Dear Elder Alex,
Well, we just finished quite the whirlwind weekend of stake conference meetings. We are officially split now. The Eagle Stake consists of Eagle 1-8 wards and the boundary goes only to Linder. The Star Stake includes Star 1,2,3, Beacon Light, Verona, Silverleaf and Lochsa Falls wards. The new stake president is Pres. Firmage who used to be the Bishop in the Beacon Light ward. His counselors are Pres. Tanner and Pres. Frogman(from Meridian North Stake). Now their work begins as they start to make tons of callings this week.
Our stake did most of the callings today. Our new counselor is Pres. Gines. I have a new counselor, Millie Enzler and a new secretary, Kris Grigg.
Last night my old presidency had our last official act as we made and served dinner to the general authorities between meetings. I already miss my old presidency, but I will bravely move forward.
The talks last night and today were wonderful. Elder Evans of the 70 who is executive director of missionary work, while having dinner at the Staffords on Friday night, told Phillip there were just 3 rules for every missionary to follow in order to have success. He said, 1. Always stay with your companion. 2. Don't flirt 3. Don't do anything stupid.
sounds pretty simple to me. Those are rules for married couples too :) He told the Staffords about the missionary from Guatemala last month who got mauled by a lion when he was at a zoo and had climbed up on the fence to have his picture taken. He broke rule #3 on that one.
Today Elder Evans told us some tender stories about Pres. Monson and how caring he naturally is and that he never tells us the stories of how he is now, that we tend to just hear the same stories from Pres. Monson and how his stories are told to help motivate us to better and stronger more faith-filled behavior. He tells them in hopes of motivating a Bishop to work harder or for us to be better neighbors, etc. He never tells his stories hoping to elevate himself. Then Elder Evans told us how Pres. Monson made several calls through the years to Elder Evan's mom after she was widowed and checked on her, asked her to serve 2 missions and attended and spoke at funerals. He lives his life today the very way that he preaches and has such a strong desire to help the one, the lost sheep, the suffering, the lonely. It was such a wonderful talk and my testimony of Pres. Monson was reaffirmed to me today that he is truly a prophet of God and that he has learned through the years to respond quickly to the promptings he receives, an example that means a lot to me.
Grandpa Trumbo just called and we had a great talk, of course. I love talking to my dad. He had lunch at Jan's and Heidi, Cameron, Steve and Carolina, Isaac, Dakota and Kassie were also there, so it was a fun lunch. Isaac is in the states visiting for a couple weeks.
Kirk called today and is getting excited to come home. He's ready to move on, get going in school, get dating again, etc. This has been a wonderful experience for him. Sean just finished up with his finals and will be coming home this weekend. He got some time off work.
Dad is busy with work this week since he took off time at the beginning of the month for our vacation. Now he's making up for his time off. He's working today, but he got to go to the Saturday evening conference and the talks were mainly to the fathers and grandfathers. They talked about how powerful a father's influence can be and how all prophets through the years have talked about how they were taught by their fathers. The BOM prophets seem to especially give credit to their fathers. They were very uplifting talks.
One point Elder Evans made last night was to the Bishops. He said as a young man he always looked forward to hearing the missionaries speak as they left for the mission field and when they returned. Elder Evans said we may have taken the admonition about not having homecomings a little too far because he's seeing some Bishops asking returning missionaries to speak on topics that have hardly anything to do with their missions. He said the returning missionary should speak about his mission, his experiences, the people he met, etc. and how as a returning missionary speaks, he is speaking as an obedient servant of the Lord, almost like they have had a rebirth and are pure and clean, almost like they have just been newly baptized. He said their talks about their missions can be so powerful and so influential on potential missionaries sitting in the audience. I was so happy to hear that. Those were always my favorite sacrament meetings too and I have missed hearing some of the fun details of missions lately.
How has your week been? I saw Julie Rasmussen today and she was asking about you. I guess her son is with Elder Donohue and so far so good.
How is Steven coming along? Did his dad agree to let him get baptized? I hope so. I love hearing about your service there too. Sounds like you're having a typical hot and humid summer. In South Carolina I remember being so jealous of men in the humidity because they would always just pick up their shirts and wipe their faces and I would have to stand there and let the sweat just drip down and melt off my face. But I also felt bad for anyone out in the heat and would let them come in if they came to the door, so maybe that hot look will work for you. I was talking with Sis. Solomonsen today and her son is in Atlanta and is also melting there. I hope you'll get a little relief soon.
Two weeks until school starts here, so this week we're doing registrations, etc. Leah is nervous about middle school, so Kristina and I will take her there and walk her through things. Nikki is totally excited about being the oldest in her school. Kristina is just anxious to get back with her friends. I've hired Kristina for the next 2 weeks to tutor the girls in reading, math and practical applications(money, using a calculator, etc.). She's doing a good job with them and is creative about it.
They spoke a lot about missionaries this past weekend and I couldn't help but feel that awesome feeling of having a son out on a mission. It's an incredible feeling that probably only moms and dads know about. We feel so blessed as a family because of what you are doing. Have a great week and I hope you can feel our prayers for you each day.
love always,
Mom xxoo
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