Meeting the Arizona Tempe Mission (ATM)
SUNDAY
We were able to go to Church with Matt and Mary and kids. Mike and Lance were visiting this weekend and it was good to see them as well. Mary's brother, Brian Lehnhof and his wife Bobbie live very close to Matt and Mary and are in the same ward. It was great to have dinner with everyone!
Each month a New Convert Devotional is held. This is a time when several people who have recently joined the church speak and tell their conversion story. Since we just arrived yesterday we were able to meet President and Sister Goaslind, Elder and Sister Thorsen, Elder and Sister Bell, (the Thorsen's and Bell's work in the office) and lots of young Elders and Sisters
The speakers, Deanna Leuvano, Mathew Silcox and Sister Wills all have great stories. It was an interesting and inspiring evening.
Later we met up with Ann and Dwight at Dwight's brothers house, Peter and Pam Michaelson. The Michaelson brothers and friends had their semi-annual motorcycle trip this weekend. So happy we could see them for a few minutes.
MONDAY
Met with President and Sister Goaslind and received our assignment to serve in the Tempe Ward with Bishop Cowley. And to contact the stake president, President Johnson, to determine if he has other assignments for us.
Lunch with Pres and Sister Goaslind and the office staff, Elder and Sister Thorsen and Elder and Sister Bell
Doug followed up with setting up the missionaries to visit Charles (the man from the grocery store Saturday) and to go with him to church if he wants to go.
Set up a dinner appt with Heather Hales and lunch with Elizabeth Murray. Heather grew up in San Bernardino and Elizabeth (Brown) is from Athen's Ohio.
In the evening met with Bishop Cowley and his wife Sharon (YW Pres), Shauna Mortensen (RS Pres) and briefly with Danika Harrs (Primary Pres). The Tempe Ward has some needs and challenges but the leadership we met are strong and dedicated. We are so happy to be able to be of service here. YSA, SA, endowed members without current recommends, teach a temple prep class, help with ward activity for the over 65y/o.
TUESDAY-THURSDAY
This week is Zone Conferences. Tuesday the Tempe, Mesa and Phoenix zones met. We feel so blessed to be with these valiant young people with strong testimonies and a commitment to Jesus Christ and the gathering of Israel. The topic of the day was faith and obedience. We were reminded that the first Law of heaven is obedience, the first commandment is to love God, and the first truth of heaven is that God loves us. As we are obedient, our faith grows which makes us want to be more obedient. "If ye love me, keep my commandments: (John 14:15) and when Peter was asked if he loved the Lord and answered yes, he was commanded to "Feed my sheep" or in other words be of service to our fellowmen.
Wednesday we met with the Tempe South and Candler zones. An Elder Barrett made a comment in the first session and Elder Glauser said "I know him! I was at the meeting in the Prospect Park ward in which he spoke before he came on his mission!" We talked to him at the break and made the connection and sent a picture to his mom. Of note, his dad was a youth in Highland and Elder Glauser was his bishop 😁
WEDNESDAY
President Goaslind asked us to attend the meeting to organize the Giving Machine initiative in this area because he and Sister Goaslind were involved with the Zone Meetings. It was first introduced to Gilbert, AZ in 2017 and was a huge success. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints heads it up and several local charities including Catholic Charities and St Mary's Food Bank are represented. It is a community effort. The meeting was well organized and informative. We were given an overview and timeline for the project. Attendees included other mission leaders from neighboring missions. As one couple stood to introduce themselves, Elder Glauser said, "I went to law school with him!" (Mark and Kay Bradshaw) They recognized each other and had a great reunion. It has been over 30 years since we have seen them. We hope to get together with them soon.
SATURDAY
We started the day by helping to clean the ward building. The Mortensen's and one other person, Ted, were the only other ones there but it went quickly. As we were driving back into our apartment complex, we saw three Elders. We talked with them and found out they don't live in our complex, but serve the ward here. They were visiting some of the ward members--one of whom lives directly above us. We had already decided to take cookies to our neighbor upstairs but this just made it easy. So we made cookies and felt prompted to go right then to deliver them to Idonna. We chatted with her for a while. She is very friendly and asked if we were in her ward, the Alameda Ward. We let her know we are assigned the Tempe Ward so will not be attending church with her. Her daughter and granddaughter live with her. We hope to have them for dinner soon.
We also took cookies to Charles (our friend from the grocery store). Elder Glauser has been calling and texting him this week and Charles did return one phone call but we were unavailable to answer it. We felt an urging to go to his home and try to see him. We had a good visit and he seemed happy to see us. We had hoped to meet him at church but he has other commitments this week. He does want to go to the Mesa Temple Open House with us this week so we'll figure out a time that will work.
Dustin and Meagan and kids drove into town today and we'll go to the Open House with them on Monday. We met up with them and had dinner together. It was so good to see them!
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