Elder and Sister France with our official name tags.

We have just completed the first week of our mission as office specialists in the Columbia South Carolina Mission.  So much to learn but such a wonderful opportunity to grow in the gospel, experience the joy of working with other missionaries and hopefully having time to see some of the local area.


Elder and Sister Stowell 

On Tuesday we were able to meet with our Mission President and his wife and all of the senior missionaries in the mission.  Brother and Sister Stowell from Wenatchee were there to greet us.  It was such a wonderful, spiritual meeting.  We received instruction from President Holm and his wife.  Doyle and I were asked to introduce ourselves and bear our testimony.  It was a tender moment.  The meeting lasted for three hours and then we all went to the mission home for a wonderful harvest dinner.  The meal consisted of homemade wheat bread, squash soup (so delicious), beef stew, apple slices with cream cheese dip, green salad, pumpkin roll and pumpkin cheesecake.  These wonderful meetings that include dinner occur once a quarter.  Everyone looks forward to the fellowship!

Elder and Sister Bowman

My job title is Housing Coordinator and Elder France is multi-tasking as an executive secretary.  I also produce the monthly newsletter that is sent out to all missionaries in the mission.  Yesterday I had the opportunity to go look at one apartment, but my companion, Sister Bowman and I both decided that it was not where we wanted to place Elders.  Elder and Sister Bowman are the senior missionaries we are replacing in the office. They are from Provo and have a home very close to the MTC.


We also work with Elder and Sister Decker and the Assistants
to the President (AP's).  We have a wonderful and delightful single sister working as the receptionist.  Her name is Sister Rothman.  Elder France calls her the "energizer bunny".  She stands on her feet all day and handles the phone and all the mail for the mission...which is a formidable task....and many other things that I don't know about, to be sure.




Elder and Sister Decker and Elders Abrahamsen and Olson





We have not had much time to explore and from what I can see at this point, our explorations will be pretty limited as there is much to do. President Holm did tell us to be sure and take our p day on Saturday, but we'll see how that works out. We have been assigned to support the Chapin Branch on Sundays and sacrament begins at 11am. I'm sure we will be involved in many activities with our branch.

The news is all about Hurricane Sandy right now but from what we can gather from the news and weather reports (which are limited as we do not have TV yet), our area is not in danger.  Hopefully it will stay that way.

Don't be shy.  We would love to hear from you too!