A Little P-Day Fun....

The Elders having a little fun on their Preparation Day! Hopefully, they have cleaned their apartment, done their washing, cleaned their car, emailed their parents, and done their companionship study. (I doubt it!)

Nothing can stop the Work....

Bart Weisman broke his arm the night before his baptism. That didn't stop him though. The Elders wrapped in up good and he went through with it. This is a true story of a person who found joy in the gospel of Jesus Christ. It truly has changed his life.

In the Right place at the Wrong time....but they are well

Sister's Walker and Matthews had an experience they will probably never forget on their mission. They were teaching a discussion to a lady in her home where there was a domestic violence accident and someone was killed. It was a long day for them as they were questioned by police, since they were in the house when it happened. We brought them to the mission home where they got a late meal and a place to stay for the night. They were pretty shaken from the incident. We never found out what happened but we emergency transferred them the next day. These are the bears that they were given by the police that they clung to for comfort.

The Navajo Nation Accepting the Gospel

This is a Hopi family being taught by the Elders

A beautiful Navajo Rug...

A lady on the Navajo Reservation made this rug for us

Looks Like the President is in charge......

Zone Leader Counsel

This is at our Zone Leader Counsel. We have 20
Zone Leaders who come together every 6 weeks to counsel with the President on how to lead the mission. These young men are the President's eyes and ears with the missionaries throughout the mission. The are all looking up to Elder McWhorter who towers above them. He is a great missionary and leader.

Sister Beck and her Sister Missionaries

Which Tie Should I leave?

This is Elder Henrie and Aguillara packing their bags the night before they go home. They have accumulated a lot on their mission and have to sort through that which they want to take home since there is a weight limit. Obviously, these Elders have chosen to make room for all their accumulated ties they have traded with the Elders throughout their mission.
Sister Hildabrant is getting ready to go home.......Funny Funny Sister!

A Little Etiquette goes a Long Way

For our last missionary training I did a demonstration on Etiquette and Manners. We had a lot of fun with the learning process. I had three tables set up with plates, bowls, silverware, placemats and napkins and a glass. They had to come up and set the table the way it should be. Unfortunately, many didn't have a clue how to do it and it was fun watching them squirm. Hopefully, this prepared them to have good manners and etiquette when they go to members houses to eat their meals.

An Arizona Sunset

I have been facinated by the clouds and the Sunsets here in Arizona. This is one I took on the way home from the office the other night.

The Rez Baseball Stadium

Paul thought this one should go on the blog for Travis. It is a baseball field on the Rez. The dugouts are on both sides of the picture, with the press box in the middle.

September Zone Conference

This is one of the Prescott Zones that all went to the thrift store and found look a like ties for a $1.00

Zone Leader Counsel - District Leaders

Caught in the Act

Well, this is the picture you have all been waiting for. Yes, this is the act of getting caught going through a 3 second yellow light that turned red before I was through. I decided that if I had the time I would have protested this trap, but I don't so I won't. I completed the online course and it took me about 4 l/2 hours which consumed my date night. When I finished, my husband had already gone to bed. Now I hope I can get through the written one which is tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. I will be celebrating the monkey off my back that is for sure. Actually, it was a good course and reminder on defensive driving that I think you should all take. Right!

TRANSFER NIGHT-INCOMING MISSIONARIES

This is the scene on the first night when all the missionaries come into the mission home. After a lovely dinner of carne asada is prepared by Sister Lopez, the wife of President's counselor, they all pull out the air mattresses and have a big slumber party on the mission floor. Tomorrow will be the first day of their mission experience in Arizona.
This the Sister Lopez showing them how to make up their plates of carne asada.
The afternoon that they arrive they have their training in the mission home. They receive instructions on driving, medical, housing and rules of the mission.

INCOMING MISSIONARIES

We received 10 new missionaries, actually only 9 because one of them decided to do a flip at the MTC without shoes and landed on both heels, receiving stress fractures. He actually came a week late.
This is quite a science as we load all the luggage in the back of the AP's trucks. Sometimes we have to bring the trailer to put it all in.

IT'S CHRISTMAS IN THE MISSION....

Our companionships all received cells phones. It was like it was Christmas morning to watch them receive them. Obviously, they are only to be used in missionary work, but they were still excited. This helps them receive referrals via text message, and also helps them to contact their investigators before they go over for an appointment. This is big as it will save us tons off miles (which are limited to each companionship) and also help our Elders who are on bikes to be able to contact people.

Our Wonderful Senior Couples-Zone Conference Lunch

Our senior couples on the reservations are the best. They help our missionaries who are far from us and become their parents away from home. When we go there for Zone Conference they prepare a wonderful potluck meal for all the missionaries. We couldn't do it without their help. Hint, Hint...for all those senior couples out there....your help is needed in the spreading of the gospel in the field.

INSTRUCTING THE MISSIONARIES

While the President is interviewing, the Assistants and I plan out the day to instruct the missionaries. This particular Interview session we taught the Missionaries how to clean their apartments the right way. I put on my apron and told them that I was standing in Proxy for their future wives, to teach them how to clean up after themselves, that included wiping off the toilet seats. One of the problems I found when we went on apartment checks was that they had nothing to clean with except stinky rags and rotten sponges and no cleaning supplies. As you saw from a previous apartment check, some of the trailers were no less than disgusting. I gave out bottles of 409 to help the process. Awards were given out to the cleanest apartment.

INTERVIEWS WITH THE PRESIDENT

Every six weeks we travel throughout the mission to interview our missionaries. It is a 6 day process of about 5 hour interviewing. It gives the President a chance to see how each one is doing and see just if he needs to make changes as our new missionaries come in the next week. They each leave with a treat that day.

OUR QUICK TRIP THROUGH THE GRAND CANYON

The incredible wonder of the world! It was a breath taking experience for both of us to gaze into this beautiful sight.

The President had some rapid heart beats as he watched these big beautiful creatures that surrounded us everywhere. I had to remind him we were here for other reasons than to hunt.
This is the infamous road that President was pulled over by a park control car. As you can see their were many distractions for him along side of the road. When the police came up to the car he asked why he was going so fast. After a short hesitation, I stuck my head toward the window and answered, "we have been on the road for a long time and I really, really have to go to the bathroom." He laughed and said, "That is a good reason". When he took his license and returned from his car he handed the license back and said. "I'm not going to give you a ticket, because I don't want Jesus mad at me". It was all we could do to hold back the burst of laughter. I think we had someone watch over us on that one. After all, I don't think the President wanted to join me in traffic school.

THE ROAD TO KAIBETO

These are the instructions we received from the Elders to get to the church/trailer where they lived.
"Take the main pave road to the store on the left. turn righton diret road past the water tower. continue on the dirt road on the left and follow the bar wire fence until it turns to the left. continue onthe direct road until you see the church and our trailer. Be careful to avoid the deep ruts in the road." This is why the President drives a 4 wheel drive.

DIRECTIONS ON THE "REZ"

Yes, there is even shopping on the "Rez". On the way to Kaibeto to do an apartment check we spotted some road side stands that the Navajo's set up to sell all their beautiful jewelry and pottery. President keeps on asking me "Aren't they basically all the Same? And do we really need to stop to see them all?" You know what my reply was I am sure.

A VISIT FROM TRAVIS & FAMILY

Travis and Sharese stopped over for a couple of days of their way to Idaho to visit the Stockers. We had a wonderful visit with the kids. Although it was brief, we were able to visit the Mesa Temple Visitors Center, celebrate birthdays, and take a side trip to "Rawhide", which was sort of a disaster.

The Clouds

I have been fascinated with the cloud formations on our trips back and forth to Flagstaff and the Reservation. Even though it is about a 6 hour drive the scenery makes up for it.

Off to "In and Out Burger" in the Mission Van

President's Birthday Celebration

President Beck Celebrated his birthday....at least I think he did. It was a very busy day as we drove up to Flaxstaff for our Zone Counsel Meeting with all of our Zone Leaders. Sister BeGay, the wife of President Begay who is the Presidency over the Rez area, fixed us all Navajo Tacos. I did slip in a birthday cake to celebrate afterwards. That night we came back to Phoenix to another transfer of 5 Elders who went home a little early to get into school. Same process occurred as before, but we cheated and took them all out to "In and Out Burger" a favorite place here for the Elders. What a way to celebrate. Not quite like back home though.

A CHALLENGING WEEK OF EVENTS

It was a challenging week for me. I thought it would help me to record my experiences as a source of a therapy. It’s always easier to look back and laugh.
We finished a 5 day Zone Conference and Apartment check on the Reservation and drove back from Flagstaff on Tuesday night. We tried to put things away to prepare for Travis and the kids who were coming next day. When I woke up on Wednesday morning, I cleaned up the house a little and got out in my car to go to the grocery store, and found my car battery was dead. I proceeded to find my battery charger and realized that we had loaned it to the Matsen’s. So I called President and he sent Sister Matsen from the office to bring me the battery charger. Well, we tried to jump the battery and it still wouldn’t turn over. Surely we were doing it right. There were two of us doing what we do best, jumping batteries. I came to the conclusion that either the battery charger didn’t work or I had a dead, dead battery. While trying to get things up and running I placed my cell phone on the top edge of the hood of the car and when I proceeded to close it I saw that the hood wouldn’t go down completely. Long story short, I had slammed my cell phone in the hood of the car and it was lodged in tight. We couldn’t even budge the phone and now the hood of the car wouldn’t open either. So, I made another call to president, who was a little annoyed at my continuous calls, and he sent the Assistants over to help with the problem. They did it missionary style and slammed the hood down hard enough so they could unlatch it. Can you say CRUSHED cellphone.

Meanwhile, I needed to go to the airport to pick up Travis and the kids. We got to the airport and parked the car. We weren’t sure which flight they were coming in on because we left the info back at the office. So we waited and hoped they would call and let us know when they arrived. They did.....we were at the wrong terminal as they had come in on Continental. We jumped back in our cars, picked up the kids went home. When I got home I picked up the mail. Inside a letter addressed to me was a series of defining pictures of me and my car. Not exactly the kind of picture you want to have put on the refrigerator or put in your scrapbook though. Supposedly, they had caught me going through a yellow light that turned red. I still say it wasn’t red. I fail to see the humor that everyone else saw in the photographs sent in that letter. Arizona has this weird thing about putting camera’s in every intersection and taking pictures of cars doing there thing. I failed to see the humor in it. A sweet $214.00 ticket and traffic school. I don’t have time for traffic school! So back to the cell phone thing,.. I go over to Verizon the next morning to replace my cellphone, since I know the missionaries are trying to call me to give me some kind of medical problem to solve. I was hoping they could transfer all my saved numbers over from my old crushed phone to my new one. Guess what...They can’t....so I take the new phone and put it in my purse and the box with the chargers and instructions, which Emma placed in my purse also and went over to Costco to buy some food for the kids, since I didn’t get it done earlier because of my dead battery. When I got my wallet out of my purse I took out the phone and placed it in the cart. Funny thing how things just disappear into thin air. By this time I feel like I am loosing it. I have just bought a new cell phone and have lost the charger which was essential because I didn’t have a full charge yet. I had had just about enough fun for the day with disasters. All I wanted to do was spend some quality time with my grandkids, right? President, trying to protect me from a breakdown, calmly sends the assistants to the house to pick up my new phone and he proceeds to go to Verizon to rectify the situation. I don’t even want to know what it cost him or what he did to get me up and operating again. Sometimes details should be ignored. I now had a cell phone but was without any numbers to call because they couldn’t transfer numbers from a crushed phone. Oh well you can’t have it all.

That night we take the kids to a place called “Rawhide”. A little mock western town with donkey rides, shows, petting zoo, a jail, a mechanic bull, etc, hoping to have a wonderful night together. We got there about 6:00 and it kind of looked a little deserted, you know not a whole lot of people there. We bought tickets for the kids and had dinner, the kids went to the petting zoo and all of a sudden we notice the mosquitoes are bitting. We start slapping them and realize they were out of control. They were actually attacking us! We immediately gave our remaining tickets away to some one entering the town and told them to enjoy the misquitoes and ran to the car for cover. We never even got to see the outdoor western show that we came for. So much for that ghost town experience. Later we found out that was not the time of year to visit that attraction.

Sadly for President & I, it was a quick visit with the kids, but we were so glad to have them stay with us at the mission home and see their cute faces again. I realized just how quiet it had been since we had arrived here in the mission. The next morning we take two cars to the airport, because we also needed to take our assistant as he had finished his mission and was going home. Somehow, I forgot to fill up my gas tank in the car that Travis was driving.....result....emergency exit off the freeway to fill up.

Wow, I made it to the weekend. That meant Preparation Day was tomorrow. A day to renew myself, do a little shopping, get my nails done.....wrong again. I forgot we had to drive up to Tuba City that morning to talk in the Saturday evening session of conference which began at 7:00 p.m. Or at least that is what the email said. When we arrived up there at 5:00, we checked in the hotel and freshened up because of the long drive. We headed over to the church and walked in and sat on the back row by our missionaries. Something was not right. This appeared to be the meeting we were suppose to be talking in, not the leadership meeting which supposed to be first. We found out later that they had changed the time and forgot to send us the revision. Oh well, so we missed giving our talks. Not so...Our General Authority, Brother Webb, got up and asked us to come up on the stand and told us we would be talking next after the temple president. This was wonderful..after all I wasn’t even sure what I was going to talk on. This would be the true test of instant inspiration, which I might say did come through for me. Oh I forgot to say that before we left the valley to head up to Tuba City I couldn’t find my scriptures, realizing that there was a good possibility I had left them in Cottonwood Zone Conference on the previous Tuesday I became a little hysterical (I’m sure there are those of you who remember that I’ve already lost 3 sets of scriptures already and I wasn’t willing to go through that experience again)
Anyway, I felt I needed them to prepare for my talk on the long trip up to Tuba to the Conference and I was without.

It is now Sunday, the beginning of a new week, surely things were going to change for me. I was trying to keep a positive attitude, right? After all I am the Mission President’s wife and we have to be positive and cheerful all the time, because my 202 missionary sons and daughters are watching.
Other than an emergency transfer home that day, because of a disobedient missionary, things were going well. Tyler drove down from Provo on Sunday to visit with us and do a little missionary training here at the mission office with the assistants. He even went out tracking with two of our Elders. He found it wasn’t so fun in 106 degree weather but endured. He called after they were through and I proceeded to go over to pick him up. As I am looking for the name of the street to turn on, I let my foot off the gas and slowed down. Immediately, I was slammed from behind by another car that was following too close and going too fast. Was this really happening to me? I thought things happened in 3’s. I was on 4’s and 5’s and 6’s and they were still coming. My beautiful car was now not so beautiful. Can you say SMASHED! I think I used that same word earlier in the week didn’t I.
Well, this is just another week in the life of a Mission President that I can look back on and see the humor. Yes, that is what you need to have when you are a wife of a mission president.

A TRIP TO CANYON DeCHELLY WITH THE ASSISTANTS

We spent Saturday with our 3 assistants and they showed us some of these breath taking sites in the Canyon Area. The rich dark reds and orange colors in the rock formations were so beautiful. Elder Trembath had a Navajo friend take us up Canyon DeChelly in his jeep. It was quite the experience as we made our way up the canyon to see some of the ancient Indian ruins.

TRAILER CHECKS ON THE "REZ"

We spent a lot of Saturday traveling through the small humble towns on the "Rez" and doing apartment checks in about 8 of the trailers up there. I decided that our next Zone Training would be on How to Clean your Apartments. Some of them were down right disgusting. It was definitely not the way to impress the Mission President's Wife. I don't think their mothers would be so happy with them either.

ZONE CONFERENCE LUNCHEON- Navajo Tacos

PREPARING FOR TRANSFERS

It was a long 3 days as the President and his two assistants,Elder Trembath and Elder Pack sat in front of the transfer board and tried to figure out where each missionary was to labor. It was a chain reaction when you have to pull out 13 missionaries going home and figure out where the new 17 missionaries go and who their trainer will be, along with other changes that need to be made It took many days behind closed doors in thought and prayer to put the large puzzle together. Even when you think it is all done, changes were made before the transfer meeting. It is an amazing process.