For the of you who have
forgotten who we are - or were - We are Elder and Sister Phippen. We
currently serve in the Arizona Tucson Mission, and are assigned to labor at Ft.
Huachuca as Military Relations Specialists. We have been serving for 22
months and have not - as you may have feared fallen victim to any desert
mayhem. In other words - sorry for the long delay in writing. We
thought we should go ahead and send this now so that you can get it in
time to plan your summer travel schedules.
Let’s get the scheduling things out of the way
first. We will depart from the southwest desert to return to our home in
Chubbuck Idaho on June 26 (a Monday). We expect to arrive in Chubbuck sometime
later that week. We will report our mission in the Chubbuck 3rd ward at 1:00
PM on Sunday, July 9th (the second Sunday in July). If you
can come, we would love to see you and visit after the 3-hour block of meetings
on that day.
The AIT soldiers have been the central focus
of our mission. We are constantly amazed at their strength and capacity.
The most recent group included six returned missionaries. Five of
them never missed a week, and could be depended on to complete any assignment
or request. The 6th never came a single time, despite dedicated efforts
by the other five. But we heard that he is starting to participate more
in YSA activities in Monterey CA, which is where most of that group went after
their graduation. The other gratifying thing about these soldiers is that
they also excelled in their training. The female soldier in the second of
these two paragraphs won numerous awards, and one of her peers said she was
“the best soldier in the company.” We will particularly miss these fine
young people, whom anyone would be proud to serve with in the military.
A real highlight of the past
few weeks was our quarterly trip to the Mesa temple. We do this
regularly, with great support from the Chaplain’s office. This quarter
was especially significant in that one of the members of the group, from Payson
Utah, received his endowment in the Mesa temple, where several members of our
group were able to attend. Elder & Sister Phippen were able to help
this soldier prepare by teaching the temple preparation lessons. In
addition, the soldier’s parents were able to travel from Payson to Mesa to be
with their son. The soldier’s best friend, from high school is part of
his training class; they both joined the Army right after high school. So
the friend’s parents were able to attend as well. And because there is a
very nice visitor’s center in Mesa, several non-members and less natives
attended as well. One of those non-members remarked how much she had felt
a sense of reverence and peace and regeneration while at the temple.
In addition to working with the students, we
also spend much of our time involved in a variety of service projects.
One to these events is called Cafe Connection, a program sponsored and
funded through the chaplain’s office. In this we serve an informal meal
to about 400 soldiers and they have a chance to relax and be a little less
formal than they are most of the time. The food is usually prepared by one of
the local church congregations. During May, the LDS Church had this
opportunity - we did this a year ago as well. The stake presidency was
very enthusiastic about the earlier results, so we had no trouble getting
approval for this year’s event. We served taco salad to more than 300
soldiers. You will notice in these pictures that there are many hands
serving the food - more than half of those are not LDS Church members.
But this speaks to the interdisciplinary nature of this activity. Lots
of good friends here that we will surely miss.
One of the great joys in our mission has been the opportunity to work with many fine Christian souls from the chaplain’s office. Unfortunately, some of these stalwarts are moving on to other opportunities. This couple on the right, the Pans, are moving to Ft. Lewis. This lady’ size hides a great big talent- she has an amazing singing voice. You would never believe that all that sound could come from such a tiny little body. The couple on the left are the Fox’s. Chaplain Fox is retiring from the Army and moving on to a ministry in the civilian world - in Kansas City we think. Chaplain Fox has been a wonderful friend who has helped us in many instances where we needed to have policies waived on behalf of one of our soldiers. A very good friend who will be sorely missed but not forgotten.
There are temporal blessings
associated with this work among the chaplains. For service at the post
Thrift Shop, Sister Phippen was one of ten nominees for the Volunteer of the
Year for Ft. Huachuca. She didn’t win, but I thought that reflected a
serious error in judgment. I do know that the people at the Thrift
Shop are contemplating locking her up her so she can’t leave on the 26th.
And no discussion of our work with the chaplains would be complete
without mentioning our very dear friend Chaplain Weston, the man post chaplain.
He has been of immeasurable help to us and we love him dearly. We were honored that he chose to
recognize us at his monthly “Hail & Farewell” luncheon. We have been
like part of his staff for more than a year, and we know that the Lord has blessed
this association as a means to further His work.
Another pleasure we have
enjoyed is our association with the young missionaries. We attend almost
all the district meetings and zone conferences. It is amazing how the
Lord has entrusted the growth of His Kingdom to these dedicated and humble
young people. I don’t know how they do what they do. Perhaps these
pictures will illustrate what I mean. Yes, Virginia, it is the same group
in both cases. And see if you can figure out what’s missing in the last
picture.
As every missionary will
probably tell you, the things we have loved the most and will miss the most are
the people with whom we work. Since pictures of all the lovely souls we have
met these past 22 months would exceed the capacity of the e-mail system, we
will include just two pictures, which are representative of so many others.
First, two of the three brethren who served as the Servicemen’s group
leadership. Brother Castle, the Group
leader, is standing right behind Elder Phippen. He’s a retired Air Force
fighter pilot and a brother of my cycling buddy from Idaho Falls. His
wife Melissa - just between Elder & Sister Phippen - kept us supplied
with names for temple ordinance work the entire time we have served in Sierra
Vista. They brother in the red shirt is Brother Ray - he is a full
Colonel on active Duty and is the Command Dental Surgeon here at Ft. Huachuca.
His wife Elaine - far right in the photo - sells real estate and is one
of the nicest people you could ever meet. We have spent many hours
worshiping and serving with these people. The third member of the
leadership is Skip Paige, who was working when this picture was taken.
His wife Jennie was in California. We are going to miss these dear
friends more that we really want to think about right now.
We also have been blessed
with amazing friendships with other senior missionaries. Elder &
Sister Hanrion were assigned to oversee the building of the Tucson Temple.
Elder Hanrion, a retired construction supervisor, worked as the Church’s on-site
liaison with the construction company and saw every piece of material as it was
put into its place. Sister Hanrion, a former RN, is writing the history
of the building of the Temple. With the construction now completed and
the history ALMOST written, they had a day on Memorial Day to do some fun
things. So they called us and we went to Bisbee and Douglas. Bisbee
is the former mining town that has evolved into a desert oasis for hippies (if
you don’t know what a hippie is, be grateful for your youth). Elder &
Sister Hanrion and Sister Phippen went on the Bisbee mine tour - Elder
Phippen DID NOT. Then, since neither of the Hanrions had seen the border
wall, we went to Douglas and saw the border wall. The wall is in the
background and the cute senior sister missionaries are under the STOP sign.
Two other fun things that we
could only see by coming to the southwest desert. The first of these is a
shot of the Arizona version of an ROUS (think Princess Bride). They’re
called javelina. They look like pigs but are not - they are rodents (yes
of unusual size). Look carefully at the dark spot in the center of the picture
just above the road. There are actually four or five animals right there.
The last fun thing is that we
attended the temple with one of our seminary students who is now going on a
mission. On our way home, the sister missionaries - one of whom served in
Sierra Vista about eight months ago - showed us the Kimball house in Safford
Arizona. This is where Spencer W. Kimball was born and raised. So not
only can good things come out of Nazareth, but Southwest Arizona as well.
Well, I think that is about all from here for
right now. We will probably close out this communication with an e-mail
right after we arrive home. We love you all and are grateful for your
support these past several months. The Gospel is true - we know that
better every day.
Elder & Sister/Granny & Gramps/Earl
& Marie Phippen
