Blog for September 4, 2016
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| Arriving missionaries on 8/30/16 at Calgary International |
This past week was transfer week. On Tuesday we picked up 22 new
missionaries at the airport. One additional Mandarin speaking missionary had
arrived earlier and another English speaking missionary came the day after, but
24 in all. On the other hand, only 11 went home, so again we had more
missionaries come to our mission than went home. This always presents a
challenge; new areas have to be opened, apartments have to be found and
furnished, some 3-leg companionships have to be set up, and where cars are
needed and none are available, areas have to be determined who can share a car
or walk. This is a planning challenge starting with the mission president and
working down through the rest of us in housing and car assignments. In the case
of cars, we did have one additional Nissan Rogue arrive last week and another
came at the end of this week - too late to help the immediate situation since
we weren’t sure when it would arrive. We have nine more which will arrive over
the next week or so.
The new group of missionaries is wonderful. Our training
sessions with them went well, although it had to be done at one of the nearby
chapels instead of the mission home as the entire basement area of the mission
home is being renovated. Water got into the basement on a couple of occasions
last summer with all the rain we had, so it is necessary to replace the carpet
and some of the lower portion of the walls due to the danger of mold and
mildew. We will all look forward to being able to meet in the mission home
again when the work is done. It is certainly much more cozy and family-like
there.
On Thursday we caravanned to Lethbridge taking 15
missionaries south to their new assignments and returning with 11 others being
transferred here to the Calgary area. In addition, there are still others who
are being transferred to other assignments and new companions that do not need
to move north or south but move east and west in the two primary transfer
locations, Calgary and Lethbridge. I wish everyone had an opportunity to see
the interactions of the missionaries when so many convene at a given location.
Missionaries frequently see those missionaries serving within their districts
and zones but may not see missionaries with whom they have served previously
for months at a time. It is always a joy filled occasion. Eleven missionaries
fit in the mission van, which I typically drive (I also pull the trailer filled
with missionary luggage). I get to hear lots of missionary stories, humorous
and touching, as they share experiences during the two-hour trip in each
direction. This is always a treat. I have commented before about the missionary
lingo which one must understand in order to make sense of the conversations:
where they were “born” = the first area where they served, where they will
“die” which has reference to where they anticipate will be their last service
area before they go home, their “sons” = i.e., missionaries they trained, their
“fathers” = the trainer in their very first area, a “grandfather” = the
missionary who trained their trainer, and so on.
The Calgary Temple is open again after a two-week
maintenance closure. Kathy and I were able to go and perform some work for
family Kathy has identified in her genealogical research. We usually go with
Elder and Sister Peppinger but they have their son visiting and are out in the
Banff area with him over the weekend.
Yesterday we cleaned our apartment, after which I got the
car washed and vacuumed and the oil changed. Later in the day we went to a
Provincial Park wilderness area close to our home for a hike. The area is
called Fish Creek Provincial Park. Fish Creek is a lesser river in the area but
has unspoiled areas on both sides of the river and it extends all the way across
Calgary in a generally west to east direction. The biking and hiking trails
there are wonderful. I will include a few pictures we took along the way. As
you can see, some of the trees have begun to change and the temperature is
definitely getting cooler; Fall is arriving in Alberta.
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| Old horse barn built by a rancher family along Fish Creek - about 1905. |
Today we stayed home and went to our “home Ward”, the
Heritage Ward. Being Fast and Testimony Sunday, we heard some wonderful
testimonies including one from our new missionary from Germany who just arrived
on Tuesday. His English is excellent and his knowledge and testimony of the
Gospel are wonderful. He is impressive, and Kathy and I can practice our German
on him!
We hope you and your families are well. We are grateful for
our own families and are looking forward to our trip to Miles City, Montana in
two weeks for a family gathering and to see my twin grandson’s off for their
own missions. As mentioned in a previous blog, both of them will be serving
American Sign Language missions, one in the Las Angeles area and the other in
Rochester, New York.
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