Missouri Independence Mission Oct. 2022-April 2024

Beautiful grounds It has been a good week. I was able to finish up paying rents except for one. I'm having to pay more rents not using checks and it makes things harder. It is a multi-step process and I have to remember more which is a chore on this old brain. The positive side of it is that we don't have to pay the +$30 service fee and we aren't getting any more late fees on rent. Monday I took the car in to get a new battery and decided to get a couple of new tires. One was bad, one was sort of bad, one was OK and another was good. I had to make another appointment for Wednesday to get the bad and sort of bad ones replaced. I almost decided to wait until just before we left for home to do so but decided with winter coming I had better get it done. Then I thought I'd wait until just before winter hits to get them changed but remembered we would be taking a day trip with Karen and Bud to the church sites on Saturday and rain was in the forecast so got them changed this

Crash There were a couple of car chases by the cops this week that were close to home. Thursday afternoon I went to get a haircut and return our internet modem to XFinity via UPS. Apparently, about five minutes after I left a car came flying by the office going about 70 mph and not far behind were four or five cop cars giving chase. The car ran the stop sign on our corner and proceeded to bounce off two trucks and continued on. I guess they got him as the sirens stopped and a couple of the cops came back to the wreck he'd made.  And then that evening as we were returning to our apartment we noticed one of the pretty brick flower beds at the complex front entrance had been smashed. We found out later that some guy was trying to get away from the police and didn't make the turn into the apartments. I guess he thought he could lose them in there. I would have liked to see the car afterward and I can't imagine the guy wasn't hurt. Moses' and Sis. Ethington Mom told abou

We'll miss them As mom said, there was not much going on this week besides the basics. Monday was Elder and Sister Hegvik's last day in the mission. Their replacements, the Healy's, are trying to learn their duties. Elder Healy has spent some long days, some going into the evenings, at the office. He was even in the office on Saturday and Sunday. Kind of reminds me of what I went through when we first arrived except Elder Healy has had video conferences with SLC to orient him. I was pretty much on my own. The new truck we picked up last week turned out not to be for the mission but was supposed to go to the FM group. Elder Healy had almost turned in the old truck for sale so we're lucky to still have a truck. The dealer just assumed it was ours as did we. We had another interesting experience in church today. Just before I got up to talk we had an intermediate hymn. I noticed this lady in the overflow standing up and doing the holy roller thing while singing. I thought,

Sisters chained bracelets Toy making booth Friday through tomorrow are SantaCaliGon in Independence. If it looks like a mouthful, it is. I just call it CalGone. It celebrates Independence being the starting point of the pioneers on their westward treks on the Santa Fe, California, and Oregon trails. Thus, Independence is known as the Three Trails City. Mom and I took some time Friday afternoon to walk through the exhibits. About half of them were selling some sort of food or drink and the rest were selling wares. The Elders and Sisters in the Independence zone were asked to man a couple of Pioneer stations which were off the beaten track. I don't think much missionary work got done. It was hot so mom and I didn't spend too much time wandering around. Our new vehicles Tuesday I helped pick up new vehicles from the Chevrolet dealer. The mission received three new Equinoxes and a new Chevy Silverado. Elder Hegvik is still training Elder Healy and plans on being in the office for t