Ammon Has a New Job

Ammon has changed from a Business Suit and tie to scrubs and operating tools. Well not entirely. He has to wear the Shirt and tie until he can convince someone to let him in the operating room with them as they use the medical device he has sold them for spinal surgery. He has gone to school and training for about three months with hands on to learn how to use the medical devices for back surgery. He has gone through a cadaver and  many other things as part of his training. Again nothing comes without sacrifice. He is already working in Az. He has the whole state of Az for this company. Brooke is in Ky until they can sell their house. Ammon is staying with Bill's parents until it is time to buy a house and settle in with his little family. Brooke is a trooper keeping up with three very active and intense little kids day in and day out by herself. They are a great team and feel like it will bless their family to not have Ammon traveling so extensively and doing something he loves. Here's his new look.

Nate Leaves for Iraq

Nate has been assigned a year in Iraq. He will be the dentist for 121st Brigade in Tallil. It has been quite a process to watch he and Marie prayerfully  make decisions and prepare their little family for this year of unknowns and sacrifice. They feel like they tried every thing they could going into this assignment as a dentist in the army to avoid this type of assignment and it has come to them any way . They feel the hand of the Lord is in their life and they are willing to go forward with faith. They have decided to sell their new home in Santa Teresa and have Marie move home to Mesa with her family. Daniel came up with a wonderful way to let Nathan and Marie feel our love and support for them as a family. Here is what he came up with and here are some pictures of the day of Good-byes. Pretty Sweet.

 

 

My 89 Year Old Dad

My 89 year old dad, better known as Pierre, rolled his quad off of a 50 foot sand hill at the dunes. He is in ICU in good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix. He has been there three weeks. He is a fighter. I would have given up along time ago. He has four tubes and five IVs' He is making progress  they say. I didn't expect him to make it through the first week, so I recieved permission to leave the mission and go home to Mesa. I was so glad I was there to talk to him and give him my love and support. My great kids were so wonderful. Sarah and Glen drove down from Utah, Daniel & Sam  came over from San Diego, and Nate and Marie were planning a trip to AZ anyway that weekend. It was so wonderful to see my family and squeeze those little kids. I am so grateful for my wonderful family . What would we do without families? 

A Moment in Mesa

Parley Turned 12 in Louisiana

 

parley celebrated his birthday with us in Louisiana.what a treat for us!! He was interested in everything he saw from the minute he set foot off of the plane. We spent the first day with the missionaries at interviews. We know for sure that Parley is missionary material because he sat for 7 hours listening to scriptures and great instruction on the skills and faith of missionary work, and didn't complain for one minute. We celebrated his birthday with the missionaires cake and all. After interviews we took him to "Raising Canes" The best chicken finger place in the country. He loved it. The next day we drove back to New Orleans and went to the Aquarium . It was a lot of fun, we went from there to the Imax and saw "wild ocean" It was awesome. Then it was time to drive to the bayou and take a two hour swamp tour. WE saw 15-20 alligators and we even watched our guide reach over the boat and kiss one. It was beautiful and at the end parley got to hold a baby alligator. We had a blast. We took Parley to our favorite Italien place "Fat Gregs". He loved it , bread pudding and all. We got home in time to play a few rounds of "trouble" Bill's and Parley's that is, because I beat them. The next day was Sunday and Parley went with us to the Covington branch where Bill and I spoke. Bill introduced parley and asked him to bare his testimony. He stood up there like a little missionary and bore a beautiful testimony of the Savior and the blessing of being ordained to the priesthood. We were so proud of him. On Monday parley experienced Louisiana rain all day. WE went bowling with a new convert, Helaine, and her son Raymond. Their conversion story is a miracle. Parley and Helaine locked into a serious competition and she beat him by one point. You can see the agony of defeat in the slide show. That evening was the highlight as we had Rachelle, Danny and their family on Skype and Andrew , Tammy , and Andrews mother Susan, on speaker phone so they could participate in Parley's ordination to the priesthood. Bill had Susan offer the opening prayer, then he ordained Parley. He asked Rachelle to share her feelings about Parley. He asked Andrew to share his feelings. He then asked Parley to bare his testimony and asked Cooper to say the closing prayer. It was a joyous occasion. Parley was very happy to recieve the priesthood and was prepared by the good choices he has made to stand for truth and righteousness. Parley and I flew to Mesa the next day because Grandpa Haumont had been in an accident and was in ICU and I wanted to see him. Parley 's visit will be one of the highlights of our mission. We love him. He is a kind , fun, creative , honorable young man. He is a blessing

Reflections of Christ Fireside and Concert

Having "Reflections of Christ" here in our mission for three week has been such a blessing and has opened more doors than we ever imagined. The first miracle was the news paper article written by the religious editor of the main newspaper in Baton Rouge. He did a page and half on the exhibit. He interviewed me(dad wasn't home yikes) and he interviewed Mark. He quoted us both accurately. The clincher was when he mentioned The bad rap Mitt Romney got because of his  religion and that people think we believe in another book  other than the bible. He stated that it is the Book of Mormon and that it is in addition to the Bible and we believe that it is a second witness of Jesus Christ. He also stated very simply that we believe that the restored gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth. It is never stated that accurately and unbiased. We had people come to us and say that they have prayed for years for an article like that to be written in the paper. We had an episcopalian theology teacher come through the exhibit and loved it so much that she brought 50 of her 7th and 8th graders back becasue they were studying the New Testament. The students just kept thanking our members over and over again for the beautiful exhibit. We had several people drive by the stake center, see the sign, and feel very impressed to turn in. Three of them are now being taught the lessons. Mark came the first Sunday it was open and give a wonderful fireside. We had 563 people in attendance . probably 100 of those were not of our faith. By the time the week was over 1,700 people had gone throught the exhibit and at least 500 of those were not of our faith. The closing night of Baton Rouge we had Alex Boye of the Tabernacle Choir,Freddie Ashby, and Clyde Bawden , come and do a concert. It was unbelievable!! I will never forget it. It was so much fun having them stay at the mission home. They are so much fun. I  fixed breakfast for them and before I knew it they were doing the dishes.  We took the exhibit the next day up to Alexandria ,where it was being hosted in a First United Methodist Church. They did a concert there in the stake center that night. There were several ladies of the Methodist Church that couldn't come to the concert so Alex and the gang went to their church at 9:00 and gave them their own private concert. There were probably 50 Methodists there. It was pretty amazing to see three priesthood holders on a methodist stage singing I KNow That My Redeemer Lives with tears rolling down everyones cheeks. We had the Methodist Music Director write Freddie Ashby an email and tell him that they "blessed their socks off." By the end of the week in Alexandria , there were 1.200 people go through and 700 were not of our faith. One couple had just come from a Baptist -anti-mormon lecture and after seeing the exhibit came out with tears in their eyes and said"we are going to go back to our pastor and tell him he is wrong. You people definitely believe in Jesus Christ. I think this beautiful exhibit and the spirit that comes with it did so much to bring the church "out of obscurity" Thank you Mark for sharing your gifts and testimony with the world.

Our Visit with Elder and Sister Kikuchi

We spent a faith filled week with Elder and Sister Kikuchi. They are so delightful!! Sister Kikuchi taught me that you can  communicate much love and faith without saying alot of words. Those that know me can understand that that might be a novel thought. Elder Kikuchi changed our hearts forever with his faith and helping us understanding that the powers of Heaven our ours for the asking hour by hour. That with an eye of faith we can do ALL things within the will of the Father that we have the faith to do. He taught our missionaries that the morning schedule of getting up and having personal study is more than just being obedient. He shared with them that they can have a "personal sacred grove" experience every morning as they have sacred holy fellowship with God and Jesus Christ. He promised them that the Book of Mormon is the greatest source of God's love that we have. He promised them that if they would drink deeply every day from this fountain of "living Water " and partake of the"Tree of Life " they would be permeated with God's love and that it would come from their eyes, their faces, and they would not have any fear of declaring His word because "perfect love casteth out all fear." He taught them that if they would slow waaaay down when they shared Joseph Smith's experience in his own words, the spirit would have a chance to teach and testify. He said most of us go about 80 MPH He wanted it at 15-20MPH. When the missionaries were able to do it , it was amazing the difference in the spirit we all felt. We feel like we have been pouring gasoline on our mission and he just came in and LIT THE FIRE. He said he feels that if we can work with faith and use the tools he gave us we will not experience a hurricane this year but a spiritual tsunami.  I agree with him. We are already experiencing miracles and added power in our missionaries. We are so blessed to be part of this amazing work.

Time to Catch up

Hi everyone, I just thought I would catch you up a bit on our mission life. We had very quiet Christmas. We slept in until 10:00 don't tell our missionaries:) got up  packed up some baskets, and visited several investigators. It was fun. WE really don't have time to do that as much as we would like and spent the rest of the day talking to our family. We have had a huge transfer, of thirteen coming and going. That is like fruit basket turn over. It was little hairy because 3 days before transfers our little office elder ( who is so responsible ) totaled our mission van . The miracle is that NOONE was hurt. It was a five care accident and not one person was hurt even thought the whole front of the Van was peeled all the way up. He was pretty shook up because he is so careful. It was just one of those things. We just had our week of Zone leader council and New Missionary training. After our new missionaries have been out for a week to 10 days we bring them back in with their trainers. They all come here to the mission home and we hear how they are doing them and then catch them up to speed with our member work , and expectations. WE share testimony and instruct them on spiritual matters. WE usually have 30-35 for lunch. This time we had Lasagna, salad, french bread and better than sex pie for desert. Dad couldn't wait to tell them what it was called. Nothing like a little shock value. WE have a really good group of missionaries. WE almost have all of our mission young enough that we don't have any left over "attitudes " from the old way of doing things. WE are gearing up for "Reflections of Christ". Mark is bringing it here  to Baton Rouge on the 8th . He is doing a fireside that night as a kick off. At th closing of hte exhibit on th 19 we are having Alex Boye of the Tabernacle Choir with the musicians that arranged and wrote the music for the exhibit are coming to do a concert. The news paper here in Baton Rouge interviewed me today and they are doing a big story on the exhibit. I know we are going to see some fruit from this effort.  Elder Kukuchi of   the seventy and his wife will be arriving tomorrow for five days for a mission tour. He is doing three zone conferences with us. I am so excited for our missionaries. It will give them such a boost. Elder Neil Anderson came for an over nighter Saturday night. He was in Atlanta for meetings and called and said he wanted to just come and spend the evening with us He was in the mission field with Bill.It was so thoughtful of him to take his time and energy to come. It was a nice visit. The Lakes our wonderful Senior couple that has worked miracles in New Orleans has gone home a few months early due to some business concerns. WE miss them. They have become our dear friends. WE are already planning our home coming cruise. Well I have to say that we love love love Louisiana. and we love love love missionary work. It is a privilege to be in a calling where you see the hand of the Lord so plainly everyday in your life and in the work and miracles that take place. Bill is doing a great job with our missionaries. All of you kids did a great job preparing him. He pretty much has their number, but he also has the patience of Jobe . He has turned quite a few around and they are now having a successful experience. That is one of our main objectives . To help these elders and sisters have as spiritually rich of a mission experience as they can . We want them to know that they can invoke the powers of Heaven on themselves and the people they serve if they will exercise their faith and do as the Apostles of old did "and straightway drop their nets and follow Him." Have a wonderful week and Open your mouth and share one thing you love about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ with a non member. 

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving. Sarah and Glen were able to come the Friday before Thanksgiving which gave us time to visit and enjoy some one on one with them since we had not really seen them since their honeymoon. We had a new batch of missionaries come in on Tuesday and Glen and Sarah were so much help getting ready. They helped get the meal on while I was instructing. It was so fun to have them share this experience with us. Sam came that night and the next morning at Breakfast, Bill had he and Glen talk to the new elders about companion ships since they were companions in the mission field. They did a great job. Brig, Nathan, Marie and their kids had joined us by Wednesday night. Thanksgiving day was spent cooking and playing with the kids. Nathan went with Bill to be the  interpreter for a second interview for baptism. Our dinner was delicious thanks to Marie and all of her great recipes. She taught us how to put the turkey in a "brine" the night before so it was so juice and moist. That night the kids surprised us with an ice cream cake for Bill and my birthdays and a little video of everyone in the family telling us "one thing" they liked about us which is our family tradition. It was   of effort and such a fun surprise. The next day we all went on a swamp tour  on an air boat. It was a hoot. We saw 10-12.  alligators. We learned a lot about the swamps and at the end the kids were able to hold a baby alligator. That night we played games with our competitive group, but the competition is really between Bill and Marie. She manages to always beat Bill at everything which doesn't happen very often.  Saturday we slept in a bit, made Marie's famous cookies and got Nate and Marie on their way  home. After they were off we went to the "Laura Plantation" where you really get an understanding of the Creole culture of Louisiana. We met Bill for dinner where we introduced everyone to fried alligator and other yummy Louisiana food. Bill got up at 4:30 AM to get everyone to New Orleans to catch their flight home so he could be home in time for us to leave at 7:30 to go to Covington to speak in Sacrament Meeting at 9:00. As much a I love this missionary work and all that goes with it I remembered how happy and content I am when I am with my family. Thank you everyone for making the effort to be with us we are good to go for a while longer.