Last year when we moved from Alameda, CA to New York to start our mission service it was right in the middle of the hot and humid summer so Spring has been a very pleasant surprise! I don’t think it lasts for long (see below) but I’m enjoying it while I can!
Ha Ha!
and to think I complained a time or two about it being too hot or too cold in the Bay Area đŸ™‚
April 2019 Transfers and a new Teuscher Missionary
April was an exciting month for us here in the mission and at home! We had the usual zone conferences, new missionaries arriving and a group finishing up all of which are wonderful, but in addition our son Isaac received his mission call! I put together this video and showed it at zone conference. We talked about what the call to serve means, the memories we each had opening the call and how our understanding of what that call means has deepened with time and experience. Plus it was a fun way to let the missionaries know where Isaac will be serving! I posted the video on our Mission Facebook Page. Here is the link if you want to see it. https://www.facebook.com/NEWYORKCITYMISSION/videos/350177488954350/
Here are a couple of the zones singing “Called to Serve” at Zone Conference. Unfortunately I didn’t remember to take a video at each of the conferences, so only about 1/2 of the missionaries are in the videos.
I am constantly amazed at the willingness of these missionaries to leave behind the typical teenage/young-adult life for a while and come and do something that is hard but so worth while! My training this zone conference was about doing hard things, about understanding the need for opposition in all things and about how we need it to grow and become stronger and reach our goals. I told a personal experience about when I was training for a big bike ride called “the Death Ride.” In order to complete the ride you had to be able to climb 5 mountain passes (about 15,000 ft. of climb over about 130 miles). It was hard! The only way I was able to accomplish that goal was by riding up hills for my training and using the resistance those hills provided to get stronger and better at riding up hill! It is such a basic analogy, but it is true–we need hard things in order to grow. We talk a lot about doing hard things and how it can shape our character and help us grow into a better version of ourselves. That is really what the gospel is all about. It is about growth and progression and becoming something more–more like our Savior Jesus Christ. We become more like Him as we choose to have faith in him, follow what he asks us to do, repent, change and grow. Doing hard things is cool, Repentance (or in other words, change and progression) is cool! Missions are cool! We are super grateful for the new missionaries who arrived this transfer to begin their journey and also for the group that served so well and is heading home, having done hard things and having become even better versions of themselves than when they started.
All of us experience various kinds of opposition that test us. Some of these tests are temptations to sin. Some are mortal challenges apart from personal sin. Some are very great. Some are minor. Some are continuous, and some are mere episodes. None of us is exempt. Opposition permits us to grow toward what our Heavenly Father would have us become.
Dallin H. Oaks: Opposition in All Things, April 2016
New Arrivals
Sister Proctor 
Elder Hodgden 
Elder Harrell 
Hermana Bastian 
Sister Liu
Heading Home
New York, New York City Mission 
Gayle, Thanks for sharing. It is way cool. Congratulations to Isaac on his mission call. The Careys
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Wahooooo! Wonderful news Isaac. I am so very happy for you!
Gayle, your video is wonderful. It touched me and amazed me at the same time. Sharing the gospel on the subway sounds terrifying. Kudos to the courage and testimony the missionaries have.
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