Mission Homecoming

Our mission officially ended on Tuesday, February 22, 2011.  We left Laie in the afternoon for a red-eye flight back to Utah, arriving on Wednesday morning 7:30 am.  We were welcomed by our family and drove from the airport to Mimi's for breakfast.  Nice to be home surrounded by our wonderful children, grandchildren and even a couple of great grandchildren!

While on our mission at the Laie Temple Visitors' Center a total of 161,480 guests visited the Center, nearly 9,000 per month.  Of these, 3,737 asked to have missionaries visit them and share the gospel, a little over 200 per month.  These numbers do not do justice to the overall mission of the VC and the thousands who come and leave with increased respect and attitudes towards the Church.

We were blessed to serve with 48 of the most wonderful sister missionaries you'd ever want to know, plus the District and Zone elders who served in the Laie Zone.  A special privilege was to serve with Elder and Sister Mark Eubank (Bountiful) and with the other Senior Couples: Elder & Sister Jay England from Draper, Elder & Sister Jay Peterson from Logan, Elder & Sister Stephen Tripp from Draper, Elder & Sister Wayne Nysetvold from Salt Lake City, Texas and Canada, and Elder & Sister Keith Crouch from Payson.  Elder Eubank is the Director of the VC and we enjoyed our association with he and Sister Eubank.

On our first Sunday home we were asked to speak in Church and all of our children were there, with spouses and children, except Steve and Karen who were in Escondido for the funeral of Jan Marler, Karen's mom who had died the week before.  We were so happy to see six former sister missionaries from the VC: Sisters Babcock, Bridge, Han, Larsen, Stringer and Smith; also  Elder and Sister Tripp.

We were honored to see President and Sister Stephen Peterson (who live in South Jordan) our former mission president who was released in July.  He now works as an IFR in the Missionary Department.

One of our favorite missionaries at the VC is Sister Graves who struggled with migraine headaches but has a great attitude and winning smile.  Her parents and a brother and sister came and it was nice to get acquainted.





Many have asked us if we are going on another mission, the latest being Dr. David Jack, our physician we saw a few days after returning home.  Donna's answer has been "Asking if we are going on another mission is like asking me if I will have another baby right after giving birth."  We don't honestly know the answer.  What we do know is that we have three grandchildren (out of 25) who are ten years old and we have been away from them five of those ten years, serving in the Church.  We also know that we love serving in the Kingdom, we love the feeling of being a full-time missionary, we love the Spirit we feel when we testify of the gospel and we love seeing lives change.  We also know that there are many opportunities to serve here at home and we hope that our health will allow us to be faithful and active servants for several more years.

Mission & VC Farewell

As is the VC tradition, we were asked to bear our testimonies at Monday morning's Training Meeting.  Afterwards they sang Aloha Oe to us (always a heart-tugging experience).

Don's mini-vacation at Castle Medical Center

Sunday night after we fixed dinner and fed four missionaries who had no dinner appointments, I began to have severe chest pains and had a difficult time breathing.  Elders Nysetvold and Eubank came over and gave me a blessing.  Elder Nysetvold also provided some aspirin and nitroglycerin pills (for later, just in case), and encouraged me to call 911 for a ride to the hospital. I also used one of Donna's asthma inhalers and decided to wait and allow the pills, inhaler and blessing to take effect.  By 10 pm I felt a little better and weathered the night, mostly in our recliner chair.  Here I am at the hospital the next day being tested for a heart attack.  The good news: it wasn't my heart.  Must have been Donna's spaghetti.  By Tuesday I felt 100% better.  I am so thankful for priesthood blessings!

Donna's Referral on her last shift

During my last hour of my last shift Yien Lee came up to the desk and asked me, What place is this?  He had a great big smile and was very interested.  I answered his question and asked if he would like to know more.  He did.  Even before he watched the Laie history video he wanted to know how our church started.  I told him to first watch how it began in Laie then I would tell him more.  We then went to the temple corner and talked about temples thru the ages and a new prophet named Joseph Smith and that we have had 16 prophets and Thomas S. Monson is our prophet now.  Next we went to the Book of Mormona table and he signed up for the missionaries to come and give him a Book of Mormon for free!!!  He was very excited then.  Also showed him God's Plan for His Family and he listened to President Monson in the Prophets area.  He was very interested and I really hope that when he finally gets home to Dallas in April the missionaries will meet with him.  He even had his camera and we took a picture together in front of the Christus.

Donna's Birthday celebrated surrounded by Missionaries

Today began at 4:45 a.m. taking Sister Kaufusi to the airport.  She is on her way home to Tonga by way of Fiji.  Then we stopped for breakfast before driving to the Honolulu Tabernacle for a Mission meeting with Elder Clayton, of the Presidency of the Seventy.

When we arrived for the meeting we were so happy to see four of the VC sisters who are now serving "full pros."  Left to right: Sister Muller, Sister Magno, Sister Watanabe and Sister Graves.

This next picture was taken during the break.  There were about 120 missionaries in attendance.

Twenty of the VC missionaries rode to the meeting in a PCC tram.  The rest drove in our cars. 

On the way home we stopped at McDonald's in Kaneohe for lunch.

By the time we got home later in the afternoon, both of us were worn out and finished Donna' birthday by hanging out with Pizza, root beer and popcorn watching a movie.

Language Class Graduation

Today we held our final English language class for our three Japanese students, Sister Imoto, Sister Wada and Sister Kamada.  Our first language class included Sisters Watanabe (2) and Nishigaki.  We have loved teaching these sisters.  Classes were held on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 8:00 a.m. in our home.  They were accompanied by their companions: Sisters Largent, Sandoval and Bacani.

Senior Couples have Going-Away Dinner

Tonight we had a delightful and delicious dinner prepared by the other Senior Couples in honor of our completing our mission and returning home.  They are, left to right: Elder Crouch, Don, Elder Eubank, Sister and Elder Nysetvold, Sister Eubank, Donna, and Sister Crouch.

Closing of VC doesn't deter Service

The VC was closed for a day while the inside counter was "tented" for termites.  In the afternoon we set up an outside station and greeted guests who came to visit.

One non-member guest, Wisley Butler, was told by a friend to come and see the temple.  He had visited the VC before.  Don spent 45 minutes walking the grounds with him and invited him to learn more.  He left but returned about 30 minutes later with his member-friend.  And about the same time the two sister missionaries, Sister Largent and Sister Kamada, who cover the member's ward showed up.  He accepted the invitation to come to the VC on Sunday, around 11:30 am (after he attends church with his friend) and have Sisters Largent and Kamada teach him the first discussion.

Another visitor was Jeff, a frequent VC visitor.  He is from Mesa, AZ and a RM from Taiwan.  He shared that he is unofficially engaged to marry a girl from Taiwan, but they are waiting until she  finishes a mission on Temple Square.  We told him we'd look her up when we return home if he e-mails us her name and let us know when she arrives in SLC.

Breakfast celebration

As a way of saying "thanks" we made breakfast for all the missionaries: 21 sisters, 4 elders and three senior couples.  Breakfast consisted of 80 pancakes, four pounds of bacon, 54 scrambled eggs, a basket of fresh grapes and 2 gallons of orange juice (Tropicana of course).

I'm not trunky...I'm not trunky...I'm not trunky...

We are trying to do our best to work our hardest as we approach the finish line.  We have some interesting events to help.
February 13:  We've been asked to speak in the Laie 3rd ward.
February 18:  We will join all the Honolulu Hawaii Mission missionaries for an all-mission conference in Honolulu with Elder L. Whitney Clayton, one of the Seven Presidents of the Seventy, and the Area President.  Elder Eubank is talking about using one of the PCC Tram buses to take all 29 of us to Honolulu.
February 20: Don will be addressing a Missionary Fireside in the VC theatre, with recent converts and prospective members.
We've been asked about our Homecoming talks and so here's the information:
Date:  Sunday, February 27
Time:  11:00 a.m.
Location:  11251 South 2700 West
Afterwards we will gather to our home: 11081 Sir Barton Lane, to eat and "talk story"
So that you are not too surprised when you next see us I thought I should include this recent photo.

Austrian Drawn to VC by Temple

While unique to this individual, this story is not unique to the VC.  Visits like this happen every day.  Each one special for one of Heavenly Father's sons or daughters.

A young man dressed in walking shorts and a nice t-shirt strode into the lobby of the VC, walked over to a couch by the windows, sat down and picked up a binder with VC conversion stories.  He acted like he had been here before and was waiting for a friend.  When I greeted him I learned that my first opinion was way off the mark.  He said he had come into the VC to find out what kind of temple was on the hill.  He let me know he was in a hurry and didn't have much time.

I explained it was a temple of the Church, directed his attention to the Christus, a symbol of our beliefs, briefly explained the purpose of temples and said we had some exhibits in the back that included some pictures taken inside the temple.

He asked to see the temple exhibits.  There I taught him about baptisms for the dead, temple marriages, etc. and explained the difference between a temple and one of our meetinghouses.  He asked good questions.

He then said, "you have other exhibits" pointing to the Family and Book of Mormon exhibits.  We moved to the Book of Mormon display, found the one in German, explained the origin of the Book of Mormon and how we use both the Bible and the Book of Mormon together.  He wanted to know about our emphasis on families so we walked over to our TV clips kiosk and played a couple (which he liked).

We ended up in our "prophets" corner and talked about the restoration, priesthood authority, the calling of apostles including my testimony about revelation and the blessings of having living prophets to guide us.

While he declined my invitation to meet with church representatives or receive a copy of the Book of Mormon, he said that he had learned a lot with many things to think about.  He left with a brochure on temples and a pass-along card containing a reference to http://www.mormon.org/ and my invitation to look it up.

His "brief" stay lasted over a half hour and, I believe, he felt the Spirit and left having had an experience he hadn't a clue he would have had when he got up that morning.  Both of us were edified and uplifted by the unplanned visit of a well-meaning young man with just enough curiosity to take a detour off the beaten path, drawn by the beauty and spirit of the temple.

Donna new toy

Donna received an early birthday present, a new I-Phone.  Her phone number is 801-696-6767.

Donna BYUH Guest Lecturer

A friend we first met in Waimea in 2004 on the Big Island, who now teaches at BYUH, invited Donna to visit her Art appreciation class and share information about the art on display in the VC.  This was the second time Donna was invited to do so.

Her PowerPoint presentation covered art by Ray Gonzales Tabor, Linda Curley Christensen, Harry Anderson, Al Rounds, James Christensen and the Danish sculpture Bertel Thordvaldsen who first created The Christus in 1820.  This 10 foot, 10,000 lb, copy was commissioned by the Church and sculpted by an Italian sculptor around 1976.


This painting by Linda Curly Christensen is titled "The Seven Sacred Pools" that are found on the road to Hana on the Island of Maui.  It is our favorite in the VC.  Perhaps some day we'll ask her to paint one for us.

As you would expect, it was an outstanding hour.  The classroom was "a-buzz" with computer keyboards clicking as the students typed their notes into their laptops.

Don Serves as Acting Director of VC

Monday night, January 14, the Eubank's left for a two-week visit to their home in Bountiful, Utah and Don was asked to serve as the Acting VC Director while they were gone.  Sounded reasonably easy, and it was, except for a few bumps along the way.  All the Sister Missionaries and the Senior Couple Missionaries were very supportive during the two weeks.
Bump number one

A couple of days into the first week, John Dalton, Honolulu Hawaii Mission President called and said he was losing a full proselyting sister missionary who needed to return home for health concerns.  He needed one of our missionaries to take her place since we had an extra sister in a three-some.  (Two weeks earlier we were expecting one new missionary from the MTC but two showed up.  Surprise Surprise)
Sister Berit Muller, from Freiburg Germany was the logical choice to transfer to "Full Pros";  however, that move affected five other missionaries.  The Lord blessed us, the changes were made, and the work moved forward.

Bump number two

The next week the President called again.  This time he said the MTC had called and was sending us a missionary who had been there improving her English skills.  Sister Hee Moon, from Gwang-ju, South Korea, was expected to arrive during our next transfer, February 23, but her language skills had advanced rapidly and the MTC "kicked her out" and sent her to us early.  This time we had to re-create a new three-some, and Sister Wong, (picture below on the left) from Australia, but originally from Hong Kong, was chosen by the Lord to be the new trainer

.

I can't remember ever having emergency transfers before during the 1 1/2 years we've been here.  In any event, it made the Acting Director assignment quite interesting. 

Training meetings are on Monday mornings. Training the first week focused on following the Prophets and I shared some insight into the callings of the First Presidency and the Twelve, reviewing their backgrounds and the process for filling vacancies.  On the second week I woke up early Sunday morning with the distinct impression I needed to emphasize Obedience during the Monday morning training, and not the presentation I had been working on.  The training went well. 

And, other than several sisters struggling with sickness, we (all 27 of us) made it through the two weeks and all of us (all 27) were glad to welcome the Eubank's back.

Ron and Ger Visit

Ron and Ger stopped by on their way home from Kauai and spent two nights sleeping on our front room floor.  They arrived on Friday, 1/14 and left Sunday night.  It was wonderful to spend an afternoon sitting at the beach watching the surfers with the two of them.  Ron was the "brave" one of the group, willing to try the water.  We also attended the PCC night show "HA - The Breath of Life."

January Transfer Largest Number of Missionaries

January 12, 2011 created the largest complement of VC missionaries since we've been here.  Twenty-one Sisters (including one three-some) and eight Senior Couple Missionaries made up our crew.  We were expecting one new missionary but two got off the plane.  Sister Kang from Korea and Sister Ola from Vancouver, WA were the two new additions.

Open House visit turns into baptism commitment

The Temple Open House was not to be a missionary event and all of us who served there were carefully instructed to not proselyte.  All guests were invited to complete a Comment Card and IF they asked for more information by missionaries (by checking an appropriate box on the bottom of the card) then the referral could be processed and forwarded to missionaries.  There were 166 visitors who asked for more information.

But as I went through the thousands of Comment Cards, I found that quite a few had shared sacred experiences felt during their visit.  Many were powerful. We received permission to glean the cards with the strongest comments.  Those with phone numbers were given to the sister missionaries to call as a follow-up to their Open House visit.  Of the 333 called, 83 of them (25%) said they would like to have a visit by the missionaries.

One of our sister missionaries left a message on an answering machine and the called person called back.  Sister Brown was just leaving the Call Center when the call came in.  When Sister Brown offered to have missionaries visit the caller, the lady asked if the missionaries could come that evening.  Sister Brown tracked down the elders assigned to the lady's area and they said "yes" they could.  Later that night, after the visit the elders called Sister Brown and reported that they had taught the lady the Plan of Salvation and she committed to be baptized in February!  How Great is That!

Another 160 Comment Cards had no phone number but left an e-mail address.  I sent each one a personal e-mail message and referred them to Mormon.org and the "I'm a Mormon" video interviews.  I don't expect any responses but feel that many (perhaps another 25%) will take the time to learn more.

Sweet experiences of watching visitors warm to the Gospel message

A wonderful couple with a Catholic background from Quebec, Canada walked into the VC out of curiosity, having seen the Temple while driving around the island.  The wife said, "What makes your church different from other Christian religions?"  "What a great question" I replied, and had them follow me to our Temple corner where we talked about temples, baptisms, Plan of Happiness.  She asked, "Well, do you have a prophet today?"  I said, "You ask such good questions, come with me." and took them over to our Prophets area.  She kept asking great questions and after about an hour, their entire countenance had changed.  We had all felt the Spirit witness to the truthfulness of the Gospel and they left with good feelings, lots of reading material and a promise to check out Mormon.org.

Today we were taking Christmas trees down and the VC was not looking great.  In fact, it was quite a mess.  Because all the young sisters were busy, I (Donna) took three non-members on tour.  The couple who were Catholic and from Oregon were very interested what we believe in because the wife's brother had just joined the our Church two weeks before.  She kept asking all kinds of questions and wanted to know how we were different from her church.  It was a great experience to tell them about the restored gospel.  She kept saying that she wanted to have her brother talk to her and explain doctrine to her.  She did not want missionaries yet but I will call her next week to see if they have had the conservation that she so much wanted to have with him.  I know they felt the Spirit because she made reference to feeling it twice during our conversation.  The gospel is TRUE.

New Year's Eve

Our New Year's Eve found us feeding the missionaries again.  This time we made dinner and served it at the stake center adjacent to the VC: haystacks, salad, rolls, dessert.  Good stuff.

And after dinner we returned to the VC for the Annual Talent Show.  Don performed his "Flags of All Nations" magic trick, the same one he did last year.  All the sisters' performances were outstanding and fun!  After the so-called "talent" we watched "The Work and the Glory."  The evening ended by watching the skies light up with fireworks galore!  All by individuals scattered all over Laie.  This was the last year the fireworks were allowed.