October 2016

I can't believe it's been over a month since I have posted on this blog. So much has gone on and kept us busy.  September was a slower month but October has been very busy and it looks like November is going to be just as busy! This has been our month for interviews and interviews take 9 full days. Mitch has to visit with each missionary in our mission, which if he sees everyone including the senior missionaries, he would visit with 206 people over 9 days. He loves visiting with everyone! In this round of interviews we went to Burlington Kansas. We've never been there and we have two senior sisters, sister Nielson and sister Cochran. We got to see the nice house they live in and go to lunch with them and just visit about all the wonderful things they are doing there in Burlington. These women are involved in a lot of service for the community and are really setting a good example of the church. It's such a cute, clean and just overall nice little town. After we went to lunch and visited with them for a couple of hours we drove up to Hiawatha Kansas. It was also our first time there and the town is adorable! Tree-lined streets, cute houses with front porches, so much character. I can't say enough how much I love seeing these quaint little towns. Kansas is a visual smorgasbord for me! We met with sister Jones and sister Abercrombie. They also have a really cozy little house and garden outback. We took the sisters plus Elder Herbine and Elder Hawks to dinner. We were going to go to Gus's Diner but it's closed on Mondays so we went to the Chinese restaurant. There aren't many places to choose from in these small towns but the food was pretty good and we enjoyed our time with these missionaries. Afterwards we went back and had a special visit with sister Jones and Abercrombie. They too are very involved with the community and ward.  We love our senior sisters! They are so valuable to the Kansas Wichita mission! They do so much good for the communities they reside in.

After these visits we drove to Kansas City, Missouri for a Mission Presidents Seminar.  We started by doing a temple session with 25 other mission presidents and their wives plus Elder Wilford Andersen and his wife.  We don’t have a temple in our mission so it was a pleasure to get to do a session. We spent the next two days being taught and spiritually nourished by Elder Soares, Elder Andersen, Elder Grow, Elder De Feo and others. On friday we loaded a bus and went to see some church sights.  We went to Independence, Liberty Jail, Far West, Hamilton and Adam Ondi Ahman.  Brother Baugh from the church history department at BYU was with us on the bus and told us all of the history of these places.  It was a really wonderful day and I love our church heritage of faith and determination! Saturday we finished at noon and we stopped in Lawrence Kansas to visit with a new senior couple serving there at the institute.  They are the Cullimores and very impressive people.  I love the faith and desire to serve of these senior couples.  They do so much good!

We got to attend the baptism of Bill on Sunday.  He was so happy and we were so happy for him!!!  The Gospel is true and changes lives.