After nursery with the Husseys (the Hatfield Grands were visiting
Arizona to give their recently delivered mother a break), Sister Hatfield and I
felt like we needed to visit the Fenton, MO sisters, first for her
responsibility, second for mine. Sister Hatfield
had a new member welcome packet for the sisters, and I had bathroom door hinges
to fix. Yes, it was the Sabbath, and it
was probably the wrong example, but I did my work in a white shirt and
tie. Actually, I do most of my work any
day in a white shirt and tie, so that doesn’t really erase the demerits. It gave Sister Hatfield a few minutes to chat
with the sisters and share her light with them.
She is good at that, thankfully, because I’m way too stuffy and formal
to help these young missionaries the way that she can. But at least I can pray with them.
Sister Hatfield had some other little gifts to deliver, including one
to a St Louis-acquired friend, Patti Hintze.
As RaDene knocked on her door, RaDene’s phone rang in the car where I
waited. It was Patti telling us that her
smart home told her we were there. She
invited us to her “favorite” son in law’s house (prize name for living in his
mother in law’s neighborhood) where the Hintzes were having dinner. They invited us to stay, but we had to
decline, but really enjoyed meeting the family.
Maybe best of all, Patti gave RaDene a full on hug, and Elder Hintze
(Area Seventy) gave me a warm handshake.
RaDene and I almost didn’t know what to do it has been so long since we
have had hugs and handshakes. It may have
been inappropriate and reckless in public health terms, but we loved it.
The reason we couldn’t stay for dinner with the Hintzes was that we had
invited the Pagedale Branch Elders over for Sunday dinner. It really does help us to have someone over
for Sunday dinner. That has been a
tradition for too long for us to stop and not feel withdrawals. Later that evening the housing assistants
dropped off a cookie—they remembered that it was our anniversary from
Saturday. They may be knuckleheads, but
they are tender knuckleheads.
On Monday the 15th we needed to deliver those five beds we
bought on Saturday. After picking up a
few more things from storage, I left RaDene at the office and I was off with
Elder Nelson and Elder John to the Cape Girardeau zone. The first stop was the zone leaders’
apartment in the city of Cape Girardeau.
It had recently been a tri, so our job was to make it a quad so that two
companionships could live there. You won’t
be surprised to hear that, although they have two bedrooms, they decided they would
rather keep the weights in the second bedroom, and all four sleep in the first
bedroom. Apparently working out is more
important than space, privacy, or any other such consideration. I did make them take down the scores of limp gospel
library pictures hung around the entire apartment like a crown border. I just couldn’t imagine using the bathroom
with apostles and prophets staring at me.
We set up our second quad in Sikeston down on the Arkansas border. I threw away a bent Christmas tree. Yes, it may be sacrilegious, but someone must
do it to make room in the second bedroom closet. Then it was off to Poplar Bluff. I used to feel sorry for the elders clear
down there so far away from the heart of the mission. On this trip I learned that a member owned
the local meat store and he supplied the missionaries gratis. Steaks, chops, ribs—I wasn’t feeling too
sorry any longer. I had learned the
secret as to why Elder Westrup, a known foodie, had been down there for so many
months without complaint. I need to
clarify one thing for the record, which is that I am using “quad” loosely. It is really two companionships, but for housing
purposes, it is four people in the apartment.
Tuesday, June 16th—Anniversary Day. Well it was by the calendar, but there was
little time for celebrating today.
Missionaries started arriving, in the first of a two day rolling wave of
arrivals. It is much harder to execute
with precision when the missionaries don’t all arrive at once. I realize that precision is not the
weightiest matter, but it isn’t clear to me why mission travel doesn’t have
them coming on the same day at least. I
spent the afternoon making preparations for opening some apartments, like
getting new keys made, and gathering bedding, signs, traffic cones, etc. for
the transfers tomorrow. The best part of
the day was the arrival of Marie Leavitt, Sister Hatfield’s cousin. Sister Leavitt was originally assigned to
Japan, but she never got there because of COVID. She was reassigned to come here. Interestingly, her home is in Missouri,
although Pierce City, in southwest Missouri, is outside of the Missouri St
Louis Mission. It was a lot of fun to
meet her, and see again her stake president-father Ben and mother Megan, as
well as recently returned missionary-big sister. After scooping up Sis Leavitt’s luggage, and
sending her off with the Frontenac sisters, we had dinner with Ben, Megan, and
big sister. What lovely people. Marie will be fun to watch because she will
be an outstanding missionary.
On Wednesday, June 17th, I started the day with what has
become a weekly ritual: President Bell
leads the elders around the mission on Zoom in “Workout Wednesday.” The exercises are challenging, but no one
would expect anything less from Pres Bell, a pro-level athlete in his younger
days. One of his mantras with the
missionaries is to “own your morning,” meaning, an exercised body will provide
stimulation to the mind and spirit, so we take our morning exercise seriously
in this mission. There are weight sets
littered all over, in almost every apartment, although they get swapped around
some, when the most energetic get moved and find the equipment deficient. Speaking of exercise equipment, RaDene uses
her stationary exercise bike religiously.
It may just be the most important thing we brought from home.
After “owning our morning,” I dropped RaDene off at the office and I went
down to Webster Groves North, an apartment that has been vacant for a couple
months, and not visited in several weeks, but that I knew would be the new home
of some sisters by day’s end. I didn’t
know that there would be any problem, I only know that critters have a way of
moving in when there are no humans to keep them out. I am sure the sisters did not miss the bugs I
swept up off their floor and felt better with the AC on.
I have already whined about missionaries not being sent in a single
flight (or in the case of the last two days, five flights) and set up for the
actual transfers emphasized my concern.
With the last group not arriving until 1:30 pm today, we could not start
transfers until 2:30, but meanwhile, the housing elders and the trailer had to
be at the airport at 2 pm. We thought we
had explained that dropping off tables, signs, shade tent, markers, bedding, etc.
had to happen before going to the airport in order for us to be ready for the
start of transfers. But, it didn’t
happen, so Sister Hatfield and I did everything we could at the Frontenac
parking lot, but I was at a slow boil while we waited for everything to arrive
in the truck and trailer, way behind schedule.
And it didn’t help that our most experienced housing elder was not
coming at all because of a toe procedure scheduled for that afternoon. For all the handwringing, it worked out, and
we didn’t delay the transfers by much.
And in the end, I had a new housing elder, Kyle Merrill, a fine young
man from Santaquin, Utah. Elder Merrill
did not replace anyone. For the second
time in recent arrangements, we had a housing elder threesome. I think Pres Bell has some hopes that Elder
Merrill will feel useful and be kept busy to boost his spirits. I am sure we will succeed at that. It isn’t without challenge having three
assistants. It makes me feel responsible
to make our efforts especially productive and efficient, knowing all the man hours
that are being expended in anything we do.
And Elder Merrill and Elder John have a tendency to feed off of each
other’s “silly” energy, which can be exhausting. Selfishly, it also means the truck seats are
always full, so I can’t invite Sister Hatfield to come along on trips where her
insight, spirit, and company are very helpful.
Thursday the 18th was a pretty typically post-transfer
day. There are always tasks that need to
be done that couldn’t be done before hand.
I solved the problem of not having RaDene by sending the assistants to
deliver furniture and bikes all over the Cape Girardeau zone. I was happy to be able to do so, because they
really wanted to eat at Lambert’s CafĂ©, the home of “throw’d rolls.” We had talked about it last time through
Sikeston, but the timing wasn’t right.
Meanwhile, RaDene sacrificed her time in the office to come with me
where we saw most of the Columbia zone.
In Perche Creek, the newly arrived sisters discovered they had almost
nothing in their kitchen to cook with.
Off we went to the rescue, spending some money at Walmart to get a
microwave, pots and pans, etc. The
Church must either trust me or have no options, because I have a Church Visa card
with a very high limit. I don’t approach
the limit, but I use it almost daily, trying my best to be a frugal spender of
Widows’ mites.
Then we went north to Moberly to deliver bikes. The missionaries were not home because they
were at a service project that evening.
Knowing this would be the case, I brought a key. But when we got there, I looked down at the
key and to my chagrin, I had brought the key to the Macon apartment, not
Moberly. RaDene called the elders, and explained
our plight. They sheepishly admitted
that the door was probably unlocked and we could let ourselves in. All those zone conference lectures I give
about locking doors don’t seem to sink in.
In this case, it was a blessing.
On the way home we stopped for some ice cream on our way back through
Columbia. The ice cream was
disappointing. But, it wasn’t one of the
St Louis trademark ice cream stores, it was a national chain, so what should I
have expected? What wasn’t disappointing
was listening to Elder David Bednar’s talk on religious liberty. Without being critical of government action
during the Pandemic, he pointed out how very swiftly executives all over the
country, at national, state, and local levels, had eviscerated religious gatherings,
ordinances, and associations of all kinds.
It is rather sobering to think about.
The conclusion he reached was that religious liberties must weigh
heavily in the balance when governments consider the public needs. We certainly do not want to set precedents
for religious freedoms being easily swept aside. Governments must make accommodations and allowances
to narrowly tailor necessary religious restrictions for even the most crucial
government objectives.
Saturday, June 20th was sobering. I participated in my first membership council
with our mission presidency, acting as clerk.
A young missionary had gotten himself into very deep water and the Area
Presidency asked our mission president to hold a council before sending the
young man home. I’ve been in many
councils over the years, but there is something particularly poignant about doing
this with a full time missionary. I am
happy to report that the recent changes in procedure have really brought a Atonement
of Christ focus on membership councils that is very healthy, it seems to
me. We don’t even use the harsh words of
discipline, disfellowship, or excommunication any longer. I pray this is the start of a journey back
for this young man.
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