Thinking of a Senior Mission?

 Hi all,

     The best bonus of being a senior missionary . . .  is being able to visit family!

We serve and then we are free to enjoy other “good things.”

     I will share our last 2 weeks that have been so full and fabulous.  

     We love our visits to different wards throughout our mission.  A couple Sundays ago we drove 45 minutes and were able to sit in on 2 sacrament meetings and introduce ourselves and our employment services to 4 Relief Society groups / 4 Elder Quorum groups.  We love these weekly outings where we see beautiful church buildings and meet so many wonderful saints.  

     We enjoyed meeting with the other senior missionaries for a potluck dinner and to hear how one couple has been serving to make connections with consuls (similar to ambassadors) from 72 countries here in San Francisco.  They have many amazing stories. 

The Fotheringhams are pictured here in the center with representatives from Lithuania. 

When the church couldn't get clearance for Elder Patrick Kearon and his wife to get into Kazakhstan, they called Elder Fotheringham to see if he had any connection to this country.  He made one phone call and within a short amount of time the visas were processed.  Another time they had several guests from Vietnam who wanted to see our temple so they took them to walk around the gardens on the second level of the temple, then inside the Visitor Center to hear from some senior missionaries and listen to 3 Elders sing a hymn in Vietnamese.  Then two sister missionaries sang, "I Am  A Child of God" in English.  The spirit flooded the room like these guests had never experienced before.  They didn't know what was going on and began pulling out their phones to take pictures of the sisters, the room, and each other.  It was the only thing they could think to do.  

     When we served at the Visitor Center, a gal came in that recognized me.  She reminded me that we sat at the same table while eating dinner at the Greek Festival down the hill and I had invited her to come see the Visitor Center. She brought friends and the sisters gave them a tour.   I only had ten minutes before she had another appointment to tell her all I could squeeze in.  She grew up with no religion herself so I told her about our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, apostles, the restoration, the Book of Mormon, priesthood, and living prophets.  She was astounded but receptive to hear all this, and accepted a Book of Mormon.  I hope we can meet with her again.  

    

      Kayleigh came to visit with her husband and 2 little girls.  We enjoyed showing them around Temple Hill where Kora, their 2 1/2 year old loved the Christus, the movie about Forever Families,  the roof top gardens on the temple, and the water fountains.  The following day we saw all the fun sights in San Francisco - sea lions, shops, soup and sourdough bread at Boudins near the wharf, chasing waves in the little cove below Ghirardelli Square, then going for a cable car ride.  Afterwards, we drove down the crookedest street and up to Coit Tower overlooking the city and bay area.  We drove across Golden Gate Bridge to take some pictures before heading home to fix supper, paint Kora's nails and take her for a swim.

     We went to the closest church in our town of Antioch.  There used to be 5 wards, now there is only one ward left and it is mostly older folks with very few families.  There was no nursery, only 3 kids in Primary and I'm not sure I saw any Young Men/Young Women.  We took a picnic to the park, then put on a nice meal with pie to celebrate Father's Day.  We got a call from our missionary, Amy, "Hermana Jerman" serving just a few hours south of us.  We also got to talk to my folks on a group call with my siblings.  

     We got to spend a quiet day at Pacifica Beach to enjoy the warm sun, sea breeze, waves to chase in, and sand to build towers and tunnels.  Further down the beach there is a Taco Bell right on the beach front so we enjoyed some food on the patio while watching the surfers.  Then said our goodbyes and had our hugs as we dropped them off at the airport in their sandy swimsuits!

     The following day we were back at our mission service with going in an hour early for a meeting with our advisors in Salt Lake.  Then we stayed after doing office work and working on resumes for an extra 2 hours before driving another 30 minutes away to meet a Filipino family of 3, to help them with their resumes and job search.  Funny story -  we missed the exit, so circled back when suddenly Roger's  phone died.  I didn't have any contact information so we had to pull over and wait several minutes for his phone to recharge before we could see where to drive.  We didn't finish early enough to drive home before English Connect class so we found a shop that sold hot sandwiches and pie. Oh yum!

     After that full day, our office was closed for Juneteenth, so we packed our bags and flew home.  We got to spend a day with our kids in the canyon and at our home, then another couple days in Logan paddling around Cutler Reservoir, enjoying family time in the Godfrey’s backyard with dutch oven dinner, then being their again for the baby blessing of Jason and Taya's baby boy Finn. 

Just tellin' ya, senior missions are the best! 

     Love, Elder and Sister Jerman