Just When You Thought My Parents Couldn't Get Any Cooler...

(Editor's Note: I'm not sure Mom and Dad knew what they were getting into when they asked me to turn their emails into blog posts. I try to behave.) :) 

We have had an awesome few days as this year kicks off.   As is always the case, we have had to say goodbye to dear friends.  We’ve grown to love these two soldiers over the past few months.  The young man is from Cedar City, a returned missionary, and a real “rock” in the group.  We could always count on him to be present for meetings and to fulfill any request for help.  The young lady is sort of an adopted daughter.  She struggled with activity throughout her stay here, until the last month or so when she began to come every week.   Both these young people are headed for Monterey California for language training.  The guy already speaks Polish - from his mission - so he’s going to learn French.  The girl will learn Persian Farsi.  They are both quite bright so we’re sure they’ll do well.  One cool thing was that, since neither of these young people had family attend their graduation, we had the privilege of pinning their MI Corps insignia on their uniforms in an informal ceremony prior to graduation.  So, we got to be Mom & Dad for a few minutes, which we really enjoyed.
 

In a different course - they do a lot of different kinds of training here - this soldier also finished his work and is moving on.  Since his course was longer, he was able to get on-post family housing and have his wife and children with him.  The middle child, standing next to Dad, is so full of energy you get tired just watching him.  This is one of the families we were able to assist in cleaning their house prior to final inspection.  But the sister was so well prepared we didn’t have to do very much - which was okay with us.  The only drawback for US in the group is that this family attended the family ward and held callings there, so we didn’t have the benefit of their fellowship for as long as we would have liked.

A few days ago, we got a letter from one of our counterparts.  A part member family that we had sent their way is being friend shipped and fellowshipped.  That is another cool thing about what we do.  We can open the door for others to enter and be an influence for good in the lives of those families.  These are miracles in many cases.

By far the highlight of the year thus far - and likely of our whole mission - was going to the temple with our adopted children and grandchildren (They adopted us, not the other way around).  The family was sealed together in the Phoenix Temple (another first temple for us, which makes 5 new temples since our mission began).  The picture on the top left is the family prior to going into the temple.  Top right is Matthew and Miranda after the temple experience.  Bottom right is the whole family: Haili is the older - 17 next July, Mattilynn just turned 9, Johnathan is 11, and Noah is 7.  These are your new cousins/friends.  I am sure you will get to meet them sometime.  They have promised us visits to Idaho.  

Matthew is a purple heart recipient.  He had his heel blown away in Afghanistan.  The Dr. wanted to amputate his foot but he wouldn’t let them.  He has a lot of pain from it though so he can’t do PT and the hard stuff.   He is going to get out of the army.  He and JD are enough alike they could be brothers.

The center-left picture shows the family after being sealed together.  Below that, the photo includes all the missionaries who taught this family just over a year ago.  Three of the four have completed their missions, but made special - and last minute - travel arrangements to come and be with the family for the sealing.  These missionaries are the cream of the crop as far as we are concerned.  Three of them are from SE Idaho - one from Pocatello, one from IF and the other from Burley. The other one lived in Shelley for a time and now his family lives in Oregon.   We will have a party sometime in July to which they are all invited.

Another seriously cool thing about this event was the temple workers we met while there.  She was an assistant matron who assisted Mom and Miranda for the day.  Mom noticed her last name -Driscoll -and said that we had known someone by that name in Hawaii.  They were our friends from 35 years ago in Halawa Ward when I was stationed at Hickam AFB, Hawaii.  Brother Driscoll - or maybe I should say President Driscoll since he’s in the temple presidency - ordained me a High Priest in that ward.  Very small world when you put the church and the military together.

This is the Sierra Vista Zone - as of yesterday -  which includes missionaries serving in Benson, Wilcox, Douglas, and Bisbee.  Notice the really cute sister missionary in the yellow jacket on the back row.

We also continue to have great experiences with the young missionaries.  We are about 3 weeks into the current transfer, which brought many changes to Sierra Vista.  They added another set of missionaries here - Elders - making 10 missionaries in all (not counting Mom & me).  And of the 4 sets of missionaries who were already assigned, all 4 got new companions. One Elder is from New Zealand and a sister from Tonga.   So far it seems that this group is working hard, and striving to keep the mission rules.  As a result, they are being blessed with an increased number of teaching opportunities.  The Lord truly is hastening his work here, as He is throughout the earth.  Yesterday we had a Zone Conference, combined with the Spanish Zone from Tucson.  We had excellent training from President & Sister Passey on connecting our teaching of the commandments more directly to the Atonement.  This training reinforced material we had learned from a recent worldwide missionary training broadcast on the same general topic.  We now are able to more closely model our teaching after the Savior Himself and on the current Apostles and Prophets teachings.

Well friends, we love you all and appreciate your support and thoughts and prayers.  We are grateful for the chance to serve.  We know the Gospel is true and Jesus Christ is the Way the Truth and the Life.  He is our Savior and Redeemer.  Our love for Him has grown as we strive to serve and emulate Him.  

Much love and blessing

Mom & Dad/Marie & Earl/Sister & Elder Phippen