May Means Flowering Bushes/Zone Conferences

 We held Zone conferences this week, so Wednesday we traveled to Nazareth, PA, Thursday we had 6 zones in Broomall (140 missionaries) and Friday we traveled to Newark, DE.  The photo above is taken of the Dover, DE zone.  President and Sister Anderson are in the front.  We normally hold 4 conferences, but Doctor and Sister Dunn, our mission doctor who lives in Ohio and serves 14 missions came to speak to us, so we combined the closer zones so they would be able to speak all 3 times.  They gave a wonderful presentation on taking care of your body, spirit and mind.  The talk was mostly about STRESS.  Much of what they spoke of is used by Elder Jones as he counsels missionaries.  A mission is full of stress.  I think that potential missionaries are not sufficiently educated to realize that a mission is WORK, but I do not think that they realize that a mission is STRESS.  Long hours, companions, rejection, hard work, meetings, transfers, studying, disappointment...  The doctor has found that the common symptoms are acne, stomach aches, head aches, back aches, sleeplessness, etc.  The conferences were a wonderful time for hugs to missionaries we have not seen in awhile, renewing friendships with senior couples and listening to the testimonies of the outgoing missionaries.  We surely do love these missionaries!

 Left is Sister Kaydee Taylor from St. George, UT and Sister Carla Argueta from California.  Sister Argueta will be leaving this coming transfer (May 27).  They are sister trainers and are doing such a wonderful job.  We love them!

 I have never seen so many flowering  bushes!  The colors are vibrant in shades or purple, pink, red and orange, with some white and yellow mixed in for accent.  I absolutely love them.  Even just driving along the highway you see flowering trees and bushes.  Hostas and day lilies are growing everywhere.  Once planted they just seem to multiply.  And in St. George I work all summer long to keep those flowers watered and alive!  The secret--RAIN.  It rains very much here.  We have had rain almost every day this week, even though it has been as high as 84.  And I have now learned that 84 + 50% humidity =95 degrees...The humidity is going to be a challenge...

We always go to the Dixon's for FHE.  This time Rob (the dad who is an RN) invited us to have our ears candled.  It all started when Sister Handy complained that her ears hurt.  Upon examination Rob determined it was wax, so he candled one of her ears last week and she could hear so much better and without pain.  So this week was the other ear.  Elder Jones wanted his ear candled as well, so hence, the photo above.  It involves a 15" cloth candle in the form of a cotton candy wand.  It is hollow in the center.  You place the small end into the ear and light the top afire.  In about 10 minutes the candle burns to about 4" and you remove it, cut it open, and lots of ear wax is inside.  The principle:  heat and a vacuum.  It worked!  We even bought some of the candles and candled both of our ears and now we hear very well!

Well, yesterday the Holloways left for home and this week the Smuins will also.  The Ballards are due to arrive in Philly Monday late or Tuesday and we will have a whirlwind of training them.  I (Sister Jones) am nervous to be on my own doing the finances.  I realize the sacredness of the funds and am aware of the responsibility I have to get things done correctly and timely.  I know that through the Holy Ghost I will be prompted to remember the training I have received, but this senior mind is just a bit stressed...

Senior FHE and Trip to NYC

 Monday was still April.  We began the week by having a small golf tourney at the Paxon Hollow Golf Course just down the street.  Elder Jones organized it and they had 3 foursomes playing a scramble.  Lots of fun was had, but Elder Jones paid for that golf game all week long.  He has not golfed in over 15 years and he felt quite achy.  After the golfing the senior couples (pictured above) gathered with some additional seniors that help out the mission by inspecting apartments and had a bbq at the mission home.  It was a lovely night and we were able to eat outside.  The  couples pictured below are the Thunnels, Holloways and Smuins (left to right).  They will all be headed home after completing their missionary service by May 15.  We will miss them greatly!

 Tuesday was my birthday and I received this beautiful arrangement from John and Jessica Jones and family.  I had a really good birthday with lots of well wishes and kind gestures.  Thank you all!  That night it rained very hard and the president had to sandbag his back yard because the creek at the back of his property had burst its banks by about 75 feet.  There was significant flooding in downtown Philly as well.

 We had a fruitful week with several teaching assignment with the elders and sisters, and on Friday we headed to New York City for a two day trip.  We were joined by the Smuins, Holloways and Armstrongs, all senior couples from our mission.  We had a most delightful time.  We managed to enjoy good weather (it rained on us at the very end of our time in NYC so we ducked into a subway passage and kept out of the rain.)  The city of New York was bustling, busy, noisy and very full of traffic.  It was the first time there for both us and the Armstrongs.  We drove to Staten Island and caught the ferry to Manhattan.  Below are the sights from the ferry.

 We tried to get tickets for a tour of Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island but would have had to wait most of the day to obtain tickets.  There were many school groups there on field trips.  So we took the Subway up to 42nd and when we surfaced to the street level were greeted by lots of tour agencies.  We decided to go to lunch at Bubba Gumps (delicious shrimp and fish) and decided upon the Grey Line tour.  We took advantage of 4 of the 5 tours they offered and really saw lots of the city, including Times Square, Bronx, Harlem, Broadway, Central Park, museums, Yankee Stadium, a night tour of Brooklyn, etc.  It was a very good 2 days and at the end of each day we were extremely tired.  We all decided that we liked to visit NYC but would not like to live there.

 Times Square is a very busy place with lots of neon lights.  If you have a business there you must have neon lights--it is a prerequisite.

 This is Freedom Tower.  It is being built right by the site of the twin towers.  When entirely completed it will be 1776 feet high.  Significant, right!  A very impressive sight.  Below is Elder Jones at the 9-11 Memorial pools.  The 9-11 museum will open later this month.  This is a sobering sight to even contemplate what happened here.

 Below are the Holloways, Armstrongs, Jones' and Smuins who we made this trip with.  We are standing at the only tree that survived 9-11.  It was transplated into the middle of this memorial park.  We did notice at this sight that the building directly across the street has char marks all up and down the front face.

 Central Park was very impressive.  We were there at such a perfect time--blossoming trees everywhere and tulips blooming, the leaves just coming on to the trees and New Yorkers enjoying a beautiful day.

 One of Elder Jones favorite sights was Yankee Stadium.  Close by is a memorial to Lou Gehrig.

 Animal rights activists are wanting to do away with the carriage rides, but for now they are available.

On our last bus tour the guide told us all of the spots the local New Yorkers frequent.  So when we got off the bus we headed to John's, where he said the best New York pizza was and enjoyed some really tasty pizza.  Then we headed back to the ferry on the subway and then home.  Philadelphia is only 2 hours away, so we were glad that we took this weekend to see New York City.  We are worn out, but we are looking forward to a busy and productive week.  The AP's are coming for dinner tonight.  We have zone conferences Wed, Thur, and Fri.  The office couple that we will be training are coming by next Monday.  We hope that they catch on quickly as the Smuins are leaving around the 14th of May.  We are so very blessed to be on this mission.  We are loving our service and all of these fun things make the time even more enjoyable.

The Last of April...

 One of the services that I provide is cooking for the Leadership Training Council that meets the last Friday of each month.  It has been fun to make food for these wonderful missionaries each month.  This past week it was pulled pork sandwiches.  I hope that I will still have time to do this as I train to take over the finances in the mission.  I have been stepping up the training, as Elder Smuin goes home before the middle of May.  I still have much to learn, but he is patient (although he has complained of headaches a lot lately...).  Below are Sisters Beames and Earl, just some of the beautiful Sisters we get to know and love.

It was a good and busy week--that seems to always be the case.  The weather was milder, although we did get some rain.  We have been able to shut off the heat in the apartment this week.  We each got the opportunity to teach 3 times and that is always enjoyable.  I really do like accompanying the missionaries and helping them teach.  I am amazed at their abilities and confidence in doing so, and also amazed at how comfortable it is--given the fright that it was initially at the MTC.

So this week I have a birthday.  All I have wanted for my birthday is good Mexican food.  I have a real craving for it.  Well, my wish came true!  We had the pleasure of having dinner at Brother Pena's last night.  He and his daughter Lena hosted tamales and Rice for dinner.  The sister missionaries, us, and the ward mission leader and family came.  The tamales were so very good.  We realized just how hard he had to work to make them, and that made them even better.  That, plus homemade guacamole.  Delicioso!  AND we are having dinner with the Pena's again on Wednesday.  We look forward to it.  Then, to top off the coming week, we are going to travel to New York City Friday morning and spend one night, returning home Saturday night.  It will be fun to see the sights.  There are 8 Senior Missionaries attending this fun trip.

We enjoyed celebrating Easter last week with a dinner for 6 Senior Missionary couples at the home of Pam and Alex Carr.  Alex is the overseer of the Philadelphia Temple being constructed, and Pam, his wife, is a service missionary.  They are lots of fun to be around and we enjoyed watching the "Because of Him" video again, as well as a video on many of our missionaries, and a musical number from our Assistants to the President, Elders Toilolo and Jenkins.  (They are coming for dinner tonight).  President and Sister Anderson had just returned from a Mission Presidents conference in Washington DC and they were able to give us a report on that as well.  We are enjoying the spirit in rich abundance and some wonderful experiences.  We feel so grateful to be serving this mission!

Elder Jones and Sister Smuin have teamed up to plan a Senior golf tournament tomorrow at the Paxon Hollow Golf Course just down the street.  They are playing a mixed scramble and there are 3 teams of 4 each.  The tourny is small, but will be fun.  It is the first time Corry has played golf in such a very long time.  I hope he enjoys the afternoon.  We are then having our Senior FHE activity after at the President's home--a BBQ.  Hope the weather holds...

Transfers in April

This has been a very busy week.  Monday night we had a dinner for the 3 outgoing missionaries.  1 sister and 2 elders, so the testimony meeting was brief.  We knew these missionaries well and were especially sad for Sister Young to go.  When we arrived here in the mission she had cleaned our apartment, along with Sister Munson (pictured below).  We served with these girls for some time and loved them lots!  

 Then Tuesday during a torrential rainstorm the missionaries pictured below arrived.  They'd had to hover in the air above Philly for 20 minutes in very bumpy weather so they were so very glad to be on the ground.  The sister 2nd from right is Sister Jolley from Ivins.  This picture was taken in the mission home and President and Sister Anderson are pictured as well.  We did have lots of rain last week and it has made lawns turn green and lots of flowers bloom.

 This is Sister Kelli Bettilyon.  She is from the SLC area.  She had to go home from her mission to recover from lyme disease.  It is interesting, because as she would come in to the mission office and at various meetings where we saw her we would ask about her health (she looked ill).  When she named her symptoms and I asked her questions, I became very concerned that she had lyme disease as her symptoms mirrored Jen's.  She went to the doctor here and got tested even but they were unable to diagnose it as lyme.  So she went home, was diagnosed with lyme disease, mold and a virus or some sort.  After about 3 months of treatment she was able to return and we were so very happy to see her.  She has that happy, perky look back.  We got big hugs..

Now about Easter.  For this past week the church has blitzed the media with #Because of Him.  We were asked to post this phrase and complete it in our various media contributions throughout the week.  And we did.  It has been an inspirational week to read all of the posts on Facebook about this.  Today our 2 current assistants to the president posted #Because of Him we sing on Facebook.  Please go to Facebook to find it.  The Missionaries are Elders Alasi Toilolo and Dallin Jenkins.  Elder Toilolo is from Hawaii and he accompanies their song on the ukulele.  It is very well done and was a wonderful way to remember Easter.  I reposted it, so if you are my friend or go to my facebook page, you will be able to find it.  Then as you lay in bed tonight, think of the phrase "Because of Him" and complete that sentence for yourself.  Because of Him I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and I know that He lives.

We will enjoy an Easter dinner tonight with 5 other couples serving in this mission.  We miss our family celebrations, but are so happy to be serving at this time and in this place.

Blossoms!  Transfers!  Dinners!

 We sure do love these elders.  We have had the privilege of working with Elders Jenkins (left) and White (right) since the end of October.  They are assistants to the Mission president and have been such fun and inspiration for us.  We will miss Elder White as he goes back into the field for the last 6 weeks of his mission. We are excited to find out who will now be working with us as the other AP.  We will find out on this Tuesday, April 15.  Monday night we will get to have dinner and testimonies with the 2 elders and 1 sister going home.  (Sister Young is the sister and we served 6 months with her in Broomall.)  Then they fly out Tuesday early.  Then transfers occur.  Elder Jones has been getting ready for that as he mapped out the route for his service elders to pick up all of the inner city transfers luggage.  They cannot take luggage on the buses or trains, so the service elders picked up luggage at 18 locations in Philly and Camden areas.  Then Tuesday afternoon we receive 1 elder and 6 sisters.  So we will get to meet and have dinner with them on Tuesday night.  Then Wednesday morning we will do some training with the "goldens".  Elder Jones has to show a safety film on driving and interview them to approve them to drive a mission car.  I will be mostly just observing as they receive their MSF card (monies for the month) so I will know how to do that next time. Yes! the Smuins will return home before the next transfer (the other office couple) and the couple replacing them is not do to arrive until about the same time they go, so we are wondering just how this is all going to work...Anyway, I will then be doing the finance part of the mission.  Elder Jones will be doing a bit more counseling with missionaries having difficulty as well as helping out in the office.  We are praying that this transition will be painless...

 Trees are blossoming in Pennsylvania this week.  Daffodils everywhere, even popping up in lawns.  The tree pictured above has large hand size flowers that are absolutely lovely.  They look like they should be on a lei. I was told the tree is magnolia.  There is another tree that has white daisy-like blossoms.  I am enjoying the beauty of Pennsylvania in the spring.  The wet winter has turned lawns green in just a couple of sunny days this week.  We got into the high 70's.

 As I have stated before, we have a large contingent of Koreans in our ward.  Every year they host a dinner in April and it was last night.  Although there were a few dishes from other countries (I brought English Trifle) most of the food was Korean and it was yummy.  You see above some orange chicken, lemon chicken, spicy pork, noodles, pot stickers and rice.  Everything was so tasty!

 This is Elder Jones trying some sushi.  The rolls were actually filled with ham, veggies and pork--no raw fish, so he tried them and enjoyed them.  The AP's have been daring him for 6 months to try sushi, so this was for them...(we won't let on that there was no raw fish...)  Today we also had the usual 2nd Sunday pot luck lunch after church.

YES!  IT IS SPRING

Yes!  It IS Spring because:

• I did NOT wear tights twice this week
• It only snowed a skiff on 3/31/14
• We have had April showers several times this week
• We turned off the heat in our apartment before leaving on Friday
• I saw daffodils on the side of the freeway in Maryland
• We went to a little league basketball game
• It was General Conference Weekend
• It was the Final Four
• Dad dug in Jen's garden and prepared it for planting some veggies, added manure and soil nutrients
• We put lighter blankets on our bed
• I wore short sleeves twice this week
• Dad did not wear a jacket in the photo below
• Pansies were planted at the DC Temple
• The grass turned green over the weekend
• The snow has finally melted in the local store parking lots
• Buds are on some of the trees
• The temp on the way home from Virginia today read 65 degrees!  Whoopie!

Elder Jones arranged a trip for the Senior Missionaries to attend a temple session at the Washington, D.C. Temple.  This is our temple until the Philadelphia Temple is complete.  Not everyone could go, but we did enjoy the outing.

 It was especially nice to have Jen join us for the session.  Not very often do you get to be in the temple seated right in between your daughter and your husband.  Very nice...  One of the other missionaries had their son and his wife also join them.

Yep, we watched Mikey Bishop play a little league baseball game.  He played 3rd base.  The temps were fairly warm, but the wind was gusting and Dana was especially cold.  

Daffodils in many places on the side of the freeway in Maryland.  I love daffodils!

 The Baltimore Tunnel road was under construction so we had to take a different route home and got to cross over this interesting bridge, the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

The view from the inside of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.  We got to see much of Baltimore Harbor as we traveled along.

Now about our week:  We got to teach some, although one of our regular teaching assignments was ill so had to be cancelled.  Elder Jones gave a short presentation at the Valley Forge West Zone Conf. on "designated drivers" and I got to attend the whole conference and participate in 3 role plays.  I have finally become comfortable doing role plays as a missionary and got to do exactly that.  

We were excited to go to the temple on Friday and especially pleased to stay a couple of days at Jen's afterwards.  We got to watch the ball game, go to a fun burger place for dinner after, play some Canasta with Dana, Hannah, and Jen, be outside almost all day Saturday (dad got so sunburned on his face and head), help get all of the outdoor furniture placed in Jen's back yard, work in the garden for Dad, and Dad got to play basketball with the kids.  Oh, and Dad got to watch the final 4 games...

This week we are preparing for Transfers.  They seem to come around way too often.   For us it involves just knowing the variables such as which apartments are closing down, any emergency transfers which affect the correct addresses, etc., and of course, which cars are moving and to where.  We seem to have reached a peak in this mission and are now sending home more missionaries than we are receiving, except for this upcoming one where we send 3 home and receive 7.  We may still, however, receive some VISA waiters.

We are also looking forward to our ward International Dinner on Saturday as we have heard that the Korean members cook some really awesome items.  We purchased some Korean Spicy Pork from a ward fund-raiser with our mission president and will finally get to eat it tomorrow.  The mission president is very hard to pin down as he seems to always be super busy.