Unloading Groceries

It feels like we spend about half of our mission time at Sam's Club, loading and unloading mission groceries.

We get to bring our groceries up the elevator in carts to our apartment. Sometimes we need both carts.

If I had a dollar for everytime I've unloaded this shopping cart in the kitchen, I'd be rich.

Church's Worldwide Helping Hands Day July 28 2012

The day was beautiful and even sort of cool. Perfect for a service project.

We had a good turnout from our Elders.

This is more of our group.

Some of the cute girls there to help. Are those white socks, Sister Hart, or are those your legs?

More sisters from our ward.

This is one of our Elders working hard. About three seconds after I took this picture, he lost his load!

Here's the family packed in the van. "Mom, he's touching me! Mom, he's breathing my air! Make him stop looking at me!"

Our project was to donate rice and beans in pop bottle containers to needy organizations. We worked at a center for the blind.

We passed the food from our buses down two long lines and into the storage area of the kitchen. Of course we could have hauled it all in by handtrucks, but this gave everyone a chance to help.

Even the kids came to help. This is one of the bishops in our stake who wanted his young people to meet Jim. They are such cute kids.

This was at the stake center when we began. The bishops are at the front of the lines with their ward

volunteers lined up behind them.

Here is the newly stocked kitchen pantry. There's another row of bottles behind each of these.

President Hart inspecting the missionaries work.  They were pretty proud. 

More of the kids who were there.

This cute lady was a volunteer at the blind center. She talked a blue streak to me--and I didn't understand a single word. My favorite phrase is "Mais Devagar", which means "slow down."

Our Clever Missionaries

Innovations and deviations department: Sister Assistants. They snuck in and changed the mission board.

These cute sisters made me a tree of life plaque for my birthday. Our mission theme centers around "The fruits of our Labors and the Tree of Life.

Our two assistants--what can I say?

Elders of the Lost Ark.

This Elder's sister did these two paintings for us. 

 Twins!

A case of stolen identity.

Introducing us to his future companion.

A broken faucet can't stop a baptism.

This zone made their own Title of Liberty. (We really do have a Liberty Zone).

Homemade peanut butter--not sure it worked out too well.

Flying really beats a 7 hour bus ride!

If you've lost your plaque, just make yourself a new one. (paper's just fine).

Oh but be sure to cross out the other missionary's name, especially if it's a sister. The paper clip is a nice touch too.

If we serve the food, we can save some for us.

The wedding planners. Hope the bride's colors were red and white!

If we try to look as hot and thirsty as we can, President Hart will buy us a cold coconut water.

Careful with that--you could poke your eye out!

This Elder's mom is a nurse for President Monson. She sent us a vial of oil that he had consecrated. The missionaries wanted to get sick so they could get a blessing.

Can we help (baptize) you?

Somehow the assistants are always the stars.

How to fit five Elders on a sofa.

We have got to stay focused.

Feeding the Missionaries

I can't even remember what the occasion was here...but if there's missionaries involved, there's food involved too.

We were trying to fatten this missionary up because he had lost a bunch of weight.

After dinner, we weighed him and he had gained a few pounds.

One of these Elders was in the hospital, so they came and spent the night at the mission home.

Between them they ate two DOUBLE batches of buttermilk pancakes. (somewhere around 30 pancakes)

This cute Elder stayed almost a week at the mission home after surgery on his broken foot.

If I do say so myself, that's pretty nice presentation!

We even celebrated his birthday while he was with us.

The elder on the left was staying with us because his Mom died. It was such a hard time for him. He and his companion stayed with us for a few days.

On most of the holidays we invite the mission staff over for dinner. They're so fun to have around.

This was one of the Sister's P-Days at the mission home. They just love to get together with each other and be in a home together.

This was a sleep-over we had with these three sisters when they were abandoned at the bus station on transfer day. Their bus wasn't going to their area because of an accident. (We teased them that they just made something up so they could sleep over.)

After dinner we watched church movies and had popcorn.