JUNE VISITORS 2013

 We are enjoying so much seeing some of our wonderful returned missionaries this month!


While I was up in Utah for Braden's graduation, President got to meet former Catie Swallow, now Catie Paulsen and her parents.
They look like a match made in heaven!

June 3 we were surprised by another visit from Robert Falconer with his Mother this time.  How great to take them over to a temple that was just bare bones steel when he left and which now looks very complete.

We love seeing how well our returned missionaries are doing in life!  This is the real test of what their missions did for them!

June 21 we had two great returned missionaries come to visit.  Steven Anderson and Kenny Mortimer!  President was out with our kids to a ball game...yes, it is OK for Mission Presidents to have family vacation times...it is in our rules!  I was glad to be home babysitting grandkids so I could see them!




June 23 we had a visit from Brooke Zollinger.  I had seen her a couple times up in Utah, but President had not seen her in a long time and it was such a good visit!  She is doing great things in her life and living what she teaches.

June 29 we had a "two-fer" our "TWINS" who served together were back together for the weekend and we got them to go hiking with us over at Thunderbird for old times sake.  It was great to catch up with Lindsey Borrows and Michelle Winchell.  Both incredible people with vision for what they desire in life and the goals to get there!



Later on the 29th we were blessed with yet another Sister RM visit.  Amy Flake brought her little sister Hannah to come visit Phoenix Mission area.  It was fun to share memories and to catch up on what is happening in her life.

Can you imagine our delight in getting to see one of our returned missionaries BABIES??  Our own Devin Grady brought over missionaries from his area and brought baby Adrian to show off.  He is beautiful and he has wonderful parents who live the Gospel and love him so much!
We cannot express how much it means to keep in touch with our returned missionaries.  It means EVERYTHING to us to be a part of your lives.

WE LOVE YOU!

NO GROWING IN A COMFORT ZONE...

PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINE FOR ALL PHOTOS OF THIS EVENT
We love the saying that there is no growing in a comfort zone.
Perhaps that is what the Lord has in mind for the Phoenix and Phoenix South zones of the Arizona Phoenix Mission.
As of Monday July 1, these two zones will be transferred to the TEMPE MISSION.
 The 3 missions in the Phoenix Metro area will now be 5 missions.  We are actually the least impacted by these changes, but in another way, the MOST affected by these changes.
All of the other missions in the valley will be getting new mission presidents...that was happening for Tempe and Mesa even before they announced two brand new missions with new mission presidents.  In other words, those other mission presidents were already leaving all their missionaries and saying goodbye to all of them.
We however, get to stay and weather out the CHANGE. We had to say goodbye to 35 of our most dedicated and obedient missionaries today.
It was one of the hardest things we have had to do in the two years we have been serving!



But, it was with great (righteous) pride that we turned them over to the Tempe Assistants, who will introduce them to President and Sister Toone who come July 1.

 We had a wonderful departing luncheon with our missionaries, the Assistants from Tempe and President and Sister Porter of the Phoenix Stake, along with the Kings and Morris of our mission presidency.
We served what we serve all our departing missionaries...CAFE RIO knockoff salads!

They loved the food and the company.

 After lunch we took some zone photos for us to remember them by and to give to President and Sister Toone when they arrive.

It was tender to see them looking for their signatures on our mission flag and their desire to sing our fight song one last time.








PHOENIX SOUTH ZONE:
Front: Sisters Folsom, Mejia, Macy, Haar, Flint and Lathrop.
President and Sister Taylor.
Elders Aranibar, Absher, Gaspar, Miller.
Elders Anderson, Hernandez, Borrayo.
Back: Elders C. Johnson, Goff, Hyer and Bressler.

Phoenix Zone: Front: Sisters Taylor, Scott, Sister and President Taylor, Sisters Romano and Greenwood. Behind: Elders Jarvis, Mack and Cassity. Elders Keene, Maynes and King.
Elders H. Beck, Francis, Fenton and Nicholas. Back: Elders Forson, D. Gerber, Denny and Cassiano.

The "Blue Tie District"  Elders Fenton, Beck, Francis, Denny, Forson and Nicholas.

 We ended the day with testimonies of our love of the Savior and the WHY of what we are doing as missionaries for HIM.

We know that the Tempe Mission needs these missionaries right now.
There is something very special about them and how firm their commitment is to what they are doing.  It is a sacred feeling when we are with them.  They will BLESS whatever areas they end up in.

They have great confidence in and love already for their new Mission President.  This warms our hearts!  We know what it is like to come into a mission and be welcomed and loved!  It is THE BEST!

We heard from Sister and President Morris.

We heard from Sister and President King.



And President and I blubbered through our tender feelings for the Savior and how much it means to us to know these dear sons and daughters are serving Him.

The desire of our hearts is to always be worthy to be in a temple with each of our missionaries...for eternity this is our goal...ALWAYS BE WORTHY, ALWAYS BE PROGRESSING.

Oh how we love and admire everyone that we serve with.

We know that it is not WHERE we serve, but HOW we serve that matters.

But we will miss these beautiful souls UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN!
Now, GO LIFT WHERE YOU STAND!!

WELCOME FLAGSTAFF ZONE!!

PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINE FOR ALL PHOTOS OF THESE MISSIONARIES
 Thursday this week we took our Assistants and went up to Flagstaff to meet the great missionaries who are joining the Phoenix AZ mission on July 1.
THEY ARE GREAT!

Here is Elder Bartleson greeting Elder Thompson, one of our new missionaries.

 Here is a backpack of one of our new missionaries sporting the pins that the Institute of Northern AZ University gives out...pretty cool!

 We spent some time getting to know each missionary and introducing ourselves to them.  Then we took time to have them sign our mission flag, decorate a quilt block for the PHOENIX TEMPLE QUILT we are building at the Mission Home...it is getting huge!
We had a nice lunch together as well.

We can tell they are a little hesitant about us, but know they will learn to love us too.

 We also had them write their testimonies and thank-yous to President and Sister Batt who are going through what we are in mourning the loss of great missionaries that we know and love!

Luckily our capacity to love is infinite.
WE LOVE THESE MISSIONARIES SO MUCH ALREADY!

Look at them, aren't they great??

Front:  Elders Lower & Baker, President and Sister Taylor, Sisters Summerhays and  Tolley. Back: Elders Thompson, Cardwell, Castro, Mullinex, Swift, Hall, Barron, Bryson, Soper, Belnap, Davis and Dobson.
WELCOME TO THE ARIZONA PHOENIX MISSION!!  A NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU!!

SWEET WISHES

Hermanas Dayton and Hansen surprised us with this SWEET card at
Trainer-Trainee Meeting this week.
MADE OUR DAY!

Yup, we have the sweetest missionaries ever!
GRACIAS HERMANAS!

Farewell Hike with Phoenix and Phoenix South Zones 6/13

 PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINE FOR ALL PHOTOS AND VIDEOS OF THIS EVENT
This Monday we got up real early to meet with our Phoenix and Phoenix South Zones.
We wanted to join in an activity with them before our mission boundaries change and they join the great Tempe Mission on
July 1.

We were greeted by the 4 Amigos!
Elders King, Keene, Jarvis and Maynes

Here is the fearless crew before heading up into South Mountain.

It was a beautiful but very hot morning here in the valley of the sun.

 You can see how bright it was even at about 6:30 AM.

 With this big a group, it was hard to ever all be together, but we would stop every once in a while for most to catch up.

President Taylor brought up the rear as our leader, making sure that everyone was OK.

 He was also able to take time as he walked slower, for those with a penchant for dramatic photography...like Elders Gerber and Denny

 We had a little bit of fun at the top with some creative "Catch The Wave" photos for this special time to be a missionary.

 Elders Anderson, Aranibar, Mack and Gaspar up looking over the Phoenix skyline.

 Elders Borrayo, Hyer and Goff inside the cool stone house at the top...and when I say "cool" it does not mean the weather...it was really HOT!







And here we are: Sitting: Elders Cassiano, Forson, Gerber, Denny, Miller, Goff & Absher. Middle staggered rows: President & Sister Taylor, Elder Jarvis, Sisters Lathrop & Flint, Elders Maynes, Anderson, Keene, Hernandez, Fenton, Sisters Greenwood, Folsom, Scott, Elder Anderson, Sisters Mejia, Haar, Romano & Taylor. Standing on ledge: Elders King, Aranibar, Bressler, Nicholas, Francis, Beck, Mack, Cassity, Sister Macy, Elders Gaspar, Hyer & Borrayo.

Here are these two zones singing our own last verse of CALLED TO SERVE.  It was a very special spirit and too many tears were running down Sister Taylor's face!

OH HOW WE LOVE THESE DEAR SONS AND DAUGHTERS!

President Taylor's Birthday...Mission Style

 A Birthday as a Mission President is interesting.

Our day started off with 10 missionaries who live nearby coming to sing Happy Birthday before 7:00 AM.
This led to a huge smoothie making breakfast party which was pretty fun!  Lucky for us we had lots of frozen fruit and muffins!  We were able to get them home in plenty of time to be obedient to the daily schedule!
It was a fun start to the day!

 Next we got ready to head to the office for Transfer Planning.

This is where we cloister in Presidents office to begin making plans for who to put where for the next transfer in three weeks.  We will receive 31 missionaries by that time, along with 17 missionaries from FLAGSTAFF, so it is no small thing to identify trainers and companionships and areas for them to serve and housing etc. etc. etc.

Under the direction of the Spirit however, it always comes together!  The Assistants and I can give thoughts on people and what we have noticed or how we feel about them, but it is always the Spirit working through President Taylor, that decides where someone should be.



We decorated the office before our transfer meeting and then the office staff pulled together a great potluck lunch for all of us.
We had invited the Winchells and the Holbrooks, the Temple Missionaries, and the Lyons just happened to stop at the Mission Office so we invited them to stay.

We had a great taco salad lunch! Elders Campbell and Bartleson really enjoyed it!

 We ended up with a Mens Table and a Womens Table... Anyone just walking by would think we practice segregation!

 There were lots of fun gifts for President Taylor.  The office, led by Sister King, came up with some great and fun ideas.









Some sisters also got in on the fun by getting a "pizza oven" from the thrift store in response to President Taylor always joking about wanting one when missionaries request extra things for their apartments.

The Winchells also surprised him with a piece of quartz composite from the temple.   It was a piece that broke off from a temple wall.  He was really excited to have that for his collection of temple materials.  We have stained glass window from Provo and granite from Kiev Ukraine.


Oh, and I made him some MANGO CHEESECAKE that I should have taken a photo of...it was really yummy and pretty!

 We finished a great day by going to the Mesa temple together.  It was a great birthday for President Taylor.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRESIDENT TAYLOR!
WE LOVE YOU!

OUT WITH SISTERS June 2013

 Finally had time to get out with my Hermanas this month!
We had three great lessons/meetings with people in their area.

Hermanas Pickett, E. Walker and Baumgartner were delightful to teach with and we loved being together for the night!

One of our lessons was with this great family, who learned tonight about the COMMANDMENTS...

The Law of Chastity, Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy, The Law of Tithing and the Word of Wisdom.


They loved and accepted these commandments from Heavenly Father and even sent us away with all the tea, coffee and alcohol that were in the house.

They had such great faith and such a powerful spirit of the truthfulness of these laws.  Commandments bless our lives and free us to be able to really make choices to reach our potential.
I LOVE COMMANDMENTS!




I went out with Sisters Neary and Matuauto the next afternoon and we had a great time.  We ended up doing a back-up plan to visit a less active family that they felt they should go see.  They were definitely led to go at this very time because we were received with friendliness and got to meet both the husband and wife in this sweet family.  The Dad was just barely home from being deployed in National Guard so the timing was perfect!  We left invitations for visiting teachers, play group for the kids and Family Home Evening with a ward mission leader!  And they were all accepted!  This is the power of following the Spirit!  WE LOVE MISSIONARY WORK!

UTAH VISIT- Returned Missionaries May/June 2013

While up in Utah for Braden's graduation, I got to see some of our great returned missionaries and friends!

Sunday night we got to see Brooke Zollinger and her friend, Michael Morton, Richard Mortensen with his fiance Emma, and Breanna Wells with her friend.
Nicole Okeson was also there with her boyfriend and Amber Harding was there as well, but we missed those 3 for this photo.

 They were all doing SO GOOD that it just warmed my heart to see them in person and how amazing these dear people are!


Saturday I had some hiking buddies join Braden and I for a hike along the Bonneville Shoreline trail...AZ has me hooked on  hiking every Saturday and I did not want to miss one Saturday of this tradition!

 Of course, it was a lot cooler so that was nice...and the wildflowers were really pretty!

Here we have the whole crew:  Jacob Baldree, Amber Harding, Me, Braden, Joseph Cotton, Mitch Peterson, Jason Brase, Jeff Griffin and Matt Hilton.
Three of this group had only been home a bit over a week!  Others have been home up to about 22 months.  They are all doing SO WELL!  All are doing great things in their lives and are so happy living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We LOVE our returned missionaries and are so proud of them for who they are and how they live the Gospel and support each other.  We are the family of God!