Monday, October 31, 2016

Transfers 10/25/16

More craziness.  The pin on the trailer to the truck came out as Elder Floyd was driving up north to start the transfer train.  We're so grateful no one was hurt.  The delay was a couple of hours.
The following companionships are the new missionary and trainer:
Sisters Christiansen and Lambert
Elders Blaylock and Leckbee
Elders Bates and McLawhorn
Sisters Dye and Page
Elders Emerson and Christenson
Elders Allen and Morgan
Hermanas Lethbridge and Anstee
Elders Hansen and Baker
Hermanas Cortes and Morales
Hermanas Garcia and Gomez
Hermanas Fernandez and Wiles
Elders Alder and Johnson
Elders Olacsi and Bronson

The following are pictures from Elder Iverson's part in the transfer train:
Sisters Houseman, Fisher, Coleman, Cardon and Sister Iverson
 Elders Elliott and Rosenlof
 Hermanas Wright and Arkell
 Elders Alder and Morgan
Elder Routledge
Elders DuPlessis and Levis
Sisters Mendoza, Devitt, Hopkins, Elder Iverson,
Sisters VanDerWatt, Campbell
 Sisters Hopkins, Coleman

New Arrivals 10/24/2016

I apologize for not posting sooner.  It was a crazy transfer and from Wednesday to Saturday we attended a mission presidents' seminar.  Having a hard time getting everything done.
Before going to the Santa Barbara airport to see an Elder off I was able to get dinner prepared and get set up for the evening.  The plan was to see the elder off, get lunch in Santa Barbara, then greet Hermana Lethbridge from the CCM at 3:30 and the other 12 at 4:30.  One phone call changed that; which made for a lot of time talking with missionary travel and discussing different scenerios.  Due to President Felix's suggestion to check out flights to Burbank, we ended up at the Burbank airport but not knowing if the luggage would have been taken off one plane to go with the missionaries.  The missionaries went through a lot to get to us.  I asked them to write it down so I could share it with the parents on the blog.  The following is what they told me:
"Our flight from Salt Lake to San Francisco was supposed to board at 1:40 p.m. and leave at 2:00, layover in San Francisco until 3:06 and fly onto Santa Barbara.  BUT, our first flight got cancelled so we were told we could get on a flight that was supposed to leave at 10:12 a.m. that had been delayed until 12:30 p.m.  As we waited for that flight, it kept getting pushed back 1:55 and then 2:10.  We then got told we were switching from United Airlines to American Airlines to a flight that would leave at 6:00 p.m.  Because we would miss our connecting flight they switched our airline again to Delta so we had to run and get our bags that were at the ski and odd sized baggage claim.  We waited for our baggage for 30 minutes then ran to the Delta baggage check in.
As we waited for two elders to finish the checking in, we (9 of us) stood in a circle and said a prayer in the middle of the airport.  As we prayed, a random person stood by us and folded his arms with his hat off.  After our prayer, he told us that 'no matter how hard it is, you're doing the right thing.  The harder it is, the more Satan is working on you.  Keep going!'  We realized our flight was supposed to board at 2:20 and it was 2:30.  We ran through security for the second time.  Surprisingly, there was no one in the line.  As we waited for everyone to get through, a worker came up and told us that the plane knew we were coming but we had to hurry.  We ran, and I mean RAN through the airport to our flight.  As we were running, people in the airport were literally cheering us on.  We made it to our plane just in time for us to leave."
Since we couldn't be at two airports at the same time, Elder and Sister Clark picked up Hermana Lethbridge in Santa Barbara and drove her to Ventura where we had missionaries meet them to stay together until we got back to town.  








Hermana Cortes was reassigned to our mission and she lives in Salt Lake.  When she found out the flight had been cancelled, she booked another flight which would arrive in Santa Barbara at 9:30 p.m.  We got the sisters situated in the mission home and drove back to Santa Barbara.  
Hermana Lethbridge
Hermana Garcia
Sister Page
Hermana Cortes
Sister Christiansen
Hermana Fernandez
Elder Bates
Elder Leckbee
Elder Emerson
Elder Johnson
Elder Baker
Elder Allen
Elder Olacsi
Two missionaries were living in Idaho, one in Montana, one in Missouri, eight in Utah and one in Washington.
Because of the craziness that happened on Monday, we weren't able to go to the cross until Tuesday morning.  It's so fun to hear the comments from the missionaries when they see the view of the ocean.
The missionaries are committing to have "both feet in." They leave everything behind and have both feet in the mission.
Sister Christiansen was the first to jump off the ledge and commit.

Iversons 2

Sister and Elder Iverson from Layton, Utah arrived in the mission October 22.  They will be serving in Santa Maria helping with the YSA Ward and Institute.  We fondly refer to them as Iverson2 (or Iverson too) since we already have other Iversons serving in the mission office.  
All of the seniors but the Coles (their son was being sustained into the bishopric and Elder Cole was going to be able to ordain him to be a high priest) came with food to meet the new couple.  It is great getting together.

Sisters Iverson 2, Aston, Clark, Floyd, Iverson, Hardy
President Felix, Elders Aston, Hardy, Iverson, Floyd, Iverson2, Clark
After dinner we visited but included playing 
2 truths and a lie.



We took the Iverson2 to the cross Sunday evening.  Someone left the roses so we took advantage and took pictures.