Good-bye to our Northern Part of the Mission

These are our wonderful senior couples who have sacrificed much to serve the Lord. Leaving the comforts of their homes, their families and the things they enjoyed doing in their retired years, and they came to serve for 18 months to two years to the Lamanite people who they have learned to love.

These are our wonderful Flagstaff, Chinle, & Tuba City Zone missionaries that will be going to the new Farmington, New Mexico Mission. We had our last Zone Conference together on Friday. I'm not use to saying good-bye to 72 Elders and Sisters in one transfer and it was very difficult for me. President instructed them on "Change" and we encouraged them to "Bloom where they were Planted". We also reminded them that the only thing that was going to change was the boundaries and the mission president. Their purpose was still going to be the same, to "Invite others to come unto Christ". President Jones will be getting the best! We closed the meeting by singing "God be with you Till we Meet Again". I don't know why President makes things so hard for me. We could have sung "There is sunshine in my soul today" or something that would not make me cry.

Elder Sorensen presented us with some beautiful Hopi pottery, made by Numpayo, a famous pottery maker, as a reminder of the wonderful people that we have been honored to work with in the Lamanite mission.

This was our last trip down I-17 from Flagstaff. We have spent a lot of hours traveling back and forth to the reservation in the last 2 years. We have see beautiful sights on the reservation, enjoyed the pine tree scenery in Flagstaff and made great friends, as the Hales, President & Sister Frost, President Begay (who was President's counselor) President Boone, the Keils, the Bushman's,( a convert) and so many more who have touched our lives. It is a beautiful part of the vineyard, and we will miss it all.

Don and Merina Hales who have taken good care of us. Actually, I found out the Don Hales
went our same high school with President & Myself.

June Zone Conference

Elder Kavatoe is one of our newer missionaries. He is amazing and everybody loves him. His smile is contagious and he is a spiritual example of a missionary. Before a meeting starts you will find him leading the Elders and Sisters as they sing from the hymn book.

Our Missionaries really get into singing the mission fight song. It is a sight to behold!

Elder Wight and Elder Hatcher

The Relief Society are so wonderful to feed all of us every Zone
Conference. It is truly a labor of love.

We combined several Zones for this Zone Conference since we met separately with the Northern Zones who were going to the new Farmington, New Mexico. They all enjoyed seeing each other and catching up with past companions in the mission.

A New Assistant

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Elder Jordan Westbroek is our newest English Assistant, taking the place of Elder Carver. We love his enthusiasm and smile and are glad to have him working with Elder Hone. They will be a dynamic duo. Look out APM here they come!

Elder Westbroek showed his enthusiasm right out of the barrel as he took a dive over his bike onto his shoulder and broke his collar bone. Not a good way to start Elder Westbroek. Actually, it hasn't stopped him. He had the accident at 7:00 a.m. and was in Urgent Care by 9:00 and at Zone Conference by 10:30.

Welcome Elder Beames as Our New Spanish Assistant

Elder Beames joined with Elder Kyle Crandall as our new Spanish Assistant!
He may be small in stature but he is one spiritual giant. Elder Crandall and Elder Beams are
amazing leaders in our mission. Elder Beames is known to have starved his companions because he doesn't take time to eat during the day. He says there is too much work to be done.
We are blessed to have them as our Assistants.

Welcome June Missionaries

Sisters Freeman, Moody, Eti Aki, & Elders Blackhurst, Halligan, Choles, Mortensen, Mouritsen, Evans, Hubbard, Ward, Cook, Cecil, Mears, T. Smith & Smith, Totten, Mendenhall

We had a lot of hungry Elders and Sisters. They say that they were just grateful not

to have to eat MTC food anymore.

Our new missionaries signed the new mission flag and Elder Carver took some

time to answer a few of their many questions

We had a lot of dead bodies laying around this transfer. They had about 2 hours before dinner and they took advantage of catching a few zzzs before the big day out.

June Outgoing Missionaries

Elder Chalmers went home a week early because his visa was up. He wasn't able to join his group for the
farewell dinner and testimony meeting. We missed you Elder Chalmers. You are a great missionary!

Elder Burris, Yorgasen, Gallup, Clarke, Grayson, Sondereger, Timmons, Kavenaugh, Barnes, Willis, Widfeldt

Elder Willis trying to organize his suitcase so he can get the most important things back home.

This was an incredibly dedicated group of missionaries leaving our mission. While waiting for their exit interview with the President they got antsy not doing anything and asked if they could go out tracting one last time. I dropped them off in different neighborhoods and they came back l hour later with two potential investigators. Eleven missionaries left in this group and all eleven were Level Five Scholars. Two were past Assistants to the President and 8 were Zone Leaders or District Leaders and all were great missionaries. We have a big hole to fill in the mission.

The Last Meal was Carne Asada...a favorite of all the missionaries.

These are our models for our new mission shirts that just arrived that day!

Awaiting their final departure from the Arizona Phoenix Mission. We will miss you Elders!