Another Week!

When my companion doesn’t write the blog until Wednesday (and uses all the good pictures from P-day), it doesn’t leave much for me to say…  But I will try!  Monday for P-day I cleaned carpets and didn’t take any pictures.  (I should have taken before and after pictures of the upstairs young sisters’ rug, but I didn’t.  It was BAD.)  Diane was willing to stay out of the way and go shopping for clothes, so I let her.  All-in-all, it was a day to feel good about, but not very memorable!  The weather has turned here, and it’s feeling a lot more like Autumn.  Nights are down to the low 40’s with daytime highs in the 60-70’s.  We Seattleites love it so far!


We were able to start teaching a young boy and his mother this week.  The mother is a member who has not been to church for many years, but is from an active family.  Her husband is not a member.  He is not religious, but told her he was OK with us teaching their son, and even with her getting more involved in the church if she wants.  The son, Bradley, is 8 y/o and has been asking questions about church and baptism.  (He has cousins and other relatives who are active members.)  Anyway, we met with Bradley and his mother and taught half of the first discussion, at a child’s level.  There was a good spirit there, but we were amazed at how little he knew about God, Jesus and prophets!  We take for granted that most people have that foundation.  Our challenge will be teaching him the basics in a way that will help him want to be baptized, and help his mother want to change her life and become active again.  And of course we hope to involve the father, too.  For our discussion this week, a mother in the ward will come, along with her 8 y/o son, and we hope that works out well and they will want to attend church.


We had a nice surprise on my birthday!  Ken & Traci Adams, who we served with in NYC, drove up from Sacramento and spent most of the day with us.  It was fun to talk and talk, then go to lunch at the Sparks Grimaldi’s for pizza, then go home and talk some more!  It boggles your mind how many memorable experiences you have on a senior mission and how many lifetime friends you make!

Our apartment complex has hundreds of squirrels.

This is Alex, sunning on our deck. He lives under

our apartment.

Us and the Adams at Grimaldi's

On another note, we are starting to feel the pressure from our stake senior missionary fireside on October 13^th.  Diane is working on putting together a slide show with pictures from currently serving and recently returned senior missionaries from the Reno Stake.  We only have 3 ½ weeks, and with General Conference the week before, we need to get the word out to ward bulletins ASAP.  Our agenda isn’t set, but we think it will be a speaker from the stake presidency, one other speaker introducing the 4 week class (one or both of us?), and a panel discussion from recently-returned senior missionaries (hopefully with the stake president asking them questions to clear up most common myths…).  We’ll also send around a signup sheet of some kind to determine interest in the 4-session prep class to be held in October/November.  It should be fun and interesting to get to know more people our age in the stake, and we hope it helps with the work!  

Pictures from our morning hike on 9/14/19 (7:00AM)

Some Days are Diamonds Some Days are Stones (but mostly diamonds)

I know it seems from our pictures that we play more than we work but we do mostly work.  I’ll start this blog off with the play and finish with the work.

For people who like to hike we couldn’t have been sent to a better place. Lake Tahoe has been to us here what Long Island was to us in New York.  When we want to see trees we head up to Lake Tahoe.  Luckily it’s only about 45 minutes away.

On Saturday, instead of going to the gym, we took a walk up into the foothills just above our area.  It’s prettier up close than it is from a distance.  There was no wildlife other than the one magpie and plenty of coyote scat but it was a good healthy trek.  There were even a few trees. 

We love the steep trails made by ATVs

Random Magpie

Looking down at our Ward

Then on P-day (Monday) we went up to Lake Tahoe.  There are lots of great hikes. 

This last hike was simply gorgeous.  It 

Flume Trail Hike Lake Tahoe

may be one of my favorite hikes ever.  The trail was wide and sandy and smooth (actually a mountain bike trail) with beautiful views.  Signs were posted warning of bears and cougars.  I’ve seen the movies where there were cougars and, sure enough, it looked just like this with lots of big boulders so I knew it must be true. 

Monkey Rock

Angie and Allen were here Friday night for a short visit.  The hardest part of serving a mission is being away from family so when they are able to visit it is a special treat for us. The Sister Missionaries were walking by our window and we all waved.  Their jaws dropped and they said, "Wait, you get to have family come see you?"  They can't wait to serve senior missions. 

With Angie & Allen and kids at BJ's BBQ.

Grandkids at the Temple.  The girls were mostly
interested in the many bunnies
living on the temple grounds.

Transfers were this past week.  We didn’t have to help much other than picking an elder up at the airport.  He came a couple of days late due to a basketball injury at the MTC.  He ended up having to go to the dentist to repair a chipped tooth was delayed in leaving Utah.  We enjoyed meeting him and delivering him to his new companion.

Elder Williams waiting at the airport.

At our usual Wednesday afternoon service at the Memory Care Center there was one sweet woman who is normally very quiet but who was very talkative this time.  She was convinced that Marc was a priest and was quite anxious to get him to take her confession.  She said she had done some bad things and needed to confess.  This went on the whole time we were there and I was worried that she would actually start confessing.  The activities director, Sister Gootch from our ward, reassured her that she would find an actual priest to come in. 

We have a less-active mother and daughter we have been visiting who we just love.  Each time we go they are very welcoming and we end up having a very spiritual discussion.  They even attended a Relief Society dinner last night.  We will also start teaching a young 8-yr-old this week and his less-active mother. 

There are times when we feel bored and there is nothing to do.  When that happens I often pray for just one good experience and then something wonderful happens like the two I mentioned above.  These things make it all worth-while and teach us that Heavenly Father truly is there for His missionaries.

Sunday was our Zone Conference with President Ballard.  It was wonderful, as expected.  He had spoken at two or three meetings the day before and then presided at a stake conference that morning.  He looked a bit tired but when he got up to speak he seemed instantly energized.  He was very warm and funny. 

Elder Williams is suffering from a cold (or allergies) today but as usual his ailments don’t last long so we look forward to a busy few days coming up.

Quiet Week (Calm Before...?)

Not too much going on this past week - - just normal missionary work.  This is kind of the calm before the storm because we should get assigned to start inspecting missionary apartments right after transfers (tomorrow), and that will fill up as much time as we let it!  Since we don’t know anything, we’ll start slow and then see how many we think we can practically do in a week.  Our primary responsibility will still be Member Leader Support in the Peavine Valley Ward, so we’ll have to work to make sure apartment inspections (and the resulting maintenance) doesn’t take over our time and energies!  We think it will be nice to meet more of the elders and sisters, and try to keep the process from becoming adversarial.  


For today’s prep day, we went down to Genoa, NV, where Mormon Station is.  We visited there in June with the Gigueres, and my companion has had it in her mind since then to go back to the little jewelry store there for her main birthday present.  She bought a beautiful white turquoise and silver pendant that she says will go great with her winter wardrobe (which she is really looking forward to wearing, since she is tired of her summer clothes we wear every day!).  While she was shopping I stayed out of her way by eating a HUGE two-scoop bowl of ice cream in the grill next door.  I don’t think I’ve ever eaten that much ice cream in one sitting (which is saying a lot)!  I have learned my lesson about shopping with Diane – it’s just better for everyone involved if I’m not there.  

After the shopping and ice cream we went on a hike above the town.  Genoa was the oldest settlement in Nevada, and now it’s a beautiful farming & ranching community at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains.  Not to mention it has a really nice little jewelry store.  (I have the feeling this is not the last time I will see Genoa…)

Tomorrow is transfer day, and it’s always fun to see the changes that take place!  In our MLS assignment we only get to know the other three companionships in our district and the zone leaders, so it will take us longer (if ever) to get to know all the missionaries.  We’ve also found that we aren’t needed as much at the transfer location.  Local RS sisters prepare a lunch for the new missionaries and their companions, and we’ve felt a little like “3^rd wheels” there.  Diane will talk to one of the office senior sisters today to see if we should just stay away until the outgoing missionary dinner at President Godoy’s home in the evening. (Looks like they want us there so I can assemble bikes.)


President M. Russell Ballard will visit this weekend, so we are really looking forward to that!  We have a single mission-wide conference with him Sunday afternoon, which should be really wonderful!  All the missionaries in the eastern part of the state will come in and stay the night before and/or after, depending on how far away they are.  Diane is helping to put together sandwiches for the traveling elders and sisters.


Diane mentioned last week how it seems like we have too much spare time sometimes, but when you list everything we do at the end of the week, it’s a lot!  There’s no doubt that we are serving much more than we ever have at home, even when we held responsible callings.  There’s also no doubt that every mission could use ten senior couples!!  We have 4 in our mission.  Our friend’s mission in New Zealand has 16 senior couples and two senior sisters (probably because it’s one of those places where every senior couple would love to go…)  We think more couples should leave it up to the Lord to choose.  He always gets it right.


We love our mission, and we are happy!  It may never be perfect, but neither are we!!!