As is usually the case, we have seen quite a number of soldiers finish their training and move on to bigger and better things. Many of them move on to their next unit, but the ones in the national Guard return home or go to Monterey CA for language training (AKA DLI, or Defense Language Institute). In the most recent class, one of our stalwart soldiers was the top/honor graduate in his class. Not surprisingly, this happens frequently. Also not surprisingly, these top soldiers are usually returned missionaries. They seem to have figured out how to be both good soldiers AND good Latter-Day Saints.
We do keep in touch with a few of these troops. One soldier who graduated in early March sent us an E-mail to verify our address. He’s getting married in late May and we will get an announcement. Too bad we can’t be to the wedding. The soldier in the above photo who’s holding the green envelope - the guy who was the distinguished grad - sent us a photo of him and his dad at some low rent place called The Lodge at Pebble Beach. They weren’t playing golf, but it was still neat to see.
One thing we have been doing some work on is trying to educate the local leaders on Military Relations Representatives and what they do, The Church is developing an option to do this MRR work using Church Service Missionaries, which are part-time, live-at-home couples who do what we do as full-time MRRs. We explained this program to President Passey, and he is going to arrange for us to train the stake presidents in Tucson East and Rincon (also in Tucson). Davis Monthon Air Force Base is there and there is not a MRR there. Once the stake president calls some of these CSMRRs. we will have the responsibility to train and then coordinate with them. We are really excited about this opportunity and feel like it is one of the most important contributions we will make to the work here in this mission.
The real highlight of the past few weeks has been preparation for, and then participating in, a visit from Elder Jeffrey R, Holland of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. Mom and I read about 7 or 8 of his talks. This past Wednesday (April 27) Elder Holland taught us important gospel doctrine about the Atonement for over 90 minutes. He focused on the enabling power of the Atonement, and what we have - that no other church has - that enables the Atonement in our lives - as it pertains to achieving exaltation. The two thing that we as members of the Church of Jesus Christ have, that nobody else has, 1) the Holy Ghost (Joseph Smith taught this over 150 years ago) and, 2) the Priesthood. The Holy Ghost inspires us to repent and receive essential ordinances; the Priesthood is the authority by which those ordinances are authorized and performed. I wish we had a copy of the all-mission picture that was taken. once we have this, we will send a copy. There was no time for personal photos, since Elder Holland had to leave before the conference finished. He was assisted by Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the Presidency of the Seventy, After Elder Holland departed, Elder Robbins taught us about Agency and Responsibility for about 90 minutes. Most of us are really keen on the idea of agency - we all like that. And we have 100 percent agency. But many of us are not so keen on responsibility. We also have 100 percent responsibility. But we don’t always recognize that part of agency. Laman and Lemuel are examples of not taking the responsibility for the exercise of their agency. Read 1 Nephi to see how Laman and Lemuel dealt with responsibility. Try making a list of how they sought to avoid responsibility, i.e. they blamed, they murmured, they were angry, they had self pity. There is a start for you.
Of course any time we’re in Tucson we go by the temple to see how it is progressing. As you can see, it’s progressing. As the building is enclosed, the day-to-day progress won’t be as obvious. But we know that when the landscaping is done, the time for open house and dedication won’t be far away. It probably won’t be finished before we return home, but maybe one day we can come and visit it.
Since we had to travel for over an hour to get to the conference location in Tucson, we and another senior couple were invited to stay at the residence of another couple, who are living in the home of their son in law, while that family is in San Antonio with the Army. These two photos were taken from the roof of the home where we stayed. Great sunset, great desert scenery. As we’ve mentioned before, the desert scenery takes some getting used to. It wasn’t what we expected. For one thing, there is more variation - and color - that we thought would be the case. And the vegetation is interesting even if it is mostly cactus.
And speaking of cactus. We took the time today to go to Tucson and visit the Saguaro National Part in East Tucson today, along with another senior couple who work in the mission office. We saw a wide variety of cactus and other variation. W didn’t see any wildlife but the plant life was beautiful. Some of the Cacti are in bloom - that’s why we went today. I didn’t know there was so much color in the desert.
So that you don’t think that all we do is play, we continue to do our regular community service, teach seminary, visit members and try to keep it all straight. We have 2 more weeks until seminary will be over then we will have about 4 hours in our day to do other things. One thing we will do is serve at the post clinic. The administrator is a member of Huachuca ward and also has ties to Morgan, Utah where Marie was raised. We continue to find fun connections to people that we meet with.
We love you all and pray for your well being. The Gospel is amazing. Serving our Lord is such a blessing in our lives. Keep the faith, for it is worth the fight of life.
Love, Earl and Marie, Granny and Gramps, Mom and Dad, Elder and Sister Phippen
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