Called to Serve Phoenix: Good-bye to our Northern Part of the Mission

Thursday, June 17, 2010

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.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: A great group of missionaries!; June 23, 2010 at 7:04 AM
Lindsey said...: Hi Sister Beck!! So excited to see your blog! What part of the mission was taken away? Did they add it to a different mission or make a completely new mission? I'm excited to keep in contact with you through your blog! If you would like to see what I've been up to my blog is lindsandthomas.blogspot.com; June 23, 2010 at 6:53 PM

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OUR MISSION CALL

In November of 2007 President Monson, the prophet, seer and revelator of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, called us to serve as Mission Presidents in the Phoenix Arizona Mission. It was a very humbling experience as we accepted the call. Feeling inadequate for the responsibility that was ahead of us, we prayed for strength to prepare for the work. We would be going to the Phoenix Arizona Mission on July 1, 2008, to begin our three year mission to oversee the physical and spiritual well being of about 202 missionaries in the area. Our purpose was to "Invite others to come unto Christ and help them to receive the restored gospel on the earth". Our mission would include quite a large area to preside over. We would go south to Phoenix, north to Flagstaff, and to the Utah border in Page and east across the Navajo Nation to Chinle and to Crystal in New Mexico. It would be very difficult to leave our family and friends for a three year service, but there would be no question that this was what the Lord wanted us to do, and we felt confident that we could do it with his help. We also knew that where much is given, much is expected, and we had been given much.

"We will go where you want us to go dear Lord, we'll be what you want us to be!"