Lake Michigan...

"And We Went On Our Way...Rejoicing.."

Dear Familia & friends, As I sit looking out the large apt. window to the west, the visibility is about 300 yards. The snow is falling heavily. The temp is about 30 degrees. The many snowplow drivers are smiling today, as they are able to fulfill their mission to humanity. We all need to feel needed. Without snow, who needs a snowplow driver?? As the big plows go by clearing the snow or slosh from roadways, their dump bed is also filled with white stuff, salt. It is amazing to see how much salt is spread. Each plow has a spinning spreader attached to the rear of the truck, fed from the dump bed. The front clears the road and the rear spreads the salt. It helps immensely to keep ice from forming. The general traffic flow slows and drivers cspace themselves in their cars. Nobody wants to end up sliding into the car in front when they come to a stop. The natives have it down pretty good. Its us out-of-staters that have to be watched out for. Wednesday - Yesterday was the senior missionary training conference. We were to be in Oshkosh at the chapel by 9:30 am. From Kenosha, it is about 2-2 1/2 hours. Oshkosh is located on the west side of Lake Winabago. It is only about 50 miles south of Green Bay. Somebody told us about the guy who was driving his 4 WD pick up on the lake, ice fishing. Guess the ice wasn't quite as thick as what the man was expecting. His truck went through and had to be rescued from about 4 feet of water. Ice fishing sometimes involves stuff that might cause one to make a bad decision like that. We connected with one of the office couples to carpool with them. Elder & Sis. Smart are from Clifton, ID (just outside of Preston, in N. Cache Valley). He is the mission finance man. She is the mission president's secretary. Vicki and I left Kenosha at 6:30 am (what's up with these early winter morning hours???). We arrived at the M.O. in Greendale at 7:10 to await the Smarts. I had in mind we were to leave at 7:15 for Oshkosh. The Smarts showed up at 7:40. I was beginning to think we'd missed connecting. Later in the day, when I looked in my missionary planning book, I had written down to be at the M.O. at 7:45. Hmmmm. Now you can tell why we are senior missionaries! Guess I need to check my planning book more closely in the future. We had enjoyable visiting time with the Smarts. They have a farm, and previously a dairy in Clifton. Vicki thought of the Campbells, good friends of Amy and Ben, who have a dairy in the same area, and asked the Smarts if they were acquainted. Turned out that Sis. Smart was the piano teacher for their older kids, and knew them well. Small world isn't it. There were 8 couples present from all over the mission. One couple, he Calls, was unable to make it. The other missing couple, the Shumways from Las Vegas, are the second office couple. Elder Shumway is the "car czar" for the mission. He's perfect for the job. Sister Shumway is the housing coordinator. She finds new apts. as needed and furnishes them. Since there is a crisis to find apts. for our new missionaries that are to be coming on the next transfer, they were out taking care of business. We were told that 23 new missionaries will arrive in a week. Only four will be going home. Usually 7or 8 new ones come at a time. It is creating a stress for the M.O. to be ready for them. Pres. & Sis. Jones are a bit stressed as well. They are due to go home at the end of June. While they love the mission and the missionaries, I think they are glad to not have to deal with all that lies ahead in accommodating the influx of new missionaries. Pres. Packer gave good advice to the young missionaries some time back when speaking of how to best deal with stresses that come to us. It is good counsel for all of us. He simply said as only he can, "Don't do anything stupid." Back to the training conference. It was very nice to meet other senior missionaries, to see who it is that leaves behind their home, their grandkids and their other favorite things to go off missionarying. After looking them all over, listening to their stories and learning what they were doing, we came home thankful for who we are and where we are assigned. Everybody brings talents and experience to bless the people where they serve. Each one brings their own personality. Each couple is filling a need. Our mission could easily use twice the number of senior missionaries we presently have. I expect its like that everywhere. Each one of us benefits from serving and learns more about Heavenly Father's amazing love for each of His children. It's really not so difficult to be a full-time servant of the Lord. Vicki and I are drawing closer to each other as we read and study and plan together. And especially as we go out together to carry out those plans, we have the blessing of experiencing together the blessing of the Holy Spirit making something very good come from our humble efforts. One of my favorite reads is "Wilford Woodruff, History of His Life and Labors." It consists mostly of quotes from his journals. His missionary experiences are absolutely amazing. I love to read them. At the conclusion of an amazing account he will usually say, "and we went on our way rejoicing." I think that's a wonderful description of what we feel like when we come home after having seen Heavenly Father's hand in His work. Our mission president began our training yesterday by relating what it is like to attend a mission presidents training with the senior brethren of the Church. He asked us, "what do you think they usually start with in our training?" Several answers were offered. Then he said, "they always begin by talking about our purpose as missionaries." Then he referred us to what all missionaries memorize as our purpose, from the very first sentence of Ch. 1 in PMG, which says, "Our missionary purpose is to 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 Holy Ghost and enduring to the end." Then he began to take us through the amazing scriptural passages from the Book of Mormon that teach us about coming unto Christ. We refer to this as the Doctrine Christ. It consists of developing faith in Jesus Christ, repenting of our sins, making covenants with Him and receiving the accompanying ordinances, and faithfully continuing that cycle. The Holy Spirit manifested Himself to us as these "plain and precious" truths were talked about. If you'd like to have a Spirit filled experience, I invite you to first get on your knees and ask Heavenly Father for His Spirit to guide, bless and enlighten your mind. Then go to the "doctrine of Christ" in the TG. Select those passages from the Book of Mormon that you are guided to. Read them. Think about what they may mean to you. Pray again about them. I promise that as you do so you will begin to feel Heavenly Father's love for you again in a very personal way. Well, you may not realize it, but an hour has passed and now I am back. We accompanied the missionaries to make a visit in this snow storm. This a real snow storm. It has been coming down all day heavy, and the snow is heavy. Perfect for snowballs and snowmen, not that I am making any plans along those lines. It's just that the previous snow we have had has been very dry, powdery snow. Today's is wet and heavy. We've gotten about 6-7 inches so far. The storm is supposed to last until midnight. Good thing Vicki has her boots. She was breaking trail for us up to the house where we went to visit. (What was that saying about "your grandma wears combat boots" that we used to hear. Well, Vicki's aren't really combat boots, but they did the job!) Turned out that Nicole was not home, but next door we met Pedro. He was out shoveling snow. We were able to make an appt. to come back next week. Maybe it was really about Pedro and his family instead of Nicole. Maybe it's about both of them. We'll have to see how it turns out. So back to the senior training conference. . . . . it was really good, all of it. The lunch was pizza provided by the mission, plus salads that were assigned to the couples. Vicki made an amazing fruit salad - navel orange chunks, fresh pineapple chunks, kiwi slices, grapes, banana bites, then vanilla yogurt as a spread. It was yummy. Maybe it was just that the fruit is not as accessible during the winter here in the northland. Anyway, the seniors really enjoyed it. I hope it is deductible . . . . . Tuesday - was zone training meeting in Elkhorn. We drove the 50 miles, accompanied by our Sp. speaking elders. Good training as well. My main take away was that by using a Book of Mormon scripture to support a principle or doctrine we are teaching, we teach with much more power. I know that is true. In our future preparation together we will make a point of selecting a Book of Mormon scripture to go long with the principle or concept we are teaching. While in Elkhorn we stopped by la familia Hernandez to leave a Temple magazine. Since we could not visit them on Wednesday, due to the seniors conference, we thought we should try to at least make a contact with them. The Temple magazine has wonderful pictures and articles about the temple. It is in Spanish. The elders that accompanied us got treated to a late lunch at Culvers when we got back to Kenosha. In case you were wondering or even care, the flavor of the day was dark chocolate raspberry. Ummmmmmm. We made two good investigator visits with the elders in the pm. The second visit was to teach the law of chastity to a couple who are progressing some, but need to get married, but first he needs to get legally divorced. Guess who taught the lesson. The elders think it is easier for old people to teach the law of chastity than for them. It was good. They are a sweet couple. He has been on unemployment and doesn't have the money to pay the lawyer to complete the divorce process. He has set a goal of having the $$ within the next few months. We will see. They committed to be at church Sunday. Monday - Went with the elders on a teach. We had lunch with Cecilia, an older single sister who is committed for baptism. She loves to cook. This was our first time with her to eat. Pollo a la milanesa, with arroz Mexicana, ensalada, guacamole, and Jarritos Mexican soda to drink. Very nice meal. She wants to do her enchiladas de pollo the next time. After testing her cooking on this visit, we did not protest the enchiladas. My Monday duty is to write to President Jones for the both of us. Vicki's usual Monday is the laundry. Hey, I also do the vacuuming, and try to help out folding clothes. In the evening we took Hna. Cecilia to FHE with the Flores family. They are converts of about 4 years, a beautiful familia, very faithful, 4 children, 3 of them daughters, ages 12 to 18. Have been to the temple. The lesson was given by the elders on the Plan of Salvation. It was Cecilia's first time to hear it. Turned out very well. Hna. Flores is the Primary president. Vicki and I work closely with her in our callings. Sunday - The usual Primary duties were attended to. We both taught lessons, Vicki the younger class, I the older one. Vicki also does the sharing time lesson, today on the Creation. My lesson was on Joseph Smith receiving the Golden Plates. Vicki decided to take her beautiful bouquet of flowers to put on the podium for sacrament meeting. Whey were beautiful. We never have any flowers in the church. Looks like we will now. Hmmmm. Maybe that's deductible. Turned out that Vicki also played the piano for sacrament meeting. She did good. It was testimony meeting. Too many missionary testimonies. We need to hear more member testimonies. After church meetings the Racine Sp. elders asked us to accompany them to a teach with Felipe, a 70 year old Mexican man. It was on the Word of Wisdom. He received their teaching well. We added out testimony of support and invited him to accompany one of the members who lives nearby to church. We came home much later than usual for Sunday, but we had felt the Spirit and "went on our way (home) rejoicing." Saturday - Spent time preparing for our Primary assignments on Sunday. Accompanied the elders on a couple of teaches. Vicki fixed dinner for Hna. Betanco, a single sister who just had a baby. The baby, seven days old, was blessed on Sunday. Friday - Accompanied the elders to give a blessing. Turned out that I gave the blessing. Very sweet experience to teach an investigator about the priesthood and about priesthood blessings, then to give the blessing. We decided to visit the Civil War Museum of Kenosha. As we were paying our fee and preparing to enter, the curator, Doug Dammann, stopped to visit with us. We always introduce ourselves as missionaries from the Church. We had a nice visit in which we learned that special programs and presentations are held at the Museum during the year. We got a schedule and will try to take advantage of some of them. Of course the main part of the Museum features Civil War relics and tells the story of the War. This Museum is especially meant to honor those from the upper Midwest states who served in the War. I always think about Bro. Filhart's great grandfather and my great grandfather being on opposite sides of the battles in the War. I don't think they actually faced each other, but I think about it when I am in that situation. Bro. Filhart knows more about the Civil War, the battles, the generals on both sides, than anybody else I know. He is amazing. Filhart's are the best of the best! We love them dearly. I think they are working towards getting ready to serve a mission. Vicki received her "Daily Dose" materials to learn Spanish this week. She has begun to engage in the process more than before. The mission has ordered the materials from the same program to teach English. President Jones told me at the seniors conference that we should get the materials next week. We'll see what happens. We learned this week that a friend, brother and teaching colleague received his transfer. Richard Heywood. He was a good man. My life was better for my association with him. An amazing track athlete at BYU when young. I respect Richard and pray for Julie and their family at this time. Guess that's enough. What a precious privilege to serve the Lord in this way. Last Saturday evening we were sitting at the table talking. I asked Vicki what would we be doing if we were at home. She thought for a second and said, "We'd be in the temple." That's right. Our shifts were on Friday and Saturday pm. Then she said, "I am so glad we decided to do this. I love that we are here serving this mission!" I could tell she meant what she said. She is an amazing lady. The things she says and does really do amaze me. How blessed I am to have married up. She is my sunshine when it rains or snows. I love her dearly. Blessings on each of you in your doings. Thank you for your prayers for all the missionaries and those they teach. Hasta la proxima! Elder & Sister Skinner

Zone Conference...

Zone Conference, North and South