June 29, 2012

This has been a sad week in that two missionaries had to go home. One because he didn't want to follow the mission rules, and the other because she contracted some sort of virus that made her so weak that she couldn't walk. Her mom had to fly here to take her home. Thank goodness her mom is a nurse so that made it easier. I was told by Sister Davis that annually about 7% of missionaries in the field go home early for one reason or another. Well, we have had 6 so far this year. That is 6% for us right now. Those are the bummer stats, but the good news is that we have 93% of our missionaries who are wonderfully dedicated missionaries. I love being in contact with them every day. We have become close to them and love them for their desire to serve.

The assistants to the President come into the office regularly. At the last transfer Elder Adams was made a traveling assistant, so we got another assistant to take his place. Whenever there is a new assistant assigned, we have a candy shower for him. This is basically--he walks through the office door, and we throw a bowl of candy on his head. One of the office staff takes pictures of this,and the pictures are included in the Messenger (the quarterly mission newsletter). Great fun and the new assistant loves it. I'm amazed at how missionaries love sweets!!!!

With two of the Elders, Elder Benjamin has been teaching a woman who has an 8-yr old son. Tanya and Josiah. She was in an abusive relationship and got out after losing most of her teeth because of beatings. She almost lost her life when her ex tried to set her on fire. She has totally turned her life around and is one of the sweetest and most open people you could meet. The Elders were out walking one day and passed her on the sidewalk and started talking with her. She agreed to their visits and was "golden" from the beginning. When she attends church, I stick to her like glue. I introduced her to as many of the sisters in the ward as I knew. I'm amazed at how the Relief Society sisters rallied around her. One of them rode her scooter to Tanya's house and sat in on a lesson from the Elders (Elder B also). Tanya was invited to attend the ward Relief Society Bible study on Tuesdays. She is going. Yesterday, the Elders taught her the lesson on the Word of Wisdom. Elder B noticed that she had 2 coffee makers in her apartment and she told them that she still smokes once in a while. Josiah hates it that she smokes. He has begged her many time to totally quit but she hasn't been able to do it. The Elders told her about the Church's Stop Smoking Program and she has agreed to do it. She told them that the next time they come over, the coffee pots will be gone. Elder B and I pick her up every Sunday for church and ward members have volunteered to give her rides to church also. Her baptism is scheduled for July 8. We are so excited for her and Josiah. Josiah loves Primary. Elder B and I gave him the picture Book of Mormon stories and he loves to read it. It is so wonderful to see people grab onto the gospel and change their lives to follow the Savior.

Elder B had a great Father's Day. He got calls from all 6 of our children. That made him very happy!!!!

President Wilkey asked Elder B and me to develop a mission blog. One that only the missionaries could access. He will post a weekly mission update on it with a link to the church site so that they can write their weekly letter to the president. We had a great time developing the blog and we sure learned a lot about domain names and blog set-up. Great fun. It is almost ready to go. First, we have to train the President on how to make a weekly post. He's not the quickest learner when it comes to technology, but his heart is in the right place so he will be okay. I'll laminate a wallet-sized cheat sheet for him and he'll be all set!

Father's Day June 17, 2012

We spoke in Sacrament meeting this morning. MIke's topic was The Importance of Good Fathers, and my topic was The Blessings of the Priesthood. There were many who said they enjoyed our talks, and Bishop Dickson thanked us for sticking to the topics he gave us.
We have just been through another week of transfers, and it is getting easier. We are almost on auto pilot now. But we have about 14 more transfers to go through before we return home so we should be very good at it by then! We were able to attend the Boston Temple last Tuesday with the 6 missionaries who were going home. I've got to say that they are an inspiration to us--such dedication and diligence in serving. The weather was gorgeous with some wind on the top of the hill where the temple is situated, so if my hair makes it look like I'm ready for take-off, oh well!!!


After the temple we all went back to the mission home for ice cream sundaes. That is always a fun time to just talk and visit with the missionaries who are going home. We talk about their plans for education, work, and marriage. One of the elders, Elder Tannin Cash, said that he didn't have any plans at all when he got home. So he proposed to me!!!! He got down on one knee, too. We all had a great laugh over that. He is always kidding around. What a great personality he has and will succeed at anything he wants. He loves to play golf, so he and Dad had a lot to talk about. We don't know if we will ever see Elder Cash again or even talk with him, but it was so fun to get to know him better.

Sister Shaunelle Holyoak went home. She was one of the sisters serving in Manchester and was assigned to attend the same ward we go to. She was such a good teacher and dedicated missionary. We just end up getting close to some of these missionaries. Can't help it.

This picture shows me with the Bedford sisters--Sister Rykowski on the left and Sister Johnson on the right. Sister Johnson got transferred on Tuesday, but Sister Rykowski stayed.



Sister Rykowski makes chocolate chip cookies for me once in a while, so tomorrow she and Sister Huntsman and Sister Chantry are coming in the office for banana cream pie that I am making. One of the President's Assistants, Elder Stephen Adams, is going to be a traveling assistant. Tony did that as part of his mission in San Jose, California. Elder Adams will travel around and stay 3 or 4 days with a set of elders to teach and help. He's pretty excited about it. So we are having a bon voyage lunch for him tomorrow. He wants Sloppy Joes and Banana Cream Pie. He is from Yakutat, Alaska and just a fine person.

I've been so busy in the office that I have not had any time to knit. I'm sorry Leona, I might not get your jacket done until after I get home. We'll see. Sister Davis finds time to quilt; Elder Davis finds time to fish; Mike finds time to golf (very little); but, I have the flossing and brushing and rubber tipping thing that I have to do every morning and night. So, it's a choice between knitting or dentures! You guess what I have chosen!

President Villinga, who will be the Cleveland Ohio Mission President on June 23 called the office to talk with President Wilkey last week. When I told him that President Wilkey was out of the office, Pres. Villinga asked if he could pick my brain about a few office things like letters and procedures. I told him that I had rewritten the procedure manual since I got here in February, and then he asked me when I would be done with our mission here and then asked if I would come to Cleveland for another mission right after!!! I laughed. The cool thing about the Cleveland Mission though is that Kirtland is part of it. We stopped there on our way here and saw what used to be the Kirtland Temple and it is so sad cause it is not a temple and looks kind of sad sitting there in the town. The Community of Christ church owns it and they use it for a meeting hall.

Thank you Sister Ives for writing to me every month. I love getting your cards. And I love you. Being on a mission we do not have home or visiting teachers so it is nice to be visited by card or email. Thank you Sister Harder also for keeping in touch.

We miss our children and grandchildren terribly, but we know that Heavenly Father is watching over them, and we all know that he does a better job of that than we could.

Take care family and friends until next time. We love you all.

June 3, 2012

I realize I haven't written for a couple of weeks and got an email from Pat Beazer asking why not? I guess I don't really have much of an excuse except that missionaries are very busy people! My goal was to write every Sunday. Let's see, where do I begin? Last Sunday I taught the Teaching for Our Times lesson in Relief Society. It was taken from President Uchtdorf's April Gen. Conf. talk "The Merciful Obtain Mercy" sometimes known as the "stop it" talk. I was so nervous-mostly cause I hardly know anyone in the Manchester Ward yet. But it went okay and the sisters were very nice and complementary in spite of my deficiencies. And then today at church, the bishop asked us to speak on Father's Day. Actually I'm not as nervous about that as I was teaching Relief Society. Mike is right now out with the Manchester Elders Rodriguez and Morgan teaching a lesson to an investigator from Nepal. This whole New England area is quite the melting pot. There are many different nationalities here. One amusing thing about our ward--Sacrament meeting is supposed to start at 9 a.m., but almost never starts before 9:10 and then even at that, about half of the ward comes in after the Sacrament is served. Every week. Interesting.

Last week, May 29-30, was Missionary Leadership Training for all the District Leaders. They come from all over the mission (Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire). They have to stay with other Elders that are close by and also in the mission home. The office couples set up dinner for them on Tuesday and then on Wednesday the Manchester ward did a pizza lunch for them. This week is transfer planning, which means that we are getting ready for all the new missionaries coming in from the MTC and those returning home. I do enjoy the whole process although this time one of the sister missionaries that I have gotten close to is going home. I will certainly miss her. She is Sister Holyoak from Lyndon, Utah. What an awesome missionary she is.

Next week we will be able to go to the Boston Temple (as we do every six weeks) with the returning missionaries. We do an endowment session, have dinner in the cafeteria, and return to the mission home for dessert. The days are long and busy but very nice.

All the missionaries were asked to set up a profile on www.mormon.org. You can see mine at www.mormon.org/me/8Z8B if you want. I listed as Karen Snipes Benjamin. Mike hasn't done one yet. Don't know why he's dragging his feet about it. Anyone can post a profile there and I encourage everyone to do it. Those investigating the church can see what members have to say and to read their testimonies.

A couple of weeks ago we had Zone Conferences. May 15 was in Sharon, Vermont and May 17 was in Augusta, Maine. I took a couple of pictures of the missionaries.

The missionary on the left is Elder Niebergall. We have taken a real liking to him. He is such a humble person and was just made a Zone Leader in Bangor, Maine. After the Augusta zone conference, Elder Benjamin and I drove home in the "Moose" 4 elders to Lawrence, MA. The 4 of them live in a large apartment there. But the tradition is that when we drive them home, we take them all out to dinner. The Davises were with us also and the Elders wanted to go to Margaritas for mexican food. Elder Evans loves habanero peppers and ordered something that was so hot it made him perspire. But he loved it anyway. We certainly do enjoy being with them. We have driven many elders and sisters all over the mission and have enjoyed each one of them. I am impressed at their devotion to Heavenly Father and our Savior. They have incredible testimonies and they never give up.

I took a picture of President Wilkey in the office one day. He was a good sport about it, huh?

I took this picture with my iPad. I have all of the scriptures and hymns on it. It is much lighter than my quad so it's easier to carry around everywhere.

I am sure missing my children and grandchildren. Thank goodness for Kortni and Diana and Holly making sure we get pictures and art work. They are posted all over our apartment!

We are enjoying our mission very much. The Lord has been blessing us.

We made it through our second transfers. Eight new missionaries arrived and ten returned back home after 2 years service. The whole transfer process takes a good two weeks to complete. The week before is planning and organizing. The actual week of transfers goes something like this: Monday, the new missionaries fly in to the Manchester, NH airport, usually about 12:30 pm. I check the flight from SLC several times and update the President. President and Sister Wilkey meet them at the airport and the assistants drive the van (Moose) around to the front of the airport to pick everyone up with all their luggage. For about an hour the new ones go out visiting with some of the local missionaries. Then everyone arrives at the mission home for dinner which the office staff (Benjamins and Davises) shop for and set up and clean up afterward. Right after the President eats, he has an interview with each missionary. I'm in the dining room with their records. They get their picture taken with President and Sister Wilkey and one picture of him/herself and then they come into the dining room to verify with me that all their information and contact information is correct. Then they are off to the family room where they meet with the vehicle coordinator to verify their driving record, etc. Then to Elder Benjamin for their medical and support cards. They spend the night at the mission home or in the assistant's apartment (Elders that is). Sisters almost always spend the night at the mission home. Tuesday, breakfast at the mission home and then driving to the Manchester Ward meeting house to find out who their trainer will be and where they will be living and teaching. In the morning all the new missionaries go into the Primary room for instruction. After that the Transfer meeting starts in the Chapel. All the missionaries who are going to be transferred or assigned as a trainer gather in the Chapel. After being addressed by President and Sister Wilkey, the transfers are announced along with Elders who are assigned to be Zone Leaders or District Leaders or Trainers. This results in lots of hugs and back slapping! Everyone goes out in the foyer for pictures and then into the cultural hall to pick up their bag lunch (which the office staff has shopped for and organized). Then they are on their way to their new area. By 1:30 the missionaries who are going home leave for the Boston Temple with President and Sister Wilkey and the office staff. We attend the 3:00 or 4:00 endowment session and spend a little time in the celestial room. Dinner is in the temple cafeteria at 5:45 pm. After dinner we return to the mission home for last minute details for their flight home the next day. Elder Benjamin and I return home about 9:00 pm. Davises have gone home about 8:00 pm. Wednesday, it's work in the office as usual at 9:00 am. The returning missionaries have breakfast and study and exercise at the mission home. President's assistants take all returning missionaries to the airport until everyone is on their flight. Meanwhile, in the office, I am checking flight status every hour or so to make sure the planes are on time. During that time and during the day, I print out all the pictures that have been taken the last two previous days. All the office staff is working on their respective jobs after transfers. Usually by Friday at 5:00-6:00 pm we are done. And so it goes every six weeks. Two weeks-one getting ready for transfers and one doing all the transfer procedures. It is a busy time, but that is what we do! I figured that while we are here for 18 months, we will go through about 16 transfers. We should have it perfect by then!!!! Here is a picture of the mission office in May 2012. The red azaleas are bloomed out now. The purple ones are early and done. The big purple rhododendron to the left of the red azalea is getting ready to burst forth with blooms. We watch it every day and can hardly wait to see how beautiful it will be. The trees are almost all bloomed out. It is so pretty here! And very much like Washington state.

Elder Benjamin in front of the azalea bush that is in front of his office window.

Sister Benjamin sitting at my desk. (Don't tell President, but I forgot my name tag!)

We spent all day yesterday and most of today traveling to Machias, Maine to deliver twin beds to missionaries. They are so happy to get a good comfortable bed. Two Elders even baked us brownies! It was a very long trip so we spent the night in Augusta, Maine. We loved it there. The air is so fresh and clean. It is so uplifting to be with the missionaries. They are truly some awesome latter-day warriors--so happy to be teaching others about Jesus Christ and the restored gospel. We are getting to know almost all of them and love them all so much already. We surely are looking forward to the time when our grandkids choose to serve missions. Missionaries love teaching, getting mail, teaching, getting mail, and teaching and getting mail.... This coming week is Zone Conferences. Tuesday will be in Sharon, Vermont and Thursday will be in Augusta, Maine. We will be driving 4 sister missionaries to Sharon and bringing home 4 elders from Augusta. Such great fun getting to know them on the drive. We love you all--children, grandchildren, family, and friends. We would love to hear from you.

April 22, 2012

Two weeks have passed since my last post! Hard to believe how time flies here in New Hampshire. Last week we made a bed run to Vermont. It is amazing how these missionaries hardly ever complain about their circumstances. Don't misunderstand--they are not living in squalor or poverty, but when their beds are sagging and ready to fall down, they don't complain. Elder Benjamin sent out a letter to each missionary so that they could tell him what condition their bed is in. So, we went to Lebanon and Hannover, Vermont and also Randolph, New Hampshire. It was a great trip in the "Moose" pulling the trailer, and the weather was wonderful. The Elders in Randolph even sent US home with a bag of home-baked chocolate chip cookies! This week Elder Benjamin will be making a bed run to Machias, Maine. It is the farthest area out--5 hour and 41 minutes each way. He is going by himself and going to listen to General Conference tapes for 11 hours. I want to go, but I'll have to check out my calendar first. I have a lot of things on it to get ready for transfers next Tuesday, May 1st. This will be our second transfers, and we are using all the notes from our first one to be able to have this second one run smoothly. More about that whole process after we go through it next week. Friday evening of this last week we visited an investigator (Colleen) and her 11-year old son, Dylan, with the sister missionaries and the elders in the same area. She is a single mom, and as most 11-year old boys, Dylan has an attitude! He and his mom banter back and forth (maybe banter is a more polite word!) The sister missionaries were trying to get him to commit to writing in a Gratitude notebook every night before he goes to sleep. He wasn't having anything to do with that, so one of the elders tried to get him to understand what gratitude is all about as it relates to Dylan loaning out his football to the neighbor guy who came over during dinner. I think that Dylan sort of got it okay. Everyone was surprised that, when Elder Benjamin and I were getting ready to leave, Dylan came up to me and hugged me. His mom was dumbfounded! I told him that all of my grandkids call me Grammie and he seemed to like that. I don't know yet if he has a Grammie close by, but he softened up a little anyway. Colleen has a roommate with 2 little kids and while Colleen was taking the lessons, Debra would sit in on them. Well, Debra got baptized last December and Colleen has not yet. She's getting close though. She has a wonderful testimony and I feel confident that she will be baptized soon. Elder and Sister Davis live down the hall from us and we are always taking food back and forth. They went on a trip up the coast of Maine yesterday and came back with some dark chocolate orange sticks (one of my favs) for me. Today they are getting bread pudding from us. While were were on our Vermont bed run, we stopped at President Goodrich's Maple Farm in Cabot, Vermont. He is the second counselor in the Mission Presidency. His family has owned and run the Maple Farm since 1840. They have over 43,000 maple trees and a tiny store where we bought grade A pure Vermont maple syrup from them. I bought the little maple syrup cookbook from them as well. And that is where the recipe for the bread pudding came from. They sell Maple Cream (Spreadable Fudge) too, but they were totally out. Sister Goodrich cooks it up herself and puts it in jars. Since they were out, she is going to make some up and send it to the office. I'm so excited about that. Sister Davis got some a couple of weeks ago and loves it on her toast every morning. The bishop called us in after church today to get to know us better. We thought he would ask us to speak in church, but no luck. He's very new so I'm sure he will get around to asking us one of these days. We are getting to know the members a little bit now. Relief Society is great! I love sitting with the other old sisters. They are fun and so full of wisdom. I may have to adopt a couple of them. My monitor went dead today, so Elder Benjamin hooked up Elder and Sister Hymas' Philips 22-inch television flat-screen and it works okay. We are going to make a trip to Costco at the end of the week for all the supplies and food for transfers, so we will pick up a better one for me then. We are missing all of our children and grandchildren terribly, but we know that this is where Heavenly Father wants us now at this time of our lives. We have been very worried about Cèlin's illness and pray for her every day. I chatted with her today and she says she is getting a little bit better every day. But, she has still missed 6 weeks of school so far and won't be going this week either. She hopes to go half time next week. Let's all pray for her that she will get well and be able to return to her normal (?) quirky self!!!! More next time, Love, Mom/Dad/Grammie/Poppy/Sister/Elder/Karen/Mike/Aunt/Uncle

April 8, 2012 Easter Sunday

It has been a crazy two weeks since last I wrote. General Conferece was awesome last weekend. We streamed it here in our apartment and enjoyed it so much. The Davises went to the ward building and only 5 people were there--all missionaries!!! Gen Conf is not carried on tv here so we were fortunate to stream it over the internet. All the talks were so good and I especially liked Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk--he is my 8th cousin after all!

We attended our first New Missionary Training last Tuesday. Mike and I brought in all the food and were able to attend some of the training. President Wilkey was having a problem setting up his laptop to a big screen so I said that I would go get Elder Benjamin who was out in the parking lot. I dashed off forgetting the step down out the back door of the chapel and down I went--falling, falling, falling and not able to catch myself. Finally I hit the concrete and my head snapped back and smacked the back of my head with a big thud on the concrete sidewalk. Ouch! That hurt. Mike and a couple of missionaries came running. I was trying to cry and then I thought that maybe my skirt was up over my head or something and sucked up the tears and pulled my skirt down over my knees. Well, obviously I didn't die! And I don't have a concussion, but the lump is still very sore. My left hip was out a little for a few days, but all is well now.

Last Thursday Mike had to deliver two twin beds to two elders in Damariscotta, Maine. Also we moved one sister missionary from Manchester to Topsham (pronounced tops-ham). Picked up one in Topsham and took her back to Manchester. Great fun getting to know these missionaries. They are so dedicated to their missions.

Mike is taking care of all the apartments in the mission. Two elders talked with him at church today to tell him that they found something-a bird or bat or rat-dead in a cupboard. They said the smell is terrible and they want to move. Mike told them to contact the manager immediately to get that taken care of. Most of the homes here are very old and are 3 stories high and the upper two floors rented out as apartments. So who knows what a renter could find in one of them.

I have been busy revising the whole procedure for arriving and going-home missionaries. There are a lot of unnecessary steps being done and I want to make it a whole lot easier. We are both enjoying the work. It is a good feeling to help out all of our 140 missionaries. They are becoming very dear to us.

We are in touch with Marv and Sue Leavitt on their mission in Cotonou, Benin, Africa. This is their 3rd time to Africa. We are also in touch with Rex and Pat Beazer in West Virginia Charleston mission. This is their 4th mission. We love them all and know that they will be great missionaries.

Here is a picture of my first haircut in New Hampshire. Jenn did a good job on it for a first haircut and I think she will be good, but I sure do miss my Eleni in Portland, Oregon. Next time I'll tell Jenn to take off more. I asked her to take off only 1 inch--I was thinking that if I was conservative and I didn't like the job, I would still have hair left to get cut somewhere else. Since she did a good job (the shampoo was divine) I'll have her take off more in 6 weeks.

We had a wonderful Easter dinner after church down the hall at the Davis' apartment. Elder Davis makes a really good 4-cheese Mac'n Cheese. We had that with ham, green beans, fruit jello, and chocolate eclaires for dessert. It was great!

Our Manchester Ward got a new Bishop the week before Conference. He's a good guy! But we sure do miss Bishop Driver.

Well, hello to all our friends. And big hugs and kisses to our children and grandchildren who we miss very much.

More next week!

March 25, 2012

We made it through our first transfers!!! It started last Monday with the arrival of our new missionaries--6 elders and 1 sister. Had a great dinner with them at the mission home with President and Sister Wilkey. Got home about 8:45 p.m. Then Tuesday we all met at the Manchester ward building for transfers. Since 5 missionaries were going home the next day, changes had to be made with companionships. So all day Tuesday all the missionaries who were affected by the new ones coming in and the returning ones going home met at the ward building. There was a nice spiritual meeting with Pres and Sis Wilkey in the morning, then lunch, then all the office couples and the Pres and Sis Wilkey and the missionaries who were going home the next day all went to the Boston Temple for an endowment session (which was very nice) and then ate dinner in the temple cafeteria. After the temple we all went to the mission home. We had a few duties that we had to do and got home about 9 p.m. Wednesday was at the office as usual doing all the paperwork for the new missionaries. It was so nice to meet them. They are fine young people from all over the U.S. One of the Elders is a red headed Matt Damon. I'm not kidding!!!

Arrivals, Transfers, and Departures occur every 6 weeks. Just when you get done with one, it is time to get ready for the next. Such fun really. Dad has gotten to go out with the President's assistants (2 elders) and teach lessons to a family from the Sudan. There are many different nationalities here. The office has a copy of the Book of Mormon in about 20 languages.

We Skyped with our friends the Larsens who are in Georgia on a mission. It was so good to chat with them face to face since we haven't seen them for over a year. We were happy to hear that their mission is going really well. Except maybe for the mosquitoes that chew them up when they go outside.

Something really gross happened yesterday at one of our favorite restaurants. If you have a queasy stomach don't read any farther! We ordered our dinner and this place brings out some homemade chips and sauce for dipping. So we started eating the chips, and I sort of saw something under the chips and was going to check it out when our dinner came. So we started eating that and put the chips aside. Once during dinner I glanced at the chips and thought there was a funny looking chip under a few other chips but didn't check it out. After I finished dinner I went back to the chips. I ate two of them and then decided to see what that was under there. Well, it was a band aid. Not just a clean band aid, but a deep fried bloody band aid. Needless to say we were totally grossed out. I didn't barf, but I thought about it. We called the manager over and she couldn't believe her eyes either. Bottom line--we got the meal for free with dessert. That was worse than the red hair wrapped around the steak I had at another restaurant a month ago. Dad and I can't remember having these kinds of problems back home. Dad said that we were just lucky at home. That it probably happens there too but just to other people! I wanted to hold out for a year's worth of free dinners, but we didn't. I'm sort of afraid to go out to eat around here!

We are missing all of our kids, grandkids, family, and friends, but we feel blessed to be able to serve a mission here and are so thankful for all the support. Take care and know that we love you and would love to hear from you.