them on the car hood, I looked and there they were, not having moved during the drive in.  I figured there was some divine intervention that day making up for my foolishness.

This morning while getting ready for church, I finally recognized the real miracle and greater blessing that occurred last night.  It was that the car fob did not work!  In spite of the car fob being in the same spot it had been all day, within an arms length of the dashboard, it failed to start the car.  The battery in the car fob was obviously still good since the car started up this morning.  Had the car fob not failed last night, the missionaries would have returned home and probably left the car parked outside overnight, with the car fob on display for anyone to take advantage of and drive off with a less than year old Chevy Equinox.  Last night I had missed seeing the greater extent of God's tender mercy in my life, just because it wasn't what I was praying for.  I was praying for what I wanted (to keep from making a late night trip to Kansas), while God was doing both that and taking care of my greater need that I didn't realize I had (not having to deal with a stolen car).  I am humbled by and grateful for a merciful Father in Heaven that puts up with my short sightedness.  

                                  

                                       Sister Hegvik handing the keys to the office over to Eileen

This painting was found in our office storage , I (Eileen) fell in love with it and was given permission to put it up in our apartment. The painting was done by Liz Lemon Swindle and is entitled while Emma sleeps. It is a reminder of all that Joseph loved and the sacrifices he made as prophet.

Missionaries waiting for new assignments for transfers.

                              

                                  Three departing missionaries excited to see their families soon.

Newly arrived missionaries with Sister Hegvik. She took off her mask just long enough for the photo.

Missionaries were volunteers at Santa Caligon days celebrating those that went west to Santa Fe, California and Oregon. We went there for just a few minutes to support the missionaries. 

The sisters taught crocheting and embroidery, while the elders demonstrated rope making and lassoing.