The Mission Home

Valerie and Allyson in "California Dreamin'"

Valerie and Allyson got to perform in the Indland Empire Dance Festival, "California Dreamin.'" Valerie and I are in the middle; Valerie on the left in the lime green dress and Allyson on the right in the hot pink dress. This was our first night performing, the next night went much better, but Valerie and I still had a really fun time. Our group was the Swing Dance (Laurels and Priests) we are dancing to "Barbara Anne/Surfin' USA."
Enjoy! - Allyson

President and Sister Reeves with (left to right) Elders Heggie, Walker, Torres, and Richardson.

Our first outgoing missionaries at our new mission home. We had them only three weeks, but we miss them! Pictured left to right: Elders Whitaker, Murphy, Baird, Stucki, and Cutler.

Mom's Mission Newsletter (email)

To our DEAR family and friends, July 20, 2008

We can never thank you enough for all of your kindnesses to us! What wonderful, loving friends and relatives you are. Thank you for all the help we received in moving and your love and friendship over the years. You are all so dear to us.

We have been in the mission now for 23 days! It is going sooo quickly! We love it here! The house is very nice and comfortable in a lovely neighborhood. The yard is gorgeous (on an acre) with a lovely view out one direction. It is plenty hot here, but we love it! (108 on Saturday and rising!) I think we were ready to be thawed out! Our NEW ADDRESS is: 16580 Hoffa Lane, Riverside, CA 92504

We have twelve zones in the mission, which spread out over our mission. For those of you familiar with California, our mission starts just east of San Bernardino, includes such cities and areas as, Highland, Loma Linda, Redlands, Yucaipa, Riverside, Corona, Norco, Temecula, Marietta Hot Springs, Palm Springs, Desert Hot Springs, 29 Palms, Indio, Blythe and Borego Springs, by the Salton Sea. Our farthest distance is about 2 hours each direction.

Each day during our first week and a half, we traveled to each area and attended both a 9:00 a.m. meeting with one zone, then a 1:30 p.m. meeting in another. Each zone has between ten or fourteen missionaries. All missionaries are young men who give up two years and young women, who give up a year and half, to teach about Jesus Christ and his restored Gospel. They are mostly between the ages of 19 and 23 years old. Our AP's (assistants to the president) have been fabulous! We can't say enough good about them! They are so mature, both spiritually and emotionally. They have helped us with every detail, have set up all the meetings, conducted them, lead us by driving in front of us, and spoken to and counseled all the missionaries. We can't believe they are both only 20 years old! They are incredible and will be great leaders throughout their lives, we are sure. They are exceptional young men. We feel so blessed.

At our meetings, we get to hear from each missionary as he/she tells about him/herself and tells of a spiritual missionary experience. We hear where they are from, where they have served here and some experiences thay have had. They also get to hear from each of us, Ryan and the twins included and our Eric (22 years old) trains them, as he did when he served his mission in Nicaragua. Mel and I also speak and we show a FASCINATING DVD about our family!!! We think it's the most exciting part! (Our POOR AP's have now seen it ten times and have two more times to go!) We think our missionaries are so terrific! What great spirits they have about them! We love our new ward, which has been so friendly and great to our kids. They have a very small YMYW (Church Youth Organization), so they were thrilled to have Valerie, Allyson and Ryan join them! The ward is very missionary-minded, which we are so grateful for.

Mel and I attended two wonderful baptisms on our second night in Riverside. This was a very sweet experience. We were also able to attend two different baptisms our second Sunday, as well as attend the sacrament meetings of two Spanish units--a ward and a very large branch. We both had the opportunity to bear our testimonies in Spanish, which was a sweet experience. (For those of you that are impressed, I find bearing my testimony is fairly easy, because you don't have to carry on a conversation with anyone and you already know in English what it is you are going to say. I find it MUCH harder to converse in a conversation and even listening to speakers in the meeting is quite challenging. Reading is much easier, as you can go at your own pace. Speakers never go at the pace I want! I will say that it is getting easier, however. We attended another Spanish ward this past Sunday (our third); we were asked to speak again. I am finally starting to understand in Sunday School class. People speak a little more slowly than in Sacrament meeting!

WHERE does the time go! Here I am several days later trying to finish up this email. Actually, we still feel that life is more relaxing than it has been the last six months of our lives, trying to fix up our home, pack everything up to be stored, study Spanish each day and be tutored in Spanish and Preach My Gospel four days a week, Now, we get to concentrate full-time on our wonderful missionaries, our three children still at home, our new wards throughout the mission and our own missionary work. Getting to leave behind "the world" is very exhilarating and so wonderful! Our missionaries, however, are now facing sharing the gospel amid the Church's position on the "definition of marriage" amendment on the November ballot (Proposition 8)--the California voter's decision that was overturned by four judges in the California Supreme Court! We hope that those who oppose the bill will support it for the fact that four judges have tried to overturn this decision voted for by 61% of the California voters in 2000! Amazing that somehow these judges have been allowed this kind of power. For those of you who know me well, this is the kind of challenge I am happy to be involved in for the sake of righteousness and helping the Lord's kingdom to continue to be established here in "now liberal" California.

Yesterday we sent home our first group of missionaries--five of the most outstanding young men! We LOVED hearing their amazing testimonies and experiences from their missions. They left at 4:30 a.m. this morning. We then picked up eight new missionaries at the Ontario Airport at noon! They are great and excited! We felt like parents waiting for their missionaries to come home after two years of faithful service! It was soooo fun! We trained them today and President Reeves announced their new trainers this afternoon. It was so great to see the love and excitement of each elder receiving his "greenie". Pres. Reeves tells the trainers this is the most important leadership assignment in the mission. Mel felt great after completing transfers of missionaries into new companionships this past weekend--a draining experience that took most of last week to prayerfully make the decisions that involved changing nearly one third of the mission! We only have six sister missionaries, so they all stayed in their current zones with current companions. They are all so great!

In the past week, our missionaries have experienced several backing-up car accidents (minor), a broken wrist, hernia surgery and an all-day emergency room visit (which gave me a chance to get to know these two missionaries very well!), stomach flu and homesickness among a few newer missionaries. We LOVED being able to be with two of our zones of elders and sisters in the beautiful Redlands Temple last Friday morning!!! How BLESSED we are to have a temple in our mission!!!

Valerie, Allyson and Ryan have been welcomed with open arms! They have been wakeboarding, to the beach with cousins and sisters, attended a multitude of regional dance festival practices which will be held in two more weeks at the University of Redlands football field and girls camp, and Boy Scout camp meetings. The twins are counselors for girls camp and Ryan is working behind the scenes for the dance festival; the twins will be dancing. We are grateful for all the wonderful people who have loved our kids into the ward and stake. Except for the very first Sunday, they attend Church without us, as we travel around and visit other ward congregations. We loved being able to meet all twelve Stake Presidents and their wives this past Sunday. They were all so great to drive to Moreno Valley to our friends, the Rowley's home, to meet with us. We can hardly believe that we get to rub shoulders with so many wonderful, amazing people! Our new "area authority" is Bill Reynolds, from our old Pasadena days when were were newlyweds. He is a great man and happens to be our Grandpa Bob's doctor, besides.

Our children have been so great to be understanding and supportive. Julie and Brett, Sully and Laurie and their families came to the house the day we moved in and stayed out in the yard while we were being instructed by dear President and Sister Ewer, the outgoing President and wife. Both of their families had to leave, due to work, but got a very quick tour of the house first. We have not seen them since, because of our schedule. Life has been a little on the wild side, but we LOVE EVERY MINUTE!!! The Lord has blessed us so much; we can hardly believe we are having this incredible opportunity.

Thank you to all of you for your influence in our lives. We LOVE YOU ALL and hope all is well in your families.

All our love, Mel, Linda, Eric, Allyson, Valerie and Ryan

Jessica and Reid Anderson are working in Provo, UT. School in the fall and an Africa service trip in September for a month.
Eric left last week for a month in Nicaragua (his mission area) before returning to school (George Wyth)
Greg is in Provo working for the summer and looking for full-time employment. He graduated with a business degree in April.
Jon and Leah Reeves: Hoboken, New Jersey, Jon is attending Rutchers Law School and works for Goldman Sachs.
Jennifer and Nyall London: SLC area. Jen still works as a nurse at the U of Utah, where Nyall attends med school. (2 daughters)
Carrie and Brian Warnick: Brian, as CPA in Denver with their son and daughter and another boy on the way.
Laurie and Sully Stacey: Sully a policeman in Fontana, CA with their four children.
Mike and Jenny Reeves: Mike a Computer guy in Eagle, ID with their three girls. They lost their darling James last August (11 days old) A new baby boy due this August.
Julie and Brett Bourgeous: Policeman in Arcadia; they still live in Fontana, CA with their five children.