Well here we are with our monthly/weekly/ocassional message from sunny Southern Arizona. And the weather here, unlike where some of you live, has been spectacular. Today when we left for seminary at 5:30 (0530) it was 39 degrees. Right now its about 67 and sunny. A perfect day. Glad we weren’t called to the Denver Colorado Mission. Since we last wrote, we have had some cool experiences.
Sadly - but happily for the soldiers - we had another graduation early in March. We sent another bunch - 3 this time - off to DLI. We were blessed to have the dad of one of these soldiers , and the fiancee - stay with us. The dad is an Army LTC (that’s Lieutenant colonel) and it was really fun to visit with him. The fiancee was cool as well - and is a returned missionary. I wish we were going to be home and able tho attend the wedding, but…..
Here’s the whole batch with Elder & Sister Phippen. The two soldiers closest to Elder Phippen came almost every week. The one closest to Sister Phippen only came once or twice - he said that he got scheduled for weekend duty often.
That same week, another one of our stalwarts also finished his course and is returning to SLC. He is an officer - 2LT - and was one of the top graduates in his course. This guy is 34, a high priest, a family with three kids, and owns his own business. Super troop, and we miss him already.
We were able to schedule for President and Sister Passey to come and speak to our servicemen group on post about 3 weeks ago. They were awesome as usual. Sister Passey in particular spoke about the need to be bold in living and declaring the truth. She wanted the soldiers to know that they can’t be casual about living the gospel. One can be bold without necessarily being obnoxious or vocal. But in today’s society, one has to declare where they stand regarding things pertaining to righteousness. The Passeys stayed for the whole 2-hour block and for the lunch we have after. Sister Passey remarked to Sister Phippen that’ “It’s easy to see why you love these soldiers so much.”
As we may have mentioned previously, senior missionary couples have more latitude with many things than do the young missionaries. So we took advantage of that latitude a couple of Saturdays ago to drive over to Silver City NM. It’s about 3 hours from here. There is a senior couple there - the Smiths - that primarily do CES support at the small institute n Silver City. The also work with the Young Single Adults. We had lunch with them and drove around the city. What was also fun was that we drove by the apartment where our daughter Wendy lived when she served in this mission many years (like 19 I think) ago. This is the place.
Seminary occupies about 4-5 hours per day of our time, which includes lesson preparation, travel, and the actual teaching. We usually teach the 3 brothers - Nick, Matt, and Adam - but the past 2 weeks we have had 2 girls from the ward join our little group. They are enrolled in the regular seminary class adjacent to Buena HS, but had sort of stopped going. So Sister Phippen invited them - and told the parents as well - to join our early morning group. We pick the up on our way out to the Bastians - that’s where we meet (it’s 17.6 miles on way. The girls have really enlivened the boys - especially Nick, who is the infamous sleeper. Since two of the three boys will graduate this spring, we don’t yet know for sure what will be the deal for next school year.
Our Military Relations work continues to expand. We have made a really good relationship/friendship with our sponsor chaplain. He invited us to attend the weekly newcomer orientation briefing, which we have been doing for the past three weeks. We don’t speak, but the new arrivals get to see our smiling faces and know whom they can contact. Chaplain Perez introduces us, and has been very cooperative in getting our names and phone numbers into the relevant post chapel literature. This week there were 3 that identified as LDS. We got a letter from the MRR at Fort Sill that there are 5 that will be joining us. Some active, and some not so.
We have also been getting more input from the wards in Sierra Vista Stake. The Stake President has instructed the bishops to send us lists of all the ward members who are active duty military, which all but 1 ward - I think - has done. So we can begin to fellowship and meet with some of these members too, and see how we can help meet their needs. This progress has been slow at times but we are moving forward. On Sunday we went to one of the other wards and one of our new soldiers just happened to be their with his wife, his parents and new son that he had never seen. It was great to meet his parents and wife. He was able to get an exception to policy to be able to go off post.
A highlight of this week was Erin and Dave and their children coming to visit. We had a fun time with them. Here is a picture of them at the Queen Mine tour in Bisbee, and a picture of Dr. Dave and Charlie. Dave has one more year of residency at Primary Childrens then will be an official pediatrician.
Our grand daughter Alyssa, our sons oldest, is doing well on her mission in Las Vegas. She is growing in her love of the gospel and her faith in Jesus Christ. JD and Lori’s youngest was also baptized last Saturday in Pocatello. We are so proud of all of our grand children. They are doing amazing things.
We are so grateful at this time of year in particular for the Atonement of our Savior. As we have been teaching Isaiah in the Old Testament these past few days, I have gained a greater appreciation and love for our Savior and his Redeeming love. It is strange to me that the study of Isaiah's words, in conjunction with help from the Seminary manual, has helped our testimonies of Him through whom salvation comes.
We are looking forward to hearing from the Apostles and prophets next week. What a blessing that is to have modern prophets to give us guidance and instruction.
We love you all and wish for you all that life has to offer.
Mom and Dad, Earl and Marie, Granny and Gramps, Elder and Sister Phippen
