A Letter from Las Vegas

This is an e-mail I got from Toby and thought I would post it for her...

I wanted to get started on my missionary journal. Things have been moving so fast. I can’t believe that we have been here three weeks.

The first week in the MTC was a spiritual high. We checked in Saturday night and received our name tags and had pictures taken. There wasn’t enough room for all 126 new mission presidents so we stayed in the Marriott off of Center St. Sunday morning we all met in a room in the MTC that wasn’t any bigger than a small chapel. We were all sitting in our seats waiting for sacrament to start and in walked ten of the twelve apostles. I think the two that weren’t there was Elder Ballard and Elder Nelson. Within a few minutes everyone stood up and in walked Pres. Monson, Pres. Eyring and Pres. Uchtdorf. It was very humbling to be with so many priesthood leaders in such a small room. It was then that I realized how important missionary work is to the Lord. These men are so busy and getting up in years. This is not just another calling. We had sacrament together. I wondered how the missionary felt who handed the sacrament to the Prophet. Pres. Monson spoke the whole meeting. He taught us how to motivate missionaries. He told of when he had served as a mission president. He had been working one day in Salt Lake and received a call to come to the Church headquarters. He was asked to serve over the Canada Toronto Mission and that he and his family would need to be there in three weeks. The first thing he thought about was his wife. She was pregnant at the time with their third baby. He said he has tried to improve the process of choosing mission presidents. There was one couple from Africa who had brought their five week old baby with them to the MTC.

The mission presidents came from everywhere around the world and heading out to the entire world. We were surprised at how many people, when they found out to where we were going, said that Nevada was one of their top choices. So many people have relatives here and people are ready for the gospel.

Every morning we had two of the apostles speak to us and then we had work shops the rest of the day. The wealth of knowledge there was amazing. The food was very nice also.

One night we had the opportunity to meet with our missionaries who were in the MTC. I was so over whelmed. I just started crying. We walked in the room and they all stood up. They were all so excited and nervous at the same time. We asked each one a different question and then they got to ask us one. It was fun to think that we will have a special bond with them the rest of our missions. There were sixteen of them.

Another night we had a special fireside with Elder Hales. He spoke on the atonement. His talk was about 80% pure scripture.

Wednesday night we were done at the MTC. We drove up to Salt Lake to spend some time with Boyd and Jean. Jean is getting very feeble and gets very tired. If she doesn’t eat on a regular schedule, her stomach gets very upset and it takes her a long time to get better. Boyd has been great about taking care of her. He hardly ever leaves her side. Twice a week someone comes to the house and stays with her so he can get out for a few hours.

Thursday we were set apart by Elder Hales and Neil Anderson who is the senor President of the Seventy. We invited Boyd and Jean, Janet Calvert, Callie and Kirk Godfrey, Corie and Matt Hawks, Hannah and Chelsea. We went into a conference room and sat down around the table. We all introduced ourselves. It was humbling to hear the big expectations they have for Las Vegas. The Church has invested a lot of money to play the “Truth Restored” media blitz. They said that Nevada has the right combination of members to nonmembers to do great missionary work. (So far our numbers have gone down since we have been here.) Elder Hales set apart Peter as the Mission President of the Nevada Las Vegas Mission. Elder Anderson set me apart as his companion and as a full time missionary. Afterwards, Elder Hales said that he felt impressed to give Hannah a blessing. He said that normally they didn’t do that but he felt good about it. It was very special for her. I hope she will always remember that experience and be able to recall it. Corie took notes on all of them.

Saturday, June 28^th 2008 we headed to the Salt Lake airport to take our last flight in a long while. We got there about noon and headed down to the baggage claim. We had a family stop us and talk to us. They were members coming to Las Vegas for a wedding. I have been so surprised at how many members there are here. They notice your tag and they watch your conduct.

President Wadsworth and his wife with the assistant were waiting for us at the bottom of the escalators. I didn’t realize that our time with them as the transition started the moment we said ‘hello’. We were with them for 80 minutes. Then they said ‘goodbye’ and off they went. There weren’t any tears on their end, only ours.

Starting Monday, we started a mission tour and interviewed all the missionaries and introduced Chelsea and Hannah to them. We had to drive up to Ely which is a four hour drive and the elders from Elko drove down to meet us half-way. From Ely we drove to Panacea and met missionaries there. The next day we drove to Kingman and met those elders.

The second week of our mission we had transfers. Monday, I went shopping all day to buy the food for five meals. Tuesday we went to the airport to pick up our missionaries that we had meet previously in the MTC. We brought them back to the house and we fed them a nice breakfast. We had some orientation and then gave them a quick lunch before we took them to the church to meet their new trainer at the transfer session. After that meeting was done, I had about two hours to go home and prepare the dinner for the out going elders. We had 20 going home. We had another special meeting with those elders. They had brought their entire luggage that they were taking home and put it by the front door. They all found places on the floor and camped out until 4 in the morning when the assistants came to take them to the airport.

The journal entry ends here...I am sure that more will come later...Sarah