Elder Kearon came to visit our Mission

Week of March 17 - March 23

At staff meeting President mentioned that there were 40 unsafe houses in our mission still.  I know!  I keep trying to get he missionaries to do test their smoke detectors.  Do you think they could do it?  I'm not sure it will ever happen.

Tuesday we drove out to the Mallard apartment.  We are closing it for good.  So that means lots of cleaning and moving of furniture.  We spent most of the day cleaning it out of junk and garbage.  We took the desks and chairs, and a few other things we needed to finish up the 999 apartment.  We drove over to 999 and set up the things we had brought from Mallard and did a little bit of cleaning.  I'm always exhausted after a day of cleaning apartments, so Wednesday I went into the office a littler later than usual.

Wednesday, Dan had to go have a blood test.  So after the blood test he came and picked me up and we went into the office together.  We spent most of the day in the office doing emails and preparing for Thursday.

Thursday morning we had a Mission Wide Zoom Meeting.  President talked about the our Mission Conference coming up on Saturday, where Elder Kearon would be at.  Everyone is so excited about this meeting but there is lots of things we need to do to prepare for it.  We drove to Mallard early so we could watch the Zoom Meeting there and then be ready to finish up and close Mallard.  After the Zoom Conference we had 2 sets of missionaries meeting us at the apartment to help us move the furniture.  To get to the apartment you have to walk up some stairs outside, go inside and walk down the stairs and around a corner to get to the front door.  It seemed like a long way and a lot of walk.  In the back yard there is a little short brick wall that leads to the road.  So we parked the trailer and truck right there by the wall and carried things to the wall, lifted them over the wall and handed it to missionaries standing on the other side, who then carried it to the truck.  It seemed easier but still pretty hard when the washer and dryer had to be lifted up and over the wall.  But we got it all out!!  So grateful for those good strong missionaries. As we were almost done, we got a call from President.  He had decided to bring those missionaries closer to the office the night before the Mission Conference on Saturday.  That meant he needed extra beds in some of the apartments.  Our mission is really large and some of the areas are over 3 hours away.  We all needed to be at the church at 8:30 am on Saturday and he was worried about those driving so far that early in the morning.  So we were assigned to make sure that 4 apartments had 3 or 4 beds in them for Friday night. We finished up closing the Mallard apartment and then started home to figure out beds.  We decided that we should probably go to 2 of the apartments that afternoon late and see what they had.  So we gathered up keys to all the apartments and headed out.  As we started to leave the second apartment, I got confused about all the keys.  I thought I had lost the keys to one of the apartments.  We searched for them for about 45 minutes.  I was in tears and so tired I couldn't think any more.  Dan went through then one more time and we decided that the set of keys I had thought were for Mallard were the keys for the apartment I thought we lost. I don't know why I thought they were Mallards keys, I had already turned them in at the apartment office when we closed it.  It was a late night when we finally got home and I was done!

Elder helping us.  We lifted all the furniture over this little embankment, 

to save us from going up and down stairs.

Friday Dan went over to the Storage Unit and emptied the trailer by himself.  I was still so tired from the day before.  After he got the trailer emptied he came back for me and we went to the last 2 apartments and set them up for the night. We had da Zoom Meeting with our Tax guy at 4:00, so we needed to be home for that.  That turned out to be pretty easy and we had a good visit with our tax guy, Scott.  We had to get keys to one set of Sisters that night when they arrived.  It was about 9:30pm when they got to the apartment.  We handed them the keys and came home to get to bed. Saturday was going to be an early and busy day.

Saturday morning we got up and were at the St Louis Stake Center by 8:00.  Elder Smith, the one incharge of the cars, had asked us to help him pass out the insurance cards to each of the Elders and Sisters and have them put it right into their cars before the meeting started.  This was the first time our WHOLE MISSION has ever been all together at once.  So the missionaries were so excited to be with each other.  At 8:45 everyone was to be there and in the Cultural Hall for a Mission Picture with Elder Kearon. I was actually amazed at how well it went putting everyone into place.  Everyone was in place and ready when Elder Kearon walked in.  We sang "I am a Child of God" as he came in.  He and his wife just stood there for a minute and took  it all in.  Then they took the picture, which took about 3 minutes and everyone was dismissed.  Elder Kearon and his wife greeted each missionary as we walked into the chapel.  We were to say our name and where we were from.  That was it.  But it was so great to see and shake their hands.What a great meeting!!  Elder Bangador, from the 70 was with Elder Kearon and he spoke to us.  He talked about how miracles start with an action.  How when we start doing something it can lead to a miracle.  Then Elder Dube, from the Quorum of the Seventy Presidency, spoke to us.  He talked about the importance of doing things in the Lord's way, not our own way.  Be an example to our children and grandchildren.  Then we got to hear from Sister Kearon.  She is so pretty and so cute.  She talked about companion councils and how they can help us with the work.  She talked about making goals and helping each other keep them.  Learning in understand, validate and make solutions for our differences together.  Then we got to hear from Elder Kearon.  He talked about Rising fo a new sense of commitment.  Don't resent the load you carry, but thrive on the opposition you feel. He talked about our prayers both morning and night.  He was fun, cute and so inspired.  

Our whole mission!

Sunday, Elder Bangador, came to our Stake Conference and spoke.  It was great too.  President Walker, our Stake President spoke about ministering one by one.  He talked about ministering to the missionaries and making their lives better.  Jesus rewards Faith.   He talked about Easter coming and how we can make it a spiritual experience.  Elder Bangador talked about Patriarchal Blessings and the covenants we make.  

It was such a Spirit filled weekend!