MLC (Mission Leadership Council) for May 2014

 PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINE FOR ALL PHOTOS OF THIS EVENT!

Parents and friends,  do you know what a MLC is?
It is a MISSION LEADERSHIP COUNCIL.
This council meets once a month to COUNCIL!

The council is made up of President Taylor, Sister Taylor, Mission Presidency Members, The Assistants to the President, Sister Training Leaders and Zone Leaders.

Today President Taylor started our day by dicussing THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST.

It was a great topic and we all came to greater understanding of this precious gift...and how unique it feels to each of us.

 As missionaries and as members of the Church, one of the things that I would guess we feel the least sure on, is whether we are following the promptings of the Spirit...because we expect them to be something that they are not...they are not loud.

If we can help each other understand one thing better, it would be that God answers our prayers and speaks to us in very LITTLE ways that all add up to something big.
I am so grateful for the GIFT of the Holy Ghost.  It is something to be used and treasured.

This set the stage for one of my topics of the day.
FAMILY HISTORY AS A MISSIONARY PURPOSE

I invited my good friend Diane Broderick to come show our missionaries how to use FAMILY SEARCH.
Our missionaries need to become somewhat of Family History Experts!
This is one of the best tools in teaching people what we believe...that FAMILIES ARE ETERNAL IN NATURE!

We discussed how we can use Family History in:
Strengthening and encouraging active members to use it as a tool in missionary work.
Inviting less active to their next ordinance and to the temple.
Involving Recent Converts in going to do baptisms of ancestors in the temple to prepare to receive their endowments in the future.
Inviting non-members to find ancestors and share with them the message that families are eternal in nature and we know how to assist in that!

Each Missionary is going to be filling out the booklet "MY FAMILY Stories That Bring Us Together

THEY WILL NEED YOUR HELP!  They do not have time or resources to find all the little photos to fill out this book.
You can download the booklet yourself by going to GOOGLE "My Family Stories That Bring Us Together" and there is a pdf that pops up;  or get one from the distribution center for $1, you can use that as a guide to know how you can help your missionary with photos, names and stories of ancestors.

We encourage YOU to use this tool to invite your friends to learn about their eternal family.  They may not know it is eternal yet, but you can teach them!

 We have what we call "RETURN AND REPORT" during the MLC.  Each Zone and one set of Sister Training Leaders, share some strengths and concerns for their areas of stewardship and get ideas from other leaders for their concerns.  It is a great sharing time where all are uplifted by each others strengths.

 We celebrate the month's birthdays.

HAPPY MAY BIRTHDAY TO:
Elders Wrigley, E Jones, Barlow, Farnsworth and Andrus.

 Front:  Sisters Taylor, E Walker, Jenson, Barnett, Summerhays, Townsend, Jackson, Probeyahn and Muhlestein.  Center:  President Taylor, Elders Arave, Ure, Barley, Leonhardt, Wainwright, Rigby, Wrigley, Wilson, Fackrell, Larsen, Barlow, Pettingill and Bryson.  Back:  President Juchau, Elders Barrus, Ford, Mullenix, Farnsworth, Westlund, Weiler , Bryant, McCuch, E Jones, Dart, Andrus.

New to the Council are:
Sisters Barnett, Townsend and Jenson
Elders Ford, McCuch and Farnsworth

WELCOME!  You are just in time to make a difference!

 Lunch is probably the next best thing to the Spirit of this great meeting.

Today was a favorite, HAWAIIAN HAYSTACKS!  They can never have this too often, they love it!

 The afternoon was opened by a beautiful musical number "Sweet Hour of Prayer" by our own Elders Ure, Farnsworth and Barrus.  It was just beautiful how their voices blend!!

During part of our meeting that I call "Accountability."  Which is a brief discussion on things that they were asked to train on the previous month, we had reports and ideas shared on  several things.  We talked about "Exchange Wrap-ups"
"Talking with Everyone"
and the Sisters taught how to do an "Extended Exchange" for use when you live far away from those you are exchanging with.

GREAT IDEAS SHARED!!!

We went away from this council feeling ready to teach in our zones, ready for this months Zone Meetings and Zone Conferences and ready to be the best messengers and examples to those we serve.
This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The Lord is in the details and he lets us figure things out and be a part of this great work.  HOW GREAT IS OUR CALLING!  That goes for all of us!

ER TRIP and DOUBLE COLONOSCOPY!!

 I am tired this week...partly due to an early morning trip to the ER on Saturday.

We have had very few of these trips, but when you are worried about internal stuff, it is best to get it checked out.
Sister Polander had been knocked off her bike and was really doing great, but ended up with some strained ligaments in her chest that resembled heart attack symptoms, so we spent a few hours in the ER together that morning.
But, ALL WAS WELL!  That was the main thing!  We enjoyed visiting with her and Sister Carrigan there until they went back.
Our purpose in being there with them was not only for comfort, but for President Taylor to get a referral from one of the office workers and for me to meet a less active member new to the area there that we hooked up with a new Book of Mormon and times and location for Church.
THE LORD WORKS IN SMALL AND SIMPLE WAYS WHEREVER WE END UP!

 Such is life in the Mission!  It is the BEST LIFE EVER!

Monday I had two elders scheduled for colonoscopies...sort of a good thing they were the same day.

Elder Pemberton went first, and they had him changed and dressed in recovery before I could take a photo of him in his gown.
The good news is that he is totally clean!

 Next was Elder Ramos.

He had two procedures and this time I took the photo beforehand so I could make sure to get one in the cute gown!

All was great with his tests as well!  We are SO BLESSED!














We brought them both home to spend the afternoon with us eating lunch...THEY WERE STARVING!!!
...doing email
napping...
and I made chocolate chip cookies to send home with them for a CLEAN APARTMENT AWARD!

 Both elders loved seeing the completed quilt with their signatures on it!  Most have not been back to the mission home since they arrived, so it was a good excuse to have them with us!

WE LOVE THESE GREAT MISSIONARIES!
They are full of faith to do whatever it takes to be healthy and serve the Lord at the same time!
Nothing phases them.
Here's to a healthy and happy week to you all!
Love, Sister Cheryl Taylor

FLAGSTAFF STAKE CONFERENCE WEEKEND 4/14

We got this photo from Elder Zaugg on Saturday morning.  It was pretty cool down here in the valley, but we were still surprised at the amount of snow they had up in Flagstaff!


What was more exciting was that we were headed up there that afternoon for the STAKE CONFERENCE up in Flagstaff!

We were in attendance there that night for the start of a weekend where this stake was reorganized under the direction of Elders Corbridge and Jones who flew in to take care of business.

The current Stake President was President Mark Frost, who you may have heard about as his name was read in General Conference as a new area seventy.
So, we were there to speak in the Saturday evening session about the wonderful HASTENING THE WORK OF SALVATION!

My advice to all was to make your homes an MTC!  Study and apply the principles from PREACH MY GOSPEL!!
I had all our missionaries stand and recite our purpose in the meeting:

"Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored Gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end."

Isn't that our FAMILY PURPOSE?
Isn't that our MEMBER PURPOSE?
Isn't that our HEAVENLY FATHER'S PURPOSE (to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man) just said in different words, but all the same!!

Sunday when we came back for the Sunday session, there was snow on the ground when we went in, and we were set for some great photos with the missionaries at that building after the session...but most had melted by that point, so we only had some piles to make snowballs for photos of proof!

Elder Livingston shows off his JUGGLING...

...Elder Albrecht shows off his SNOWMAN HAT!





We all toss our snowballs up...

 ...and are poised to toss them at President Taylor when he takes the camera!

It was a great day of revelation in these meetings.  Questions were answered.
New callings were sustained.
We felt the confirmations of the Spirit.

Our purposes were completed for that meeting!
May you seek for fulfilling YOUR PURPOSE!!
Have a great week!  Sister Cheryl Taylor

APRIL VISITORS 2014

 April is flying by and it has been SO GREAT!  We have had INTERVIEWS all month, then TRAINING IN HOUSTON and a VISIT FROM THE HUNTER FAMILY and all in-between this we have had a steady stream of visitors!

We had a recently returned missionary Brad Skalka and his Mom stop in after they came to go through the temple with a person they taught and baptized.

Michael Morton was with them, they taught the family together quite a while ago.  Great to see Michael again!

 They both found their signatures on our MISSION FLAG...which is a tough thing to do considering it has over 620 signatures on it!

 Here they are looking at the MISSION QUILT to see if they can find their quilt square.

 And here we are with them in the Living Room of the mission home.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR VISIT!

 We had a busy day with visitors...
We had the WESTON FAMILY including Scott Westons twin sister and his brother in law who you see in this photo with President Taylor showing them something on the quilt.

 And here we are with the whole family!

It was so good to meet them all and to know why Elder Weston was such a great missionary...he has a great family!

 We were blessed that day to also have CHRIS KELLEY and KELSEY KELLEY some see us!  We love seeing our married RM's!!!

 What a sweet experience to get to come see the mission of your husband!!!  I know it meant the world for me to go to Venezuela to see President Taylors mission area, and we love that AZ is so accessible for our returned missionaries to come visit!

 We had one more RM that day, ETHAN BRUEGGER took time to come say hello for the second time since he went home this winter.

He is so happy and energetic and ready to take on the world!

Missions bless our lives forever if we let them!
We hope our RMs are CHANGED FOREVER!





We were excited to have my Sister and her family THE HUNTER FAMILY, come spend a few days with us in the Mission Home.  We spent several days showing them things that are important to us here in AZ...including THREE TEMPLES!  We went to Gilbert, Mesa and Phoenix!
Here we are by the Mesa temple.  Beautiful!

And a VERY SWEET experience was to meet up with the family of ELDER PEMBERTON when we were in Houston for our semi-annual Mission President Seminar.
They took the time to come meet us at our hotel and we had the best visit!  We just love the families of our missionaries...we are instant friends and wish we could see each other more often!  THANK YOU PEMBERTONS!

April continues to be a fun month for visitors!

This week we were blessed to have AMANDA VALLEJO and her sister come for a visit!  They are as fun as you can tell from this photo! Lets just say that we laughed a lot and it was sweet to see how much they love each other and how important it was to share how much her mission area means to Amanda!  WE LOVE YOU!

The last time that AMY FOLSOM stopped by, the mission quilt was in the hands of Sister Wilson being finished!  So, she got to see the finished product this time and admired the great work!












She came this time with one of her roommates, Hayley, who looked like she could easily have been one of our missionaries!
Reminds me of one of my "Going out with the Sisters" sort of photos, right?
We just LOVE these special people (and their roommates!)






We had a sweet visit from Elder Wainwright's Dad while we were waiting for the 2 Elders at the surgical center getting their colonoscopies this week.
He was in town on business and had a couple hours to come spend part with us!  It was so great to meet him and see how much faith he has in his son and in the work he is doing here.  It was obvious that it is very much like Father like son...a pattern that means very much to us!  We value you as families supporting your missionaries so much!  We hope you know the difference you make!

As usual, please know how grateful we are to all our family and friends who love us and take time to come see us wherever we may be!  IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US!

TRANSFERS APRIL 2014

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Transfer Day is unique to each mission around the world.

Since our mission has a relatively small footprint, we can do some multi-purpose meeting and get all together who are being transferred.
Here is what the day is currently like.
That morning we have a LEADERSHIP MEETING going on with all Zone Leaders, new District Leaders and all Sister Training Leaders.
Concurrently running, is a TRAINER/TRAINEE MEETING in another room.  This is where we introduce each Training Missionary to their New Missionary.
How sweet it is when President Taylor tells them who their companion will be!
Companions are not chosen til President meets each new missionary and has a chance for the Spirit to direct that new assignment, just as the rest of transfers are directed completely by the Spirit!  The transfer process is really an amazing thing.

For our new missionaries, all Trainees stand on one side of the room...

 ...and Trainers on the other.
It is nerve wracking!!

President announces who is with who and they pair up and sit down together.

 Then we give them 15 minutes just to talk and get to know each other.

I take a photo of each companionship out in the hall so we can email it to parents.

Then we have about another hour to train them on the 12 WEEK TRAINING PROGRAM, (the best thing ever and less than 3 years old in the Church.)
We train them on how to do a COMPANION STUDY SESSION and on ADJUSTING TO MISSIONARY LIFE booklet that we all study faithfully just to keep on track emotionally!

We have such amazing resources available to us as missionaries in this day and time.  We are truly grateful.

After our meeting, the new missionaries and trainers come into the chapel as the rest of those involved in transfers are singing "Called To Serve."  It is inspiring to watch them come in.

After the meeting is opened properly, each Trainer introduces their Trainee, who then shares a brief testimony.  It is a powerful introduction for them all!

President Taylor then reads off the transfers zone by zone.  As each companionship is announced, they stand, find each other in the chapel, give a hug, are greeted by their Zone Leaders and they sit in that zone area.
I love watching it come down!  The Spirit whispers confirmation on why some companionships are together and it is just a sweet time.

After the meeting, President and I meet with our SISTER TRAINING LEADERS to give out Exchange assignments for the transfer and to discuss the strengths and then areas for improvement for the Sisters in the mission.  We decide on some areas of focus to send them out to reinforce for this set of exchanges.  THEY ARE WONDERFUL!!!
Sisters Jackson, Probeyahn, S Jenson, E Walker, Muhlestein, Townsend, Barnett and Summerhays.

Out in the parking lot is ORGANIZED CHAOS!!!

All cars are checked, they are loaded up and things moved from vehicle to vehicle to get them all into new areas and on their way.
The great thing is that IT WORKS!!!

 They are so happy to see each other, and they just love this work and each other!

I always love seeing new companionships bonding as they prepare to head out together!

President Juchau was my photographer today since I had to prepare for the Sister Training Leader meeting.  THANKS PRESIDENT!

He is joined here by Elder Cecena, both of them so happy to be serving here!

THIS IS THE LORD'S WORK and HE IS HASTENING IT in HIS TIME!!!

ARRIVING MISSIONARIES 4/14

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WELCOME NEW MISSIONARIES!

We have had a month full of arriving missionaries!


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Along with our usual transfer this week, we had a couple of additions to the mission who came to us from other missions around the world.

First, we got Elder Austin, who was reassigned from the Albania/Kosovo area due to some health issues and who is now well at home here in Phoenix AZ!  He came with a smile and knowing how to work hard.  He has been a great addition to this mission!









Next we were blessed to have Elder Kunz reassigned to our mission from Sierra Leone, Africa.

Again, a health issue precluded him from going to that mission so he came to us from the Ghana MTC ready to work hard as well.
We enjoyed outfitting him with a suit, since his assigned mission did not require one.
He is resilient and happy and we feel he was meant to be here with us in Phoenix as well!

 Our regular transfer had two flights involved since we had one Sister coming from the Mexico City MTC and the others from Salt Lake Airport.

Welcome to Elder Dawson, Elder Kirk, Elder James, Sister Louchez, Sister Baldwin, Sister Zelaya!  We are pictured here with our right hand helper, Sister King from our Mission Presidency!  She is official "Meet and Greet" for the international flights since we cannot be in two places at once!  We are seeing off departing missionaries the same time the Mexico flight comes in.

Welcome to another addition to our mission, Elder Manzano from Puebla Mexico.  He was brought to the Mission by his Bishop.
Coolest story ever...he was taught and baptized by our own Arizona Phoenix Missionaries in south Phoenix when that was part of our mission...and I was even at one of his new member lessons with Sister missionaries about a year ago!  His desire was to serve a mission and my counsel to him was to pray, read the scriptures and prepare to serve!   AND HERE HE IS!!!

 All of these amazing missionaries are instantly LOVED by our amazing office staff!  Here you see Sister Rodgers in her famous welcome dance!


Parents, Please know that your missionaries have support of 4 couples, 3 in the office each business day and our Mission Secretaries who come and go as needed...they all love and desire only the welfare of your missionary!  Let them help you as you need help with details of mission life!

 We take our new missionaries over to see the construction of the PHOENIX TEMPLE, coming along very nicely now with landscaping being completed.
We anticipate a fall open house and dedication.

 Each new missionary signs this Mission Flag.  It is a sweet reminder that we are all in this as one big mission family!

We take photos with each incoming missionary so you can see that we love your son or daughter...Elder Kirk seems WAY TOO TALL to be our son, but he is!!  (Thanks Mom and Dad Kirk for sharing him with us!)

We work together just like one big family all day long once we get to the Mission Home.  We cook, clean, train, share, talk etc.  It makes for a wonderful transition into mission life!  You can be very proud of your children, they were WONDERFUL HELPERS!!!

 And whether they come one at a time or in a group, we get them up at 6:30 to run or walk with us just like a normal mission day.

In our mission we all use iPads for planning, area books and teaching as well as ONLINE PROSELYTING.
Please do not contact your missionary over Facebook.  They are strictly using it for teaching or contacting purposes only.  It is not a messaging forum for family or friends.  Use weekly emails or call the office staff to help you with any other communications.  THANK YOU!

 We had some new missionaries who LOVE MUSIC!
We had Elders Kirkm Dawson and James sing a musical number for our morning devotional and it was AWESOME sung a capella!









Part of our morning devotional is to give each missionary a letter written by an outgoing or former APM missionary.  The letters give advice and share feelings about how to love the people and your mission experience.

It was sweet to have one Sister tell us her letter was from Hermana Holmes...who was one of our missionaries who taught Elder Manzano!!!  Small world?  Coincidence?  I don't believe so.

This group had such a STRONG SPIRIT about them.  They are focused and ready to serve with their heart, might, mind and strength!  We will nurture and teach doctrine and encourage them to BECOME who Heavenly Father needs them to be in this exciting time on the earth.
Did I say it would be easy?  No.  This will be the hardest thing they have each done ever in their lives.  But, it will give them the opportunity to be more deeply converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, more obedient (which means more happy) and to have more joy than they have ever experienced as they share what they KNOW with everyone they get the chance.  WELCOME TO THE BEST MISSION IN THE WORLD...the best mission in the world for each of them!  This is the work of the Lord.  His work is hastening and we need to try to keep up the best we can!  Join us as being the best member missionaries you can be in your part of the Lord's vinyard!  With Love, Sister Cheryl Taylor