Well, we’ve been here for almost 3 weeks now and it has snowed every few days since our arrival.  We love to see the snow as it covers everything making it look like a “marshmallow world in the winter” as the song goes.  It does, however make it difficult at times to get to the Mission office but we’re adjusting and getting used to driving on ice and snow.  The two photos below were taken at our office about a week apart.  Sun and snow.

There is one thing which we found surprising: the great number of Canada geese we see everywhere.

The other day, Elder Etherington and I were unloading some furnishings from the mission truck and a flock of Canada geese flew overhead.  Just as I was looking up, one of them dropped a bomb (goose poop) on me and hit my shirt.  What a nice way to initiate me to the mission field!

Last Friday, we said goodbye to Elder Mark Etherington and his wife, Sister Patty Etherington.  They have been serving here for the last 12 months and we are expected to fill their shoes in the Mission Office.  They have been training us in our responsibilities for the last few weeks and now they are returning home to Morgan, Utah.  Below is a photo of Betty and I with the Etheringtons.  We already miss them.

As for the work in the mission office, Betty is finding it somewhat tasking, with all the packages and mail the missionaries receive. not to mention the mountain of Church material that must be sorted and delivered to them every week.  She enlists the help of the Elders when they are around, and I help when I’m available, but lately seems I’ve been tied up finding housing and the furnishings required to make the apartments functional.

So, even though we have experienced lots of snow, we’re enjoying a warm welcome from the people we meet everywhere, and we love the work and enjoy helping gather Israel in as we’ve been asked to do.

We left the MTC on Thursday afternoon, January 10 and drove as far as Glenwood Springs, CO where we stayed overnight. The forecast was showing snow on i-70 heading into Denver the next day, so we got an early start but ran into the snow about 30 minutes after leaving. We had poor visibility and heavy snow all the way into Denver, but arrived safely about noon.  These are the only photos I took on our way because I was driving and Betty doesn’t let me shoot when I’ve got my hands on the wheel.  When it was snowing I was concentrating on not becoming one of the cars which slid off the road due to the slick conditioins.

Elder Mark Etherington and his wife Sister Patty Etherington met us at our new apartment in Westminster, CO. They are the couple that work in the office we’ll be replacing.  Their help unloading our truck was greatly appreciated.  We started to get settled into our new residence for the next 12 months.

The next morning, Saturday January 12, we met with our Mission President, Henry Scott Savage. He’s a terrific leader and we look forward to spending more time with him and his lovely wife Cindi.

This week we have been in training mode, learning about our duties and responsibilities. Since I am the new housing coordinator, I’ve been busy opening new apartments and closing one we’re not going to use any longer.  Betty has been learning all about the mission commissary (supplies and etc) and helping Sister Martin, the Mission secretary.

We arrived at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah yesterday morning, December 31, 2018.  In our orientation meeting the brethren were instructed to look into our wives’ eyes. We were then told “you are looking at your new Senior companion”.  Okay, so Betty’s the Boss going forward!

For our New Year’s Eve celebration we viewed a recording of Apostle David Bednar’s Christmas Day 2011 devotional address to the MTC missionaries. He spoke about the difference between testimony and conversion.  He also noted how Christ turned everything which happened to Him outward to help and bless others. For example when he was taken prisoner after His betrayal, rather than reacting with anger towards his captors, he healed the ear of one of the soldiers which had been cut off by his apostle Peter.  He stressed that we can only bring Christ’s atonement to ourselves as we work to help others turn outwards towards their personal salvation.  Sort of a paradox, and very motivational.  We really enjoy listening to Elder Bednar, his messages reach deep into our soul.

(MTC=Missionary Training Center https://www.mtc.byu.edu/ )

Things have been moving along so smoothly, on our path to our Mission, that we were very suprised by what happened on December 13. The movers were in our home, helping us pack up our stuff and Betty accidentally stumbled on a box they had placed in our hallway. She fell. It was a pretty dramatic fall, slammed against the wall, down on both knees and ending with her right wrist bent under her. The wrist became swollen right away so we headed to the ER to get an X-ray. It was not broken just sprained. The bigger issue was her back. Her orthopedic/pain management specialist was concerned by his examination so he sent her for an MRI. The MRI indicated a fracture at L-3 (one of the low back vertebrae). She had surgery on Friday, 21st, to repair the fracture with cement. She is not allowed to bend, twist, stoop, lift anything for 2 weeks. Currently she is sore, stiff and her entire spine is a little shocked from the procedure.

When we were set apart for our mission by our Stake President today, he suggested we might want to extend our call by a week to allow for more healing time for her. We will wait to see how her healing goes and how quickly her pain begins to disappear before we make a decision. President Lauck indicated he could move our mission by a week with as little as a one day’s notice.

We are so thankful that we have that “cushion” and will decide after Christmas whether we will request a delay in our arrival at the MTC. We are supposed to report on New Years Eve day. Our current plan is for me to drive our pickup from Tomball to Utah and Betty will fly, rather than endure A long road trip. The Orthopedic Doctor predicted that for her, it would be “4 days of misery” because of her back injury.

Being set apart for our mission was a very sweet experience. We enjoyed so much visiting with our Stake Presidency and were very understanding and sympathetic to Betty’s plight. Our two sons, Stuart and John and their families were all there to support us and that made the event even more special. The blessings they pronounced upon our heads were beautiful and gave us great hope and spiritual promise. We are now official Senior Missionaries and we have commenced on this wonderful journey together with great anticipation and a little trepidation.

So bumpy as the road behind may have been, we’re looking forward to the strait and narrow path ahead of us, as we join the ranks of the 67,049 missionaries currently serving full time all around the world.

The photo above was taken at the Tomball Ward Meetinghouse today.

We were both sort of nervous about it, but were happy that our niece, Tamara Holm and our son Stuart MacAulay Weenig with his family were there to support us.    Here’s the poem that I read as part of my talk: 

Heaven’s Grocery Store
I was walking down life’s highway, not too long ago.
One day, I saw a sign that said “Heaven’s Grocery Store,”
As I got a little closer, the door swung open wide,
And when I came to myself, I was standing right inside.
I saw a host of ANGELS. They were standing everywhere.
One handed me a basket and said, “My child, kindly shop with care.”
Everything a Christian needed was in this Grocery Store,
And if you couldn’t carry it all,
You could come back the next day for more.
First, I got some PATIENCE, LOVE was in the same row.
Further, down was UNDERSTANDING,
You need that wherever you go.
I got a box or two of WISDOM, a bag or two of FAITH.
I couldn’t miss the HOLY GHOST for it was all over the place.
I stopped to get some STRENGTH and COURAGE
To help me run this race.
By then, my basket was getting full,
But I remembered to get some GRACE.
I didn’t forget SALVATION for SALVATION is free.
So I tried to get enough of that to save both you and me.
Then I started up to the counter to pay my grocery bill,
For I thought that I had everything to do my MASTER’S will.
As I went up the aisle I saw some PRAYER and just had to put it in,
For I know when it’s tough outside, I would run right into sin.
PEACE and JOY were plentiful, they were on the last shelf.
SONGS and PRAISES were hanging near so I decided to help myself.
I then said to the Angel, “Now, how much do I owe?”
He just smiled and said, “Just share them wherever you go.”
Again I said, “How much do I really owe?”
He simply smiled again and said,
“MY CHILD, JESUS PAID YOUR BILL A LONG, LONG TIME AGO!”

We move out of our home this week and thanks to the kind generosity of the Will and Kym Merrill famly, we will not be homeless.  They are letting us use their Tomball home until we leave for the MTC on December 26.  We are very grateful to them for that.

Friday was our Ward Christmas Party where I ran into Santa and Mrs. Claus.  See photo at left. 

Yesterday, Tamara and I visited the Tomball German Festival.  Here’s a photo of me with the German Saint Nicholas and Princess of Chrismas

This week, Betty and I packed up 19 Kodak carousels full of 80 slides each (that’s  1520 slides) and over 1000 prints, and flew to Salt Lake City.  Our goal was to get these all digitized (scanned to digital images) so that we could share them with the family members who are the subjects of those photographs and slides.  We went to the Layton, Utah Family Search Center

https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Layton_Utah_FamilySearch_Center and were greeted by some wonderful volunteers who proceeded to get us setup to get the task done.  I worked on the slides while Betty did the photo scanning.  We worked until lunch time when we heard the announcement that everyone there was invited to join the annual chili cook off for lunch.  Our lucky day!  By 2pm we had all the slides and photos scanned and digitized.

We were surprised to learn that Elder Ron and Sister Dana Wright, the couple that helped us there at the Layton FamilySearch Center were related to the couple we will be replacing in the Colorado Denver North Mission office.  Dana is the sister of Sister Etherington who has been serving in the Mission Office for almost a year.  Ron and Dana will also be serving a mission next year, supervising the Heber Valley Girls Camp.  Here’s a photo we took of them outside the FamlySearch Center.

We received a letter in the mail today signed by President Russell M. Nelson (see his signature below)  It reads in part: You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  You are assigned to labor in the Colorado Denver North Mission.  Your primary assignment is to labor as an office specialist.

We are so happy this finally came.  After all, we began this process at the end of April this year and were very anxious to receive notification of our assignment.

It is interesting that both my dad, John Lehi Weenig and my mother, Lucile McAllister, spent considerable time in Denver.  Dad was sent there at the end his Army service after World War II.  There, he had an operation to fuse several vertebrae in his lower back due to injuries he received just prior to attending Officer Candidate School about 1945-46. He spent several months on a special kind of bed that could be flipped over daily to speed recovery.

My mom served in the Western States Mission 1940-41. The headquarters of the mission was in Denver, Colorado and her mission president was Elbert R. Curtis.  Her missionary companion and life-long friend was Arline Martindale Scott, the mother of Wendy Scott who introduced me to Betty, my bride.

We are excited to be assigned to the Colorado Denver North Mission.  The photo below was taken just before we opened the letter from President Nelson, she is saying: “you and your photos! Let’s get this thing opened and find out where we’re going.”

We don’t report to the Missionary Training Center until New Years Eve, 2018.  So we’ve still got some preparation time.  It’s a good thing, because our Stake President has challenged us to pray that we may find at least one person to whom we can extend an invitation to learn more about the Gospel before Christmas!

So we’ve been called to serve and we’re looking forward to serving Jesus Christ by serving His children in Colorado.

We finally got tired of waiting and called the Senior Missionary department in Salt Lake City.  They indicated our field of labor has been assigned and we should receive our letter in the mail as early as next Wednesday or Thursday.  We’re going to Austin tomorrow to spend time with my cousin, Dr. Clair Weenig and his wife Joan.  We’ll be visiting Fredericksburg, and the LBJ Ranch on Monday and return home, Tuesday.  We plan to go to Olla, LA and visit Betty’s mother, Pearl and her stepfather, Sonny, later next week.  Well keep you posted here on the status of our mission call.  Patience is a virtue.

The garage sale went well, sold our couch, ottoman and easy chair.  Our living room looks real empty now, and so does our garage.  Sold my recumbent tryke, the wheelbarrow, computer stand, lots of tools, some of which I wish I hadn’t sold.  After the garage sale, I took our grandson’s fishing on Saturday and my neighbor Col. Ray Rittenhous (USAF Retired) showed up with his saltwater gear.  The other adult is my son, Stuart, father of the twins (Luke and Liam) and Cole.

Anyway, we are checking the mailbox daily for that letter from Church Headquarters.  Will update as soon as we receive it.