CHRISTMAS

Well, it was a white warm Christmas in Kansas and Missouri - mid 50's. Know that I am not complaining - snow and I do not get along. We will see how much longer my luck holds out. Unfortunately, the weather report does not look promising for next week... snow and ice.

The week started off with an wonderful opportunity to help clean the Kansas City, Missouri temple. We had not had been to this temple yet, so it was a great experience to see the inside of this beautiful building and be of service.

Every Monday morning, members in the Kansas City temple district are assigned to come and help clean. It felt wonderful to be able to assist in a small way to maintain the House of the Lord. The marble baseboards in the celestial room have never been cleaner. :) I was reminded of the nickname that a missionary companion gave me in Argentina almost 45 years ago. He was quite a bit taller than I, and was always kidding me about my height. He gave me the nickname 'Inspector de Zocalos' (baseboard inspector). I guess I finally got to really earn the title. 

What added to our experience was the time we spent talking with the artist who painted the beautiful mural in the instruction room. Michael Albrechtsen happens to be a member of our ward here, and was also assigned to help clean on Monday. Brother Albrechtsen has also painted murals in the Indianapolis, Indiana temple and the Helsinki, Finland temple. He shared with us the very sacred and spiritual experience he had painting the mural. Another of Brother Albrechtsen's paintings depicts Adam-ondi-ahman. It is hanging near the recommend desk here. We look forward to spring next year when everything in Kansas and Missouri will be green and lovely like it is in his mural and painting.

Instruction room of the Kansas City, Missouri temple

Adam-ondi-ahman by Michael Albrechtsen

Most of our week was spent visiting less actives. At our weekly district meeting, each companionship is invited to share the names of investigators or members that they are working with that need extra help. The members of the district are encouraged to remember them by name in their prayers that week. We are also asked to share any small miracles that we experienced during our missionary labors during the previous week.

When it was our turn, we listed the Amayo and the Bravo families. The Amayo family is from Nigeria.  Sister Amayo and their three children are active, but Brother Amayo had not been to church in a long while. We dropped in unannounced with some Christmas goodies last week. After visiting with the family for a few minutes, I invited Brother Amayo to come to church with his family that Sunday. He was very non-committal and said, "Maybe, we'll see."  Robyn was not going to accept that answer and looked Brother Amayo in the eye and said, "Brother Amayo, will you come to church this Sunday with your family?" He could feel her concern and love and responded positively. Seeing Brother Amayo and his whole family seated in the chapel the following Sunday, made me realize that sister missionaries have special gifts and abilities that missionary elders sometimes lack.

The small miracle we shared in our district meeting involved the Bravo family. We visited with them later in the week. We didn't have a phone number so we dropped in on them also. They had just sat down to eat and so I didn't want to stay long. After getting their phone number, I hurriedly asked them if we could come back at a more convenient time and then we would be on our way. It was about that time that I felt Robyn give me a gentle elbow in the ribs. Over the years, she has quietly gotten my attention when she knew that I needed a reminder about something. She was standing next to me, so the Bravo family was unaware of her trying to get my attention. I immediately knew that she wanted me also to invite them to come to church on Sunday. So I turned to Brother Bravo and said, "Will you come to church this Sunday with your family?" Like Brother Amayo, he said that they would be there. As we were driving away, I turned to Robyn and said that I appreciated her being receptive to the spirit and giving me an elbow to make sure we invited the family to church. She had no idea what I was talking about and said that she had not touched me at all during our visit. We talked about it all the way home, knowing that promptings from the Spirit come in different ways. Sometimes I need an elbow to the ribs to really get my attention.

I almost feel guilty sharing what we did for Christmas. Missionaries are allowed to call home on Christmas, not go and visit their family. We got to do both. James and Kaui and the kids live about 30 miles away. With the mission president's permission, we went over Christmas eve for dinner and then spent the night so we could be with the kids in the morning as they opened up their gifts from Santa. What a treat. It was a tender mercy extended to us by the Lord. We spent Christmas day visiting, eating, watching 'A Christmas Story' and putting together the twins' LEGOS. I am just starting to get the knack of LEGO assembly. These are nothing like the Lincoln Logs I got for Christmas when I was a kid. Kelehua just about passed out from excitement when she opened up the gift from her folks... a phone she can text and call people with. I bet that she and grandma have exchanged 500 texts in the last couple of days.  Noah's favorite gift was a ticket to go see the Piano Guys perform next spring. Unlike his father and grandfather, he is a very talented musician. In fact, he has been called as the priesthood pianist in his ward. 

Skyping with the rest of the family

Luke and BB-8

More LEGOS

Died and gone to heaven

Joshua, the LEGO master, and his faithful apprentice

P.S. 

Some friends of James and Kaui secretly placed this sign on their lawn after James put up his first one and only string of outside Christmas lights.

Filling up the car no longer is as depressing.

Red Bags

For the last 13 years at Christmas, the Kaw River Ward has partnered with a wonderful charity, here in Kansas City that provides gifts to needy children in foster care.  The name of the charity is Christmas Families’ Red Bag project. The needs and wishes of these foster kids are identified by their social workers and then individuals in the community can sponsor one or more children. The money is collected, gifts are purchased and then placed in red bags for the social worker to pick up and distribute right before Christmas. Every single thing is donated. Not one person is paid. Even the truck drivers donate their time and fuel and trucks. 

The  project was started by Daniel Jacobs over 30 years ago from his Overland Park, Kansas home. While working as a customer service representative for Kansas City Power & Light in 1983, Jacobs said he encountered several families facing extreme financial problems as the holiday season neared. Realizing that there were children on his route that would have nothing for Christmas from Santa Claus, Daniel went out and purchased gifts with his own money for 4 families that first year. He realized that there were hundreds of other such kids in similar straits and felt a desire to do more.  He knew he couldn’t do it all alone so the next year, he wrote a letter to his friends asking for help. The second year he was able to help 13 families. Over the years, his efforts have grown and now reach about 1,500 children in the Kansas City area.

We were privileged to be able to help out at the ward building which served as a collection and distribution site for the bags. A very special treat was to meet the man who started this project so many years ago and hear his inspiring story. He is not LDS, nor are most of those that donate to this worthy cause, but it is a great opportunity for the members here to join with like minded Christians to provide such a wonderful blessing to those in need.

DANIEL JACOBS

Currently, there are three other distribution centers in Kansas City, along with the Kaw River ward building. The bags are assembled else where and then brought here in a large tractor trailer.  Ward members and missionaries unload the bags and then organize them by the child's name so that they are ready for the social workers to pick up Christmas Eve.

MISSIONARIES UNLOADING BAGS

It was close to freezing outside, so we were happy to work inside organizing the bags and gifts. We soon filled up the cultural hall, stage, relief society room and foyer.

Most of our week was spent visiting and inviting less active families to return to full activity and enjoy the blessings of the Gospel. Our main assignment here is the one that President Monson challenged all of us to do when he said: "...Since becoming President of the Church I have felt an increased urgency for us to be engaged in this rescue effort. As faithful members of the Church have reached out with love and understanding, many have returned to full activity and are enjoying added blessings in their lives. There is yet much to do in this regard, and I encourage all to continue to reach out to rescue."

We also were able to attend our first district meeting this past Wednesday.  We have some fine Elders and Sisters in our district. There is also another Senior couple who have been called as records preservation missionaries. They have filmed some 300,000 Kansas homesteading records thus far on their mission. They are not allowed to wear missionary name tags but everyone in the state records depository knows that they are LDS and are grateful for their service. They said that eventually the Church would like to film and preserve every single record on the planet.  

THE DISTRICT

We are grateful to be able to be serving at this very special time of year. Today in Sacrament meeting, the speaker shared a quote by President Gordon B. Hinkley. We know and testify that this is true.

“There would be no Christmas if there had not been Easter.  The babe Jesus of Bethlehem would be but another baby without the redeeming Christ of Gethsemane and Calvary, and the triumphant fact of the Resurrection.”

“For each of you may this be a merry Christmas.  But more importantly, I wish for each of you a time, perhaps only an hour, spent in silent meditation and quiet reflection on the wonder and majesty of this, the Son of God.”

 “Our joy at this season is because he came into the world.  The peace that comes from Him, His infinite love which each of us may feel, and an overwhelming sense of gratitude for that which He freely gave us at so great a cost to Himself - this is the true essence of Christmas."

President Gordon B. Hinkley

Kaw River Ward

President and Sister Vest

December 13, 2015 

It is official. We are finally here in Independence.  We left the MTC a week ago early Saturday morning and drove to Ogallala, Nebraska. We timed our arrival in Ogallala to coincide with the SC - Stanford kickoff so we could watch the game at the motel. In hindsight, we probably should have driven another 3 hours. On Sunday we drove the rest of the way to James and Kaui’s, arriving in time for dinner and a fun visit with the kids. 

Monday morning President Randy J. Vest and Sister Kristine Vest welcomed us at the mission home. President Vest assigned us to serve in the Kaw River ward of the Lenexa stake. The Kaw River ward is an English speaking ward that is also the magnet ward in the stake for all those that want to attend a Spanish language unit. The meetings are half and half. Today one of the sacrament prayers was in English and the other was in Spanish - one talk was in English and one in Spanish. Headphones are provided with translation for those that do not understand English and they also project the English translation on the big screen for the talks given in Spanish. It is quite interesting. The current bishop, second counselor, executive secretary, ward clerk, young men's and young woman's president have all been called from their home wards to serve in this ward.  The bishop said that they are all asked to serve for a 'season'. Some 'seasons' are longer than others. Building priesthood leadership will be one of our challenges and assignments. The ward meets on the other side of Kansas City about 35 minutes away from our apartment. I think the Prius will get a good workout over the next 18 months. The name 'Kaw' is the tribal name of the native American people that lived here when Lewis and Clark passed through. The Kansas River was originally called the Kaw River.

We were given the keys to our apartment which is about 10 minutes from the mission home here in Independence. Robyn got all excited when she heard that the name was the Mansion Apartments. The land used to be owned by a rich banker who built a beautiful mansion on the property. Later on the property and mansion were sold on the court house steps for back taxes and 500 apartments were built. The new owners restored the old mansion, which they now use for the property management office. Robyn was so hoping to move into the mansion, but unfortunately it was not to be. 

The mansion, NOT our apartment

Saturday evening was the ward Christmas party. We were introduced to everyone and really felt genuinely at home. Sunday was no different. They have a good size youth group and primary. The ward reminds us a lot like the Gardena ward, very loving and friendly and multicultural. We can already tell that it will be very hard to leave some day.   

young men and young women

primary

We met today with the ward PEC and discussed a number of families that the bishop would like us to work with. Tomorrow evening we are going over to one of these families for Family Home evening. It is a young couple with two young children that would like to be able to go to the temple. The bishop told us that they need a lot of love and encouragement and support to make the needed changes to be sealed as a family. We hope and pray that the over the next 18 months we will be able to go to the temple with many many of these wonderful families.

The weather and the price of gas are another two things we are enjoying so far. I have been praying nonstop for a warm winter since we received our call. So far our prayers have been answered. Everyone we meet tells us that praying for warm weather is useless, and that arctic blizzards are on the way. I'm still going to pray.

70 degrees - Robyn made me turn on the air conditioning

We are loving every minute of our mission. We know that this is where the Lord wants us to be for the next 18 months. We are grateful for the love and support we feel from all of our loved ones and family. Our Father in Heaven lives, Jesus is the Christ and we are blessed to have a living Prophet on the earth today. May the Lord bless and keep you safe.

Getting Started

November 30, 2015

We will see how I do with this journal. I hope it is better than my first missionary journal poorly written some 45 years ago. We left L.A. the day after Thanksgiving and drove to Provo to spend the weekend with Christopher. President David Hales and his wife Melody were gracious enough to come over Thursday evening to set us apart with all the family present that were with us for Thanksgiving. David and Melody are dear friends and having him set us apart was very special.

Robyn and I drove to the MTC Monday morning.  After checking in and unpacking, we received some orientation from our branch president and the MTC mission president.  The mission president reminded us that there are 3 types of sins. There are sins of ‘commission’, and sins of ‘omission’ and then there are sins of ‘no mission’. All the senior missionaries were asked to stand up and introduce themselves and tell where they were assigned. I was impressed with the many places throughout the world that this group of missionaries are headed to. A couple was even headed to Lebanon to help with the churches’ efforts to help Syrian refugees. We are part of the largest group of senior missionaries to enter the MTC this year, some 142 elders and sisters.

Where's Waldo?

Things have changed a lot since I was a missionary here in what was then called the LTM. We were then housed in the old Knight Magnum Hall, which had once been used as a BYU girl’s dorm.  It is so much more organized today.

Our district with one of our instructors, Sister Bennion

We were divided up into districts to receive training each morning and afternoon. Most of the training revolved around learning how to teach, based upon the principles in Preach My Gospel. One of the couples in our district is Alan and Laurie Maynes. He is a second cousin of Elder Maynes of the Seventy. They had recently returned after serving as mission presidents in Colorado and were now headed to Mongolia to help with the churches’ humanitarian efforts there. He shared an interesting comment by Elder Holland when they came here a few years ago to be trained as mission presidents. Elder Holland, speaking to all the mission presidents, said that he knew that most of them had brought with them their old missionary journals, books and pamphlets that they had collected over the years on missionary service and suggestions from friends, priesthood leaders and family on how to work with missionaries. Elder Holland then said, “I want you to take all that ‘stuff’ and put it in a strong safe and lock the door and hope that the key rusts in the lock so that it can never be opened again.” In other words, we are living in different times and missionary work today is very very different from what it was just a few years ago. We cannot rely on what worked in the past or what we did on our missions, but instead follow the revealed direction from the living Prophet and Apostles and what is taught in Preach My Gospel. I realize that I need to be more humble and teachable and follow the Spirit.

Robyn has truly enjoyed the MTC experience. This is her first time as a full time missionary, so everything is new and exciting. She often found it hard to keep her emotions in check as the Spirit testified and taught us what we need to do and learn. A great deal of time was spent in role playing different scenarios and situations that we might encounter in the mission field with less actives or investigators. I can tell already that if I can learn to keep my mouth shut most of the time, we will be much better off. Robyn is very sensitive to the Spirit and people’s needs and so all I need to do is follow her lead.

The first day that we were in the MTC, one of the senior missionaries and his wife came up to me and said, "Hi David, how are Dean and James?" I had no clue who they were. Their names were Doug and Rita Hansen. Doug was a missionary companion of Dean in El Salvador and he mistook me for David, whom he had previously met. The interesting thing was that they are from Far West, Missouri and James had done their pre-mission dental work. That is why he also asked about James. Small world. Their story of faith and sacrifice to be able to serve is similar to many of the senior missionary couples we met. They shared with us that they had left their oldest daughter, who is severely mentally handicapped, with an elderly sister in their ward while they will be serving for 18 months in the North Dakota, Bismark mission. This is the first time that their daughter has ever been away from them. The elderly sister moved into their ward 3 months ago and immediately bonded with their daughter. The Lord made it possible for them to serve. The Hansens had been praying that the Lord would open the door so that could go. Hearing many similar stories of faith and devotion, helped me to realize that the Lord can provide miracles for those that have a desire to serve.

Doug and Rita Hansen

Before checking in on the 30^th, we had a wonderful dinner at Dan and Janet’s on Sunday evening. It was fun to visit with all those that were in town. Before leaving, we had a family prayer which reminded me of how blessed Robyn and I are to have such a wonderful family supporting us. We will miss them all. Thursday evening, the 3^rd, we had some free time and drove down to Payson to visit with Jerry and Maureen. Jerry and I were able to give Maureen a blessing in preparation for her medical tests the following day. I know that Heavenly Father is blessing her.

Friday afternoon we checked out and headed to Christopher’s again to spend the night, do some laundry and try once more to cram 18 months of ‘stuff’ into the Prius for our drive to Independence. Robyn had always wanted to bring the Tundra, but I assured her multiple times that the Prius was big enough to bring all ‘needful things’. I had to remind her numerous times that Missouri is still part of the U.S. and that we didn’t need to bring everything that was not nailed down in our home. I am surprised that the poor car made it over the Continental Divide. I have decided that when we go on our 2^nd mission, it will definitely be a ‘foreign’ one so I only have to pack a couple of suit cases.