Iverson's Update

29Aug2016

Dear Bishop Carter,

Wow, it’s been six months ago today that we checked in at the MTC!  The time has just flown by and it’s been exciting.  We do love the physical environment here as the temperature here is consistently in the 60’s-80’s.  Contrary to our expectations, the skies here are not sunny all the time; it is typically overcast in the morning and then clears to sunny skies mid-day.  Oh well, our lives are busy enough with mission activity that we very seldom get out to recreational activities such as the beaches, etc.

California continues to be in a drought; we had rain the very first day of our arrival on March 12^th but not a single day of rain since then!  Forest fires are again plaguing us. 

We have had some poignant news with one of our less-active members who we got very close to, a man named Jake Miller.  Jake got heavily into drugs and alcohol in his late teens and well into his 30’s when we met him.  However, he was beginning to show real interest in renewed activity when his body just gave up from all the alcoholic abuse it had received.  He died here but we, as well as the Bishop and the EQ President, did have some success in teaching him of what to expect when he died.  Sister Iverson especially was able to assure him that he wasn’t going to the traditional “hell” that he believed was his fate.  He died with some peace that Jesus Christ loved him dearly.

We had another investigator, Devin, who we and the proselyting missionaries met with numerous times and taught him lessons all the way through his commitment to baptism.  However, his mother, a practicing Buddhist, stepped in days before his baptism date and told us to stop visiting and teaching him.  He does have somewhat of a disability and she does control his life in many respects.  We’re trying to have her reconsider to the point of letting him just continue to socialize with us without us teaching him one-on-one.  Pray for her to have a softening of her heart.  I know that he wants it. His life has improved and we hope that his mother realizes it and lets him continue with us.  She’s a very loving and protective mother; a good woman I’m sure.

We’ve had great success with three other investigators who have been baptized and who are totally active and are on a steep curve in having their testimonies grow.  Anthony and Loreen Godinez (married) and Fred Ward (single man) have callings, pray in Sacrament, are Ward missionaries or Gospel Principles class teachers, and on and on.  Very fun times!

Our role in the Ward is changing in some ways.  Sister Iverson and I have been called as the new Stake Self-Reliance Center Specialists Coordinators.  The Self-Reliance program is gradually being instituted in place of the LDS Employment program.  The employment program has been non-existent in the Stake for several years so this is a new experience for the Stake as well as Sister Iverson and myself.  Very exciting and challenging.  With this new responsibility, we will be visiting other wards quite a bit so our time with our Ward will be changing.

We continue to be totally active with our Mission Office duties.  We work with another great Senior Missionary couple, the Floyd’s, who also work in the office with us daily.  We have the best of worlds in one way; most of our waking hours are in association with either the other Senior Missionaries, the Mission President and wife, and the proselyting missionaries.  All of them are people with vibrant energy, priesthood experience, and testimonies.  I spoke to a lady at a local fruit stand recently.  She is a seasonal worker and will shortly be looking for more work.  I gave her a pass-along card (sort of my church business card) attached to an ldsjobs.org instruction sheet.  I only know her as “Linda from the fruit-stand” so far!  I hope to hear from her sometime to help her with employment.

While we certainly knew that Californians surf a lot, it’s been a surprise of how very common it is with all ages here.  I believe surfing here is much like snow-skiing or snow-boarding is to Utahans.  We see surfboards on car tops all the time here.  It’s also a bit different here of seeing so very many tattoo shops and we see many many people here with extensive tattoos on them.  With the warm temperatures here, clothing is a bit sparse and so tattoos are very evident.  However, our friend Jake was also one that had major tattooing, some rather indecent clothing, and looked like a pretty rough character.  We grew to love him as a brother. He also was a child of God as are all others here.

We do love our missionaries here so much.  In our contacts with them, they are such an obedient group.  They report to me with their vehicle situations and letting me know when they’ve complied with some task I’ve given them.  They’ve called me when they’ve gotten a traffic violation and feel very broken-hearted when this has happened.  We’ve had accidents but, thankfully, none with injuries.  I have 74 vehicles to manage.  Sister Iverson continues with her Mission Secretary duties and is super with it.  Our missionaries love coming to the Office mainly to see Sister Iverson I think!  She is always a step or two ahead of the requests from President Felix or his wife.  I think that Sister Iverson and Sister Felix almost are competing to see who can be the first to think of something the furthest ahead of in the calendar to plan for. So far, Sister Iverson is winning!  I believe she now has letters to missionaries, their parents, Stake Presidents, and Bishops ready for the Mission President to sign as far out as November!

It’s been curious to watch the development of Sister Iverson and me working together in a sort of professional setting.  I have gradually been learning how to delegate some of my duties to her to help me stay abreast of my duties.  We work well together.

As I know you’re aware, the Flandro’s will be moving out of our house in a week or so and the Bruce’s moving in.  We’ve heard that the Flandro’s may be able to move into another house within the Ward boundaries.  That would be so great.  They are such good people.

Our families are doing well.  Little Henry is coping with his cancer. The recent surgery went well with about 95% of the tumor removed and he’s now coping with the rigors of radiation treatment.  It’s tough but he’s developed into a very tough little boy.  We’ve seen the Lord’s hand in tangible blessings to our family members with better and best job developments, successful house moves, and spiritual growth, evidenced even in our youngest grandchildren. 

When I consider that we have four Senior Missionary Office Specialists (the Floyd’s and us) who put in about 160+ hours per week and that some missions have to use proselyting missionaries to try to do what we do, it’s so evident of how valuable Senior Missionaries can be to a Mission.  We free up the time for our missionaries to do what they do best – find and teach – while we do what we do best (admin tasks).  Whatever the specific assignments that Senior Missionaries receive, we so highly recommend any Senior in our ward there to make that commitment.  Whether their circumstances are such that they serve an at-home mission or can serve away from home, Seniors are vital to the work of the Kingdom.  We do indeed feel so very needed and useful here.  I don’t think I’ve ever had a six-month period of time fly by as quickly as these past six months have done.  We do admin duties, we visit the sick in hospitals, we’ve visited a prisoner in jail here, we’ve helped an alcoholic find peace, and we’ve helped a man with a mental illness feel more at home in social situations as well as with his relationship with God.  We will be helping people find means to be more self-reliant.  Perhaps most of all, we’ve increased in our testimonies and our love for people. 

Our ward here does something different than what I’ve seen before.  There are almost zero announcements at the beginning of Sacrament service.  But after the closing prayer, the Bishopric member conducting takes about five minutes and makes basic announcements.  I believe the intent is to keep a smooth transition of reverence before and into Sacrament and to save the temporal announcement time for after the Sacrament service is done.

Enough for now.  Please let the Ward know of how much we miss them but of how much we’re enjoying being here and serving. 

Elder and Sister Iverson

Hi from Ventura California

Dear Friends and Family,

Wow I can not believe it is time to start school again. This summer has 

been busy and has just flown by so quickly.  I found a Lake shore 

store very close to our apt and just had to go in and look around. So 

fun to see all the school things and fun science and math projects and

 art and music. All the things they have in the catalog for teachers but 

to actually be in the store was so fun. Well kind of like torture since I did

 not have a class to buy things for, so felt I was in teacher dream land but 

nothing i needed. I was happy when the Mission president said he needed

 a ream of lined paper and I volunteered to go get some and walk down 

the school supply aisles. But I do not go out shopping much but was fun to 

explore that store. smile

You know how in Utah we were warned (in a very nice way) to lock our car 

doors in the summer time when we go to church? So well meaning friendly 

people would not load you up with extra zucchini from their over productive

 gardens? Well it is kind of like that here except the people have an over 

abundance of avocados and lemons.  So I am trying to be very helpful and 

take some extra lemons and avocados!  Fun to smell those fresh lemons. I did

 miss our cherry tree, especially when I saw cherries in the store for $5 a pound. 

So we skipped those and had strawberries and mangos. Anna did send some 

cherries out to us this year so was fun to have some to eat.

We went up to Morro Bay this past weekend and it is so pretty there. Sorry we 

did not see the Jewel of Morro Bay there (if you saw the Finding Dory Movie

 you would know). But there is this huge rock the last of the volcano there 

and it is a sacred rock that the Native Americans only climb once a year 

but others can not get on it. But we can hike around it - well 2/3 around it. 

We saw some very friendly squirrels and a group of sea otters just lazing 

around enjoying the sunny day and the friendly people taking their 

pictures. smile. We also heard and saw some lively seals. Discussing 

who had the last fish, and who was taking up all the room on the dock. 

Fun to see different animals in the wild. Morro Bay is about 2 1/2 -3 hours 

north west of us so was fun drive up there. There is a big fire in one of the 

cities along the way so saw lots of smoke from that. Makes some pretty sunsets

 but so sad for people losing their property and farm land. 

We were able to go to the local Ventura County fair here one day. Senior citizen 

day so we got in free. I guess it helps to be "old"!! smile  They only have county

 fairs here since the cities are pretty big and they do not have state fairs since 

there would be too many people to accommodate. Saw lots of fun craft and 

canning projects and animals and art and photography exhibits. So fun to see 

the art show as MANY of the pictures were taken in Utah! And the grand prize 

picture by an amateur was of  the Salt Lake Temple.  Then in the evening they 

have a concert with different singers each night of the fair.  2 nights of Rodeos, 

and 2 nights of car races and then the rest are singing ones. The fair goes on

 for 2 weeks, so lots of concerts to choose from. We saw Patti LaBelle sing and

 was so fun to hear some of her songs and see her in person.  We had our own

 show of some real fans of Patti LaBelle in front of us and were singing  and 

dancing to most of her songs. Quite the harmony and just as much fun watching 

them perform and sing along and dance! smile

WE had quite a fun month with 23 new missionaries coming here.  We had to 

rent a larger van to help pick up all the missionaries. Steve and I drove up with 

a trailer for all the luggage and the mission president and his wife drove another

 large van and the assistants drove a van. So it is truly amazing to get them all 

here close to the same time. Most are coming from the Provo MTC but one was

 coming from the Mexico MTC since she was learning Spanish, another was coming

 from Canada ( was waiting for his visa to come into the US)  and another was 

coming directly from her home since she had been on her mission but had to go 

home for a bit for medical problems and then was returning here to finish her

 mission in the states. So i think it is amazing they can all get here within 30 minutes 

of all 23!! So we take them to the beach which is about 1/2 mile from the airport 

and give them a snack and a drink and of course they all want to take pictures! I am

 not sure if that is torture or not since they can see the beautiful beach and water

 but can not get in. But they get a beautiful view of the Calif beach and ocean. Then

 back to Ventura and since the mission home is not large enough for all of them we

 have members who live close by, have them stay there for the first night. then back

 to the mission home for breakfast and I go pick up many of them and bring them 

to the mission office (which is in the stake center church) and then I have lunch 

ready for them. Their new companions come to the lunch also. So they are 

about 50 missionaries there, so we decided to order sub sandwiches  instead

 of cooking something for them all. We had 4 six foot subs, grapes, cookies 

and chips. They ate it all. Then we give them about an hour orientation 

 and send them off with their new companions. Fun and busy day!

We had a ward beach party and  Steve and a young man we are teaching 

came and were about the only adults in the water. The kids were in the water

 but the adults talked on the beach. But the missionaries from our ward came 

and got to at least take off their shoes and wiggle their toes in the sand. smile 

But fun to go play at the beach. Oh they are having a Halloween party or activity 

coming up and they said they have a parade of the kids in costumes, but I had to

 chuckle a bit thinking they did not have to plan for the Halloween costumes to

 fit over a jacket like we do in MInnesota and Utah some years.

WE are doing well and enjoying the weather and beautiful world we live in. I 

was talking to a man here and asked if the leaves on the trees fall off in the

 autumn time. He said most of them don't lose their leaves so that will be quite

 interesting to see. But then he said there is one tree that loses its leaves for 

about 4 months and i told him that was about as long as we Have leaves on our 

trees in Utah.  Oh and when we arrived out here in March they had lemons on

 the trees and now the next batch is coming on again. 

We have a family here - Danny and Deann Anderson. Brother Anderson stopped

 me in the hall and told me they were going to visit Logan soon to see Sister 

Anderson's sister. I asked who her sister was and he said Sue Germany! Well 

we know Curtis and Sue Germany from Logan!! They are called on a mission

 in London and will be serving with the Warnicks!! Small world. Then this Sunday 

Brother and Sister Germany were here visiting the Anderson family  so fun to see 

them here!

Hope you are doing well. The people are great and so fun to meet new people

 and new experiences. We have many new people all summer long come visit 

church and most come out to visit families or they used to live here or just on

 vacation and stopping in for the week. 

Have a great week and fun school year!!

love you,

Diane

Sad and fun stuff

Hi everyone, 

Jake died last night about 1 am.  While it's sad to lose a close friend to death, he was suffering so much, both just recently but throughout the last several years due to his alcohol addiction. His liver just got so badly scarred that it could no longer function and he was in misery.

However, Mom and I, along with others,were able to visit with him and teach him somewhat of Heavenly Father's Plan of Salvation.  While he was conscious and we were actually out shopping, Mom had some quiet moments with him where she taught him that there are many places in Heavenly Father's kingdom, nearly all of which are happy places to be, better than this life in many ways.  Jake had thought that there was only a Heaven and a Hell and he was certain that he was headed to Hell.  Mom opened his eyes and spirit that he did indeed have hope for a better life and that Jesus would welcome him.  Bishop Hooke was also able to visit him and teach him when he was conscious and teach him more details about the Plan of Salvation, the Atonement, what to expect in the next life when he dies (main lesson was for Jake to say "Yes" to every option that was to be taught and given to him!).  Mom and I talked to him, as well as offered a long conversation-like prayer with him, much of it when he was just semi-conscious, also about salvation, repentance, forgiveness, atonement, and what to expect when he dies.  

I also gave him a PH blessing last week before his sister, Lindsay arrived, that he would keep living through her visit and that he needed to muster all his strength and strength of spirits around him to connect, even if briefly, with her.  I then released him from life after her visit.  Lindsay was able to talk several times to Jake on the phone before she got here. He continued to live for her entire visit. He very briefly (just for seconds) connected with her during her visit. Lindsay saw Jake late Sunday and left town Monday morning about 6 am; Jake then died 19 hours later.

But we have fun as well!!  Elder Floyd, in his role as Mission Housing Coordinator, very often has to provide new box springs and mattresses to apartments.  Mom and I saw a pickup loaded with a lot of used mattresses and, thinking of Elder Floyd, took a photo and made it into a PowerPoint fun slide for Elder Floyd (attached).  He loved it.

Our investigator, Devin, is still progressing.  He's not understanding the Book of Mormon as closely as he wants so we're postponing his baptism but not too long.  He comes to every single church function we have.  He's wearing a white shirt and tie.  He's given up coffee and tea now for three weeks.  He's opened up to the missionaries more now on his disability - paranoid schizophrenia.  He's been alcohol-free now for about 3 months.  All's good!

We've now been given physical keys for the Stake Center building and the LDS Employment Center room!  We've given brief instruction to Bishoprics on our employment plans.  We're getting calls from members now.  We're giving training on Sep 1st; so now we gotta figure out what to train!!  We're talking to Elder Wilde, Area 70, on this work. He's got a "70" meeting this Saturday and will find out more of what we need to know then!  Exciting times!

We visited a member in jail on Sunday.  Good visiting; very different for us.  Jail is a very very sad and dreary place.  Very dark spiritually.  But this man is doing his best and will likely be out of jail by the end of August.  Then back to his job as a Physician's Assistant.  He's got 10 surgeries lined up that he needs to assist with!

Enough for now.  Oh, we were in a Stake Conference meeting just for new members or returned less-actives.  There was a deaf interpreter there.  However, it turned out that she was also the only piano player. So when she got up to play, Mom just jumped into her place and interpreted for the deaf member in signing!  She's a remarkable woman!!

The other photo is Mom and Sister (Lavonne) Floyd when we double-dated to the Ventura County Fair and were at the horse show.  We also went to a concert where Patty Labelle was the singer - not exactly my kind of music but it was fun being out with Mom and friends.  i tried two of the funnel cakes and, surprisingly, neither one was very good.  Bummer!

Gotta go.

Love, Dad

Ventura County Fair pictures

Devin & Dad at the beach party on Saturday

Stilt walkers at the Fair

Dad, the Rabbit Whisperer 

Horse show at the Fair - we thought of Allison!

Some big furry creature liked Dad!

The Floyds and us before the concert

Sunset at the concert before it started

Dad and I

Patti LaBelle - entertainment at the Ventura County Fair

Happy Fast Sunday

Hi everyone!

We've got a few minutes before we leave for Ward Council meeting so thought I'd

 squeeze in a few lines.

Yesterday we had a Ward beach party.  It hadn't been "advertised" all that much 

so we only had maybe 40 people come instead of more but it was fun.  We took 

our latest investigator, Devin, to it.  He is a really nice guy but very very quiet.  He's

 not anti-social, he just isn't a very social type of guy.  But the Elders, your Mom,

 and I visited him yesterday at his hotel where he lives in downtown Ventura.  Elder 

Gibb had suggested the day before when we met with him that perhaps it would be

 a good idea to go to his room and say a special prayer to invite the Spirit to be there 

more.  So we did that.  It was a combination of a prayer and a Priesthood home 

dedication.  It was kind of ironic that we happened to pick a day and time of day 

when the county fair is going on and there was a parade going right past his hotel 

when we were praying and the passing band was playing LOUD!

The Elders arranged for him to be taught almost every day now, some of it just reading

 the Book of Mormon together with him and explaining it as they go.  We started yesterday 

with the Introduction.  

I found it amusing at the beach party that, aside from the kids getting into the water more 

or less to waist-high depth, no one else really got into the water for swimming, boogie-boarding, 

or anything!  Well, except for Devin and me!  I had gone in earlier right after hotdogs and

 then invited Devin to come in.  He did and I guess he can swim but he just floated around

 on the boogie-board.  I went in again later and did a swim, maybe a half-mile out and around 

the buoys! Glad to see that I can still actually swim!  But I think Californians go to the beach 

to either, 1) surf if surf's up, 2) sunbathe, 3) play with kids in the sand.  This beach didn't have 

any waves big enough to really ride them so everyone just stayed on the beach, ate, and sunbathed!

We were told of a member who is in jail in town so we visited him yesterday.  His story is

 that he's an active member.  He had flown back into the USA from OCONUS, met his girlfriend 

in the airport, and then some local guys drinking started flirting with his girlfriend.  A fight 

ensued and he was badly beaten and then accused (and convicted) of assault and battery! T

he "local guys" were off-duty cops!  He's been in jail now for 105 days.  He's read 47 books 

including three times through the Book of Mormon!  He's known now in the jail as "Prophet"!  

We'll visit him again.

Well, we gotta go soon so this is enough for now.

 Some kids were building sand castles and asked me for help.  I thought of how much fun it would have

been if we could have been doing that with our grandkids.  But we will someday when Gma and I come 

home from our mission.  

Love and miss you all,

Dad/Gpa

Jake

August 3:
I'm afraid that our friend, Jake, is not doing well.  Mom and I met with him last Saturday. 
We took him to the beach; he had enough strength to walk a couple hundred feet
on the pier there but not enough to walk through the sand of the wide beach to
get to the water.  He was an avid surfer 'back in the day" and so this was misery
for him to not be able to enjoy the water when it was so close.  He used to be a
 baseball player and basketball player as well.

 I know that our Redeemer is merciful and that He loves Jake.

 That will be enough.

On the positive side, Devin Hansen, our investigator, is still progressing well.  He comes 

to any church activity we have, is reading the Book of Mormon, has now been off of 

coffee and tea for 10 days, and is still planning on baptism on August 20th.  We'll teach 

him again Friday night and he's coming the the Ward beach party on Saturday.  In some 

ways, there is balance in life.  

I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for letting us be born in this era of the earth's 

history when we have the restored gospel on earth and a living prophet.  It is so good

to be able to temper feelings of sadness over death and sufferings of loved ones with

 the knowledge that life continues with a plan and that our God is still and always in charge.

Dad

Aug 5:
We took Jake out shopping last night for some more shirts and socks and
 lotion. It's dry in the care center.
He had a hard time walking very much but took it slow .
As dad was paying for the items Jake and I went outside to rest
 on the bench.
We had a good talk about life after death and if he knew where he was going?
He had thought he would go to hell but talked about it a bunch and he got
tears in his eyes when we talked about seeing his dad and grandma and he
would not be going to the wrong place.
Somehow he was told he would have to fight if he was going to last a week
to see his sister coming from Florida next week. They have not seen each
other or even talked in many many years! But now she wants to come see
 him and they have talked the past few weeks.

We got him a surfing magazine so he is happy now!

Love you,
Mom

Just an update on what we're doing

29July 2016

Dear Family,

We are truly having a greater time than we even expected as we recognize our five-month mark today of our mission.  How fast these past five months have flown by!  I suppose it will feel the same a year from now when we only have one more month to go! We feel totally welcomed into our new ward (Ca Ventura Stake, Ventura 1^st Ward) here now and are even getting to know most of the people by name!  The ward is very focused on both non-member missionary work as well as shepherding less-actives back into the fold.  “Shepherding” is the new buzz-word from our Stake Presidency throughout the stake. We, along with two Mission-assigned proselyting missionaries, attend the weekly Ward Council Meeting.  We have an active list of about 8 investigators and several more less-active members that we all minister to. 

We actively interact with our two full-time missionaries, our Ward Mission Leader (Brother Joe Dee Kay), and our three Ward Missionaries as we teach and otherwise fellowship our investigating and less-active brothers and sisters.  Sister Jones and Sister Hopkins were the first two missionaries we interacted with.  Then Sister Coulon took Sister Hopkins’ place.  We have the 6-week transfers coming up Tuesday next week so I expect we’ll lose both Sisters and have two Elders.  We’ve had three investigators baptized since we’ve been here and one of our new investigators – Devin Hansen - accepted a baptism commitment for August 20^th in our lesson last week! He also just reconfirmed that commitment last night in a lesson! He also agreed to give up coffee and tea for the coming week!  He’s had alcohol and drug problems in the past but has given them up and is attending AA meetings.  This is such a problem in this area and we’re so glad that Devin is already taking these steps. We just returned from a Stake Pioneer Day musical to which we brought five of these brothers and sisters. 

Sister Iverson and I interact with such a variety of people here.  In the course of our normal mission duties, 90% of the people we interact with are those with strong and vibrant testimonies, i.e., the young full-time missionaries as well as fellow senior missionaries.  But in the course of our “off-duty” activities like shopping, the “free spirits” here come in a wide variety of hair colors and lengths, piercings, tattoos, etc.  Tattoo shops and liquor stores are more common here than grocery stores!  Drug and alcohol addiction is way too common here; as a measure of this, an alcoholic trying to recover can literally find an AA meeting to go to here in our town nearly 24 hours per day.  Sister Iverson and I have become way more informed in matters and facilities pertaining to drug and alcohol addictions and recovery than we would like to be. It’s really common here to have skate-boarders on the streets; I think it’s partly due to people losing their licenses due to those alcohol/drug problems! 

A cultural difference here as well is the overall casualness of the living here.  Many of our friends are truly beach-goers and lots, including our Stake President, are devoted surfers!  We had dinner with our HPG Leader last evening.  He greeted us at the door dressed in shorts and a Hawaiian-type shirt and joked about not letting anyone in the house if they were wearing a tie (like I was)! 

Sadly, one of our less-active members, Jake,  that we have become very close to has now been transferred from the hospital to a local hospice since his doctor has told him that he has a 70% chance of dying in the next 90 days!  His condition is entirely due to drinking.  His liver is mostly dead. The hospice is a place for people with terminal illnesses to go to live out their days in relative comfort with sufficient pain medication management.  BUT this dear friend also has a 30% chance to live as well!!  Our task is now two-fold; give him gospel knowledge and help him develop testimony so that he can decide to either be at peace with death or to fight to live longer.  But is that not all of our goals here; to live now so that if death comes unexpectedly tomorrow we are ready?

We do dearly love our young missionaries who we support in Sister Iverson’s mission secretarial duties and me with my vehicle support duties.  My worst fear is to take a call from a missionary who has had a serious accident.  I have 74 vehicles in my mission fleet and it is a fun challenge to work with the Elders, Sisters, and Hermanas (Spanish-speaking Sisters) to keep those vehicles maintained and repaired. More than that, each vehicle has a GPS system called “tiwi” (literally “teenager independent witness”) installed which helps the driver to drive more safely with verbal warnings of speeding, aggressive driving, and fastening seatbelts.   Driving missions like ours get a “Red-Yellow-Green” report every six weeks which tells us if any of our young driving missionaries have had enough tiwi warnings to get themselves into a yellow (warning) or red (no longer allowed to drive) status.  It’s rare for a mission of our size to get 100% green (happened only once in the year and a half prior to our start here) but our missionaries have ”gone green” two reporting periods in a row!  I am so proud of them for this!

It’s been so great to have Christian’s and Jon’s come to visit us since we’ve been here.  We’ve even discovered some new beaches and “tourist-y” places to go since they were here!  With our spare bedroom and the hideaway bed/couch in the living room, staying here is very do-able.  The water here has now warmed up enough that we can go swimming without being in wetsuits.  However, we have availability of several extra wetsuits if anyone wants to use one.  Mom and I are planning to go to the beach again this Saturday during the day – maybe take Jake with us - and then going to an out-door play with the Floyd’s at a neighboring town called Ojai (Oh-hi).

We have taught lessons in Priesthood and Relief Society and our missionary Book of Mormon class, but we have also recently received new callings.  The Church is right in the midst of a change in the old “Stake Employment Centers” program to a new program more accurately called the Stake Self Reliance Center or something like that.  We’ve been called as the new Stake Self Reliance Center Coordinators.  This change is so new that when Sister Iverson logged in and was immediately given admin rights as the Stake Self Reliance Center Coordinator, our local priesthood authority said she was the first in the nation to do so!  I followed shortly after that!  We have a room in the Stake Center for this work and it is literally dusty from non-use and we will be getting it set up for such work.  We will also be coordinating with the Family History Center for use of their computers for job search work when the Family History Center is “off-duty”.  We are now taking the approach with Bishops like as if we are acting in the normal style of Stake LDS Employment Specialists; we will be inviting them to 1) call a brother or sister as a Ward Employment Specialist, 2) include that Specialist to an occasional Ward Council Meeting to report on job needs and encourage members to look for employment opportunities, and, 3) the most important action a person looking for a job can do now is to log into ldsjobs.org and register. We can help with that.  We are part of this pilot project with the Self Reliance program and it’s exciting.  We are truly living in really really great times!

Our primary duties keep us in the Mission Office perhaps 75% of the time, but we also get out into the other parts of the mission.  Our CA Ventura mission stretches about 180 miles north-south from just barely north of Los Angeles to Paso Robles and ~50 miles east-west.  We have seen major mountain-side fires, one of which (Santa Clarita) has had 37,000+ acres burned as of this morning and is going on right now and is extremely serious.   

We’ve attended the Los Angeles Temple twice on Stake temple trips but it is closed now for upgrading.  I’ll be curious to see if the temple does some xeriscaping; they have turned off the irrigation water for the turf due to the continuing drought that California is experiencing.  Our Ward actively works to getting new converts or returning less-active members to the temple as soon as they can to do baptisms for the dead so they can start getting more priesthood ordinance experience as well as gain stronger testimonies of the wide-reaching plan of salvation for all of God’s children.  I’m thinking strongly of xeriscaping our house front yard when we return.  

If you have influence over any teenagers in your wards – or maybe even in your own family!!! - we would encourage all youth in high school to start now getting experience in all the skills we have been teaching for years.  Some are vehicle skills and some are just life skills.  In our driving mission it is so great to have youth arrive here with: driving skills, obeying the highway laws, how to not only back up a vehicle safely but learning how to be outside helping the driver back up safely, basic vehicle maintenance skills such as checking the oil, checking tire air pressure, knowing where to check fluids (coolant, oil, brake, window washer, etc.), and how to keep a vehicle clean inside and outside. Basic life skills include: being obedient, learning the concept of “return and report”, using a planner, keeping living quarters clean, budgeting (here the Sisters get $140/month and the Elders get $135/month), and more.  They need to know how to keep living quarters clean, i.e., run the dishwasher at least weekly even if not washing dishes, same for clothes washer and dryer, clean sinks, toilets, etc., make beds, wash dishes, pick up clothes, be on time, make conversation, talk with strangers, etc. 

In driving missions like ours, it makes the Mission President’s job of pairing up missionaries so much easier when missionaries come to the mission with driving experience, no violations, and they’ve submitted their required documents. 

BTW, on or about September 5^th, Mitchell and Haley Bruce will be moving into our house and the Flandro’s will be moving out.  Anna, thank you so much for just managing this sort of thing for us.  We know Flandro’s have been great tenants and Maggie will miss them!  Bruce’s will be here for USU classes so will probably attend a student married ward but we don’t know that for sure.  Bishop Carter is trying to find a house for Flandro’s to live in within the Ward boundaries; that would be fun.

 Our missionaries teach a concept called “CPR”; stands for three basic things we should all do – (attend) Church, Pray, Read (the scriptures).   As mission prep considerations for your church youth or your own kids, they will learn on their mission about putting together “messages” but it’s handy to have some lessons always ready to go for both investigators as well as for active members when you’ve been invited for dinner.

If you ever have a chance to talk to Church members who are say 50 years old or older, please pass this on.  For our “seasoned” members contemplating Senior Missions, I’d recommend for all those 50 years old and older to start preparing now.  Mainly this includes financial and health preparations.  There is such a wide variety of missions now for Seniors that most members could serve one kind of mission or another and everything from 3 months to 23 months.  Having senior missionaries has a huge positive effect and we desperately need more and more of our seniors to accept such callings and they will never feel more needed and invigorated.  It is a refreshing and vibrant experience to do what we do and we so much wish for similar blessings to extend to others.  Within our mission we have couples doing: mission president, vehicles, secretary, housing, finance, referrals, nurse, baptism records, mission leader support, and CES.    

We have heard it taught by General Authorities that seniors on missions receive not only personal blessings but blessings extended to their families as well.  We have most certainly seen that come true for us with you and your kids.  We have seen significant and tangible blessings of many of you going from reasonable employment to better employment to outstanding employment; especially outstanding in these days low employment.  We have seen Seth’s family increase their loving involvement with their new ward exponentially.  We have just seen Henry deal not only with his chemo but with the brand-new successful surgery.  You all have reported added love and unity within your own families since we started our mission and some of you have attributed it to discussions from your kids about Gma and Gpa being on their mission.  We know that such blessings come about not only because of us being on our missions – you make these things happen in your lives by your actions as well. 

We’ve been reminded of this by Elder Packer’s message to Mission Presidents of: “It’s going to be alright. Your affairs are going to be all right.  Your children will be all right and your grandchildren and your home and your holdings.  All have been placed on the altar and they are watched over by more faithful servants that we could have in mortality.”  We’ve certainly had this reinforced to us recently with my experience at our Stake setting apart.

As strong as we’ve felt our testimonies have been in the past, our feelings of love and respect for Christ to atone for our sins and extend his love to us and to our brothers and sisters has increased by leaps and bounds.  The work of the gospel needs to go forth with more intensity than ever.

We love Jesus Christ and are so grateful for His love and sacrifice for us.  What a courageous man Joseph Smith was for which we are so grateful as well as for the succession of prophets since Brother Joseph.  We’re so glad the Book of Mormon was brought forth in our day and that we have prophetic leadership now.  Satan is working as vigorously as he’s ever worked and we need to continue to work energetically against him.

All our love,

Elder and Sister Iverson

G-ma and G-pa Iverson!!