Quotes of the Week

My brothers and sisters, spiritual experiences have less to do with what is happening around us and everything to do with what is happening within our hearts.
--Dean M. Davies

The choices we make are critical--they are the key to our future and happiness. Remember, we are the sum total of every decision we make.
--Quentin L. Cook

Do not expect to find the perfect partner or the perfect marriage. As an agent, blessed with moral agency, you create the marriage, the family, and the happiness you hope to have line upon line, precept upon precept.
--David A. Bednar

Two Deaths--Dallas's Mother and Sister Atkinson; Mormon Battalion; Let the Shredding Begin

How thankful I am that Dallas's mother, Kathryn Allen, decided to come along with their family when they came here on vacation in October. We had a wonderful time all together.

It now feels like a huge blessing that not only did Dallas's family get to spend all that time with her, but we got to spend that time with her as well before she passed away on May 16th. She was such a beautiful, classy lady.

It was amazing to me to read of all her accomplishments of the things she did for the city of Provo. Of course our favorite accomplishment she did was give birth to and raised a fine son--Dallas (along with her four other children).

As we were mourning for the loss of Kathryn, we learned the next day that one of our former senior missionaries had passed away. Our hearts were doubly heavy as we thought about Elder David Atkinson losing his beloved wife. They were Church Education System missionaries for us and did the Pathway program while they were here.

Despite our sadness at the news of the passing of these two wonderful women, life goes on and so on we went doing the things we need to do.

We took a group of missionaries to eat at Tequila Factory.

 

Then back down the hill we walked so we could tour the Mormon Battalion. While waiting for the missionaries to go on the tour, we sat in the foyer and Glen and the assistants got busy figuring out last minute changes to the transfer.

Glen had gotten the final word that two of the missionaries had the okay to go home early for medical reasons. Early releases always cause extra work and re-planning to figure out what to do with their companions. 

We had new leadership training for the two new district leaders and the three new sister training leaders. The assistants and one companionship of sister training leaders help with the training.

Sarah put up a post of herself with a plate of delicious food promoting her latest date on her Housedates Instagram. She lucked out having a box of food accidentally delivered to her home. After notifying the company, who told her to keep the food, she had been enjoying making the various meals.

Well I took a photo to document our Housedate for date night. It turned out Glen had so many ARP interviews with missionaries that it was dinnertime before we ever left the mission office. We had to stop at Walmart and Costco to load up on food for our upcoming dinner with the departing missionaries.

I never consider going grocery shopping a "date." That doesn't qualify in my what-a-date-should-consist-of definition. But, since my definition of a date includes somebody else does the cooking for me, I decided Costco was cooking as we bought a rotisserie chicken for our "date night" dinner.

We were all set up for our selfie and I told Glen to move his head in closer to mine so we could make our Costco dinner date look romantic and this is as romantic as it got. Let's leave the selfie taking to the younger generation!!!

On Saturday morning we had our planning meeting with the assistants two hours earlier so we could take these two missionaries to the airport.

I had put my afternoon to good use the day Glen was meeting with missionaries by coming home and starting to go through all the file cabinets. That resulted in a huge stack of files that needed to be shredded.

Glen felt like a bomb went off in his office when he saw the stacks of papers on his desk as well. He helped me finish figuring out what paperwork he wanted to keep and what to shred. We are supposed to clean everything out as not much information is passed on to the new Mission President.

We have now seen the office boundaries of the new California Newport Beach Mission. Glen literally cries every time he thinks about us leaving. He has invested so much into this work and into the missionaries.

We had been asked to speak in the Fallbrook 2nd Ward on Sunday. Glen went to the Del Mar Missionary Coordination Meeting earlier that morning.

After Glen got both his weekly emails written and sent--the one he sends out to the missionaries each week and the one he sends to the family documenting mission miracles and how he can see the hand of the Lord in his life as he serves--he popped himself some popcorn and settled in so we could study Come, Follow Me.

We tried face timing two different families, but we couldn't get it to work for either one of them.

So, we just talked instead. It was nice to get Claire's version of how she broke her arm and how she was feeling and what she can and can't do with her arm in a cast.

We were happy to hear she will be better by the time we are back home in Utah for our Bear Lake trip with the children and grandchildren.

Quotes of the Week

Most often He heals the wounded heart. How does it happen, we ask? By the power of the Atonement exercised in our lives today, not at the end before the final judgment, but every day as we seek to be like Him, to love what He loves, to follow His chosen prophets.
--Ronald A. Rasband

Try to understand, think first of someone else, be kind, be gentle, laugh a little more, express your gratitude, welcome a stranger, gladden the heart of someone, and speak your love and then speak it again.
--Taylor G. Godoy

What is meant by "poor in spirit"? Is it not humility, which renders us teachable and eager to learn? They who feel themselves spiritually poor approach God, asking him to supply their needs.
--O. Leslie Stone

Lagoon-Happy Grandchildren; MLC; New Senior Couple; Mother's Day; Surgery for a Sister

It always brings a smile to our faces when we receive a nice note in the mail. One day we received multiple heartfelt thank you notes from every one of Rebecca's children. Imagine our happiness at receiving this treasure of gratitude notes, complete with artwork!!

Brooke had borrowed Rebecca's phone (as she loves to do to text us several times a week) and had sent out an SOS; a HELP! a HOW CAN I EARN MONEY??? type of text to both of us.

She was dying to go to Lagoon with a group from school but had to earn the money to pay her own way.

Glen, being the nice grandpa he is, decided to strike up a deal with this granddaughter. He figured he is going to be buying all the grandchildren Lagoon passes this summer when they come to town to see us, so he would go ahead and buy season passes for Rebecca and her children early in the season so they can take advantage of the passes all summer long.

The deal was they needed to earn the money by going over to our house and helping with the yard work by pulling weeds. Brooke was so excited about it she could hardly stand it!!

And they have sent picture proof they are enjoying their time at Lagoon. We have no picture proof they are enjoying weeding...

We called a special Mission Leadership Council to share with the leaders what we had learned in our Mission Leadership Seminar. Then we had the leaders break off into groups to plan how they are going to teach the information to their individual zones.

We strongly suggested to the Burrises that it would be a wonderful idea if they got Chick-fil-A for lunch for the MLC that day.

After all--it is the Mission President's most FAVORITE meal for lunch!!!!!

We had a former missionary (Elder Andrew Hall) come by for a visit late one evening.

Another former missionary (Elder Sean House) came by the mission office with his girlfriend.

We felt very thankful that after some very crazy, busy weeks of go, go, go, we had enough free time the Saturday a new senior missionary couple arrived in the mission that we could drive to Fallbrook to open their apartment, welcome them, and spend some time getting acquainted with them.

They both speak Spanish and will be working with the Spanish branch and the other two wards that meet in the Fallbrook building.

They are delightful and are anxious to be of service as missionaries in this mission. What a blessing they will be in the Fallbrook area. It was interesting to learn of their conversion to the gospel after he had married her when she was raising a young daughter on her own.

Living the gospel helped them then and it continues to bless their lives this many years later.

I appreciated the beautiful cards and phone calls of love and kindness for Mother's Day.

"Bloom where you are planted" served as a tender mercy for me in two ways. Both ways involve the mission newsletter called "The Wave" that is published every six weeks (once a transfer).

It lists the names of the incoming missionaries, the departing missionaries, the people who have been recently baptized, it has lots of photos of the missionaries (which are usually the photos I take), and it has messages that Glen and I write.

Glen never seems to lack for ideas of what to write about. He never seems to struggle with writing his article once he comes up with his idea.

I, on the other hand, always wonder for a long while about what to write about. Then it takes me forever to get it written exactly how I want it for publication. It is always a big deal and a time-consumer for me.

I am always so happy when the idea comes. I am always thrilled when the article is finished and ready for publication. But, I am most ecstatic about the personal revelation that I know will ALWAYS come, eventually. The finished product always feels like such an accomplishment.

The subject for my last article was prompted during a sacrament meeting talk where the speaker talked about the super bloom that was happening in Southern California. I based my article on that and how we need to "Bloom where we are planted." I always enjoy finding quotes from our leaders and scriptures to go along with my topic.

My most recent article that just was published is about tender mercies of the Lord--those things that happen to us that some call coincidence, but that we know are the Lord's way of showing us He is aware of us personally and individually.

Like, for instance, receiving a Mother's Day card that says "Bloom where you are planted," representing a tender mercy to me, thus helping me feel heavenly love from above which I took as helping me know I am doing my best, I am receiving personal revelation, I am being blessed as I serve in this capacity.

I am not a big lover of gifts. I would be fine without any Mother's Day gift at church. Going to church is a gift to me. I don't need a physical gift. But, a gift I got. I got two gifts. And I LOVED THEM BOTH!!

I thought of my dear friend Debbie who absolutely LOVES See's chocolates. Although, she is a lover of dark chocolate. I, on the other hand, am a lover of milk chocolate. Pure, unadulterated (meaning no cream, mousse, cherries, gunk, etc. in the middle) milk chocolate. This was the ultimate in PERFECT GIFT for me!!

The other gift I got was not being called upon at the last second to share something at the pulpit. We were resting easy at the first sacrament meeting we attended. No chance of needing a time filler there.

On we went to the second sacrament meeting we had chosen to attend--both of them were in Temecula. The first speaker was a young man who was leaving on a mission. The second speaker was a man whose family was moving out of the ward.

I was resting very easy at that meeting as I watched the time go by and knew there was no way we would be called upon to say something.

THEN IT HAPPENED!! The counselor in the bishopric got back up after the second speaker and with just minutes left (okay, maybe no minutes left), he asked Glen to say a few words.

Like a pro, Glen jumped up all excited to give a powerful 2-minute message that tied all together what the young man and the older man had said and tied it in to Mother's Day and the gospel of Jesus Christ and we ended on such a spiritual high. It (he) was AMAZING!!

The stake president was visiting and he had requested for Glen to say a few words. He came over to talk to Glen after the meeting and said, "I knew I could count on you to tie everything together there at the end."

That verbal affirmation was a special tender mercy for my husband that day.

Monday was the usual busy letter-reading-answering day for Glen. That evening we were prepared to have guests spend the night. Sister Voelkel had requested Sister Povey be her companion during her surgery and recovery the next day.

She has given her okay for me to share her story and photos.

She was having a cyst removed from her wrist. It had been drained once, but had come back and it was very painful for her.

We got special permission from the Missionary Department for her to have infield surgery. I got up at 4:45 a.m. to get ready to drive the sisters to the surgery center.

I really liked having the board on the wall giving updates on how our patient #767046 was progressing throughout the hours we were there waiting.

Since only one of us could go back with her during recovery, I sent Sister Povey in. She said our very obedient, very drugged patient was doing all she could to elevate her arm as the nurse had told her to do.

Although--when the nurse put her arm down and repeatedly told her she didn't need to raise it straight up in the air--up it would go again. This happened time and time again.

Finally I got called to go back to get instructions on where to bring the car to pick up our patient. As I walked by the sisters, I noticed Sister Povey holding on tightly to her companion's wrapped hand. I thought she was soothing her. Little did I know she was holding firmly to that arm to try and keep it from raising straight up in the air!!

Sister Voelkel's eyes were closed tightly. She would talk a little, but would keep her eyes tightly shut. I questioned the nurse as to if she was okay, thinking perhaps she might be getting released a little too early...???

The nurse told me the anesthesia affects different people different ways and assured me she would be fine. She got wheeled out to the car and off we went, making the drive back home.

Sister Voelkel became very vocal in the car. She was fixated on French fries. She wanted to know our favorite kind of French fry. Where our favorite French fry was located. Where our favorite French fry came from and on and on it went.

When we got home and got her settled on the couch, I was asking what she would like to eat and her answer was "French fries." Of course!! She settled for scrambled eggs, toast and strawberries. It took her forever to eat because she was so drugged.

Later, Sister Povey shared with us that in the recovery room, the nurse told Sister Voelkel to keep her arm elevated and to not eat any greasy foods like French fries. Those were the two things that really stuck in her mind.

Another thing going on in recovery was Sister Voelkel would not open her eyes. They kept trying to get her to open her eyes and her response was, "I don't know how to open my eyes!"

Thankfully, by the time we got home, she had finally figured out how to open her eyes.

I left the sisters resting at our home, took their car and went to the mission office to meet Glen for our afternoon first trainer follow-up meeting. He had been at the mission office that morning doing hour-long exit interviews with departing missionaries.

 Back at home, Sister Voelkel was looking and acting much more like her usual self.

Before dinner I suggested the sisters go outside for a few minutes and take a walk to get some fresh air.

After dinner they wanted to go outside and take some photos.

Glen decided to do Sister Povey's exit interview that evening instead of the next morning as had originally been planned. That turned out to be a great idea.

A little later in the evening Sister Seymour was dropped off to spend the night with us.

The next morning Glen was the breakfast chef cooking them up some French toast. I told the sisters they must squelch the rumor going around the mission.

The other day at interviews a missionary said to me, "I hear President Thomas is a good cook!!"

I laughed right out loud at that comment. I clarified he cooks a total of two things--roast beef with mashed potatoes and gravy and French toast. That's it. Period. That's all he cooks.

From the sound of the admiration in the voice of the missionary talking about the cooking expertise of the Mission President--my husband, the man I've been married to for over 40 years!!--I felt an overwhelming need to clarify something.

I needed to explain with complete clarity that this man is NOT the chief cook and bottle washer in our household. Never has been. Still isn't.

Now I will give him lots of credit for making the grandchildren ultra happy when he fixes them stacks and stacks of French toast when they are visiting. They visit very occasionally.

He fixes mounds of mashed potatoes topped with delicious gravy accompanied by slices of roast beef every 6 weeks when the departing missionaries spend the night. And yes, through the years, he has often fixed that meal for our Sunday dinners.

He does grill meat on occasion, especially for company. But, who fixes all the side dishes??? Who cooks all the other meals??? Who was the dinner chef who fixed dinner the night before for these sisters?!?!? PLEASE!!!!!!!

I was pretty confident the sisters were getting my point on this one.

After breakfast we left the studying sisters to take Glen over to the mission office to do more exit interviews and to do the final transfer planning with the assistants.

When I got back home, after going to the strawberry fields to buy more strawberries because the sisters had enjoyed them so much and had eaten all of them, I found the following note: