March 16, 2015

Hello family,

Hope everyone is doing well. Sounds like the Arkansas cousins will be having spring break next week. I remember you kids always looking forward to a few days out of school. I think the schools here may be out this week.

We are settled here but it has been a long week. We have been out visiting mostly less active members. Trying to find some to reactivate. Also looking for some leadership for this branch. We are wondering how to help things get better here...... So you returned missionaries - help!

On the upside we have been teaching a couple the Temple Preparation Course. We have two more lessons this week and this coming Saturday (the 21st) they are being sealed in the Kansas City Temple. They are so excited and it has been rewarding to see their enthusiasm about the temple. There will be a couple of more people to take the course soon.

Last Friday was our two month mark in the mission and our 33 year mark in church membership. It's amazing how fast the years have gone by. Joining the church was the best thing we ever did. I wouldn't change a thing!

Tomorrow we go to Salina, KS for a "Specialized Training" meeting. We have weekly District Meetings there but tomorrow is something different. Maybe we will get some new insight about how to be a successful missionary :)

Today has been very nice. It reached about 84 degrees. It has been super nice for several days.
I do hope winter is over. I love having the windows open.

Sorry this is so short this time. We are doing good. We will write more soon.
Love you all,
Mom

Transfers!

4 March 2015

Hello family and friends,

As some of you know we have been transferred to Concordia, KS. We were very surprised because we expected to be in one place our whole mission, but here we are. We left Lamar, Colorado last Sunday evening and drove to Dodge City in heavy snow all the way. Then we went on to Wichita the next morning. 

Our last Sunday in Lamar was a very sweet day. Everyone was shocked and saddened that we were leaving. We had many sincere and tender goodbyes. We did make a lot of friends in the five weeks we were there.

We may have told you about Brother and Sister Beard in a previous letter. We met Karen and Brad on our very first day - in fact they were the first family we visited. They have not been to church for several years, We have been visiting them, and we have developed a close friendship. They live fifty miles from the chapel, but they have started coming on Sundays again now. Sister Beard had a serious back injury that caused constant pain, and she could not stand or walk without help. She has needed an operation since early November but has not been able to get insurance approval and could not get the hospital to schedule the surgery. She requested that Elder Gorden give her a blessing. After she was anointed with oil, he blessed her that the pain would subside and that the surgery would be scheduled without further delay. He promised that she would have a successful operation and her health would be restored. It was an exceptionally spiritual experience for all of us. 

She told us two days later that she had slept well for the first nights in many months. The next Monday after the blessing on Friday night, the insurance company called to tell her the hospital would be in touch with them to schedule the surgery. On Tuesday the hospital did call, and arranged for the surgery on February 23^rd in Wichita. We told her we would go with them to the hospital. (What we did not realize was that it would be a one-way trip for us.) Her surgery was very complicated and complex. They opened through her stomach to repair two discs in her back, then turned her over and operated through her back to insert metal rods in her spine. The whole procedure was done without any problems and was completed in less time than expected. She was walking down the hospital hall with us the next day. All four of us feel that they are the reason we were assigned to the Lamar ward for that time. The Beards want us to go with them when they attend the temple for the first time later this year in Denver. Of course, we happily await that day.

After taking an extra day off in Wichita, we traveled on to our new area. Concordia is about two hours north of Wichita in North Central Kansas. The population is about 5,000, and it is an old town with lots of old, large homes. We actually live in one that has been turned into a duplex. It is a quaint little town with lots of character. Unlike the flat High Plains of Colorado, there is a lot more "life" here, but it still has its challenges. There are many small towns around us, and the distances are not as difficult as they were in Lamar.

The branch is small with only about 35-40 people in attendance at church. There are about 6 youth total and 4 or 5 kids in primary. It is nothing like what we are used to in Rogers. We were pleased to see that the few members that attend seem very solid. The Branch President has already asked us to teach a Temple Preparation Class like we just did in Lamar, so we have our lessons already prepared.

One of the first people we met Sunday was a counselor in the branch presidency, and the first thing he told us was we have a speaking assignment in Sacrament meeting next Sunday. They are obviously hungry to hear from someone new!

We traveled to Salina, Kansas, Tuesday morning for our weekly District Meeting. There were 10 of us. We enjoyed meeting with that group of missionaries. Tuesday night we fixed dinner for the young elders, and we had our first meeting with the branch mission leader. He is a policeman and was wearing his uniform. Before our meeting he gave us an interesting demonstration of his taser. The charge emits for a full five seconds. That seemed SO long when he showed us. It would be well not to ever be on the receiving end of a taser!

On Sunday, it was announced that there is a branch temple trip to the Kansas City Temple on March 21^st. We hope we might see some of you there. The next temple trip for the Concordia Branch is to the Winter Quarters Temple in Omaha. We are about the same distance from both.  

It is time to head out the door to see some people this morning. We are going to two little towns called Belleville and Scandia. We hope you are all doing well and prospering. We are always thinking of you. 

Love,

Elder Gorden & Sister Gorden

Copy of Letter to Grandchildren from Elder Gorden

16 February 2015

Hi Kids,                        

I thought you might be wondering what it is like where Grandma and I are serving our mission, so I am writing to tell you a little about our area in Colorado.

The town we live in is called Lamar.  It is where the ward church building is located but our boundaries are gianormous.  If our ward was a state in the 50 United States like (Arkansas or Arizona), it is larger than eight of the other states. That is just our ward boundaries - not our stake! Our town of Lamar is not very big. It would take almost NINE Lamars to make one Rogers.

A Typical (nice) house in Lamar

Everything here is really old. A house people would call new  would still be over 20 years old. Our house is called a four-plex. That means it is a building divided into four living areas. We are upstairs  but only six steps up. The one below us is mostly underground. We think this building is about 50 years old, but it is pretty clean - just old. So maybe we won’t get cooties or anything.  :>)             

Main Street in Lamar                                          

All of the streets are really wide in town. Most of the other little towns around in our ward boundaries have DIRT streets, and they look SO poor. We can’t figure out why people want to live here by choice. Maybe they got hypnotized on accident by staring at a windmill or something.

 We travel on a LOT of dirt roads.

The land is really flat. Really, really flat. We see tumbleweeds, and jackrabbits, and prairie dogs, and coyotes. The clouds are really low to the ground here. It is not because the clouds are low, but the land is higher. We are about a half mile higher here than in Arkansas.  We thought it would be really cold and snowy, but it is not any different than home really. Everyone says is doesn’t rain very much here. That’s good, I guess, because all those dirt roads would be very muddy.

     We get to travel a lot and see the scenery. It ALL looks just like this! 

When we drive to the South part of our ward we pass two big windmill farms. They are so huge. If the windmill blades were propellers on an airplane, the plane would be too big to land at the airport!

We have been drinking bottled water, since the water from the faucet doesn’t taste very good. That is because it has so many minerals in it. There are cows here, but they don’t graze in the pastures. I guess it is because there isn’t enough water for them to drink or grass to eat. So they raise cattle on feed lots.  Those are big fenced-in pens where all the cows are grouped together, and they feed them in the pens until they are big enough to go to McDonalds. The bad part is that feed lots stink really, really bad because there is a WHOLE BUNCH of cow poo all in one place. When the wind blows you can smell them all over town. That is not the best thing.

Grandma likes to walk every morning, and she takes me, too. We go to a gym in the community center building, and we walk around the halls. She walks very fast. I try to keep up, but it is almost impossible. Sometimes other people are walking, too. She walks faster than all of them. I like to tell other people about the church while we are walking.

 Hey, Grandma, wait for me!

We have been meeting lots of good people. Many people in our ward don’t come to church. Some of them live 30 miles or 50 miles or 80 miles from our chapel. Part of our job is to get them to come back again. We already got one couple to come back, and we are working with several others. We are also teaching a non-member about the church. That is really fun. She and her new husband live very far away. Yesterday we had an appointment with them, but they overslept and could not hear the door from their bedroom in the basement. Our trip there and back was about 150 miles, and took about 3 hours of driving. We don t mind driving far to teach people, but it isn’t real fun when they aren’t there.

Grandma looked pretty on Valentines Day.

Two weeks ago both of us spoke in sacrament meeting. Last Sunday I taught a priesthood class. Tonight we are teaching a class to prepare people who are going to the temple for the first time. Also the bishop has asked me to help him start a Boy Scout troop (because we do not have one yet). Grandma is helping with some things in Primary, too.

I saw a boy at the gym that looked just like me when I was a kid!

We took a day off to Pueblo Colorado at a nice Riverwalk.

We have been visiting one man and lady in our ward who have not come to church for about 5 years. She hurt her back real bad and needs a big operation. She has not been able to walk except a little at home sometimes, and she hurts a lot. She has not been able to get the operation she needs to fix her back because her doctor can’t get the insurance to pay for it. She has been trying since last Thanksgiving. She asked me for a blessing to help her. I blessed her to stop hurting so much. I promised her the operation would get approved and everything would be okay. She told me she slept well that night for the first time in a long time. She doesn’t hurt so much, and she has been to church for the last two weeks now. The next Tuesday after the blessing, the hospital called and her surgery operation is scheduled for next week in Wichita. Priesthood blessings can heal people if they just ask for it with faith. Grandma and I are going to go to Wichita with them when she goes to the hospital.          

You could jump across the Arkansas River at Lamar.

Do you remember how big the Arkansas River is? When it comes through our state of Arkansas at Little Rock, big ships carry cargo all the way to and from the Mississippi River and to the Gulf of Mexico. The same Arkansas River comes right though Lamar Colorado, too. But here it is so small you could not even float a canoe in it.

I hope you all are saying your prayers and reading your scriptures and having family night and wearing your seatbelts and brushing your teeth and keeping your shoes tied so you don t fall down when you walk.  Those are the main things to always do. But, don t get gum in your hair and don t put mashed potatoes in your ears. And most of all - don t sing with your mouth full. Except for those things, everything else is okay to do.

Write us a letter soon. I love you very much!

Week 4

Dear kids,

Hello, we just looked out the door and we are getting snow tonight! It has been really cold today.  Yesterday it was in the 60's - seems kind of like Arkansas. There are big drops in the temperature when it gets dark. 

Dad wrote a long happy letter to all the grandkids last night and will mail it Tuesday (because there is no mail tomorrow). It is addressed to the grandkids, but it is for everyone to read. 

We taught our third temple preparation class tonight. We have a good little group of five people. A family of three, a young girl about to go on a mission and a single lady in her seventies. She is playing 'bunco' with her friends and was worried if that would keep her from going to the Temple! She was so cute and had tears running down her face when we told her we thought it was totally fine if she played bunko. It was really sweet and you could just see the relief on her face when we told her we thought it was fine.☺️

We have spent a lot of time driving this past week - way out in the country on long, dusty dirt roads. We drove almost 20 miles each way yesterday, out to a farm, to have a lady tell us she doesn't believe in the LDS faith anymore then kind of backed herself back into the house and said 'have a good day'! We felt like saying, "Do you know how far we drove to visit you and that's all you have to say?" Maybe she will think about it and call us back. We can hope, right? 

We found another sister that was very friendly and could be active again if she is given a little attention and love. So we will see what we can do to help her return.

We had a 'linger longer' after church today. It was pretty good and a lot of people stayed. This was the first ward activity they've had since Christmas and people were hungry to visit and be together. We have to help get more activities going on around here. There just isn't much to invite people to other than church. 

This weekend is the "Snow Goose Festival." We will have to report to you next week on what that annual event is like. The elders quorum is getting ready to go "shooting." You boys get your guns and hurry on out here!

We were in this little bitty town yesterday called "Wiley." It only has nine business there, and everyone else in that town works here in Lamar unless they are a farmer. There is one little cafe on the corner and it is called Willie's BBQ, so we thought we would check it out. It was 1:50 and they were to close at 2:00. It was surprisingly good! They wanted to know if it compared to Memphis BBQ (not quite but pretty good, but we told them yes). I think that might be the best restaurant we've found so far. It is too bad it isn't open in the evening because that is usually when we need something to do. They are very nice people though. Willie's in Wiley. Haha

The young mother we are teaching, about 75 miles from here, is doing well. She hasn't been able to get to church in two weeks, though. They are having automobile problems, and if they come with his parents the young dad has to ride in the back of the pickup because they can't get 4 adults and a baby in the cab of the truck. This morning it was about 15 degrees - a little too cold to ride in the back of a truck. She is reading the assignments we give her and seems to be very interested in the gospel. They are just having trouble getting back to church. There's so many challenges for some people!

This snow is making us feel cold. Our electric blanket is going to feel good tonight. We are doing well here. Let us hear from you all. It is time to see little faces again :).

Take care. We love you!

Mom and Dad

Week 3

Hello,

How is everyone? We are doing well.

We have had a good week here in the mission. We have traveled a lot of miles for sure.
Some of the people have over 80 miles to travel to church. That is so far. But a few families do it.

One family in particular hasn't been around for several years. We have been to visit them twice. They live 50 miles away in Syracuse, Kansas. The bishopric also visited them earlier in the week. The wife is waiting to have back surgery. She has been in terrible pain and couldn't even sit up in a chair. She has been getting the run around between the insurance company and her doctors since before Christmas. Anyway, Dad gave her a blessing Thursday night to reduce her pain, resolve the red tape, and ensure successful surgery soon. It was very spiritual and all were in tears. The husband even helped with the blessing which was a miracle in itself. She said she realized the Lord is trying to tell her something with so many visits in so short a time.  We checked on her yesterday and she said she had the best nights sleep that night than she has had in months! And the insurance company called her on Friday! Anyway without a lot more details, they were in church today. It was really good to see them. And they enjoyed the meeting. We know things will continue to work out for them, and they will keep coming.

We are teaching another young girl. She has been married about a year and just had a baby three weeks ago. Her husband is inactive but his parents come about 50% (they live with his parents). We are scheduled to go back this week and teach her again. She seems interested to know more. She really likes the idea of Eternal families. So we are anxious to see how she continues to learn. By the way they named their baby boy Tygre. Yep, pronounced like Tiger.

We had several more visits. Taught a few other lessons. It felt like we actually accomplished something this week. So many people aren't home when we go to see them, and those days feel so wasted when you have driven so far. But everyone in these parts drives far to go anywhere. Dad may have told you last week this stake is the size of New Jersey - over 10,000 square miles! Crazy for sure.

We are working on memorizing the 42 points of doctrine that are taught in the lessons in the Preach My Gospel manual. It is not the lessons we are memorizing, but the heading of each topic in each lesson. We are doing better than we thought we would actually. Just a little concentration and lots of prayers. We feel like we know it but the real test will come when we go to District Meeting Tuesday see how much we remember. 😳

We have been getting fed a lot by the members. Too much, in fact. Last night we went to the home of the Elders Quorum president. It was the third time they have fed us. He fancies himself a gourmet cook, and he makes some really good meals. Last night we had hamburgers, but it was like having 2/3 pound of meat on each bun. He had the toppings IN the burger - onions jalapeños, cheddar cheese, seasonings and who knows what else. We always leave there too full. The Mission Diet doesn't seem to be a weight loss plan. But I am determined to not gain 20 pounds while here!

We are ready for more face time with each of you. A week seems to long to go without seeing you all. Thanks for sending pictures occasionally. We love them.

Take care, love
Mom and Dad

Week 2 - Pictures

Elder & Sister Gorden & Bishop Anderson

The Lamar, CO Elders! Elder Lott & Elder Blaylock helping Elder Gorden make chili on Preparation Day.

Week 1

17 January 2015

Hello family and friends,

                                                                                     

We hope everyone is doing well back at home.

Tuesday night we arrived in Lamar about 6:30 and unpacked the car. The car was so full that Dad said he couldn’t take off his hat until we arrived because there was nowhere to put it! After we put a few things away we headed to the local Walmart for a few groceries. It is a small Supercenter, and they don’t have as much selection as we are used to, but it is new and nice and we are very grateful to have it.

This town is very old. There has not been any new home construction at all in many years because the population has been shrinking rather than growing. It is unusual that every part of town only has very old homes. It reminds Mom of Atlanta, TX where Grandma and Granddaddy Jackson lived.  We hear a train go by several times a day. There is an old steam train engine at the Lamar visitors center. The kids would enjoy seeing it. Dad is disappointed that it is rusting badly, though. 

We live in a 4-plex apartment. We live upstairs, but the downstairs is more than halfway underground so we aren’t really on the second floor. It is at least 50 years old, but it has tons of storage areas. Mom  told Rifka she would have a ball playing hide-n-seek with the kids in here. Downstairs is a young couple that got married in December and they are members of the ward. We meet them at the church Wednesday night. They meet at “Especially For Youth” when they were about 15 years old. It was fun to hear their story. We haven’t met the other neighbors yet.

We had our first dinner appointment last night at the Young Mens President’s home. He has been married about three years and is from Lamar. His wife is a ward missionary. They are both really sweet and dinner was delicious. They also had the sister missionaries and the young missionary elders over. It was a fun dinner appointment. 

We meet the bishop Wednesday evening. He invited us to ward council meeting Sunday morning, then we will meet with him after church to go over the ward roster to become familiar with those that need contacting. I think we have our work cut out for us. We have discovered there are 165 households and 105 are not active! Our ward boundaries are larger than our stake boundaries at home - before we split the stake! We identified that 89 families live in Lamar and 76 families live in other areas. Many members live at least 50 miles from Lamar, and some people are as far as 80 miles from here. How is that for an obstacle to being active? 

Wednesday we drove the young missionary elders to Holly, Colorado and Syracuse, Kansas to visit some families. We also traveled out of town a ways today and talked to an inactive lady and tried to locate some others on the rolls. We made an appointment to go back Monday afternoon to teach her about the Plan of Salvation. Hopefully she will remember why she was baptized so many years ago, and she will want to come back. We shall see...

This Thursday is the Zone Conference in Garden City. It is about two hours away (100 miles). Maybe we can finally meet and talk to out Mission President. We haven’t heard anything from him so far.

We don’t have any internet here at the house yet. Dad has been working on that problem all week seems like. This place is so old I don’t know what we’ll be able to get here. But we are doing okay, and we are adjusting to a new town, new people and new schedule. This is a very friendly town. We talk to people and make friends everywhere we go - so that is good. 

We want to hear from you all. We can do face time with any of you. The best times for that will be Mondays and after church on Sundays. Take care, we miss you and love you all!

Elder and Sister Gorden