DEPARTING MISSIONARIES DECEMBER 2012

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The time has come...
to say GOODBYE to another amazing group of Arizona Phoenix Missionaries.
We took them to the Phoenix Temple site to see how far it is along.  This is what we have been teaching about our entire missions!

Back at the house...in the dark, we took advantage of having a DECEMBER departure to dress in STYLE!
Front: Elders Hafoka, Romrell, Fluckiger and B. Johnson.  Middle:  Sisters Jewkes and Watson.  Back: Elders Nieman, Freeman, Zeledon, M. Peterson, Grasley, Colovish, Dye, Kelley, Malmberg and Barker.

More pictures using the link above!!!

 We had a wonderful dinner with the Mission Presidency and then a testimony meeting and time for questions and answers.
Then it was time for FHE--FAMILY HOME EVENING!

Part of it involved listening to a clip from Jeffrey R. Holland.  We never get tired of him!

 And lastly, the traditional playing of DON'T EAT PETE!!!

17 AMAZING PEOPLE who have given their all to the Lord asking nothing in return.

17 AMAZING PEOPLE who have and will continue to receive more blessings than they can imagine from the service they have provided!

WE LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

Looking forward to your life stories!  You know how it goes...YOU KNOW ENOUGH!
WRITE THEM WELL!

WALDO'S

Meet the Waldo family!

These are some of the nicest people you could ever meet!  Their legend preceded them in the mission as we had heard ever since we arrived here of their generosity and their amazing cooking skills!
They feed the missionaries for free so you can imagine that all possible missionaries go there!
And they have a testimony of the blessing of caring for missionaries.  They will tell you that business is better when they feed the missionaries.

 Our assistants finally tricked us into meeting them at their Diner for dinner.
POR FIN!!!
!La mejor comida Mexicana en el mundo!

Y una familia tan generosa tambien!
GRACIAS por toda la ayuda uds siempre dan a los misioneros!

We have plans to take our family back at Christmas time for a wonderful eating experience!

!Que Dios les bendiga a su familia!!

!FELIZ NAVIDAD!

December Visitors/Glendale Glitters

 We had a great visit with Derek Evans, one of our returned missionaries from last May.
 He joined us for dinner at the mission home...and then was a glutton for punishment and joined us for the evening out with our friends in the neighborhood, the Janulis and Kings.








We took him with us to the famous "GLENDALE GLITTERS" that we had heard so much about last year and never made it to see.

The whole downtown area is full of lights and all sorts of booths and games and outdoor movies etc.

 This photo is for the benefit of our grandson Carter who loves the movie "CARS."

We walked around for a long time, and our night was complete once we had found the little hole in the wall place that made Mexican hot chocolate...YUMM!!

The next morning we were up pretty early and took Derek hiking with us over at Thunderbird Conservation area.  It was a super quick hike because we had to meet someone to pick up some mission stuff, but it was beautiful out, and so fun to have a son along on a hike again.

THANKS DEREK for the visit!  It meant a lot to us!
Come see us!

Mission Prep Devotional

 One of the things that President Taylor and I enjoy so much is getting out with the youth to help prepare them to serve a mission.


We were invited to participate in an evening devotional in the Deer Valley Stake last Wednesday and it was so good!

 We invited several sets of missionaries to join us and we had them sing "Called To Serve" Arizona Phoenix Mission Style!!! after the congregation sang the first two verses.


They had a fantastic youth speaker, Caleb, who told why he wants to serve a mission and what he has been doing to prepare.  He is a great young man and will be ready to serve when school is out this spring!



Then they had their Mission Prep instructor speak.  He is fantastic!  Super excited about missionary work and really prepares them well!  Lucky youth who are in this stake!

 We then spoke about how to prepare for a mission in six areas:
Social
Emotional
Physical
Mental
Financial
and Spiritual

 Being prepared is a line upon line process!  So much of everyday life prepares us to serve the Lord.
If you are preparing to serve a mission, take notice of everyday events or situations and how you would handle them if you were a missionary.
Take advantage of those chances you have to learn more about how to take care of yourself.
Really read the scriptures and Preach My Gospel and gain your own testimony.

 At the end of our part, we used our transfer video inviting the prospective missionaries to "Come Take Your Place" as we showed photos of our mission.

Our missionaries invited them to come to the front one by one and take their place as missionaries.

How blessed we are to Take Our Place serving the Lord as we 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.

We invite you whether you are young or older to prepare to serve a mission for the Lord.
It is the best thing you will ever do!

DECEMBER LEADERSHIP 2012

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Quarterly we hold Leadership meetings for all Zone Leaders, District Leaders and Trainers.
We really look forward to these meetings and the chance for all these leaders to interact, share and be trained so they can be helpful in their assignments.

 I love that this involves Sisters as well as Elders too.

 One of the practice teachings was about teaching people how to pray.  This is the key to each of us having a personal relationship to a loving Heavenly Father.
It is one of the first things we should be teaching.


It was humbling to watch as our missionaries practiced teaching how to pray, and then actually prayed together as missionaries.












Lunch break is always a highlight of the day for missionaries.  They love food and they love interacting socially together.  They are a lot of fun and they do love their food!!

In the afternoon session we had a little exercise we did last year called "Don't Drop the Ball!"

The idea is that when we give an assignment from President Taylor down through the Priesthood Line of Authority, that no one drops the ball and does not pass on the assignment and expectations.

The ball is supposed to get passed down the line and then back to the originator.
sometimes that works, and sometimes we drop the ball!

It was a great day of creating an "Action Plan" for our mission after great conferences with Elder Koelliker last month.  We have areas of emphasis that will benefit our personal conversions along with enhancing our ability to share the love and the plan that the Savior has for all of God's children.
We are grateful for the leadership in this mission!  All of our missionaries are ambassadors for Jesus Christ.  They are giving their all to share the joy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone possible.

Zone Leader Council December 2012

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One of the highlights for each month is hosting ZONE LEADER COUNCIL in the Mission Home.
We love these young men and the dedication and love they have for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  They truly love who they serve with and who they serve!  I admire them very much!

Today we discussed an action plan after the great council from Elder Koelliker in his recent visit to our mission.  It was a wonderful day of sharing and learning and planning!





We always recognize birthdays happening in the month.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELDERS HAMBLIN, WESTON AND DYE!!!





Showing off full plates of food, the delight of the zone leaders, and our delight in feeding them home-cooked meals; Elders Hamblin and Castanos.

We had missionaries eating all over the house...in the dining room, kitchen and outside.
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Front:  Elders Lynn, Neves, Bartlett, K. Gerber, Brame, Castanos & Hernandez
Middle: Elders Hamblin, Alvis, Bolton, President and Sister Taylor, Elders Lancaster, Bartleson and Campbell.  Back: Elders Dye, Whipple, Burden, Nield, Hastings, Griffin, Weston, M. Peterson, Miller, Steinfeldt and Pollmeier.
Alright...I made President wear the Santa hat.  It is out of his comfort zone to do it, but he loves me and humors me and it was a lot of fun!!!


MERRY CHRISTMAS from the leaders of the APM!
WE LOVE WHO WE SERVE!

SEDONA HIKE with COTTONWOOD Zone 12/12

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Monday we were invited to hike up in Sedona by the Cottonwood Zone.  We love hiking and love Sedona and love our missionaries, so this was an easy fit!


It was incredibly beautiful and even warm for this northern part of our mission.


We had WONDERFUL TOUR GUIDES,
Brother and Sister Bues, who guided our trail and taught Geology along the way!

 We did about a 5 mile loop around Cathedral Butte, and then did a side trip to go see some ruins up on the side.

 We got to do a little steep climbing, but mostly it was pretty tame.

 We loved learning about the different kinds of rock; the sandstone and the limestone layers of these buttes.

 The Indian ruins way up on the side, were worth the trip to go and see.  History in front of our eyes; up close and personal!

 We could even see where there had been a fire place and a grinding stone there in front.

You can see that we had to watch our steps very carefully on the loose stones on top of this steep wall.  It was almost straight down from where we walked, but we had an experienced guide and we were very cautious.

We got a kick out of the cactus everywhere, especially coming down this section.


President had a run in with a cholla cactus that got spikes all over his knee and took a bit of doing to get them all out.  I got a few behind my knee somehow as well.

Brother Bues is a retired Geologist and does tour groups and lectures frequently in the area.  This is the first full zone he has taken out, and we were so grateful for he and his sweet wife for taking more than 4 hours from their day for us!

These were some of the views that we had as we hiked.  Does this make you want to come see our mission someday?
We have a variety of landscape equal to many exotic places!

Learning about sandstone...He is holding a slab that is about 1/2 inch thick, really neat!

Something else really neat...Elder Moore's father grew up in Camp Verde, where Elder Moore is now serving.  He has a high school tee shirt from the school his Dad attended.  How wonderful is that?

We have amazing missionaries, an amazing mission area and amazing members who share their talents with us.

WE LOVE ARIZONA!

HUGE Trainer Trainee Meeting!

 You look at this group and think...Hey, this must be a big leadership meeting or zone conference or something.
In reality it is just our current group of "Training" Missionaries.

Missionaries are trained for 12 weeks...or 2 transfers.  This is 2 transfers worth of new missionaries.

 To look at them, they do not look so new now though.  They have confidence in what they are doing, fire to teach (that they came with) and now EXPERIENCE in actually following through with what they came prepared to do!


They share ideas on what they like, what they don't like so much, what they have learned, and how they can continue to learn and progress as a teacher of true principles.
They are humble and teachable.

 The Trainers met in the chapel.  Another humble and teachable group!  They LOVE their new missionaries and have seen the incredible growth that we see each time we meet with them.
They want to learn how to be better examples and helpers and they quickly learn that they are learning more than those that they are supposed to train.
Such is life...isn't it great?

After the meeting, a few elders came to the Mission Home to try to find a new suit.
Well, Elder Vaoga had no luck...but new Elder Livingston found a couple that fit him perfectly!

He opted for the "retro look" 3 piece suit left by an old missionary sometime in the history of this mission...anybody recognize this suit and want to confess?

We found a horrible tie for him to wear with it in another closet so he was ready for his GQ shot in the garage!


Sent them all home with some Christmas decorations!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Planning With Hermanas!

 I have been letting the Sisters choose what activities I come help them with when we go out...and this past week I was invited to WEEKLY PLANNING!!!


I LOVE Weekly Planning!  And it was especially wonderful with Hermanas Macey and Harding!

They have such love for those they are teaching that it was apparent in all they did.  We planned VERY SPECIFICALLY for the upcoming week and I was impressed with the detail they put into these plans.
The Lord's hands are in the details of our lives...and we need to be just as specific in the details we help orchestrate for the lives of the wonderful people we teach and work with in our wards!
Gracias Hermanas!!!  It was a great day!