Rolling into February

I guess its a good sign that we are busy enough that we have trouble getting this out every week.  But we have been finding things to do. 

One of the really cool things that has happened is that one of the soldiers that has been attending our group on Sunday was baptized on January 24th.  This soldier just started coming completely on his own, not with a member friend.  He was supposed to graduate this past week but for some reason did not.  But he was not only baptized but ordained to the priesthood last Sunday.  So I think this week he will be able to assist in the administration of the sacrament.  He has been dating a member that also attends the group but they haven’t been sitting together or anything. She didn’t even attend the baptism, but that was more due to her AIT restricted to post status. He wanted to do this completely on his own.  And he has been successful in that.  Now that he’s been baptized, it will be interesting to observe how they interact at church.

Another fun thing was that week before last Marie’s sisters, Nina and Joyce, came down for a 1-day visit.  They arrived Tuesday night about 3:00 pm and left Thursday about 9:00 am.  It was fun to have them here even if it was for such a short time.  We did the standard stuff - go to the Bisby mine, Tombstone, lunch in Benson at the Horseshoe Cafe.  Notice that on the accompanying mine tour photos, Elder Phippen is not in the picture - I don’t do mines.  I just couldn’t help thinking about the tons of earth that would be above me in a hole in the ground.  Since we then went to Boot Hill at Tombstone, I thought there were some similarities in the graves and mines except that the miners/tourees weren’t quite dead - yet.  Never too soon to be concerned about stuff like that.  Among the folks buried in Boot Hill were the bad guys killed in the Gunfight at the OK Corral (which, by the way, is way overrated.  It lasted about 35 seconds and only bad guys died at the fight). 

One of the things that is both fun and sad in this assignment is seeing these fine young soldiers come and do their training.  We become very attached to them during the few months they’re here.  And we love to see them succeed.  But then they graduate and move on to their next assignment.  And we are sad about not seeing them any more.  Our current group is like that.  We’ve gotten close to several of them and they will be gone in about 10 days.  Fortunately there will be some to replace them.  The young man in the pictures graduated yesterday.  He wife - of about 9 months - drove straight through from Salt Lake, arriving at 3:00 am (0300 for the military).  They hadn’t even talked after her arrival until after the graduation ceremony.  They’re both RM’s and he’s working on a degree in Economics at BYU.  He will go to Ft. Banning GA for jump training from here.  He was also the Honor Graduate in his class of 9 soldiers.  They are also expecting child #1 in August.

We’ve probably mentioned that there is a temple being constructed in Tucson.  There’s even a wall up on one side (as of about 3 weeks ago).  There is a senior couple in the mission assigned to be the liaison for the church and the construction company.  They have a little non-visitor center trailer where they work right at the construction site.  They can’t say anything about how things are progressing as far as a completion date, but we haven’t heard about any real “show stoppers” as yet.  We even got to look at the 1st floor plans - fun, fun, fun.  The missionary couple know every one of the workers by name - although many of the names are Jose.  While the brother/Elder oversees the construction, the sister/sister takes pictures and is writing the history of the temple.  It isn’t scheduled to be completed before we finish our mission, but we think we are going to arrange a visit soon after the dedication.  We will definitely keep you updated on this exciting event.

With the pictures of the temple are a couple of photos of the soldiers having lunch a couple of weeks ago.  We feed them a light lunch each week and they get to fellowship informally for a brief time.

The work continues to progress.  We are improving our communication with the ward leaders.  The Relief Society President has given us several names to check on and we’ve been able to find most of those folks.  Not all of them have started coming to church yet, but we keep trying.  But at least we’re making progress in getting the ward - and stake - to see that we can be a real resource to help them minister to these families.  We also have, in effect, 3 single-parent dads with young children in the home.  So we try to help them know we are available.  One of the dads, heretofore less active, has started coming to church a little.  Mom also helped the Relief Society serve lunch at a funeral this week.  I seemed to us that these people aren’t used to having folks around that are willing to show up and help.  But as I’ve felt for many years, 80% of this work is just showing up.  That seems to be proving to be true in this area.

The psst transfer saw quite a changeover n the Sierra Vista Zone.  One sister left to go to the MTC.  She’s the one who was here as a trial missionary.  Then she go her full time call - to this mission.  While she’s at the MTC her companion has a temporary companion - the daughter of the Sierra Vista Stake President.  This sister also has a mission call to Peru, starting  in April.  But she;s getting a taste of awhat the work will be like - albeit in English rather than Spanish.  This girl is 21 and has graduated from Eastern Arizona College with her RN license.  She seem like she’s going to be a great missionary.

Well we will write more later - but not necessarily with any greater regularity.

Elder & Sister Phippen/Granny & Gramps/ Earl & Marie