Week 80: August 18-24, 2019


We love our assignment to serve the mission helping missionaries with health and financial needs.  We are grateful to have the education and inspiration to do this.  We feel the Lord’s spirit and blessing daily.

Tuesday we fed the local Elders dinner.  Elder Faulk made his dad’s taco recipe.  Elders Robey and Nay loved it.  We appreciated the good work they do and their assistance with our weekly English class.  It is fun getting to know them better.  

Elders Robey and Nay:

We had company twice this week.  One night a missionary stayed with us and another night friends, Mark and Colleen, spent a night.  We had French toast, strawberries, whipped cream, and sausage before taking Mark and Colleen to the airport. We appreciate our little guest room and are grateful for enough resources to share with others. 

Sister Skriloff:

Thursday we celebrated Sister Faulk’s birthday.  Elder Faulk gave her a dozen red roses and made her a beautiful French toast breakfast.  He commissioned a local artist to paint a picture they fell in love with at a seafood restaurant earlier this summer.   From the mission office, we saw a rocket launch over 50 miles away.  The rocket was carrying a satellite to improve military communication.  Sisters Kroeger and Ekenstam took her for lunch to Tacao Express near the mission office for authentic Mexican food.  Sister Ekenstam shared a key lime pie mid afternoon.  We were so full and tired that we could not go for a planned dinner and movie but compromised for a refreshing mango pineapple smoothie at McDonald’s on the way home.  Sister Faulk’s phone was never quiet.  Throughout the day, missionaries and family phoned and texted wishing her a happy birthday.

Elder Faulk gave Sister Faulk a dozen red roses for her birthday:

Sister Robinson and Curtis bribing Elder Ekenstam for a new Rav4, the first in the mission's new fleet:

Friday morning we had a trainer follow up meeting.  President Ashcraft told a story about river rafting on the Snake River.  He said paddle no matter if your paddle pushes air or water.   Just keep paddling to keep the raft head in the right direction over the rapids.  He likened that to mission life.  Some days we may feel like everything is  crazy or up in the air while other times we may be directing our life raft avoiding potential hazards.  The objective is to keep focused, be safe, and enjoy the ride (in the 1990s we ran the Snake River for 7 years and could really relate physically and spiritually to President Ashcraft’s message).   Sister Faulk taught/explained Health and happiness to the newest missionaries.   Rest, nutrition, exercise, and stress management interact to influence us. But we have choices how to respond.  We had a pizza and salad lunch with the missionaries afterward.  It was raining so hard the pizza boxes became drenched in a matter of seconds as we hurriedly got them out of our car and into the church.  We ordered 10 pizzas and our car smelled like pizza for a few days.  Friday evening we went to the Cheesecake Factory for a belated but delightful birthday dinner.   The food there is never disappointing.   

Trainer follow up meeting:



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