Graduate Missionaries at Work

This truly taxes an individual.  First finding the time to continue entering blog posts, thinking of what is worth writing about and keeping foremost in our minds . . .the purpose of this blog.  Since we are unclear of it's purpose, we choose to write about those things that are important to us and not quite personal journal items.
We wanted to add some of those special events from our MTC experience.
The instruction portion of our MTC experience proved to be an awesome one.  We received new tools and names to existing tools we have used in our years of teaching and we were oblivious that they were tools and they had names.  Our testimonies grew when we met our instructors for Preach My Gospel.  Sister Reese and Brother Wood III.  There they stood before us, two graduate missionaries that have chosen to work at the MTC helping others develop their skills in bringing others unto Christ by teaching by the Spirit.  They are amazing as they patiently put with the ramblings of senior missionaries; lovingly keeping us on task, and ultimately causing us to stretch ourselves spiritually and learn to boldly open our mouths to speak truth; then stop and let the Holy Ghost complete the teaching.  When this process is done correctly, there is conversion.  There was an entire army of these awesome graduate missionaries doing all they could to teach others.  Sister Reese and Brother Wood III were chosen to teach our district. As we shied away from teaching investigators (not real investigators, just individuals posing as investigators) and objecting to this assignment after just 2 classes,  they just smiled and encouraged and informed us that we would do this.  They did it so lovingly that it was after the class ended before we realized that they had parented us!  It really was for our own good.  We thoroughly enjoyed their teaching and felt the Spirit very strongly in their classes. Getting to know them personally was also fun as we got to know they were human.  Brother Wood III was in the process of planning a proposal to the special young woman in his life and asked for our input (think he was humoring us).  He should be floating now because he was supposed to propose the weekend after we left the MTC.

Sister Reese (AM teacher-she's the young one) with our Preach My Gospel District

Bro. Wood III (PM teacher) and our Preach My Gospel District

Even when we goofed up, they made us feel good.  We were taught, given homework assignments, challenged to look deep within ourselves to understand the Holy Ghost so we would know how to teach by the Spirit.  These words remain inadequate to explain the experience.  We know each of you can relate through the Spirit because you have experienced the Holy Ghost in your life.

New Beginning

Now we begin again!!! Yes, it is the beginning of the first full month of our mission and the completion of month 23.  Only 22 months of service left. Another new beginning is the first monthly military relations report submitted to the Military Relations Department in Salt Lake City.  It felt great to complete our first report and have good things to report and in record time.  All that was left to do and push the submit button so we did.  Then reality hit as the error message appears on the screen with some message that the report was not submitted and we would need to start over!  THE GOSPEL IS TRUE!  What a wonderful opportunity to get to rewrite and be sure that we reported the right things. Yes, this is the first Monday of December which means it is Wax Your Car Day, according to the calendar we received from the mission home. Elder Sturgis got right on it while I completed the second version of our report. He began looking (hmm, do I really want to use this word?) through the El Paso phone book for a car wash/waxing business close to home (all this while doing our laundry and washing dishes, too).  Another blessing, we found one!  After $25 and much elbow bending trying to get his wallet out of his back pocket, the assignment by our mission president was accomplished!!!  We WILL be shopping around before next month to find a better deal.  The end of another day in the our senior missionary saga.

Service Compadres!

Senior Sisters on the Frontlline

Here we are a bunch of seasoned veterans enjoying a evening comparing notes.  My newly found partners in service are; (from left to right) Sister Hauer, Sister Bodily and yours truly (knew you would have trouble recognizing me now that I am a missionary). The picture was taken at the institute building at UTEP during a single adults family home evening.  Each of these missionaries has a junior companion. How do know they are the senior companion?  It was clearly explained to us at the MTC by President Brown and a visiting general authority that the sisters are the senior companions because the elders have difficulty functioning without the sisters.  Sister Hauer was born in Guam but has lived in Utah for many years. She and Elder Hauer are Military Relations missionaries and are currently our trainers.  Elder and Sister Bodily serve as CES missionaries assigned to the UTEP Institute and the single adult ward.  We all attend FHE and YSA activities together.  Why just last Saturday night we were cutting the rug at a YSA dance.  So what if the music was mostly Latin music and very loud.  Sister Hauer seemed to enjoy visiting with Sister Bodily since Elder Hauer does not dance.  Elder and Sister Bodily were not feeling well so they went home early.  Anyway, there was one song that allowed Elder Sturgis and I to jitterbug.  We like to believe they were smiling with us not at us. Well, it was all in the line of duty!!  This is our story and we are sticking to it!!! More to come. . . . . .

TRADITION

Following the Tradition of our sons

Like this one better!

 Several days past by before we realized we had not taken a picture in front of "the map".  We were either dazed, lost, or too tired to notice.  It finally happened and surprisingly it felt really cool! There were so many moments while at the MTC that caused us to think and wonder about the adventures of our sons.  We'd see a young elder that looked like one of our sons/grandsons and we'd get excited all over again.  Guess our family is always on our thoughts no matter the activity.  We so love our families!!!!

MTC Flashback!

MTC District with Bro. Wood III, Preach My Gospel Instructor

MTC District

Our apologies for rambling but there's more we'd like to share about our experience at the Provo MTC.  On day two, Elder Sturgis had an uncomfortable feeling while in our first meeting of the day which was really the Spirit trying to let him know he would be called to serve as a District leader. Sister Price, Sister Lueders, and Elder & Sister Faulconer were in our district.  We stayed together as a group the whole time we were at the MTC.  The sisters left after the first week to labor as Women's Auxillary Specialists in Independence, Missouri along with two other sisters. Elder & Sister Faulconer were called to serve Member/Leadership Support missionaries in Florida.  There are so many tender mercies we are blessed with as members of the only true church but for the moment we are grateful for the tender mercy of meeting fellow saints and becoming friends in a relatively short time.  Elder Sturgis was a great DL as he offered and gave blessings to the sisters and assisted the Faulconers with unpacking and repacking their Honda Odyssey prior to their leaving for Florida as they were both recovering from illness.  The opportunities for service are all around us in so many small ways.  If we are diligent, we will recognize and act upon those opportunities.  How grateful we are for tender mercies.

Senior Missionaries at Work

Sister Guest & Sam her Green Beret son

Today we spent a couple of hours at the hospital with Sister Guest and Sam visiting with them while they waited the long hours while Brother Guest (non-member) was having triple bypass surgery. The Guests were visiting their daughter, Marie, whose husband is a Lieutenant in the army and will be deployed to Afghanistan (12/10) to train the Afghanistan soldiers; when Mr. Guest had a heart attack which lead to the surgery.  Our job (should we be up to accepting it) is to help Marie and her nonmember spouse come unto Christ.  Sam will be going back to his unit in Florida in a few days and we will contact the senior missionaries there to help him return to the fold.  The good news was the surgery was successful.  We will continue checking on his recovery.  

Michelle at Institute-all decorated for Christmas

FHE at Institute Bldg at UTEP after a flour activity out of control!

New powder? or hazards of activity!

Singles Ward Mission Leader...another casualty of the activity!!

We topped off the evening by attending FHE at the Singles Ward at the University of Texas at El Paso which is held each Tuesday after Institute class. Many single military personnel attend FHE and this gives us opportunity to get to know them and help find those in need of spiritual strengthening.  This military relations mission is getting complicated.  So what's new?  Not much since life is complicated.

Official Team Members

Yes, we have it in print, we are officially members of the New Mexico Albuquerque Mission.  You can see by the picture.  This is our zone, with President and Sister Miller and Elder and Sister Johnson, visiting general authority of the seventy.  This was our first zone conference and there were three zones in attendance.  I was difficult being a missionary because my heart went out to the sisters in the kitchen that prepared a wonderful lunch for all 70 missionaries and the leadership.  It felt my place was to be helping serve.  The conference was wonderful.  We were taught how to be better missionaries and spiritually uplifted!!  We review our notes but it all came back to our memory when we received the picture in our email.  Naturally, we had to post it!!

Welcome, Welcome Sabbath Morning!

Soldiers & Senior Missionaries fellowship after Sacrament Mtg

Bro. Sanchez, Josh Pichardo, & Bro. Flores - provided sacrament & goodies

Everyone having a good time!!!

This title has taken on new meaning as yesterday, November 25th our Sabbath day began with a 8:30 am sacrament meeting, followed by a 10:20 am sacrament meeting with a ward council meeting included.  We then attended a 1:00 pm full block of meetings.  To keep up our strength, we managed a quick snack and off we went to a 7:00 pm sacrament meeting at the McGregor Chapel at Fort Bliss.  This has become one of our favorite Sunday activities as we get to meet the young soldiers from the National Guard that are sent to Fort Bliss for training prior to deployment to Afghanistan.  Several wards in the two stakes in El Paso take turns providing priesthood to administer the sacrament to these soldiers and speakers for the sacrament meeting as well as light refreshments.  We have been blessed to have two LDS Chaplains attend some of these meetings.  The Holy Ghost has always been present at these sacrament meetings.  We truly feel grateful to these young soldiers for their willingness to serve.  Then we think of the many other soldiers that are serving and have sacrificed all for us.  We've attached a couple of pictures of just one of these meetings.

Learn and Then Teach

Just when you think you know it all, you learn more.  That is how it was at the MTC for the remaining 11 days we were there.  Our graduate missionary instructors, Sister Reese and Brother Wood III were awesome as they patiently instructed and taught us how to allow the Spirit to teach those we would come in contact with.  With half day preparation we then were allowed to teach an investigator.  We have testimonies of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ; we've taught many lessons in our lifetimes; we've reared children; so why was this so overwhelming?  What a wonderful reality to find; the Holy Ghost does come to our aid when we are prepared.  Now we knew this for ourselves as we found ourselves speaking with boldness and bearing witness of the truth.

Feeling somewhat confident, they move us quickly along to CES and instructors of Seminaries and Institute who once again taught us more that we did  not know.  Bob started carrying three handkerchiefs instead of two because I could not stop crying as we felt the power of the Holy Ghost in all their instruction.  Next comes putting into practice what we had been taught.  But wait, there is more!

Time to begin learning about being Military Relations Specialists and this was even more we did not know.

On the 9^th of November we woke early as usual to travel to our last 4 hours of Military Relations training at the LDS Church Office Building in Salt Lake City.  What did we find as we left the MTC? SNOW!!! We drove to SLC in a snow storm and prayed all the way (Bob more than I and I believe you all know why).  We arrived safely and upon completion of our training we were treated to lunch and sent on our way.  New Mexico Albuquerque Mission Home here we come!!!

Called To Serve and Loving It

Our service began with a short vacation prior to entering the MTC on 29 October 2012 at 10:00 a.m. We visited with Rachel, Cory and Tommy then on to Idaho to visit with some of Bob's family namely, Kristin and Allen; Paige and Jeff and their six sons, Tyler, Bryce, Dylan, Hayden, McKay and Payson.  We had a wonderful time strengthening family ties.

Entering the Provo MTC was so awesome and breathtaking.  We both had tears in our eyes when our missionary "black name tags" were placed on our lapels.  Bob's thoughts were of his son, Michael Robert Sturgis who some 29 years prior had received his "black name tag", then his thoughts immediately moved to his grandsons, Christopher Kuchin, Tyler Howard, Adam Kuchin, Bryce Howard, and Andrew Wilson who all honorably received and wore their "black name tags".  Bob's thoughts were, " What a legacy to follow and oh what giant footsteps to fill."

My thoughts were very similar as I could see in my mind's eye each of my sons, Adrian Anguiano, Trevor Jan, Heath Alan, Spencer Ryan and Jonathan Silas Bradshaw receiving their missionary "black name tags".  A small act but a monumental responsibility to take upon us the labor of love to willingly serve our Lord, Jesus Christ and tell the world of his love for them.  

Thinking this was the climax but it was just the beginning of many more climaxes along our way.