MISSION UPDATE AND THE FUN

Here are a few of the 75 or so missionaries that stopped by the Mission Office before they went to sing Happy Birthday to Sister Nelson (President Nelson's wife) on her 60th birthday. They are dressed in similar casual clothes becasue this was Monday and their P-day...or their day off to get all of thier personal things done. 

Elder Traxler ("the sheriff) working with some of the Mission's Zone Leaders on how to train their companionships on the use and care of thier automobiles. We are going through the formal inspection process to make sure that they are clean and in good working order. 

We have been given another calling from the Stake to teach Institute for the Spring/Summer session where we teach 18 to 30 year old single adults. We are teaching Doctrines of the Gospel...the only 400 level couse in Institute. They took the green peas and gave them the heavy load becasue they knew that we needed to grow. Our biggest challenge to date is how we combine our teaching styles and gospel knowledge in to one coherant lesson that someone will enjoy. Each week we are getting better and learning about each others personalities, needs, egos, and soft spots as we learn the challenges to Eternal Marriage and companionship.

We took a Saturday afternoon from our responsibilites and went down to White Rock which is a another suburb of Vancouver located on the Pacific Ocean.  We saw people on the beach (with heavy coats still on), people crabbing and fishing, shopping and just enjoying the rare sunny day.  It was a really fun day to be out relaxing with each other.

Here is Sister "Sweetie" and Elder "Honey" on Mother's Day in Garry Park in Steveston. We went with Nanette and Jeff (Sue's sister) who finished their 14 day cruise in Vancouver and stayed an extra 2 days to visit with us.

This is a typical Spring day in the upper Northwest with rain, hail, and very cool temperatures. We were on Granville Island (downtown Vancouver) where we were shopping, having fun, and getting soaked.  We had a great time being with Nan and Jeff and talking a mile a minute updating family news and stories.

Sisters on Mother's Day. Sue was homesick during Easter so it was great to have Nanette here. Sue was a happy girl. It was fun to have them here so we could show them the Mission Office where we work, where we live, and introduce them to some of the Missionaries that we love and serve with.

A TRIP TO THE OKANAGAN

Here is Sue in front of Bridal Veil Falls just outside of Hope BC.  We were on our way to the Okanagan  Zone(we love all of these indian names) on a working vacation. We left on Friday and came back home on Monday after 800 miles of driving to Osoyoos, Penticton, West Bank, Kelowna, Vernon, Salmon Arm Kamloops, and Meritt. We were stopping in each of these cities to check on the missionaries apartments andvehicles. These are missionaries that we do not get to see very often because of the distance to the Mission Office.  It was educational and fun to see these young men and women in their enviournment...a lot like it was in our college years.

This is a picture of the stream that came down from Bridal Veil Falls. It was a 15 minute hike to the falls from the parking lot....seemed like a lot longer!  Our trip also included going to the Vernon Stake Conference where they were changing Stake Presidencies. Elder Oaks (Apostle) was there to conduct. It was wonderful to hear him during the 3 times we heard him address us...one of which was a private meeting on Sunday morning with the 20 or so missionaries in the Zone. We got to meet him and shake his hand. Awesome!

This is a tree growing out of the stump of a dead tree. With all of the moisture in the NW we see a lot of the beautiful nature that is like Oregon where we used to live and unlike arid Colorado where we now live.

While we were traveling we stopped at Elder McCullough and Elder Smith's apartment. They were the only ones whose apartment was clean and organized eneough to take pictures.  This one is of their planning  activities and schedule boards.  While all of the others had boards, they had trouble finding them in some cases.  The cars generally looked better than the  apartments.

Elders Zimmerman, Williams, and Dodge got dressed up in their mustaches to role play in their district meeting. They played the parts of hard investigators and missionaries who stand on a soap box preaching the Gospel.  Elder Dodge leaves in May and Elder Zimmerman leaves in June.  They have been great in their service and fantastic in thier stewardship

Visiting the Different!

The population is very diverse in our area which allows for a variety of different temples. We have been wanting to visit some of them and here we are at the Buddist Temple in Richmond. It was difficult to know what they believe but we gathered that they believe in acquiring different positive virtures and attributes by praying to different entities that were with Budda at about 550 BC. These are represented by the statures behind us and the believers bring offerings of cooked rice, fruit,  flowers, and incense. They  would hold the incense above their heads and bow 3 times to the statue of the attribute they were trying to acqire or emulate.

We were impressed with the size and beauty of the grounds and buildings around the Temple site. There were some structures that we were allowed to view but not take pictures of. This is a meditation pond with sitting areas, fountains, and rice patty boxes.

 

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 While we did not copy down the name this is the next Budda that is to come in the next 2 billion years. Since they believe in reincarnation the earth will have gone into its next phase at that time and will need a new Budda to guide the people at that time.  From here we went up to the main complex which is right behind this shrine. It was the biggest and most elaborate structure on the site.  In this building the believers were chanting to their ancestors. It sounded like the same chant said over and over again with bowing and men and women alternating the chant.

This is a picture that we took out in front of the Fort Langley historical site. We are with Elder and Sister Nielsen who we serve with in the Mission office.  This was not a defensive fort against the wild west indians like we have in the United States; instead, it was a trading post fort that all of the different nationalities came to trade and barter for goods.  They included First Nation (indians), Russians, Spanish, Americans, and French. Instead of fighting they negotiated over a table as to who was going to get what...very civilized as opposed to their southern neighbors.  This was the birthplace of British Columbia and was founded in 1827,

This picture was taken in the "Big House" which originally housed the family assigned there by the Hudson Bay Trading Company. They made thier own barrels, shoes, tools, and structures. Sister Traxler and Sister Nielsen are showing off all the things they made for the day....it was a load....just kidding.

Living Large!

Here we are at the Vancouver Zone Conference sitting to the left of President and Sister Nelson.  If you look carefully you can almost see us.  There will only be one more zone conference before the Nelsons leave on July 1.  President and Sister Tilleman from Arizona will be our new mission president and wife.  They both grew up in Calgery so they have dual citizebship.  It will be fun to see what changes happen when they come.  They have 5 children and they will be bringing their 6 yr. old daughter with them.

 Here we are on our preparation day down by the wharf.  It is a beautiful day and we just walked around taking in the sights.  I'm wearing my raincoat that I wear everywhere.  The rule is-always have your raincoat, umbrella and camera.

Paul bought a new Vancouver Canada hat.  He also bought a box of cookies from a cute little "girl guide," Canadas equivelant of a girl scout. We are in a small town called Steveston which is a suburb of Richmond where we live. We are always very close to the water (ocean) and in this case commercial and personal fishing boats. The humidity makes it seem colder than we are used to in Colorado....it is about 47 degrees but it feels more like 32.

There were many of these boats set up all along the water selling their fish, and there were quite a few people buying their dinner for the night.  We chose instead to go to a little cafe and get 2 tuna fish sandwiches and 2 diet cokes, all for the "reasonable" price of $17.25! For us the sandwich looks better than taking one of these fish home and looking at it because we would have no idea what to do with it.  If it doesn't come in a box, we don't eat it!!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!!!  Don't you love it!  Elder Lahache is the sane one in the middle and is a First Nation (Mohawk Indian) from Canada and Elder Williams, the insane one on the right,  is from Utah.  The weird guy on the left is from somewhere north of the ozone! The two Elders are currently working in the office making a DVD for a temple grounds tour of the Vancouver temple so we get to see them every day.  They are awesome!

Sightseeing in Vancouver

Isn't this beautiful!  This is looking at the North Shore across the bay from downtown Vancouver.  We think the mountain in the background is Grouse Mountain where some of the Olympics took place in 2010.  The sun finally came out so we went downtown to do some sightseeing.  It was sunny but boy was it cold.  We can't wait for warmer days ahead to get out and see the sights. It cost us $12.00 to park for an hour and a half.  Then when we went to Stanley Park we had to pay $2.00 for 2 hours. Wow I think we got a deal on that one!

Paul took a picture of the Vancouver skyline,  We are right down by Canada Place where the cruise ships come in.

We drove from downtown Vancouver to Stanley Park, a distance of 3 miles which took us an hour.  The totem pole is unique to the BC Northwest Coast FirstNations (Indian Tribe).  Each pole tells a real or mythical story.

On President's Day in February we decided to close the office and go sight seeing.  We went with President and Sister Nelson and Elder and Sister Nielsen. We took the sky train all around town, the sea bus out to North Vancouver and ended up in Chinatown to eat lunch and do some shopping.  All the Elders have silk Chinese ties but Paul didn't find one he liked--so that's my mission now-one Chinesen tie for Elder Traxler.

On Wednesday March 10 we attended our first zone conference.  Because our mission is so large geographically, we actually have 6 zones and 6 zone conferences.  The President likes us to attend one of the conferences which are held each quarter.  We hope to go over to Victoria in June and stay a weekend when  the Island has their next conference. We came away with a new admiration, respect and love for those young men and woman. The 4 sisters you see are mandarin chinese speaking.  In the group are also Korean, Spanish, and of course English speaking. Now a note on the tsunami and earthquake in Japan.  We trained with a couple at the MTC who were going to the Japan Toyko to be office missionaries.  After we heard about the tsunami I called over to Japan(it was 2;30 pm Fri. our time and 7:30am Sat. over there.) They had 60 missionaries at the office who had spent the night because they had their zone conference the day the earthquake hit and no transportation was running so they couldn't get back to their area.  Their mission president had changed their zone conference by one day which resulted in all those missionaries being in Toyko instead of in Sendai where they would have been right in the middle of the tsunami--isn't that  awesome.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  They felt the effects in Toyko but all were safe.  We are so greatful to be a part of this work and watch the hand of the Lord in everything all around us.

Our Humble but Enjoyable Abode

This picture is of the outside of the house that we live in. We live in the basement and enter our 2 bedroom/1bath apartment from the door to the right of the car in the driveway.  The picture is taken from across the street in a beautiful park that we use to take walks in. The great selling point is the covered parking which most apartments don't get according to Balbir Dahandra, our landlord.

Here is our large screen TV that came with the apartment. We are fortunate to have the rabbit ears as we get 6 channels...2 in a foreign language and 1 with hockey highlights and games of the high school and club teams.  We don't watch much tv as you might expect. We do however go to the local library and get DVD's of old movies and documentaries.  I have to sit next to the TV to read the inscriptions to Sue who is sitting on the couch.

This is the whole bedroom. We added a matress top to soften the existing bed. The lamp on the left is broken and the lampshade kind of tilts toward the sun like a sun flower but it does still turn on. I asked the prior missionaries and they said that it was already broken when they got there. We are going to keep it as a symbol of the pioneer spirt.  The only other thing in the room is the dresser which is about 2 feet wide and has 6 drawers high.  Sue has the top 3 and I get the lower 3...sounds equal!!

Acutually, this looks bigger than it is.  Only one person can get in here at any one time. Sue makes her breakfast when I am getting cleaned up and then we switch.  It really is very functional and doesn't require any foot work to get around in it. You can wash dishes and put the food away in the refrigerator without moving! This is great for older people like us!

This is our living, dining, relaxing, reading  and all in all general purpose room that we spend almost all of our time in. The heater in the foreground is for survival and not just not a decorator piece. The tv gives you a perspective of the size. The chair on the right is the one I have to sit in to read the stuff on the movies that we watch.

It is small but we love it as it is easy to clean each week and I have only gotten lost once. The whole package costs $850 a month which includes utilities and the use of the owner's washer and dryer once a week.

Getting Started!

We are getting into the groove of our new callings and living arrangements. We stay busy every day and even some evenings...the good news is that apparently it will get busier when we get settled into our new Ward  and recieve callings there as well. Above we are attending our first Family Home Evening with other Senior couples that serve along with us. Most of them will be going home this summer when they finish up their 18 months.

Our community is very diverse. We live in a suburb of Vancouver called Richmond and the population is about 70% Chinese. We are in the process of celebrating the Chinese New Year and these were the decorations that we had for our Family Home Evening mentioned above.  Sue and I found out that we are "Dogs" according to their calendar.  It doesn't sound so good until you read the characteristics associated with the sign which turned out better than we thought.

One of our many responsibilities is helping the Nielsen's fix luncheons several times a month for the missionaries as they come in for various trianing meetings and conferences. Here we are getting ready to serve the bannanas that will eventually be used in the desert. We have to prepare the meal, get the room set up, and then clean up after everyone is done. The biggest meal we have to help prepare and serve is on what is called "Transfer Day" when we have about 70 to 80 hungry people to feed. 

 Here the missionaries including President Nelson are singing to us to thank us for the lunch that we helped get ready. Afterwards they play a basketball competition to keep the blood circulating and to keep from going to sleep in the afternoon training sessions.

Here we are in front of the new Vancouver Temple which was opened in May, 2010. We are getting ready to attend with four of the missionaries that are returning to their homes after serving. This is the last event that we do with the missionaries along with Nelsons and the Neilsons (President and other Sr. couple). 

As you can see, we have a lot of different activites and duties which keep the days going by quickly. We are having fun interacting with just GOOD PEOPLE who love the Lord and feel that it is a privledge to be here serving in some small capacity. We love it so far.