Well, Sister Center did it again.  She has already established a great reputation as a cook, baker, and personable friend, and after last night's lesson you can add "teacher extraordinaire" to the list.  She reviewed President Benson's classic conference talk on "Pride."  Fine participation, superlative insights, and The Spirit was extremely strong.  Excellent job sweetheart.  (I also did a tremendous job of setting out the veggie trays I bought at Safeway!)

We've been in the mission field exactly two months today.  What an adventure--above our wildest dreams.  Classes going well as is our establishing rapport with the young people--what a great bunch!  (And if possible, it is bringing Loralee and I even closer together!)

Religious scholars continually discuss, debate, interpret, extrapolate, contemplate, ascertain and search for the true meaning of the Atonement.  That’s all well and good.  However, when I was four years old, I learned this little ditty from my mother that completely explains the Atonement:  “Yes, Jesus loves me!”

Shy, hesitant, afraid to bring up The Gospel with others?  I understand but remember what The Duke said:  "Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway!"

One of the most special part of our mission is giving advice to the kids.  We've been here in Tacoma for just seven weeks but already I've been asked personally to give three different people blessings of comfort.  What a joy that is.

MISSION MOTTO:

Faith is the power,
Love is the motive,
Obedience is the price;
The Spirit is the key;
The Restoration is the message,
Members are the means,
Christ is the reason,
Baptism is the way,
Joy is the reward.

What do I miss most?  Of course, family and friends, then the familiar routine of our life--specifically, I miss having access to my 50 Church books and over 100 Church files--they would sure come in handy as I prepare lessons.  And selfishly, I sure miss our king-size bed--Loralee takes 2/3rds of the pillows, blankets, and bed!

Yes, all the cooking we do including planning menus, finding recipes, prep, cooking/baking, serving, and clean-up takes a great deal of our time but actually preparing lessons is harder and takes about the same amount of time.  We want them to be interesting, informative, and spiritual--not as easy as it may sound.  Despite all that, we simply love both of our major tasks!

Our first assignment was to socialize and interact with the YSA; second, gain their respect; third, teach classes effectively, fourth, become their friends; fifth, earn their trust; sixth, be there for them helping with whatever needs they might have.  We feel we’re well on our way to achieving these goals in the short five weeks we’ve been here.

One of the most rewarding tasks is to deal with the kids as they come to us with questions and concerns.  The topics vary greatly from Institute class materials, Church doctrine and policies, missionary work, callings and stewardships, and Church history to more pressing subjects dealing with personal concerns including work and school problems, health issues (both physical and emotional), and all types of relational situations, e.g. dysfunctional families, low self-esteem and lack of confidence, personality flaws, overcoming temptations, and the list goes on.

We’ve already had the challenges and opportunities to connect with the YSA and to do some one-on-one counseling/mentoring.

The kids are great as is our mission.  (Kids?  In addition to the 18-30 crowd, we have a few that are even older.  We have about seventy-five that attend some type of YSA functions weekly—some coming to one, some to all.  Of course, we also have that many less active ones.)  Some are in one of the nearby colleges, some from the military bases in the area, many still living at home, and several who are “on their own.”

Again, we love the young people and we love our mission.

Elder Center

Who says prayers aren't answered--a new Star Trek movie is scheduled for release next summer!!!