Onward and Upward

The June 4th transfer brought the largest number of missionaries to the Arizona Mesa Mission in its history.  This is the beautiful sight that greeted us as these missionaries posed for a picture in front of the Visitors' Center.

 

Of the 33 missionaries who arrived this morning, 17 of them were sisters.  Wow!  They're going to be such an asset to the mission!

 

We were thrilled to receive 7 new sisters to the Visitors' Center - also a new record for the number to arrive in one transfer.  We are delighted to welcome them to the BEST Visitors' Center in the world.

This is Sister (Hermana) Hourrutiner, who was born in Cuba, raised in Venezuela, and lastly living in Florida.  Sister Hourrutiner is a convert of only 2 years!  She will bring a unique perspective to her missionary work as she teaches new investigators, being so recently one herself.

Sister Avanesjan was born in Armenia and raised in Germany.  After a couple of months serving in Germany while waiting for her visa,  we're excited to have her join us here in Mesa.

This is Sister Luna, who is our new Hermana from Peru.  She is making good progress in English, but wants to learn more so that she is comfortable conversing with people in the Visitors' Center.

Sister Beaudette is our new "English" sister from Massachusetts.  She will find the hot summers here in Arizona a bit of a shock after living in a much cooler climate.

Sister Pickett, also assigned English-speaking, hails from Idaho and has a background much like Elder Beckstrand and I.  Her family owns and operates a ranch which qualifies her for the title 'country' girl.

Sister Jeppson is a new Spanish-speaking sister from Utah who will definitely be a stand out in the Spanish-American community with her blond hair and fair complexion.

Sister Leon is also a Spanish sister who comes to Mesa from Springville, Utah.  She has ties to the Spanish community through her parents, so she speaks Spanish like a native.

Part of the success of any new sister is the wise choice of a trainer.  President Ellsworth puts much thought and prayer into making these decisions.  He felt Sister Brownell would be just right for Sister Avanesjan.

The trainer for Sister Hourrutiner is Sister Longshore, who brightens all of our days with her big smile and cheerful attitude.

Lovely Sister Hamstead from Georgia is Sister Pickett's trainer.  With seven new sisters this transfer, and two being trained from the previous transfer, all but one of our companionships are currently training.  That's a first for us!

Working with Sister Jeppson is Sister Valladares from Honduras.

Sister Leon has been assigned to Sister Weber, from Mexico.

 

 Sister Luna is lucky to have Sister Slater as her trainer.  Sister Slater is on her very last transfer before returning home to Oklahoma in July.

Sister Beaudette has been assigned to Sister Smith, our 'dancing' sister from St. George, Utah.  They will make a very effective companionship.

We arrived at Elder Beckstrand's office on Sunday, June 16th to find Sisters Pickett and Hamstead putting these cute Father's Day signs up for him.  He definitely loves the position of standing in place of a father to all these delightful young women.

 

Elder Beckstrand enjoyed a great Father's Day with the warm wishes he received from his new 'daughters' (or I should probably say granddaughters.)

On Monday we enjoyed watching this intrepid young man take on the assignment to trim the palm trees on the temple grounds.  He first climbed up the tree to the top of the ladder.....

 

Then he continued the climb by pushing shoes imbedded with long nails into the side of the tree.  A chain saw dangled from his belt as he made the climb to the top.

Once in position he started cutting the old growth from the trees with the saw.  You can see the falling branches off to the left of the tree trunk.  It was a fascinating process to watch.

I will never tire of looking at the beautiful scenery on the temple grounds.  The palm trees are breathtakingly beautiful with their flowering branches falling gracefully from the center of the foliage.  I will miss these desert plants when we return to Utah.

P.C.  The next blog will highlight an exciting new direction for the Arizona, Mesa Visitors' Center. You won't want to miss the unveiling story of our new missionary tool!

Miracle May

For our May 17th Prep. Meeting we continued the tradition of having birthday cake for breakfast (I know, moms at home, it's not the most nutritional choice, but it only happens once a month).  Sister Avila and Elder Andrus celebrated their birthdays jointly on May 19th, and Sister Younce on May 21st.  Happy, happy birthday!

The upkeep and maintenance of the Visitors' Center is managed very ably by the temple engineers.  I was VERY impressed at the amount of effort it took to change a light that had gone out in front of God's Plan For His Family.  Yes, he first had to remove a ceiling tile.  Then....

 

He literally had to crawl up into the ceiling to get to the problem.  How's that for being willing and able to do whatever it takes to keep our center running smoothly?

Unfortunately, not all of our sisters' health runs smoothly.  Sister Vargas-Barrick has had trouble with her stomach for about a month.  Continual pain and inability to eat has kept her at home most days. This sweet sister has stumped the doctors and after a miserable month the President has made the decision that she should return to St. George, Utah and get well at home.  We hope she'll be able to rejoin us very soon.  We love you, Sister Vargas - we're praying for you!

Last week this is the sight that met our eyes when these sisters came on shift.  Did I miss the memo?  I guess we were supposed to choose turquoise or purple with black. 

 

The very next morning Sister Hamstead and I both wore identical lace shells.  What's with the mental telepathy that is invading our center?

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We have loved the art exhibit that has been in Theater 1 since before Easter Pageant, but alas, it had to come down to make way for a new exhibit.  Sister Fuller, pictured taking down the stands, has been our exhibit specialist and does a beautiful job gathering art work from local artists.

Elder Beckstrand and Mr. Fuller disassemble a sculpture of the Savior.

Thank goodness for a dolly to help move it - it's HEAVY!

The main artist for the exhibit was Liz Lemon Swindle whose sketches of 'The Redeemer' were beautiful.  These pictures will go next to the Mormon Battalion Historic Site in California.

Fast forward to Friday, May 31st and you see the three senior sisters, aprons in place, preparing a pancake breakfast for the sisters.  Sister Jenkins (left) is a pancake flipper extraordinaire.  And Sister Andrus (right) is quickly showing her expertise in the kitchen.  These sisters are such a big help.

Come and get it!  Sisters Noble, Slater, and Aquino are first in line.

 

Everyone seems to be happy to help us get rid of this food.  Pancakes, scrambled eggs, link sausages, and juice round out the menu.  Sister Weber asks:  "Can we have two?"

A room full of sister missionaries is such a beautiful sight! 

Even at 7:00 am they all have big smiles on their faces.  They love being together (and the hot breakfast is a big draw).

The departing sisters each bear their testimonies at this final prep. meeting.  Sister Lewis will be returning to Salt Lake City, Utah.  She is amazingly bold when testifying of the truths of the gospel.

Sister Cottrell will be going back to Layton, Utah.  How will we get along without her?  She has been such a dedicated, hard-working sister.

Sister Larson will be returning briefly to Houston, Texas but plans to join Sister Cottrell in Provo next fall to continue school.  She has learned to really love the Spanish people.

 

 

Sister Avila is not exactly sure where she will be going home to.....it's kind of a mystery.  It could be Wisconsin, or Texas, or France, or.....  Sister Avila has been a VC Trainer, and Elder Beckstrand and I have really appreciated her hard work.

The sisters congregate at the Christus for a final picture and the traditional "God Be With You".  We're always so sorry to see these beautiful young sisters finish their 18 month assignment and have to leave us to return to the "real" world.

Sisters Cottrell, Avila, Lewis, and Larson -  Goodbye!  WE LOVE YOU!

Neither wind nor rain, nor sleet (nor farewells) prevent our VC choir from completing their weekly rehearsal.  What lovely voices these girls have!  I'm in heaven during the too-brief time we sing together each week.  I think the Lord knows that all Visitors' Center sisters who come to Mesa MUST have beautiful voices so that Sister Beckstrand can get her weekly 'music fix'!  Hearing these young women sing is one of my greatest pleasures!

Big Changes in the Mission

Early Monday morning, April 22nd, a crew came into the Visitors' Center and took away all of the theater chairs in both Theater 2 and Theater 3.

Tuesday morning a truck arrived with brand new replacements!  It was fun to watch the process unfold.

We had arranged for Elders to help unload the truck, but it was late so they did service around the temple grounds instead.  About 11:30 am the truck finally arrived and luckily they had all of the equipment necessary to unload and transport the freight to the Visitors' Center by just one man.

Here they are, outside the back doors of the VC.  Now we can begin!

The installers first bolted the legs to the floor.  The metal supports looked like soldiers all in a row.

Next they attached the backs to the metal legs.  I love the new fabric.  It looks so fresh and clean.

The final step was to attach the seats.  Now we're back in business!  The process was completed by Wednesday afternoon.  Thank goodness we were able to have our theaters back in use for the YM/YW groups that always come on Wednesday night.  We look pretty snazzy!  Right?

We had four new missionaries arrive that same week.  This is Sister Garcia from Mexico City.  She wasn't able to get her visa as soon as she needed it, so she served in Mexico for 5 months before coming here.  Welcome to Mesa, Sister Garcia!

Sister Garcia's trainer will be Sister DeMille from Cedar City, Utah.  Sister Garcia can help Sister DeMille with her Spanish and Sister DeMille can help Sister Garcia learn English.  A win-win combination.

This new sister comes to us from The Philipines.  Sister Ibuyan lived with her grandmother because her mother is currently living in The Netherlands.  We were amazed to learn that we had met her mother in Dordrecht while we were serving our first mission in that part of Holland.  Small world....

Sister Ibuyan's trainer is Sister Miller, one of our Oregon sisters.  They'll be perfect together.

This adorable new sister is Sister Finau, who is Tongan but actually came to Mesa from Bountiful, Utah - our home town.  Sister Finau is so bubbly and outgoing she will be a natural in the VC.

Sister Weedman has been given the assignment to train Sister Finau.  We were all surprised at the President's decision because Sister Weedman has only been here 6 weeks!  Wow!  You can tell she's a really capable young sister to be training so quickly.

Sister Younce hails from the Raleigh, North Carolina area.  She first made the decision to go on a mission while waiting in the Mesa Visitors' Center for a friend who was getting his endowments prior to his mission.  We were thrilled when she was called to return here to serve in our Visitors' Center!

Sister Younce's trainer, Sister Brown, is also very new - having arrived on March 12th.  The President really trusts these capable young sisters to have them training so quickly.  Have I  mentioned that the sisters assigned to our Visitors' Center are the Best?

 

We were delighted to see these new residents of the temple grounds take a swim in the reflecting pool just outside the VC doors.  The mother duck hatched her eggs under a bush on the grounds and brought them to the pool for a short dip.  These eight little baby ducks became instant hits with the sisters and our Visitors' Center guests.

Moving into the month of May, our monthly ZLC (Zone Leader Council) took an historic new turn on May 3rd.  For the first time EVER, there are Sister Trainer Leaders in all the missions around the world.  These new sister trainers will go on exchanges with the other sisters and help them become more effective missionaries.  Four companionships were called to this new position and three of them were VC companionships.  Did I mention we have the most capable, most obedient, most experienced sisters in the mission???  In the meeting President Ellsworth gave a training on using members more effectively, then he asked the missionaries to practice inviting them on teaching appointments.   Sisters Gordon and Lewis, and Sisters Cottrell and Valladares are two of the new trainer companionships.  (Middle row)

The other VC companionship who will be serving as Sister Trainer Leaders are Sisters Noble and Aquino.  They are shown by the door with their make-shift 'phones' up to their ears, calling the members.  Sisters Avila and Schwartz, (left) who attend this meeting each month, round out the four companionships that are VC sisters.  It's so fun to see all the new changes that are taking place almost daily in our mission.  (And it's only the beginning.)

Because of the huge number of new sisters in the mission, Sister Ellsworth and I did a specialized training for just the Sister Missionaries on May 7th.   When my husband and I arrived in the mission last January (2012) there were around 36- 38 sister missionaries.

 Today at our specialized training there were 65 sisters in attendance!  The number of sisters has almost doubled!  By next transfer, when we get 18 more sisters, we will be a force to be reckoned with!  Aren't they BEAUTIFUL??  The training included dress and grooming, getting along with companions, companionship inventory, safety, and other topics of particular importance to sisters.

 

Following the training we provided a nice array of snacks for the sisters to enjoy as they visited with each other and got better acquainted.  Thank goodness I had Sister Andrus and Sister Jenkins, our senior VC sisters, to help with the food.  They are so willing to help whenever I need them.

The young women enjoyed some healthy treats and some not-so-healthy treats.  It's all good....

 

Since full field sisters and VC sisters don't always get to see each other on a regular basis, it was nice for them to have a chance to mingle and enjoy one another.  There have been so many new arrivals that there are many new faces I'm still trying to put names to.

 President Ellsworth took one final picture of all the sisters in attendance.  It was a lovely morning and the spirit was so strong among these awesome young missionaries.  The Lord loves them and so do I!