A post not posted!!

Well - here it is - that defining moment when you have done all the coming home from a mission things.  I had my 'homecoming talk'; I reported to the High Council; and we had food here at the house!  yup - that about covers it!

I really appreciated all the love and support I felt today through everything that was done.  A big thank you to everyone who helped!  Thank you!  Thank you!

I have only a picture or two, but only a few things to say as well, so that works out!

I am grateful to everyone who helped and participated in the Employment Office's kind gesture of having a good-bye party for me!  It was so nice, and I will forever remember the people, their kindness and love ~  Here are a couple of pictures -

 

The whole crew at the party!  How I love them!!

I am holding a delicious chocolate covered strawberry from Jeremy and Laura Jensen and family!  OH SO GOOD!!!  I also received an outline of Kate's hand, their oldest daughter - such treasures~

 

  This is our District with our Zone Leaders!

I know I'm really home because I went to the University of Utah football game for this 1st time since the mission - the Utes beat Stanford 27/21!  It was scary near the end, but the Utes stayed ahead and won - YAY!

I was privileged to be allowed to sing with The Sterling Singers again - we had a Choirside tonight.  The Spirit was very strong, and it was so wonderful to sing with the Choir again ~

I worked 3 days last week - 1 was orientation, but I was still paid - so I'm back on the job ~ another blessing!!

I am still pooped - so my 1st goal since coming back will be to go to bed sooner so I can get enough rest/sleep.  I'm heading that way momentarily ~

I want to thank everyone for their thoughts, their prayers, for all and everything you did to help support me on my mission.  Prayers are answered quickly for missionaries, and the love and support really is felt!  May you all be blessed for the sacrifices you make everyday for the Gospel, our Heavenly Father, our Savior, and His children! 

Live IS beautiful!!

Merry Christmas!

Dear Friends and Family:

I should have done this before, but this will be the “end” of my mission blog. I have been home over 2 months from the mission. I miss it! I miss serving so intently - and serving my fellow missionaries! It was a joy to be so privileged! I felt this joy and it filled me with light! I knew it was time to come home, and I am grateful to be here. Even the amount of snow we have had makes me happy that it will be a white Christmas!

　

　

I am grateful to Heavenly Father for His countless blessings! I am grateful for those who were such a positive influence in my life. I am grateful for the amazing people I met in the California Fresno Mission! They are testimony filled , valiant people.

I am grateful to each and every one of you for your prayers; for your support while I was gone, and here at home; for the good that each of you do in your lives. Thank you for your examples ~

I loved serving Heavenly Father - it was one of the most intense learning experiences I have had in my life. I am grateful for what I have learned. I am grateful for my Savior’s love, help, and mercy.

 

I wanted to wish each of you a wonderful, joyous, love filled Christmas season. I hope you will remember Jesus Christ, and how He can bring us inner peace - true, lasting, eternal peace. I am so grateful for my family - for my life - for my Redeemer and King. May you be blessed with all that is good, with all that you need in your lives!    
 Love, Sister Ure

 

Can you believe how time flies?  It is going so fast!  Tomorrow I have, officially, 1 month left!  I would love to know how to slow down time ----  

This has been such a learning experience – I’m really grateful for it.  As hard as the learning has been, I am grateful for it! 

Our companion, Sister Henrick, decided she needed to go home to take care of her health.  She lost 30 lbs in the few months she was in Fresno, and not in a good/fun way, or even trying for that matter.  She was starting out to her car to leave, and said, I guess I’m ready to go.  We said we weren’t ready for her to go!  Hugs and tears all around.  Hopefully the doctors will be able to find something out that hadn’t been done here.  She has already started to bake things for the missionaries at home though!  We trained her well! 

I have a few things I still want to do, and need to do, before leaving the mission.  Some are “work” related, and some are fun related!  Fun related - I want to go to the zoo.  I have gone to the zoo for my birthday a few times in the years before Tom died.  As it’s something I want to do anyway, for my birthday is as good a reason as not!  It will have to be the Saturday afterwards though.  Then I want to go see the town/city of Sonora.  It sounded like somewhere I want to see, so…. up we go!  It’s a few hours out of Fresno, but that’s okay!  Sister Ball is all for going too!  It may not be much, but it will be an adventure!  There’s a recreated mining town outside of Sonora that we will take a look at too.  That will be a fun day! 

Work related are lists and notes, and making up some little certificates.  The last should be fun – the other things….. we’ll see! 

I’ve been working on mental health concerns with the missionaries – it’s been interesting, but I don’t have any idea what I’m doing!  I’m not sure ‘loving the missionaries’ fits for helping with their mental health concerns.  Love them I do – I really do have to rely solely on the Holy Ghost. 

We have been asked to talk in Sacrament Meeting here on September 8th – I think that should count as my speaking in our ward.  What do you think Bishop?  

We had training tonight on talking with everyone about the Gospel.  Our new, another great District Leader, Elder Altner, planned a wonderful meeting where we did some MORE role playing.  It seems a lot easier to role play than to speak with someone in real life. 

We did talk with a man last night.  I started talking with him because he had on an arm brace and a boot on one of his feet.  I said, Ooohhh – owie!  What happened?  He had been in a motorcycle accident – someone pulled out in front of him.  He’s lucky to be alive.  We just continued talking with him, and he actually started talking to us about the Church.  He has done a lot of studying on different religions, but hadn’t found anything that fit what he thought a pure religion would be.  

We talked with him for a good while, gave him some pamphlets, but felt he was more into the research than anything else at that time.  What was cool, was that Sister Ball and I have been studying and practicing talking about some Gospel principles and doctrine, and were able to talk about these things with him.  We were grateful for the preparation, and the promptings of the Holy Ghost. 

It’s kind of strange being an employment and a medical missionary.  It would too easy to just put in the time at our offices, then go to our apartment every night and do whatever WE wanted to do (except for the phone calls from the missionaries 24/7). 

But, when you think about it, we ARE called and set apart representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ!  We have mouths; we can open them to talk about the Gospel!  As our Zone Leader said tonight – we have our testimonies, and we have the Lord in front of us and behind us to help us.  Why should we fear?  Sister Ball and I have committed to talking with everyone the Holy Ghost prompts us to!  We’re …. Excited?  Yup!  We are! I just don’t want to get to heaven and have too many more people ask me why I didn’t tell them about the Gospel! 

The weather is cooling down some.  We did have a couple of days last week around 108 though.  Tonight was kinda nice out – it was only 90!  I think I’m going to freeze when I come home!  Is that right, Dan?  All 3 of our sons went somewhere warmer and all 3 froze for several months when they came home. 

Every day at 7:55 am, the California Fresno Mission kneels in prayer, united, to help bring the Lord’s work forward.  It is an amazing time to beseech the Lord for help in His work.  We have been doing it for months now, and it is such a privilege!  We pray for the missionaries, the investigators, and the members in this mission area.  We just really feel this is the time of the last great harvest – where the Lord sends his servants out.  This is it!  We are now being told to prepare for the return of our Savior!  Let’s get going!!!  Missionary Work!  Redeeming OUR Dead!  Perfecting the Saints!  What better way to spend our time than building up the Kingdom of God!

It’s bed time – sorry I don’t have any pictures… my camera broke… even the one I bought for my birthday last year!!!  The lens won’t open…  I think I will get another so I can take pictures of people and places before I leave!  No – I’m not trunky!  I have way too much to do! I love it here!

My love to you all – GO UTES!!!!  That part is for both my companions who are BYU fans!

Love, Sister Ure

Hello everyone from very hot Fresno – though from what I’ve heard, we are probably at about the same temperature this time of year!

It has been a very busy week – don’t I say that all the time?  This week was Zone Conferences.  There are 11 zones in our mission (11 stakes).  To make it easier on everyone, the 11 zones are grouped as the 4 North Zones, 4 Fresno Zones, and the 3 South Zones.   This time, the South Zones’ conference was Tuesday; the Fresno Zones’ was Wednesday and the North Zones’ was Friday.

Sister Besser and I went to all 3 conferences giving nutrition training about eating healthy and not eating out as much.  We didn’t say they couldn’t go out, as everyone can choose that for themselves – hey!  I go out!  Just not much - We usually go out to dinner on Thursday nights before going to the temple, as we don’t have time to come home and fix something before leaving.  We HAVE brought dinner to the Mission office and eaten it there, but it’s nice to go out!

It was fun – the training was just before lunch, so there are all these starving missionaries and we are pulling out all of this fruit, and veges, and healthy snacks, etc.  Near the end, we briefly talked about quick snacks, so I took a flour tortilla, spread some peanut butter on it, peeled a banana, put it on the peanut butter, rolled it up… I said, “This is a quick, healthy snack!” … and proceeded to take a bite.  The Missionaries were so hungry that the audible groan as I ate the tortillas was funny!  President didn’t make them suffer much longer.

President is always nice to have the Senior, and Sister, Missionaries get in line first, though after the tortilla, I wasn’t that hungry….  There is such a great spirit being around our Savior’s representatives.  I just love it and I love them!  They are my foster mission family.

We were given permission to go to Cayucos, CA as requested.  We appreciate that!  President doesn’t have to let us do anything like that, so we are excited to go.  We are told to go see the Hearst Castle; elephant seals; Morrow Bay Rock (didn’t know you could walk up to it!); and some other thing – like a farm, further south….  That seems like a lot for just overnight, but hey!  We’ll overbook and end up doing just what we want, so it will be perfect!

We were invited to dinner at a member’s home, so I will need to finish later as it’s time to go!

That was last Sunday!  It was very nice to go, and talk with them, and eat a good meal, and just be with their family as we miss our own families.

We did have a great time at Cayucos and Morrow Bay!  I will put in some pictures.  We stayed at a quaint little place called Seaside Motel.  Our room was the Birdhouse Bungalow.

    

There are only 12 rooms – it has been run by the same couple for over 30 years.  Some people from the Fresno 7^th Ward, and the Elder and Sister Williams from the Mission Office suggested we go there. 

There isn’t any air conditioning in the rooms, but it was only 69 degrees for a high, so we didn’t need any air conditioning!  It was a little stuffy late into the night, but we just cracked the window a bit, and were fine.  I must be used to the heat in Fresno,  because I was cold enough to put on a jacket some of the time!  That’s unusual for me!

The rooms are all decorated differently – you can google search Seaside Motel Cayucos and see. 

It’s not that cheap, but most of the rooms around the area were about the same price according to Sister Ball who did some comparisons.   What’s even more amazing is our neighbors upstairs go with his family every November to the same hotel.  His parents rent the house behind the hotel for the month of November, and the kids and their families rent the hotel rooms for whenever they can come during the month.  Pretty cool!  That would be a great family tradition ~

We went to Morrow Rock – you aren’t supposed to climb it, which I didn’t want to do anyway, but I did touch it. It looked really cool shrouded in fog.  There were all kinds of birds there, and apparently there are some eagles there as well.  We didn’t see them, as far as I know.

 

 

 

 

 

We went to dinner at a place called the Sea Shanty in Cayucos – I had some really good halibut!  Then we went to the pier, it was windy and chilly, but such fun to see and hear the ocean and waves. 

 
 

  

 

 

Sister Henrick is almost 75 years old, and has a bad back, so we just plan around that, and make sure she has the rest she needs, so we didn’t stay too long.  We went back to Morrow Bay, the town, found a Red Box and rented the movie “Oz”.  I’ve not rented from there before, strange as that may seem.   It was a good movie – I liked it.  Right across from the Red Box is McDonalds – so that’s where we went for breakfast the next morning!






This is right after checking out -







The next morning, we checked out, went to McDonalds, then we went to Morrow Rock again, saw some otters that were just napping.

 

We bought a ton of salt water taffy from a couple of places; one that made the taffy themselves the first day, which was good, and the second day from Sweet’s Candy from SLC, at a different store, which was much better!  We strolled about the shops and did a ton of eating – it was all good!  My camera is broken, so Sister Ball took all of the pictures.  Thanks to Sister Ball for sharing!

There was a place called Duckie’s by the pier where the Williams said we should eat.  They had some really good fish and chips for lunch.  Sister Henrick had a fish sandwich, which she really didn’t like which was too bad.

 

We had Sister Henrick get in the water.  I wouldn’t say she was forced, because in planning the trip, she said she had never been to the Pacific Ocean, and she just wanted to put her toes in the water!  Well – she found out the water was cold from Sister Ball and I putting our toes (and feet and some of our legs) in, that she wasn’t so sure anymore!  We convinced her she needed to do it so she didn’t regret not doing it, and she did! 

    

I don’t think she had her shoes off for more than 10 minutes though.  Sister Ball and I were in there a little longer – once your feet become accustomed to the cold, it’s not so bad.  There were swimmers, boogie boarders, and surfers, but most of them had on wetsuits.

 I think we look like rainbow sherbet.

 

We drove by the otters again, and they were out playing in the water -

                                       

We drove up just past San Simeon to where there were elephant seals all over the beach; young, old, etc.  When we were there, it was just the males, as the females and the newest babies were not there yet.  One of the volunteers there said the seals come and lose their hair/fur while they are there.  It takes about 4 weeks for it all to come off.  It’s really thick, and very coarse hair.  The “brown” seals are the ones with their hair, and we saw different stages of hair loss.  I’m sure I could make some comment about that with Tom and Thomas’ hairlines but I will leave it as it is….

 

Sister Henrick would not have been able to make the tour of the Hearst Castle, so we went to the visitor’s center.  I almost got a State Park speeding ticket, but I slowed WAY down that the officer thought better of pulling me over.  Sister Ball will need to go back and tour the place when her family comes in November.

 

We didn’t have much time after that, so we headed home to Fresno.  It was a fun outing!

I have about 2 months left - I’m sure all you returned missionaries know how it feels to even think about leaving the mission, let alone going home – you will have to give me some pointers for when I do come home.

Thursday was Sister Ball’s birthday!  It was interesting trying to have everything in place before we went on our little excursion, but it worked out for the most part!  We had lots of people at the Employment Center, which was fun; delicious Costco chocolate cake and ice cream!

 

The rest of the week was filled in with medical work – it’s never ending but isn’t that “job security” in most places – For me, as President says at Zone Conferences, you only have so much time; our days are numbered even before we arrive in the mission.  There will come a day when you have to leave. 

That is applicable for our lives as well – we DO only have so much time – some have more than others.  What will we do with it while we have it – it’s up to us ~

I am still working through the scriptures about Jesus Christ in the index of the Bible.  I enjoy it!   I’m not moving at a very fast pace, but moving forward none the less.
I hope everyone is happy and healthy – I am so grateful to see my Father’s hand in my life.  I need to be more bold in sharing the Gospel with those I come in contact at stores or anywhere else.  We are still handing all kinds of pass-a-long cards!  We bake treats and goodies for the Missionaries and a couple of families here in our apartment complex.  After our initial car “break-in”, we’ve enjoyed being here!

I best go – we have a Missionary that isn’t sleeping well (okay, we have more than one!), but this one in particular is going to get a sleep help cd tonight.  I hope it DOES help!

The Gospel is true!  Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer!  Our Heavenly Father is a God of miracles!  I so testify!

I love you all tons – Sister Ure

 

We have had a busy week – there’s always something to do!  At our last Zone Conference, which are always so uplifting, President asked us to consider out of so many people on the earth, what did Heavenly Father see in each one of us that He would place us in the California Fresno Mission at this time?  It is so easy for me to believe that all of the younger missionaries were foreordained to be in this mission at this time.  Their talents and their personalities were needed to find specific people and, they were foreordained to preach them the Gospel! 

When the Spirit reminded me that I was also foreordained to come here, it was harder to believe.  I’m not sure why that was, but it’s interesting to ponder.  This has been such a learning experience!  I’m very grateful to be here – to help how I can.  I love the younger missionaries – I tell them they are my foster kids!  I love the senior missionary couples and my companions as well – they are new friends who have become family.  It’s great to have more come, but so hard to see people leave!  It’s what President Gelwix says each farewell fireside (where missionaries bear their testimonies, and can invite people to see them one last time to say goodbye), that we lose such good people, but coming on the plane the next day will be more good missionaries to pick up the slack.   We all have only so much time – but that’s the same in everything we do, every part of life.

 

In the Orchard View Ward, our new ward, we have been given a list of 14 names of Sisters who need a little extra care, according to the Relief Society Presidency.  We have been to visit 3 of them, but have seen only 2 as one wasn’t home.   We did visit a non-member instead though.   We did leave a harvesting blessing with her (we prayed for her and her family).   We have had a harder time adjusting to this new ward, and were contemplating going to another  where we know the missionaries need some help, but Heavenly Father let us know we are to stay where we are, visit whom we can, help however we can, teach, play, lead, etc.,  so we shall.  It seemed like people were becoming a little more familiar with us today too, so that is good.  We won’t wait around to give help, though!  That’s the best way to feel a part of things!

We asked our District Leader to give us some training about talking with people wherever we go.  It reminded me of K.I.S.S. which according to Daniel is an acronym for Keep It Simple Stupid but I am changing it to Keep It Simple Sister!  I have a tendency to try and teach the whole plan of Salvation when I’m in line at a grocery store…..  not really but almost!  Or it’s the other way, I don’t ask if they want to have someone come talk with them.  It was pretty informative, and helpful,  and yes!  we had role playing!

It has been summer hot here!  UGH!  The week where the temps were 109 or higher was a killer!  I really can’t complain too much, because I don’t get outside for very long too often, but it’s hot going to the car, getting in the car, going to the apartment.  (I know - oh wah!)   It’s amazing when it’s 90 we think it’s pleasant.  For someone that doesn’t like the heat – that IS amazing!

For the 4^th of July, we went to the Sequoias.  Though I had been there before, Sister Ball and Sister Henrick had not.  If you can believe it, I got car sick!  We went through the gate, and I asked if I could get out.... this first picture is right after getting out of the car.  I ended up driving Sister Ball's car.

It was only 85 to 90 degrees in the upper part of the park!  It was great!  Here are a few pictures.  I hadn’t been to the falls, so that was cool!  The falls are down the back side of the mountain, lower in the valley, so it was hotter down there.  I felt like jumping in the water, but I didn’t….

Looks fake to me - cool photo

This was really hard to find footing, and my hips hurt for a couple of days afterwards.  

Gettin' old I guess ....

 

Sister Henrick and I by the Sherman tree, or is it the Grant?

Awesome waterfall!

oops - there's part of my head - my mom seems to take pictures where part of the person's head isn't showing - I'm a little opposite - part of it IS showing

That's the valley we drove down into - you will notice my hair - when it was this short before, someone said I look like a 14 year old boy - I said, "I look 14?!?  Woo hoo!"

Sister Ball and Sister Henrick by the big tree (Sherman or Grant)

At least, not all of me got in the water - this is down stream a little.

We have these really pretty flowers here – I don’t know what they are, but really nice all over the apartment complex.  There’s roses in one area, and other flowers elsewhere – just nice.    There are crepe myrtle trees too.   Apparently though, the crepe myrtle trees are a mess to clean up – I just get to look at them!  

 This is a picture of an entry into a shopping area.  There were flowers and trees on both sides.  There were so many flowers and plants it felt like the Garden of Eden ~

These fine looking young men are 4 of our missionaries.  From L- R is Elder Tausinga, Elder Mecham, Elder Topper, and Elder Tesimale.  They are just a hoot!

These next couple of photos are of our tomato plant, Fred.  The first is before watering when he was pretty young; then after watering; now you can see there are actually tomatoes growing on the plant, where we thought we would be tomato-less for the season, then the last is actually how big Fred really is!  There are 9 tomatoes! I am pointing at one of them - I hope they get big and ripen soon!  Yum!  Fresh tomatoes!

I have been training my replacement - it's kindof a weird feeling, but one that has to happen.  She is a local service missionary who is a surgery nurse with 52 years experience!  I think the Missionaries will be in great hands!  Her name is Sister (Violet) Besser.

Thomas posthumously, graduated with his MBA on May 4^th.  He doesn’t need anything where he’s at, but I just felt that this should happen if it was possible.   I was prompted too many times to ignore, and now, I feel like I have done something for him.  Thank you to Chad and Holly for finishing it up for me!  I am most grateful!  I was going to show some pictures, but I'll have to see if Holly still has them as I can't find them.

It’s getting late – when I started this, it wasn't past curfew - 

I hope this finds everyone healthy and happy!  My time here on the mission is quickly coming to an end.  I would stay forever, but that’s not possible nor logical.  I am so grateful for my blessings, and the knowledge I have, and am gaining.  Life is beautiful!  I am blessed much more than I deserve - I love you all!  Sister Ure

Blog time!  I told myself I needed to study first, so I did!  Amazing! 

 

President Gelwix gave the mission a reading assignment.  He called it “The Easter Project”.  We are to read all of the scripture references in the Topical Guide about Jesus Christ – there are one or two (hundred) – and we are to read all the references in each reference!  But – to learn about Jesus Christ like that is pretty amazing.  I remember Janene Phillips did that one year - and not just about Jesus Christ, but through all of the scriptures!  Pretty cool, eh? 

The younger Elders and Sisters are to have it done by a specific date – thank goodness we don’t have to!  I’d be late getting done – but it is a goal of mine to accomplish, so I’m working slowly at it.  I like how it says in 2 Corinthians 5:18, “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;”.  Then, verse 20 reads, “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us:  we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” 

Reconcile = to restore to friendship or harmony; settle, resolve; to make consistent or congruous

Elder Bruce R. McConkie taught: “Reconciliation is the process of ransoming man from his state of sin and spiritual darkness and of restoring him to a state of harmony and unity with Deity. … Man, who was once carnal and evil, who lived after the manner of the flesh, becomes a new creature of the Holy Ghost; he is born again; and, even as a little child, he is alive in Christ”

Heavenly Father has already done His part – now we need to do ours.  I have been hard of heart enough to know this isn’t always easy!  But I know that when we strive to live God’s will, we have that peace which comes only from Jesus Christ.  And!  Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are the only ones we really need to make happy!  J 

 Happy Birthday to Cindy, Kari, Melissa, Jackson, Logan, Cess, Rick, Jonathan, Nicole, Scott, Lisa, Monica, Brianne, Janene, Parker, Colter, Rosie, Callie, Kurt, and Happy Anniversary to Steve and Leslie!   Birthday and Anniversary wishes to those before June and those after June, if I don’t get that done again!

So many things have been done since my last entry, but do you think I can remember one right now?

We had our first dinner party at our new apartment that we’ve been in for 1 month!  We had the Danley’s and the Aldrich’s over who are both Senior Missionary Couples.  The Aldrichs live in our same complex, and the Danley’s live way over on the other side of town – probably about ½ hour away.   We were able to sit around afterwards and just talk.   

We are having our former landlady (Britta) and her home teacher and his wife, (Patty and Paul Betts) and some friends, the Rasmussens, from the Fresno 7^th Ward in the Fresno East Stake come on Tuesday night.  I miss that ward!  There are the very best of people there!  So accepting, and loving – it is amazing! 

Our new ward, the Orchard View ward in the Fresno North Stake, seems to be a good ward as well!  There are several of the people that serve in the Temple on Thursday nights in the Orchard View Ward.  The Zone Leaders of the Fresno North Zone are in the Orchard View ward.  We are known to the Bishop as the ones who had their cars broken into.   Oh – yes!  Sister Ball and I made the mistake of parking out on the street, and not in the gated area, and our cars were broken into!  The windows were fine.  The doors were locked when we went in for the night, but when we went to go to church the next morning – they were still locked, but!  They had taken almost everything that can be taken out.  Tom’s tool kit (that made me most sad), my first aid kits (I really didn’t appreciate that), my 2 emergency food kits, jumper cables, umbrellas, my trailer hitch and ball, my little shovel, straps for my bike rack, my blanket from the Blundells, other stuff I’m not remembering right now, and my sun shade!  My sun shade – really?  They couldn’t get their own? 

I was ticked – but after a lesson on Sunday about consecration – I’ve decided I consecrated everything that was in my car to those people who obviously must have needed it more than I!  My sun shade?!?!?! 

For Mother’s Day, we went to Jeremy and Laura Jensen’s home – they had invited us special as we, and they, are away from our families.  They treated us really well – their children made each of us a bracelet and a necklace!  Here's mine -

 

Here are some pictures of our new place.  My camera is not working, and I bought it for my birthday last year, so it’s not that old.  These were the last pictures I could get it to take ~

 

 

Sister Ball on the couch talking on her phone!  To the left in the apartment is the door.

 

Found this saying at Dollar Tree ~

 

This is the cooking area of the kitchen!  Pretty nice!

You just turn around from the cooking area to the seating area.  There's a sliding door to the patio on the right behind the blinds.

 

oops - fuzzy photo of the SLC Temple

 

This is the hall from the front room - The door open in the background is to my room.

 

This is my room!  I have things differently now - I like it a lot better!

 

 

Not any less messy, but hey!  not bad.

 

 

In closet washer and dryer - it's own closet - wouldn't fit in my closet!

 

My closet with 10 million things packed in there!  Whoever's coming to get me when it's time for me to come home - be prepared!

 

This is my dresser - but I have my Grandkids pictures on it now. 

 

 

That's better!

 

 

 

 

This is the outside of our place - ours is the bottom door, #160!

 

We had 30 new missionaries come into the mission on transfer day - 19 went home!  It was sad to have them leave, but great to have new ones come in!  We come with a little amount of time to do the Lord's work - our days are numbered!  I want to make sure my remaining days are such that I have No Regrets!  But if we use the Atonement in our lives, we do have No Regrets because of our Saviors infinite and eternal sacrifice!  I am so grateful my sins, sorrows, weaknesses are "covered" by the Atonement.

It’s always a lot of work when the new missionaries arrive, especially entering information on the computer, trying to come up with a list of who needs what bedding, but also, a list of all medications needed, who has food allergies, and if there is anything physically, mentally, or spiritually they would like to talk about.  We have several who have emotional needs this transfer.

 

We have an Elder who has spiritual needs, but he's not a newbee.  It is so sad to see the light go out of someone’s eyes.  It is so noticeable though – it really is!  We need to pray for him, and for each other, always ~

We have an Elder with a melanoma – scary stuff!   A prayer call out went through the mission, and this Elder will be able to have the rest of the excision done here, without radiation treatments, and the lot!  It is certainly a miracle!!!  I was jumping up and down and yelling woohoo! when I heard the better news!   I set several Richter scales off doing that…

Memorial Day we went to a movie – we saw Epic.  I think we all 3 liked it!

My future “replacement”, but for the time being, my co-worker, was set apart today as a Service Missionary.  Her name is Sister Besser.  She will be at the Mission Office tomorrow in the afternoon to receive some training.  I don’t know what I can train her on – she’s a surgical RN with over 35 years of experience!  I can teach her the program, but I’m hoping to learn from her!

After next transfer at Zone Meetings there will be a nutrition presentation, and yes, Sister Gelwix, Sister Besser and I will be giving it.   We are looking for information about eating nutritional vs going out, and also about how much more it costs to go out.  We are looking for ideas as well – I want to do some sort of “The Price Is Right” game so the Elders and Sisters are really adding things up with their budgets, and getting things in line with their diets.  A game just sounds more fun!
I have been sick again!  I don’t know if it’s pneumonia, but it’s not fun!  I had a really nice blessing pronounced by Elder McClung, who was voice, and Elder Bolton.  I am so impressed with the Elders and Sisters in this mission!  They have such great testimonies, and such great faith.  They are a lot of fun too!  We have one Elder, and I won’t say who, but I call him “Pharoah” because he has had so many things happen to him!  It’s like one plague after another with him!

I have to go to bed – not only am I late, but I am very tired.  I hope all is well with everyone there – It was only 102 degrees here today, and yesterday, and the day before ---------  ugh!  Summer!  The area is so beautiful though – orchards, crops, strawberries, and vineyards everywhere – blue, blue sky, and sunshine!  Great place to be!

I love you all – you who send your faith and prayers – thank you – they are needed, and they certainly are felt!  Love, Sister Ure