Farewell at the Mission Home

We drove on Tuesday morning to Lubbock Texas for the farewell dinner and testimony meeting for the departing missionaries. There were seven missionaries, plus Elder and Sister Lee going home that day. Sister Augustin prepared a beautiful dinner for us and then we held a final testimony meeting. That was such a spiritual experience!! It was beautiful to hear the strong testimonies of the missionaries that served with us. They certainly was valiant sons of our Heavenly Father and we felt privileged to serve with them. After the testimony meeting we had our final interview with President Agustin. He thanked us for for our valiant service and said he knew we really did our best and loved the Apache Indians. He realized it was a hard mission but he felt we served very well and commended us for our diligence. We walked away feeling very happy. It is wonderful to serve the Lord

Last Sacrament Meeting with Mescalero's

Our last Sacrament Meeting was very emotional for us. It was hard to say good bye. After Elder Lee and I gave our talks and said good bye, President Fossum opened up the meeting for members to come and bear their testimonies. Of course, they all wanted to come up and say good bye to us and thank us for our service. It was a difficult meeting for me as I cried through all of it. We really felt the love of these people and it touched our hearts. Our bodies may leave the reservation but our hearts will always look back with fond memories and love for them. The highlight was when Roman, an investigator, who wants to be baptized, but can't because he can't get parental consent, came up to the pulpit. He was very nervous, but said, "I don't know what to say, but all I know is I feel very good when I come to this church" He thanked us for teaching him and helping him to feel the spirit. It was a highlight. The church was full and they had to get extra chairs. We had sixty people, which made us feel very good. They provided a beautiful pot luck dinner, with all the trimmings. We love the Mescalero Apache's and will miss them very much.

Farewell to Mescalero

After eighteen months, it was time to go home. We left with mixed feelings because we didn't want to leave our friends in Mescalero, but we did want to see our family again. We told the Branch that our last Sunday would be in February. They didn't want us to leave, but knew it would happen anyway. President Fossum said to Elder Lee at their last Presidency meeting "Don't go, ok?" He said if he knew it was possible to request an extension, he would have asked for us to stay six months longer. But they held a farewell party for us and two of the members got up and talked to us about our service as they told us about the apache's. The Fossum kids did a native american sign language dance for us. Sister Ahidley said, she was grateful for our love of the Apache people and how well we blended into the community. One time at a school function, someone looked into the crowd and said "Who are those two people?" (pointing to the two white faces in the crowd). She said, she proudly said, "They are missionaries from our church, the Mormon Church). People got used to us on the reservation as we were there all the time. We went to the funerals, Birthday parties, community activities, feasts, and school activities. The best compliment I ever had was when I was at Wallmart, and a native american woman came in back on me in the checking out lane. I smiled at her and asked her how she was. She smiled back and said, "I know you, you are from Mescalero aren't you? You see they knew who we were and accepted us.

Sister Ahidley, jokinging with us said, "Sister Lee, I understand you were a little scared to come to Mescalero because you heard the Apache's were ferocious! That is true, and we want you to know that we love you because we are letting you go home with all your white hair!!! Everyone laughed. It was a great party and we had a wonderful time with our friends.

Temple Blessings for Norma

Norma is our beautiful woman of faith. She had a desire to attend the temple, but everything in the world went wrong for her. Her car broke down with multiple problems. Her ex husband kicked her and her two boys out of their house with no place to go. She tried to work with the Apache tribal courts but it took forever for them to find her a place to go to. In the mean time, she just attending church, and taking the temple prep classes with us. At one time she said, how much more does the Lord want me to endure. I am trying to keep all the commandments. Then they found her a place, and she was offered a new job. She was elated. When she finished the classes, she went through the process to get her temple recommend and we told her we would take her to the Albuquerque temple. Last Friday was that wonderful day. She beamed all over with excitement and Love for the Lord and his house. We asked her if she would take a few minutes to talk in Sacrament meeting and she gladly accepted. But, lots of things went wrong. Her boss called her in and said she shouldn't have taken Friday off for church reasons. Then she fired her. Even though Norma is going through a lot of trials, she keeps saying. The Lord will bless me, I just know he will. I just have to do my part. We sure love her!!

Blessings for Merilee children

Merilee just had a beautiful boy and on the way home from church last Sunday asked if she could have her baby blessed before we left. Then to my surprise, she aksed if all her children could have a belssing. Of course we were happy to oblige her so Sunday was filled with blessings in our Sacrament meeting. It was a great day and the members are beginning to realize we will be leaving. They are planning a pot luck dinner for us next Sunday. It is going to be hard to say good bye. I cry every night just thinking our mission is almost over. It has certainly been a growing experience for us. And our love for our savior has grown soooo much. I can't begin to express it. I can truly testify that this is the Lord's church. And we have loved serving his sons and daughters here on earth.

The Last Stretch

Well, we are getting closer and closer to completing our mission and serving the Lord. we have mixed feelings because we want to come home, but we hate to leave our friends here in Mescalero. We have made some very good friends here and they are expressing sadness at our leaving. But the Lord is still working with us. We went to say good bye to Marquita whom we have been teaching for almost a year. She expressed a desire to be baptized. We were shocked and are trying to help her get ready. It is amazing how the Lord works in providing people for us to teach. We felt very bad when she didn't come to church on Sunday. She said she had been ill all night, but we will still work with her while we're here. Then Udaniel surprised us and came to church. That was a shock. We gave him the first lesson and he told the Lord in his prayer, thank you for sending the missionaries to help me find the way. We was so happy to see him and I gave him a big hug and he smiled all over. After sacrament meeting he told us he thinks he has found home and asked us to come and teach him more lessons. It is amazing how the spirit works. We are so excited and hope we can get a few more baptisms before we come home. Please pray for us. Like our mission president, "there are thousands of lost souls out there that are waiting to find the gospel, they just don't know how to find it. We are hoping to provide the way.
We sure love our children and grand children and are proud of the things they are doing. THe Lord has blessed us in so many ways. We love being his servants.
See you soon.

News from the mission field January 8 2012

Well its a new year and we are very close to coming home from our mission to the Mescalero Apache People. We were invited to the mission home on February 8 for a farewell dinner and a testimony meeting with President and Sister Agustin and other returning missionaries. We are happy but sad. We should be arriving in Utah around Friday, February 10 if all goes well.
We feel very lucky to have been able to serve in the missionfield bringing souls unto Christ. We worry about the branch and their success after we leave especially when we only had 12 people in attendance on New Years Eve. But last Sunday we had 27 and President Fossum gave a beauitful talk to his members about the joys and blessings of belong to the church. We really felt the spirit and was happy to see him step up to the plate. We hope they keep coming because he needs the support.
The only thing that we are worried about is the reason so many people were there was because one of the members was having a meeting afterwards to plan a feast for two of their girls. Most of the people in attendance were there because of the meeting after. Lula gave a beautiful talk on how they revere thier Apache Heritge but they should remember the most important thing is the gospel of Jesus Christ and it should be first in their lives. I hope they were listening.
Dad and I are busy trying to get around to all the members to say good bye and show them the beautiful HIstory book I created for them. The first two families were very impressed and wanted to make sure the book stayed in the church because they liked it so much.
It is going to be hard so say goodbye because we have many memories here but we are anxious to come home and see all of you again.

New Year's Eve 2012

Here are some pictures of our New Year's Eve 2012 with Elders Justensen and Elder Hart.

Elder Hart is brand new from the MTC. He is from Santa Rosa California!! (note John). We had to be in our apartments by six so we didn't see much action. I fixed a nice home cooked meal for the Elders. They gobbled up everything. Then we spent the night playing monopoly.

However, the next day we heard how crazy it was on the reservation. President Fossum said Mescalero was crazy and almost every house had fireworks. We are lucky the forrest is wet. His wife is a police women and they heard of arrests all night long. Someone actually had a revolving rifle and was being shot off and everything and everyone, but the police could not locate it. It was crazy.

The next day was the first Sunday of the year and we were anxious to get a good start. But disappointment set in. We sat for two hours with no one there. At 10 minutes before Sacrament Pres Fossum showed up with his kids (his wife was home cooking thier New Year meal. Even Lula who is always there, didn't show up. We were about to just have the sacrament and go home when Birdena showed up with a couple of people. So we held a small sacrament meeting and showed a video on the Savior. To say the least, the missionaries were terribly disappointed. It didn't seem to bother Pres Fossum, he said said, Oh I guess they are sleeping because it is the new year. What a way to start the new year.

Snow in Ruidoso

We had a lot of sun this year, as usual, but there is more to come. Our last snow flurry was in December and we got plenty. We got snowed in as usual, but were able to snow shovel ourselves out to get to the main road. It was such a heavy snowstorm they closed all the roads on all sides of Ruidoso, so no one could get in or out. But it was beautiful. There were people taking pictures every where. These pictures are just outside out condo.

Santa with the Elders

We had a great time with the Elders at our apartment. Santa came to visit and boy were they surprised!!! While they were studying, Santa burst through the door to wish them a Merry Christmas. They were so excited we just had to take pictures. Elder Justensen, who lives with us, and Elder Simmons, Zone leader.

Christmas in the Missionfield 2011

Well, Christmas has come and gone, but there will always be memories. Dad was asked to be the Santa for the Elderly Center in Mescalero. about 30 elderly people came to see him. He was very good and teased them and they had a sack of goodies to give them. He was very good. I took a few pictures for you to see. They take pretty good care of the Elderly there in Mescalero as many of them are shunned by the family and are homeless. Anyone who is over 60 is welcome there all day long and they feed them and do crafts with them. They also take meals on wheels to those who are homebound. Michaeline, who is a member of our church is in charge of this facility and she does a great job. They are lucky to have here.

Enjoy

Christmas Program at the school

We were invited to the Christmas program at the school. It was very good. All the kids sang beautifully. We did notice, however, that when they sang the song "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, with the accent words "Like Columbus" they said Like Geromino.

Cute huh. Kids are beautiful the world round

Grandma got run over by a Reindeer

Look for me on the floor

OK Here are the Mission Christmas PIctures

Whoops, I forgot there were a lot of Sierra Blanca under the heading of Mission Christmas Party. Hope these are the ones

Mission Christmas Party 2011

We drove all the way to Lubbock for the mission party with the elders and sisters. My what a great time we had. I have never been so entertained. Each one of the districts put together a skit about missionary life and I thought I would laugh myself to death. Our district did not get together so at the last minute (as we were walking up to the stage) they decided not to sing Christmas Carols, but sing "Grandma got run over by a reindeer. They instructed me to fall down when one of the elders ran into me. I did just that! I fell so realistically that everyone gasped, for they thought I really did fall. President Agustin said I stole the show and I great artistic talent. We had a lot of compliments on our skit. It was so much fun. They fed us a beautiful Christmas dinner and President Agustin spoke of Christmas. He said, we are all inkeepers like the one in Bethlehem. Do we have room for him in our lives and would be let him in if he came knoking at our door.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas