Search and rescue

Winter has arrived!!  It snowed all day on Saturday dropping about 6 inches of snow.  I know it is nothing compared to your snowfall but it is plenty for here.  I haven't gone out to clear off my car. It is 20 degrees and feels like 6.   I've decided to let Mother Nature clean it off because it is supposed to be 41 degrees on Tuesday and warming to 61 degrees on Thursday.  That will save me having to scrape ice and snow off my car.

Elders Menden and Rossi admiring my "full" refrigerator

The snow crew. Sisters Dos Santos and Bush, Elders Rossi and Menden, Sister Staker

Looking out my kitchen window

Saturday morning storm warning

After the storm Saturday night

The last two weeks have been busy!  When I try to tell people what I do all day it seems that I don't do that much.  But this week I have spent a lot of time on the phone helping missionaries (what else??) with illnesses, accidents, bumps, headaches, depression and anxiety, talking to doctor's offices and parents making insurance arrangements, and the list goes on.  I really love what I do, but because of the nature of the work, I can't really go into detail about it.  Just know it is work that I love.  I love the missionaries and get great blessings by helping them and being around them, learning from them and feeling their spirits. 

I've had a couple of excursions:  one to Manhattan to accompany a missionary to an appointment and one to Flushing to dinner with the sisters.

Coming in from the cold, windy streets of Manhattan.

Sisters Hilliard, Kim, and Yu

Sammy Muñoz, a former missionary, came to visit. A fun time!

Had trainer/trainee meeting on Wednesday.  Mostly I have been at my desk doing the previously mentioned work.  Not a bad place to be toward the end of the week when the weather was bad.

I had sisters here for dinner on Tuesday night so I made lasagna soup in the crockpot.  The crockpot is my go-to method of cooking.  Throw it in and 6-8 hours later, dinner is prepared.  Then after the missionaries shoveled snow, we had hot chocolate and left over soup on Saturday.

Sisters Bush, Albanese, Gourley, and Staker

Saturday night I made a huge crockpot (I bought an 8.5 quart crockpot right after I got here.)  of chili for Sunday dinner.  I hadn't shopped all week and I didn't want to go out shopping in the snow storm so I opened can after can from my cabinet and threw together something we called chili. It wasn't bad for a make shift meal if I do say so myself.  I wanted to make corn bread but I only had two little boxes of Jiffy corn muffin mix.  I mixed them up according to the directions.  Then I got the bisquick and mixed up a coffee cake. I put the two batters together and baked it.  It was not bad - corn bread with a cake like texture.  There were 11 of us and we nearly ate it all.

Monday Laura, the new convert from Colombia, came to tell me good-bye.  She is leaving to go back to Colombia Tuesday morning.  Sister Morales was one of the first missionaries to teach her.  She and her companion came to my apartment to tell Laura good-bye.  Sister Staker and Sister Bush have been fellow shipping Laura and teaching her English, so we were all here to wish her well.  It was a tearful time but we all promised to meet in Utah at some point in the future.

Farewell hug

Bottom right picture:  Sisters Morales and Staker and Laura

To share some of my thoughts:  I was reading Alma 11 in the Book of Mormon one day this week.  As I read in the study guide, a phrase jumped out at me. The paragraph in the study guide reads:  "Even, the Omnipotent One, the Lord Jehovah, cannot save his people in their sins.  He came on a search-and-rescue mission to save people from their sins.  But no one, not the least and lowliest of mankind or the mightiest Apostle and prophet, can be saved in sin."

The phrase "search-and-rescue" grabbed my attention and gave me pause to think.

Perhaps it caught me because my son Jake, a lieutenant on the Unified Police Department in Salt Lake County, was over the search-and-rescue division for a few years.  I have heard some of his stories of the heroic ventures of his men and volunteers in finding and saving people.  I have heard of some of his searches that have not been as successful as hoped for.  I've seen him elated at times and devastated at other times.

The thought of the Savior on a "search-and-rescue" really made me ponder his mission and feelings.  How happy it must make him when a soul is found and returns to him.  How sad he must feel when one is lost.  Because this is a new concept for me, the search-and-rescue phrase, I wondered if others have made this connection.

On lds.org, I found a talk given in 1993 by President Monson, then the 2nd counselor in the first presidency, titled Search and Rescue:

"During the seemingly never-ending years of the Vietnam conflict, we frequently heard through the media's blaring voice the term search and destroy. This phrase helped explain to the public the peculiar nature of combat in that area of dense jungle, oppressive heat, and debilitating disease.

This war was not marked by large-scale battles on open terrain. Rather, the enemy was often not visible-but nonetheless highly dangerous-thereby leading to the concept of search and destroy. Casualties were high, suffering rampant, and destruction everywhere to be found. We will never know how many cried out their own expression of the biblical question, "Is there no balm in Gilead?" The world sighed profound relief when conflict ceased and peace prevailed.

I was thinking of the term search and destroy this past winter as I visited with a neighbor and friend in beautiful Heber Valley east of Salt Lake City. Snowmobile adventurers had been lost for a several-day period in the backcountry of high winds, penetrating cold, and eerie silence. My friend Johnny told me of the desperate plight of the lost and referred to the anxiety of their families. He mentioned that he was a member of the county search and rescue force, whose members left their businesses and farms and went in search of the lost and missing.

The searchers had prayed for a break in the winter weather, knowing the critical element of time in such a rescue. Their prayers were answered; the weather cleared. Surveying each grid of the vast area through the use of high-powered field glasses as the helicopter flew back and forth through the mountains and the ravines, the lost party was finally spotted. Then came the difficult task of reaching and retrieving the courageous group. All was well. The lost were found. Lives were spared. Worry and fear yielded to joy and jubilation.

Johnny, with heartfelt emotion, said to me, "I love to search and rescue. Just to look into the faces of those who could have died and feel, as well as see, their profound gratitude fills my body and soul with compassion and thanksgiving. I've never before experienced anything quite like it."

Perhaps he was witnessing the personal understanding of the Lord's pronouncement, "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God." Or maybe Johnny was feeling the penetrating declaration of the Prophet Joseph Smith, who said, "It is better to save the life of a man than to raise one from the dead."

My thoughts turned to that favorite song from Sunday School, the one that always brings tears to my eyes and compassion to my heart:

Dear to the heart of the Shepherd,
Dear are the "ninety and nine";
Dear are the sheep that have wandered
Out in the desert to pine.
Hark! he is earnestly calling,
Tenderly pleading today:
"Will you not seek for my lost ones,
Off from my shelter astray?"

The next verse reflects our response to the Shepherd's plea:

Green are the pastures inviting;
Sweet are the waters and still.
Lord, we will answer thee gladly,
"Yes, blessed Master, we will!
Make us thy true undershepherds;
Give us a love that is deep.
Send us out into the desert,
Seeking thy wandering sheep." "

President Monson was speaking in the Priesthood session but his words are applicable to all of us.  He goes on to say:

"Brethren, in our priesthood callings I am confident we at times wonder if we are affecting the lives of others in a favorable manner. The instructor in the quorum who prepares so diligently, the home teachers who put aside their own convenience and carry a message to the families upon whom they call, and the quorum officers who reach out to rescue perhaps will never fully know the far-reaching influence of their service. This is particularly true of the faithful missionaries who day after day carry on in the service of the Master. Never complaining, ever serving, always sacrificing for the benefit of others, these noble servants deserve our undying gratitude and our fervent prayers."

If we are to follow in the steps of our Savior, we will want to be on a daily search-and-rescue mission to help our neighbors, family members, ward members, anyone who is struggling in any way.  We can be "true undershepherds". What great joy we will have if we can help but one soul to find their way to the Savior.  To help in times of need.  To lift and support those around us.

We can faithfully fulfill our callings in the Church and be kind and compassionate to those we meet regardless of the circumstances. We can have an effect on the lives of people; perhaps an effect that we will never realize we have had.

I love you my family and friends.

Visitors to my yard at home in Utah. My daughter, Deanne, tells me there are tracks all over
the yard-front and back. She has seen deer several times. She saw 5 this night but only got 3 in
the picture. One is across the street-difficult to pick out of the shadows.

Sisters Bush and Staker. They were taking mattress overlays for there beds. I took them to their
apartment but couldn't get right in front because I came at a one way street from the wrong direction.
It gave me a good laugh to watch them maneuver those mattresses across the street. It is not
uncommon in the city to see people carrying televisions and all sorts of furniture and other bulky
items along the streets. Some have carts. Others do not. When you don't have a vehicle.....