Dear Family and Loved Ones,
We had a busy, wonderful, enjoyable week! Monday night was our departure dinner and testimony meeting, Tuesday 21 new missionaries arrived in the Great California Long Beach Mission, Tuesday and Wednesday the new missionaries were trained and sent out with their trainers. This weekend we enjoyed stake conference in Huntington Beach. Along with all of the excitement in the mission we have been preparing for Shelly and Ian’s wedding which are looking forward to on Tuesday!
Our departure dinner and testimony meeting went smoothly. It’s nice to have a set menu that we can count on every six weeks. The missionaries seem to enjoy the humor of the funeral dinner and Ben and Mari are happy to feast on leftover funeral potatoes and ham for a few days. We heard from some of the ward members where the missionaries who completed their missions had been serving, they said they were some of the best missionaries they had ever had in their wards. When this group of Elders arrived we immediately felt that they would be strong leaders and missionaries we could rely on and they proved to be all we expected them to be and more. Many of them overcame challenges including deafness, chronic headaches, vision problems, family difficulties, etc. We will miss them!
Tuesday 21 amazing missionaries arrived, nine sisters and twelve Elders – the floodgates have opened! They are a great group of missionaries and we are thrilled to have them in our mission. We broke the training up over two days. We sent the Elders out with temporary trainers and interviewed the sisters and matched them to their trainers. The assistants suggested randomly matching the Elders and temporary trainers but Ted felt like he should get some inspirations about how to match them up. After spending a short time with the new missionaries and observing them during an orientation and lunch he got a good idea of their personalities and was able to make the temporary assignments. Wednesday the Elders came back, were interviewed and trained. It was interesting that after all was said and done every Elder ended up with their temporary trainer becoming their permanent trainer, which they were all very happy about. Everything went well but we were able to think of a few things we can improve on for next transfer when 37 missionaries arrive :)
This weekend we enjoyed visiting with some of our family as they have begun gathering for Shelly and Ian’s wedding Tuesday. They have been patient with us as we do our best to look after our missionaries at the same time.
Saturday and Sunday we attended the Huntington Beach Stake Conference, their stake was reorganized this weekend so Elder Golden and Elder Reynolds were at conference. It is such a tender time for all involved when a stake presidency is released. These amazing men have served for nine years and the stake president was a counselor for nine years prior to becoming the stake president – eighteen years is a long time to serve in a presidency. President Parker has been a leader who has served the people of his stake with love and compassion. We were asked to each take about five minutes in the Saturday night session. It was great to hear from the outgoing stake presidency, the newly sustained stake presidency, Elder Reynolds and Elder Golden. Elder Reynolds reminded everyone that the word sustain comes from the root to feed. When we sustain someone to their calling we are doing much more than just giving our approval, we are saying that we will encourage them, uphold them and help them to be successful.
The talks were all great but some of the moments where I learned the most from the conference were when I was taught by the actions of those I was observing. Someone once said, “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” The Gospel was preached through words at the conference but even more impactful for me were the messages I was taught through the music of one of the most talented stake choirs in the Church and the sweet way Elder Golden greeted us with a tender hand shake and his kind, loving eyes. I will never forget President Parker aiding his wife as she struggled to gain composure as she was sharing her testimony, he rose from his seat on the stand and stood next to her at the pulpit with his hand around her waist. She was able to finish her heartfelt thoughts and we were all taught by both her words and President Parker’s actions.
We are looking forward to a very special week and appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers as we will need them :)
We love each of you!
The Long Beach Buberts
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