December 17, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,                            

We have successfully made our transfer to Pratt, Kansas. We are unpacked and ready to get busy. Friday night was our arrival. We are living in another duplex. It is much newer, nicer and cleaner than the one in Concordia. It is about the same size, but the kitchen is slightly smaller but more modern. We are happy with it. There is still lots of floor space for air mattresses and visitors..... so bring your bedding and come to see us. 

Moving from Concordia

The young missionaries serving here are two sisters. They told us about a Branch Breakfast happening Saturday morning so we went. What lucky timing was that! It was their Christmas party, and we met some really nice people. They were very excited to have a missionary couple. They had senior missionaries about a year-and-a-half ago and have been wanting another couple ever since. The Relief Society President told me, " You know we prayed you here?" She is a sweet little short lady. She wanted to know what we needed - furniture, dishes, anything. Mom assured her we were all set. The mission office has taken good care of us. We received a very warm welcome here.

Sunday they had us speak for just a minute to introduce ourselves, and they asked Dad to give a short Christmas message. About half of this branch is children, mostly younger primary age. It was great to see and hear little ones again.

Wednesday night Mom and the sister missionaries went to the Young Women activity. The leaders had to be out of town, so they needed help to come and be with the THREE girls they have. It was fun. They are made some hot chocolate mixes to give away during their Christmas caroling next week.

We went to Wichita Tuesday to finish our Christmas shopping. It was a nice day, and we now have everything bought and wrapped. The last package was put in the mail Wednesday. We have been surprised at how fast things have arrived to everyone this year.

Brother Clause came to the Branch Christmas Breakfast

Next Tuesday we go to Wichita again to a Christmas Zone Conference. We always receive a couple of talks in the mail from the mission office to read before these meetings.  The two this time are on the Atonement and  on Grace . One is by Elder Holland and one by Brad Wilcox. Dad was surprised that the mission president was going to teach from a Wilcox talk since he is not a general authority, but after reading it he was very impressed with the message.

We have heard in February another general authority is coming. It made Mom laugh when she heard it because Jared recently said nobody is coming to their stake conference. “We don't get general authorities every three months like you do, Mom!”  We think it will be Elder Richard J. Maynes of the Presidency of the Seventy. He spoke in General Conference in October. We are looking forward to that meeting.

Dad was called as the Branch Mission Leader here Sunday before church started, and he was sustained in Sacrament meeting. He was also asked to teach the Gospel Principles Sunday School class starting in January. There are several new converts here, and that is exciting. We even have a baptism happening on Christmas Eve at 12:30pm. The man getting baptized was talking about it in Priesthood meeting Sunday and is very excited. What a nice Christmas present for him. Dad is putting together the program and will conduct the service.

We went back to Salina this weekend to a Christmas Symphony with Ken and Donna Hansen, our Branch President from Concordia and his wife. It was their Christmas present to us, and it was very, very nice. There was a variety of music (mostly Christmas), and they performed some Mannheim Steamroller pieces that could not have sounded better if it were the ‘rollers themselves! 

With President & Sister Hansen at the Symphony

The Hansens said many people in the branch were saying how much they missed us already. There are some really nice people there, including a few we regret having to abandon. Kansas is a very different culture, and Concordia might be the most “different” place in Kansas. We are excited to be starting over in Pratt.

The Salina Symphony

Speaking of Kansas culture, we learned some disturbing news about a sweet young sister missionary that we served with briefly during our time in Lamar, Colorado. Sister Marcum had to go home early because she was very ill. She lost 25 pounds in a month. After returning home she found out that one of her previous companions from a few months earlier had also become sick with the same symptoms. It was discovered that they gotten parasites from a dinner at a family’s home in eastern Kansas. They remembered asking the host what was the strange meat they were eating. They were unashamedly told that it was road kill! Seriously. The girl will never be the same. She even has parasites in her heart and other organs. 

Well that is not a good story to end a letter, but we are out of news. Today we are heading out to sign up for some volunteer work in the community. This little town is such a pleasant contrast to where we have been before. People smile and speak when they see us. They don’t look at our name tags and sneer like in Concordia. There were several local ministers there who spoke negatively about our church to their congregations on a regular basis. Here in Pratt, the attitude is much more positive. Our branch president is active in the local Ministers Alliance, and he has made many friends. Apparently the volunteer work we do has had a good effect, too. So we are all in!

Sister Gorden is ready for Christmas

 We getting some light snow today - slow and steady. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Love to you all,

Elder and Sister Gorden
17 Dec 2015

November 30, 2015

Hello kids,

How is everyone? We are freezing here in Kansas. It has been nothing but ice and cold since Thanksgiving morning, but all is well. We had sacrament meeting only today. There were twenty members in church this morning. Snow is suppose to be falling by about 10:00pm and for most of the night. So we might wake up to a beautiful snowfall.

Our Thanksgiving in the mission was different, but it was good. We went to the church at noon for a lunch. There were about seventeen people there. It was Thanksgiving and one we won't forget. Food always brings out people that you don’t see at any other time. One man in his fifties came with his mother. He was very quiet until he was leaving and he hollered, “Thanks everybody. That was a Damn Good Meal!” His mother wanted to crawl under the table.

After the church meal we left for a 2:00pm appointment at some members’ home for a more traditional dinner. It was very good, and we had some good fellowship. We went around the table before we ate, and everyone shared something they were thankful for. Some very nice words were shared in our behalf by the hosts. It was nice to say the least.

A picture with President Bell, but the photographer was apparently shaky.

This Friday night we go to Wichita for a Christmas devotional and party for just the senior missionaries in the whole mission. We just barely missed it last year. It should be nice. It will be the first time we have been to the Mission Home. 

We met with our mission president last Tuesday afternoon and expressed how not busy we are here and told him a little bit about what it was like for us in Concordia. We told him that after much fasting and prayer and attending the temple our answer was to come talk to him. He asked if we wanted to transfer somewhere else. Our answer was that we wanted that to be his decision, not ours. After talking for a few more minutes he said, "This may be an answer to prayer," and he asked if we would be willing to transfer to Pratt, KS.

We are excited at the opportunity to relocate and try to make our mission something we can say we loved when we go home. As soon as housing is found we will be moving - probably in the next week or so. The housing coordinators have to find a place in Lawrence, KS for some other missionaries first, and then they will go to Pratt to find housing for us.

We attended several meetings with the new apostle, Elder Gary Stevenson in late October. 

Pratt is about and hour and a half west of Wichita. From what we hear, we are headed to an area where there are lots of cowboys and cattle feed lots - the latter of which we experienced in Lamar. It is not the best aroma in the world, but the hope is that we will be too busy to notice these next seven months. We can get fresh air later. Ha ha.

Pratt is a little branch where about 65 people attend on Sundays, but it is growing rapidly from baptisms, re-activations, and move-ins. They have been begging for a senior couple since the last ones went home about six months ago. Several couples have gone home with no more coming to replace them. The Branch President promises to keep us busy. We are very ready for that.

We do believe many prayers have been answered. Thank you for your prayers in our behalf, also. We really appreciate them!

We have to get packing now. One day soon they will call to say they are coming to move our stuff. We will be sitting on the front porch waiting for them!

Love to you all. Stay in touch please!

Mom and Dad

July 5, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Hello, we are starting our sixth month of the mission. The wheat is being harvested. Every direction we go all we see is miles and miles of wheat fields. It is very pretty. Think of the line in our National Anthem "amber Waves of grain". That is what we see. It is so pretty especially when the wind is blowing you can see waves and waves of wheat. It is pretty cool. Soon we will be seeing waves of corn!

The gospel principles classes we are teaching on Wednesday and Thursday evenings are going well. We have one (non member) man that attends each week. The missionaries had been teaching him, but recently they stopped visiting him because he wasn’t progressing. We stopped by and invited him to our class. He decided to come because his air conditioner was broken, and the church was cool. His a/c is fixed but he still comes every week.  Now he is actually coming to Sacrament meeting as well. We are hopeful he will continue to have that desire to learn more and his understanding will grow.  Actually all the people that attend seem very eager to learn. You can tell some concepts they have never thought about. It is amazing to see how the members soak up some of the very basics of the gospel, and it is fun to watch each of their faces as they learn new things or come to a new realization about something they already knew. We learn a lot, too.

Elder Gorden playing the hymn's at the night class.

Sister Gorden participating in the class reading.

We enjoy teaching the classes, and Elder Gorden spends many hours each week preparing. This week’s lesson helped them understand how the Fall was a necessary part of Heavenly Father’s plan to bring to pass our immortality and eternal life. We used the example of a traffic light that won’t turn from red to green. You sit and wait, and then back up hoping to trip the switch to change it. You wait longer, and back up again. You have to be at your destination, but you don’t want to break the law. How long do you wait? Eventually you have to go through the red light. Isn’t that what Eve realized? They were never going to arrive at their destination of having children and experiencing all that life holds for us. They could never appreciate good things without being faced with the undesirable alternatives, too. Going through her “red light” wasn’t a sin, but it was a transgression of the law. Most of the world doesn’t understand that Eve was a heroine. Their fall was an essential part of God’s Plan of Happiness. It was pre-planned in the councils of heaven.  

 We went to Omaha, Nebraska last week and attended the Winter Quarters Temple. It was a great trip, and we very much enjoyed our time in the temple.  Our temple visit happened to be during the same week we were teaching about the Fall in our weekly classes.  It had never really connected with us before that Lucifer thought he was frustrating God’s plan by persuading them to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but when Eve realized that what they had done was actually PART of God’s plan for us, it seemed that the devil was surprised that he had been “punked.” 

At the Winter Quarter's Temple in Omaha.

We are looking forward to attending the Denver Temple later this month. We are going with the couple, Brad and Karen Beard, from Lamar, Colorado, that we help return to activity in the church back in January. We drove to their home in Western Kansas on June 20th, and taught them the fifth lesson of the temple preparation course (about how the Lord uses symbols to teach us). They are excited to be sealed in the temple and we are very excited to be able to go with them and be their Escorts.

We went to watch the little fireworks show at the Concordia fairgrounds Friday night. We found a good place to park where there was a live band playing. Dad thought they sounded good even before we got close enough to see them, and he was even more impressed to see that there were only three musicians making so much sound. Then one of their Moms told us they were only 16 years old, and it became really impressive. They were a Christian rock band. 

As it started getting dark we were disappointed that there were so many bright lights between us and the direction of the fireworks, so we decided to find a better location to park. We drove to the other side of the fairgrounds just outside of town and found a little dirt road we turned down. There was a small field in front of us and several other cars parked a short distance away off to our side. It was very dark, but we could see some clusters of barricades that looked like they were stored in the small field. They looked the size of track hurdles but were wooden and had red tape on them. We pull up to them and parked. Immediately we noticed a small mob of men approaching us rapidly. They told us we couldn’t park there. It turned out that the barricades were actually the fireworks they were about to ignite by remote!

Our branch president’s father died last week, and we went to the funeral in Salina. We were the only members of our branch at the service. It was a sweet experience, and we felt the Spirit strongly. Funerals in our church are such a contrast to others because of the joy we all feel from knowing the separation is for only a small moment. They are a good family.  He was 91.  

We are out of news for now so we will close with a spiritual thought from our lesson about the Creation. Genesis 2:20 says “And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.”  Have you ever wondered why it says “help meet” instead of “helpmate” or “helper?” Most other Bible translations do state “helper.” {NIV says: “But for Adam no suitable helper was found.” RSV says: “but for the man there was not found a helper fit for him.”}

In our preparation for that lesson last week we learned that translating the word from the original Hebrew the meaning is quite different than “helper.” Our favorite reference was from a BYU-I Education Week presentation ("The Family Under Siege: The Role of Men and Women," by Bruce Satterfield). He said the phrase “help meet for him” translates the Hebrew words “ezer kenegdo.” Ezer literally means, “help.” However, kenegdo, translated “meet for him,” literally means ‘opposite as to him’ or ‘corresponding as to him’.

So the phrase “help meet” means “an equal but opposite helper to him.” To make it simple, think of your left hand as the “help meet” to your right hand; both hands look alike except they are exactly opposite. Both hands are equal but opposite. This is so that they might work better together. Imagine how limited you would be having two right hands. The “help meet” of the right wing of an airplane is the left wing; they look exactly the same except they are opposite each other. Both wings are equal but opposite. This is so that the airplane can fly. One wing is no more important than the other. The same is true with man and woman. Man’s “help meet” is woman. Both are equal but opposite. It requires both to fulfill the role of parenthood!

We are so overjoyed that each of our children have found their perfect Help Meet. We know that because of the restoration of the church and the authority of the priesthood, temple marriages and the family relationship are not until death do us part, but can continue throughout all eternity..

One of the things that the Lord has commanded us to do is to multiply and replenish the earth, that we might have joy in our posterity.

We did, and we do!
             
All our love,

Mom and Dad

June 8, 2015

Dear family and friends,

We are getting continually busier here in the mission. We are constantly finding new ways to make ourselves useful. There are always meetings to attend. We spend a lot of time driving, and the scenery is the same in every direction. Right now there are wheat fields galore! The wheat is getting tall (knee high is tall), and harvesting should begin in about two weeks we are told.

The wheat fields are starting to be ready to harvest. Sunsets are always radiant in Kansas.

A couple of weeks ago the whole mission was privileged to attend a meeting with Elder Don R. Clarke of the First Quorum of the Seventy and Brother Lee Donaldson of the missionary department. It was a five hour meeting and most of us wished it could have been longer. They taught so many wonderful things. It was a very spiritual day with instruction, stories, laughter and much doctrine taught. To share one memorable thing he said: “If you don’t like the Sabbath Day, you will hate the Millennium!”

One of the many things that stood out to us was how proud we are of our five boys. Elder Clarke was teaching the missionaries that they should maintain the same standards when they return home from the mission. One of the things he mentioned was to always keep being a representative of the Lord in appearance, in testimony, in love, and in behavior. He stressed how people who are truly converted to the Lord never fall away. The mission should change us for life. You boys have maintained all that in our eyes. Thank you! We are so proud of all our ten children and now fourteen grandchildren.

We have a weekly District Meeting on Tuesdays. Our district includes us and eight young Elders and two Sister missionaries. After the meetings we usually all go to lunch together somewhere or sometimes get take-out and bring it back to the church to eat. At the end of the month the missionaries are always out of money, though, and they bring peanut butter or Ramen noodles, etc. So last week we made a big pot of Sloppy Joe meat and fed all the missionaries sandwiches, slaw, and potato chips with a big pan of brownies for dessert. They were pretty happy. It is always fun to feed them.  They get very excited about food, and they were all very sincere in expressing their gratitude to us.

We enjoyed lunch at Wendy's with the missionaries after District Meeting.

We had a baptism scheduled for May 30th. Mom was asked to give a talk and she had it well prepared. Dad was appointed to conduct, and the font was filled with water.  Quite a few members came - some from long distances. Everyone was there and ready and waiting. It soon became evident that the soon to be new member was not going to show up, and he was not answering his phone. On the previous day he had confirmed that he was definitely coming. We were shocked as we have never heard of anything like that. Actually this was his second time to not show up. The same thing happened in May when we were out of town.  We really felt bad for the Elders that had taught him. The Zone Leaders had driven up from Salina to attend also. We all went to Dairy Queen afterwards to get ice cream to help ease the disappointment. We are learning that things are a little different around these parts. :>)

While the Zone Leaders were in town they were invited to get in Dads neck tie bag. They were very happy to take home new ties. Elder Gorden’s reputation for distinctive ties is growing throughout the mission!

The zone leaders got new ties at our house. Elder Brown (next to Elder Gorden) is from Australia. Elder Merrifield, from Utah, always says he doesn't get it when anyone tells a blonde joke. It's so funny!

Mom spoke in Sacrament Meeting last week. You know that is her favorite thing to do. Dad says each of her talks is even better than the last.  She can’t seem to go more than ten minutes, but it is a great ten minutes. Dad has often said that a lot of people give a good ten minute talk, but they give it for twenty minutes. :>) Next week she will teach Relief Society. She is getting her practice, for sure.

Last Wednesday the Elders moved in next door in our same duplex. We helped them along with a couple from the mission office. Their job is to find housing and furnishings and move the missionaries whenever they need to be transferred. This was not a transfer, though. It was just an opportunity to improve their accommodations.  After the move we all went to the local pizza place downtown. It must sound like we do a lot of eating around here. :>)

We love having the elders next door. They feel like our own boys and Mom wants to go over and check on them often, but we don't. They had dinner with us last night.

We made a stop at a place called Rock City. There are very strange round rock formations in a grassy area. Some are as big as a small house. 

We also helped another couple move last week. Several people in the branch helped, too. A few days before they had to move, the woman had emergency gall bladder surgery, so she did not get to finish her packing. That always makes it harder when the packing is not finished when the moving starts. At least Dad stayed out of the ambulance this time!

Our Wednesday evening Gospel Principles class is slowly growing. We've had it going for four weeks now, and last week we had 10 people there including one investigator. It was exciting to have more people attend. Three of them were from Beloit (about 45 minutes southwest of Concordia). Starting this week we are going to have a class there, too, on Thursday nights. There should be anywhere from 6-10 people at that one.

We are having it at the home of one of the members. Jess is a good man that has been inactive most of the time since he was a youth. We have had some really good meetings with him at his house and at ours, and he has made a commitment to become actively engaged. He actually passed the sacrament yesterday for the first time in about 32 years. He went with Dad to stake leadership and General Priesthood meeting in Salina on Saturday. You just never give up - no matter how long it takes.

Dad thoroughly enjoyed the meetings Saturday in Salina. He said it was very spiritual. Mom loves priesthood meetings, also. She was able to spend the afternoon in the local mall while waiting for Dad! Everyone was happy :>)

We have two teaching appointments this week. One tonight (Monday) and one Friday night. Tomorrow we will drive 80 miles to Junction City for a Zone Conference. All the missionaries (except senior couples) will be receiving iPads. It is still a pilot program, and our mission is one of the test areas. It will open a lot of areas of opportunity, and, of course, a lot of challenges, too. Our mission was reportedly selected for the testing because we have an exceptionally obedient missionary force. The missionaries are pretty excited about getting the technology to use in their work.

Sister Gorden in the kitchen at church with a couple of devoted sisters in our branch. 

Of all the things we have to be excited about, nothing surpasses our delight about the new addition to the family. Little Rudger was born six days ago, and we can’t wait to see him. Kelly has been amazing through this whole pregnancy. In light of her history with preeclampsia, Kelly and Spencer and the kids have all shown a lot of strength, and their attitude and courage has been exemplary. Elder Packer’s talk at General Conference reminded us of them when he said: “The commandment to multiply and replenish the earth has never been rescinded. It is essential to the plan of redemption and is the source of human happiness. Through the righteous exercise of this power, we may come close to our Father in Heaven and experience a fulness of joy, even godhood. The power of procreation is not an incidental part of the plan; it is the plan of happiness; it is the key to happiness.”

Later in his talk he said: “But romantic love is incomplete; it is a prelude. Love is nourished by the coming of children, who spring from that fountain of life entrusted to couples in marriage. Conception takes place in a wedded embrace between husband and wife. A tiny body begins to form after a pattern of magnificent complexity. A child comes forth in the miracle of birth, created in the image of its earthly father and mother. Within its mortal body is a spirit able to feel and perceive spiritual things."

Last month being with an apostle, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, and this month with Elder Clarke, we have been well-fed spiritually of late. Both of these brethren talked some about child raising and about marriage. More and more and even more all the time we are brought to realize how rare it is and how blessed we are to have five righteous children who were ALL married in the temple and are ALL active in the church. We fully expect the same outcome with all our grandchildren. 

Dad has said before, but never written, that parts of the scripture in Mosiah 4:13-14 seemed impossible when our kids were younger. It says, “And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another . . But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.” Sometimes it just didn’t seem that loving one another and serving one another was in their natures. But, behold! Now as adults, they do just exactly that! What a blessing it is to be parents of this amazing family.

Let us close this long letter with one final thought from Elder Packer’s talk. “And if you suppose that the full-blown rapture of young romantic love is the sum total of the possibilities which spring from the fountains of life, you have not yet lived to see the devotion and the comfort of longtime married love. . . Mature love has a bliss not even imagined by newlyweds.”

May the Lord bless each and every one of you.

All Our Love,
Elder and Sister Gorden

May 19, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Hello, it is a very cool, windy day here in Concordia. It feels like late Fall instead of early Summer. The heat will be coming soon enough, though, so we will enjoy this nice weather while we can.
We had a wonderful visit home to see our mothers for Mother’s Day. They are both doing well, and it was great to see them. We took Grandma Gorden out to eat on Friday and then spent a few hours shopping with her. She will be 91 in June, but she can shop like she’s 30! On Sunday all of Grandma Blackwell’s children and some of her grandchildren went to her church at Barton (Mississippi) Baptist Church. It made her so happy.  

We all went to Grandma's Church on Mothers Day.
Ron, Susie, Tom, Grandma Joyce, Logan, Steve, Sarah and Andrew (left to right)

We also enjoyed seeing a few of our other relatives, including three of our children and six of our grandchildren. If anyone is worried, we are not breaking any mission rules. Our mission president often tells the senior missionaries to get away - so this time we did!

It's not as bad as it looks!

A couple of nights ago Elder Gorden and the young missionaries were helping our next-door neighbor move across town. While unloading Elder Gorden stepped off the trailer backwards and fell causing a trip to the hospital emergency room. He injured his shoulder and had a laceration in his head that required eight staples, and there are several other large bruises and scrapes. He will be fine, just sore and achy. From what the missionaries say a fire truck, two police cars and the ambulance came! (Mom wasn’t there, and Dad doesn’t remember.) That was some big action for the little town of Concordia. We keep waiting to see if we made the front page of the local paper. :>)

The mission office intends to rent the place next door to us for the young missionaries to move into. It will be fun to have them closer, and it is nicer than their current apartment. They are sharp, obedient elders, and we love being around them. We enjoy spending time with them and having them over for meals, and they love to eat!

We previously reported about helping the Community Resource Center serve meals on Wednesday nights at the local First Christian Church. When we showed up for work the second week, we met the pastor who had not been there the previous week. He was very rude to us and took us into his chapel where he said we “need to talk.” Although the people who volunteer there and the people who come for meals are mostly not members of his church, he made it clear that we were not welcome there. He did not turn on the lights, and he was not nice at all. He never gave us a reason, but he seemed to think he knew more about our church than we did. It was sad to us that he harbors such anger.

Both of us still have the same companion
 after transfers were announced. 

Our first class at our new Wednesday night study group went well last week. It is fun to teach, and we look forward to seeing the attendance increase as the weeks go by. Dad has also been asked to prepare a 45 year-old brother to receive the Melchizedek priesthood in June, so he is enthusiastic about working with him for the next few weeks. 

We got a sweet letter from Brad and Karen Beard, the couple we met while serving in Lamar, Colorado. (See our letter from March 4th.)  It was great to hear they are doing well. She is healing from her surgery, and they are now fully active in church and both have assignments for serving in their ward. They are planning on attending the temple soon, and we will go with them. Our time with them was a wonderful, unforgettable experience for all of us.

Transfers are this week. There are no changes in Concordia, and only two in our Salina District - both because their time is up. We have the largest District in the Mission with twelve missionaries. It is fun to be with them. District meetings are every Tuesday in Salina, and we always have lunch together afterward. 

That is about all the news we have for now. Be good to each other. 

Love,
Elder & Sister Gorden

May 3, 2015

Hello family and friends,

Elder Chun got a surprise birthday
 cake at our house.

One of the missionaries that serves here in Concordia with us has a birthday this coming week, so we made him a birthday dinner and birthday cake. It is always fun to have the young missionaries over and visit with them.

We hope everyone is doing well. We have had a good week.  The highlight was a meeting with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Also present was Elder Craig Christiansen of the Presidency of the Seventy and Elder Dressler, our Area Authority, yesterday. If you've ever had the opportunity to sit in a meeting with Elder Holland then you know how exciting and spirit filled it was. He taught us some amazing things. His passion for missionary work is contagious. He was both forceful and funny, informative and inspiring. It is  rare to be taught by an apostle in person, and even more rare to get to shake one’s hand. 

When we filed through the fast-moving receiving line, Dad told Elder Christiansen, "We are Jared Gorden's parents." He pulled Dad in for a big hug and said, "You just elevated to a new level in my eyes." Jared is good friends with his son, and vacationed with their family in Mexico a few years ago. 

Elder Gorden with his big baby on his lap -
Elder Teleuga from Hawaii

We also had an opportunity to have dinner with all the senior couples on Friday night before our Saturday morning meeting. It was good to meet the other senior missionaries from all over the mission and to have a chance to visit with them. There were 29 at the gathering; that included 7 that work in the mission office.

Today Mom was set-apart for her new calling as a counselor in the Relief Society Presidency of our branch. She has already been put to work. Today she has several assignments to buy food for some needy families. She is waiting to learn what her other responsibilities will be. There is never a dull moment. 

We enjoy associating with the elders and sisters, and it was fun to be with all 220 missionaries of the Kansas Wichita Mission this weekend. We all posed for a group picture before the meeting. We should receive our copy soon.

We received a sweet letter from Camilla yesterday. It is always great to hear from the kids. Thank you, Camilla. We enjoy phone calls from Jackson almost weekly. It is always so sweet to talk to him and Charlie.  Jack often asks if we are "done being a missionary yet." We enjoyed Face-Time with Greg, Scott and Lucy the other night when Nick and Caleb's families were together celebrating Sam's first birthday. Our grand babies are the best!

Love to you all!

Elder and Sister Gorden

April 26th Letter

Hello Everyone,

We hope you are all doing well. We have finally received some much needed rain here, and the wheat is beginning to grow. We are anxious to see the “amber waves of grain” later this summer. We're also looking for those “fields of sunflowers” that Kansas is famous for having.

Dad found a great buy on a house for us, but Mom is not convinced yet.

We've had an interesting week, visiting less-actives from the middle of the farm lands to the middle of the jail and finding ourselves about to be chaperones for some members in their 70's wanting to have a date. We usually don't have any idea of what a particular day will bring. Looking forward our calendars are mostly empty but at the end of each day there is always plenty to record.

This past week we helped serve dinner for the homeless at a local Church of Christ. Well, they aren't exactly homeless, but once a week the community resource center has free meals for whoever needs one. They feed between 150-200 people we are told. It was an interesting environment, but some good may come from it as we get to know people.

Elder Chen getting himself arrested. Dad did not want to play that game.

On Friday this week we will start helping make deliveries for “Meals on Wheels” in Concordia. There are so many people that need help, but it is probably the same in every community. There are a lot of good people who look after the welfare of others, for sure.

So now we should have a lot of older and wiser family members. There were many birthdays this month. It is so funny how they are all right in a row for about a week. We could not have planned that even if we tried. It looks like April 13th and 14th are open if anyone wants to fill the gap there. :>)

It was wonderful having Kelly and the kids come to visit us during their Spring break.

Mom got a calling today. She was called to be the third counselor in the Relief Society Presidency. Our president lives 30 minutes or more to the north, the first counselor lives an hour and 15 minutes to the southeast and the second counselor lives about 45 minutes to the west. So Mom will be the”'local” Concordia counselor.  President Hansen, our Branch President, told her that one thing she will be able to help with is welfare assistance, such as buying groceries for members who need help. She has done that before but probably not as much of it as she will be doing here, because this area has an over-abundance of needy people. She may be living part time at Walmart.  :>)

We are starting a basic gospel study class on May 13th. It will be weekly on Wednesday evenings. We expect to have enough people come to have some good discussions. The majority of the members here are needing to understand the basics, and we hope to regularly have non-member visitors as well.  Dad has been busy working on the first several lessons to make sure it will be enjoyable, informative, and especially spiritual.

The two young Elders came over after church today for lunch. We had a pot of goulash and a new coconut pie recipe Mom tried on them. They liked it just fine!

Jared's family met us in Kansas City on our temple trip in March.

We have two teaching appointments this week. One is with a part-member family and the other with a less-active member. We are excited about that and hopeful there will be more. We have found a few others to teach but circumstances have postponed starting them yet. We found a delightful lady in jail. She was baptized when she was eight, but she has not attended since she was a child. Hopefully she will be acquitted of her charges. We heard about her from a policeman in our branch who did not know she was a member. He just felt strongly that he should send us to see her. She burst into tears when we walked in, and she told us she had been praying and praying that someone from the church would come to visit her. Dad gave her a priesthood blessing there in the jail. She is going to be okay.

We got a new District Leader a couple of weeks ago, and District Meetings have now become very enjoyable. They are held on Tuesday mornings in Salina, about an hour away. Salina is a bigger town, and we can do our shopping there for things not available in Concordia.

We were doing a little service project Wednesday for an elderly lady outside of town. We bought her a new ceiling fan because her old one had a broken blade, and she could not afford to replace it. She asked dad to fix it by taking a blade from another broken fan in a different room, but that would not work. As we were installing her new one she got a phone call from a man in the ward recently widowed. He wanted to take her to dinner and a movie. She was kind of shocked by the invitation and asked us what she should do. We asked her if she wanted to go, and she said no. She did not want to hurt his feelings, though, and she understands that he is lonely. We suggested that she simply tell him that she does not date, but she would be happy to be a part group outing if he wanted to get together that way. She liked our idea and told him that. Well, can you guess how that worked out? He called us (at her suggestion) and asked us to go to dinner and a movie with them. So now it seems we are going on a “double date” this Thursday. It sounds painful, but we are totally in a corner on this one. He asked her to sit with him in church today, but this morning she sent word that she wasn’t coming “because her cat is sick.” Oh-my-gosh! We will let you know how it all turns out.

Skies in Kansas often look threatening, but rain is rare.

We have an opportunity this coming weekend to go to Wichita for a special meeting with Elder Jeffrey R Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He is meeting with all the missionaries in the entire Kansas Wichita mission. He will also address the youth of this area in the afternoon and the priesthood leadership later that day. Everyone is super excited about that news, to say the least.

The elders and sisters in the mission are still talking about when Elder Bednar came and spoke to them last year. It seems unusual that another Apostle would come here again this soon, but, hey, we are so happy to be a part of it! We are not complaining!

We love you all and pray for you daily. We appreciate your calls, emails, letters, and children’s artwork. Please keep them coming.

Love,
Elder and Sister Gorden