Monday, May 27, 2024

May 20th through May 26th, 2024 - Our Family Has Grown Again!

Our family grew again this week!  Our grandson, Jaxen, was married to Lizzy Phelps in the Gilbert, Arizona Temple on Saturday, May 25th.  Haven't seen pictures yet so I can't post one here, but I will as soon as I can.  Congratulations Jax and Lizzy!

Hello People We Love!
Every one of you receiving this email is dear to our hearts ~ family and friends.  Each of you has played a role in the joy and blessings we feel.  Thank you for being you.

What a week!  So much to share.  I apologize for the length of this email right up front.  We know you are busy and anytime you take time to read what we send is so appreciated.  There will be more detail and more pictures on our blog for those who don't have time for a novel. We hope you will read to the end because on Sunday we had an amazing experience for which we will be forever grateful to have witnessed.

Over the course of five days we drove 900 miles 🏎️  ⛽  🚥

Monday Cheboygan to Lansing:
Dinner with Elder Sikehema at the Mission Home with 48 other senior missionaries serving here.  Elder Sikehema is a Seventy and was sent from our leaders in Salt Lake City to tour our mission and teach.  He is also a former NFL player and a two time Pro Bowl participant, and happens to have gone to Mesa High School where some of our boys played years later.  He asked us all to meet with him so he could share his gratitude for senior missionaries.  Years earlier he helped his parents (at the age of about 45) to serve a mission in Tonga, his native land. Tender mercy... his younger brother was serving there at the same time which doesn't happen. 

Tuesday Lansing to Grand Rapids and then Grand Rapids to Detroit and back to Lansing:
We helped do vehicle inspections in Grand Rapids at the other Zone's Conference.  First time in Grand Rapids where a new Temple is being built!  Then since it was my birthday our Mission President gave us permission to go just outside our missionary boundaries and serve in the Detroit Temple.  Seeing that we love the Temple, we were so grateful.

Wednesday Lansing to Mt. Pleasant to Cheboygan:
We attended our own Zone Conference, helped do vehicle inspections, were taught by Elder Sikehema and were given lunch.  Sister Peckham is responsible to make lunch happen at each Zone Conference.  She is the loving, spiritual power behind all these missionaries.  She is like the Missionary Mom.  She is asked to teach at times as well and I always feel her genuine love for the Savior.  We got home in the evening in time to go with the Elders to teach a family whose father is a member, but his family is not.  

Sunday was a day to remember.
The number of people attending church about doubled.  We had three friends who visited, but apparently during the summer we often get out-of-town visitors.  A large family group here for a reunion joined us as well.  They brought children and teenagers and hearing the little voices was heavenly.  One of the men played the piano for us.  Boy do I wish I had learned to play it.

What happened after our church meetings is what I want to share before I end my email.  
We had a Branch picnic just after our meetings, but we were not able to stay and attend.  Just as Sacrament Meeting started we heard that the grandson of one of our members had gone missing overnight.  As we finished, Elder Gibbons walked outside the building and one of this young man's aunts pulled up.  He asked how he could help and she said that they knew the general area where the young man was, but they need someone that could run to help stop him.  The police had been notified, but they hadn't been able to find him.  He went and got the Elders and me and we took off following his grandmother to the area.

We prayed as we went.  When we got to the area, the Elders went in opposite directions but keeping within our ability to see them.  We saw one of them stop again and pray.  After a couple of minutes they came back our direction and we heard by phone which field he was thought to be in across the street from where they were.  Picture green, open fields surrounded by many different groves of trees and bushes.  So many places for this young man to hide.  We watched the two Elders in their white shirts and ties move together combing the area.  Eventually they saw something black, thought it was a tree stump or something, then saw it move.  They stood where they were and watched it slowly walk toward them.  Can you imagine seeing two young men in white shirts in the middle of a field?  This young man was drawn to them.  His grandmother, mother and we could not hold back the tears.  We saw the Elders get down on their knees with the young man, who plopped down on the ground and eventually knelt too.  They prayed for him.  They talked for 15 minutes or so and then the policemen and sheriff walked out to join them.  The Elders said the young man was muddy and a bit wet and exhausted.  They asked him if he was hungry and he showed them some candy in his pocket, but being young men themselves one Elder joked with him and said, "Come on man.  You gotta be hungry."

We testify that God knows and loves each of His children.  He hears and answers prayers.  In this case, a mother's prayer, a grandmother's prayer, His missionaries prayers and many more.  His work is about rescuing us and when called and commissioned to His work, our work is to help rescue others... sometimes literally.  God is so good!  Elder Sines and Elder Rogers were the perfect two people to be there, find and love this young man.

Being the missionaries they are, these two servants invited this young man to join us at church when he can and they invited the policeman to join us too.  One said to them, "How did you find him so fast when we couldn't?"  Their humble answer was truth.  "The Holy Ghost."  We testify that God sends his Spirit to lead and guide us as we ask and seek for help.
Elders praying in the field.

The walk back                 

His family was so grateful
Other notable thing to mention:
One of the Sister Missionaries in our District, Sister Froelich, is always so thoughtful.  She remembered it was my birthday so when I saw her at Zone Conference she gave me a little, pink box and in it a necklace she had made.  She serves in Petoskey and everyone that goes there collects "Petoskey Rocks" of all shapes and sizes.  When polished the stone is beautiful and looks like a fossil.  She found a tiny one and figured out a way to hand drill a hole in it and then put it on a chain.  It is beautiful.  Sister Froelich is beautiful.  


We decided to do what we've seen some of the Elders and Sisters do.  See the picture of Christ 
at the front windshield?  Always keeping Christ on our minds and in our hearts.  No way you can have road rage when looking at His picture.

Our current District during our daily chat when we have a spiritual thought and prayer.  We have a new Sister!  Sister Wehrmeister.  It is so easy to love these missionaries.

We are blessed!  You are blessed!  May you see His hand in your life. 

No comments:

Post a Comment