Today is the last full day that we will be in the Kansas Wichita Mission.  Already?!!!  Where did the time go!  It's been a busy, hectic, spiritual and very fulfilling 3 years that don't compare with anything else I have done in my life.  I never thought for a moment when we received our assignment to Kansas that I would love this place like I do.  I can't get enough pictures! I went for a walk this morning just taking in the views, waterways, geese, green grass and trees.  We live on the east side of Wichita and right now we are staying in the Homewood Suites while the mission home is being prepared for President and Sister Ernst.  This place is beautiful right now!  Something else that is beautiful about Kansas is the people.  First off the ward members are amazing and it is so nice to walk into any ward building and feel the love and camaraderie(I looked up how to spell this) that comes from church members.  They are good, faithful people and we have made some very good, life long lasting friendships.  People in general here are wonderful God fearing, church going people.  There are so many different churches in every town and the parking lots are full.  These people love and want to serve God.  As we have driven all over the state we have seen billboards that focus on loving Jesus and the importance of being pro life.  It's a beautiful thing.  I love Kansas values and they are not afraid to share them.  We have had the privilege of working with the most amazing senior (we call them experienced) missionaries in the mission office.  They get up each morning early and drive to the mission office for an 8 hour job that doesn't pay in money but does pay in spiritual benefits.  The young Elders and Sisters love them so much and count on them for so many things.  They are their grandparents away from home!  They have become my best friends and I will forever be thankful to have had the privilege of knowing them and serving with them. They know how to SERVE!  Now....how do I even share with you what I feel for these young elders and sisters who have blessed our lives for the last 3 years.  They come to us as teenagers and return to their families as men and women.  It is a beautiful, inspiring transition.  They grow up right before our eyes and become faithful followers of Jesus Christ.  Missions are hard because you have to give up your own desires to focus on Him and sharing His gospel 24/7.  When missionaries can finally do it, it is amazing and all they want to do is share the word of God and bless people lives because of it.  They learn to love as God loves and see people as God sees them. They are not focused on themselves but rather on others as was Jesus.  It's a beautiful thing!  My life has been enriched because of them and I am deeply grateful for knowing them.  We are friends for eternity!!!
   Something that has been seared in my mind is the fact that we are children of a Heavenly Father, he is literally our Father. He loves us as a father should and cares for us deeply and wants the best for us but he also knows that our greatest learning comes when we have agency and make our own decisions.  We will make mistakes, we are human, it is a given but he sent His son Jesus Christ to show us the way.  By His life we can know how to live and we can repent and change.  Repentance is only true repentance when we change, learn from our mistakes and do things differently.  The bottom line is that he just wants us to return to be with him.  The question for us as His children is "Will we always choose Him? "  Can He trust us and know that no matter what the world throws at us, no matter what temptation is in front of us, no matter if we think He is listening, we will always choose Him.  Let me tell you something, I CHOOSE HIM!!!  I know that there is no other way to be truly happy or at peace in our lives without Him and His gospel.  I don't need anyone else but Him to validate how I feel.  The Book of Mormon is the word of God and if you want power and spirit and peace in your life you can find it through reading that book.  I know this because I have experienced it in my own life.  There is a difference in my day when I read and when I don't.  If you don't have time to read a chapter in the morning, read a verse and  contemplate it and you will find your day focused on spiritual things.  What a way to start the day! Try it for yourself and see if it makes a difference. The world is full of chaos but through Jesus Christ we can find peace.  "When there is no peace on earth, there is peace in Christ!" I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and am so blessed to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints!
                                REMEMBER, REMEMBER, REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE!

December 2017

  I'm sitting here in the hall at the Lawrence church building as Mitch is doing interviews.  I  meet with each missionary before they go in to talk to him.  Right now he is doing a departing missionary interview which usually lasts about an hour.  Sister Lee came to Kansas the week after us and was in the group we met at the MTC when we were in the MTC.  It is so weird to think that she is going home.  It's also weird to think that we are at the halfway point of our mission.  Time has gone by so fast!   
 

  This was what our drive to Manhattan looked like on Monday.  It was so foggy but it finally looked and felt like Christmas.  The weather has been sunny and not too cold lately.  It is starting to change.  I love white Christmas's but I'm pretty sure we won't have one here. I'll take the fog though!
  Last week we had zone conferences across the mission from Monday to Saturday.  Normally we would have just been 5 days but the Stake Presidency in Garden City wanted to do a special dinner for the missionaries and could only do it on Saturday and Mitch and I needed to be home by 5pm on Saturday.  So.....we split zone conference in Garden City and it was amazing.  We did service projects with our "Light the World" t-shirts Friday night.  Some rang the salvation army bell at Walmart, some cleaned up a lot near a school, some helped organize toys for tots at the salvation army and some built a playhouse for a school.  It was a wonderful night and when we were all done we went to the Steels home for dessert and sharing what we did.

                                                This is the whole Garden City Zone at the Steels.

For Zone Conference each missionary had a wrapped gift under the tree plus a letter from home and 2 ornaments with one word written on it chosen by their family that described them.

Ugly sweater contest!

More ugly sweaters!

It was a wonderful and exhausting week of zone conference but the privilege of being with these awesome missionaries was worth it! What a wonderful time to celebrate the life of our Savior!
  The "Light the World" initiative  has been a blessing and fantastic focus at this time of year.  Our missionaries have been involved in many service opportunities and have been able to involve ward members and investigators.  Mosiah 2:17 When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.  That's what it's all about!
  In November we had a mission tour with Elder Vern P. Stanfill and his wife Alicia.  It went from a Tuesday to Sunday.  We combined zones and had 3 days of zone conferences and ended at the Topeka Stake Conference Saturday and Sunday.  The Stanfills are such great people and so down to earth.  We really felt a connection with them and were edified and taught so much by both of them.   
  The Gospel is true and brings so much light and joy into my life!

November in Kansas

I can't believe it's November already!  Time is flying by.  Last week we attended our Mission Presidents Seminar in Jackson Hole Wyoming.  We met up with all the mission presidents and wives from our North America Central area plus Idaho.  These are wonderful people that I look up to and admire so much.  We got to attend the Star Valley Wyoming Temple one day and enjoy being in the temple with this great group of people.  The temple is beautiful and there were mountains all around us.  (Kansas doesn't have much in the way of mountains, just beautiful rolling hills. )  For 3 1/2 days we were fed spiritually and physically.  They really do feed us great food and lots of it at these things but more importantly we are taught and lifted spiritually.  Our Presidency that is over us, Elder Soares, Elder Wilford Andersen, Elder Nattress and Elder Parrella and their wives were with us and then we had a special guest Elder Neil L. Andersen and his wife Kathy.  These are all great leaders and wonderful teachers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I am thankful to have been in their presence and felt of their love for the Savior and for us.  We came back to our mission being lifted and taught.  Actually we got back in a mad dash!  We flew in to Wichita Saturday around 1 pm, stopped at the house long enough to unpack and repack, then headed to Salina for Stake Conference.  After conference on Sunday we drove to Emporia to visit with some missionaries and then got home where I had 45 minutes to get dinner made for the Assistants coming over for dinner. That is not an uncommon couple of days in the mission field! 

This is the Star Valley Wyoming Temple               

With Everyone

Jenny Lake with all of the Mission Presidents and Wives we started with in 2016.

On Tuesday we had MLC with all of our mission leadership.  We start our meeting at the church but end up at the mission home for dinner and final business.  I always make the dinner and by request we had our best imitation of Jdawgs.  (a hotdog place in Utah) This is the second time I have made them because some of  the missionaries love them so much.  It was also Halloween and the missionaries loved being able to open the door for trick or treaters.  They also loved putting a pass a long card with a picture of Jesus  in the candy bowl!  They are always missionaries!   

The next morning we had our Sister Training Leaders over for breakfast and some training.   These are some wonderful sisters who serve, uplift and teach the sisters in their areas.

They liked that we have a selfie stick!

We are here because we love the Lord and know that it is His Church and His Gospel.  This matters, this is real!  Let's us not forget that we lived before we came to this earth and that we will continue to live after we leave this earth.  There is an eternal perspective in all we do and in the choices we make. May we find peace and joy in living a life centered in Him and His gospel!

August 2017

  It's official.......we are a smart phone Online Proselyting mission.  We are rolling it out today with the Mission Leadership Council!  We've been a technology mission since before we got here, meaning our missionaries use Ipads and Tablets.  Today they will get their smart phone and begin to set up their Facebook accounts to share the Gospel.  It's pretty incredible when you think of how the message of the Gospel can be sent throughout the world because of smart phones!  Of course with it comes much responsibility on the part of the missionary to use it appropriately.  We have wonderful missionaries in the Kansas Wichita Mission who I believe will honor their calling as ambassadors of Jesus Christ. The work is moving forward!
  We had a wonderful experience last weekend with a visit from Elder Oaks to our area.  For the first time since we have been here, by request, we brought in all the missionaries for a mission wide meeting with an apostle.  Accompanying him were Elder Nattress a general authority 70 and Elder Rawson an area authority 70.  Elder Rawson is from Wichita.  He served here as a bishop and then stake president. We have become very fond of Elder Rawson and his wife Linda, they are good people. Elder Nattress served as a mission president in the Gilbert Arizona mission before receiving the call he has now.  It was fun to talk to him about Arizona since I grew up in Mesa.  Our missionaries were wonderful in doing all they were asked to do to prepare for this meeting.  I felt like a proud parent!  We were able to get a picture with everyone which was quite a feat working with almost 200 people but they were in place and ready when Elder Oaks showed up.

  Every single missionary got to file into the chapel and shake hands with these great men!

The spirit in the meeting was strong and I was a little weepy throughout the whole thing.  Mitch and I both took 5 minutes and then the time was turned over to Elder Rawson, Elder Nattress and Elder Oaks. We had a special number by Elder Winegar, Radman, Murphy, Davies and Sister Casos and Bench accompanied by Sister Daly.  It was beautiful and added so much to the spirit that was already there. The meeting was only 1 1/2 hours long and as soon as it was over the missionaries reverently exited the building and got back on the road to their areas.  What a spiritual feast for us all! There were two more meetings after that we attended for ward and stake councils and then youth and YSA.  It was a long day but so good.  We got to spend a good part of time with Elder Oaks in between meetings and have dinner with him.  He is kind, funny, and an all around fantastic person to be with.  Sunday we picked up Elder Nattress and took him to 2 different Sacrament meetings.  We attended the Park Hill ward and then the Kellogg Spanish Branch.  After we met up with the others at an airport and sent them off on the Huntsman Jet.  What a fantastic weekend or really I should say 25 hours!

  Our daughters Becca and Kristin and their combined 8 children paid us a visit the week before my birthday.  Little did I know they were coming.  It seems like usually when someone is planning a surprise you have an idea that something is happening but I was 100% clueless.  I was driving us home from 2 days of zone conference and asked Mitch if he wanted to stop in El Dorado for dinner.  He said he wasn't feeling really well and wanted to just get home and change clothes and then get something in town.  I was ok with that.  When we got to the house he handed me my purse and said I'll get the rest in a minute.  I walked into the house and turned on the light and all of a sudden my family is yelling surprise!  I was stunned!  Had no clue! It was wonderful and so much fun to have them here for days.  I felt bad because Mitch had to do 2 more zone conferences without me but not really that bad ! 😊  What fun we had!  I love my family!

One last picture before they leave.  It was to bright outside so we took it in the garage!

Downtown Wichita at the Old Mill Tasty Shop.  It was our first time there.

Grandpa having a gospel talk with the kids.  It was really good and I think I even learned some things!

  In July we had a Senior Missionary activity.  All of our senior couples and sisters came into Wichita.  We had dinner the night before at Olive Garden.  A member of our ward was there and took a picture for us.

After dinner those that wanted went to the Keeper of the Plains and then we got ice cream at Braums.

Saturday morning we had  breakfast and games plus we got on our family tree apps to see if any of us were related and of course many of us were!  It was a great time and we are so blessed to have all of these wonderful, faithful and diligent seniors serving with us in Kansas.  I can't say enough how much these missionaries are a help and support to all they serve!  WE LOVE THEM111

And here is one last picture......Mitch with Elder Benziger and Elder Saari, our office missionaries, looking at the eclipse.

July 2017

  Summer is in full swing here in Kansas.  Everything is green and lush and of course the fire flies are a plenty in the back yard.  I love it here!  So far we have been able to take a morning and nightly walk. Last year we didn't even attempt it because it was so hot and humid.  We've either gotten used to it or it's not as hot as it was last year!
  We've been speaking 2 or 3 times a month in different wards around the mission.  I love that it doesn't matter where you go, it feels the same in each ward we attend.  There are wonderful people everywhere we go!
  Yesterday we attended the baptism of Edward and there were 40 plus people there to support him! It was awesome to see so many people from the ward welcoming him in.  His wife should be getting baptized soon and they are so happy.  Most of the wards here are very welcoming and supportive of converts.  I love seeing people change their lives and make themselves better, to see the light in their eyes.
  I've learned many valuable lessons since living in Kansas.  Growing up in Arizona and then living the past 36 years in Utah have been similar experiences.  The lifestyle has been pretty much the same but Kansas has been different.  Church in Kansas feels pretty much the same but you see things in church that I never saw in Az/Ut.  In Az/Ut we all looked, dressed, acted, etc. the same.  Here you will see people dressed in all kinds of attire.  Some even smell of cigarette smoke or alcohol.  This is not what I am used to but.......they are at church! They are striving to live Christlike lives, make changes in their lives and make themselves better.  It's quite amazing to see and they are accepted and loved for who they are, children of God on the same life journey as the rest of us.  This is something I will take home with me!  Heavenly Father loves ALL His children and we are in essence brothers and sisters, a family.  Families help each other, love each other, accept each other.
  June 30th we hit our one year anniversary.  That went by fast!  We feel like we are finally figuring things out and things run smoothly for a moment or two.  There is always something new to deal with!  Of course the best part of all are the missionaries who are giving 18-24 months of their lives
to full time work for the Lord!  We watch them stumble and fall and pick themselves back up and in the process learn and grow into wonderful, dedicated disciples of Christ.  This is our joy!
  The Gospel is true of that I am sure!!!

June 4, 2017

WOW! Almost 4 months have gone by since I last wrote!  Time is ticking by and so much is going on.  Now that we are on a 6 week rotation it's like a mad dash to the finish line!  People always ask me what do you love the most about your mission and I always have to say....being with the missionaries.  They are such wonderful young men and women.  They work hard, play hard and are here to serve the Lord and take His gospel to everyone and anyone who will listen.  It is hard, rewarding work!
Joe was baptized on Tuesday evening and it was a wonderful meeting.  What a great young man and what great faith.  Sister Thompson and Curran, our Bel Aire Sister Training Leaders, taught Joe. Many ward members from the ward and from the ward he is moving into were there for him. Support from the ward is the Best!  Kansas is full of wonderful people!
Wednesday night we had the Mission Leadership Council or MLC to our home for dinner. All 30 of us ate up stairs then went to the basement for the rest of the meeting.  It was the first time we have had them all in our home together.  Usually we do this meeting at the church but this was much better, much more intimate and everyone loved doing it this way.  
The next day, Thursday, we took our MLC to the Oklahoma City Temple.  The only bus we could find available to drive us was a school bus.  That sure brought back memories of my elementary school days!  The Temple is about 2 1/2 hours away.  As we drove there, Mitch led a discussion with the missionaries and did some teaching. We are being very prayerful in working to move this mission forward. There was nothing better than seeing angel Moroni on the spire as we drove in.  I LOVE the TEMPLE!!!  We were able to do a session and then meet with the Temple President, President Campbell and be taught. We met he and his wife last summer as we both spoke at the Derby and Wichita stake conferences together.  What wonderful people they are!  We ate lunch in the church building right across the parking lot from the temple.  It was nice and cool and gave us a little more time in air conditioning before we headed back in the bus!  The ride home was much warmer then the ride there but we made it! It was a beautiful and memorable day for all!
Yesterday we had the privilege of attending the baptism of Terry in Burlington Kansas.  I drove and as we stared out it began to rain like no other.  Sister Worthington, our mission nurse, calls that a frog choaker! It was a little scary but I just slowed down and all was well.  The baptism was at the outdoor community pool.  Terry was seated on a lift and was lowered into the water while Elder Lemon and Clawson stabilized her.  Elder Lemon baptized her and it was a beautiful thing.  We headed back to the church for the program.  Our two senior sisters, Sister Cochrane and Junior spoke on baptism and the Holy Ghost and did a wonderful job.  I was so touched by both talks and the Spirit bore witness to me that all they were saying was true.  This Gospel is true and it's so amazing that our Heavenly Father has provided a way for us to return to live with Him again.  He is our Father! He loves all of His children!  He wants us all to return to be with Him! I KNOW THIS IS TRUE!
Today, Sunday, we are holding a mission wide fast.  What a great way to end the wonderful week we have had.  THE GOSPEL IS TRUE!!!

February 17th 2017.

  Time goes by so quickly in the mission field. It's always busy and things are moving all the time. We enjoyed a world wide missionary broadcast on January 25th and it was amazing that the senior brethren of the missionary executive council, Elders Oaks, Bednar, and Anderson, invited all missionaries into that meeting via a teleconference live feed and it was awesome!  How many missionaries can say that they have prayed with an Apostle! Or watched how a council meeting is held.  They taught the principle of teaching repentance and baptizing converts and stressed to “not skip a step”.  We also had brother Donaldson from the missionary department and brother Glazier from the Provo MTC come that same week and do some training with our missionaries. It was fantastic! They are both wonderful and insightful teachers and we all learned so much about how to share the gospel with our brothers and sisters. The interesting thing is everything we learned was just going back to basics and tied to our missionary purpose. You have to build faith in your investigators before they can move forward. Such a simple thought and yet so easily forgotten. The missionaries that were able to attend were very excited about everything they learned and were anxious to get back to the missionaries in their area and share with them the new trainings. Everyone seems to be very excited about using these teachings and have seen the benefits of sticking to the basics in their teachings already. We love our missionaries and we love the Kansas Wichita mission!

  We sent home so many awesome missionaries lately who completed their missions and we miss them already.  They make such a mark on the mission and with the other missionaries.  We’ve had many new come and it is exciting to see their progress.  Missionary work is work!  It’s living on a schedule, following guidelines, studying, keeping close to a companion, making goals, keeping track of people you meet...it’s a time of losing yourself and focusing on others.  It can be quite an adjustment but I love when I see the missionaries finally get it and lose themselves and get into the work.  What an awesome thing for anyone to do….lose yourself in the service of God and your fellow man!

  We just started a new round of stake conferences for the year. Last weekend we had  conference in the Wichita stake. The stake presidency was changed and they had two visiting authorities, Elder Weatherford Clayton, a General Authority Seventy, from Utah and Elder Spackman, an area authority seventy, from Canada.(Elder Claytons niece just finished her mission here with us 6 weeks ago!)  All of the talks were so good and motivating.  President Williams was released and his first counselor President Chandler was put in as the the new Stake President. Such good men!  We had to leave as soon as conference was over to drive 3 ½ hours to Garden City for a missionary training meeting Mitch and his first counselor Matt Steel were doing for all of the bishopbrics, ward mission leaders and stake presidency.  After that meeting we held a mission president’s devotional.  We had new converts share their conversion stories and testimonies as well as some more seasoned converts do the same.  It was a powerful meeting on how the Gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives.  I am so impressed at all that Mitch does and the energy he has to do it all.  The Lord has truly blessed him in this work to have the stamina to do it all!  It is the busiest thing we have ever done!

  Yesterday we sent home Elder Gilliam who was one of the assistants when we arrived June 30th.  He has been having some back problems his whole mission and it just was time for him to go and take care of his health.  I loved making food for Elder Gilliam because he could eat and I love when people eat my food.  You’d think with the way he could put down food he would be a big guy but he’s not!  Anyway, I will always be thankful to him and Elder Labrum for being our guides when we first got here and didn’t know what we were doing.  I love these two young men!

  We've had a few really cold days but for the most part it's been a pretty mild winter. I'm looking forward to leaves and green grass!  

The Gospel is TRUE!!!

November and December

December 22nd 2016

   I can't believe it's been almost 2 months since I last wrote on this blog. Life has been very busy and we find ourselves now on the road 3 weeks of the six weeks between transfers.  We are doing 4 Zone conferences, 9 interview days, MLC and 3 days of transfers every 6 weeks.  It keeps things busy and eventful!  It is great to be busy in such an important work and we love being here in Kansas and we especially love being with all of our missionaries! I can’t say enough how much we love them and love being with them.  

  Since I last wrote we have done 8 zone conferences, 18 rounds of interviews and MLC.  Also throw in there a mission tour with Elder Wilford Andersen and his wife Kathleen(who by the way are from Mesa) which consisted of 3 more zone conferences and an MLC with them teaching.  We loved having them here and learned so much from them!  They are wonderful people and such great teachers.  The missionaries were very Spiritually fed those 3 days.  We had one day in Topeka, the next in Dodge City and the last in Wichita.  They had just come from another mission tour in Des Moines, Iowa.  Talk about busy…….!

  We had Thanksgiving with our 18 zone leaders and 2 assistants plus 3 of our office staff.  

I have more pictures to post but now I can't get it to work so... I'm a little computer challenged that's for sure!

  Thanksgiving was a great experience in the mission field but different from being at home. There was no relaxing and watching football or just doing nothing.  Nevertheless it was a good day and we got to talk and FaceTime with family as well as enjoy being with these elders.

  We were supposed to go to a live nativity and devotional in Liberal on Saturday December 17th but they were expecting bad weather and it was cold! Everything was cancelled and we got to stay home which I was happy about because I had things to do for Christmas but I was also bummed because I was really looking forward to the live nativity that we had heard so much about. They even cancelled church in some areas. That Sunday morning as we drove to church here in Wichita the thermometer in our car registered -1 degree. I think it was a good thing that we didn't  go to Liberal that weekend as they said it was -22. Kansas is known for it's wind. The wind can really blow and in the winter it's a very cold wind!  In a lot of ways the weather reminds us of a Utah winter. It's cold and you just put up with it for 3 months and then it starts to get warm again.  We have finished 1 month of winter!

 Our 4 December Zone conferences were so fun.  We had an ugly sweater contest, watched some cute Christmas videos, tied some fleece blankets as a service project for “Light the World” and we had all of the missionaries write on a little card a gift that they are going to give to the Savior this year.  We were also fed yummy meals by the stakes and appreciate so much what they do for us.  As fun and lighthearted as part of zone conference was, it was also a time to reflect on the Savior, His birth and all he has done for us. He is the reason for the season!

 Kasey and Kenzie came the friday before Christmas and we had such a good time.  The first night we went to the Prairie Pines Theater for dinner and a play.  It was pretty funny and we had some good laughs.  Saturday morning we took them to the Doo Dah Diner for breakfast.  If you ever come to Wichita you have to have breakfast there.  It is so good, they have this banana bread french toast that is to die for plus Tanyas eggs benedict.  There is usually a long wait but they do have call ahead seating.  You still have to wait even with that but it helps.  

When I called that morning, the hostess kind of discouraged me saying it was busy but I was determined to take these girls there.  When we got there we got right in!  They loved it and I’m so glad they got to experience it. On Christmas day we had Sacrament meeting and then in the afternoon we had an open house for the missionaries close by.  We also got to facetime with all the family which was fantastic!  I sure love my family.  The week after Christmas was transfer week so the girls got to see how that goes.  We only had 5 missionaries come and we sent home 5 elders and 5 sisters.  It is hard to say goodbye to these wonderful missionaries because we love them so much.  The new missionaries coming in are stellar and we are excited to have them be a part of the Kansas Wichita Mission! On Wednesday we sent Kenzie off at 6:30am and Kasey at 1:55pm.  Unfortunately they had different flights because Kenzie had a plane ticket she had to use.  It was so good to have some family with us!  New Year’s Eve was uneventful in fact we went to dinner and didn’t even think of it being new year’s eve until our waiter said something about it!

 And now it is 2017!  I still remember how everyone was worried about what was going to happen in 2000 with computers and everything.  Where has the time gone!

October 25 to October 30

Warning---I finally learned how to put pictures on the the blog and there are a few!

On Tuesday we drove to Manhattan Kansas for interviews with our missionaries. I get to visit with each of the elders and sisters before they go in to interview with Mitch. It really is a pleasure to get to know each one of them individually. Here is a picture of the Manhattan Zone.

Aren’t they awesome. Half of the zone comes in the morning and the other comes in the afternoon.  There is training going on by the Assistants while each missionary is being interviewed.  Manhattan is the home of KState. It is a beautiful city and here is a picture looking out the front door of the church.

A typical picture of Kansas.

We left Manhattan and stopped in Ellsworth which is the town in a Rascal Flatts song.  We had dinner at the diner and probably won’t go there again but I got to see the town and that is what I have wanted to do since we have been here.

Downtown Ellsworth.

I thought this house in Ellsworth was so cute. The picture just didn’t turn out too good.

We made it that night to Great Bend where we stayed the night.  The next day we drove an hour to Garden City for our next stop of interviews.  Here is our missionaries in the Garden City Zone.

After interviews we drove about an hour to Dodge City because Mitch had to do a  baptismal interview. The ward there was getting ready for their Trunk or Treat and it was busy with happy kids in costumes. After the interview we drove to Liberal.  It was after 9pm when we got to the hotel and we were both exhausted though Mitch had some correspondence he had to do.  I wrote in my journal and it was lights for me!

Here is the Liberal Zone.

We got home Thursday night after 9pm again.  The next morning we had our last round of interviews for the Derby Zone but I don’t have the pictures for them.  At 5pm We got to go on our weekly date! Yay!  I do look forward to those especially after a busy week like this one.

Saturday we worked on planning Zone Conference and MLC for next week.  By noon we were on our way to the Salina Stake Conference.  Salina is about an hour and 20 minutes away.  The first meeting was a Priesthood leadership meeting so Michelle Steel and I drove around town and shopped for a little while.  Michelle’s husband, Matt, is Mitch’s 1st counselor in the mission presidency.  They came up from Garden City to be at the conference.  I thought we were speaking Sunday because that is what Mitch told me but I found out that we were speaking at the adult session that night.  Under other circumstances I would have freaked out but I knew what I was going to talk about and it was actually nice to do it then and not have to worry about it all night long. In my talk I said I grew up in Mesa Arizona and I had several people come up to me who were originally from Mesa too.  You talk long enough to anyone in the Church and you can find a connection to someone!  We left the Steels car at the church and they came home with us and stayed the night.  We have become good friends and we had great conversation and taught them how to play skipbo. The next day we drove back for the Sunday session of conference.  The Salina stake is solid with lots of faithful members.  Here is a picture of us with the Steels at the church.

The Steels left for home after the conference and we came home in time for Mitch to drop me off, have a snack and drive to Ark City, an hour away, for a baptismal interview.  When he got home we had dinner with Sister Poulton, our new mission secretary, and the assistants.  We got to visit for a little after dinner and then we had to head out to the 29th street building, 25 minutes away, for a Mission President’s Devotional.  Mitch spoke about Joseph Smith’s first vision and then we have recent converts bear their testimonies.  These are the best and so filled with the Spirit and happiness for how the Gospel has changed their lives!  We love these devotionals!

That was pretty much our week.  It’s busy but we love it so much!

The Gospel is True!!!

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.

September 11 - 22, 2016

Mitch now has two counselors and his presidency is organized!  He called Mark Elliott from Topeka to be his second counselor and last Monday we drove to Garden City where we met with Matt and Michelle Steel and he called Matt to be his first counselor.  Both of these couples are wonderful people who will be a great support and help to the Kansas Wichita mission. We are very excited to have them be a part of this.

Thursday, September 14th I was at Walmart doing some shopping when I got a call from Mitch telling me one of our sister missionaries had been in a biking accident. He didn't know what her status was but knew that they were taking her to St. Francis Hospital in Wichita. Her companion was freaking out as she had seen the whole thing happen and was extremely upset and worried. Thank goodness for my phone's GPS that got me quickly to the hospital! I went to the emergency room and was taken back to the waiting area where Mitch was visiting with the hospital chaplain. He didn't know what the status was of  sister A other than the gurney went by with her on it and he said she didn't look very good.  That's all we knew. The office Elders showed up with her companion and we brought her back to the waiting room with us. She was pretty upset and shaken and she began to tell us what happened. Their car was in the shop getting fixed because it had  been in a hit-and-run so they were riding bikes.(In this mission a lot of the missionaries drive a car but also ride bikes because everything is so spread out they put a lot of mileage on the cars. They park the car in the neighborhood and ride their bikes as they go out and work.) The brakes weren't working very good on Sister A’s bike. They were going down a little hill and she could see that Sister A wasn't going to be able to stop and there was a truck pulling a trailer on the street.  She proceeded to watch Sister A hit the trailer and it caught her and then flipped her, ran over her foot and then she was laying in the street. (So thankful for these two sisters obedience in wearing their helmets because we probably would have had a different outcome if not.) Sister F ran over to her and said there was a lot of blood on the street. There were people who saw what happened and called 911. The driver of the truck was pretty upset but it wasn't his fault. They eventually came in and told us we could go see sister A.  Her companion, sister F, grabbed my arm and was quite nervous about what she was going to see. She was laying on a bed with a neck brace on but she was awake and alert and talkative. There was some caked on blood under her nose, it looked like she had a nosebleed plus her arm had road rash, her face on the left side was banged up, bruised foot, various scrapes and bruisring. Once we talked to her I knew she would be fine.  I think we all breathed a sigh of relief. A couple of hours later they finally got her cleaned up and to her room. We were able to go in and visit with her and talk with her. We felt very blessed and that angels had watched over her because it could have been so much worse. She works in the Spanish branch and  many of the branch members came to visit her.  Friday I went to the hospital to check on her and find out when they were going to release her.  She told me that she had found a new investigator. She was sharing a room with another woman and once the woman was discharged a hispanic lady came in to clean up the room and Sister A started speaking spanish to her and ended up giving her a Book of Mormon and getting contact information so they could go and visit her. Bless her heart, in all things she was a missionary first! The final verdict was a concussion and a broken nose plus some bumps and bruises. They kept her overnight for observation and she was able to go back to her apartment the next afternoon. We are so thankful that she was being watched over!

Saturday Mitch and I had to speak at the Wichita Stake Conference. Not my favorite thing to do but it went ok. This is the second stake conference we have spoken at and both times the President of the Oklahoma City Temple and his wife, the Campbells ,have been there speaking too.  We have gotten to know them and they are great people. That night we had dinner at our home with an elder that was going home the next day and the Assistants.  Elder Chlarson is from Payson Arizona and is such a good guy and a great missionary.  The next morning we had him and the assistants over for breakfast at 6:15 am.  That was an early one!  His flight was at 8:00 am.  Monday mornings we always have an office staff meeting but this Monday I took sister A and sister F to sister A’s plastic surgeon appointment. They thought we should make sure that her nose was set and ok so that she won’t have issues down the road. The doctor looked at everything and said even though her nose is broken it hasn't moved so everything is going to be perfectly fine. After I dropped them off at their apartment I went back to the office where they were having a luncheon for sister Caulder, the mission secretary, for her birthday.

  We never thought we'd have to worry about anything but tornadoes here in Kansas but last Saturday morning we had an earthquake!  It was just after 7 a.m. and the house started shaking and we both immediately knew what it was. It went on for a little bit and then it just went away. After researching I found that it was a 5.6 earthquake in Pawnee Oklahoma. That's not a really big earthquake but we sure felt it here in Wichita. That same Saturday morning we headed off to Emporia Kansas for a baptism. We got about halfway there when we were told the time of the baptism had been changed so we turned around and stopped in El Dorado to get some lunch. I have so enjoyed visiting all these little towns here in Kansas that are so cute, so quaint and so filled with history.  This state has a lot of wild west history, I mean Dodge City is in Kansas!

    Every Saturday we get in the car and drive to baptisms throughout the state. In this mission you do a lot of driving! This past Saturday we finally went to Emporia for a baptism, it was the first time we've been there and once again I fell in love with this town.  We had a lot of rain Thursday and Friday and it was pretty obvious in Emporia that they had a pretty intense storm. There were broken trees and branches strewn around but no reported tornadoes!  We attended the baptism of a 9 year old.  We see a lot of young kids being baptized and I am amazed at their faith and desire to be a part of the church at such a young age. After the baptism we drove to Topeka hoping to make it to another baptism but we had the time wrong and as we got there everyone was leaving the baptism. We did get to visit with some of the elders and I even started on a church tour with Elder Call and Elder Brunsvick with a sister that they were introducing the church to.  One of the things the missionaries do is take investigators on Church tours and show them the chapel, the baptismal font and other areas of the church and explain what goes on in these rooms.  I didn't get to be part of the tour for very long because Mitch and I had an appointment with two other elders. After lunch we headed off to Junction City to visit with some of the sisters serving there. I love the sisters! We got home after 7 p.m. and it was nice and cool in Wichita. We've had some pretty intense heat and humidity in this city. it's been nice lately and it's starting to cool off a little bit. We were able to go for a walk again and I loved that!  

     We spoke in sacrament meeting in Hutchinson. Hutch is about an hour and five minutes away.  I'm getting much more comfortable with speaking. That's a good thing because we are going to be doing a bit of it. Next week we have to speak in the Saturday and Sunday sessions of the Wichita Stake Conference. I never really saw myself doing this but here I am and I'm learning so much from the experiences I'm having here on the mission. After speaking in Hutchinson we came home and Mitch headed out again for a correlation meeting with our area authority and the five stake presidents in our mission. His meeting started at 1 and he didn't get home till after 6!

    We've had our first senior couple that served in the office come to the end of their mission. We love the Cocannours and are going to miss them so much. They've taken off on a trip to visit their kids and and go to the Philadelphia Temple open house.  I'm happy for them to get to go and have some fun.  I feel it was a privilege to get to know them. The O'Briens have taken over and they are wonderful people too. All of the senior missionaries that serve in this Mission are such a huge part of this important work. They make a big difference in the mission  and they make a big difference to the missionaries they work with. All of the elders and sisters love them! Don't know how you'd run a mission without them!

    We had MLC  this past week and I did all of the food for it. We picked the theme The Kickoff.  That's perfect for this time of year so all the food I made was game day food. We had chicken wings, meatballs, chicken ramen salad, queso dip, bean dip, caramel popcorn, brownie bites and fruit.  I really enjoy preparing the food for the missionaries and they are so appreciative.  MLC went really well and the mission has set some good goals for baptisms. Mitch and his assistants did a lot of teaching  and it was really good and motivating.  I am always impressed with these 3 guys, they do such a good job. We were pretty exhausted afterwards and as usual after these kinds of meetings, we ordered pizza from Pizza Hut, picked it up at the drive-thru and sat in bed and ate it. It's a fun tradition we started.

  We never thought we'd have to worry about anything but tornadoes here in Kansas but last Saturday morning we had an earthquake!  It was just after 7 a.m. and the house started shaking and we both immediately knew what it was. It went on for a little bit and then it just went away. After researching I found that it was a 5.6 earthquake in Pawnee Oklahoma. That's not a really big earthquake but we sure felt it here in Wichita. That same Saturday morning we headed off to Emporia Kansas for a baptism. We got about halfway there when we were told the time of the baptism had been changed so we turned around and stopped in El Dorado to get some lunch. I have so enjoyed visiting all these little towns here in Kansas that are so cute, so quaint and so filled with history.  This state has a lot of wild west history, I mean Dodge City is in Kansas!

    Every Saturday we get in the car and drive to baptisms throughout the state. In this mission you do a lot of driving! This past Saturday we finally went to Emporia for a baptism, it was the first time we've been there and once again I fell in love with this town.  We had a lot of rain Thursday and Friday and it was pretty obvious in Emporia that they had a pretty intense storm. There were broken trees and branches strewn around but no reported tornadoes!  We attended the baptism of a 9 year old.  We see a lot of young kids being baptized and I am amazed at their faith and desire to be a part of the church at such a young age. After the baptism we drove to Topeka hoping to make it to another baptism but we had the time wrong and as we got there everyone was leaving the baptism. We did get to visit with some of the elders and I even started on a church tour with Elder Call and Elder Brunsvick with a sister that they were introducing the church to.  One of the things the missionaries do is take investigators on Church tours and show them the chapel, the baptismal font and other areas of the church and explain what goes on in these rooms.  I didn't get to be part of the tour for very long because Mitch and I had an appointment with two other elders. After lunch we headed off to Junction City to visit with some of the sisters serving there. I love the sisters! We got home after 7 p.m. and it was nice and cool in Wichita. We've had some pretty intense heat and humidity in this city. it's been nice lately and it's starting to cool off a little bit. We were able to go for a walk again and I loved that!  

     We spoke in sacrament meeting in Hutchinson. Hutch is about an hour and five minutes away.  I'm getting much more comfortable with speaking. That's a good thing because we are going to be doing a bit of it. Next week we have to speak in the Saturday and Sunday sessions of the Wichita Stake Conference. I never really saw myself doing this but here I am and I'm learning so much from the experiences I'm having here on the mission. After speaking in Hutchinson we came home and Mitch headed out again for a correlation meeting with our area authority and the five stake presidents in our mission. His meeting started at 1 and he didn't get home till after 6!

    We've had our first senior couple that served in the office come to the end of their mission. We love the Cocannours and are going to miss them so much. They've taken off on a trip to visit their kids and and go to the Philadelphia Temple open house.  I'm happy for them to get to go and have some fun.  I feel it was a privilege to get to know them. The O'Briens have taken over and they are wonderful people too. All of the senior missionaries that serve in this Mission are such a huge part of this important work. They make a big difference in the mission  and they make a big difference to the missionaries they work with. All of the elders and sisters love them! Don't know how you'd run a mission without them!

    We had MLC  this past week and I did all of the food for it. We picked the theme The Kickoff.  That's perfect for this time of year so all the food I made was game day food. We had chicken wings, meatballs, chicken ramen salad, queso dip, bean dip, caramel popcorn, brownie bites and fruit.  I really enjoy preparing the food for the missionaries and they are so appreciative.  MLC went really well and the mission has set some good goals for baptisms. Mitch and his assistants did a lot of teaching  and it was really good and motivating.  I am always impressed with these 3 guys, they do such a good job. We were pretty exhausted afterwards and as usual after these kinds of meetings, we ordered pizza from Pizza Hut, picked it up at the drive-thru and sat in bed and ate it. It's a fun tradition we started.

   The Gospel is True!

   

August 15 - 28

I don't know what happened but I just lost the whole blog post that I spent the last hour writing! Hope this one makes sense because I am tired and ready for bed!!!

Do I say this every post? It has been a busy couple of weeks! I spend a lot of my time with Sister Worthington who is our mission nurse. She's very experienced and very good at what she does. Last week we visited with missionaries  to work out some mission issues. She is wise, kind and a whole lot of fun to work with. She makes me laugh! We call her Nurse Ratchett!

Friday night the  Meyers who are over all the mission housing invited all of the mission office seniors to come to their home for dinner. They live in Mulvane Kansas which is about 35 to 45 minutes from the office. They live in a very old farmhouse with a porch around the front, lots of big trees, green grass,  just a charming, cozy atmosphere! I absolutely love their home. We enjoyed dinner with our office friends and while we were there it was stormy. We had lightning and thunder and rain and the electricity  went off for a few minutes. We ended up having to leave just a little bit early because Mitch had to do a baptismal interview across town and it was going to take us about 25 minutes to get there. On the way there we came into the hardest rain storm I think I've ever been in. There were cars pulled off to the side waiting for it to let up because visibility was very limited. I don't know if I've ever seen that much rainfall at one time. Thankfully we got to where we needed to be safely but we did find out the next day that Mulvane received 7 inches of rain in 90 minutes. They had some pretty severe flooding but thankfully it didn't affect the Meyers home. I guess that storm was one for the record books!

Sunday we spoke in the YSA ward. We haven't been to our ward in about a month And I don't know when we will get to our Ward again!  After lunch we drove out to Garden City with Elder Labrum and Elder Gilliam. We had a mission president's devotional there and on the way we stopped at Dodge City.( Yes, this is the “get out of Dodge” Dodge city!)  in Garden City the mission president gives a message and then we had new converts get up and bear their testimonies. A 10 year old girl and her little brother that's 8 shared their testimonies about how happy they were to be baptized and how much they want to be able to go to the temple someday. Their 6 year old little sister bore her testimony about how excited she is to get baptized in 2 years. I am so amazed at these young children and their testimonies and desire to follow Jesus Christ! We also heard a lot of other testimonies. Testimonies that were very uplifting and testimony building to the rest of us.  We stayed around for a few minutes visiting and then we left because we had to stop back in Dodge City to visit with a couple of sisters there. We didn't get home till about 12:30 a.m. It was a good night.

Monday was a big preparation day because Tuesday we had 29 new missionaries come into the mission. We had to prepare a meal for them for lunch and I did a dinner for them at our home Tuesday night. Mitch interviews every one of them and with that big of a group it took quite a long time. He was totally exhausted at the end of the night. They are such great young men and young women and we are so pleased to have them here in the Kansas Wichita mission. The Assistants  took the elders to stay with them and we kept the 9 sisters here at our home. I went downstairs and visited with them for a while. They're all pretty exhausted at the end of the day because the missionaries coming from Provo MTC have to get up at 2:30 a.m. and the missionaries that come from the Mexico MTC had to be up at 3:30 a.m. It was a long day for them and they were ready for a good night's rest. I had to prepare more food before I could get to bed and a few of the sisters helped me!

Wednesday morning they are picked up and taken to the office by 8:30 for breakfast. The trainers are trained and the new missionaries are trained and then they are placed with their new companions. It's quite special to watch them meet each other for the first time and see how happy and excited they are to serve with one another. We did another big lunch for about 70 people of taco salad. The Meyers are doing most of it I'm just helping them out with my own assignments. After lunch they go into the chapel and see a video of all of the baptisms from the year. It's quite inspirational to watch. Mitch got up and shared a message on the Atonement and then we had one sister and 5 Elders who were going home the next day get up and share their testimonies so these new missionaries could hear the missionaries going home’s testimonies.  After that meeting I came home to finish preparing a meal for the 6 missionaries that are going home tomorrow. We always do a special meal with just them and us and it's fun to hear them reminisce about their missions. After dinner we go downstairs and have a little testimony meeting for them to share their testimonies one last time with us. It's a very special event. The assistance and Sister Training Leaders came and took them for the night and they were back at 7:30am Thursday  morning for breakfast at our home before we headed off to The Keeper of the Plains for their last and final mission picture. Then we went to the airport and sent them off. We only knew them for about seven weeks but really enjoyed getting to know them and we will miss them. I was pretty much done for the rest of the day! Friday I had to clean house and get groceries just so we could live! Saturday evening we had our first stake conference adult session. It felt like being at stake conference at home! Sunday Mitch and I both spoke at Stake Conference. I better get used to it because I think I'm going to be doing a lot of speaking these next three years! As soon as conference was over we took off to Hutchinson Kansas where we had a baptism. It took us about an hour and 15 minutes to get there but we made it in time. When that baptism was over we headed over to Newton which is about another 45 minutes to see another baptism. After that we left for the Kellogg area of Wichita, the Spanish Branch for the baptism of 2 more people. What a great way to end our Sabbath day by attending these baptisms. We love going to baptisms!