On a Mission!

It was Missionary Day today.  We were off first thing this morning to inspect missionary apartments. We have delayed some of the inspections while we had Derek and Kate here, and there have been other things going on that made it difficult to get out to do them.

We thoroughly enjoyed each of the sets of missionaries we visited.  Our first companionship was in an old area of town.  We drove down lovely narrow tree-lined one-lane roads to get there.  They live on the second story of a white stucco building with red-brick trim.  All of the buildings in the neighborhood look about a hundred years old or so.

We walked around to the side of the building past tall shrubs and down a very narrow sidewalk to the stairs and door that led up to their apartment.  They both came down to meet us.  We left our shoes by the front door (a very common practice) and went in to visit with them.  It was two young sisters.

There was a certain amount of clutter, and it could have used some surface dusting and vacuuming - which we talked about - but by and large, it was the apartment of two people who are very busy.  They are cute young women, and seemed enthusiastic about being here.

We spent about a half hour with them, making sure their alarms are all working, instructing them about things like not letting mold get a foothold anywhere, what products to use on a stainless steel sink, and emptying the vacuum cleaner bag in order to have it work properly.  We peeked in their oven and freezer to see if either needed attention, and checked the bathroom.

I think if we had been in an apartment like that when we were young, I would have loved turning it into a home.  But young missionaries don't have time (sometimes they are in an apartment for only 2 months....sometimes longer), or money, or inclination to spend a lot of energy on a place.  They work hard during their days, and they are doing very well to keep an apartment clean and tidy.

Next we went to the apartment of 4 young elders.  It was also on an upper story that looked out over the apartment playground and courtyard.  It had a lot of light from many windows and was in good shape....the guys were doing a great job with it.

Last, we visited another two young sisters in the basement apartment of a home.  It was clearly a basement....with whitewashed walls, but it was homey.  The sisters were happy to be there, even if it was a bit cold.  The sun came out a few times today, but it was quite cool.  We both wore our coats and the wind made us grateful we did.

We had time for a bite of lunch before we went to the temple for a special missionary session.  President Sederholm calls in all of the missionaries who reach their halfway point, and has a nice meeting with them, lunch and then a temple session.  The young missionaries love it.

Since SK and I are temple workers, we are able to help with that session, and it is always a pleasure just to be with them.  And since it is a special session, there were only missionaries there.

I would say that it was just a great missionary day, but actually, it is also our 47th anniversary.  The temple is the best place to be on such a day.  We got home this evening, happy for the events of the day, and happy to have a quiet dinner at home together, and pleasantly tired.

I took pictures yesterday of our Saint Hans celebration and pictures today of the cute missionaries we visited .....on my 4-year-old cell phone which works great.  But because of a few glitches, I have been unable to transfer the pictures onto the computer, so you will just have to imagine 8 cleancut and smiling young missionaries....until I get this figured out.