WASHINGTON D.C. SOUTH MISSION: TEMPLE TRIP WITH OUR DEPARTING MISSIONARIES!

Saturday, May 29, 2010

TEMPLE TRIP WITH OUR DEPARTING MISSIONARIES!

On April 29, 2010 we went to the temple with our wonderful group of departing missionaries. We will miss them. This is a wonderful day each time we experience this with the group of wonderful Elders and Sisters who will be leaving the next morning. A great place to spend the last day of your mission.

This group includes: Pres and Sis. Albright, Sisters Barsuto, Howald, Jacobson, Lau, and Lee and Elders Loppe, Wilkey, Ozaki and Packer. What a Beautiful Day.

This picture also includes the parents and family members that were here to pick up their missionaries. We love to have them attend the temple with us. The Ozakis, Wilkeys and Packer families were here joining us.

5 sisters: Barsuto, Lau, Lee, Howald, and Jacobson.

Elders Wilkey and Ozaki

Elders Williams and Bell with Elder Loppe

Sis. Howald from Missouri, She came to us from Mongolia and was an absolute delight. She spent the last 2 months of her mission with us. (Mongolia is no longer allowing missionaries to stay longer than a year. ) She is one of 21 siblings (same mom all single births) What a great family. She loves it and shared wonderful stories of a big happy family.

She Barsuto comes to us from a Temple Square mission. They are sent to another mission for 3 months or 2 transfers to get this experience also. She was a fabulous Spanish missionary--bold and sweet. 12 baptisms in 12 weeks.

Sis Jabobson is from Missouri also. Amazing--two from the same state. She is an angel, A constant because you could always depend on her. Everyone loved serving with her.

Sis. Lee. This beautiful sister also came to us from Mongolia when her visa ran out. She is always smiling and easy to love. It was fun to have sisters all trained and ready to go to work.

Sister Lee is from Utah and is going to return to Mongolia with her folks just a few days after she returns home

Sis Lau came to us from Hong Kong China. Her father is the Temple engineer there. She has 2 other siblings serving missions at the same time as her. She is the sweetest thing and laughs so easily that everyone is comfortable around her. She will return to Provo for school and she goes home for the summer.

Elder Packer. A handsome, always smiling and nice young man. Others look up to him and he was a great leader in the mission. His mom and brother came to pick him up and it was great to meet them.

Elder Loppe. What a fun guy. He was always making everyone have fun around him. He returns to Texas, but then on to Spain to see his Dad.

Elder Ozaki, One of our own from a small town of Logandale, outside of Las Vegas. He was also a leader and did a great job of leading his zones and districts.

Elder Wilkey, A happy missionary who used his special musical talents to spread the Gospel.

His family also visited and it was nice to meet them.

Elder Packer with his mom and brother

Elder Ozaki with his parents

Elder Wilkey with his parents

Our PRICELESS ASSISTANTS Elders Williams and Bell. They are great and keep everything running. Can't thank them enough.

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Stephanie Smith Fireside

Last Sunday evening we were privileged to attend a fireside in the mission. It was held at a beautiful old chapel in McLean. One of the pictures shows the inside of the chapel and the wood beams on the very steep-pitched ceiling of the room. The gym is under the chapel in the basement. I have never seen a floorplan like this one. Very unique. This fireside hosted Sister Stephanie Smith. Her story was in the Ensign sometime in the last year. She has a remarkable conversion story. She has held very high government positions and at one time was 5th in command at the CIA. She said something at the first of her talk that I wrote down: she said, "I've been on some remarkable adventures. But no adventure in my lifetime has been as extraordinary and life-changing as my path to conversion and baptism in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints. She then told about her introduction to the church. She was at a time in her life with tremendous worldly success achieved after clawing her way to the top without any regard for others, and she felt her life was shattering into a million pieces. At this time she turned to a colleague she admired who was a member of the church. He told her two things. That her Heavenly Father knew her by name and loved her and that Heavenly Father had a plan for her success. The next day he sent her a map to the temple visitor center. She told how when the missionary sisters came to her door, she didn't think she could relate to these young women. The first thing they did was ask if they could sing to her. They sang,"I am a Child of God." That was the beginning of her conversion, a long a beautiful story. You can read it on the web at Meridian Magazine. Her testimony was a real inspiration to me. There were over 350 people there and she does a great missionary work speaking to investigators. What a blessing to have heard her and felt her spirit.

Chelsea Our recent Convert

We have met the sweetest young sister. Chelsea is amazing. She joined the church during the last year and has an incredible testimony also. She never misses any missionary function and we were able to take her with us to the Stephanie Smith Fireside. She also came to the mission home a few weeks ago and we had family night. She gave the lesson and is was unbelievable. She is hoping to go on a mission next year. What a great young woman. This is a picture of her with Elders Ganaway and Gifford.