Missionary zone conference
In the California Oakland/San Francisco zone conference is divided into three days in three different areas of the mission. We went to all of them this time because Elder Felt taught a segment of the conference on personal safety and sister Felt presented the sisters an opportunity to purchase some capped tees (under the direction of Sister Meredith) that would go under blouses and help sisters be more modest. We are putting sisters on bicycles for the first time in this mission and to help them keep modest this was one article of clothing that had been requested by the sisters for quite awhile.
We loved getting to see missionaries who had helped us move into the apartments in the Walnut Creek, Danville, and San Ramone areas, as well as the area of San Bruno.
We are in awe of the goodness of these Elders and Sisters and how the spirit shines in their eyes, and in all they do.
During conference President Meredith spoke on "How the Savior touches the One". Using scriptures from the New Testament he pointed out how he healed each one individually, it was very personal for each one. He pointed out that when The Father and the Son appeared to Joseph Smith they called him by name, they knew him.
In Third Nephi when the Savior appeared in Bountiful he had each one come up to touch the nail prints in his hands and in his side. Again one by one. How long would that have taken, for over 2000 people to individually come forward and touch the prints on his body? He healed their sick one by one and had them bring their little children to him so he could bless them "one by one". What would it have been like.
Our Savior is always concerned with the one.
Matt8:2,3and Mark 1:40-the leper
" 8:5-7- The Centurion's servant
" 8:14-15 and Mark 1:30-Peter's mother in law
Matt9:18-ruler with the sick daughter
" 9:20-22 and Mark 5:25-34-the woman with the issue of blood
Matt 9:28-The two blind men
9:33-blessed the dumb man
Mark 1:23-26 the man with an unclean spirit
Monday, September 30, 2013
Our first district in the Ca Oakland/San Francisco Mission-June 8 to Sept 11, 2013
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| Elders, Watson(AP), Calaja, Albretson, (DL) Bailey, and sisters, Bailey, Lau,Bayot, Felt, Elders Felt Chapman and Omori (AP) |
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| We love these guys, they work so hard and are great |
Half Moon Bay
On Elder Felt's birthday August 28,1013 we took a drive
to the ocean.The little town of Half Moon Bay is in our
mission. It was a beautiful day and we took several
pictures of the ocean and listened to the surf.
Christ at the visitors center
At night He stands as a beacon in the dark.
Oakland Visitors center
Sent from my Windows Phone
Oakland Visitors center
Sent from my Windows Phone
Great seafood, The Flying Fish Restaurant- for Elder Felt's birthday
The Flying Fish restaurant is where we went for Elder Felt's
birthday-wonderful food.
The Flying Fish was actually a seaplane built and flown
in the 1930's. The murals in the restaurant show the
Hawaiian clipper as one of the planes was called.
Pan American Airlines was the owner of these
special planes in a by gone era.
in the 1930's. The murals in the restaurant show the
Hawaiian clipper as one of the planes was called.
Pan American Airlines was the owner of these
special planes in a by gone era.
Close up of the windows from the restaurant, which were interesting.
Our Fun District
These are our "young elders and sisters" in our district.
from right back:Mandarin Chinese speaking Elders- Calaija-from the Phillipines
Chapman-Utah-District Leader Elder Albretson-Utah.
Front: Mandarin Chinese speaking- Sister Bayot-Hong Kong
Sister Ni-Macaw, Assistants to the President, Elder Omori
Utah, Elder Watson-Australia-assigned to our ward
Oakland 9th
Second and Third week in Oakland.
We spent most of our time during the second week of our mission going over the ward directory which is 36 pages of names. We began by taking a map we had received from the young elders who had divided the ward into numbered zones, and placed a number with every name so we would know which zone they were in. Another thing we did was to visit with a member of the ward, Joe McMurran, who has lived here for many years and has known just about everyone who has come and gone and was at least contacted in some way. Joe was a wealth of information and sat with us for hours going through the ward directory.
We were able to meet an older couple who haven't been to church in awhile, Emmitt and Mabel Jones, who we instantly connected with. Mable has had lots of health problems but Emmitt was out doing yard work when we walked up and said hello. As it turns out, Elder Felt and Emmit had crossed paths years ago in Southern California. Emmit has a deep interest in terrorists and, in fact, has a published book about terrorism. Elder Felt believes Emmit will love studying about the secret combinations and Gadianton robbers in the Book of Mormon as soon as we introduce him to them (He's not yet read the complete Book of Mormon in any detail). We hope to visit them often and encourage them to come back to church.
We continued to teach with the young Elders all of the second week. We met Gregory Blackman from Panama, and Raul Nieves from Puerto Rico, and both have also recently attended church and several ward activities but haven't committed to preparing for baptism. We also visited a sister who is originally from Mali, Africa. She has lived in Oakland for the last 9 years and owns a shop that sells beautiful articles from Mali. She also does African hair braiding at her shop. She says it takes anywhere from 6 to 9 hours to do hair for one person. Her name is Bintou Diarra and she has been a member of the church for around 3 yrs. but needs a ride every week and hasn't always been able to get one. We have picked her up several times. She is a very sweet sister. She travels to New York City several times a year to meet her sister who flies in from Mali where she buys statues and African artifacts from her sister and sells them in the store in Oakland.
We had the young Elders over for dinner one evening and have been to our first district meeting and attended another ward activity and then on Sunday we watched the Church's World Wide Broadcast "The Work of Salvation". Made Sister Felt wish she were back at the MTC where such talks by general authorities are more commonly held.
After the broadcast our mission president asked that we meet with him, and during our little interview he reminded us of the last line of our mission call where it says, "Your assignment may be modified according to the needs of the mission president". He asked us if we would begin assisting the Housing Coordinator and his wife because they were swamped and also almost ready to go home. Our assignment was to furnish the new missionary apartments. Our first one was for a Senior Couple who were arriving in a week. We were asked to go to the Salvation Army and pick out a sofa, chair, possible love seat and any other furniture we felt they might need. We also needed to transport the furniture in a trailer to the apartment in San Bruno which is south of San Francisco. Elder Felt thought his days of towing trailers was over when he came on the mission. Not so!! But we are so happy to be of service in any way we can. We will also continue for a time to help the couple coming in a few weeks to be the new Housing Coordinators.
The end of the third week was also mission apartment inspections. Most of the Senior Couples are given the assignment of inspecting young missionary apartments every two months. We had 6 apartments to inspect before July 10th. One of the best things about the inspections, though, is that we get to meet more of the young Elders and Sisters as we do them.
We were able to meet an older couple who haven't been to church in awhile, Emmitt and Mabel Jones, who we instantly connected with. Mable has had lots of health problems but Emmitt was out doing yard work when we walked up and said hello. As it turns out, Elder Felt and Emmit had crossed paths years ago in Southern California. Emmit has a deep interest in terrorists and, in fact, has a published book about terrorism. Elder Felt believes Emmit will love studying about the secret combinations and Gadianton robbers in the Book of Mormon as soon as we introduce him to them (He's not yet read the complete Book of Mormon in any detail). We hope to visit them often and encourage them to come back to church.
We continued to teach with the young Elders all of the second week. We met Gregory Blackman from Panama, and Raul Nieves from Puerto Rico, and both have also recently attended church and several ward activities but haven't committed to preparing for baptism. We also visited a sister who is originally from Mali, Africa. She has lived in Oakland for the last 9 years and owns a shop that sells beautiful articles from Mali. She also does African hair braiding at her shop. She says it takes anywhere from 6 to 9 hours to do hair for one person. Her name is Bintou Diarra and she has been a member of the church for around 3 yrs. but needs a ride every week and hasn't always been able to get one. We have picked her up several times. She is a very sweet sister. She travels to New York City several times a year to meet her sister who flies in from Mali where she buys statues and African artifacts from her sister and sells them in the store in Oakland.
We had the young Elders over for dinner one evening and have been to our first district meeting and attended another ward activity and then on Sunday we watched the Church's World Wide Broadcast "The Work of Salvation". Made Sister Felt wish she were back at the MTC where such talks by general authorities are more commonly held.
After the broadcast our mission president asked that we meet with him, and during our little interview he reminded us of the last line of our mission call where it says, "Your assignment may be modified according to the needs of the mission president". He asked us if we would begin assisting the Housing Coordinator and his wife because they were swamped and also almost ready to go home. Our assignment was to furnish the new missionary apartments. Our first one was for a Senior Couple who were arriving in a week. We were asked to go to the Salvation Army and pick out a sofa, chair, possible love seat and any other furniture we felt they might need. We also needed to transport the furniture in a trailer to the apartment in San Bruno which is south of San Francisco. Elder Felt thought his days of towing trailers was over when he came on the mission. Not so!! But we are so happy to be of service in any way we can. We will also continue for a time to help the couple coming in a few weeks to be the new Housing Coordinators.
The end of the third week was also mission apartment inspections. Most of the Senior Couples are given the assignment of inspecting young missionary apartments every two months. We had 6 apartments to inspect before July 10th. One of the best things about the inspections, though, is that we get to meet more of the young Elders and Sisters as we do them.
Elder Hamilton from Ririe ID
Our Aug 2013 zone conference.
San Francisco, Clay Street
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Loved how nicely preserved this home was. This home is just a few houses down from the missionary apartment we put together, on Clay St. San Francisco  |
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Missionary Apartment in a Box
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| One of the apartment missionary boxes, the man is the driver of the truck that has often delivered for us. |
One
of the things Mission Housing is responsible for is the furniture and
supplies in missionary apartments. President Meredith asked us to assist
Elder and Sister Peele at the end of June,who were the Housing
Coordinators in our mission.
One
of the first apartments needing furniture was a senior couple apartment
in San Bruno Ca. The apartment is a one bedroom and really sits in a
beautiful area overlooking the Oakland Bay.We found furniture from
Salvation Army which required some fun shopping just to see what they
had. Salvation Army in north Oakland has a great reputation for
thoroughly cleaning all of their soft furniture, (sofas, love seats etc)
and making sure there are no bugs such as bed bugs, lice etc. After we
chose a sofa, love seat and chair for the apartment we went down the
next day with a truck and trailer to pick up the furniture. No small
feat in a city like Oakland. But thankfully they have an area out in
front of the store just for furniture pick-ups.
We
also had to buy kitchen, laundry and bathroom supplies for the
apartment. Then we took all of the items to the first apartment in San
Bruno Ca. Elder and Sister Peele went with us as did Elder Olvera
another older Elder. (His wife is our mission nurse) We had lots of help
from our young Elders who are serving in the area. It was so fun to
meet them and get to know them a bit. We all went out to Wendy's for
lunch.
After the "Senior" missionary apartment, we have been doing what we call the "missionary apartment in a box."
What
this means is that all the furniture for the apartment (beds, dressers,
desk, lamps, book case, chairs, kitchen supplies, etc.) all arrive by
truck, on two separate pallets. We wait for the truck and with at least
two preferably four young Elders we unload the pallets and carry the
boxes to the apartment, which is usually two to three floors up. Then
everyone pitches in and sets up tables, beds, the bookshelf, and
dressers plus putting the kitchen supplies in the cupboard. The housing
coordinator needs to find missionary apartments in areas where
missionary work is going to expand. This last transfer (meaning 6 weeks)
the coordinators had to find 7 apartments before July 31st. The miracle
is it all happened. The next transfer which is on Sept 11 the mission
will need 12 new missionary apartments. The most difficult to find are
in San Francisco, because of cost and because of location. Three have
been leased as of today Aug. 5th. So Elder and Sister Felt will be
meeting trucks again at missionary apartments this month and part of
next month. We took some pictures of the boxes arriving and our
excellent missionaries unloading and setting up the apartments.
These first pictures are of the apartment in San Ramone, this was the second of our "Missionary box apartments," the one day before was in Danville and the same Elders helped us. In the pictures are the two large container boxes arriving. The Elders tearing it down and then how the apartment looks when all the furniture is set up. It is pretty amazing for two hours of work.
These first pictures are of the apartment in San Ramone, this was the second of our "Missionary box apartments," the one day before was in Danville and the same Elders helped us. In the pictures are the two large container boxes arriving. The Elders tearing it down and then how the apartment looks when all the furniture is set up. It is pretty amazing for two hours of work.
This album has 14 photos and will be available on SkyDrive until 11/12/2013.
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| Elder Felt unloading the box. |
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| Every apartment needs a vacuum |
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| box of four chairs, mop, broom and dustpan |
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| Elders helping us unload and set up the apartment, Walnut Creek Zone |
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| The book shelf in a box |
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| missionary beds, and a dresser. Very heavy dresser! |
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| desk, lamp and bookshelf outside of its box. Wa-la |
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| Elders who have helped us a lot |
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| Elder Orr, Elder Fajardo, |
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