Elder & Sister Andrus

March 27 - We are happy to introduce Sister & Elder Andrus from Springfield, Oregon.  They are serving in the office.  

Elder Andrus will be over finance and housing.  Sister Andrus will be the receptionist, responsibile for ordering supplies, helping with telephones, and doing miscellaneous jobs.

The Petersens

Sister & Elder Petersen are now serving in the California Ventura Mission.  Their responsibility is Self-Reliance.  This couple already lives in Santa Maria and have been called as full time missionaries.  They will travel throughout the mission to help with the self-reliance initiative.

Follow Up

We had follow up training today for the new missionaries and their trainers.  Elder Iverson talked about accountability and safety with the cars.  Elder Floyd gave six key points:  

Budget - keep track of expenditures

Keys - both companions should always have a key to their apartment with them

Mattress pads - use them

Box springs - no flopping down on beds

Ventilate - the bathrooms with fans and windows open

Two rules of successful finance -

a.  Respect your companion financially

b.  Limit fast food eating

This was Elder Floyd's last follow up training prior to being "transferred."

Sister Felix did a presentation on etiquette.

We reviewed dress standards.  Parents you can look on lds.org, Serve and Teach, Missionary, Dress and Grooming to see what is appropriate for missionaries to wear.  

We discussed any questions or concerns they had.

We watched a video from the District 2 observing how 

Elder Hepworth and Elder Belt had companionship study which included 12 week.  It was good to hear from our discussion that they realize what they study applies to their investigators.

The meeting concluded with President Felix training on the Doctrine of Christ.

MLC DL 3/7/17

We served 34 of us for breakfast yesterday.  We ate waffle mormon which is a waffle with honey butter, another waffle with dulce de leche (carmel), bananas, peaches, cool whip and topped with strawberries, also eggs, bacon, grape juice or chocolate milk.  

Our friends, the VanLeeuwens, came to visit.  They just finished serving in the Oregon Salem Mission a month and a half ago.  We put them to work in the kitchen.  

We had breakfast at 8:30 so we could start our meeting at 9:30.

To begin MLC it was fun to hear the missionaries share what AWESOME attribute they were working on and how they were doing it.  (They chose a word from the acronym awesome from zone conference.)

After the accountability report we heard from three missionaries that would be leaving after this transfer, 

Sisters McClure and Baird, and Hermana Wiles.

President trained on the importance of the language of prayer. He started by showing about 5 minutes from Face to Face with President Eyring and Elder Holland regarding prayer.  We need to show respect when we pray.  Use thee, thy, thou and thine.  Quotes and a quiz were given out to help the zone leaders in training their zones.  When you pray be on your knees or on your feet but never ever on your seat.  We were encouraged to practice the language of prayer.  

A reminder of the rule of 3, exchanges, and the standard of excellence were discussed. 

Elders Davis and Harvey did a presentation on inviting to church.

The CVM target was presented with introduction by the Assistants talking about "A rising tide lifts all boats." They asked who is going to raise the tide?  MLC!  

Why do we need to raise the tide?  Because Satan is strong, the Lord is hastening His work.  

What is the tide?  It is our obedience, energy, and the culture of the mission.  We need to raise our expectations because there's been a lack of hope.  We need to believe it can happen. 

 How do we do it?  With attitude, expect success, faith, and our actions to fulfill the will of the Lord.  

Sister Felix talked on unity and T.E.A.M (togther everyone achieves more); in unity there is strength.

President Felix talked about Zion and our mission hymn, Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise.  He then announced the CVM target:  We are ONE in ZION.  We all sang the hymn as it used to be sung with energy and power.  It was amazing!

The District leaders joined us for lunch at 12:30.  We had a wonderful lunch:  Pulled pork sandwiches, salad, veggies, potato salad, beans, and sherbet ice cream cones.

Sister and Hermana Training Leaders

Sisters Baird, Fisher, McClure, Barnum, Hermanas Wiles, Puertas, Anstee, Flores

Zone Leaders

Front:  Elders Gemar, Harvey, Morby, Palmer, Christenson, Bradley, Slaugh, Holm

Back:  Elders Huston, Davis, Hales, Wayment, Bronson, Hunter, Peart, Allison

Spanish Elder Training Leaders

Elders Suarez, McLane, Peisley, Barrios-Vega

Assistants

Elders Swenson, Taufatofua

District Leaders

Front:  Elders Hansen, Matthews, Herrera Barahona, Liddiard

Middle:  Elders Mata, Heck, Anderson, Portillo, Reichman, Whatcott, Judkins, Jo

Back:  Elders Herrera Loya, Levis, McLawhorn, Marchant, Hoff, Sila, Castro, McCurdy

For about an hour President did a leadership training with MLC and District Leaders.

How can I become a more effective leader?

Prepare spiritually, set the example, love, serve and minister, loyalty and unity -- a good leader expects loyalty, he in turn gives his loyalty, and accountablity.

President Felix is helping Eler Whatcott to understand how to tare a phone book in half.

President asked what did you learn?  Responses were:  don't give up, it may take a long time; the leader is there for others all of the time; you may have to show how several times.  President committed the leaders to use some of the principles they learned in their leadership responsibilities.  

The MLC were dismissed and more training for the district leaders followed.

Closing remarks from President Felix included talking about Zion and that it is a consecrated people of Jesus Christ.  We are consecrated servants.  There are four things to elevate, which are:  attitude, gospel knowledge, obedience and work ethic.

Departing 3/1/17

Last night went very well.  The missionaries were all at the mission home by 5:00.  They seemed to enjoy dinner and our testimony meeting had a big impact on me.  Afterwards, President talked to them about creating their lives.  

I asked the group what statement will they always remember that President would say.  Elder Willis had us laughing because he was imitating President Felix.  He said, 

"It will be good."  

This morning we had food available for them to take in the van to eat while driving to the airport.

Elder Lemus, Hermanas Ames, Kneip, Mulloy, Wright, Scott, Elder Willis

Sister Capener left for Utah last week so she could attend the sealing of a family.  She was one of the missionaries who taught the father of that family in Camarillo a year ago.  She with other sister missionaries were instrumental in his baptism.  Sister Fisher's, who is still serving here, father was the escort and her grandfather was the sealer.  We missed Sister Capener being with us last night but President was able to share the experience with the other missionaries.

Transfers 2/28/17

We had breakfast at 7:30 and then took pictures.  President Felix did interviews with all of the missionaries to get to know them.  Since our missionaries enjoyed learning about their core personalities, we thought we would continue doing the personality test with these new missionaries.  After that we played Jeopardy with questions from the white handbook, Preach My Gospel, and miscellaneous questions regarding the work.

Yesterday went very smooth except Hermana Bassett's luggage did not make it.  We were told by the airlines that it would be delivered Monday night to the mission home.  It didn't come so she slept in her dress even though I offered to give her some pjs.  It didn't arrive until Tuesday afternoon.  She was amazing and had a great attitude with no complaining.

The office couples arranged for lunch for the new missionaries, trainers, departing missionaries, and those who would be taking out the departing missionaries for the afternoon so they could still work while we were meeting with the new missionaries and their trainers.

After the orientation for the new arrivals and the meeting for the trainers, everyone came together to find out who their companion would be.

Elders Vallardares and Esparza

Hermanas Lethbridge and Bassett

Sisters Groneman and Coleman

Hermanas Penner and Rodriguez

Sisters Rosenlof and VanDerWatt

Hermanas Gonzalez and Hirst

New Arrivals 2/27/17

Four missionaries arrived from the Provo MTC around 10:45.  We loved seeing them almost run down the stairs and felt their excitement.

Sister Rosenlof

Sister Groneman

Hermana Gonzalez-Soto

Hermana Penner

The two missionaries from the Mexico CCM were not going to arrive until 1:56 so we decided to stay close to the airport.  We drove to the Institute at UCSB where Elder & Sister Clark were waiting.  We walked over to Freebirds and got lunch to go so we could eat at the Institute.

The missionaries were good sports in playing a game of drawing, humming, or acting gospel related words.

We were so happy that these missionaries made it.  Apparently the flight attendant ran with them to their connecting flight because the arrival and departure was very close.

Hermana Bassett

Elder Esparza

The six missionaries come from Arizona, Texas, and Utah.

Here is San Buenaventrua City Hall.  We drive past it on the way to Father Serra Cross.

After President Felix talked about being anxiously engaged, leaving things behind and to commit to the mission, they are jumping in with both feet.  We feel these missionaries are special and will be a great asset to the mission.

Due to the lack of vehicles for transporting on Tuesday, the missionaries were given a sack to put what they would need for Monday night and Tuesday.  All the luggage was then locked up in President Felix's office.

We borrowed one of the mission cars so we could get everyone to the mission home for dinner.  After eating, the assistants did a short orientation.

We know we can't give them a lot of information because they are so tired.  They get up so early at the MTC and CCM that it makes for a very long day; and of course, they don't go to bed early the night before.