Yesterday Elder Kwok and his brother and sister in law stopped by to say hello! It was wonderful to see him again!

While our daughter, her family, and president Russell were hiking up Spencer's Butte, president saw this tree. It signified to perseverance , The top of the tree was broken off and the branch started going sideways and then it seemed to be determined to reach the sky.

Sister Cathro and Sister Johnson asked if we could have a family home evening at the mission home with s really special  recent convert mother, daughter and granddaughter. The next day, when the president and I got home we found we had been heart attacked on our front door. I couldn't bear to take it down right away, so I left it up as the next day was my  birthday. These Sisters are amazing!!!

The office, the president,  and the missionaries in the Eugene, Springfield, and Santa Clara zones gave me a surprise party on my birthday. It was so wonderful and truly unexpected, yes, I was clueless!

There are pictures, but not on my camera, so hopefully I can get them at a later date.

It's time for another MLC (mission leadership council) this time the president invited not only the zone leaders and STL's (Sister training leaders), but also the district leaders.

 The awesome office missionaries prepared lunch for all of us, This is Sister Kleinman, Sister and Elder Fluckiger. It was delicious!



We broke for lunch and here is a little snappy chatter.

 Sisters always eat first, See how happy they are!

And then the Elders and the President eat (they don't look as happy, do they?)

President Lowary is doing something really important on his iPad, maybe Solitaire, Yahtzee. Just kidding, he works very hard.

 Sister Cathro is enjoying lunch and always has a smile on her face, makes ya wonder what she's up to, doesn't it.

                         Sister Hamilton and Sister West are just having fun.

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 Sister Peterson and Sister Anderson give us the thumbs up. (Not sure why Sister Anderson is fuzzy.)

 Eating their lunches.

Elder Stiles and Elder King pose for the camera.

                            

       Sister Coon has her arm around Sister Arnoldsen. these two missionaries are on fire! They are always on the hunt for a new investigator.

Another fuzzy picture, who was taking these pictures anyway,,,,,oh yeah it was me. I better not give up my day job!
Sister Mackley and Sister Crabb are not really fuzzy at all.

Some of us like to eat all together.

 Some of us like circle the wagons and enjoy the lasagna.

Oops, he either dropped something or he's practicing his proposing techniques.

Elder Johnson is just letting lunch settle for a moment.

 Elders Argyle (obviously before he went home), Hyde, Stotts on the left and Elder Redd on the right are all totally enjoying lunch.

After lunch, Sister Hilner had a great object lesson on how important it is to bring the entire family into the Church instead of just one member.

She had President Lowary try to take the chocolate chips out of a cookie and keep the cookie together. It didn't work so hot. It was a wonderful message on how important families are all together.

Always at the end of MLC we have a picture taken.

 Saying good-bye is such sweet sorrow!

 These are awesome missionaries who are now enbarking on, what President Russell calls, their second missions, that being to get married!

It was especially hard to say good bye to Elder Argyle who had been with the President and I since we arrived in June of last year.

 At the airport, the president and I watched until each one had passed through Security.

A sad smile from Sisters Stirling and Martineau

These missionaries will always hold a special place in our hearts, they are like our children all grown up and reaching for the stars.

As we say good-bye to Elder Argyle, we welcome Elder Boyd!

Then, on February 11th we got 10 most wonderful new missionaries in the best mission in the world, the OEM!!

After arriving at the airport, they went to the mission home for a warm welcome from the office missionaries and lunch.

 President Russell is telling them how incredible they are.
After some training and dinner they went out with missionaries in the area to their appointments.
Then they stayed over night at the mission home.

The next morning they are ready to go to the church to meet their trainers! (The new Elders were helping with the luggage,)

 Now we have everyone except Elder Thompson. He's still helping the APs.

When we get to the church the missionaries have a special program to welcome these great new missionaries to the OEM! Then we go into the cultural hall and as the president reads off the name of the new missionary and the area he or she will be going to, the APs show a picture of that area. 

Our new missionaries with their incredible trainers:

Sister Frandsen with Sister Yeung

 Sister Allen with Sister Healy

 Sister Rasmussen with Sister Lawrence

 Sister Chang with Sister Moore

 Sister Crandall with Sister Bigalow

 Sister Cathro with Sister Poulsen

Elder Perrine with Elder Thompson

 Sister Connelly with Sister Bohannon

 Sister Holliday with Sister Newell

Elder Rigby with Elder Huntsman

One final picture of our new missionaries, including our new office couple who will be taking the Fluckigers place (which is VERY hard to do), Elder and Sister Christensen (not to be confused with Elder and Sister Christensen that are still in the office).

 Our new missionaries and their trainers.

This is the Assink family. They are recent converts and some of the best people in the world. 

We went to the temple with our sweet missionaries, that are going home.

The Fluckigers and the Walkers.

Sadly, these missionaries went home on February 10th. Elder Shelley, Elder Bassett, Elder O Neal, Sister Stirling, Sister Collins, Elder Haidenthaller, Sister and Elder Fluckiger (they will leave March 1st) Sister, Opheim, Sister and Elder Anderson (will be leaving March 3rd) Sister Martineau, Elder Heaton, Elder D. Davis, Elder Argyle, Elder J. Davis, and Elder Garcia.

We miss them so much!!! These young Elders and Sisters are now beginning their second mission (according to president Russell), that is to get married.

So....Elder Roy says he was 'putting up the volleyball net', and all of the sudden, he was running up to pretend to dunk an imaginary ball when the backboard shattered.

The glass came raining down on his face. Fortunately he did not require stitches.