Champions Run by our Condo

Champions Run

You can see why they call it Champion's Run. It is by a Race Track when they hold horse races every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This is a beautiful picture don't you think?

Our Condo in Ruidoso

Here is a picture of our Condo in Ruidoso. It is a nice place. There are four levels and we share the kitchen with the Elders. We live in the upper apartment.

Here is our address:

Elder and Sister Lee
Champion's Run #208
HC 46 Box 55
Ruidoso Downs, NM 88346

Our New Home for 18 Months

Here is the Place we will be living for the next eighteen months. It is called Champions Run because it is next to a race track where they race horses every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Transfer Bus

They use a bus to make transfer every six weeks. It is an exciting time for all the missionaries. They all show up at the different chapels to say hi and goodbye.

Here I am being assigned to our new area: Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation on the Mission Assignment Board

New Missionaries enter the Mission Home with us

Here we are with all the NEW Missionaries that were entering the Texas Lubbock Mission at the same day we did.

Our picture with President and Sister Robison

The Mission Home

President Robison drove us to the Mission Home where we stayed for two nights. I loved Sister Robison. She is such a delight. We were given a beautiful bedroom to stay in and the best food you could ask for. Sister Robison many delicious meals for us and the missionaires who were coming and leaving the mission field. They let us be part of all the activities at the mission home. We took part in the training by the President and his assisants, went to pick up the missionaries at the airport, met the transfer bus and attended the farewell meeting at the mission home for the departing missionaires. It was so touching to see how much those elder loved their missions and didn't want to go home. We had many late night talks with President and Sister Robison and got very well acquainted with them. We are really going to enjoy your mission serving with them.

New Office Senior Missionaries

These are the two new Senior Missionaries who will be working in the Office.

Elder and Sister Carbine

We went to the Mission Office in Lubbock on Monday morning. The assisants to President Robison met us and we were really impressed. We have never met such fine young, warm, friendly and capable young men. I can see why the President chose them to help him in the mission. We met several other office missionaries and liked them as well. Elder and Sister Carbine, senior missionaries, who just reached the mission three weeks ago were there too. We really like them. President Robison finally came. He is a very motivated, well organized, loving, kind and very capable man of the Lord. He communicaes very well and is very dynamic. We love him already.

We drove all night on Saturday and arrived in Lubbock Texas at 200 a.m. I couldn't believe it but Dad drove all night long and never got tired. I think he is anxious to make it to the mission field. We stayed at a motel until the next morning when we attended the Shadow Hills Church in Lubbock. The Elders and Sisters that are serving in that area were anxious to see us and visit. We had our picture taken at the Lubbock Texas Temple

Here we are at the Mission Home in Lubbock with President and Sister Robison. It's great to be in the mission home, but we can't wait to get to Ruidoso

Lubbock Texas

We drove around Lubbock for a little bit and saw the Lubbock Temple. It is beautiful, like all the other temples. I wish we had time to go in and see it but we have to go to the mission home tomorrow (Monday) and we will be leaving on Tuesday for Ruidoso. We did however, see field and field of cotton growing. I hope you enjoy the picture. Also they have lots and lots of oil riggers.

We left Provo and the MTC on August 7 to begin our journey to the Mission Home in Lubbock Texas. We left Marci and Brian and Kids, Bill and Karen & family with tearful eyes as we began our 18 month journey without family and friends. We spent numerous hours of studying "Preach My Gospel" in preparation for our soon to be mission work but we loved every minute of it. The Spirit of the Lord was very strong there and our testimonies grew in leaps and bounds.

We decided to make our trip to Lubbock an adventure along the way as we studied in the car to see a few of the sights as we traveled. We drove past the mighty Colorado River and marveled at the majestic red cliffs along the highway. They were gigantic and towering. We saw the Wilson Arch just outside Moab which is close to Arches National Monument. We saw the beautiful Monticello Temple, which is small but beautiful. We passed by rows and rows and field after field of sunflowers. It seems like Dove Colorado is the sunflower capital of the world???? (On the farm when I was a child, we cut sunflowers down and considered them weeds) Here in Colorado they are considered a cash crop. Very Interesting!!!!! We drove through the southwest corner of Colorado into Cortez and onto New Mexico - soon to be our new home. It certainly is the Land of Enchantment. There we saw the famous "Chimney Rock" and "Shiprock" which we found out is not a famous landmark for the Utah Pioneers. Oh well. We passed the four corners area and traveled through every little town and city (the directions on the map were terrible) through sun, rain, and darkness until we reached Fort Sumner. We saw a terrible accident where a car had turned over and after a 1/2 hour of travel we finally saw the ambulance headed in that direction. Made us feel greatful to live in the city. FINALLY, after 16 hours of traveling, we reached Lubbock Texas at 2:00 in the morning. We got ourselves royally lost on the loop around Lubbock. The worker at the motel couldn't help us because he didn't know anything and FINALLY, we found someone who was up at that time in the morning who gave us great directions. WE MADE IT!

We just finished our week at the MTC in Provo Utah. What a week of activities, mostly with the Preach My Gospel Manual. A group of returned missionaries were our teachers and they taught us throught the week how to give lessons and ideas on dealing with potential investigators. It was really a stretch and out of our comfort zone because we were giving lessons to investigators at the MTC by the second day. The lessons consisted of a spiritual journey, an overview and a lesson. We gave five lessons. We struggled along with 50 toher senior missionaries trying to give the lessons after one day of reading. We ate with them, laughed with then, and enjoyed sharing stories with them. We learned to love them very mcuh. One of them even suggested we have a reunion in eighteen months. We was very impressed with the MTC, it has thousands of missionaries coming and gong all day long and they are all very respectful to the senior missionaries and treat us like royalty. They open our doors, smile and greet us and even let us get in front of them in the lunch line. We were impressed to find out the MTC is cleaned solely by the missionaries giving service. We learned a lot and are really looking forward to getting into the mission field and giving our very first Real lesson. We LOVED the MTC. We have a great love for our Savior, Jesus Christ and are looking forward to serving him. It was a very spiritual experience. We really love the Lord and are proud to serve him. We LOVE being missionaries!!!!!!

We made it to the MTC. It was an awesome first day. We already taught our first discussion!!!

Presentent Eckman set us apart on August 1st at he West Bountiful Stake Center. We were happy to have Jeff and his kids there to support us. The blessings we recieved were inspiring and prophetic. It said we should be awesome missionaries and that all of our families would be taken care of while we were serving the Lord.

Mtc

Mtc

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WE ARE NOW FULL TIME MISSIONARIES. What a joy!

August 1, 2010. We just met with President Eckman, Stake President, to be set apart as full time missionaries. He cited two special scriptures just for us:

D&C 31 3-5 Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come: and your tongue shall be loosed, and ye shall declare glad tidings of great joy unto this generation.

You shall declare the things which have been revealed to my servant, Joseph Smith, jr.
You shall begin to preach from this time forth, yea, to reap in the field which is white, already to be burned.

Therefore, thrust in your sickle with all your sole, and your sins are forgiven you, and you shall be laden with sheaves upon your back, for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Wherefore, your family shall live

Alma 17: 9 And it came to pass that they journed many days in the wilderness, and they fasted and prayed much, that the Lord would grant unto them a portion of His spirit to go with them and abide with them, and they might be an instrument of God to bring, if it were possible, their brethern, the Lamanites, to the knowledge of the truth, to the knowledge of the baseness of the traditions of their fathers, which were not correct.

******** Sister Lee was set apart first and Pres Eckman blessed her in all aspects of her life. Specifically he gave her counsel regarding any fears she might have. He promised her that she would be very successful with the people whom they would teach and with her love would be effective in bringing them into the gospel. He blessed her that her love would be magnified. He promised that she would be protected and find great happiness in this work.

Elder Lee was promised great blessings in teaching the gospel with the spirit. The spirit would magnify his abilities and loose his tongue so that many would follow. He was promised to accomplish the desires of his heart if he was willing to work for it. He admonished us to use the skills we have learned throughout our life in the church to help the people in the Mescalara branch and we would be successful. He also said the way is being prepared right now for many people to hear our message.

We were also promsied that our family would be taken care of in every aspect, spiritually, emotionally, physically and temporally while we were serving the Lord.

Before we were set apart the Stake President took the time to visit with Jeff and his family and asked if they had any advice or questions for grandma and grandpa. Jeff made the comment that we should go and tell our story. We have been blessed to have a wonderful family and all eight children are laboring and thriving in the gospel. What a legacy! We have a wonderful family and we are very proud of them.

We certainly feel the spirit is with us now and we are ready to go a reap the harvest the Lord has placed before us. We feel very privileged to serve the Lord.

We are looking forward to a wonderful week at the MTC. We LOVE serving the Lord!