In the Arena - No Slowing Down

Dear Family and Friends,

There is simply no way to sum up the past month, so let me tell you about last week. On Monday, we got pedicures and that was the end of the relaxation and self-care part of the week. I know that most of you have no idea where anything is in our mission, but when I say we drove somewhere, assume that it is at least an hour and a half drive. But it might be three and a half hours. Tuesday, we drove to Midland for interviews with the missionaries. We had an emergency with one of our missionaries, so we came back to Lansing. Wednesday, we drove to Saginaw to finish the interviews with the Midland Zone. From Saginaw, we went to Gaylord. On Thursday, we began the day in Cheboygan and then went to Grayling. After interviewing over half the missionaries in the Traverse City Zone, we drove to Hersey where the Midland Stake was having Young Women Camp. We had a great evening with the Young Women and eight of our sister missionaries and about 120 young women who attended the camp. We were asked to be the panel for the Q&A for all the great questions the young women had about preparing for and serving full-time missions. While our missionaries were able to spend the night at the camp, we needed to head north and get back to Gaylord. We got there about 1:00AM with a quick stop in Kalkaska. And by stop I mean pulled over by the police. This time Elmer wasn't speeding but just driving with the taillights off. We were pretty tired and didn't notice! Once again, Elmer was set free without a citation. I told Elmer I think we need to widen our circle to share the gospel with some people not in law enforcement. We will try. We got up early on Friday to get up to Traverse City to have interviews with the rest of the Traverse City Zone and then drove to Mt. Pleasant for our Mission Leadership Council. After dinner with the MLC, we came home to Lansing. After hours and hours in the car, we thought we should go for a walk to stretch our legs. Four miles later, the sun had gone down, the fireflies were out (they are called lightning bugs here in the Midwest), and we felt pretty happy in our exhausted state. Saturday, we got up and did our normal morning routine - prayer at 6:31, exercise (we plan while we exercise), study, Elmer writes in his journal - I am a journaling drop out, clean up - and then we decided we should head back up north for a baptism for a friend of the missionaries in Alpena. There is no baptismal font there, so the baptism was held in the backyard of the branch president and his wife, President and Sister Hermansen. Their backyard is Lake Huron. It was a beautiful day. We stayed up north so we could go to church in the Oscoda Branch - one of the six congregations we hadn't been to for church. Now there are five. We've been to every single ward, branch, and group but there are just those five we haven't been to on a Sunday. And then, of course, back to Lansing. We are gone from the mission home much of the time. Last transfer, we spend two days at home in a two week period.

PULLED OVER! (Please read this with Gru's voice in your head when he says "Knocked over!" in Despicable Me.)

How great is Young Women's Camp?! With some of the leaders and young women of the Midland Michigan Stake after an amazing night at camp at Eagle Village, Hersey, Michigan.

Sisters Aunalee Walker, Ashley Painter, Brinley Marker, Emma Ross, Hannah Gibson, Carlee Stephenson, this cute young woman, Ella Baumgartner, and Suzi Galbraith - wonderful missionaries all!

I love Young Women's Camp so much, we found a way to go even on a mission.

Mission Leadership Council 6.24.2022

Elder Kaleb Woolsey, Elder Jared Onines, Elder Conrad Bradford, Elder Gavin Kibbey - after MLC

The sisters of MLC (peace out Sister Moss)

Elder Dillon Gubler, Elder Andy Mitchell, Elder Erick Gomez, Sister Jordan Evans, Sister Madison Woolley

Elder Dallin Zacher and Elder Mitchell

With Elder Joshua Powell and Elder Seth Harmer - Lake Huron

We are excited about the things happening in our mission to help us stay focused on our missionary purpose. During the past two transfers, the missionaries were interviewed as companionships as well as individually. A few things became apparent. While almost all the missionaries were willingly getting up at 6:30 to pray as a mission together at 6:31, missionaries who didn't exercise in the morning were generally not very productive in the start of their days. We've now all committed to some form of exercise six mornings a week. One district created some mission Zumba videos for those who don't know what to do when it's poor weather outside. Our missionaries still go to three-hour church. While church is usually only two hours, missionaries get there 30 minutes early to greet everyone and help wherever they are asked. Then they stay 30 minutes after it ends to visit with members and friends who came to church, have missionary coordination, and to help everyone they can. Saturdays and Sundays are special days to give the Lord everything we can. We used to have some mission meetings on the weekends. Now the only things we have scheduled on the weekends are baptisms. It's amazing what is getting done in the mission! Elmer said Theodore Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" quote to our Assistants, Elder Tueller and Elder Kibbey, from his 1910 Citizenship in a Republic speech and related it to being in this work with our Savior Jesus Christ. Those elders took that idea and ran with it. Now the whole mission is rising and shining each day to be in the arena. 

A little bit of the mission life for you to enjoy.

Our 2021 Annual Mission History we sent in March got lost in transit (so did the Midland Michigan Stake's Annual History). So now I get to recreate, which shouldn't be so hard except that I only identified the photos on the flash drive we sent - not on my laptop. 

On June 1, we had three great missionaries depart and four new missionaries arrive. One of our new arrivals is waiting to complete his visa process to go to the Mexico Cancun Mission. In the meantime, he's living the good life in Big Rapids, Michigan. Something historic about this transfer is that our first Spanish-speaking hermana with her original assignment to the Michigan Lansing Mission arrived via the Mexico Missionary Training Center. We've had sister missionaries who spoke Spanish come to us during the pandemic from original assignments in places like Peru, Mexico, Argentina, and Ecuador. And Elmer has asked sister missionaries who came to us with an English-speaking assignment to learn Spanish (without any MTC training), but Hermana Faipule Andreyah Tiatia made history here this week! She is being trained by Hermana Samantha Santos in Holland, Michigan. 

Elder Charles Miner, Sister Brinlee London, and Elder Ethan Campbell - three of the greats in the Michigan Lansing Mission!

Hermana Samantha Santos and Hermana Dreyah Tiatia of Holland

Elders Joshua Rasmussen and Elder Isaac Bunderson of Greenville

Elder Saulo Pacheco and Elder Luke Nichols of Big Rapids

Elder Ammon Gathercoal and Elder Zackary Palmer of Kalamazoo

Seeing Elder Olin Atwood off to his original assignment in Brazil

When you show up to interviews in basically the same dress as one missionary and color coordinate with another. This year's Christmas card? Done.

Always great to have a visit from one of our returned missionaries - with Ryan Hatch!

And Spencer Harding!

The Grand Rapids Stake had a new member devotional. These wonderful Spanish-speaking missionaries sang beautifully.

MLC in May - this is when I noticed that after dropping my phone almost daily for about two years, it isn't working well anymore.

After MLC in May

What's happening on our farm? The cows had babies.

And someone (not us) did a lot of baling.

Sister Porter, Sister Mamata, Elder Averill, and Elder Larsen - Holland Zone Leadership

Transfers!

And transfers!

At Michigan's Capitol in Lansing

Kalamazoo and Lansing Zones

With Sister Katie Malan, Sister Kristie Traughber, Sister Rachel McNeill, Sister Bailey Cressall with photo bomb support from Elder Kenyon Hughes and Elder Garrett Nelson

Traverse City and Midland Zones

Grand Rapids and Holland Zones

Sister Noelle Hansen and me

When the missionaries get your phone - sooo many selfies!

Elder Luke Boyce

Elder Gabriel Larsen

With Sister Emma Ross

Elder Alex Parks

Hermana Cassandra Mertens and Hermana Brenna Nielsen

Elder Jack Schreiner and Elder Trey Stoker

Not companions, but Elder Isaac Cordova and Elder Saulo Pacheco are cousins!

Our Assistants Elder Luke Tueller and Elder Gavin Kibbey are also cousins (not as many guess it as do with Elders Cordova and Pacheco)

Elder Ethan Rasmussen and Elder Clark Bailey

Sister Rebecca Winkel and Sister Olivia Anthon

And now for a few pictures from the family, who seem to be having a lot of fun without us. How is this even possible?!

Lucy and Maeve

A cold day in June at the beach? Must be Law Street in Pacific Beach.

Disneyland

Amy sisters, Bridget and Celia, eating seafood in Newport Beach without her!

Josh is 2

And very cool

Jane is a beach girl - even in Oregon

Eloise is done with kindergarten!

And so is Bennett!

Jordan finished first grade!

Marnie and Gavin living the good life at Lake Powell

We love you all,

Elmer and Amy

___________________________________

From here to the end is where I am writing about the Gaylord tornado and our special day in Muskegon. You may want to quit reading or just glance at the photos. I'm recording what happened so we don't forget, but it may not be interesting to you.

On Saturday May 21st, our missionaries in Gaylord, Elder Stallings and Elder Dahl, called to say that a rare tornado with winds up to 140mph had touched down in this idyllic Northern Michigan Alpine village of about 4,200. The church building sustained quite a bit of damage as it was right in the path of the tornado. The home to the west is gone, as is the home to the east of the church building. Other churches came to help us even though we aren’t that big in numbers in the community. There has been a great coming together to both giving and receiving with needed clean up and food. We are in touch with President Eyer (Gaylord Branch President) and the Traverse City District President Buddy Stoddard. Members, including our young missionaries and senior couples who serve up north, have given over 400 hours of service so far in the clean up efforts. The missionaries were safe, and their apartment wasn't damaged. Power lines were down, so the Facilities Management team from the Church couldn't get close to the building until it was safe. You could hear the adrenaline in our missionaries voices when they called.  Gaylord is one of our favorite Michigan towns, and we are up there at least once every six weeks, and sometimes more often. With homes, building, and trees that came down, it doesn’t look the same. I've included a few photos below, but you can find more online and some videos from drones on YouTube.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Gaylord

Goodwill - Northern Michigan in Gaylord

Another angle of Goodwill's damage from tornado

A truck flipped over in Culver's parking lot

I'm not sure what this building was, but you can still get a Pepsi. (Pepsi >Coke in Michigan)

From the Weather Channel

Hobby Lobby and Jimmy John's in Gaylord

Elder Lake, Sister Bawden, Elder Stallings, Elder Bawden, Sister Lake, and Elder Dahl - Tornado Clean Up in Gaylord - That is the church behind them. Every window was blow out/in plus lots of other damage.

In May, we were given the opportunity to go to Muskegon to meet with civic leaders and others who are friends of Chuck Hackley, a Latter-day Saint who lives in Oregon. Chuck is 84 and no longer able to travel. He is the great-grandson of Charles Hackley, who along with his business partner and best friend, Thomas Hume, was a lumber baron who lived in Muskegon during the great Michigan timber harvest of the late 19th Century. The peak of Michigan's great timber harvest was reached in 1889-1890 when mills cut a total of 5.5 billion board feet of lumber, mostly pine. This amount is 10 times the present annual production of all species. Hackley and his wife, Julia, weren't able to have children but adopted a son and daughter from a local orphanage called Home of the Friendless. In the 1890s, Hackley donated millions of dollars to different organizations in Muskegon. His generosity was the start to a library, a hospital, the high school, the art museum, and other museums. The people of Muskegon have been faithful stewards of this generosity and have continued to honor the Hackley Family. The new middle school being built will be named for Hackley. The city schools take a half-day off every year to do service, and there is also a Hackley Legacy Luncheon to honor good citizens in Muskegon. The park in town is Hackley Square. 

Near the end of Charles Hackley's life, his doctor sent him to a warm mineral spring in Utah in hopes it would improve his health. While he was there, he bought some old books, including a first edition of the Book of Mormon for $1. He donated the books to the library. Years later, the library realized it had something valuable and unable to properly preserve and care for it, that first edition copy of the Book of Mormon was sold in later part of the 20th Century for over $70,000. Chuck calls it the gift that keeps on giving. The proceeds helped to fund a new roof for the library. Chuck Hackley, who is a friend of Stan Brown (First Counselor in the Mission Presidency), wanted to say thank you to all the people who have had a part in keeping his family history alive in Muskegon in honoring the initial generosity of Charles Hackley. He put together a gift for over 20 people in Muskegon who have been friends to the Hackley legacy. It contained some Hackley family history, some items that show his humor, and a personalized copy of the Book of Mormon that they could have of their own. He wrote a letter to each person in these books and created a bookmark with a photo of the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon with a copy of its original bill of sale for $1. He placed the bookmark in 3 Nephi 11. Chuck asked President Brown, President Gentile, President Heap and I to deliver these gifts with an explanation and with his gratitude. We were happy to do so, and without going into the many cool details of that day, every single person was very appreciative to know more about the Book of Mormon and touched that Chuck would remember them. The philanthropy director of the hospital said how nice it was to be on the receiving end when it is normally her job to make sure the hospital's donors are thanked. (Charles Hackley is still listed at the top of the donor board for Trinity Hospital.) Some may read it as Chuck put tabs in several places he thought would be meaningful for each person. He wanted each person to know that although he doesn't have millions of dollars like his great-grandfather, he does have something he loves to give them in the Book of Mormon. 

Muskegon City Hall with Frank Peterson (former City Manager), President Nick Gentile, President Heap, President Brown, Mayor Ken Johnson, Barbara Shilenberger (Mayor's Executive Assistant), Former Mayor Stephen Gawron, and Teresa Moore (Former City Cemetery Director - who took care of the Hackley Mausoleum) 

With Muskegon School Superintendant Matt Cortez, Director of Operations John Snyder, and Tina Write CFO

At Lakeshore Museum with Erin Schmitz, who gave us a personal tour of the Hackley and Hume Historic Homes at the end of the day

With Chuck's friend, Paula Torrie, a community activist

Trinity Hospital with Chief Philanthropy Officer Claudine Weber, President Gary Allore, and Ann Pendry, Executive Assistant Philanthropy

At Hackley Library with Kim Dersham

At Muskegon Art Museum with Kirk Hallman, Catherine Mott, and Kelly Hepler

The Hackley Home

The Hume Home

The families shared this barn between their homes called a City Barn