February 20th 2011

We had the sad event of having Elder Hawkins,our extremely homesick missionary---the one who had had a brain tumor—go home.  He just got to the point where he wasn’t functioning.  All the doctors and leaders have recommended that he go and he finally has..  I am so grateful he could serve for 2 months.  Even if he never gets well enough to return, he will know what a mission is like and will be able to relate easier when his children go.  He has also experienced that great joy of seeing someone accept the gospel.  That will have changed him forever.  We love him dearly.

The following is a long story, but it is about a serious illness we have had this week with one of our missionaries.  But it is also an amazing example of the faith of her parents.  

This has been an eventful week for us.  We had interviews again and I did more sewing...oh I have seen some terrible conditions of missionary clothing and have have an adventure trying to mend them.  

On Wednesday during interviews I got a call from the sisters in Moses Lake asking about having blood in their vomit.  As I asked more questions it seemed that Sister Johnston had been vomiting overnight and had little streaks of blood in her vomit---normal if she has vomited quite a few times.  Sister Johnston in from Tahiti and her native language is French.  She is very private about talking about her bodily functions and it is hard to know if some of the vocabulary is completely understood when we get of church talk.  I wondered if she understood  "streaks of blood".  We talked about her staying hydrated and not eating waffles again-but eating a mild diet for at least a day.  It was a very typical call.  

An hour later i get another call telling me that she had fainted and wouldn't arouse.....My heart started beating so fast-- I am good with the ingrown toenails and the colds and flu-not quite so much with emergencies! The missionaries who were with her called an ambulance while another couple gave her a blessing.  (They were at the church having a district meeting and luckily there were also numerous adults in the family history library.)  She was quickly taken to the hospital. 

The missionaries who we were with us (about two hours away from Moses Lake) overheard me and their zone leader gathered them together and they went off to pray for her.  I love the faith of missionaries.  I let Mark know and then we waited.  I assumed that she was totally dehydrated and that after she got some fluid in her she would be find.  After an hour we get another call saying that she was still unconscious even after putting a couple of bags of fluid in her.  

Mark and I jumped in the car and headed for Moses Lake.  We called our area doctor----mentioned about blood in vomit and told him of her condition.  When we asked the seriousness of it he said it could definitely be life threatening.  I could hardly breathe....   We got to Moses Lake in about 1 1/2 hours and went in to see her.  She looked like sleeping beauty. She just lay there so still.  The doctors and nurses came in and out taking blood and doing tests---but no movement or response whatsoever. They did a chest xray (moving her and lifting her without any response whatsoever).  All her vitals were perfectly normal.  We tried to talk to her but no response.  I rubbed her hands and her feet and stroked her thick black hair.  Nothing.  

We were told that in the ambulance she stirred for a minute and said something in french.  The missionaries had wanted to talk to her in french and didn't know anything so they sang Frere Jacque to her a few times.   So I tried to talk to her in french.  I talked some of my broken french and for a second she opened her eyes and looked at me and said-with tears coming down her cheeks - je suie tres desolee --- (I am so sorry)  Then she said something about her Mother and was out again.  We just waited.  The er were so fed up with us....there was only supposed to be one person in with her, but we always had at least 3.  Luckily a few of the nurses were LDS and let is pass for some of the time.   Around 7pm.....after 7 hours of being unconcious....we had a man come who spoke really good french.  He came in and talked in a strong voice in french----after a little while she opened up her eyes and stared at him.  Then she looked around the room and saw her companion and me and Mark and a few other sisters.  She looked so confused but we could tell she had awakened and knew who we were.   We asked her if she knew where she was and of course she had no idea.  I asked her what my name was and she said  in the softest voice "Palmer".  There was still no movement of legs or hands or facial expressions...just the softest sound from her mouth and her eyes moving a bit.  We asked who her companion was and she again so softly said "crazy Woolfgramm"  Her exuberant tongan companion was described well with those two words.  We were so happy we all just cried...we knew she wasnt where she needed to get to, but these were fantastic signs.  Then she said....again in a whisper....it is a good thing that no one kissed me to wake me up!   We all laughed.  

She was sharing the er room with an older man who was obviously not in his right mind and was just swearing away----he really was speaking "french"!  Sister Johnston said "callate!"  (Shut up in Spanish)  So now she remembered her english and her spanish.  Mark worked to get her out of that room.  He said he didn't want her waking up to that kind of language.  We asked her questions trying to find out what she could remember, but she couldn't remember anything.  She did say something about angels.  When her companion asked her what they said, she just said "smiling" and soon she was out again.  

But we had hope-we had seen that there wasnt severe mental damage.  They did more tests--spinal tap, CT scan, blood work,  etc etc.  Everything was normal.   They put her in another area and the doctor happened to speak quite a bit of french.  She got Sister johnston to wake up again and talk a bit more.  One of the things she said was---I dont want to go home...I want to finish my mission (all in french).  They continued to try and figure out what was wrong, but the truth is they had no idea what was wrong.  She would periodically wake up and could softly answer questions, but she still couldn't move a finger, she didn't feel us touch her legs, she couldn't smile.  This was a small hospital and they were lost at what to do.  They were concerned that she didn't have any reflexes in her legs and thought that perhaps she had a disease that starts paralyzation from the feet up.

We had arrived at the point when we needed to call her parents.  I told Mark they need to be prepared.  In one of the moments that Sister Johnston was semi awake, I asked what she wanted me to tell her parents.  She said "keep smiling".  Here she is—she cant lift a finger, she cant smile, she can barely get any sound out as she speaks, and she tells them to keep smiling.  It is obvious there is something special about this sister and the family she comes from.

So Mark called Tahiti....there was a long broken English conversation with their doctor over there, and then a conversation with her parents, with them expressing confidence and trust in her recovery.  "She is just tired and will do fine.  She is in the Lords hand".  I told Mark he surely didn't paint a picture of her condition if that is how they responded.  Surely they would worry if they knew what we saw.

After a while it was decided to transport her to Spokane to a bigger hospital.  We left Moses Lake around midnight and Mark and I followed the ambulance in our car.  Her companion travelled with her.  After arriving in Spokane, more tests and consultations....they said she had a little more feeling and nerve response to what they were told from Moses Lake.  Perhaps it had increased on the trip--although to our eyes she was still totally unresponsive again.  By about 3:30 she was still sleeping and all her vitals were normal.  They said they were just going to observe her and then do an MRI in the morning.  We came home to sleep for a few hours.  

We were awakened around 7 by the mission president from Temple Square.  Sister Johnston is a Temple Square sister who is with us for just 12 weeks.  The sisters on Temple square all wanted to fast for her.

After waking up, we quickly went back to the hospital.  As I checked my emails, I found the following from her parents…

Hello Dear President Palmer,
Thank you for the good news about Sister Johnston.   Thank you to keep well God's daughter.    She's fine. Just tired but her faith and obedience to the Lord  will give her courage, strength and perseverance.    We believe that the Lord protects, watches over her and give her a very healthy.   We thank you for everything you do for missionaries and tell you do not worry about it.   

It is surrounded by the merciful arms of the Lord and pray that she can sleep well and take over the role.    He lives, we feel it. He loves and cares for Sister Johnston because she is his daughter. She has a mission to accomplish and she'll do it.
Friendly
Johnstons family
PS : Please, thanks to understand my english. Tell THANKS to Sister Palmer and Just to tell Sister Johnston the same word that she told me by Sister Palmer (I think) : "Keep smiling"

It is very hard for me to explain the emotions that I felt as I read this email.  I was so very touched.  These were not naive people.  They knew what was going on with their daughter, but they were people of great faith and tremendous trust in our Heavenly Father.  They live to follow the Savior and faith is a gift  that is given for the way they live.  As I sat with Sister Johnston that day, one of the things I did while she was awake for a little while in the afternoon was read a conference talk from April 2009 by Elder Pearson on faith, and the six destructive d’s that limit our faith. (Amazing talk if you havent read it.)  As I read it I felt I was getting to know these great parents of Sister Johnston….I knew what kind of people they were because of this faith that was so evident.  I wondered if I received a call about Geoffrey or Angela lying in a hospital in the same condition how I would respond.  I don’t think it would be quite the same.  I have a new area on which to focus.

Sister Woolfgram sleeping in the waiting room

By the end of Thursday night she could smile, lift both hands and feet slightly up off the bed, and talk quite normally for an extended time.  They were still doing tests and everything was still inconclusive.  Friday morning two physical therapists wrapped a belt around her and helped her stand and take a few steps. By the end of Friday she could walk slowly with someone by her side and so she was released from the hospital.

There was concern that she could relapse so we brought her to our home for 24 hours.  Her companion went and worked with other sisters in our area and she stayed at home with me.  On Saturday morning she was up and wanted to stay up for a while, so Mark had her make Tahitian raw fish with tuna, coconut milk and lime.  She made it happily and Mark was very happy---he had been remembering how much he likes it since she came to the mission.  Then said she would go downstairs and read for a while.  She went down and slept 7 hours.  I kept going down to check on her….I could tell she was changing positions so I knew she was just sleeping and not gone back into that vegetative state. 

What an interesting miracle the  body is .  As I imagined all the nerves, neurons (or whatever the small components are called) etc. mending themselves, it was a miracle to witness as she little by little came back to normal.  Our bodies are remarkable, and the faith of parents is also remarkable. We have come to love this sweet sister as we have cared for her, prayed for her, and felt of her goodness.

These photos are on Saturday-just three days later---we are all overjoyed!  

She is now back at the home they live in with a wonderful couple from the ward.  She has instructions to go to church and then go home and over the next few days slowly work into things. They still don’t know what it was but the closest diagnosis is a seizure—although they say some things just don’t quite add up. 

I am quite sick right now-although it seems mild after what Sister Johnston just went through---some upper respiratory thing that makes a cough come clear from my navel! Mark had to interview someone in Moses Lake, so we stayed the night Saturday night after bringing Sister Johnston and Woolfgram back..  We attended the Spanish branch this morning after the interview and then went on to Brewster, about 3 hours away, for another interview.  Then drove the 3 hours back home The car is like our little home.  It is wonderful to be doing the Lords work.  It gives meaning to all the things we do.

         This is Sister Johnston and Sister Hauata just before they returned to Temple Square March 9th 2011.

                               

February 14th

This week I have been going with Mark as he does interviews.  We have spent three nights this week sleeping in hotels.  It has been a different experience to visit with the missionaries while they have been in their district meeting...Mark interviews them during that time...I just get the opportunity to see them a little more themselves than as formal as they are in zone conference.  I decided to take my sewing machine.  That has been really fun for me.  I love sewing and mending anyway, and I was given a few projects that required me to be very creative.  One elder brought me a pair of pants that had two holes in the rear the size of small pancakes. "can you fix these" he says with a big smile.  He is an older elder...27...he got special permission to come so old.  He is overweight and slow moving, but just delightful.  These pants were worn out on his bike.  So I worked away and he will be able to wear them...i hope no one looks to closely at his back side.

 Then one of our lovely beautiful sisters brought me four buttons to sew on.  I must say I was a little surprised that she hadn't sewn them on herself, but I didn't have much else from that district so I was able to do them.  She is a great missionary.  Her and her companion...who are totally different and have really struggled to get along...are doing the most amazing work. They are really accomplishing miracles. They are baptizing someone every single week and taught like thirty lessons last week. The elders are there with their mouths open in shock to see what they are doing.  So I was asking them what was it that was making such a difference in their work. She said that they are on the phone all the time.  They call the members and get them so involved with their investigators.  Instead of them inviting the investigator to an activity at the church, they have a member do it. They have members to many of their lessons and always make sure each investigator has at least two fellowshippers.  They call and ask the members to stop by to hellp with the daily contact with the investigators, ams also to invite them to church after they have gone once.  She said that using the members so much has helped them get excited about the work and has also helped to make the transition to coming to church so much easier for the investigators. So these two sisters who have nothing in common..one is a total jock and the other a sweet miss feminine type-- have resolved their differences by simply working a hard as they can.  And miracles are happening because of it.  We feel like some wonderful things are happening in our mission as the members become more and more involved.

There is a younger man who is getting baptized that has had a really special experience. He was praying one night for god to help him get his life together and really help him figure out what to do to be better.  The next morning he wake up in. The middle of a dream.  The thing he remembered in the dream was the word atonement.  So he got up and googles it.  It took him to Mormon.org.  Through that he contacted the missionaries and is now being baptized. Actually let me put up Marks version of the story-he has a few more details that should be included..."Let me share one neat experience we had this week.  I went on a teaching appointment with two of our zone leaders early one morning.  The young man who was investigating the church shared how he had first met the missionaries some six months earlier.  He was playing basketball with some friends who were lds and they invited him to have the missionary lessons.  Several weeks prior he had a dream in which he said he was given a word which he did not know.  He woke up at three am in the morning in the middle of this dream and went on the Internet to search for the word.  It led him to a mormon site and shortly thereafter the missionaries called on him.  The night before he had had the dream he had prayed to go to know how he could find happiness and how to get direction in his life.  When I  asked him what the word was in his dream he couldn't remember it, but about an hour later he texted back to say the word was atonement.  It is an amazing thing to recognize how often prayers are answered and the lord prepares people ahead of the missionaries coming.  It is also sobering to think what if his member friends had not invited him to hear from the missionaries or the missionaries had not called on him.  During the lesson he was invited to be baptized and he immediately accepted the date of march twelfth."

This morning we taught a group of young high school students in a mission prep class.  I talked to them about physical and emotional preparedness.  I didn't do a vey good job, but Mark was wonderful talking about our purpose.  I tried to talk about emotional preparedness and how feeling down every now and them is normal, but how you cant just hibernate and ignore your companion or the work when you are a missionary.  You have to  be strong and push on and learn to be happy and get along with all different kinds of people and see their strengths...not just their weaknesses.  Everyone has weaknesses but what good does it do us to focus on them instead of their strengths.  After we got to talk to the kids, and one was this sweet seventeen year old girl who has been wanting to get baptized for so long but her parents said she has to wait until she is eighteen.  Interestingly her brother got involved to help the parents.  He told them he would take her to other churches so she wouldn't get so set on the Mormons.  Well the two of them went to our church one week and then some other religion the next.  After about four weeks the brother didn't want to go anywhere else.  He felt the spirit and gained testimony and has been baptized...before his sister was even able to.  They were such a well prepared group of young people.  

So today we came up to Canada. Once a month the little branch who meet in republic all come up to Canada for a one hour service.  It has been a really sweet day.  We picked the elders up and then came across the border.  You have to have your passport.  There were 16 people at church.  We met in sister Websters house. I was remembering when I was a little girl and we met in lots of small places...sometimes homes.  There was such an amazing bond that formed between that small group of members.  A lot of them moved over to the states and every month my parents would meet with them....every fast Sunday evening they would get together to talk or play games.  Then of course when my family lived in Africa we had meetings with just us...four of us.  I couldn't help but think of all the groups there must have been yesterday gathered throughout the world...some in large congregations, others with just two or three..perhaps even in countries where it isn't allowed to hold religious services.  I felt a world wide bond with the many members of the church. 

At the meeting, there was a younger women who was only 28 and she had just recently become activated.  She was so beautiful—I said to her  “you just glow”.  She smiled and said  “I feel like I glow!”  I love it!  She felt the spirit and with it she glowed.  

February 7th

This week has been a bit of a vacation for me.  We didnt have any interviews or trainings or zone conferences.  We did have Zone leader council one day, but that is it.  By Wednesday I was sleeping in til almost 6, and then these last two nights I have slept til 6:30.  I realized I must wake up when I have things to do or stressing me a bit.  I was able to take one of our missionary couples out to lunch-they are serving in a rather remote area and really needed the friendship and love.  I also had a wonderful member-Jenna Lake-- come over to show me how to use my pressure cooker.  I had run into her and she had volunteered to show me a much easier way to make potatoes.  When we have transfers I often cook for up to 35 people.   She is the only sister that served a mission from her family and was telling me that when she was driving with her parents down to the MTC her dad looked at her and said..Now Jenna, you are called on an 18 month mission...I dont want you to come home early.  She said it kind of bugged her at first, but then just recognized that he wanted her to follow through and keep her commitment. Well, recently her parents were called to serve a mission in Africa.  She drove them to the MtC and on the way said....Dad, you have been called on an 18 month mission...Dont come home early.  Interestingly enough Mark and I spoke to a returned mission president from Africa and he told us that there were some couples who flew there, got of the plane and literally turned around and went back home.  They just couldn't think of living in the conditions they saw. 

This next week Mark starts interviews and I am going to go with him.  The missionaries are in district meetings when he does the interviews so i haven't gone before.  I am not sure i could sit in on 6 district meetings in one day, so I am going to take my sewing machine and see if the missionaries have any mending they need doing.  I will be curious to see how do they do it in your mission?  Most of the other missions around here have the companionship come and the MP wife talks to one companion as the other is in their interview.   

Also I took a sister to lunch who joined the church 6 months ago and is struggling a bit.  She is quite an amazing lady and we had a good talk. She emailed me and said she went right home and called her visiting teachers and her bishop and then invited her husband to church.  He declined, but she said it wasnt in such a negative way as she had anticipated.  She said " My assumptions about his spiritual quest are perhaps happily misguided. " So we will see.  It is hard when one doesnt support the other in church attendance.

We also went to a baptism of a 23 year old who has totally turned his life around.  It was amazing to watch those who have worked with him.  It has changed their lives as they have seen such a drastic change happen in Malcolm....his behaviors, his countenance...everything.  There were a lot of tears.  As we see these changes happen our faith in and understanding of the atonement grow and deepen.  We see its affect and recognize the reality and power of that forgiveness that really comes from the savior.  Our young missionary who I mentioned  was so very very homesick was the one who baptized him.  It was great.

 We have a temple square sister who is from the Ukraine - she is with us for 3 months and speaks both Ukarinian and Russian.  She is delightful.  We have a long list of Russian speakers who have met at some point with missionaries but because of the language barrier couldnt really continue.  So Mark is excited about her being able to visit these people.  The challenge is that they are out of her area and her companion doesn't speak russian so how do we go about it.  Well Saturday we were in an informal missionary meeting in liberty lake and the stake president stopped talking for a minute and said--let me introduce a sister from our stake who has just this morning returned from her mission to Russia.  We you can imagine how excited we were.  Come to find out she is here till she goes to school in May.  Our sister goes back to temple square at the end of April.  Little miracles!

January 30th

Well another set of transfers is over.  It is such a busy and exhausting time. But a wonderful time too.  One thing I realized perhaps more than ever this time, is that the missionaries that go home are going to be as different as the ones that come.  Each of them started at a different "level" of ability and depth of testimony... depending on their experience, family background, the way they have lived, etc....we have to recognize their growth.  Not their growth compared to where the next person is, but compared to where they are right now.  I gave a talk last night on being a disciple of Jesus Christ.  I have to tell you the funny part first.  So I had been thinking about the Talk all week and had jotted some thing down, but certainly onto got it to a point it was even close to needing to be.  So for some reason I had in my mind that i was speaking Sunday and really it was at the Saturday night session that I was to speak.  On Saturday we did some things and then I was doing Mark's calendar and I had in my mind that I would finish it up on Sunday morning. Well about six pm dad comes in and says...well we better be going. I sincerely looked at him and said where are we going?  He looked at me like I was crazy and said "you are speaking at conference".  I nearly had a heart attack.  This was an assigned topic for fifteen minutes, not a six minute testimony.  And I wasn't even showered.  Well you can only imagine how I raced around.  Anyway the talk went fine....it maybe lacked some direction in parts, but the thing I thought a lot about is that being a disciple of Christ we start where we are today. And that is ok.  There are no requirements to start on the path, just a desire to follow him. Mark is speaking at the session today and then we are going over to a ward to speak to them about reading the book of Mormon.

This last week we welcomed one of Geoffrey's friends from the summer, Elder Clarke, into the mission today. What a great young man he is.   He came with 4 others, one of them from NZ. We are impressed with their entire group, but he is especially is a stand out. Geoffrey had told him to talk to me about  kite boarding. He is really good! He competes and everything.  So it was fun to talk and tell him how good I was...that I never even got on the water before breaking my ribs!

We had a sweet testimony meeting. With there only being 5 elders, we had the couples share testimony and also the assistants....Elder Moleni and Elder Steele. Elder Steele is a convert and just great. There was a great spirit in the meeting. So many of those who shared testimony are converts to the church. One of the elders is from Murray Utah and he joined the church when he was 14 without his parents. One of the senior couples joined when she was 16. Her dad who was not in favor of the church just looked at her and said...if you join, you better darn well live it. She said it was the best advice he gave her. I always love the opportunity to hear and to share testimonies. I feel like it is my opportunity to let my Heavenly Father hear from me how I feel. To let him know that I stand for righteousness and desire to be obedient. To let him know I remember Him. And it is another opportunity for the  spirit to testify to me that what I know and share is true. That is always good!

We spoke in a stake conference yesterday. As the other speakers spoke, Mark was jotting down notes of what he would say, the lady next to me said...is he just writing his talk now? I said yes and watched the ideas he was putting down. Then he stood up and didn't say any of what he had written down, but told the conversion story of another lady he had recently interviewed. Well after the conference two of the elders brought up a lady who they were teaching. She had related so well to the experience dad had shared that during his talk she decided to be baptized. That was a pretty special experience of Mark being guided by the spirit.

It is the end of a great day..I feel spiritually fed and feel I have learned and grown.

January 19th

Over this last few weeks I have been trying to see little miracles in every day and jot them down.  My hope is to type them out. I like the idea of having a journal that is just full of little miracle experiences-or joys-or things that testify of God. I unfortunately have to do it a so quickly since I forget even with my notes.  And I dont always get the chance.  Oh I am so old!

Here are some really recent ones.

Elder D.--a bright young man with an ability to get people to follow him.  He can be quite negative and is not willing to live the rules 100%.  Mark has talked to him a lot and he has often seemed repentant.  But then back to his old ways.  As we have read the Book of Mormon as a mission, Elder D. has realized something.  "I am like Laman" he said. " I remember for a minute and then I return to old ways."  He is trying to turn over a new leaf.  He is smiling, being positive about people and about life, he is trying to be obedient.  He glows.  He looks so much happier. The rewards of working with missionaries

Elder T..  He wanted to go home in the worst way.  When he came out on his mission his dad told him there was no way he would make it.  His friends told him he wouldn't last a week.  When he got here he was miserable, whiney, and did want to go home.  Mark's worked with him, he spoke with a general authority, he saw a doctor, but it seemed as if nothing was helping really well.  But he did stay.  And here he is 14 months later.  Little by little he has caught the vision.  He will stay two years I am sure.  He stood up in a testimony meeting and talked with such great joy that he was still here AND he was enjoying himself.

Elder H.  He had a brain tumor 8 months before he came.  He was so bummed they made him come later and not right after the surgery.  But when he got in the MTC he fell apart.  He was so homesick he couldln't function.  The day before he came to us the MTC called and said they thought it was best that he went home.  We said to send him here.  He has had a good 6 weeks with Elder Eardley-a great and loving missionary. Yesterday we went with him to meet with a doctor after having a check up MRI.  There is no sign of any more tumor.  (Of course we thought of Jasmine the whole time...Hoping that her check up MRI in April will have no new growth)  Elder H. is still struggling with wanting to go home.  Perhaps with his MRI results he will be able to calm down.  We really love him.   He will get a new companion this week at transfers.  I know he is afraid.  He asked if he could stay with his trainer forever!  

Elder Scott has been home now for 8 or more months.  I still think of him often.  I have never known anyone to work like he did.  Wherever he went he made it come alive. He always taught so many lessons. We dont know how he did it. He was so focussed and literally ran to his appointments.  Elder Williams was telling me how when they were together Elder Scott wanted him to skip lunches and dinners to keep working-or at least pack them and carry them so they wouldn't have to come home.  He was an amazing example of hard work continually.

Amalie--the daughter of one of the stake presidents.  She was in a car accident and has many physical problems.  She is confined to a wheel chair.  Everytime I have seen her she smiles and seems to have so much to be happy about.  I hope I always count my blessings.  If she can, I can

Elder B....has asbergers, OCD and a few other things.  We visited the ward he serves in 3 weeks after he arrived in the mission.  There he was teaching gospel essentials and did a good job. That was impressive with all the challenges he has.  But even more so was Elder Allred, his companion.  He was encouraging him in such a sweet way... he is so kind and gentle as he encourages and loves him.  I am so proud of Elder B., but also of this great Elder Allred.  His last companion always calls me mom Palmer and always has the greatest smile.  But it was while he was with Elder Allred that he learned what it meant to really be a missionary.  Some missionaries have an ability to lift their companion no matter who it is or what they need.

We often have the opportunity to talk to the people who own the homes where our missionaries live.  So many of them thank US for the missionaries.  They say they are a delight to have in thier home.  That the spirit is stronger, that they are a great example to their sons, (one lady said her sons now study the scriptures everday after watching the missionaries do it.)  Occasionally we have to remind them that they live in someone elses home and that they must clean up, but in general they are exemplary.

Paul and Pam Reed....I have some great friends from many different time periods of my life.  I cherish my friends and the chance to talk to them and learn from them.  But one of the blessings of getting married is that now I can share Mark's lifelong friends also.  We had such a great visit with Paul and Pam when we met up with them last week.  They are a good faithful couple who I really enjoy.

Four young missionaries--dad moved 4 young missionaries, with less than 1 year combined total time in the mission,  into one of our wards where the bishop is so missionary minded.  They have just taken off.  Both sets teach more than 20 lessons a week.  they are so energetic and have so much faith.  They are so happy.  They just go....and they have baptized many.

Elder R.....he has been in and out of foster care for a lot of his life.  His entire family is inactive.  There are a lot of problems  When I see him he always has a big smile...."What can we do for you and President Palmer." he always asks.   I said " our greatest joy is to see you wanting to be here, to become better and to love your mission."  He said " Every morning I wake up and think ...I am so happy I am still here.  I want to show charity and love to everyone".  Sometimes the ones who have had it the hardest grow the most.

Marshallese---3 elders are teaching only people from the Marshall islands.  They taught 42 lessons last week.  They told me they really dont have time to eat.  They usually just shovel some food down that investigators give them as they are running on to their next appointment.  One elder says that none of them sleep well at night...they toss and turn all night.  But when they do wake up they are excited for a new day and all that is going to happen  They have 23 people on date to be baptized right now.  no one can believe it.

Snow.  The snow is so cold, but when the snow first falls it is just so beautiful...white, fluffy, clean, and beautiful.  When we drive through the mission and see all the wheat fields covered with snow, it shimmers as though it has little bits of diamonds in it.  It is spectacular.  And it stays a long time because it doesn't often warm up here.  When we were in Moses Lake the lake was frozen over.  THAT was beautiful.  And I am reminded of Gods hand in everything when I see that the ice floats.....but other liquids don't......I think Angela taught me that.

Exerts from a letter to Angela

We have been gone all day and just got home to your wonderful long hand written letter. I had to get out my reading glasses...that is a lot of words on each page :)   As i have been sitting here reading it all the way through, I have felt like i have had a good long Angela chat. Thank you for sharing all the experiences that have been meaningful and strengthened who you are.  Thanks for seeing our strengths and not remembering all our weaknesses. That is a good way to live!

Many of the experiences you shared I remember--but you gave me more insights as you wrote in detail about them.  Some of the experiences I remember spending a lot of time on my knees FOR you.  And some I didnt know-like the tithing and the check from work.

I love your comment about Elder Holland--being a good boy and girl.  That is something Elder Bednar said when he was here.  Someone asked him about if he feels the spirit all the time.  He said if he did he would have been translated (sorry if I have already told you this-I forget what I have thought and what I have written to you).  He said that we are called, we are set apart, the Spirit will guide us.  Be a good boy or girl and move forward with faith.  Notice when you dont have the spirit and quit doing those things that take it away.

I also loved when you talked about feeling the Saviors arms around you....and the comfort that you felt.  One of our sister missionaries shared her testimony one time-and i have since used it for a talk-on the phrase from I believe in Christ.   I believe in Christ...so come what may.  I thought about that phrase many times when Jasmine was going through her tumor.  If we truly believe in Him, we will understand that He is with us.  That all things will be ok.  That this life is just a short time in our existence.  That we can get through or handle anything that comes our way.

I laughed when you talked about dad and his karote chop when he talks.  President Hinkley also used to do it.

And when you talk about the sadness disobedience causes.  We had to send a missionary home this week.  It breaks our hearts.  It breaks his parent's hearts and his siblings' and bishop and stake president......all because a missionary is selfish and wants to do what he wants to do his way.   And what damage it does to the church too.  

I am so glad you love your new companion.  I put both of your names on the prayer roll when went to the temple the other day with some of our sister missionaries.  And I pray for your area...that you will find those who are prepared.   It is a fine balance working with less actives.  I will say in our mission 25% come from tracting and probably 50% of those who are baptized are from part member families.  Oh another neat experience.....two of our missionaries were walking down the street and saw someone they felt prompted to talk to. They are both good at talking to everyone, but were in a hurry and had to go out of their way to talk to this man They didn't recognize him, but it came out that he was the husband of a member and had attended church for 23 years.  During the conversation he said...I think it is time I get baptized.  Now maybe that would never had happened if they hadnt taken the time to talk to him that day.  He was ready right then.  As I think I have mentioned before, you must make less active visits meaningful.  You are there to teach.  Our missioanries teach lessons to less actives all the time.  It gives the missionaries the opportunity to teach, and it reminds the less actives of things they once knew.

January 14th

We are on the road still with our mission trainings.  It feels like ages since we have been home.  Our lives are very different with Geoffrey gone...we are rarely home.  Geoffrey made a great comment in his letter this week about he and Elder Hurcules woking on figuring out WHAT is right instead of who is right.  We have seen it a lot on the mission how the missionaries love to be zone leaders because they know they will have a companion who is excited about the work and usually a hard worker, but it comes as a shock to some of them that they often struggle.  Because they are usually both somewhat strong personalities and have opinions and leadership abilities.  Probably a lot of their mission they will have been a senior companion and been leading.  It happens with the sisters too.  We get two really well grounded and capable ones together and they are so excited but then have some struggles to work through that they hadn't anticipated.  I often have thought how it is with the first presidency an twelve apostles.  They are all capable strong leaders.  They have to come to a unanimous decision on many things.  I am sure there is much discussion and evaluation.  Of course they seek the Lords help, but there are some things that perhaps just need to be decided....policies etc....and it could be somewhat difficult.  I was reading in an autobiography if one of them and he talked about it...and also about how it worked out.  I am sure they too would focus on what is right.
This training we are doing has been just great. We are going over the holy ghost, how to begin teaching, and teach people not lessons.  One elder who as been in the mission a year as he was leaving yesterday said...I have learned more today than in my whole mission.  The assistants did a great little role play  with how to begin teaching. They had them pair up and practice back and forth saying to each other the bullet points under that section in preach my gospel.  Then they had a larger group stand in a circle and take turns talking to someone in the middle using the bullet points...one after another and helping transition from one to the next.  Then they role played an actual teaching setting starting to teach.  The goal was for the missionaries to become familiar with the phrases there.  They also had them underline the key points.  When we were at mission presidents seminar we were told that Elder Packer wrote this section during the night and then gave it to those writing preach my gospel.  They edited it some to make it sound like the rest of the book....they like them to flow like it is one author. When Elder Packer saw it he said...this came as revelation, what i wrote is how it needs to be.  So of course they changed it back.  Of course they don't need to memorize them, but to be very familiar gives them things to say when they don't know what to say.  Elder clawson told me that a couplle of times he has started with that right when he gets there and is taking off his shoes and that when he does it has really set the mood for a wonderful and spiritual lesson.

I took two of our visa waiters going to brazil to the airport yesterday. They have been with us two months. We got them all checked in and then we ran into a young man going to the mtc and is going brazil on his mission.  He said what advice do you have for me.  They said...if you become a visa waiter consider it a great blessing...we have loved our experience here and learned things that are going to helped us so much.  I was touched that that was the first thing they thought of as advice.  One of the missionaries who is waiting didn't get his visa and he sincerely was so happy.

This week in the middle of one of our trainings we had to sneak out for an hour and speak at a womens conference.  It was the most interesting experience.  Here we have been doing all these trainings and are mostly teaching young men...ok some sisters..but when I got up in front of all these women I could not get myself together.  Everything I shared got me emotional and I did the crying that turns into the high squeak that is hard to talk through.  I realized how different men and women are and to see all these sweet sisters looking at me and smiling with such support it touched me so much. It made me think of my dear neighbors, my book club friends, my visiting teachers etc. It is rare I cry with the elders.  I don't know..hard to really explain what happened.  There is just a connection that women have that is just different...and we are definitely more emotional.

January 8th

Angela told me in one of her letters how she cleaned the temple.  I had a really special experience in Spain with that.  Mark and I went over for the open house in Madrid and one of my old companions, Margarita Diaz, lived close.  She is a photographer and had been asked to photograph the temple for the ensign.  I was able to go with her and go in every room and help her with the photography.  After, her ward was cleaning  to get ready for the open house.  It was a very different experience to clean the temple, but I loved it. It was an act of service in a unique way-just feeling like I was cleaning the Lord's house.  

We have been going around to every zone doing trainings this week.  We are talking about the Holy Ghost-his role in conversion, How to begin Teaching, and Teach people not lessons.  I am doing the Holy Ghost.  I am not that good at teaching it, but i sure have a knowledge and testimony of the Holy Ghost.  A couple of quotes that have come out during the trainings.  "If you fail once you are normal, if you fail twice you are special, and if you fail three times you are extraordinary."  This doesn't relate to the Holy Ghost necessarily, but to the fact that many give up when they fail.  Those that pick up and keep trying are, or become, extraordinary.  

As we talked of the Holy Ghost, we talked about if we can or do feel him all the time.  We are the Lord's missionaries and we will have the gift of the Holy Ghost-but of course it wont be one "high " all the time.  We learn from the ups and the downs.  In the ups we learn what the Holy Ghost feels like and we learn to recognize his influence and desire him more in our lives.  In the "downs" we see the void, recognize the blessing of him.  Here is what Elder Bednar said when he came last year--when you are not feeling the Holy Ghost, look at what you are doing that might prevent you from having his presence-and then quit doing it.   Not having the Holy Ghost present can be a teaching and learning moment if we strive to learn from it.

Geoffrey is waiting for his visa this week.  One of our visa waiter sisters just got her visa to Brazil.  It was interesting.  At lunch I was asking her about it (she didn't have it at this point) and she said she is praying that it doesn't come.  She loves Spokane and would be perfectly happy to stay.  Ten minutes later Mark got an email during lunch and called her over to read it with him-on his phone- there were a lot of emotions.  Another elder was with us who is also waiting for his to Brazil.  He came up to me and said-Sister Palmer, I really dont want to leave!  I appreciate how they have thrown themselves into where they are and loved the missionaries, the investigators, the people.  I know they will do the same when they get to Brazil also.  One of our missionaries who was supposed to go to Mongolia will finish her mission this transfer.  It was a hard reassignment when it became obvious she would not get the visa, but she has been a great missionary.  It is the same with most of the missionaries-you change areas and companions and just throw yourselves into it to make the most of it.   One of the missionaries I was talking to the other day said that the hardest calling in the mission is to be a "second trainer".  Or the second senior companion to someone.  He said that they love their first companion so much and question everything the new one says.  One Elder said that he had to reteach the white hand book to the one he was second training, but that the newer missionary had a hard time believing him because he trusted that first companion. It is important for missionaries to always talk about the good of their previous companion.  Sometimes we think we have to point out their faults to let the new one know we like them.  As a missionary talks about the good of each one, they know they will talk the same of them when they are again with another new companion.