BAPTISM SATURDAY -May 22, 2010

What a wonderful day. Pres. & I started out early and planned on going to 4 baptisms. We only managed to make it to three because of the traffic and the rain. But it was a very beautiful day and we got to witness 3 very special baptisms. They were for Ashley Resto, Patrick Anokye, and Martha Ward.
This is Martha Ward and her husband Austin. It has been a joy to watch Martha and hear about her conversion through the missionaries. Her husband is a member. He has been in Texas for military training and while he was there, Martha investigated his church. They had long wonderful converstions on the phone about the Gospel and they would read scriptures together over the phone. She is a talented, beautiful, woman who also serves in the military. She has come to the mission home firesides a couple of times and we have seen her testimony grow.

What was really special was to see a husband baptize his wife. It was incredibly touching to see a husband very tenderly take her into the font and then gently lower her into the water and then kiss her after she came out of the water. VERY SPIRITUAL. You could tell how happy they both were.
Martha and Austin with Elder Gillihan
Martha with Elder Geary

This is Elders Kotyk, Doman and Wilkinson just after Patrick Anokye. Elder Kotyk performed the baptism and Elder Wilkinson was the pianist.
All the young men and young women came out to support Ashley Resto for her baptism.

Ashley has good friends and has been attending church meetings with them. The Judd family are Ashleys church family and they have taken care of her as she has learned of the Gospel.

Elders Lawson and Loar are two of the missionaries that helped with Ashley's conversion.
Ashley's mom came to see her baptism.
Ashley and her good friend, Aubrey Judd.

SPEAKING OPPORTUNITIES BRING BLESSINGS

On May 16 we spoke at the Crystal City Ward. This ward meets in the most beautiful old building. Sacrament meeting starts at 8:30 a.m.. Bless those members.

ALPHABET SOUP

In my talk at Zone conferences last time, we talked a little about making sure they define the terms they use when they visit with investigators. Many of our Gospel terms are new to people and can be confusing. Even words like pre-existence, Atonement, priesthood can be new to them. We have a language all our own. I gave them copies of this poem and thought everyone would like this. ENJOY

ALPHABET SOUP

My son's a CTR...I go to PEC

I work for CES...I study the TG

I read the BofM...I probe the D&C.

I search the KJV...I ponder the JST.

Today in BYC... we planned for EFY.

I stayed a little after...and had a PPI.

The YM and YW ...are putting on a play.

It's one that I remember...we did in MIA

Before our oldest son...went in the MTC,

He helped the BSA...complete their SME

Soon our oldest daughter... is heading to the Y.

Soon our oldest clothes... are going to DI.

Now, if you've understood...this alphabetic mess,

The chances are quite good...that you are LDS.

INTERVIEWS KEEP US BUSY FOR 2 WEEKS.

Interviews are a fun two weeks and keep us very busy. We drive to each Zone and do the interviews at a chapel. We set up a table and two chairs in a room for Pres. to have private interviews with each missionary. I get the fun job of visiting with each of them in the hall or entry where we have set up another table and chairs. We start at 9:00 and end around 4:00. I really love visiting with each of them and getting to know them and feel their wonderful spirits. Lucky me.

SCHEDULE:

Mon. May 17: Ashburn

Tues. May 18: Centreville

Thurs May 20: Fredericksburg

Fri. May 21: Mclean

Mon. May 24: Mt Vernon

Tues. May 25: Oakton

Fri. May 28: Woodbridge

Mon. May 31: Annandale

Wednesdays are staff meetings and Thurs the 27 was Return & Report.
Visiting and interviewing at the Annandale Zone: Elders Ford, Wasden, Tejada, and Stuart
Elder Staples visiting with Sis Abright

SCOUT CAMP TRAPS

President Albright was asked to speak at a boy scout camp for one of the stakes. He was so glad he had brought his TRAPS. He has a wonderful talk about the traps Satan uses to get us to do the things we shouldn't. And he has a these traps and fun "nature" things that he uses for this talk.

He had a lot of fun giving this talk. For one things he got to wear a scout shirt and pants. Felt nice to be out of a white shirt and tie.

BUSY, BUSY-AIRPORT RUNS & EXTRA MISSIONARIES

We have been blessed to have lots of EXTRA missionaries. They make the mission really exciting and brings great blessings to our work.

These EXTRAS include: Visa Waiters (when missionaries have finished the MTC and their visas have not yet arrived, we invite them to serve in DC South while they are waiting for their visas to come through). This month we have had two new sisters arrive. They are Sisters Henderson and Frandsen-both waiting to go to Spain. They can be here anywhere from 1 day to 4 months. We get just one days notice when they do get their visas. So we picked up these two sweet sisters on May 26.

Missionaries whose visas expire. For example, we have gotten 4 missionaries from Mongolia after that country cancelled visas after l years. We have taken Sisters Howald, Lee, and Lofgran to the airport. This week Sister Lee left on the 28th of May. We also received a new Elder from Mongolia: Elder Peterson arrived on the 25th of May. We also had a wonderful sister with us for almost 4 months: Sister Hawkins. She has been waiting for her visa for Australia for 3 mths. She flew out on May 26th.

We also love mini-missionaries. Our stake Presidents often send young men and woman preparing for missions to serve. We currently have Elder McMillan serving with us from the Ashburn Stake.

We had one Elder become sick and have to go home for a 6 week rest. He'll be back next week. So two more airport runs.

We also love to have missionaries from the Salt Lake City Temple Square Mission.

These wonderful sisters leave temple square for a 3 month period to serve in a proselyting mission somewhere in North America so they can experience both kinds of missions. Our most

recent SLC Temple Square sister was Sister Barsuto. She was remarkable. 12 baptisms in the 12 weeks she was here. We took her to the airport on May 12, 2010.

Our cars are learning to find there way to the airports by themselves.

Sister Lee with Pres. and I at dinner the night before she left us on May 27th.
Sisters Murray and Hawkins. This is taking Sister Hawkins to the airport to leave for Australia

on May 26th. Pres Albright was picking up the Visa waiters at Reagan Airport while I was taking Sis. Hawkins to the Dulles Airport at the same time. (no pictures of Sis. Henderson and Frandsen because I wasn't there)
Elder Peterson arrived from Mongolia on the 25th of May to finish his mission with us.

This is Sister Barsuto who served with us for 3 months and then headed back to SLC Temple Square. She left on May 12.

RETURN AND REPORT, MAY 27, 2010

We had Return & Report on Thurs. May 27, 2010. I didn't get many pictures taken. Darn.

We had a great time and enjoyed visiting with these new missionaries and seeing how well they are doing after just 4 weeks. The group included: Sister Garbrick, Elders Ditty, Johson, Odenwalder, Radford, Smallcomb, and Tejada. This meeting is used to train the new missionaries on things like car reports and care, apartment care, referrals, finances, medical, and other items. We then have a training and testimony meeting where they report on what has happened in the first month of their mission. Elders Bell and Williams talk about setting goals and using their study time wisely and Pres. and I each talk. Me for 10 min. Pres. for about 30.

Elders Bell and Williams with Elder Smallcomb
The office elders: Ford and Wasden with Elder Holmgren
Elders Tejada, Odenwalder and Sister Garbrick on the couch and Elders Johnson and Ditty in the back.

MISSION HOME FIRESIDE-JENNIFER ROSARIO

We had our Mission Home fireside on May 30, 2010. Our guest speaker was an incredible young woman named Jennifer Rosario. Her testimony was one of the most powerful I've heard. Her understanding of the Gospel was very beautiful and she expressed a strong testimony of many of the important principals of the Gospel.

She is in the Army National Guard. She met Edwardo at Fort Myers. He is a member.

They are now engaged. She went to the temple visitor center and filled out a referral card and the missionaries were sent to visit her.

Jennifer just lights up a room. She has embraced the gospel completely. Sisters Bennett and Aulava taught her the lessons. They have become great friends. Each morning for a couple of months (until Jennifer moved) she met 5 of our sisters at the gym or park and was drill sargeant for exercise. They had a great time and she worked them Hard. For example they were running up and down stairs.

Sisters Bennett and Aulava with Jennifer and Edwardo.
Sister Sowbey
Before the meeting starts. The assistants sitting up front.
Sister Hahn leading the singing
Sister JENNIFER ROSARIO speaking

Elder Keefer sang a beautiful song for a musical number.

The crowd goes into the entry to the front door
Elder Nielson bears his testimony
Visiting after the fireside
Elders Wasden and Wallace

Sisters Bay and Burns
Jennifer visits with Sis. Burton and an investigator
Bro and Sis. Seeler
Elders Bell, Robbins, Dowman, Caresia and a friend
Elder Bates and Johnson
Elders Garlick, Dowman, and Stoker





Sisters LeSueur and Garbrick
Sisters Burton and Sowby
Pres. and Sister Burton with son William and a friend
Elder Ika and Stoker
Elder Sowby

TWO MISSIONARY COMPANIONS FROM SOUTH AFRICA

On Sun, May 16, Mark had such a great experience. He was asked to speak at a fireside in the Scots Run building with Tom Griffiths as the keynote speaker. Brother Griffiths is a Federal Judge in Washington DC. He serves on the US Court of Appeals for the DC circuit.

He was one of Mark's missionary companions in South Africa. It was a great fireside. Bro. Griffiths was a great speaker. He told about growing up in this area. He was not a member and a girl invited him to a meeting at this building. He talked about how it felt to be at the building and about joining the church. He was captivating and entertaining and spiritual.

Pres. Albright with his companion Brother Griffiths.

The beautiful Scot's Run Building.

THE 6 WEEK CYCLE OF A MISSION

It is interview time again. This 6 week cycle is going faster and faster. Seems like we just have interviews and we are there again. Or it seems like we just have transfers and we are there again. I thought I would write an explanation of the 6 week cycle that all missions follow.

Week 1: Transfer week. New missionaries arrive and departing missionaries leave. Lots of meals and guests at the mission home.

Week 2: Prepare Zone Conferences, letters, talks, mtgs. Senior dinner.

Week 3: Zone Conferences

Week 4: Interviews

Week 5: Interviews

Week 6: Arrange transfers, mtgs, letters, talks, lots of computer work.

Begin Cycle again.

Each week Pres. receives about 160 e-mail letters from the missionaries and reads them all and tries to respond to as many as possible. This takes around 15 hours. He tries to do it a couple of hours each day. In three years this will be 2340 hours on letters to & from miss.

We mail about 200 other letters during the 6 weeks. Examples of these are: Welcome letter sent upon receipt of missionary recommendation from church headquarters., 2nd welcome letter with more info., Letter sent to miss. in MTC, Letter sent to parents when miss. arrives., letter sent to miss a few days after arriving, letter sent to missionary who is departing about 16 weeks before with travel forms, Letter sent to parents of departing miss., letter to stake presidents, letter to parents with itinerary, Letter to miss. 4 weeks before home with itinerary, letter to miss. 2 weeks with instructions, letter to miss. with going home packet., letter to missionary a few day after he gets home. Each letter has to be signed by Pres. or me.

These letters are multiplied by the number arriving or leaving, (average 10).

Pres. Albright attends 8 stake Correlation meetings each month.

We try to attend at least a couple of baptisms each Sat. It is impossible to attend all of them.

Pres. receives dozens of phone calls each day from missionaries with questions.

I receives around 25 medical phone calls each week. I am in charge of medical care for our missionaries. With 170 young adults this can be a lot of work. But it is fun and I enjoy doing it. All calls and dr. visits, etc. have to be logged into the computer.

We have a Sr Missionary dinner each transfer cycle. This is about 24 people for dinner. The Sr. all love to get together and get to know each other since they are spread all over the mission.

(even though their favorite thing is getting to know the young missionaries)

We have a Mission home Fireside on the last Sun of each month. This is usually attended by between 50-70 people. It is wall-to-wall people. Very spiritual. I make goodies all week.

We attend as many of the Stake conferences as we can. We are often asked to speak at Stake conferences. Pres. Albright usually speaks at a couple of wards each month. I speak at about 1 each transfer cycle.

We have a staff mtg. each week on Wed. This is when a lot of important details are taken care of. We have 2 wonderful couples working in the office. They keep the mission running and we love and appreciate them. There are 75 apartments to be taken care of and paid for and about 50 cars to be maintained, plus about 100 bikes. There are all the letters that have to be printed and mailed. And keeping the supply room running is a big job. We go through about 1000 (yes that's one-thousand) Book of Mormons each month. All of the books in 100 languages and all the pamphlets and pass-a-long cards have to be inventoried and ordered each month.

And one of the biggest and MOST IMPORTANT jobs is the mail. Each day the mailman brings around 100 pieces of mail. They have to be readdressed and mailed the same day to the missionaries. The mailman comes back later in the day to pick it up again.

There are lots of reports and all kinds of paper work that has to be maintained. It is an amazing thing the church does. All over the world, this same work is done in mission offices.

Pres. goes to the office every Sun. Evening for "call ins" Zone leaders call in with the reports.

This is the time when Pres. and Zone leaders get to discuss alot of mission work in each area.

He gets home LATE.

We have a Return and Report each cycle. This is 3-4 weeks after the new missionaries arrive. They come back to the mission home and spend the day reporting on how they are doing.

We have lunch and get to know them better.

We have a Zone leadership meeting each cycle. This is held the week after transfers. The 18 Zone leaders and Assistants spend the day at the mission home. Here is where the training takes place for leadership. They see how councils work and learn to solve problems and lead with love and trust. We have lunch at this meeting.

Zone conferences are wonderful, but very preparation intensive. A lot of work and energy goes into making them, meaningful, spiritual and fun.

Interviews are rewarding and the time when we learn the most from the missionaries.

Two straight weeks of interviews are very tiring and we kind of have information overload.

We try to have one or two zones or a couple of districts over for activities each month. We get to know the missionaries better this way.

Pres. tries to attend different dictrict meetings each week. These are held on Mon mornings.

On the 2 weeks off, he drives to different buildings to participate in these meetings and observe how they are doing.

We have missionaries coming and going all the time. We are open to lots of extras.

Visa Waiters, temple square sisters, Mongolians finishing their missions, mini missionaries. We sent to the airport 8 extra times this month. (not counting our arriving and departing)

And the list goes on. This is a 24-7 job. But it is rewarding and we receive so many blessings from it. We love these missionaries. Each one of them is special to us and we worry about every one of them. They are constantly in our thoughts and prayers. I hope their parents know that we try to take very good care of them. You can be proud of them. We have the greatest group of young elders and sisters. They love the Lord and work so very hard to be the best they can be. I'm sure Heavenly Father is very proud of the work they are doing.

A SPECIAL BAPTISM-ADAM SMITH

President Albright had the wonderful opportunity of baptising our new friend, Adam Smith on May 15, 2010.

Elders Lawson and Bullock found and taught him the gospel. Pres. and I were able to be involved in the teaching. Pres. went to Adams home many times for lessons and questions, and we had him and his family to the mission home for dinner and lessons also. We have grown to love Adam and his incredible story and spirit. He is truly a valiant man and a Hero in our hearts.
Elder Lawson, Pres and Adam, Elders Bullock and Keefer.




Some of Adams friends were able to come and witness the baptism.