This was a combined departure dinner for both missions since all the missionaries started out in the Quito mission, it seemed appropriate for both mission presidents to say goodbye. The video that Sis. Ghent and I made turned out great and everyone enjoyed watching it.
The Richardson’s also presented a special booklet that was a compilation of thank you letters to the Ghents from the missionaries who were transferred from the Quito Mission to the Quito North Mission. I was asked to compile it all together and it turned out great. Some of the missionaries sent in pictures to go with their letters and when they didn’t I added a picture. This way the Ghents will be able to make the connection several years from now about the identity of each missionary and it will bring back good memories. It was a complete surprise to the Ghents and much appreciated.
As we were taking pictures we did a special one for our grandson, Matt, who is in Primary Children’s hospital. We have been praying for him and he is doing well, but still has a ways to go before he can go home. He is considered a miracle by the doctors and nurses attending him. The Lord has blessed us so much and given Matt back to our family. Two weeks ago we didn’t know if he would be staying with us, but Matt is a fighter and is doing amazingly well.
Tuesday Lynn and I spent most of the day with the Quito mission as they welcomed their new missionaries. We needed to help the Nuttalls in learning what to do, since this was their first time going through the process. With nearly 25 missionaries arriving it required many hands to get everything done that was needed and help the missionaries as they arrived. Hopefully we will also have the office staff from the Quito mission be able to help us in two weeks when we will have nearly 20 missionaries arrive. Our first group of missionaries that arrived in July was fairly small with only 7 missionaries but this next group is going to be nearly three times larger and will require many to help to get things done.
I was talking with Sister Ghent about some of the great ideas that Sister Richardson brought with her from others she met at the MTC, as she is starting out a new mission, Sister Ghent was feeling a little sad because she wants to do some of these ideas and feels bad that she couldn’t have done some of the ideas from the very beginning. I said that she shouldn’t feel sad but just grateful that she can start from where she’s at and just add to what she would like to do to what she is already doing. You can’t lament what you didn’t do, you just need to go from where you are. That’s kind of like what repentance is. You need to just go forward from where you are and do the best you can with where you are.
One of the ideas that we used with this group of leaving missionaries was to print out the transfer history pages for each of the missionaries with their picture and then have them complete a sheet to put to the back of this that would have the home information of the missionary along with their testimony. Sister Richardson had come to me with the idea and I prepared the pages for missionaries for both missions that were leaving. Sister Ghent really liked the idea and felt bad that she didn’t have similar pages for all the missionaries that have left since they started their service. On Thursday I was able to create similar pages for about 50 missionaries that have left and sent them to her. It was not all the missionaries but went back at least to the first of this year for those I was able to get the transfer histories and pictures for. Now she will at least have it for those that far back.
Another idea that Sister Richardson and I came up with had to do with remembering the birthdays of all the missionaries. I used Microsoft Publisher and designed two birthday cards, one for the elders and one for the sisters, with a special greeting from the Richardsons. Every Friday I will send these to those whose birthday is coming up in the next week so that when they check their emails on Monday, their P-Day, there will be a special birthday greeting for them. Also, as the Richardson’s go out to the zones for their zone conferences they will honor those who had birthdays since the last zone conference with a special treat and a new toothbrush. I sent the template to Sister Ghent so that they can do the same thing in the Quito mission, only adapted for their mission with their own message.
Wednesday President Richardson told the office staff that they are giving the missionaries a 90 day Book of Mormon reading challenge, and invited us to join them. As we read the Book of Mormon we are to mark with one color every time we come across a reference to Christ and to mark in some other color some other topic of our choosing. Since tender mercies of the Lord have been on my mind lately I decided that I would use that as my second topic. I’m just beginning and it seems that I hardly get through a verse without coming to an example of tender mercies of the Lord. The scriptures, or, more specifically, the Book of Mormon, is full of them. Since I have already marked my scriptures with where there are references to Christ I am only needing to mark the tender mercies as I go through this time. This is going to be a very special experience as I once again read through the Book of Mormon. I am already gaining new insight as I am looking for these examples of the Lord’s tender mercies. I would challenge you to join us on this journey through the Book of Mormon. If you haven’t already marked the references to Christ in the Book of Mormon, do so this time through. Then choose your own topic to mark, but I would encourage you to watch for the many examples of the Lord’s tender mercies.
Friday Sister Phelps came to our office and said that she had gotten an email from one of the previous senior couples who had served here in Quito saying that they were being called on another mission. She and Sister Thomas told an interesting story about this couple. When they were here in Quito serving a mission the elder had some kind of heart problem and they had to return home. When the problem was resolved they had applied to return and serve again here in Quito. Their application was denied but they put on their plaques and came anyway. This was a bit awkward since they really didn’t have an official calling as missionaries. The mission president, before Pres. Ghent, tried to get them to return home and said that they couldn’t have any of the benefits of the senior missionaries – no insurance or any specific assignments or help in anyway, but they wanted to stay anyway. Even so, they did much good among the people while they were here. As this couple is going out to serve again, their fourth or fifth mission, the brother is 80 years old. Now that is what I would call a very dedicated missionary couple.
Sunday we had a pot luck lunch at our apartment with the senior missionaries. We decided that we wanted to add a once a month Sunday lunch together in addition to our twice a month FHE. We enjoy visiting and getting to know each other. We have some great conversations and learn a lot from each other.
Here is the link to the latest video of Matt wheel down the hall in the wheelchair. He's awesome.
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