4 WHEELING AT THE TEMPLE

Last Monday we got a call from the facilities management missionaries asking if we would come up and help with a gardening project here at the temple in Kansas City.  It took Robyn all of about a second to say, "Yes!" There are few things that she likes more than to work in the garden and get her hands dirty.
Every spring at the temple, all the old flowers and bulbs are removed to make way for the spring planting of new ones.
I thought the flowers looked just fine the way they were, but someone else was in charge. Our job was to pull out any weeds and all the flowers and bulbs from the tulips, daffodils and lilies.
Robyn also volunteered to drive the 4 wheeler back and forth from the mulch pile. I had to remind her that we were not up in Angle and that there was a speed limit on the temple grounds.
Robyn was not about to let any of these beautiful flowers go to waste, so we came home with 4 large trash bags full of salvaged bulbs that we plan on giving away so that others may enjoy 'temple flowers' in the years to come.

Before

After

HOME REPAIRS MERIT BADGE

Robyn and I have been extremely impressed with the quality of the young missionaries that we are able to work with. They are hardworking, motivated and spiritual young adults. We feel blessed to have the opportunity to serve with such great representatives of the Savior. This past week we accompanied the elders in our ward a couple of times to visit less actives and teach investigators. We also had the opportunity to go to a service project with the sisters that they had arranged with a neighbor. I was also privileged to give one of the sisters a blessing.
In spite of being faithful missionaries of the Church, they are still just kids and most haven't a clue about home repairs. We are finding that most 19 year old young women do not know what a screw driver or hammer is. Before the service project with the sisters, Robyn and I repaired their front door (knob was falling off), replaced the hand rail in the stairway of their apartment, tightened all of their kitchen cabinet door knobs, opened a window that had been painted shut a while ago, and showed them how to turn on the ceiling fan. They will learn.

Lenexa Zone

Zone Leader

Sister 'Zone Leaders'

FAMILY HOME EVENING 

Usually every Monday night, all the elders and sisters that live close by in Independence gather for a family home evening at someone's apartment. Elder and Sister Tefteler (the mission doctor and his wife) coordinate the time and place and ask one of the senior couples to be in charge. It has been a wonderful way to get to know these great missionaries who are here serving with us. Each has an amazing story to tell.

We've had pot luck dinners, a trip to the museum, discussed church history topics and enjoyed spiritual lessons. The recent trip to Adam Ondi Ahman was arranged by our FHE group. We don't often see each other during the week, as all of us have different assignments, so these FHE's have allowed us to spend time together and share experiences and get to know each other better.

This past Monday, the Boyers were in charge. Elder Boyer played a short video clip of Elder Bednar talking about how we receive answers to our prayers. Then he asked anyone that would like to share an occasion when a prayer of theirs was answered. Robyn and my testimony of prayer was strengthened listening to their experiences of faith and prayer.

TEMPLE TRIP

Patricia Houtchens

GALLATIN, MISSOURI - 1838

John Lowe Butler defending his friends

We recently drove through Gallatin, Missouri where my great great grandfather, John Lowe Butler, made quite a name for himself. John was one of the prophet's body guards and not afraid to mix it up. On election day in 1838, a large group of mobbers attacked the Mormons who had came to vote. Seeing some of his friends being beaten, John decided to take action. The following is from his journal:

...I saw an oak stick lying in the road; it was split, one of those sticks that they have to build chimneys with and just as the fellow struck Stuart, I struck him and as I struck him there had been another fellow running after me with a loaded horsewhip and struck me right between the shoulders, but it did not seem to hurt me much only I felt that I could take them all if they would come along. Just as the fellow struck me, I turned around and struck an underhanded lick and just fetched it under his chin and broke his jaw in two places and down he came; we had no more trouble with him. ...I know that I knocked them right and left, every one that came in my reach and I know that there were over eight or ten...

John Lowe Butler

 Center of Gallatin 
where fight took place 180 years ago

John's biography is entitled: My Best for the Kingdom, which is a quote taken from his journal and the theme of his life once he joined the church. We hope and pray that we can also do our best here in Missouri.
There is a beautiful new chapel in Gallatin. A lot has changed in the the years since Governor Boggs issued the extermination order and the Saints were forced to flee. I think that John would be pleased with the progress and the changes that have been made and would feel right at home in Gallatin.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

Robyn was asked to speak today on Mothers. Because of her growing fluency in Spanish, she decided to alternate speaking in Spanish and then in English. She started out by saying: "Feliz Dia de la Madre." Then she finished up in English. ;-)  She did a great job.

"All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my

angel mother." - Abraham Lincoln

I could not agree more with Lincoln.