Trainer/Trainee Meeting August 2012: Wearing Gameday Green

 Every 6 weeks we hold a meeting with our missionaries that are being "Trained" and with those that are doing the "Training."  It sounds odd...but there just is not a better way to describe it.  These are the mentors...and it absolutely goes BOTH WAYS!

We all learn from each other and this is a great program of teaching/training together!

 President T had another commitment for part of the morning so I got to come on my own.  I was met by all sorts of elders wearing GREEN TIES!
No, it was not coincidence...President texted them to join us if they would like on gamedays in honor of Braden, wearing GAMEDAY GREEN.

We met all as a group for awhile in the chapel and then split into Trainers and Trainees!

I like to go with the new missionaries...the mother instinct in me is just too strong!

 We talk and share and really learn a lot about what is working well, what concerns we have and what we can do to make this work even better!


We have incredible missionaries all around!

 We see the change in them from when they first arrive, to when they are almost done with the first 12 weeks...and it is beautiful!

 Here is a proud group of green tie wearers after the meeting!

 And then I realized that I should join them...as I always wear green on game days myself!



Elder Morton showed me his tie...the only one he had with any green in it!  Looked a bit more like Christmas...but it works!!

President Taylor finally showed up and we got him in on the act with a couple of elders that missed getting in the first shot!


APM IS THE BEST!!!  GO TEAM!

Sister Special Training August 2012

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Wednesday we held one of our two semi-annual Sister Specialized Trainings.

The one we do in the Fall is a big thing, requiring lots of set up and take down...hauling a LOT OF STUFF to the Church building.

Hence, the Elders step in to provide the muscle.  But, yes, you do see them wearing flowers.
The theme was a LUAU this Fall, and they dressed accordingly as they set up for us!

 They are REALLY GOOD SPORTS! And they are pretty darn cute with or without flower tie tacks!

Speaking of CUTE!  It is amazing to get all of our Sisters together in one place!  There is great power in Sisterhood!
They come to be taught and to feel the Spirit and to get rejuvenated and even PAMPERED!

 We had a beautiful musical number planned by Sister Jewkes.  Talented Sisters!!!

All the wives from the Presidency spoke on different Gospel topics or principles.  We love having them come to participate.  They help plan this event.
Our great Office Sisters also came to serve the lunch for us.  We love having them here to spend time with us as well.

Sisters Larson and Hawkins helped with a Skills Training about Effective Sister Exchanges along with President Taylor.  They modeled for us how to start and finish an exchange using goals and productive evaluations!


Sisters Pousima and Watson helped in the afternoon talking about how to have appropriate relations with the Elders.  Our Sisters are so great this way!

 Sisters Pilcher and Murdock had the cutest Hawaiian dresses for the occasion!

 At lunch we asked them to mix English and Spanish Sisters so they can get to know each other better.  They did really great!  We want them to get to know all of our Sisters!
We will even be doing some English/Spanish exchanges to facilitate that!

Here are the "Hear No Evil/Speak No Evil/ See No Evil" Sisters Follet, Larson and Hawkins.

 Sisters Watson and Pousima did a BEAUTIFUL Tongan dance.  We could not believe how graceful and beautiful they both were!  It was enthralling!

 Then came the PAMPERING PART!  We were told in the MTC to pamper our Sisters on occasion...so we literally did it.


They got their feet soaked and rubbed and then toenails painted beautifully...

 They got to make Mission Memory Boxes to store keepsakes in from their mission...

...They learned how to make finger crochet scarves...

 ...and my friend Dana, taught them how to give each other shoulder and arm massages.  She is a Master Teacher and they LOVED IT!!!
They also loved meeting my friend that they had heard so much about!  Made their day!

 After the classes we returned to the chapel to wrap it up.

Sister Williams and I did a little skit.  "So, my doctor told me the way to stay young is to exercise and eat the right foods."
"Oh, is that what he said? ...I thought he said to accessorize and get some new shoes!"

We looked through the dress standards on Mormon.org

 We had another musical number by Sisters Garcia and Graves with Sister Parks and Chord as our accompanists today.

We had departing testimonies from Sister Graves and then Sister Williams.


It was a wonderful, healing, building, happy day together as we celebrated
LOVE
UNDERSTANDING
AND
UNITY
or LUAU for short.

Both these Sisters have served about 18 months here in the APM.  We will miss them so very much!

Sister Williams is like my companion much of the time so this is a hard transition for me to think of.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and a living, active part of our lives.
How grateful I am that I know we are bound together in love and friendship for the eternities with those that we serve with here!

More Teaching with Sisters

 August has been amazing for me getting out with Sister Missionaries!  I have been out about every week and it is SO GOOD!

We truly have incredible Sister Missionaries.  They are here because they love the Gospel of Jesus Christ and felt the DESIRE to serve!

I had been looking forward to going out with Sister Pilcher for a long time!  She was just moved at the wrong times in the past that I did not get out with her sooner.

I was fortunate to get out with Sister Murdock once already and it was just as great today. We taught a second lesson with Juanita and a new member lesson to Marid.

These Sisters teach instinctively and naturally.  It is a warm conversation with those that they contact and believe me, you can feel the Spirit when you are with them!


When an investigator thanks you for the feeling you have brought into their home and knows that God sent you to help them, you are glad you listened to Him.

THANK YOU SISTERS FOR LISTENING!

August Visitors 2012

We have had and will have several visits from returned missionaries this month.  We started the month with Jeron Giles and his family coming to see us.  They ended up coming down for a funeral in the family and we were so grateful they took time to come over and see us!  Jeron got to see his grandmother down here the day he left the mission back in June, so that was a huge blessing before she passed away!



Then we had recently returned home Jacob Stephens also come up from Dallas with his family...it was his vacation destination of choice and we were SO GLAD!

 Saturday the 18th we had two visits.

The first was from Bryce Bennett, whose Father actually lives down here in Scottsdale.  His family came over to meet us before a family vacation and it was great to meet them all!  We hope this means that Bryce will be a regular visitor to these parts!



They brought us these lovely veggies from their garden!  What a great treat for us, homegrown vegetables!  Thank you Bennetts!

That night we had a visit from Matthew Sheets ( home in February) and Taylor Manning (home june 2011) who we had yet to meet.  It was great to see them and we put them right to work making homemade pizza for dinner!  They did a great job and we all enjoyed the benefit of their labors!

They joined us for an anniversary celebration when our neighbors showed up to surprise us (see blog post)
We love meeting the families of our missionaries as well as seeing them post mission!  It means so much to us to be a part of their lives! You are welcome anytime!!!

Saturday the 25th we had a welcome visit from a couple of our returned missionaries.  First from Breanna Wells and her friend Ellen who drove down from Provo where they are getting ready to start school.  We spent the afternoon catching up and I was shocked that she had been gone for 8 months...I kept saying "NO" and she kept saying "YES"  You guessed it, she was right!  Best time visiting and laughing and sharing with two returned Sisters. (Ellen served in California)

Later on Saturday, Hayes Carter stopped by for dinner...pizza again, the Taylor Saturday Tradition!  He was here to go to the temple with two of his converts.  He is doing awesome and worked hard all summer to earn his money for college.  We are so proud of our wonderful mission kids and just love being a part of their lives and seeing them still loving and caring for the people they taught the Gospel to!
THANK YOU GILES, STEPHENS, BENNETTS, SHEETS & MANNING, WELLS, CARTER!

ZONE CONFERENCE- W. Maricopa/Peoria Zones Aug 2012

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Wednesday we had the last of our 5 Zone Conferences...and it was incredible.  Each conference day is a little different.  The Spirit guides those presenting and it comes off to meet the needs of those present.  Today was FULL OF ENERGY!  You would think it would have been dragging as the last conference, but it was just the opposite!

The day started off with energy and just kept going.  You can see that in the skills trainings here with companionships that ideas were being exchanged and plans were being made ...cheerfully!

The skit by the Assistants to introduce my health lesson was funny as usual and included some ad-lib to include the sling being worn by Elder Wood today after his dislocation of shoulder blade Monday.  They had way too much fun with this.

 And President had way too much fun with his hacksaw and fake foot offering to be the solution and just hack off the offending limbs!

We had President Waldron of the W. Maricopa Stake come speak to our missionaries and he did a great job of talking about making the plans to complete the tower and not just build the foundation.

We are grateful to wards and stakes for taking over the building of those towers and for being the examples of beautiful, strong towers that new members can look to as they build their own "enduring to the end."

We point them to the temple from the start.  We teach them the Doctrine of Jesus Christ.  And with that firm foundation and the tools they are given by missionaries and wards and stakes, they can do it!!

 Lunch was a great time as usual!  It was a wonderful meal and great break from the learning/teaching of our conference.

After lunch we sang our thank you songs to the women who fixed the meal and to the Housing Coordinator couple who came to join us for lunch.  We LOVE our songs!!

We wished our August and September birthdays!

 Then we returned to our conference and opened up the afternoon session theme of Planning with an object lesson involving prioritizing our Mission Goals and tasks.  You CAN fit it all in if you do it right!!

We had two beautiful musical numbers, a piano solo from Elder Gerritsen and a vocal solo from Elder Doolhoff.  Both are incredibly talented!!



This was a fantastic day!  Our missionaries left..."pumped up" Stoked to the Max" and planning to be "fruitful" in their planning and in their purpose as missionaries!

ZONE CONFERENCE- Surprise/ Buckeye-Goodyear Aug 2012

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Great day with the Surprise and Buckeye/Goodyear Zones on Tuesday this week!


We had a full day of trainings and discussion and time for them to really work on some skills trainings!

 The morning was spent in some review, some new training and counsel from President Taylor and President Allen from the Stake Presidency.

 We had our health lesson along with comic relief from our Assistants Elders Alvis and Barrett who love to ham it up!!

 President Taylor loves to get in on the act with his "Rusty Hacksaw" that he is not afraid to use to take care of those pesky injuries!

 Lunch is a highlight, with time to socialize and enjoy great home-cooked food from the ward Sisters!  Oh how we appreciate them for doing this so we can focus on training and teaching!!!

 We thank them with our "Armies of Helaman" rendition, then our Mission Fight Song!!!

 We celebrated August and September birthdays and had fun with that!

 After lunch we had a couple musical numbers including our own Elder Rivas singing Amazing Grace (It was amazing!)

 And a large group from the other zone that was equally incredible...so much talent in these missionaries and so much testimony shared in song!

 We then opened the theme of Planning with the jar of gravel and rocks with that great object lesson of fitting in the big, high priority things first and then the small things naturally fit in around them so you can get everything done that you need to.

We love facilitating the skills practice times of our day.  Here, Elder Barrett lovingly listens to a companionship.  Our Assistants are models of how to be helpful, building and non-judgemental. They are great examples to President and I.









After a great day of learning...we learned that three of us had worn navy cotton skirts.  It was not a key learning, but it was fun nonetheless!