This week we’ve been trying to catch up from the previous week, but it hasn’t been easy. We had our office council meeting on Monday morning, then Clark and I went down to Bro. Muldowney’s office for our last Institute inservice of the year. He is this amazing man that is so knowledgeable of the Gospel and the scriptures. We always learn so much from him. He is also a gifted artist and gave us a print of a painting he had done.

Tuesday night was our last Institute class of the term. We decided to treat them with dinner for a Christmas surprise. They were pretty excited to see the Chick-fil-a chicken and the caesar salad and fruit and sundae cones for dessert. We had 13 there and they finished off every crumb! Now we have a couple of weeks off for the Christmas break.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were zone conferences at Newark (pronounced New Ark) DE, here at Broomall, and Nazareth, PA. We wanted to do something special for them so I got to go, too, to help Sister Carroll with the food. No WaWa (like 7-11 only better) sandwiches this time! We had an awesome lasagne dinner. It was fun to be able to take a minute during cleanup and go in to the chapel while they each had their Christmas talent show. We have such amazing talent in this mission! One young Elder had composed a new song just for the meeting and sang it and accompanied himself on the piano.

Yesterday we did some things here at the apartment, delivered some gifts, and did a little shopping. Unusual for us not to be out finding something new to see! I was thinking that this is probably only the 2nd time that I haven’t been home with family for Christmas. We miss you all so much!

Have the very best Christmas ever! We love you and are excited to be able to talk to many of you soon!!

This has been another one of those super busy weeks. We’ve had 12 missionaries go home (10 of them sisters) and 17 new ones come (9 sisters). We always get a sub for the departing dinners on Tuesday of these weeks so we can help out with the dinner and be there to tell them goodbye. One sister this time had a picture of her soaking wet dancing in the rain, evidently for the 3rd time that week. She talked about how so many things were going wrong and she was physically and emotionally drained. But she has realized that when times were the toughest, she was blessed the most and found the most joy. Now that we know the missionaries so well, it is really hard to see them leave. One elder is the only member in his family.

The new ones coming in are amazing, too! As soon as they arrived, the Assistants to the President and some of the trainers took them out to do some street contacting. President Dunnigan said it was impressive how they were so willing to talk to people and are so prepared. They had gotten up at 3 a.m. to fly out and were really excited to see the cheese steaks sandwiches hot and ready when they got back to the church!

After the training on Thursday, Clark and I took some furniture down to Elkton, MD, to some sisters that are in a three-some this transfer. We had been at the church by 7 to make breakfast and didn’t get home until 9:30 p.m. A really long day!

Saturday we had choir practice and a Philly Pops Christmas Concert in the afternoon. It was a great concert with the Symphony, a 170 member local choir, the Black Gospel Choir, a boys choir, and a guest artist. And all but 1 of the Sing Along songs were actual carols about Christ!

We were talked into joining our stake choir to prepare for a 3 Stake Christmas Concert, and now we are really glad we did! It was amazing! These members really know how to put on a show! The choir sang some great songs accompanied by a piano, organ, small orchestra, and even a couple of trumpet fanfares. They had some solo numbers, too, a harp duet, and a bell choir. Then the Spanish branches did a number, as well as a Liberian choir of sisters, and a group of Gospel Singers. That church was rockin’!!

It’s so nice to see all the beautiful lights and so many nativities in yards and at the churches. It’s a constant reminder of what Christmas is all about. I have to admit I am homesick and it’s not easy being so far away. But I know that we are doing good things here and am grateful for the blessings that come.

We just finished listening to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and enjoyed the wonderful reminders of why we celebrate this joyous season. We love our Savior and our Father for his matchless love in sending his Only Begotten to earth to atone for our sins allowing us to return and live with a loving Father and Mother in heaven for eternity. What a reason to celebrate and learn to follow Him.

We had two apartment checks this week, one with Elders and one with Sisters, both were great though the standards of cleanliness are slightly different for the two. We really enjoy being with the missionaries and getting to know them better and hearing of the work they are doing in bringing souls to Christ. We love it.

Tuesday we went down to south Philly to support some Elders that had their apartment broken into and almost all their belongings stolen, even down to the breakfast cereal. The robbers must have had a guard watching when they returned in the evening since some of the items were left on the lawn outside the apartment and some inside that were on the way out. The apartment was totally ransacked. We took them out to get some items they needed and food for the next few days so they could keep going. Amy worked with the President in sorting out what needed to be done and coordinating with Salt Lake. It is amazing what thieves will do and I am sure they are disappointed with the loot they got, white shirts, suits, shoes, 14 ties, etc. Also about 5 days later a woman woke them up at 2 am and gave them back a lot of what was stolen saying she had picked it up but the story was odd and the police are checking it out. She wanted to get some money for it. Amazing some people’s methods for getting some cash.

Thursday we took a sister to the airport that was going home early, not our favorite thing to do. Saturday I had to go pay $375 to a towing company to get a car back after removal from towing zone in the city. The missionaries will be paying me back for this and they were quite humbly apologetic. Saturday afternoon we joined a tour of several mansions from the 1700s in the Fairmount Park area that were open and had people dressed up as the original owners telling the stories of the home. Quite interesting and elegant for that period of time.

Today we had 4 baptisms in our ward, 3 from the elders that got robbed. They are amazing people that joined the church. They all bore their testimonies at the end of the meeting and shared how they came to join the church and found the truth that they had been seeking.

We love you all and hope you find joy in serving your fellow men this season.

It’s hard to believe it is December already. This year has really flown by!

Clark and I had to go over and pick up a new Chevy all wheel drive Equinox for our mission. Then the next day we drove a couple of hours up to Clark’s Summit to deliver it to some sisters (just in time for the big snow storm – 17″ up there). We drove an old one back that the church will sell. We don’t have any cars older than one that’s a 2016.

We had a great Thanksgiving Day with 3 sets of elders, Sister Estella, and our friend Christian here (10 in all). It was nice to be so busy so I didn’t get too homesick.

We played a skittles game that had “I am Thankful For….” prompts for each color. It was nice to hear what they all shared about their lives. We have such awesome missionaries!

I loved the pictures from home, to0, with 5 of our kids and families getting together for dinner and a couple of others stopping by later. We are so grateful for our family!!

Last night we went out to Longwood Garden to see their Christmas displays. with President and Sister Dunnigan. It was fabulous, everything centered on natural materials. They had taken the huge fountain display where they have the shows and had stuck rods covered in lights in each fountain. They then did a show set to music with the lights resembling the fountains going up and down. Hard to describe but really cool. On our way back we stopped at a nice little cafe for dinner and concluded a wonderful evening with the Dunnigans. They are humble, dedicated leaders that we love and admire.

The big wreath on the top left is made entirely of orchids!

The whole display was amazing, but it lacked the most important thing of all. There wasn’t even one Nativity. We are so grateful for the birth of our Savior, for his exemplary life, and his ultimate sacrifice for each one of us. We love him and we have been blessed to be able to serve here in Philadelphia.

Love you!

It’s been a slower week for us, but a couple of highlights include dinner with a recent convert, Olivia Dennis, and her family. She told us how she searched for years to find a church where she could feel like she had found her family. She actually started coming to church on her own because her nephew in Liberia kept telling her to try it out. Her husband isn’t interested at all, but she comes and brings her 4 children. Her youngest, Miracle, is 6 years old and was only 1 lb. 3 oz. when she was born (3 months of hospitalization). Sounded so much like our little granddaughter, Kaelyn, except Miracle has no health issues at all now. Olivia has such a strong testimony and is so happy!

Saturday we drove up to Bethlehem, PA, to check it out. The older part of town is quaint with lots of Christmas type shops. I love that there is a huge star of David painted on the road at the biggest intersection. It was refreshing to see so many nativities and Christian displays. That night we took 2 sisters, Sister Hansen and Sister Griffin, out to dinner after inspecting there apartment. Sister Griffin actually grew up in Cleveland, UT, where 2 of my sisters live. Great missionaries!

Today Elder Vai Sikhema and his wife were the speakers at church. He’s an area 70 and is such a kind, friendly person. It was funny when he talked about the church buildings in Tonga during the 50’s and 60’s. He said it was like they had brought the Utah church culture there. All the buildings had basketball courts, and none of the Tongans knew what they were for! He encouraged our members to recognize the things in their culture that are congruent with the Gospel and keep them and live them. He told us that God loves us and appointed the time and the place for us to be born, giving us the best opportunity to find Him. A great message…

Clark and the Elders were able to give another new convert, Tammy, a blessing. She is struggling to overcome some things in her life and is the only member of her family. Her kids haven’t joined the church and her mother and siblings are always down on her for being a member. It was a beautiful blessing and I hope it will help her.

So far we have 2 sets of missionaries and Sister Estella (a maybe) coming for Thanksgiving dinner. Should be fun!

We love you and wish you all a great Thanksgiving! We miss you!!!

Lots of excitement this month! On the 8th a couple of our elders were crossing the street at an intersection when a car ran a red light and plowed into them. One crashed into the windshield and another went over the corner of the car. The first one was unconscious, so the other one took pictures. No police showed up for a report, but the man stayed around until the ambulance came. The one elder was unconscious for 6 hours or so with a cracked skull, a brain bleed, a badly lacerated ear and lots of scrapes and bruises – but no other broken bones. The 2nd one had a cracked wrist, was fine otherwise, and didn’t need to be hospitalized.

The 2nd half of the miracle came when less than 2 days later Elder Carroll was able to leave the hospital. He has had no headaches or other pain with the head injury and is healing well. Heavenly Father protected them that night and continues to help them. What a great blessing! Now Clark is trying to work on the police report and insurance issues, but a small matter in comparison.

We had Zone Conferences in three places last week, so Clark spent 2 days on the road and 3 days inspecting missionary cars. We were without heat in the office all 5 days! Some computer glitch with our control system… Thank goodness for space heaters! One day the high council room in the church where we work was only 42 degrees.

We haven’t really had many impressive sunsets here, but one day we walked out of the office around 5 or so and this is what we saw.

Our son-in-law, Richard, had meetings north of here in Bethlehem (up near Nazareth) and was able to stay with us Friday night and Saturday until he had to catch his plane. It is always so nice to have family here, and we really enjoyed his visit.

Today was our Primary program, so Clark and I picked up Sal and Alice, along with Christian, so Sal could sing and do her part. It was really good! They knew the songs so well and sang beautifully. It’s probably the only Primary program that I’ve been to where the audience clapped for them when they were done…. I love our ward!!

I’ll end with a quote: “Worrying is when you have a conversation with yourself about the things you cannot change. Praying is when you have a conversation with God about the things He can change.

We love you all! Have a wonderful week!!

I forgot to include some pictures from last week. This is our breakfast detail – Elder Bonner and Elder Lundell (pancake flippers), Elder Carroll (tables manager), and Sister Carroll, Sister Bonner, and Sister Lundell (everything else-ers!).

Some sweet sister missionaries gave our office a Halloween Box complete with treats and headbands for costumes. Each headband had a name on it – I was the lucky one with the crown! Elder Carroll did not like the bumble bee he got! We just wore them for the picture. Our new missionaries were there that day, and President Dunnigan worried about the effect of their first impressions of us…..

We took the day off Monday while Michael and Kelly were here and did a lot of sightseeing, including my favorite – The Barnes Foundation Art Museum. So much beautiful art in one relatively small museum, including 181 Rembrandts! It was great to be able to also take the two of them out for Michael’s birthday before they flew home the next day.

Tuesday meant back to work for the rest of the week. Clark was dealing with all the missionaries who hadn’t sent in their Driving Vehicle Reports (mileage + gas + receipts) so he could get his report done for Salt Lake on time. And I received 4 red light violations for our missionaries in less than a month (all the cars are registered to our office). Darn it – they have cameras everywhere! The tickets start at $100 each, and the mission doesn’t pay for them. I hate having to call them and tell them the bad news and how much it will cost them. Not only that, I worry that one time it won’t just be a camera catching them; it could result in a serious accident!

Today in Relief Society we were talking about Pres. Oaks talk on “Trust in the Lord.” We were discussing how little we know about the spirit world when one Liberian sister shared her story. It was during the nearly 10 years of war in Liberia. She had seen loved ones shot and others kidnapped, and she and her family were starving to death. She was trying to get to a hospital and ended up having her baby lying in the middle of the road. She remembers being able to see all that was going on around her as if she was in the air. She didn’t want to go back but knew she had to do it. The spirit told her to leave Liberia or she would be killed as well. She talked about how she learned to trust in the Lord and knew that He was watching over her and helping her. She thanks him for every new day and the blessings she receives. We are so grateful to belong to this ward and for our dear ward members that teach us so much about faith and trust and finding joy in the little things.

Have a wonderful week! Count your blessings and give thanks!

Love you all so much!!

The good news this week is that we didn’t have to cook dinner for ourselves for 6 days in a row! This week was transfer week, and we had several completing their missions and 8 others just starting theirs. Friday was also the Missionary Leadership meetings for the zone leaders and sister training leaders, so we fixed meals all week.

One crazy thing happened – We weren’t aware that two of the new missionaries were coming from the MTC in Mexico and were on a different flight. Somehow, with all the people there to greet the missionaries at the airport, no one noticed that 2 were missing. They came in an hour later, so Clark had just gotten back to the office with the luggage and turned right back for the airport. It all ended well, and they didn’t seem upset at all. Just a little embarrassing for the mission….

The stake had a pretty awesome Women’s Conference on Saturday complete with catered lunch. My most favorite part was the musical number during the opening segment. They had a sister at the piano, another at the pulpit singing “His Hands” and the third was dressed in black and signed the words to the song. She was so expressive and the song was beautiful. They had the whole congregation crying!

That afternoon Michael and Kellie arrived and we went to watch the Philadelphia Flyers hockey game. It was pretty intense! They finally lost during a shoot out at the end after going through most of the team. I was worried about the avid fans, but they were great and we had a fun evening. It’s nice to have them visit!

We loved this quote from conference and thought we’d share.

We love you! Have a great week!

We were notified a couple of weeks ago that we were getting 6 missionaries who were waiting for Visas. Two were going to Honduras and the other four to Portugal. Then the day before they were to come, the first two got their visas and were able to fly on to their mission. We went ahead and welcomed them here with dinner, then breakfast and lunch the next day. We held our training a little differently since there were so few of them, so Clark and I decided to do ours together so we could hear each other’s presentation. It went really well – I kind of wish we could do that every time.

Tuesday was Kaelyn’s heart surgery. The doctor said it went perfectly! They had to keep her leg completely still for 6 hours and she was not happy! They tried a little sedation, but her heart rate would drop. So they just had to tough it out. She’s been pretty tired but is still doing well. Another miracle for that little girl!

One of the Assistants to the President, Elder Boden from Idaho, is going home Wednesday, so we took him and a companion out to dinner. We will really miss him! We were also able to take some sisters out another night after we had inspected their apartment (we have been assigned 4 of them to inspect). What a joy to be with them!

Yesterday we decided to take the Lundells with us and drive north to find some amazing views of leaves. We were a little disappointed that it wasn’t more spectacular, but we did see a lot.

There was a little excitement at church today. Elder Gerrit W. Gong from the Quorum of the Twelve was here for Sacrament meeting for both of the wards that meet in our building. Pretty awesome! He has a son that has just started an advanced degree at one of the universities.

Thought for the day – Don’t hang out with negative people. They have a problem for every solution!

President Spencer W. Kimball wrote,” The abundant life noted in the scriptures is the spiritual sum that is arrived at by the multiplying of our service to others and by investing our talents in service to God and to man. We become more substantive as we serve others – indeed, it is easier to ‘find’ ourselves because there is so much more to find!

I can testify that we are being given the opportunity to “find ourselves” here in the PA Philadelphia mission. This is God’s work and we see his hand in the details of our lives.

Love you all SO MUCH! Have a great week!

This week started off pretty slow – just working at the office, Institute, etc. Wednesday Clark and I drove to Wilmington, DE, to have dinner at the Green Room of the DuPont Hotel. It was so good and a great place to eat – very high class (and very expensive)!

Then the pace picked up. Friday night we had dinner at the church with the other couples in our mission with 29 people there (one of the sisters couldn’t come). It was very nice and fun to get to know each other a little.

Saturday morning we went to the church for a broadcast from Sharon, VT, for all of the missionaries in the North America Northeast Area with area president Elder Bennett and his wife, Elder Christofferson and his wife, and Elder Ballard as the speakers. They had lots of great advice and encouragement for us. Elder Ballard ended by saying, “We know His voice and His will.” What a blessing to be led by prophets, seers, and revelators!

We left there to go pick up Brother Joseph David and his friend, Brother Kuoambo, to go to the temple where Joseph was able to receive his endowments. He just kept saying, “Wonderful. Wonderful.” He has told us how his prayers are mostly thank you’s to God and how he has turned his life over to Him. Another great blessing for us to be with him in the temple. Brother Kuoambo was a physician in the Central African Republic before he came here 8 years ago. He and Joseph both have wives and families in Africa that they are saving $ to bring here. He works at a clinic and has passed 2 of his boards, will take one in December, and has one more after that.

Today we took Christian to church with us and stayed all day! Church started at 11:30 with a baptism to follow. Decondie and her daughter Diana were baptized as well as another woman named Massah. The two sisters bore their testimonies at the baptism and are so amazing! We had some very excited missionaries.

At 4 p.m. there was another broadcast, this time from Boston, with the same 5 from Saturday. Another spiritual boost! We got to meet Vai Sikahema there at our building. He played football for BYU and the Eagles and is an area seventy now. He was instrumental in getting the temple approved with the city here. We didn’t get home until 6 and had the missionaries right behind us that we had invited to dinner. Thank goodness for crockpots.

All in all, a great week with many missionary highs!

Have a great week and pray for our little granddaughter, Kaelyn, who is having heart surgery Tuesday. Love you all tons!