Missouri Independence Mission Oct. 2022-April 2024

 I liked the format for this blog that I used last week so I will keep doing it. Just a reminder that this is actually my "journal" and not just for communicating with family and friends. And that tells you how good a journal keeper I am. Mom has done a daily journal entry for years so when I'm asked where my journal is I can point to her...can't I?  😟 Audit form So nice to have audit done! Tuesday was the day for the annual mission audit. Bro. Ransom from the stake conducted the audit again this year. He's a nice guy and there really wasn't much to worry about. We again passed with flying colors.  Totaled There was another bad auto crash again this week. It was entirely preventable. The Elders were going 70 mph on a dirt road, hit a bump, went airborne, and came down on the nose of the car, then flipped and came down on the tires. It was basically a brand new car and it was totaled. Needless to say, those Elders won't be driving again on their mission. T...

Mom stole most of my thunder so it will be mostly pictures today. (Another way of saying I'm being lazy) Osborn was baptized today. He lives directly across from the chapel and has been attending once in a while for the last two years or so. He told the branch president when he first came that he wanted to attend but "don't bother me with the missionaries."  He can barely walk so it took two to baptize him and they did a great job. Darren was also baptized today. I don't know much of his story but from what I understand he was in a foster home of a member family from birth to three years old and then taken by another family (foster?). A few years ago he reconnected with his first foster family and came back to live with them. He then asked if they would adopt him which they did. The whole family was thrilled.  A few weeks ago he told them he was getting baptized and quite a few family members showed up today. His mom gave a touching testimony at the meeting. For s...

All better The BIG game day for the Chiefs! Last week as I was finishing up writing I heard the fireworks start up so knew the Chiefs had won. We'll see if it gets noisy latter on this evening. We passed a stand on the way home from Church that was selling "Super Bowl Champs" shirts already. That can either be confidence are a lot of wasted money. Tuesday I had the stitches taken off my face. The nurse said there were 14 external stitches plus who knows how many on the inside which will dissolve in time. I asked her how big a chunk the doctor had taken out and she said about a nickel size. The long cut had to be made as they couldn't sew up a circle. I guess that makes sense. But still, it was long. I'm pretty much back to my handsome self. And no, it was not cosmetic surgery as my "good friend" suggested. The doctor said that none such was needed and all the nurses agreed. 😁 pillow boxes Sister Hunsaker ordered 40 pillows from Walmart for new missionar...

before surgery after surgery I had Mohs surgery on Tuesday and it went well. I had a small red dot on the left side on my face that bled every once in a while so decided to visit the dermatologist in Dec. She did a biopsy and it came back positive so scheduled me for the Mohs treatment. It was such a small dot and I could barely see it after the biopsy. I'm certainly glad it wasn't any bigger or the surgeon would have taken half my face. As it is, I ended up with about a five inch stitch from the top of my ear to down below my sideburn. I never really met the surgeon. He came in masked, said hi and deadened things up. In about two minutes he was done and left me to the nurses. I have no idea what he looks like.  I was told the wait for results would be four hours so I was prepared for the long haul. To my surprise, in about an hour I has told they had gotten it all and was taken back in for stitching.  Again, the surgeon came in for about five minutes of stitching and then was...

dreary days  It was a cold to cool, foggy, wet week. It started being below zero type cold and tomorrow it is supposed to hit 56 degrees. But this week was mostly in the 30's and low 40's with fog/rain each day. The fog wasn't so bad that driving was impaired, at least in town areas. I'm never really sad to see January in the rear mirror. If the weather holds as predicted, I really need to get the car washed. I took it in for an oil change Friday and ended up having to have a new tire on the rear. It had some really bad wear on the inside edge.  Potholes have always been a problem here but this last week of freezing and cooling has made things worse. I read that a dozen or so cars blew out tires in a large pothole on one of the major freeways that we travel quite often. Even some of the city streets are really bad. As I was waiting for my oil change I watched a city crew fixing a long pothole just in front of Firestone. Just when I think I'm getting my calling down ...

  Adolphine and son Yomani + Elders Robinson  and Karras It was cold enough that I ended up taking only two pictures this week and I took those so I'd have something to share on my blog. Mom and I were asked to speak at a baptism Saturday at noon. It had been canceled from the week before. It was again a cold day but not as cold and wintery as last Saturday. Not too many were in attendance but there was a good spirit. We found out afterward that Adolphine, the mom, doesn't speak much English. She speaks Swahili so the Elders should have tried to get a translator there for her as I'm not sure she got much out of our talks. Can you believe Yomani, the son, is thirteen years old?! I finished paying rent this past week. I also worked some on the upcoming audit and last year's mission history. Neither one is my favorite activity.  Wednesday I helped Elder Healy and some other senior missionaries with car inspections during zone conference. It was somewhere in the teens so no...

Monday morning  One of these days I will write my letter first and then mom will have to figure out what to say after I've already written. We have been getting weather here. Monday we ended up with 5 or 6 inches on the car with heavy wet snow. It took awhile to get it all off and ready to get to the office. Wednesday, it was getting Sister Hunsaker to the airport at 4:30 in the morning. She was heading back to Idaho to attend her older brother's funeral. The worst part of getting her to the airport was that I had to drive in the dark. I was glad to get back to our apartment and we didn't hurry to get to the office that morning. Thursday, we left the office about 1:30 to pick her up. The forecast was for snow but it wasn't too bad. The roads were only a problem around the airport itself. I keep thinking that we are done with trips to the airport but something seems to always come up. It takes about 30 for us to get there. I was glad that the bapti...