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| Interesting country! This is the view from the Reno temple towards Reno |
The Gigueres are from Maine, and both are retired nurses. (We don't know why they are not serving medical-type missions (knowing how short-handed the missions are), but we don't know them well enough yet to ask that kind of questions...) We get along well, and I believe we will become fast friends over the next few weeks! Our assignment is called Member Leader Support (MLS), and our purpose is to do whatever the ward needs to bring the members closer to Christ. In some ways, MLS missions are sort of write-your-own-mission missions, so we don't know yet what shape our mission will take in the long run! In the short-run we will spend our time getting to know ward members through visits and service, with the goal to find where we are most needed. To tell the truth, we are a little frustrated right now at the slowness of getting started. People don't answer their phones when unknown (like us) numbers call , and few people are home in the days, so we have more free time than we'd like! We know that will end, and we may look back fondly on 'free time'!
In the past week we have: Helped with Transfer Day and Leadership Council lunches (Diane), been out to dinner with the Sapps and Langstons (senior couples), spent lots of money setting up the new apartment and buying food, had dinner with the Gigueres, been to the hospital twice- once for a blessing and once for a visit with a sick woman, attended the baptism of a couple taught and baptized by the Gigueres, visited a memory care nursing center (showing pictures of families and singing old classic songs with 8 patients, went with the vehicle coordinator to pick up 4 new Toyota Rav4 HYBRIDS, went to church for the first time in our new ward, met with the ward mission leader, visited a family in the ward, called for an hour to get other ward member visits, drove around the ward for what seemed like hours trying to catch members at home to introduce ourselves, set up a meeting with the bishop this week, took a set of elders to the temple to meet a recent convert woman for baptisms (I ended up baptizing her and then being baptized a few times (wonderful!!), today (P-day) drove to Donner Pass and Lake Tahoe (and did a cool hike Diane found!) and came back through Carson City. It sounds busy if you aren't full-time, but we had way too much dead-time!
The hospital blessing Monday was really special! We were at the Hardys (in the ward) for dinner along with the Gigueres and the Smiths (he is the stake patriarch) when Brother Smith got a call from the stake president, looking for someone to give a priesthood blessing to a woman in the ICU in Reno. Coincidently (not really, Jay), two fulltime missionaries were there and we offered to go to the hospital to give the blessing. When we got there, Elder Giguere and I went into the ICU, and we spoke to the injured woman's daughter to get the background we needed. The woman, Sister Linford, is 78. She is an active member of the church who lives in a small town in Nevada, and her daughter (29) lives in Salt Lake City, but had flown down when she heard what happened. She told us that she had made many choices she shouldn't have, and was not active in the church. Sister Linford's head injury (sustained in several falls) was very serious and the doctors had removed some bone to help the swelling go down, and were keeping her fully sedated. We gave her a blessing, and as often happens, I was surprised what came out of my mouth during the blessing! (But I know it was true.) After we gave the mother a blessing, I was impressed to ask Amy if she would like a blessing also. She said yes with tears in her eyes, and we proceeded to give her a blessing of strength and comfort. It was clear it had been many years since she had felt those feelings of peace and comfort, and it was certainly a special experience for each of us. I pray it will make a difference in both their lives, and I feel strongly that it will! Feeling the influence of the Holy Ghost is wonderful, especially after a long drought.
Monday morning we drove to the town of Truckee, where Donner Pass is, spent some time in the memorial park (the museum wasn't open yet, since we left early to avoid the heat and tourists). We always wondered why the Donner party hadn't worked harder to explore other options before resorting to the worst option for survival, but when we read that the snow was 22 feet deep(!), we understood more of the difficulties! The plaque said the snow level was up to the top of the square shaft of the monument. Then we went down to Lake Tahoe, drove around most of the north half of the lake, stopping for a hike up to an old fire lookout place. Diane is great at finding good hikes!! The lake is spectacular, and the pictures surely don't do it justice! I always have to (figuratively) drag Diane out of the mountains and trees, but eventually we left and drove through Carson City and back up to Reno. It was a great day, and we saw lots to do on future visits!!
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| Donner Party Monument |
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| Near fire lookout on north end of Lake Tahoe |
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| Looking south across Lake Tahoe |
