Phoenix North Interview Day 7/13

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July is an "INTERVIEW MONTH"  I believe, around the world, all Mission Presidents are interviewing their missionaries.  It works out well, as new Presidents arrive in their assigned missions each July 1.
President Taylor and I are already mourning the fact that this is our last July here in Phoenix.  It seems like yesterday we were meeting our first zone of missionaries!
I admire them for how quickly they accepted and loved us.  For us, they were all we knew, and it was immediate!

In our mission, we live close enough we can get each zone together and meet with them in a training meeting while President pulls one at a time for their interview.

 We started the week with PHOENIX NORTH ZONE.
We incorporate CAR INSPECTIONS hosted by our own Elder Rodgers from our office.  He helps the missionaries check for safety and they show amazingly clean cars to him!

We had a wonderful day together!  We met in counsel with the Zone Leaders any myself.

 One activity was a game we played in the gym...I have a game each interview session, sort of a tradition we love.
The games always have a purpose, and this one was really different, and really very introspective.

I asked questions about their missions...when they knew they wanted to serve, what their families think, who they have learned the most from, what they want to be remembered for etc.

As we talked, we we creating this great NETWORK.

It was a great object lesson on how as we share our experiences, we are building a safety net of trust in our mission.

We bounced a ball that they all had to work together to keep bouncing. It was so much fun!

We had them bring their lunches...everything from sandwiches to uncooked ramen!

Elder Rodgers gave out rewards for the cleanest cars in the zone...they all did a great job.  You could eat off of the engines of these cars!

Elders Arias and Munoz show off their rewards.

For part of the training I did, we watched a film called "The 500 Day Project: Two Brothers."

It is about two young LDS boys who have a rather rocky relationship as boys, and their journey to being best friends, and eventually missionaries for the Church.
It is an incredible look into their growth and how they changed over the years.  It really helped us be introspective into our own lives.



We celebrated JULY BIRTHDAYS!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO:
Elder Rigby, Sister Vallejo and Sister Seaman!

We sang in English and then President Taylor and Elder Arias sang a Venezuelan birthday song together...Very Cool!  Wish I had recorded it!

Then we had our Samoan Elders sing in Samoan...also very cool!

Not done yet!  Sister Gacutan is in this zone and we got to hear it in her native language as well!  We are so blessed to have many cultures in our mission!

Our Zone Leaders wrapped up the day with the zone teaching the importance of morning schedule and exact obedience to Missionary Handbook rules.
They teach with love and compassion.
There is unity and trust in all they do.


The objective of the day was for President Taylor to meet with each missionary to check in with them and help them in their progression...and we accomplished that and so much more!

I am grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  So glad we learn line upon line and precept upon precept...forever.  So grateful for Christ's example and how modeling our lives on His example and attributes helps us grow into who we are able to become.

MISSION LEADERSHIP COUNCIL JULY 4, 2013

 Following three days of transfers we went right into MISSION LEADERSHIP COUNCIL...why not?  It was a holiday and a good way to spend what could have been a less productive day for these great missionaries.


Elder Wardle was given a gift of a white swan by some mission friends as a joke...which we later discovered was Spanish Lladro and worth a bit...NICE!

 We have 10 zones now and 3 sets of Sister Training Leaders.  This is a good number of missionaries in our family room!  We love hosting this meeting here though.  It is so personal, and I don't have to haul all the lunch stuff to a building somewhere.

We had instruction and discussion from President Taylor, the Assistants and myself along with help from our Sister  Training Leaders.  It was a great meeting.

 I always celebrate the upcoming birthdays for the month...and seeing as it was July 4 we went patriotic...

...excepting for our two Canadian missionaries in this group who just celebrated Canada Day on Monday.  We had an elder last year who picked off his blue stars to leave just the red and white for Canada...so we just created a couple for Canadian Independence!

 HAPPY JULY BIRTHDAY TO:

Elders Peterson and Lower, Sister Baumgartner and Elders Bartleson and Davies.

It actually WAS Elder Davies birthday that day...how cool is that?

Front:  Sisters Dayton, Hansen, Pickett, Baumgartner, President and Sister Taylor, Sisters Follett and Larson.  Middle:  Elders Vaoga, Kamissoko, Bangerter, Gorham, O'Neal, Knobbe, Davies, Bradfield, Heiner, Gerritsen, Campbell and Bartleson.  Back:  Elders Doolhoff, Cardoso, P. Wilson, B. Jones, Wardle, Lower, Nield, Peterson, Brothers and Baker.

 Our new additions to the Mission Leadership Council include:
Elders Gorham and Cardoso, Sister Dayton, Elders Bradfield and B. Jones, Sister Hansen, Elder Baker, Sister Larson and Elder Lower.

They were great additions to this council!

 Sister Hansen is excited to show off her plate of July 4th BBQ.



















We had help BBQing all those hamburgers the night before from Elders Nield and Baker who were down from Flagstaff after Transfer meeting.  They were great sports and came over to help out, braving the heat to grill with President Taylor!
THANKS ELDERS!

 And it was a great meal!  Plates piled high with good stuff!

 After lunch, the Spirit was invited back with us by a musical number by Sisters Pickett, Baumgartner, Dayton and Hansen.  They have beautiful voices that blend so well!  And it was fun to hear them in Spanish for most of it!

 Elder Gorham shows the joy of being from CANADA!

 And Sisters Pickett and Baumgartner decide they want to look like Temple Square Sisters with flags on their tags!

And there was a lot of patriotic color today including our own Sister Turville with Sister Taylor and Pickett!

HAPPY JULY 4.
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY.
We are free by design, to choose to follow our Savior Jesus Christ.
We have SO MUCH to be grateful for!

TRANSFERS JULY 2013

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 The last day of our transfer process involves taking all our new missionaries to the stake center near our Mission Home to meet their trainers.  Transfers are handled very differently mission to mission, and where we have our missionaries all within about 2 1/2 hours of each other, we can feasibly get them together.  We love it!

 We had all our trainer missionaries and all our new missionaries in this meeting, pretty packed quarters with 29 each of them! (along with some companionships with 3)
President Taylor then announced who each person's trainer would be.

Some of them looked like a match made in heaven...don't Sisters Bullock and Riches just look like Sisters?

 And then there were Elders Nelson and Andrus wearing the same suit and almost identical ties(the photo did not do it justice)...it was almost eerie that they were companions!

Actually, we know they are matches made in heaven.  They are inspired choices through the Spirit to President Taylor.

 After some great training and get-to-know-you time, all our training missionaries are led into the chapel as we sing "Called To Serve." It is really very exciting!

They are introduced and get to share a brief testimony and then President Taylor reads out all the transfers for the rest of the mission.
We love this meeting and the Spirit is so strong as we participate.

 After the meeting, everyone is just excited to see each other and it is chaos for a long time!

 Elder King surprised us with a lemonade station outside in the well-over-100 degree temperature.  THANK YOU ELDER KING!

 We get missionaries loaded up and on their way to their areas.



And they are smiling even in the extreme heat.  They are so happy to be serving the Lord and to be in Arizona!

We come away exhausted after three days of comings and goings and more meal prep than you can imagine...but so satisfied just being around these incredible people!

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true.
It blesses lives and brings happiness as we choose to follow the Savior and his commandments.
Share that message with someone you love...and involve the missionaries wherever YOU live!

ARRIVING JULY 2013

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Tuesday as we were trying to check in our departing missionaries, President Taylor came over to let me know that our incoming missionaries had arrived about 30 minutes early and that they were now at baggage claim...not the best arrival scenario, but we made it work!

No one was freaked out that we were not there to greet them, they just took care of business and were glad when we showed up.

I wanted to re-create the moment a bit and they all humored me by going back up the escalator and coming down so I could get a great photo of them arriving in style!
Aren't they great?? They were so happy and excited to be here and did not even care how hot it is here.

Kneeling in front: Sisters Ratto, Connell, Seaman and Eisele. Kneeling Middle: Sisters Morrison, Brewer, Carrigan,  Jackson, Hutchison, Stanley, Townsend, Santana and Bullock.  Back: Elders Nelson, Mase, D.  Jones, Handley, Crane, Reid, Zaugg, Burbank, Hernandez, Perkes, Murdock, Merrill, Brown, Pemberton, Yoxtheimer and Wade.

We got their luggage all loaded into the trailer and loaded into several vehicles to get them to the Mission Office.

 At the office, our missionaries are immediately LOVED as they fill out paperwork needed to get them established in the system.  Our office couples are THE BEST!  They seriously would do anything to help out these missionaries!

 We then took them all over to the Phoenix Temple Site to see our temple under construction. It is looking pretty good on the outside, but lots to do still in the year to come.  We are still praying that it is completed before our last year of service is up.  From bare ground two years ago to the temple today!

Out in the heat of Arizona, we took some group shots and some shots with President Taylor and myself.  And yes, it was really hot!  106 or so.


WE WELCOME AN AMAZING GROUP TO THE ARIZONA PHOENIX MISSION!

The #1 Mission for each of us!

DEPARTING JULY 2013

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We experienced the strangest feelings we have ever had in a departing group.  As they arrived at the Mission home to gather, we were so emotional.  For this group was the first entire group of missionaries who had come into the mission after our arrival here two years ago.
It seemed like they had just arrived, yet we had experienced witnessing the change as each one of them BECAME who they were supposed to be while on their mission...it was a tender moment!  We have felt much of that emotion even from our first transfer, but there is something about seeing from day one that was just INCREDIBLE!

We took them to see the progress of our Phoenix Temple and it was great.  Then back to the house for photos as a group.

 Left to Right: Elders Barber, Hamblin, Steinfeldt, Robinson, Whipple, Bolton, Wheelwright, Tucker, Weston, Brame, L. Johnson, Burden, Lemon, Shelton, Sisters Fluckiger and Chord.

We also had a few fun photo shots...

 ...and then reveled in the fact that it actually RAINED!
It smelled so good, and some had to just get out and run around in it.  Rain is so rare here that we just relish it!

 After our traditional Cafe Rio Knock-off salads, we had a wonderful testimony meeting and some time for questions and council from the Mission Presidency.  This was an especially tender time for us because we not only lost 35 missionaries to the Tempe Mission this week, we also lose President and Sister Zayas from our Presidency who live in that stake.

 We are also losing one of our most talented piano players of the mission in Elder Wheelwright.
Seriously, it seems like yesterday that we discovered he could play the piano when he arrived in our home!

 This group all have great singing voices and it was a blend of Spanish and English each time we sang a hymn.

 We love Presidente and Hermana Zayas so much!  They are role models we have just loved for our missionaries.  They are generous to a fault, humble servants for the Lord and very dear friends.  We are better for knowing them and they inspire greatness in all who meet them.

 We finished the evening with a short Family Home Evening lesson complete with traditional game of "Don't Eat Pete."

The next morning we ran/walked and then got ready for an exciting day.  Elder Robinson shows us how he truly wore out his clothes in service of his God.
They may go home in tatters, but their souls and hearts are strong and whole!  They have build a solid foundation upon which they can build their eternal lives.
WE LOVE YOU AND WILL LOOK FORWARD TO GREAT THINGS!
Long Live APM Family!!!