Gradually getting settled - September 2020

This month we are still learning so much, but every little tiny step that we feel we have done before or are staring to understand better or have some familiarity feels like a victory, and that's great - we'll take it! We started this past transfer with a mission tour with Elder Martino and Elder Matt Holland who oversee our area. We had enough cases of Covid in the mission that it was all virtual. All of our meetings were over zoom, but they're so good at getting participation from everyone in the meetings and making everything so interesting. They teach really, really well. Mark and I learned so much just by participating in these meetings with them. They had a couple of meetings just with us and a couple with the missionaries. By the end, I felt very aware of our inexperience and inadequacies and felt kind of stupid and a little overwhelmed, but then in our last meeting with Elder Martino and Elder Holland, they just expressed confidence in us and love for us. It was incredible. That has most often been my experience with our leaders in the church - they teach by example, they stretch us and show us how to do things better, build us up, and encourage us to keep going. It was such a lift.

Another big thing that happened was starting school again. Who would have ever thought we would still be online almost 6 months after starting online everything? I sure didn't. Anyway, what a strange 1st day of school! It's good to have structure and learning to the day again, but the old zoom fatigue last spring also kicks in. Sometimes Lydia would take her lap top outside for a class period or two to mix it up, or I'll randomly find one of them in the dining room or kitchen table here and there just to have a change of scenery. We are having fewer and fewer connection issues now, especially since we got a commercial account going to the mission home! Between our zoom meetings and all 3 girls in online school all day, we needed some serious bandwidth. Mark and I kept getting kicked off our zoom meetings - sometimes when we were in the middle of leading a meeting or something, so it's great that we got that figured out!

The girls had rolling dates a few weeks into school when they could choose to go back in person or stay online. They all chose in person learning, and assumed that's what they'd be doing, but as we attended Natalie's curriculum night online, it was clear she'd be on her laptop watching the same things as the online learners, just there in a mask, with no access to drinking fountains and her only option during breaks to wash her hands. In Susie's case, her volleyball coach didn't really want them going back to school until the season is over, and both of them learned there would only be a couple of other people in each class anyway. In Susie's case, she'd be the only student in a couple of her classes and she wasn't super excited about that. So Susie and Natalie decided to stay online when they learned the reality of what in person learning would look like. When Lydia's date came around that seniors could go to in person school, she still wanted to give it a try. It's her senior year, after all, and she'd like to meet a few humans - haha! Anyway, she's been going for about 10 days and I'm really proud of her. She makes the best of it, but it's been an adventure. She has teachers that say "Why are you here?" and the couple of kids in each class sit in opposite corners of the room in masks and can only sit a couple to a table outside for lunch. Let's just say she misses Olympus, and moving in a pandemic is not ideal and we'll leave it at that. 😐

We've had some amazing, apocalyptic rain storms lately, too, but not the ones that have been predicted with all the tropical storms. So far, that rain hasn't been bad at all. A few weeks ago, though, we had some wild rain - I've never experienced this kind of rain before! The sky just opens up and you can't even see when you're driving. Your car makes a wake behind it and you could probably get out and do water sports behind it! I was going from Target to my car about 100 feet away and came out when it had just started raining like this, and in that short space, was as wet as I would have been if I'd jumped in the pool. It's so fun if you're home, but a little more crazy when you're not. Natalie would not want me to tell this story, but a couple of weeks ago, the rain unleashed while she was at soccer practice, so I went to go get her, and to make a long story short, it was so chaotic when I got there with parents picking up and kids everywhere (it's a huge complex with 10+ teams practicing there and easily a couple of hundred kids), anyway, I couldn't find her for over an hour even after all the cars had cleared out and everyone had gone home. Her coaches didn't know where she was and nobody on teamsnap had seen her. I checked the high school across the street, and was getting so worried when Lydia and Suse called me and said she had just walked in the door. She walked 3 1/2 miles in the pouring rain on some really busy roads with no sidewalk/shoulder. She's super embarrassed now that she did that, but we had a good talk about what to do in situations like that. I also now have her take Mark's old phone to practice just in case...I for sure aged quite a bit that night. Mark was in interviews until late that night and missed all the fun!

On the mission front, I've been working a bit on helping the office get organized. I think when covid hit and the senior couple all went home in a rush, the young missionaries took over and never knew where to find a lot of things. They did a great job of just keeping things moving, but it was a little hectic. Then they got 100+ extra missionaries in a week or two, and it's been kind of crazy ever since! So, we've been trying to get some things organized and going there. We also have had a good group of missionaries on quarantine - almost 50 at our highest point. We call this group the quaranteam, and they're good sports about it. If they'd been exposed at all or had any symptoms (which is almost everything - from a sniffly nose to a headache...) they had to quarantine for a certain number of days. Anyway, we have had some sort of activity or group thing where they can meet up on zoom most days for them, and Mark and I get on with them weekly and try to help keep them motivated and focused. They are SO cute! One of these days for the activity, Lydia taught them a lettering class. I, of course, volunteered her for this (moms are so good at this), but it was fun. She did a great job and it was a fun little class. We were just trying to give them some sort of variety and break in their day.

Mark for his part, honestly does more than is humanly possible in a day every day. He can do it because he's doing the Lord's work and he has the Lord's help. I've never seen this so firsthand. He's tired but happy, and is just so guided in this work. It is awesome to be a part of. He has always been terrible at names - me too, so I can say that 😂- but he remembers all the missionaries names and has been doing that for a while, and remembers things about them and knows them. It's nothing short of miraculous in such a short time. I could go on and on about things like this...

Another day, one of our sister missionaries texted and asked if we were home and I said yes, and a minute later, she and her companions were on our doorstep with one about to faint. We rushed her into our room where we got her water and snacks and she took I nap. I sent the other two out to their dinner appointment and I stayed home with her until she felt better. I think she got a little dehydrated and overdid it, but we got to have dinner with her and then she was ok. So every day is a little different, and you just never know exactly what's going to happen, but it keeps life interesting.

We got to have a visit from Mark's sister, Mea also this transfer, so that was a highlight! She came during our week of zoom zone conferences - we had 8 of them, so maybe we weren't the most entertaining hosts, but she was a very easygoing guest, and helped me drive on nights when I had other trainings or things, which was so helpful! Thank you, Mea! For our Pday - still sounds so funny to me that we have a Pday, but anyway, we went to Six Flags with Mea. Natalie has been dying to do this, so it was great minus wearing a mask in the heat and humidity...phew! Great day, though. We also had a visit front the Grahams - minus President Graham. The Sara/Sarahs :) took the kids on motorized scooters around the belt line trail downtown and had a blast. It's so happy for our kids to share their experiences together. The girls and I were saying how it's pretty amazing to have such great friends doing the same things as they are within driving distance.

We have also loved being more intentional about our time with have with Mark. It has made us plan it out a little better, and it's been so fun to explore a new place and come up with things we want to do together. That's been a real highlight! This past Saturday, we went to the Atlanta History Museum, which is beautiful - gardens and paths, a farm and old home to explore in addition to all the history they've gathered there. We saw tons of interesting things, but some of our favorites were the Olympic torch and some medals from the 1996 Olympics held here. This really is an international city where people from all over the world live together in such peace. I have to say after all the news coverage of Atlanta when we moved here, I didn't know what to expect, but we have daily interactions with people of every size, shape, color and walk of life, and almost everyone is friendly, helpful and kind.

This past week, we got 15 new missionaries here. This is our second time to go through the transfer process, and I'm finding it's so interesting to see the brand new missionaries and spend time with them on Monday, then send them off Tuesday and take the ones returning home in. We get to spend Tuesday afternoon/evening with them, and the contrast is really fun to see. The new ones are wide-eyed, eager (mostly - haha, not all of them), and a little nervous. The ones going home have this sense of accomplishment, gratitude, wisdom, confidence and peace about them. They have the confidence that comes from doing something hard but meaningful. It's such a treat to hear them talk about what they've learned on their missions, and who they want to be going forward.

I think one of my favorite things we've been talking about as a mission and as a family is how the Savior turned outward in his most difficult times. When it would have been so natural and understandable to turn inward and focus on his pain, he was focused on washing his disciples' feet, healing the man's ear who was about to arrest him, forgiving those who had hurt him, and making sure his mother was cared for. We talk about when we're feeling lonely, trying to cultivate an ability to reach out to someone else who might be feeling lonely, too, or when we're feeling overwhelmed, helping someone else who's feeling burdened, etc. It's hard to do, but maybe with practice, we can get better at it. We feel grateful for this opportunity. It's hard but it's good. We love seeing people make changes in their lives that help them feel their Savior's love for them and to see the confidence and happiness it brings. We love and miss you all and send our love!!!