A P-Day Badmitton Tournament in the Surprise Zone

It was a fun morning of competition. President Beck & I even were a part of the brackets.
All I can say is that the next day I was really feeling it.

Elder Widfeldt and Elder Hatcher were are winners!

Elder Young & Elder Dodd -Our Scorekeepers

Elder Sondereger, Elder Pickett, & Elder Bergesen working the brackets

The Black & White Team - Elder Hone & Carver

Our Level Five Scholars

As I mentioned in a previous blog spot, when our missionaries reach Level Five of Gospel Study, which is diligent performance of memorization of scriptures, reading, Studying of Preach my Gospel and missionary work, then they are awarded the Level Five Certificate. With this comes the opportunity to have a companionship study with the President and also Elder Matsen, who was a previous Executive Secretary in the mission. They come to his house and in his extensive library to study together gospel subjects. They are also serve a wonderful breakfast prepared by his wife, Sister Matsen. After, they create their own future study plan so they can continue in knowledge of the gospel. We are over 60 missionaries who have reached this level. These are some of the past recipients of the award.

Elder Patrick Buhr
(our first recipient)

Elder Bratt

Elder Winston, Elder Burzlaff, Masik, Elder Holt

Elder Sweeney

Elder Bramwell, Elder Reading, Elder Wright, Elder Clarke, Elder Baker

Elder Miskimons, Elder Rose, Elder Hanna, Elder Smith, Elder Diaz

Elder Hair, Carver, Otto, Humbert, Hall, Sister Pehrson

Elder Noyce, Burstall, Timmons, Beams, Chalmers, Gibson

Elder Rider, Pickett, Rigsby, Schlegel, Wilson

Elder Durrant, Jensen, Sanders, Willcocks,

Elder Schreyer, Elder Eaton, Sister Clark

Elder Grayson, Kavenaugh, Cox, Nielsen

Elder Burris, Sister Monik, Elder Wesche, Elder Andersen, Elder Lewis, Sisters Beach & Hancock

Elder Parkin, Sister del Rosario, Elder Welch, Sister Larsen, Elder Noland

Elder McGuire, Elder Sondereger, Elder Willis, Elder Payne, Elder Moser, Elder Gallup

Elder & Sister Sorensen, Elder Bergeson, Elder Westbroek, Sister Jones
June 3rd, 2010

Elder Crandall, Elder Bergeson, Elder Roberts, Elder Forschler, Elder Chambers
June 4, 2010

Thanks Elder Clarke

Elder Jordan Clarke has been one of our wonderful Assistants who has served with the President. We knew from the beginning that he was the real thing as he displayed his love and commitment to the Savior throughout his mission. We will miss not having him in the office and working with us, but know he is excited as he goes out to work solely, in his area preaching the gospel his last transfer. Thanks Elder Clarke for your example of leadership and service in the mission.

This is our wonderful office staff who work so diligently to make our mission operate. These are senior service couples who have taken time out of their years of retirement to serve the Lord. Each one of them bring so many wonderful skills and talents to the package. We love and appreciate them so much. This was the good-bye send off to Elder Clarke.

Mission Tour with Paul V. Johnson of the Seventy

Elder Paul V. Johnson, of the quorum of the Seventy visited our mission to conduct a mission tour. He and his wife were just delightful to be with for 3 days. He gave our Zone Leaders instruction on the first night and then he addressed the mission in two separate Zone Conferences. His instruction was very inspirational. He gave us some help on how we could lead our mission better. It is always wonderful to spend time with their spiritual giants. We actually found out that their son in law and Tyler were on a mission together and that he was Tyler's favorite companion. Small World it is.

Our Beloved Elder Pack, our fleet manager, shared his musical talents with us and wrote the words to our mission fight song which has become a classic in our mission. Thank you Elder Pack.

The missionaries love to sing our mission fight song every Zone Conference after lunch. I made a board that had all the verses written on it and this brought out the real fight in them. If you want to see a bunch of excited and enthusiastic missionaries you need to hear them sing as they shout to the world. They really get into the song. These are the words of the great mission fight song.

We are the missionaries of Arizona Fame
Obedience is our watch cry, to baptize is our aim.
Of all the other missions, ours is number one
Because the best of the missionaries come...
to Arizona, Thirsty land,
We'll serve the Living Water while we can.

We're servants of our Master, from Buckeye up to Page
You can find us in the valley and the Reservation sage
Our deportment and demeanor will help to show we're true
As we strive to get our twenty, ten and two
Arizona, thirsty land,
We'll serve the living Water while we can.

From modern revelation, we see in Father's plan
There shall come forth pools of water, to slake the thirsty land.
The Arizona deserts, lie parching in the sun.
We're the "Pools of Living Water" that have come
to Arizona, thirsty land
We'll serve the Living Water while we can.

We never get discouraged, but if per chance we do.,
Our prayers and our companions will help to see us through
And like the noble Phoenix of legendary fame,
W just rise above the ashes and proclaim...
Arizona, thirsty land,
We'll serve the Living Water while we can.

The people here in (their areas) watch us come and go.
We seek them out and teach them, we want them all to know
That God has called an army to glorify his name
So we preach the restoration and proclaim....
Arizona, thirsty land,
We'll serve the Living Water while we can.

The things we preach from Stand Works are doctrines of our Lord
"Preach My Gospel," is the method we use to spread the word
Our "missionary Handbook" contains the rules and more
That we follow as we go from door to door.
Arizona, thirsty land,
We'll serve the Living Water while we can.

Our missionaries are the very best. Oh how I love to be with them!

The talk I gave for Zone Conference was that our missionaries were the modern day Strippling Warriors. They needed to be armed with the "Sword of the Spirit" as they taught the world the truth of the gospel. Meaning that they needed to live their lives in strict obedience so that they could be worthy to have the Spirit of the Holy Ghost direct their every actions. This was my visual and good old President Morris, being the good sport he is, agreed to be my model, after the conference was over.

A Visit to Montezuma's Castle & Well

President is getting good at participating in P-day activities, even if he doesn't dress for them.
Every 3 weeks we drive up I-17 North and pass the sign "Montezuma's Castle" and "Montezuma's Well" We always say,"Someday we are going to see those places", and this time on our way back from Flagstaff we did.
They are ancient Indian ruins of the Sinagua, a prehistoric culture that once flourished in the Verde Valley who occupied it for thousands of years. Their dwellings were one room pit-houses built on terraces overlooking their fields in the bottom lands. It was fascinating to see and visualize how these people lived so long ago.

This is how our poor car looks after a road trip up North. Lets just say we slaughter a lot of innocent
insects. You should have seen the windshield.

Graduation

On April 23rd Tyler graduated from BYU in Marketing. He has worked hard and we are so proud of his accomplishments. It has been a year full of events for him, including getting married on December 29th to Sarah. She has been a big support to him. Both her parents flew up to the graduation to be there for him. It was a beautiful spring day. The day after his graduation he received word that he was accepted to the University of Utah to go to graduate school. That made his daddy proud, after all
that is the real school, or so he says.

Tyler and Sarah

Cathie and Jeff Beecher, Sarah's parents, attended the graduation and took
everyone out to dinner afterwards. Tyler opened a gift from Sarah, which were some beautiful cuff links. Jeff asked to see them so we passed them around the table. Somewhere between Jeff and Sarah's grandpa, they fell into the dish of fresh horseradish. Calmly, Jeff pick them out of the dish and licked them off and continued to pass them around the table back to Tyler. We all laughed until the tears fell. It was a wonderful celebration for everyone there.
The tulips around the Marriott Center were in mass bloom and were beautiful!

Transfer Day

Elder Beames is our newest Spanish Assistant. Elder Crandall was excited to have him back
as a companion again. This is one Spiritual Companionship and we could all learn a lesson from
them. Their responsibility is to oversee the Spanish companionship and work in the mission.

Welcome Elder Beames!

We have had a rash of stolen bicycles in the mission lately. Unfortunately, our missionaries
get on and off their bikes so much they are a little lax in locking them up. We even had
a companionship that locked them up together in the back of the truck. The person who
took them got a double bonus that day. We encourage our missionaries to get a really good
bike lock to discourage people from taking them from our poor missionaries.

Elder Davis' bike looks like it is ready to be ridden in a parade. What are you thinking Elder Davis?

On a Transfer day the missionaries have fun reuniting with old companions and missionaries after the
transfer meeting and before they are off to their new areas with their new companions.

Elder Farnsworth found out that you can't put your cell phone on top of the car
and then drive off. The result for him was a smashed phone. Poor Elder Farnsworth!

Fresh from the MTC

Welcome to our seventeen new Elders and Sister. Elder Hatcher, Henrie, Daniels, Duda, Mitchell, Barker, Bartlett, Cannon, Carter, Davenport, Geren, Jaussi, Juchau, Sheets, Harris, Neubert, Falconer, & Sister Kolo. Try memorizing those names before you have even met them, especially at my age.

Our new missionaries stand out in the airport as it is, but when you have seventeen of them
following their leader (that's me) through the terminal, then the eyes do turn

Have you ever heard of feeding the ten thousand...well maybe not ten thousand but

I do know we had a lot of hungry missionaries that day for lunch.

After a big lunch in the warm weather out on the patio, a two hour introduction to the mission

and an interview with the President, we had a lot of tired missionaries that took a quick cat nap.
They crashed where ever they could find a spot.

Our garage is turned into a locker room. We just have them keep their luggage in the garage because we don't have room for it inside. It is like figuring out a puzzle when placing mattresses in the family room to bed down. Sister Kolo had her own bedroom and didn't have to deal with that.

Just before bed they all pulled out the journals and captured the feelings of the day. Tomorrow they
would be introduced to their new companion, new area and become a missionary in the real world,

not just the MTC. With the Lord's help they will become instruments in His hand to share the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Arizona.

Elder Sentman & Elder Taylor are our most helpful office Elders who drive the mission van and trailer.

They actually fit all the luggage into the trailer and all the missionaries in the van and off they went to transfers!