Tender Mercies

With most mission calls, you have some sort of frame of reference because you know someone who has been there before, whether on a mission or on vacation.  Right after Maren's mission call, for instance, she and her friends headed over to Sarah Reddish's house to watch her open her mission call, which had come the same day as Maren's.  

Sarah was so excited to be called to the Columbus Ohio mission, which her older brother had served in.  Their family knew exactly what to expect.  They knew the type of people she'd meet, the weather she could expect, and what kinds of clothes she should buy.  They knew what food she'd eat and exactly how long it would take for a package or letter to travel from Pocatello, Idaho to Columbus, Ohio. 

 

We knew nothing about Maren's mission.  I tried searching for the mission on the internet, but I only found out that the mission had been created in July 2015 and there were 281 church members in the entire country.  People immediately started telling me all kinds of worrisome things about Kazakhstan, such as the fact that the country is 85% Muslim and has had terrorist attacks, and the day after Maren opened her call I started to feel just a little bit worried.  

 At church a well-intentioned friend told me they only call missionaries with brave moms to dangerous countries like Kazakhstan.  Then the whole Sacrament Meeting was devoted to our ward's missionaries.  As the parents spoke about their children's missions I wondered why my little daughter was being sent to the Middle East instead of a safe place like Kansas, Oregon, Canada, or Pennsylvania, like the other missionaries in our ward.  I had a small epiphany as I sat there, though. As Brother Agado talked about Destiny's mission in Pennsylvania and about a dangerous situation she'd been in I realized that I would have been just as nervous if she'd been called to Chicago or New York.  There are dangerous places and situations everywhere, and I had to rely on my faith that the Lord is in charge, not on the safety of a particular region.  I can honestly say that those few hours from the time she opened her call to the next afternoon was the only time I have experienced worry for her.  After that I just felt excited!  I wanted to learn as much as I could about what she could expect, so I kept searching for information, and as I did the Lord poured out the tender mercies upon us.

Ksyenya Peterson:  Maren's future companion and friend

  Our first tender mercy came when friends in our stake, Jim and Colleen Hallinan, responded to my Facebook post about Maren's mission call, mentioning that their niece just got called to the same mission two days after Maren.  We immediately contacted their niece, Ksyenya Peterson, and Ksyenya's mom, Jill Peterson, on Facebook and by texting.  It was so comforting to know this young lady would be going to the MTC and Kazakhstan with Maren, and our families shared all of the information we found out with each other.  Ksyenya was from Mountain Home, Idaho but was living in Pocatello and going to ISU.  They bumped into each other a couple of days after opening their calls at the institute building when Maren was coming out of an interview and Ksyenya was heading into a religion class.  Ksyenya recognized Maren from her Facebook picture, and they were able to visit for 20 minutes and get to know each other.  A couple of days later Ksyena was having her wisdom teeth out while in Pocatello, so we went to drop off some pudding and wish her well.  It was easy to see that they were going to be good friends, and that gave them both a lot of comfort. 

 While I was trying to find out information about the church in Kazakhstan I had the impression to text my friend, Rebekah Call, who has traveled all over.  I asked her if she'd ever been to Kazakhstan or known anyone who'd been there.  She responded that oddly enough her friend's daughter was currently serving a mission there!  I was able to send a message to the friend, Mark Slight, who shared lots of information with me about the mission and how wonderful it is.  We found out that his daughter, Cambry, and her companion are the only sisters currently serving in Kazakhstan, and there are four senior couples and six elders, so it's a very small mission.

Cambry is on the right.  Not sure of the companion's name.

I couldn't believe that with only four young women serving in the entire country of Kazakhstan we had been blessed to know about the other three less than a week after Maren opened her call.  The Lord is very kind!

We also had a friend who works for the FBI talk to us about a trip to Kazakhstan that he took a few years ago to set up the IT equipment at our country's FBI office there.  He told us about the beautiful countryside,  the nice people, and safety of the country.  Other friends began telling us of people they knew who had been there for embassy work and loved it, and as their reports trickled in my heart smiled larger and larger until I felt it might burst. I couldn't believe Maren was so fortunate as to be called to serve in such a wonderful country! 

Maren is so excited to go, and my only concern now is that I can't go, too (although we're already thinking about how fun it would be to pick her up when her mission is over!).  What an amazing opportunity the Lord has given her to teach the people of Kazakhstan about his love for them.

The Call

Maren's papers were in and she was counting down the days until she'd get her call.  She had several delays as medical reports weren't sent to where they were supposed to go and church leaders were out of town, and she was getting anxious.  We'd been told that most mission calls come on Wednesdays, but that Thursdays were common, too, so we were thinking her call might come on January 13th.  Imagine our surprise on Saturday January 9th at noon when a knock a the door brought a FedEx delivery man and an envelope marked Extremely Urgent Saturday Delivery.  That was our first indication that she'd be leaving really soon!

We figured that she better open it right away since we'd learned a lesson from Grandma and Grandpa Symons' mission call.  They got theirs in the mail in the middle of December and decided to wait until the whole family got together at Christmas to open it together.  They were quite shocked to realize they'd be leaving in just three weeks for their mission to Kirtland,Ohio!  

 We called family and friends and let them know she'd be opening her mission call that night.  Becky and her girls surprised us by jumping in the car and driving to Pocatello to be with us for Maren's big moment.  

 Family and friends made guesses, wondering where she might be called.  I thought it would most likely be in a South American country since she took two years of Spanish in high school, and Del was sure it would be stateside, but Maren was excited to go anywhere---even Twin Falls, Idaho (or so she said).

Excited and proud parents stood by.

No, I am not taller than Del.  He is sitting on my piano.  :)

  When Maren read "You are called to serve in the Central Eurasian Kazakhstan mission" there was a surprised gasp that spread through the room.  I think we were all thinking the same thing:  How exciting!  Where's that?  

She actually said, "Kuh zak uh stan."  We had to look it up on Youtube to know how to pronounce her mission.

 Everybody ran to the maps to see exactly where it was.

 

 Some of us were a little concerned when we realized it was right above Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan.  Not the safest neighborhood in the world, but we knew she would be blessed.

 Maren was notified that she'd be speaking Russian but that could change according to the needs of the mission president.  She was also told she'd be leaving in 4 weeks!  She'd been preparing for months, but we still had a race ahead of us to get her completely ready.

The Papers Are In!

  After almost two months of trying to get Maren's papers filled out and submitted they are finally in!  She'll probably have her call in a couple of weeks.  Maren had to take a picture to submit with her papers and couldn't seem to get a natural smile so Emma "helped" her.  Where's Becky when you need her?

Here's the difference between my picture of Maren and Becky's.  Sigh...

Mindy Stalking

We thought it was pretty funny that we sat right behind Mindy Gledhill at the Lower Lights concert, 

so I decided to put all of our Mindy pictures together in one post.  Here goes: 

The first time we saw Mindy was at her Christmas concert at the Stephen's Performing Arts 

Center in December 2011.  Becky and I took our girls for an early Christmas present.  

My parents won tickets and went with us.

The second time we saw Mindy was at 7 Peaks in Provo, Utah in August 2012.  We were combining a

 fun day of swimming with dropping Katherine off at the dorms.  As the girls were leaving they spotted her

 coming in, and Becky quickly whipped out her camera for a photobomb picture without Mindy knowing.

 

 The third time we saw Mindy Gledhill was at a concert at BYU-I in Rexburg in September 2013

 for the release of her album, Pocketful of Poetry.  She was kind enough to sign our cd and say hi 

to the girls and their friend, Jessica Tolman.

 The fourth (but probably not final) time we saw her was when she sat in front of us at the 

Lower Lights concert December 2015.  Pretty fun for us!

 I think we need to let her know that we're destined to be good friends.

Lower Lights or The Christmas Trip Becky Missed

One of Becky's favorite groups is The Lower Lights, a group of LDS artists who sing awesome folk/bluegrass-style music, so when she heard about their Christmas concert in Salt Lake at the U of U she immediately talked me into a girls getaway for an early Christmas present. 

 We planned to visit Laura for her birthday and have lots of fun shopping with Maren, Megan, Emma, and Ellie.  Unfortunately, life is what often happens while you're making plans, and it made havoc of Becky's.  

 Becky had to have half of her thyroid removed, along with a giant cyst that was growing on it, but she scheduled it immediately after Thanksgiving so she'd have time to heal and be ready for our fun weekend.

Exactly a week later, however, she ended up in the ER with severe pain in her abdomen and back.  It turned out that it was a large kidney stone which required a week with a stent to pass.  Not fun at all!  Becky put off giving away her tickets until the night before but finally decided she couldn't go.  We were all sad that we wouldn't have a getaway for the cousins, but what can you do when a kidney stone is sending intense pain through your body?!  Fortunately, Becky's friend Arlynne Larsen lives near SLC and offered to let us spend the night in return for the coveted tickets.  Arlynne's girls, Melanie and Layna, came and we enjoyed the concert so much, but we all felt bad that Becky was miserable!

Maren, Arlynne, Melanie, Layna

Love the photobombers!

The stage was beautiful!

About 10 minutes into the concert a group came in and sat directly in front of us.  One lady looked familiar, and pretty soon Emma leaned over and said, "Mom, I think that's Mindy Gledhill in front of us!"  It did look like her, but it was dark so I didn't think much of it.  We kept trying to get a good look and eventually we were sure it was Mindy.  On the last song the lights came up a little so I took a picture of my girls with Mindy just in front of them.  

After the show she was gracious enough to pose for a pictures with the girls, so now we've had pictures with her 4 times!  It's weird that two of those times were not even at her concerts, just random run-ins!  She used to be part of Lower Lights, but she said she had to quit when her career got too busy. 

The next day we went to the Odgen temple.  The girls had to have a picture with the nativity because the donkey looked like a unicorn.

We had such a fun weekend. So sorry you couldn't join us, Becky!  

State Staff Training

I work with some fantastic people, and it's always nice to get together in Boise with the staff from all of the offices.  After a full day of training, we headed to Sur la Table, a restaurant supply store and demonstration kitchen, for an Iron Chef competition/dinner.  We made a delicious spinach salad with Parmesan crisps, roasted rosemary potatoes, and a delicious steak with a sauce and compound butter.

Margaret Ballard, Bob Ford

Margaret, Bob, Sally, Mitch Silvers, Roy Hansen

My picture may not look great, but the steak was amazing!  For dessert we made molten lava cakes. Mmmmm.  My group won the overall competition and became the Iron Chefs!  Our team name was You Kill It, We Grill It.

Karen Roetter, Jamie Novis, Lindsay Nothern

Bryan Ricker, Brian Raybon, Courtney Lehosit, Farhana, Janice Wilcox

During the staff training we celebrated Bob Ford's retirement and also had a White Elephant Christmas gift exchange.

 

This is what I won in the gift exchange. 

Now that's what I call a White Elephant!  Our Senate trainer for the meetings was from Virginia, and she said she had never seen ammo as a gift as a Christmas party and was very surprised that two women fought over it!  There were two boxes given away and the other one went to the 19 year old intern in the office.  We told the trainer, "Welcome to Idaho! We do things a little differently here!"

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays because we usually have lots of family gathering together and having a great time.  This year was no exception!

 The Phillips family made it to Pocatello just before our first real winter storm hit, which gave us lots of snow for sledding.  

 The girls had lots of fun making a sledding hill out of grandma and grandpa's stairs.

Later, they roasted marshmallows in grandma's new fire pit and made s'mores and homemade slushies from KoolAid and snow.  

 There are few things these cousins like more than to visit each other!  I'm glad they're all such great friends.  Ellie and Emma have even planned to build one big house together after they get married, so they can raise their kids together.  I wonder what their husbands will think of that plan!

We love to have the Phillips visit!  Now we need to get the rest of the family here more often.  Laura, it's your turn next!