This was actually written Sept 20.

Well Elder Phippen is writing this so anything in here is Sister Phippen’s fault since she left me unsupervised at the computer.  Believe it or not there is a mission rule that missionary companions have to be able to see the screen when their companion is sending his weekly e-mail.This past week has been interesting.  We did go to a discussion with the young Elders to a less active member who is trying to come back to activity,  That was good.  I helped teach while Sister Phippen/Granny/Mom rode herd on the  guy’s 3 kids (ages 8, 4, 2).  He’s a single parent who’s wife passed away  about a year ago and then he transferred back to Ft. Huachuca. He is a real nice guy but has a weird duty schedule that makes it hard for him to come to Meetings on Sunday,  Which of course makes it hard for him to progress in his reactivation.  We met him by way of a referral from another Senior Missionary couple who were doing military relations at Ft. Belvoir in Virginia.  His name is Chris, and we’ll keep you posted.

Had two very nice visits with families in one of the other wards - not on post,  One is a 3rd generation military family who are going to retire in a few years here in Sierra Vista,  The wife is from here an they like it here  In the other family the husband is deployed, but he isn’t military.  He works for a government contracting company and the company sends him to places of interest to do their business,  He’s gone as much as the soldiers.  But the wife was very nice and I think she enjoyed having some adult conversation for a change.

One of our biggest challenges has been to get to meet with ward leaders to 1) get to know them, and 2) have them tell us how we can help with fellowshipping the people they know.  But our biggest challenge has been that we’ve been more pro-active than previous senior missionaries and the leaders aren’t sure what to have us do.  So our first task is to tell the ward councils what our calling is about and who they need us to see.

As you know we are teaching early morning seminary - Old Testament.  We’re learning a lot about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Rachael and Leah and Bilhah and Zilpah  AND their 12 sons (cue the “Jacob and Sons" tape right here).  We’re at the part where Jacob and Esau are reconciling after 20 years separation.  I do know that Laban - Rachel & Leah’s father (the Old Testament guy, not the Book of Mormon guy) was not a real honest person but he and Jacob parted amicably.  We have also learned the importance of keeping covenants in order to participate in the Abrahamic Covenant, After all, the Lord had Abraham send Isaac 600 miles north (one way) of where they were living to find Rebekah, and then Jacob had to do the same thing to get Rachel *and the others).  This covenant thing must be pretty important if we want to have a celestial family.

I - Dad - have been having a little bout with a kidney stone but i’m hoping that it passes soon so we can get back to some of our activities,  The Book of Mormon says a lot about “and it shall come to pass.”  I just hope that it's more all inclusive that it has been the past 3 days,  But Sister Phippen is a really good nurse and she make me drink lots of water.  If I’m good by tomorrow AM, we will go to Tucson and have our monthly lunch meeting with most of the other senior couples.

In sacrament meeting today we learned - or rather had reinforced - an interesting concept.  Soldiers have a “Battle Buddy.”  They don’t go anywhere without their buddy,  Kind of like a missionary companion. Anyway, the speaker pointed out that when we’re baptized, we get a “Battle Buddy” for the rest of our lives.  He is perhaps better known as the Holy Ghost,  And he’s is there to do all that “Battle Buddy” stuff as long as we keep our covenants and do our part.  I thought it was the perfect analogy for a group of soldiers.  One of the best Holy Ghost talks i have ever heard

The pictures are from Tombstone, as a child of 4 can plainly see  Pretty cool museum in that old courthouse.  But since the only industry in town is tourism, bring money.  Seems like the only currency denomination is a $10 bill.  And that gallows in the back of the courthouse can take care of any frontier justice needed on the spur of the moment.  It appears to be fully operational.  Tombstone got its name from when the first miner/prospector was told that the only thing he’d mine would be his own tombstone.  Well, what did they know.  Between 1882 and 1891 - or thereabouts - miners took about $37 million in silver out of those mines.  Then when the miners got about 500 feet down they hit the water table and the mines flooded and they closed the mines.  Now its just the tourists.  The famous gunfight at the OK corral lasted all of about 35 seconds.  AND it really wasn’t in the OK Corral, it was in the vacant lot next door to the Corral.  The Earp brothers and Doc Holliday won - they killed 3 of the bad guys.  I’d always thought there were dozens of people and it lasted all afternoon - like in “Support Your Local Sheriff ”  Maybe one day we/ll pay the $10 to see the entire reenactment.

 This picture is of a tethered observation balloon on the south side of town  I’m told there are a number of cameras on board this thing that can observe potential illegal border activities.  The Mexica border is only bout 15-18 miles south of here.  We see quite a few border patrol vehicles.  One of the wards has over half of the families in their ward working for the border patrol.  The desert - not counting the rattlesnakes - is really quite beautiful, especially the sunrises - just wish they didn’t come so early in the morning.  There is more vegetation than I would have expected.  Mostly grasses and mesquite, but not so much cactusas we thought we’d see.

About time to go to bed and see if I can deliver this kidney stone sometime tonight,  We love you all and how your lives are meaningful and filled with live and service.