This has been an unusal week!

Monday I had a fun reunion with sisters I met in the MTC a year ago. They are all in the east/Midwest area but we met on zoom and had a very pleasant get together. Sisters Christy Bell, Kathy Blosil, Sherrie Fox and Vicki Martin.

I am seldom sick. A week ago last Thursday, after our zone conferences in Medford, I began to cough. The cough got worse through the weekend and by Monday, I was hacking a lot. 

I walked Monday morning but by the time I got back to my apartment, I realized that it hadn’t been the wisest choice. Tuesday and Wednesday were the worse days. I ran a low grade fever and was nauseated along with the worst cough I can remember having had in a long LONG time.

I stayed at home all week. Fortunately, I can work from home so that I was able to still help with the missionary illnesses and accidents. 

Wednesday morning I went to urgent care. I was tested for COVID, influenza A & B, and RSV. I have had RSV with bronchitis caused by the virus. Hence the coughing!! I asked if I was contagious and the doctor told me that I was past the contagious period.

I was prescribed prednisone and by Friday, my cough was less annoying so I went to North Bend on the coast with President and Sister Cornelius for interviews. 

Sorry for the long medical history, but it explains why I have little to report this week as not much happens when one is lying around the house. Didn’t share to get sympathy but to let you know that I am now on the road to recovery. My prayers for healing have been answered.

On our Monday morning walk, we noticed how high the river was due to all of the rain/storms. 

Friday on our drive over the mountains to the coast, road crews were still picking up tree falls and working on downed power lines from the ice and snow storms last week. Here are just a few examples of downed trees and stacks of logs cut to be hauled away from the road side.

It was a cloudy, rainy day but still beautiful

I don’t know the name of this bridge, but I like it.

Waiting for interviews.

Sisters Sutherlin, Cornelius and Davis

Traditional “silly” pictures Sister Sutherlin and I take when we get together.

We stopped at Yeong”s Place to eat before returning to Eugene. 

I had a Reuben sandwich with sweet potato fries. I could only eat half of the sandwich and a few fries. WAY too much food but it was delicious.

Saturday morning, it wasn’t raining and the sun even shone for the first few hours of the day so Sister and Elder Crump walked along the river with me. We walked the opposite way we normally walk. We wanted to make sure that the big old cherry tree in the rose garden wasn’t damaged in the ice storm. Thank goodness all is well!

The sun through the clouds is always amazing

The pond at Alton Baker Park is very full. 

The stepping stones over to the little island are usually 6-8 inches out of the water. Today they were buried and the geese used them to walk on.

More downed trees

The river was wild.

Saturday evening, I took Sisters Lunt and Weeks to dinner. They chose a Hawaiian grill. I had teriyaki chicken stir-fry. The best part was being with the sisters. They shared a thought. 

First Sister Weeks taught me how to make an origami star. 

Then Sister Lunt shared a thought. She read a quote about the starfish thrower from a conference talk. 

 Loren Eiseley walked along a stormy beach late one afternoon “with the wind roaring at his back and the seagulls screaming” overhead. Tourists who came to the beach would collect shellfish and sea life tossed up each night, boil them in large kettles, and take the shells home as souvenirs. Eiseley walked far down the beach around a point away from the collectors and saw “a gigantic rainbow of incredible perfection.” Toward its foot he “discerned a human figure … gazing … at something in the sand.”

“In a pool of sand … a starfish had thrust its arms up stiffly and was holding its body away from the stifling mud. … [“Is it still alive?” Eiseley asked.]

“‘Yes,’” [said the man standing in the rainbow] and with a quick … gentle movement he picked up the star and spun it … far out into the sea.

“It may live,” he said, “if the offshore pull is strong enough. …”

At first Eiseley felt only the futility of the man’s efforts, “throwing one starfish at a time back into the sea when it nightly tosses out hundreds.” He walked away, looking sadly “at the shell collectors … [and] the steaming kettles in which … voiceless things were being boiled alive.”

The next morning Eiseley again went to the beach. Again the star thrower was there. “Silently [Eiseley] … picked up a still-living star, spinning it far out into the waves. … ‘I understand,’ [he] said. ‘Call [me a star] thrower [also].’”

Of throwing the starfish back he wrote, “It was like a sowing—the sowing of life on an infinitely gigantic scale. …” He saw the star thrower stoop and throw once more. Eiseley joined with him. They “flung and flung again while all about [them] roared the insatiable waters.”

They, “alone and small in that immensity, hurled back the living stars.” They set their shoulders and “cast, … slowly, deliberately, and well. The task was not to be assumed lightly.” (Loren Eiseley, The Star Thrower [New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1978], pp. 171–73, 184.) Each moment counted if they were to rescue the starfish that they sought to save.

We need star throwers—throwers with vision and who have a sense of discipleship with the Savior, who feel the need to save where there is still life and hope and value, and not to let that life die on a friendless beach, but to hurl it back to where it belongs.

In a world where materialism, cynicism, and hopelessness exists, we share the message of greatest hope—the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Be a star thrower! Then you may better understand our Lord’s commandment: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Matt. 19:19.)

It was a wonderful message. I hope that each of us will reach out to those in need in some way: loneliness, sadness, overwhelmed, heavily burdened, etc. May we be rescuers to serve and to help bring the light of our Savior into the lives of those around us and thereby to ourselves as well.

I love my Savior,

I love you my dearest family and friends. May you be well and happy through the coming week.

WOW!! It’s been an epic two weeks!

 

Interviews, zone conferences and a trip to Utah all in just two weeks.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of the week of January 14th we had interviews in Medford, Central Point, Klamath Falls and Eugene (Springfield Zone). There had been a big snow storm around Klamath Falls but we made it in President Cornelius’s 4 wheel drive truck. The missionaries in every zone are just fantastic making it worth the trip to see them.

Collage of missionaries waiting to be interviewed

I go to see the missionaries but the treats don’t hurt - LOL

Dinner with sisters after the interview on Wednesday: Sisters Salima, Felila, Bottomly and Thompson

Dinner with Sisters Cummings and Maile on Thursday evening after interviews

Blue skies, clouds and snow between Medford and Klamath Falls

Sisters Blackham and Duncan in Klamath Falls

Friday, I left the interviews in Eugene early to catch a flight to Sandy to see my family. David (my youngest son) and Brianna were blessing their baby on the following Sunday. I received permission to attend the blessing.

David and Charles Rex Petersen

I spent the days at home enjoying my family, visiting and eating and generally having a good time!

Brianna, David, Zolee, Reed, Dean, Charlie

Ellie

James

Cody

Rory & Deanne

Jim’s birthday was on the 17th. Jenna, his wife, wanted to give him a surprise party. We managed to get everyone on board for a Saturday night pizza party. Jenna convinced Jim to take her out to sushi for her birthday on the 14th. They were going to come pick me up and take me with them. When they got to the house, Jim was really rather upset that Jeff was making pizza for everyone and he hadn’t been invited. He was shocked to find out it was a party to celebrate his birthday. Got ya Jim!!

 

Sunday evening we had a potato bar for dinner

This is a picture of Deanne and David. Deanne was 9-10. David 6-7

They decided to recreate the picture……… We had a good time and some great laughs.

I was to fly back to Eugene on Monday, the 15th, but an ice storm shut down the City of Eugene and the Willamette Valley. I got to the airport Monday morning at 9:30 to catch my 11:45 plane. 

20 minutes before boarding, the flight was canceled.

I stood in line for an hour to re-book a flight for that evening. 

I got an email about 10 minutes before leaving for the airport to alert me that my flight again had been canceled. 

I needed to get back to zone conferences being held in Roseburg on Wednesday and Medford on Thursday. I was able to change my destination city to Medford and got a flight out on Tuesday night. The sisters in Medford picked me up at the airport and took me to my hotel.

They picked my up the next morning and took me to Grants Pass where the sisters from Grants Pass took me to Roseburg for the Zone Conference there.

After the conference in Medford, there was a Restoration Devotional at 7:00. We stayed that night and left the next morning for Eugene conference. Whew!! What a great opportunity. 

At the luncheon for the zone conference in Medford, Sister Hopkins, the wife of the second counselor in the mission presidency, brought a bag of crabs that she got in Hawaii. She opened the bag and put one on the table in front of my plate. No one wanted to give it a try! Everyone was gagging and making yucky sounds so I picked it up and ate it. That caused a riot at the table. 

I convinced Sister Jeffords that she would always regret not trying something new. She ATE it!! What a sport!!!

I missed the ice storm in Eugene. The missionaries were required to stay in their apartments from Monday through Thursday as the streets and sidewalks were hazardous. Traffic came to a halt on the I-5 freeway where people were stranded and couldn’t move for 15 hours according to a news review. 

Elder and Sister Barker drove to Cottage Grove, about 25-30 minutes south of Eugene to pick up some sisters who had no power. Sister Barker sent me some pictures she took. They saw the stopped traffic on the freeway and opted for a side road. The trip took them over 3 hours. Here are some pictures she sent to me.

If you zoom in you can see the trucks and cars at a stand-still on the freeway

Many of the missionary apartments had no power. Fallen trees and ice knocked down trees and power lines. 

Downed power lines

Sister and Elder Barker were without power until Saturday afternoon.

Saturday morning I was able to walk with Sister and Elder Crump. It had been a week since I was blessed to get my walk. I did walk in the SLC airport while waiting for my plane Monday morning and got my 4 miles of walking in but the other mornings have required me to be available for other obligations and I couldn’t walk on the treadmill in the hotel where I stayed because I hadn’t taken my walking shoes with me to Sandy. Oh well, absence makes the heart grow fonder. 

Saturday evening, Sister and Elder Crump invited me to dinner at their home along with Sister and Elder Barker. After dinner we played some games. Fun times with good friends!

While I was at home, I made a quick stop to see a good friend. Her husband has had very bad back problems to the point that he hadn’t been able to get out of the house much and was barely able to walk for a couple of years. He had had several back surgeries and treatments. After the last surgery just over a year ago, the surgeon informed him that he had done all he could do to help him and that he would have to seek help from a more specialized doctor at Mayo Clinic or such. Her husband did some research and found a doctor in Salt Lake at the University of Utah Hospital who could perform the type of surgery that he needed. 

His insurance wouldn’t accept doctors at the U of U so he had never gone there. He decided to call his insurance representative to see if he could persuade his insurance company to accept that particular doctor. The insurance person informed him that just a couple of days prior to his call, the insurance company had opened a window that would accept the doctor at the U of U. My friend’s husband was able to have the surgery performed and is now able to walk and to get out and about. He is a “new man.” He had his one year post surgery examination this week. Two days after the exam, my friend and her husband received a letter from the insurance rep informing them that their insurance would no longer accept U of U providers. 

My friend’s prayers had been answered. A window had been opened that allowed a way that the surgery could be done! Prayers are truly answered. 

I know in my life that my prayers are always answered. There have been times that they have been answered immediately and times when they have not been answered in the way I had expected. But nevertheless, my prayers are answered. I have a testimony of prayer.

I read a conference talk from April 2019 that touched my heart and added to my testimony. In the talk, Answers to Prayer, given by Elder Brook P. Hales of the Seventy, he says: “The Father is aware of us, knows our needs, and will help us perfectly.”

He goes on later in the talk to say:

“Brothers and sisters, sometimes our prayers are answered quickly with the outcome we hope for. Sometimes our prayers are not answered in the way we hope for, yet with time we learn that God had greater blessings prepared for us than we initially anticipated. And sometimes our righteous petitions to God will not be granted in this life. As Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, “Faith also includes trust in God’s timing.” We have the assurance that in His own way and in His own time, Heavenly Father will bless us and resolve all of our concerns, injustices, and disappointments.”

I would invite you to read this talk. Elder Hales gives some wonderful examples of prayer being answered in his own life and in the lives of others.

I pray that you are well and happy and that the coming week will bring you great blessings.

I love my Savior.

I love you my family and friends.