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