Transfers, MLC, Blessings after car accident

Well, last week we had our regular transfer day on Thursday and we had a lot of movement going on within the mission!  But everyone seemed happy about where they were going and who their new companions were.  It's always a fun day to watch it all unfold.  It's a good day to have over, know that everyone has gone to their area and are ready to go to work for the new transfer.  This week though we did do one thing a little differently.  We held our MLC on Friday, the day after transfers.  Usually we hold it at the end of the month, but because of our mission tour at the beginning of December and then Christmas, we did it on Friday.  We had 11 new members of our MLC--new zone leaders and sister trainer leaders.  It was really a great meeting.  We discussed things such as how to use our area books more effectively in the work, how to better plan a day, the assistants trained on asking inspired questions and listening (all out of Preach my Gospel), and we had one sister train on being diligent, and one elder do a white handbook training.  We also counseled together on how to correct disobedient behavior as leaders and how to show more love.  Steve spoke with them about coming to know Christ through the ordinances of the gospel, and how the power of Godliness is manifest through the ordinances, and that is why it is so important for people to be baptized, because it is the first ordinance which unlocks the power of Godliness.  It was a great meeting, as always, and we love working with these mission leaders.  They really have a great desire to do good, and to help their zones, and they themselves want to find people and bring them into the gospel, or back into the gospel, whatever the case may be.  And they are just fun to be around!
Later that night while we were at dinner we received a phone call from our BC zone leaders, Elders Ajeman and Austin, and they had been in a bad car accident heading back to BC.  Apparently they hit black ice and began to slide into the oncoming traffic, and there was a semi coming towards them.  Somehow they slid back into their own lane, but they hit the end of the semi's trailer.  Well, it totaled their car, but they were completely safe and walked away without a scratch!  They were definitely being protected from above.  Because when you see the car, you can't believe they weren't hurt!  We were so grateful for their safety.  In my prayers that night I just thanked Heavenly Father for watching out for them.  It could have been tragic!
On Saturday and Sunday we participated in the Calgary Stake Conference with President Litchfield.  He is a good man, and recently had a series of 3 heart attacks in a row, where they almost lost him!  So, we are grateful he is recovering and still able to preside over his stake.
On Sunday evening we held a meeting with all of our Mandarin speaking missionaries to discuss ways to further their work, and things they could do in the Mandarin Branch.  We have a new senior couple also working in the Mandarin branch, Elder and Sister Wong, from SLC, and we are so grateful for them!  It was also a great meeting, and we came up with some good things that could be done.  We love those Mandarin missionaries, and we know there are more people for them to find.  At the meeting we learned there are 50,000 Chinese people just in the northwest part of Calgary alone.  So, we determined we need to be more diligent in finding them!!
Today we had our meeting with our senior couples serving in the office and now we are in Medicine Hat because we begin interviews with this zone tomorrow.  We'll be doing interviews and zone conferences over the next 4 weeks.  It will be a busy time-but it will be great.  We are looking forward to having them more often, we think it will be very beneficial.  This is great work, and it is amazing to see the faith of these young missionaries.  We are so proud of them!

So grateful our elders were safe after this accident!

Our first Missionary Leadership Council of 2017!

Our meeting with our Mandarin speaking missionaries!

Forgot picture of our departing missionaries!

Here they are at the temple!

Post Christmas!

Life in the mission field doesn't slow down during the holidays!  The Tuesday after Christmas we took 12 departing missionaries to the temple before they left to go home on Wednesday.  It is always so good to be with them in the temple.  We really cherish this tradition with our departing missionaries.  Following the session we came back to the mission home for dinner and then our testimony meeting.  I know I've said this before, but I wish you could all be at this testimony meeting because their testimonies are so powerful and touching.  This was a great group of missionaries.  The sisters slept here at the mission home Tuesday evening, and the elders stayed at the Sefcik's home.  Then we took them all to the airport on Wednesday morning to fly home to their families!
Then Wednesday evening we went back out to the airport at 11:00 p.m. to greet most of our family!
Everyone but Mike and Jillian were able to come Wednesday night, and Mike and Jilli were able to come on Friday night.  It was sooooo fun to have them all here and spend a little time with them.  We laid out pads on the floor downstairs for 4 of the boys to sleep on--just like the missionaries do!  They thought it was great--and every night there was a lot of giggling and goofing off going on before they would finally fall asleep!  On Thursday we took everyone sledding at a hill right by our home.  Luckily the weather warmed up from the -20's to only -2!  It was great!  We had such a fun time watching the little boys (and grown ups) sled.  And we took hot chocolate with us to drink, and had a great time.
Friday morning Steve and I had a training meeting for our missionaries that are going to be new trainers for the missionaries that arrived yesterday.  It was a great meeting with these new trainers, and as I sat there while we had discussions with them, I thought to myself, 'I love this work!'  It really is so rewarding, and we love these missionaries.  We had our family come over to the church where we had the meeting and greet our missionaries--that was really fun.  Some of the little grandsons were a little shy shaking hands with the missionaries, and then Drewbie was out doing 'ninja kicks' in front of them.  We loved showing off our incredible family.
We also celebrated Steph and Jordan's birthdays on Friday.  So Fun.
On Saturday while I stayed home with little Wy and Beck so they could nap, everyone else went to the Olympic Park and went tubing and the adults rode the bobsled.  They had a great time.  And I had a great time tending my two youngest grandsons! Even Wy warmed up to me while I spent the afternoon with them.  When you leave these little ones you wonder if they will remember you and if they will be afraid of you when they see you!  And miraculously, they all remember me!  I just ate up every minute of having these little boys with us--and I loved having all of our kids here.  We are so blessed with such an amazing family, and I am so grateful for each one of them.  They are a huge support to Steve and I, and it was so fun to be here together--all 16+ of us.  We can't wait to find out what this new baby will be that Brad and Katy are having!  Will we get another grandson, or our first granddaughter?
Monday morning we said good-by to everyone (and of course I tried to fight back tears, but they always come!), and then we were right back to work!
We welcomed 6 new missionaries yesterday--we think that is the smallest group we have had come in.  And they were just great.  We love them already!  We have had our regular training with them, and sent them off this morning with their new companions to their areas!  It's always so exciting.
Tomorrow is our regular transfer day, so we will drive to Lethbridge with that, and then we are going to stay down because we have our Mission Leadership Council meeting on Friday there.  Then we will drive back up to Calgary to participate in the Calgary Stake Conference this weekend.
We are excited for this new year, and are ready to push hard!  This year we will begin having interviews and zone conferences every transfer instead of every quarter, so that makes us twice as busy, but we think it will all be so beneficial.  We are excited to be able to have zone conferences more frequently and have more frequent trainings, and be able to follow up better.  The time is going to fly by I think.  We begin traveling for interviews on Monday, heading to Medicine Hat...and as I look at our schedule for the rest of the month, it is going to zip!  We are doing some creative scheduling to be able to fit eveything in--and it will be good to get one round under our belts of doing it this new way.  Then we might have to re-evaluate and re-adjust.  But we are excited to go for this second half of our mission!

Tubing at Olympic Park

All 6 grandsons with their new 'toques' (beanies)

Jord with Beck at the sledding hill

More sledders!

Elders Moffitt & Stringam taught us a lesson following Sunday Dinner, and Drewbie sat right between them!

Finn, Miles & Sam sitting by Elders Manarii and Miller

Our 6 new missionaries from the MTC- Elders Fonseca, Fish, Sisters Hatch, Bodily, Elders Vea, Tung

More Christmas Zone Devotionals, Baptisms, Christmas!

Last week we held our last two Christmas zone devotionals--one in Lethbridge with our Lethbridge, Lethbridge East, Medicine Hat, and Cardston zones; and the other over in BC with that zone alone.
Both were just great.  In the Lethbridge one we also had some wonderful musical numbers by our missionaries--we had Elder Austin on the cello for one number, and Elder Crockett did a great piano medley where he used the  music from the #LighttheWorld Initiative, and combined it with some other Christmas hymns.  He did a beautiful job with it.  We also had 3 different solos which were beautiful as well.  I love hearing our talented missionaries!  Our BC devotional was small, but really nice!  We were so glad we hadn't had them drive to Lethbridge because as we drove there on Tuesday night, the visibility was terrible because of blowing snowdrifts, and the roads weren't very good at all.  So, it confirmed to us that we were wise in not having them travel the long distance to Lethbridge.  So, instead they got their very own devotional.  The Stake Relief Society president of the Cranbrook Stake provided the lunch for them, and she served a delicious lunch on nice plates and real cloth tablecloths!  We are used to paper plates and cheap plastic tablecloths--so we felt spoiled!  It was so nice of her to do it for us-there were 14 of us altogether, plus her husband and President Andersen, the stake president.  It was small, but so fun!  We have one senior couple in that zone, Elder and Sister Ebert, (from our home stake), and they are such a great influence in that zone, and the missionaries just love them.  They serve in the small Columbia Valley branch, and Elder Ebert has been called to serve in that branch presidency.  They do A LOT of work with less active members, and without them there, that branch would die.  We are so grateful for them.
After our devotional in BC, we drove the almost 5 hours back home to Calgary, getting in about 9:45 Wednesday night.  But the roads were better coming home.
Friday we held our retrainers meeting at the mission home for all of the new missionaries that came out 4 weeks ago and their trainers.  It was a great meeting, and we had such good discussions on companionships, on teaching people to pray, on following the spirit as we plan, and striving for our Standards of Excellence.  I love this meeting.  The missionaries are so enthusiastic and ready to learn and go do the work.  After the meeting we had sandwiches for lunch and then sent them on their way.
This week Steve also interviewed all the missionaries that are leaving to go home this Wednesday.  Normally they wouldn't be leaving until next week with the regular transfer, but because of schooling, this group all are going home this Wednesday.  So, we had interviews all throughout the week, ending Friday afternoon about 5.  After interviews were done, we put on our casual clothes for our date night, and went out to do a little Christmas shopping (our only Christmas shopping), to get a few little things for our kids coming next week.  We also grabbed a bite to eat, too.  It snowed all day on Friday, and the roads weren't very good, but we were excited that we would have a white Christmas!
On Saturday, Christmas Eve day, we attended two different baptismal services.  One for Vicki Moorman, who is truly a converted soul!  We had her at our home last week with the sisters who taught her, and she told us her conversion story, and it is just so inspiring and incredible to hear how she has come to love the gospel, and to hear how happy she is because of it, and for the peace and joy she feels.  Her baptism was awesome!
Then following that service was the baptismal service for the Ngwenya family.  Theirs is an equally incredible story.  Some of our elders tracted out the dad, Thulani,  months ago, and he really wasn't interested, although he was very nice to them.  They thought nothing would come of it.  Then, a few weeks ago, our sisters in that area came upon them again, and this time they decided to listen to the message the sisters gave...and this time their hearts were ready, and they loved learning about the gospel.  Thulani's wife, Thandi, wasn't always able to attend the lessons because of work, but their two children living at home, Michelle (17) and Ryan (12) were.  And they began coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon, and the kids also began attending YM and YW.  Thulani even downloaded the Book of Mormon on his phone so he could listen to it.  Then Thandi began to listen to the lessons, and she is a very spiritual person, and the spirit began to touch her.  And finally she began to read the Book of Mormon as well.  Her heart was touched and they all wanted to be baptized!  We had one lesson with them in our home, and they are an amazing family.  They had one roadblock to getting baptized--Thandi and Thulani were married traditionally in Zimbabwe, their home country, but that isn't recognized legally here in Canada.  And as you know, to be baptized you have to be legally married.  Well, they were willing to do so, but because of their culture, they wanted to get approval from their families still living in Zimbabwe.  They didn't want to move ahead without their family's consent.  They really wanted to get baptized on Christmas Eve, and we told them that with everything going on, they could wait until the next week.  But, they are actually moving to St. George, Utah this very week, and they wanted to be baptized before moving! Thulani had received a grant to attend a university to further his education, and there were about 200 he could choose from.  So, as he got online, he chose Dixie in St. George!  This is even before taking the missionary discussions!  The Lord definitely works in mysterious ways!  So, they were able to get approval from their families in Zimbabwe, and so on Friday they obtained the marriage license, and on Saturday, as part of the baptismal service, the bishop married them legally right before their baptism!  It was really just so incredible to see it all come together.  After they were married, the 4 of them changed into their white clothes to be baptized.  Ryan, the 12 year old, hit it off with Steve when they were at our home, and he wanted Steve to baptize him.  And he wanted to be the ONLY one Steve baptized.  So, one of our elders baptized 2 of them, then a brother in the ward baptized the other, and Steve then baptized Ryan.  It was such a special service.  I wish I could describe to you how happy they are to have found the gospel.  They just beam!  Being here and seeing these new converts and their joy in the gospel of Jesus Christ makes me realize that much of the time we take this marvelous gospel for granted.  We forget just how blessed our lives are because of it, and I don't think we sometimes fully appreciate how it guides us and gives us such great happiness.  I have come to love our Heavenly Father's wonderful plan of salvation, or plan of happiness, even more since being out here on our mission.  I have come to know even more, that it truly is a plan of happiness.  My life, and our family's lives have been so blessed because of it.  That's not to say we haven't had our share of trials and challenges, but we have been strengthened and uplifted and guided and blessed every step of the way.  And we have felt our Heavenly Father's love and the love of our Savior.  I do 'stand all amazed' at the love our Savior offers me.
After the baptisms, I ran to the grocery store to get what we needed for our Christmas brunch with our assistants, and when I got home I made Steve get off his computer, where he was working on the next transfer, and we relaxed and enjoyed Christmas eve together.  We had a pre-made turkey dinner, that actually turned out quite delicious!  And we even watched a bit of a Christmas movie together.
Christmas Dad we attended the 11:00 church where were able to see the Ngwenya family confirmed and given the gift of the Holy Ghost--another wonderful experience.  Thulani was also ordained to the Aaronic priesthood to the office of priest.  He was then able to participate in blessing the sacrament with our two elders, Elder Manarii, and Elder Miller.  It was SOOO neat to see him up there at the sacrament table.
After church we had brunch with our assistants, Elders Stringam and Moffitt.  We love these two elders and are so grateful for their hard work, obedience and enthusiasm for the work.
Then two of our sisters, Sisters Lane and Blake, came to our home to call their families.
Throughout the day we spoke with each of our kids and grandsons, and were able to see what Santa had brought them all.  It was a great Christmas day.  We can't believe it has come and gone--thinking back now, it seems like we just had Christmas last year.  The time has really flown!

Sisters HoChing, Taylor, Messick, King, Meyer, Belmonte

Showing off white elephants!

Noisemaker white elephants!

And more white elephants!

And more!

Lethbridge, Lethbridge East, Medicine Hat, and Cardston zones

Our luncheon in BC!

Getting ready to pass white elephants in BC!

Showing off the white elephants!

Our British Columbia Zone!

Lunch after retrainers meeting

Our entryway when the  missionaries arrive!

Sister Blake, Vicki Moorman, Sister Lane

The Ngwenya family before their baptism with Sisters Stash, Black

Ryan Ngwenya and Steve

White Christmas in Calgary!

 

Zone Training Meetings, Christmas zone devotionals

This week we were able to attend 3 different zone training meetings, which are always so great.  We were able to be with the Calgary Zone, the Calgary North Zone and the Calgary Foothills zone.  All three were just wonderful--and what makes them so wonderful is that the zone leaders and sister trainer leaders plan and prepare all of them and invite other missionaries to participate in the training.  You would be so impressed if you could see what these missionaries can do when they have prayed and prepared.  They are just amazing.  We love to sit and listen to their teaching and insights, and then the things all the other missionaries share with each other.  Those were on Tuesday and Wednesday and then on Thursday and Friday we held two of our Christmas zone devotionals--these were with our different zones in Calgary.  Our wonderful office couples prepared a great luncheon of ham, baked potatoes, salad, rolls and desserts for the missionaries (about 60-65 each day).  We met at noon in the cultural hall for lunch, and then following lunch we had a white elephant exchange.  I read the story of 'The Night Before Christmas' which incorporates the words RIGHT and LEFT many times throughout, and whenever the missionaries hear it they pass their gift either right or left, accordingly.  By the end of the crazy story the gifts have gone quite a ways around the huge circle.  And then we open them up!  It's a pretty fun game to do with them!
After that we went into the chapel for a more spiritual devotional.  With our devotionals we have had some incredible musical numbers by our missionaries!  All of our Mandarin elders sang in Chinese an arrangement of "Once in Royal David's City" that was so beautiful.  It really brought tears to my eyes both days they sang it.  I just wanted to hug them all!  We also had some quartets, solos, flute accompaniment.  We have some pretty talented missionaries.  And the music brings such a great spirit.  At the devotional, along with the musical numbers we have 3 missionaries read the story of the nativity in Luke...one does it in Mandarin, one in Spanish, and then one in English.  This is a tradition we have had in our own family, where we have our sons and sons-in-law read it in the language where they served their missions.  So, we incorporated that into our devotional.  Then we have showed two Christmas Mormon message videos, and both Steve and I gave a few comments.
This year for their Christmas gift, we gave all of our missionaries a copy of the Book of Mormon with our testimony in it, and we are inviting them to read it with us beginning Christmas Day and ending 113 days later on Easter Sunday.  This means we will read 4.6 pages per day.  So, I invite any of you who are reading this to join us in this.  It will be a great experience!  As we read we will underline any references to the doctrine of Christ--faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.  We are really excited to do this.  We also gave them a personalized temple recommend holder that has a picture of John the Baptist with the Savior on the front, and inside it says, 'Canada Calgary Mission' and then the scripture from 3 Nephi 5:13 that we recite at every meeting.  Our devotionals were wonderful and it was a great way to feel the spirit of this wonderful Christmas season and cherish this time as missionaries to share the true  meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate Christ's birth.  We know that He is our Savior and the Redeemer of the world.  And because of His atoning sacrifice, we will all be resurrected and will have the  blessing of being able to be together for eternity with our families if we will be faithful and follow Him.  We are so blessed because of this wonderful gospel.  My life is so happy because of it.  He truly is 'the reason for the season'!
Yesterday we were able to attend the sealing of a whole family that was baptized last year.  It was the most tender and special experience ever!  Rob and Hillary McLachlan and their 5 children were sealed together for time and all eternity in the Calgary Temple.  I can't even describe to you the beautiful sight to see Rob and Hillary first kneel at the altar to be sealed, and then to have their 4 daughters and little son also kneel at the altar, all dressed in white, and hear that beautiful sealing ordinance performed.  It was an incredible experience to have witnessed their baptism last year, and then to see them in the temple this year.  That is what this whole missionary work is about!! And then the other great thing was that 3 of our past assistants who have returned home, all drove up together to be part of it, since they were all part of their conversion process...so we got to see them for a visit on Friday evening.  It was great to see these past wonderful missionaries of ours.

Youth from the Valley View ward that came to the mission home last Sunday-along with our two  sisters-Sister Boylan  & Grange- (on the right)

Calgary North Zone Training Meeting

Foothills Zone Training Meeting

Getting ready to pass white elephants!

Showing off white elephants!

Even our Senior couples got in on the white elephants!

More white elephants!

Calgary West, North and Confederation Park Zones

Sisters Moss and Sims and Me!

Sisters first in the lunch line!

4 More zones getting ready to pass white elephants

Showing off the goods!

Foothills, Bow River, Fish Creek and Calgary Zones

Past assistants, Colton Christensen, Logan Roberts, Nate Warenski came to visit us!

Special Training, Mission Tour, FREEZING cold!

The past almost two weeks have been so crazily busy that I haven't had time to write.  They have been filled with great things, though.
First off, we were surprised by an invitation we received to attend a special training/video taping for Mission Presidents and Wives in Salt Lake City on Nov. 29.  So, that meant we got to fly down on Monday the 28th, and see our kids!!!!!  It was so fun to see each one--Mike and Leslie (& little Beck) picked us up at the airport and from there we drove to the Memory Care Center where Mom Miles is living.  It was so fun to go see her and hug her.  Of course she doesn't understand that we've been gone, or what we are doing, but it was so special (especially for Steve) to hug his Mom and chat with her for a bit.  Dick and Brenda also came to see us with Mom, and that was really fun.
After we saw Mom we drove to our home and all of the kids came over--of course the day we arrived was the worst snowstorm they had had in awhile!  So it took Katy and her boys, and the Krauss family a long time to get there.  I can't even tell you how fun it was to hug our little grandsons (and our kids!)  Unfortunately, Les wasn't feeling very well at all, and we were even a little worried she might have meningitis.  So, she stayed back at her home-we kept Beck with us until Jord came to pick him up and go be with Les and give her a blessing.  Jordan also picked up my Mom and brought her up to join the party.  It was so great to see her and hug her!  It was so fun to be together and have dinner together and then just chat and hang out!  I was just sick that Les couldn't be there.  Steve went in with Jordan to give her a blessing.  She continued to get a little worse, and she kept in touch with her doctor to see if she should be going to the hospital.  Finally by morning she was doing quite a bit better.  All of the other kids slept over at our home--the little boys had a big sleepover downstairs in the basement, which they thought was a blast.  The next morning the kids fixed 'Big Steve's', which are Steve's version of a breakfast sandwich--toasted English muffin, fried egg, ham, and cheese!  They were making the most of us being together, that's for sure.  Then everyone had to get on their way to work and other things, so we hugged all the little boys good-bye.  The adult kids were all getting together for dinner that night for their 'sibling dinner', so it worked out so perfect, that we could just join them after our training, before heading to the airport.
Now, about our training!  It was done by Elder Bednar, Elder Andersen, and Elder Oaks--three of our apostles, and then Elder Brent Nielsen, the executive director of the missionary committee, and brother Steve Allen, who is managing director of the missionary committee.  There were 7 other couples besides us.  I had to pinch myself that I was in a room with 3 apostles, shaking their hands, and sitting at their feet, learning from them.  It was quite an experience!  We had been given materials to study and prepare with, to be able to discuss.  I was kind of nervous beforehand, but I had a prayer in my heart to not be nervous and to try to glean all I could so I could be better prepared to help our missionaries.  It was such a wonderful experience.  We felt very blessed to be able to attend in person!  They re-emphasized 'teaching repentance and baptizing converts' that they had trained us on last year.  It was videotaped, and then it will go out to all the  mission presidents and their wives that are serving at the end of this  month, to view and learn from.  One thing that is changing for 2017 that will really impact us is we are going to be conducting interviews and zone conferences EVERY transfer--not just quarterly.  So, that means we will be twice as busy, haha!  It's hard to imagine how we can be busier, but it will all work out.  We sat down to schedule out our next few months, and every single day is booked, with the exception of a few days before the transfer.  It is going to take some creative scheduling, but we will figure it out!
After our training, we left the Conference center and walked down to Crown Burger and ate dinner with the kids.  It was just so dang fun to be with all of our children!  Then Mike and Jillian drove us to the airport to catch our plane.  We got home Tuesday night about midnight.
Then we had a couple of days to catch up, then we drove to Taber to participate in their stake conference.  Taber is about 30 minutes east of Lethbridge, and it is the first time we have been able to attend their stake conference, so we were really happy about it.  President and Sister Baldry invited us to stay in their home--and they have a beautiful new home.  We felt like we were in a  star hotel!  They had put chocolates by our bed, and President Baldry had folded a towel into what was supposed to be a swan--but he left us a note saying it looked more like a goose that had been hit by a car!  They are so gracious--and such great people.  We love the Stake Presidents we are able to become friends with and work with.  I mentioned in my remarks in the stake conference that my dad had come goose hunting in Taber years ago, and afterwards I had lots of goose hunters, and farmers that owned land coming up to visit with me!  It was pretty funny!
After the conference we had a wonderful lunch at the Baldry's (Teresa is a fabulous cook), and then we headed to Lethbridge to meet Elder Weatherford T. Clayton, and his wife Lisa who were coming to tour our mission.  We had dinner at President and Sister Gedlaman's home (Steve's first counselor), and then we went back to the hotel to plan our zone conferences and MLC with the Claytons. They were a true delight.  He had been serving as the mission president of the Canada Toronto mission when he was called to be a General Authority.  So, he only served two years as mission president.  I can't even imagine that happening!  But, because of that, it was so great to have them with us, because they had so recently done exactly what we are doing.  They were so filled with insights and great counsel.  We held two zone conferences with them in Lethbridge on Monday, then we drove to Calgary Monday evening (stopping at Roy's in Claresholm to eat, and we finally had one of their famous HUGE cinnamon rolls-split between all 4 of us!--so delicious!).  We got to Calgary about 9:30 or so, and all went to bed so we could meet about 7:00 the next morning to finish our planning.  We then had a wonderful MLC from 9-12, followed by another zone conference from 1-5.  Then we grabbed a very quick bite of dinner, and Steve and Elder Clayton went out teaching with missionaries, and Sister Clayton and I stayed back to help a sister missionary with some struggles.
Then, we had our final zone conference with them on Wednesday morning from 8-12, and then we drove them out to the airport to catch their plane.  It was such a delight to have them with us.  We focused in our zone conferences on our teaching skills--we role-played teaching the Plan of Salvation in 8 minutes, so we could learn to teach more succinctly.  It was great.  We also spoke about the importance of the sacrament, the Book of Mormon, staying obedient, and helping members use social media to spread the gospel.  It was just a great conference. We were tired at the end--it has been a real whirlwind!
AND, we are having the coldest weather in 1000 days they say!  And let me tell you--it is freezing!
The record low we have seen, as we were driving down to Hillspring on Wednesday to take a sister missionary down there, was -26 Celsius!  That is about -14 Fahrenheit.  As much as I hate wearing tights--I am wearing them!

Steve with Beck in SLC!

Seeing Mom Miles in SLC

Teaching in Taber with Sisters Halliday and Poll

Note on our bed from President Baldry

My new friend Amy Baldry (who has special needs).  We hit it off!

Sisters Taylor and King- our STL's in Taber

Sisters Taylor & King with Steve

Took this picture in the car while we were driving-thinking it was our new record low, but then it went to -26!

Elder Clayton doing a selfie with us before we left for Zone Conference!