John and Steph's Houston Mission

   It's been a little more than a week since the MTC experience. Stephanie and I flew back to Raleigh, finished packing our car and took a relatively leisurely three-day drive to Houston. On the last night, we stayed in Beaumont, Texas which is less than two hours out from our new apartment. We could have completed the journey the previous night, but there was a friend in Beaumont that we wanted to see and the Mission's Housing Coordinator and I had arranged to meet at a specific time. So for the final leg in I decided to stay off of the interstate and take a more rural route into the city. I'm glad I did. First, the feel of the back way was a nice journey down memory lane in that it felt a lot like drives I would take with family out in west Texas as child. Sure, Lubbock was drier and flatter, but it still evoked pleasant memories.     Second, when we reached the city, it gave us a better feel for the area where we will be living and serving. When you go to a c...

The week at the MTC has been extremely busy and quite intense mentally, spiritually and, at times, emotionally. We have been focusing on the core purpose of the mission - to invite all to come unto Christ. There have been classes to review the things we hope to invite people to do to help them draw closer to God and His Son, to apply gospel principles and truths to their lives to bring them greater joy, increase their faith, improve their lives and bring blessings from Heaven upon them and their families. There have been classes to consider and practice how to share and teach those principles as we have seen them benefit ourselves and others. There have been multiple devotionals to help us as individuals striving to improve ourselves as disciples of Jesus Christ. There have even been discussions on stress management since we will certainly face many stressors as we relocate to new places, meet new people, strive to make new friends and other things associated with any major change in o...

View from MTC looking east. Stephanie and I will be spending the coming week at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. It is a bit hard to adequately describe what it is like here. It is one of those places that needs to be experienced to  fully understand. Not because there is anything particularly unusual about the facilities or the physical settings, but because of the focus, the Spirit of the place, the enthusiasm and love for God felt in the midst of a couple of thousand young people excited to dedicate a portion of their lives to a cause greater than themselves, the quiet resolve and stability of senior men and women dedicated to the same cause. It’s an experience best described today by “IYKYK” or perhaps with a slight twist on Jesus’ sometimes repeated phrase “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” We have completed our one Sabbath day here. It started with typical LDS Sunday services. The central purpose and ordinance of this is the administration of the Sacrament...

We just flew out to Salt Lake City, and, boy are our arms tired! We just couldn’t catch the thermals! Yeah, I know, old joke, but hey, I’m a  senior  missionary — and a Dad. While flying over Denver, Roswell and Albuquerque showed up on the horizon map. I guess I never appreciated how far one can see at 38,000 feet. Of course, that’s above sea level. It’s only about 32,720 feet above downtown Denver. Weirdly, the flight tracker only showed a horizon map for the left side of the plane, not the right. I checked on the screen across the aisle, and sure enough, it showed only the right side horizon map. So, what you are shown depends on the side of the plane you’re sitting on. But they both show the horizon map out the front of the plane. I personally wish they showed all four — fore, aft, port and starboard. If you spend much time around members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints you will notice that we often call each other by titles that are not always commonly ...

  Happy Independence Day! Last evening, Stephanie and I were set apart  as fulltime missionaries. In the Church, when we receive and accept callings, we are normally set apart by the ecclesiastical leader that issued the call, which usually comes from a bishop or a stake president  in the local organizations. In the case of fulltime missionaries, the call comes from the President of the church. Obviously, it wouldn't make sense for him to spend time personally setting apart the tens of thousands of missionaries that are called each year from all across the world, so that responsibility is delegated to the local stake presidents. My stake president was not available last night, so he delegated the responsibility to his first counselor. I was actually happy for this arrangement. He and I had been in the same local congregation ( ward ) years ago where I was bishop, and then upon my release, he was called as bishop for that ward. So, we have had years of association serving...

The time for us to leave is quickly approaching and we are rushing to put the house in order before we go. Children will be living in it and taking care of it while we are out, and I am so very grateful for their support and help.  As I noted in another place, while it may violate natural laws and universal principles 😉, the current condition of our kitchen junk drawer is a symbol of what we have been addressing over the last couple of weeks.