Elder Quentin L. Cook's visit

Notes from Feb. 8, 2014 special zone conference.

Speaker Elder Quentin L. Cook

The summer of 1960 the age for missionaries changed from 20 to 19.  So he was one of the last of the 20 year olds to go.  Elder Jeffrey R. Holland was the 1^st of the 19 year olds in that mission.  The British Isles Mission.  The biggest mission increases were in the British Isles and in Europe.  Because of the increase of so many missionaries, they were told they had to rely less on experience from the past and more on inspiration from Heaven.  Told the missionaries…get rid of foolishness.  Be united.  Serve.  Told that President Watkins got BYU TV in South America and spread around the world.   Told a story of a Tongan missionary who got his call letter the same day his sister was getting married in the temple.  His mom asked him to not open it yet, let this be his sisters big day.  Later, during the reception, he said, can I open it now?  Mom said, I already know where you are going to serve. I dreamt it last week.  I saw you standing on the steps of the US Capitol building, so I know you will be serving somewhere near Washington DC.  His dad said, I also had a dream last week, and I think you are going to Japan, because I saw you had a Japanese Mission President.  Well, he opened his call letter…..he was called to the Washington DC North mission, and his mission president was a Japanese man!  Elder Cook said that our total missionary numbers have increased since the lowering of the age limit, from 56,000 to 83-84,000 missionaries.  They have 500 to 1200 a week to assign to a mission. 5 members of the 12 make the mission assignments through inspiration.  He is one of them that has done it.  He said that there are 3 types of inspiration he feels when deciding where a missionary is to serve:  inspired to place them with a particular mission president and wife, because maybe they need what that couple can give to them; to the people or area; to the mission.   Elder Cook grew up in Cache Valley, came to school here (I think it was Stanford), loved it here, lived and worked here and in San Francisco, member of a Stake Presidency here for 15 years.   He spoke of 4 relationships as missionaries: 1. Love People you serve.  Don’t make fun of people. Try to related to all the different types of people.  Love.  Don’t be critical.  Try to understand where they are coming from.  Talked of Dan Jones, missionary to Wales.  Those who he taught said you knew he loved you, knew he cared about you. 2. Love and Respect your companion.  Not easy to do sometimes.  Best preparation for marriage. Some may irritate each other, don’t let little issues bother you.  Make up your mind you will respect and love your companion.  Learn from each other, respect each other. Put irritations aside. 3. Love, Appreciate and Respect your Mission President and his wife.  They can have more impact on you than your own parents at times. 4. Love The Lord. We honor and sustain the leadership of the church, not worship them. We love and worship the Lord.

Sister Cook lead us in a song, page 264:  Hark All Ye Nations.  Then she spoke about Preach My Gospel, chapter 6, the attributes of Christ.  What manner of men ought ye to be? (3 Nephi 27:27)  We need to learn to perfect ourselves. The more perfect things we do, the better we will be able to have the spirit.  She talked about taking the Attributes list from the end of the chapter, and writing down a hymn or a song from the Children’s Songbook, that goes with each attribute.  She did what came to mind.  Then later, she looked up even more to add to the list.  There were a lot.  She suggested we do the same.  Talked about help me teach with inspiration, and that missionaries are finding the lost sheep.

Elder Cook spoke again.  Talked about D&C 112.  This was during the time of the panic of 1837.  Joseph Smith was inspired to send missionaries to England…they left in 10 days after their call.  July 23, 1837 was the 1^st day the Gospel was preached outside of North America.  It was the same day D&C 112 was received.  Verse 10:  Be thou humble, and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand and give thee answer to thy prayers.  Verse 14:  Feed my sheep.       Learn how to feed the Savior’s sheep.   Verse 19:  whithersoever they shall send you.  Verse 28:  purify your hearts.  Go and preach my gospel.  Verse 30:  for the last days and for the last time.    In 2005 we reached our 1 millionth missionary to ever serve.  Now, every 23-24 years another million will be reached.   D&C 31:7:  yea, I will open the hearts of the people.  It isn’t about YOU….it’s about the Savior.  It’s His church.  Not how good YOU are as a missionary.  He is opening the hearts of the people.  It’s the people, not the missionaries.  Verse 11.  The Lord is establishing His church.  Focus on 15 (??).  Reactivating as important as baptizing new converts.  Do everything possible to strengthen the wards and branches where you serve.  Centerpiece of the 1^st lesson is the 1^st Vision. The 2^nd lesson is the Plan of Salvation….it is also one that the spirit will witness to those we teach.  Service is significant in this area—now and for the future missionaries that come here.  Being in ward councils and serving wards and branches significant.  His main responsibility is to be a witness of Jesus Christ.  Work with the ward councils in such a way as to help the Lord’s work in this area.  What you are doing here is the most important thing you can be doing for those at home….parents, brothers and sisters, future children and grandchildren. All will be blessed as a result of your sacrifice and service here and now.

Notes from Outgoing Devotional Jan. 19, 2014

I took notes during the last devotional, and am just getting around to putting them down here in this journal.

Elder Howard talked about the change that occurs on a mission.  He read from Mosiah 5:2:  “And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.”  He talked about the change that has occurred in himself, and the change he has seen in converts to the church.

Tim Cormier spoke next.  He is a recent convert.  He was a Catholic.  He said growing up, he had always been taught “if the missionaries come, lock the door, shut the blinds”.  But, he knew some Mormon friends, and thought of them as being nice, kind, loving people.  In fact, he said at one point he said of himself that he wanted to be as nice, kind and loving as a Mormon person.  His wife, Lia, also spoke at the meeting.  She said she was a practicing Catholic.  She had a friend for 10 years who was a Mormon.  This friend would invite her to Relief Society activities, which she enjoyed attending.  There was never any pressure to join the church. She was accepted as she was.  Then, they came to a point that they were going through some trials.  Also, their 9 year old daughter wanted to go to the Mormon church with her friends around that time. After attending for 5 months, the daughter said she wanted to be baptized.  Her parents tried talking her out of it.  One day, Lia was feeling ill, and got a blessing from some priesthood holders.  She started asking them some questions about the church, and said her daughter had said she wanted to be baptized.  The parents decided they needed to attend church to see more about it before giving permission to the daughter to be baptized.  They were very welcomed; and Lia said they learned more in 1 hour than her whole life in her Catholic church.  They gave permission to their daughter to be baptized, and they were baptized about a week after her.  Lia said they have 3 more kids to go [older children, teenagers, who aren’t interested right now], and they will get there someday!

Elder Platt told about a little boy, I think  a relative, who had been in Salt Lake City with his family, and had been in a shop and he saw a truck he loved, and wouldn’t put it down, so the parents had to buy it, because when they tried to take it away from him he had a fit.  I think he was about 3.  Anyway, they did some touring around Temple Square, the little boy, named Noah, still holding on to his truck.  Well, in the North visitors center, they got to the statue of Christ, and Noah set aside his truck for the first time, walked up to the statue and put out his arms and said “up”.  Elder Platt said we need to be like Noah, set aside what we think we have to carry, our burdens, our busy lives, and remember that Christ has said “come unto me ye who are heavy burdened”.

We had a beautiful musical number by Elders Dryden, Billin, Jackson, and Clark, accompanied by Sister Clarke…..”Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”.

Elder Vasquez said Elder Jeffrey R. Holland in a talk about missionary work said:  “We are in an outstanding business, and business is booming!”    He also talked about playing the guitar a little, and visiting his Uncle Manny in Mexico who was a great guitar player.  His uncle wanted to play a song together, but Elder Vasquez declined because he wasn’t very good…not as good as his uncle.  After they left his uncle, several months later, his uncle died.  He regretted that he didn’t play with his Uncle Manny.

Elder Dryden:  learned so much at the MTC, came here and learned so much more.  He said he was thankful to have his faith tested and proved.

Elder Rollins:  used to wrestle.  He said he didn’t like wrestling, but loved winning.  The hard work paid off.  On his mission, he didn’t like work, but loved his Father in Heaven. And loved watching the gospel change people’s lives.  

Sister Packer:  talked about the changes in people that she saw, her testimony of the Book of Mormon and of Jesus Christ.

Another musical number:  “Because He Lives”  by Elders Platt and Woodbrey, accompanied by Elder Butcher.

Elder Lewis:  Testimony is found in the bearing of it (Brigham Young)

Sister Watkins:  Hastening of the work.  Number increased from 200 to 280’s.  Faith is hope, hope leads us to action.

February 9, 2014

February 9, 2014

What a week!  To back up.  California is in a drought.  Several years of droughts.  So it was decided that for Fast Sunday, Feb. 2^nd, we would all fast for rain.  Well the week before that day, we had a little bit of rain, and since that day I think we have had some rain every day!  The power of fasting and prayer!

On the 4^th, Elder Layton had his surgery to remove his kidney.  All went well.  The first miracle of the surgery is that from the time he came out of surgery, his cough was gone. He has had that cough for months now.  The second miracle is that the test results came back, he is cancer free!  I’m not sure if that means that it hadn’t spread, or that the tumor wasn’t cancerous…..I will have to find out for sure, but just glad this means he can recover from this surgery and be just fine.

Strange things of the week.  First off, we have had some thefts at the building we meet in.  We are in a wing of the church here.  When the missionaries have meetings, they use rooms in the ward building.  One time a month or so ago, the missionaries were meeting in the Relief Society room, and left backpacks etc . in the Cultural Hall on the stage.  When they gathered their things later, one missionary had had a camera stolen out of his backpack.  They leave doors open, and apparently people watch and know our schedule and just walked in while meetings were going on and no one watching the stuff and stole it.  We have had other items stolen from the building before too.  We had cars broken into here, and even one of the President’s cars had I think it was the battery stolen out of the car.  He had also bought a barbecue grill for the mission, so they could grill burgers for some of their luncheons when they have meetings.  It was locked with a cable around it, and stored in a patio type area off the kitchen that has a wall around it and the gate is locked.  Well, the lock was gone, no one knows when it came up missing, and the grill was stolen.  It was discovered when Elder Clayton had gone to check the propane to see if it needed to be filled before the next time of barbecuing burgers.  The cable was still there.  Okay, now zoom back to this week.  On Monday, a homeless guy came into the building and said, I think I have something that belongs to you.  He said he had purchased a grill from someone, and after getting it thought, I’ve seen that before. …it belongs to the church.  Elder Clayton asked him how he recognized it. Had he been back where it was stored. He said, yes, he had been back there before to charge up his phone until he had been asked by someone not to do that any more (right!!), and knew what the grill looked like.  Elder Clayton asked what he wanted for it, the homeless guy says, just what I paid for it, $50.  Elder Clayton said, I will ask the President what he wants to do, is there a way to contact you?  The guy gives his email address.  We talked about it after he left.  I said, if we buy it back, he will just steal something else to sell to us (because we all are sure he is the thief).  When the President was informed, he felt the same way, said he wouldn’t buy it back for even a dollar!

Other strange things.  About 2-3 weeks to a month ago, I got a call from Salt Lake about Elder Faux’s MSF card, that it was stopped because the bank had seen fraudulent activity on it. It was being used in Georgia.  Well, not the actual card, the numbers, because the elder still had his card.  So I called the elder and told him a new card was being order, but it takes about 3 weeks to come, so he has to share with his companion and get by until his card comes and he can pay the companion back.  Then this week, Sister Weeks calls me.  Her card is out of money, and it shouldn’t be. I look it up online at the bank site, and see immediately that her card has been hacked…..multiple purchases at McDonalds in South Africa!!!!  Approximately $90 spent.  I call the bank to get her card stopped and another ordered.  The next day, Sister Raney is in the office, and just mentions in passing that her card isn’t working. She has been trying for awhile, several different places, and it never works.  We are thinking  she just needs a new card, but I double check by looking online to see if she really has money on it, and lo and behold, her card has been hacked!  Used in North Carolina!  So, again, call to the bank to stop the card and get another reissued.  So, we have had 3 cards in a month get hacked, and in different areas of the mission and used in different parts of the world.  There is sure a lot of crime going on here.  We can’t figure out how.  They never let the card out of their possession.   I sure hope we don’t have any more of these.  It is a hardship on the missionaries and their companions.  They have to bum off of them for money until the new card comes to pay them back.

This morning, as I was leaving for church, I saw a guy who had ridden his bike into the parking lot, and he was going through the trash.  Makes me want to be extra careful what we are throwing away!

I think it was on January 25^th that we first noticed the tree by the parking lot where we park had blossoms on it.  This week, I noticed the green leaves along with the blossoms now.  Also noticed some trees with pink blossoms on them.  The temperatures have been in the 50’s this week, and like I said, rainy.

Yesterday, we had a special zone conference.  Zone conferences are usually 3 zones at a time, with 4 days being set for zone conferences.  But, we had Elder Quentin L. Cook in town for a stake conference in the area, and he said he had some time Saturday morning to meet with the missionaries, so it was decided to cancel the zone conferences which were to be this week, and just do one meeting on Saturday.  We went to the first part of this conference, to hear Elder Cook, then when he left and we had a 10 minute break, we left also because we had a conflict this day…..it was the day of our Tet Festival (the Vietnamese New Year), that had been planned for a year.  We felt strongly that we needed to attend that and support our little branch that we are assigned to.  We headed home and changed into our Vietnamese outfits, then headed to the church.  It is the one big event that our little branch does, and this year was even bigger than usual…..usually, they just do it as a branch activity.  This year they had decided to make it a stake activity, and we had about 200 people attend it.  We were part of the fashion show they do….the branch members had gone together and gotten us Vietnamese outfits, actually made in Vietnam. One member had gone back after Christmas to visit, and got them made then.  Another thing we were part of……we sang a song in Vietnamese about Spring.   Now that was something!  I will have to type up the translation of the song on here, and put a link to where you can hear it online….not us singing, but the song being sung in Vietnamese.  We left the Tet festival a little early, headed to the Mission Office, left our car and picked up the mission truck.  Went home, changed again, and headed back to the zone conference.  Spent the remainder of the time helping the Clayton’s with the car inspections that they do at every zone conference.  We never got them all inspected before the meetings were over and the missionaries were coming out to leave.  Gary had brought the truck because there were supposed to be some shampooers brought to him.  We got 2 of the 5 that had been expected.  We took them and the zone tubs that mail is sorted in, back to the mission office.  I had also been given 2 baptism records, a utility bill, and $20 on items another missionary needed to pay for, so when I was back in the office, I paid the bill, and credited the money for the missionary.  On the way home, we needed to stop and get milk and a few other items from the grocery store.  It is kind of hard having these activities on Saturdays for us….it is our P day (preparation day....day to do the laundry and shop and prepare for the week, and the day we can use for siteseeing too.), and when these things come up, we just have to catch up the best we can.   

Next Saturday, Feb. 15^th, will be sort of the same, just not as long.  We have a branch temple day.  So hopefully we can still get our cleaning and shopping in there somewhere!  We just bagged the cleaning this week….no time.  I kept laundry up during the week.  The following Saturday, Feb. 22^nd, is Stake Conference meetings that evening, Stake Conference on Sunday.  Hope and Kelley will be here the next Friday, Feb. 28^th, and spending the weekend with us, so we should have some fun things planned for that Saturday!  They will get to see what church is like for us as they attend our meetings on Sunday.  That Sunday evening that they are here is our Outgoing Devotional again, because it will be transfers that week.  They will get to go with us and see what that part of our missionary life is like.

This week, we have Senior Family Home Evening tomorrow night, because it needed to be rescheduled from last week.  Wednesday night, we are working at the Institute, helping the Cattron’s put on the meal for the Young Single adults who attend there.  The Cattron’s are filling in for the Layton’s while Elder Layton is recovering from his surgery.  The Clayton’s helped this past Wednesday.  So, a full week ahead.

 Today we had church, I taught a lesson in Relief Society.  When we got home, Shelley had called and wanted to Face Time.  Emilie had her 1st birthday on Friday, so we needed to talk to her. Had a good visit with them all.

As the weather gets nicer, I have some ideas of things I want to do on some Saturday’s for fun.  One is to go whale watching in Monterey Bay.  One is to go hiking at Point Lobos, down past Carmel…..I heard about it from some missionaries, that it is a beautiful and fairly easy hike.  I also want to head over to a place by Concord, and by Martinez.  It is the John Muir historic site.  He was a famous naturalist.  There is a nature trail there by where he used to live, that he used to go on with his daughters.  He named the two mountains in the area for his daughters…..Wanda and Helen.  So I want to hike up Mt. Wanda!

Well, I think that is about it….that’s all I can think of right now.  I need to get the pictures of Tet downloaded to the computer so I can post some on the blog too.  Plus, I have 2 other posts to put on of notes of Elder Cook's visit, and notes I took from our last Outgoing Devotional.aded to the church.  little early, headed to the Mission Office,

Link to Salt Lake Tribune article about the missionaries in San Jose, California doing service

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57473415-78/missionaries-service-lds-says.html.csp

I don't know how to make this a touch type link, but copy and paste it to go to this article about our missionaries.

Chuc Mung Nam Moi

February 2, 2014

Chuc mung nam moi!    (Happy New Year in Vietnamese, except I don’t know how to put the accent marks on here).  [Chuc..the u has an upwards accent mark  Mung…the u has a backwards c over it and then a downwards accent mark over that   nam…the a has a u shape over it, or a smile shape   moi  the o has a backwards c over it and an upwards accent mark over that]

The Lunar New Year began Friday, Jan. 31^st.  We heard fireworks going off as we left the mission office Friday evening.  It seemed strange to go to church today and having people wishing you “happy new year”, when it was Feb. 2^nd.   By the way, this is the year of the horse.

The New Year Celebration for the branch is being held next Saturday, Feb. 8^th at noon at the San Felipe building (our building).  It is a stake event.  We will be dressed in traditional Vietnamese clothes, and will get pictures.  We are also singing a Vietnamese song about Spring with the members of the branch.  It is called Xuan da ve, which means Spring has returned.  We stayed after church today to practice it.

Today at church, Brother Alex Tam shared a scripture.  It was from Isaiah 43:5 “Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west.”  He said this scripture is important to him because he came from the eastern countries to the west.  And to go along with it, he shared a scripture from 2 Nephi, about journeying to the promised land.  He feels that they were brought out of Vietnam to the United States to be able to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ….here in the promised land.  He feels very blessed to be able to live here, and to have the gospel in his life.

Last Wed., Jan. 29^th, we went to the dentist….Dr. Martin Judd.  He is in the Crawford’s ward.  While there, we were encouraged to get an electric toothbrush to help with Gary’s plaque problem.  So now we are learning how to use it.

Saturday, we went to Costco.  I don’t know if we ever want to go on a Saturday again!  But, we don’t have many options, either that or right after work which we hear is crowded too.  Parking is CRAZY!  Driving around and around waiting for someone to pull out so you can park!  There are just WAY too many people here.  We will not miss this when we go home.  Too many people, cars; parking spots are narrower here….no exaggeration.  Others have commented on it too.  Our car is not large, but you have to be careful opening the door when you get out, so you don’t hit the car next to you.  We have already noticed a ding on our car from someone else bumping it with their door.  GRRR!  And it isn’t like you can park far away from everyone….there isn’t a far away spot!  Otherwise, we would and just walk.  Everywhere is always full.

Friday night when we left work, we decided to go to Chiles for dinner. It was delicious!  I had chicken enchiladas and Gary had chicken fried steak.  So grateful for gift cards!!!!

Gary closed 4 apartments and opened 3.  He was VERY busy!  But then, so was I because I had work to do in opening and closing the apartments on the computer.

Weather is cooler today….50’s, and for the next week I think, though that could change. The forecast changes daily.  We have had a little rain, and some more is forecast.  California needs rain badly, so it is welcomed.  

I see more blossoms daily.  Saturday, I went for a ½ hour walk out of the apartment complex, and passed a house that had daffodils and grape hyacinths blooming.  Trees are beginning to blossom. On Jan. 25^th the tree by the parking lot where we park was full of blossoms…..crazy, I know!  I don’t know if that is early or not, but we did have some warmer weather earlier than usual here, and that may have triggered plants thinking it was spring.  Oranges and grapefruit seem to just grow year round.  I have never seen an orange tree without oranges on it.  And I asked Sister Clayton about it, since they have been hear nearly a year and a half now, and she said she doesn’t remember the orange trees ever being without oranges and in blossom.  They just keep growing apparently.  Spring is supposed to be here for sure this month.

Elder Layton has his kidney surgery on Tuesday, February 4^th to remove his right kidney that has cancer in it.  Hopefully, after the surgery he will be okay.  That is what the prognosis is.  This coming Wed., the Clayton’s will help at the institute, and the next Wed. we will help.  Then, if needed after that, we can still rotate helping.  The Cattron’s are taking over the job of putting on the Wed. night dinner that the Layton’s usually do.  The Cattron’s are usually the helpers, so we will be the helpers for them.

We sure love our young missionaries!  They are so loving and appreciative of all we do to help the mission.  I always keep candy in the office for them when they stop by.  In fact, that was one reason to stop at Costco…..I stocked up on candy!

I just want to wish you all a wonderful new year, full of blessings of good health and wonderful things happening for you!

Chuc mung nam moi!