Back At It!

Hope you are all sitting down. We are finally getting back to a letter!!

I know it's been quite a while since we did this, but September and October were not real great for writing or for our extended family. We made 2 trips to Utah during that time to attend funerals.  The first was for my sister Ruth - she was 91, and then, General Conference weekend, Sister Phippen’s sister Eva passed away unexpectedly. A blessing of the trip to Ruth’s funeral was that we had a chance to strengthen some relationships with our extended family - including the two remaining siblings from my father’s older family. Technically I guess these two siblings are 1/2 brother & sister to me, but it doesn’t feel that way. In this picture, Claudia - my sister - is in the center. She’s almost exactly 10 years older than me. Kay - the one without the suit coat - is about 4 or so years older than that. 

Eva’s funeral was very nice. She was buried in the little Cokeville cemetery, in the valley where their family has lived for over 40 years. In a very poignant benediction to the graveside services, as her son Paul was offering the dedicatory prayer, several of the cows in the nearby field started “Moooing.” Lowell, Eva’s husband, laughed and Paul almost did. In my mind it was a great signature to the event. We got to see almost all of our children, and had a great visit the night before the funeral. Unfortunately we didn’t get any photos on our phone of that event, we were too busy laughing and enjoying each other's company. Just this one of the ranch. Great place with many fond memories. We plan to go back once our mission is complete and do some fishing. Late August or early September is the best time. 

Marie’s brother Lloyd also passed away while we were in Utah for Eva’s funeral. His passing was expected, as he'd been battling cancer, but it definitely was still a shock to have him pass the day after Eva's funeral.  We were able to visit with his wife Connie before we left, but weren’t able to attend the actual funeral since we had a commitment to attend Riley’s mission talk in Des Moines. We are able to hear him speak prior to his departure for the Arequipa Peru mission. He’s currently at the MTC in Lima, learning Spanish and how to understand earthquakes. We also got to see Riley receive his Eagle Scout award. Congratulations, Riley! Pictured is JD, Riley, Daxon and Britton. 

Here’s Elder Phippen up the escalator and off to Peru. He’ll be back in 2 years. 

As always, we witness our soldiers’ graduations from their training here at Ft. Huachuca. We are grateful for their successes, but we always miss them when they leave. This picture is of one of the the guys from the Utah Guard here to attend the Basic Officer Leadership Course. His wife decided the didn’t want to spend all those months alone in their little house in Brigham City, so he came and they had a room in the transit quarters. They attended services with our serviceman’s group. They’re Cache Valley folks, and live in Brigham. He teaches school. 

These four left just last week. Real stalwarts, the kind we love to see come and hate to see leave. They’re all returned missionaries, although one of them was sporadic in his attendance. The sad thing is that those who have come in recent weeks are not as strong or mature in the Gospel, and so we have some work to do in helping them see the value of full participation. This really shows the true value of full-time mission service as a maturing and strengthening experience. And usually one or more of these soldiers will be among the top performers in their military training. So they’re great priesthood holders and excellent soldiers as well. It is really like a second mission, and the good ones approach it just that way.

A second group of young soldiers - of a different specialty - are the young missionaries we are blessed to associate with on a daily basis. Transfers were last week - transfers happen every 6 weeks - and we got to help with that. Our Sierra Vista District - which includes the Zone Leaders - includes 3 sets of elders, 1 set of sisters, and us (the Phippens). This is our district just prior to transfers. One of these elders (center front in the photo) completer his mission and returned home. Another (far back on the left) was transferred to Tucson somewhere. The second photo is our zone just after transfers. There are 25 missionaries ( a temporary threesome down in Douglas) - about 10 sisters - not including us. One of the elders - tall on in the back - was a green missionary here about 8 months ago. It is great to have him back. He is now training a new missionary. 

Yesterday we had zones conference in our Zone. These happen about once a quarter (although we do have district or other meetings every week). As always we were blessed to receive great instruction on helping people receive revelation through personal prayer. In something of a departure from earlier zone conferences, we had breakout sessions where President Passey took the Elders and Sister Passey took the sisters. The sisters discussed feelings of self worth and how those feelings affect all that we do, as missionaries and in our every-day lives. The elders talked about some white handbook (that is the rule book) matters that needed attention. The idea was to try to be more like the Savior and not just get by with a minimum level of obedience. I thought it was the most useful and needed training we have received since coming to Arizona, We are blessed with great leaders in this mission. Both President and Sister Passey are marvelous teachers and leaders and we feel truly blessed to serve with them. I even got to have my temple recommend renewed by the President. So for the second time in my life, my recommend will only have one signature other than my own. Only full-time missionaries get to have that, so its kind of neat.

Well friends, that is about what I have to say for now. After the events of the past two months, the turmoils of the campaign and the results of last night - election wise - its good to just take a deep breath and remember the Lord is in control. He didn’t set us up to fail, not withstanding significant bumps in the road. I’m more convinced than an ever that the solution to the world’s challenges is found in the Gospel. There is safety in keeping your covenants; there is difficulty in not doing so. We live in a great country. Just keep in mind WHY America was settled. We hope everyone has a great week. We will try to do better about the frequency of these messages. Given the primary author, there isn’t much that can be done about the content or quality.



Love Dad/Gramps/Elder Phippen and Sister/Granny/Mom

Time (and the work) marches on...

In case you’re all wondering where this note has been, it’s now on its way.  One of us tried to include a video and that made the message too large.  In trying to delete that video, the other one of us deleted the entire message. 

Therefore…..

I will try to recreate as best I can what was obviously the Beta version.

Well, since we last wrote we have had some of our choice young soldiers graduate and move on to their new life. This first picture shows two of our very special friends.  The one on the right was an honor graduate - there were about 8 of them in a class of 140.  Amazing that these folks find time to excel in their training AND participate full in the Church.  In addition, this young lady was just baptized in June - I think I mentioned that last letter.  Her friend in the picture is her battle buddy and heard all the lessons, but wasn’t ready to commit to baptism. Hopefully we planted the seeds that will later bear fruit.

The soldier in this photo is our friend Matthew Whitworth.  He and his family were just baptized in November, and are planning on being sealed in the Salt lake Temple in December.  We already have obtained President Passey’s permission to attend and participate in those festivities. - Mom and I have been asked to serve as escorts so we’re pretty excited about that.  We haven’t decided whether to fly or drive.  Incidentally, this friend was  wounded in Iraq - he almost lost a leg but the medical folks seemed to get him fixed up good.  He was awarded the Purple Heart for that - not a medal I ever aspired to.

These soldiers - both families and students - are why we are here.  Things seem to be moving forward.  When we arrived one year ago the average number of students attending the Servicemen’s Group on post was about 8-9.  Now we average 18-20.  We even get to meet some spouses who come to visit their solider.  In the first photo here, the sister on the end of the table is in the Army and is attending basic officer training while her husband is finishing his education  in Australia.  They met while serving missions in Japan, and had only been married one month when she came here for her training.  The other sister in this shot is from Clarkson Utah - her husband is here for officer training also, and she decided to come with him since she didn’t anything better to do.  She helps out in some of our volunteer projects.  I should point out that they are both UTAH STATE people and love Aggie Ice Cream.  The second shot is of two of the soldiers who attend group every week.  We have this little lunch - kind of a linger longer - each week after our meetings.  If you feed them they will come.

 The other kind of people we spend a lot of time with is missionaries.  This past transfer - 2 weeks ago - saw 31 new missionaries come to the mission and about an equal number leave.  The President was really challenged to find solid senior companions to train these new servants. In the Sierra Vista District, which includes the Zone Leaders, we have 4 companionships plus Mom and I.  Every one of these companionships had a changed companion - except Mom and I.  Two of these new companions were green missionaries.  In the first picture, the elder on the left returned home to a place he has never been.  His parents moved from Florida to Las Vegas while he was serving in Arizona.  He was a great elder and we will miss him.  In the second picture, the short sister has returned home to Layton Utah.  The elder on the right has a new assignment.   The other set of elders, ironically the two we work with the most, are not in any of the pictures we have.

With all these new missionaries in the zone, a major challenge has been to develop unity among the missionaries.  In an effort to do that, P-Day this past week was a Olympic games theme at the stake center.  The whole zone - about 12 companionships - participated.  Mom and I served as officials for volleyball and a weird pong type game.  The top photo is the “opening ceremonies” for this Sierra Vista Zone Olympiad.  I am the one with his back to the camera, Mom is taking the photo.

An interesting aspect of living in the desert is the variety of plant and animal life.  These next two shots show the color found here.  The first picture are of some shrubs outside our apartment.  We tool the about noon on a Friday.  The night before, at about 8:30 at night, there were no blossoms on theses shrubs,  They literally blossomed overnight.  This was about 8 days ago, and most of the flowers are gone now.  The second picture is of some cotton fields up in the Gila Valley - Stafford  and Thatcher.  The original settlers of that area were Mormon Pioneers sent by Brigham Young to colonize the area and see if cotton could be grown.  Obviously it could be.  President Spence W. Kimball was born and raised in the Gila Valley.

The animal kingdom is also represented.  The first shot is of come cute little bunnies that are all over the place down here.  These were just outside our apartment.  The second shot is neither cute, little, nor a bunny.  This character was captured by the UDSA on the front lawn of our friends on post.  He was about 4 feet long.  The USDA is apparently the institution tasked with the local snake disposal.  The guys who cam to do this said it was the 10th one they had had to do that day.  Since this is the second such creature we have seen since we arrived - the first was last September near the Seminary Building at Buena HS - I have officially determined that this areas is rattlesnake infested.  One more and we are moving.

Back to missionary work, we have been hearing much lately about using technology to further the Lord’s work Our missionaries have iPads which had limited access to useful items.  For instance, all the area books now are digital.  When a missionary is transferred, the old area book is  deleted and the new area book is automatically uploaded.  The President can monitor the iPad usage carefully, but sometimes the time spent with technology, even when appropriate, is distracting from the work.  So I am including guidelines that missionaries have been instructed to include in their “white bible” on how to keep technology in proper perspective.  Since most of you have some at least some connection to technology, I’ve included a shot of this page.  I have already sent a copy of a talk we heard  last week on the same subject.  If you didn’t get it, let us know.

Last night we were some of the Honorees at a banquet hosted by the Chaplain’s office.  From what we understand, some of the chaplains in the past have not been as welcoming.  We have developed a great relationship with them and are excited about our continuing friendship.  We hope this relationship will continue forward when we leave.

Well, I have to go fulfill my other role as provider/shopper.  Mom needs some stuff from the commissary  WE love you.  The Gospel is true and is where we can find the most joy and happiness. Jesus Christ is our Savior and ministers to us one by one.   We are trying to do what is needed to move the work forward and share our love to those within our sphere of influence one by one.

Thanks to all for your love and support.  We love to see and here what you are all doing.  

Granny & Gramps/Mom & Dad/Elder & Sister Phippen

Whoa- they're halfway there..whoa-oh! Livin' on a prayer!

Lo a voice crying from the wilderness - the southwest desert of Arizona, anyway.  Much has happened since our last letter, but that is mostly the reason why its been as long as it has since we last wrote.  We passed the exact half way point of our mission yesterday, but the only thing that means is that we still have much more to do.

One of the great things about this service is when one of our soldiers decides to enter the waters of baptism.  The young lady in this picture is Jamie.  She called us one Saturday shortly after arrival on post and inquired about our services.  The next day she attended and participated in the meetings.  We assumed she was a member that we had just not been notified about.  The next week we learned that she was NOT a member, but was interested in learning more about the Church. She had come across a copy of the Book of Mormon during her basic training. So as we got better acquainted, Sister Phippen asked. “So Jamie, are you ready to hear the missionary lessons.”  She agreed - with some encouragement from her friend in the picture.  She was baptized on June 18, and confirmed the next day (both ordinances performed by Brother Wilson - her friend in the picture).  We are working with her to do some family history research and find a few names she can take to the temple.  We’re planning to do that on June 30.

Another activity we spend a lot of time doing is attending graduation ceremonies for members of our group.  The soldier in the picture with the two of us is a real cool story.  We got a call from her one morning about 0630 (thats the same as 6:30 AM for you civilians).  She said that she was really struggling and needed some help, someone to talk to.  She got our phone number from one of the chaplains.  So we arranged a visit for later that day, talked to her about at the things that were troubling her, and invited her to church.  She came, and hasn’t missed a week since.  She had not been active in the church most of her life and was struggling with some marital issues, but seems to really have her life on the right track now.  Compared to when we first met her,  you would not think its even the same person.  As she has embraced the gospel and made it a part of her daily life, her whole countenance and spirit have brightened.  Being associated with good young men and women who are her comrades in uniform has been a great blessing in her life.

The second family (top left photo) has mostly attended the Huachuca Ward rather than the serviceman’s group.  But this brother was in the same course as the young lady in the previous picture.  His wife just had a baby about 2 weeks before his graduation.  She is Vietnamese.  Her parents, also pictured, spoke almost NO English but seemed like very nice people.  The little kid - child #1 - is very active and a real ball of fire.  Nice family - I wish they were going to be here longer.  they are headed to Fort Bliss Texas.  

The third photo (bottom left photo) ncludes four of our officer soldiers  (most of our group are junior enlisted people - that’s the nature of the training at this post).  But these four are lieutenants; they are a real asset in our group.  They are returned missionaries - including the sister - and great teachers, speakers, and examples.  We saw them in the Huachuca Ward originally and invited them to attend our group services.  They held callings, if only for a few months, and in all ways exemplified how members of the church who serve in the military can do a great work in building the kingdom even if they are quite transient.  One of the soldiers in the picture had distanced himself from the church and at their graduation his parents came up to us and greeted us.  We recognized them as being in our MTC group. They had served a CES mission to SVU and were home on break.  Their son was the less active.  We were able to give him the contact info at Fort Lewis, where he was going, and has since attended church there.  That is what makes this such a rewarding calling.  

We will miss all of these fine young brothers and sisters, as they are moving on to their next great adventures.

We also continue to learn how small this world is.  The soldier on the far right, his uncle graduated with Mom/Sister Phippen from high school.  In this small part of the vineyard, Mom has  made connections with 4 people closely connected to her High School graduating class (Morgan High 1967).   Yesterday, we were in Costco in Tucson.  I went to the hearing aid shop to get my hearing aids cleaned.  When I told the young lady  there  we were from Pocatello, she said. well I grew up in Poky.  Century High School.  Where did you live?  Chubbuck - on Pinewood.  Turns out it was Tessa Perry.  Her dad - Troy -lived right behind us and used to borrow our lawn mower occasionally.  I performed the marriage for her sister when I was bishop.  That is about as close/small as you can get without living under the same roof.

Another thing soldiers like to do is eat - often and with great enthusiasms.  After our services, we serve a light meal and give the troops a chance to socialize informally for a brief time.  Sister Phippen and the wives of the group leadership prepare the food.  You may recognize the people in the first of these two pictures from the earlier ones.  The bottom left photo is a delightful young married couple from Logan Utah and UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY.  He is here attending officer training, and she decided to come along rather than spend the summer by herself.  They are great fans of AGGIE ICE CREAM.  These people will be our friends fro life even if we only are around them for a few months. 

Temple update, although there isn’t much to update.  The second picture shows the workers putting the covering on the dome.  That was about a month ago.  The first photo shows the completed dome with the Angel Moroni in his appointed place.  That happened two weeks ago.  We always go by the temple when we go to Tucson for our monthly senior missionary lunch.  It is fun to track the construction progress.  We do not know when it is scheduled for completion/ dedication.  Probably after we return home.  But we may have to schedule an inspection trip soon after that.

One of the things I was surprised to learn is how many members of the Church live in this southwest area.  Brigham Young sent some of the saints down here to colonize the area and see if cotton could be grown - similar to St. George, UT.  Well they stayed, built a community, and grew some cotton.  President Spencer W. Kimball was from the Thatcher/Safford area - that’s about two hours from Sierra Vista and is where the temple is located (The Gila Valley).  Cotton is still grown in the Gila Valley, as this picture attests.  It is just starting to blossom.  About another month and we will see many white balls of cotton on these plants.  As long as them cotton balls don’t get rotten you can pick a lot of cotton.

Here also are a couple of our new neighbors.  In addition to numerous little bunnies, there are also numerous long-eared jack rabbits, but I don’t have any pictures of those. 

Last I just want to remind you all what a great country we live in. The young people in the military are fabulous and have a sincere desire to keep our country free.   We had an enjoyable 4th of July with our friends the Castles.  Burgers on the grill, root beer floats by the pool - we did not go swimming but could have.  And of course the fireworks.  A great way to celebrate living in a great country.

Family news - Riley, JD’s son has a mission call to serve in Arequipa, Peru.  He will attend the Peru MTC and enters on October 25.  We are excited for the choice he has made to serve the Lord. He and Alyssa will be out for about 6 months together.  What a blessing for their family.      

We love the gospel and the privilege of serving  in this part of the vineyard. Our testimonies continue to grow as we strive to set an example for the young missionaries and as we study the doctrines of the gospel.  

 Well, we hope all is well with all of you wherever you are. We think of all of you often and pray for your health and safety.

Love, Mom & Dad, Earl & Marie, Elder & Sister Phippen, Granny and Gramps

Time Flies on Wings of Lightning

Hi everyone!

Imagine that, a letter from us finally.  I am sure you are all wondering if we were still alive.  The time is going so fast that 6 weeks is gone and we have to stop and figure out where it all went.  

We have had kids graduate and move on into the next phase of their lives, we have had new recruits join us and we try to keep track of all of the comings and goings of the various families in the Stake that are moving as well.

We have been excited to train 2 stake presidents in Tucson and our Stake Presidency here in Sierra Vista about a new program for military relations.  It is a church service mission with the same calling we have, as to serve as a military relations representatives on a part time basis.  For Senior couples that want or need to stay at home and are living in a military area it could be a perfect match.  We have many seniors in this area that could spend 10-20 hours a week in support of the military in this community. We have a couple from Alabama that is spending the winter in Tucson and we will be training them to work at Davis Monthan Air Force Base with the stakes there.  By the time we do our community service, work with the full time elders and sisters and try to visit the military families both coming and going, it seems to keep us pretty busy.  

This picture was taken at our last Zone Meeting.  President and Sister Passey are amazing.  You can’t tell them from the kids.  They are incredible teachers and we are learning a lot about being better disciples of Jesus Christ and how to be better teachers in general.  We are so grateful for their example.  We are fortunate to be able to have them with us our whole mission.  We leave about the same time they do.

Our convert family from November have set their temple date as 20 December in Salt Lake.  We are excited to go with them and so plan to be in Utah that week.

Earl and a couple of the other Senior men in the mission decided that it would be fun to play golf in Tucson on the hottest day of the year.  114 degrees that day.  They had a great time and didn’t die of heat exhaustion so I guess it was worth it for them.  The sisters and I stayed in where it was cool.  We went shopping then went to one of their homes for a couple hours and visited.  So we had a great time. The photo includes Elder Wagoner and Elder Anderson.

We had a couple of small miracles/tender mercies  happen.  One, Earl took our car in for an oil change and on the way one of the dash lights came on.  This was on a Thursday.  He mentioned it to the mechanic and they couldn’t figure out that anything was amiss.  On the way home, a couple other lights came on and so he turned around and went back.  Longer story short, it was the alternator.  The miracle of that is that it could have completely failed the next morning on the way to seminary or on Saturday when we had a trip to the temple in Mesa.  We feel that the Lord was truly watching out for us.  

Another, we had a young man in the group that had not been ordained.  He had joined the church at basic training and as I was reviewing his record before he left for his permanent assignment, noticed this in his profile.  So we were able to get that ordinance taken care of.  We notified our counterpart at the incoming base and they were able to greet him and he was able to bless the sacrament the very next week.

We were blessed to have some friends from Virginia spend a few days with us.  We went to Tombstone and over to the Pima Air and Space museum and just had a great time.  Rick and Liinda Adams visit will be a treasured memory.  

When our granddaughter Lexie was on her way home from college, we were able to meet her and Kelli in Mesa on mothers day and had a great visit with them for a few hours.  it was probably the first time Kelli and I had spent time together on Mothers day in 20 years.  It is such a joy to spend time with beautiful daughters.

Memorial Day we attended the ceremony at the post cemetery.  A nice tribute was paid to a couple of the people that had passed and were buried on the post.  It is a small cemetery and is mostly full.  The second picture is some of the soldiers in AIT that were tasked to just be there.  Some of them were passing out.  I think they lock their knees and weren’t paying much attention to what they were doing.  They did not have to stand at attention the whole time.  It was scary to watch them waver and fall.  It wasn’t a particularly warm day even.  

A little about the flora and fauna here.  This picture is of some cactus in front of one of the homes in the area.  It is amazing to me how big they get.  Also there are a lot of colors.  There are pink prickly pair and some when they bloom have to colors of flowers.  One of these days I will post a pink cactus picture.  

The world is really small in the military and the church.  Our sister missionaries moved.  The apartment they moved into is above the garage of Earl’s second cousin, (once removed).  With the last name Bingham, we had to ask the question.  His great grandpa and Earls grandma are brother and sister.  The other thing, we got a picture from our serviceman group leader, Brother Castle, on vacation in Utah, with a picture of our neighbor from Chubbuck.  Brother Moon and Brother Castle are cousins.   The Lord puts people in our path to help keep us on the straight and narrow I guess.  

Family happenings:  Riley, JD’s son graduated high school and his mission papers are headed to SLC.  We will anxiously await that call.  Alyssa, his sister is learning and growing in her mission in Las Vegas West.  Erin’s son Jack was baptized today.  Congratulations to all.  Also, congratulations Emma, Kelli’s daughter, for winning the state 100 meter hurdle championship.  An amazing accomplishment.  She will be a senior at Capitol HS in Boise this next year.

We send our love to you all.  We would love to hear from you and what is going on in your lives.  We love you and appreciate your support.  Life is good and The gospel is true!  We continue to see miracles in the lives of the people we meet.  Our testimony of the love our Savior has for each person on the earth continues to grow.  That is the main point of our existence on the earth.  To love as the Savior loves.  That Christ like love comes as we serve him with all “our might, mind, and strength.”

Love, Earl and Marie, Granny and Gramps, Elder and Sister Phippen

In The Merry Month of May

Dear Friends and family - not that the two are mutually exclusive - we have had a busy several weeks, but have an opportunity to update you on our little corner of SE Arizona.

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 

O Ye That Embark

Dear Friends and Family:

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