Tom and Debbie's Mission Blog: The Times are a changing

These few months reflect many changes that are occurring in our lives. On Sunday morning we were set apart as Senior Service Missionaries, just nine hours after returning home from our three week family history trip in Germany. We will be serving with the Temple Department, Planning Division. This will be a virtual mission, working from our home 3 days a week. This requires many other changes so that we can consolidate our other activities and fit in 20 to 30 hours each week for our mission. Along with this, we are seeing several family changes on the horizon. In September, within a week or two, we will have a new great granddaughter born (Mother - Sabrina), another granddaughter born (Mother - Pollyanna) and our son, Lamoni, married. One of our children told us that they have a job offer out of state and we're excited to see that work out for them. Families don't stay the same, they just get better!

Our missionary badges came in the mail while we were in Germany. We found them

just minutes before being set apart.

On the Thursday after General conference and President Nelson's announcement of 17 new temples, Debbie got a text from one of our missionary friends, Eileen Healy. She was asking us about our current life and plans. After a few texts back and forth we ended up with a video call with her and her husband. They are serving as stay at home virtual missionaries with the Temple Planning Division. This is a new group that was formed just one year ago to assist in implementing the many temples that President Nelson has announced. They were needing a couple that has Portuguese fluency to join their team. By the next day we received a phone call from Kari Stoltzenburg, who will be our new boss. We had a short conversation with her and scheduled a video chat the next Monday. Her first question on the Monday meeting was if I was related to Johann Andreas Rueckert. Of course, he is my great grandfather. It turns out he is Kari's 3rd great grandfather. So we will be working with my cousin. By Monday night, we had completed our missionary application. By the next Monday we were ready to talk to our bishop. On Tuesday, he asked us to speak at Church that following Sunday for a mission farewell. I think he needed speakers for that week and this made for a good solution. The following week we interviewed with the Stake Presidency and we were set apart as soon as we returned from our trip to Germany.

This has all happened very quickly, but many prayers have been answered and we have felt impressed that this is what the Lord wants us to do. They ordered computers for us before we left for Germany. We will pick them up next week. We have pondered several options over the past year or two, but this one seems to fit perfectly for us. It requires sacrifices, but we know that is part of serving the Lord. Perhaps the hardest sacrifice was to transfer our ordinance worker assignment from Wednesday to Thursday so that we can participate in Wednesday team meetings. We have been working with many of these ordinance workers for four years.

We don't know too much about our new assignment. It will require us to prepare planning documents and a PowerPoint presentation for each of the temples assigned to us. That most likely will include the six temples in Brazil and one in Mozambique, since they require interviews with local priesthood leaders. That is why they need a Portuguese speaker. We will know more when we get started, but we know that we have to cut down the time that we spend on personal gospel study and other activities that have filled up our lives over the last few years.

Description of our Service Mission Opportunity from the Church Website

We told them that we were leaving for Germany for a three week Family History research trip and they felt that it would give them time to get everything ready for us to start. So we spent a lot of time preparing for this family history trip. We just completed our three week family history trip three days ago. We will dedicate a separate blog to that trip.

Celebrating a new grandchild on the way:

In March, Pollyanna asked us to tend her two younger girls while she had an appointment. She didn't tell us what the appointment was. When we arrived we saw her girls with special shirts that made an announcement for us. A new baby is on the way, due on September 20, 10 days before the wedding of Pollyanna's twin brother. We enjoyed some time with these two precious girls while Pollyanna went to a visit with her obstetrician. It has been over a year since we had a new grandchild, so we are excited!

Little Haivyn is going to be a big sister!

Paisley is going to be a big sister again!

Debbie being an Oma, nurturing while tending

Right before leaving for Germany, we tended one more time while Pollyanna and Rick went to find out the gender of this new little baby. They came home and told us, but we can't reveal this. However, this was just posted on Social Media, so here it is:

As Pollyanna announced the upcoming birth, she received notification from Nilza that her daughter Sabrina, our oldest grandchild, was due one day after Pollyanna. She also will be having a daughter. That makes a granddaughter and a great granddaughter born essentially the same time, a week before Lamoni's wedding.

As mentioned in the first paragraph, another child has told us about a job offer out of state. We can't say anything more until that announcement is also posted on social media.

Family Reunion planning:

We have known that some of these changes were coming, so we are happy that we scheduled a family reunion for next month. This will be one more opportunity to have a lot of time with many of our children and grandchildren before things get more hectic. We have finished ordering shirts for everyone at the reunion. We count about 60 that will be in attendance, at least with a reunion shirt. The shirts have been designed by Amy Digerness, our daughter-in-law. The following is the latest design and basis for our order:

Thanksgiving Point:

When we held our Teenage Cousin Retreat last year, we bought a grandparent pass at Thanksgiving Point. It cost less than paying the admission for us and the 14 grandchildren that came with us. However, we justified it by taking others to Thanksgiving Point since then. That has included a few other trips, but the big plans were made for this past month. We took six of our grandchildren with us April 8 (right after our first discussion with Kari Stoltzenburg) and then had six families come with us on Saturday, April 30. These were great family activities that included catching butterflies and riding on ponies. In all, we went to four venues, Butterfly Biosphere, Farm Country, Ancient Life Museum and Museum of Natural Curiosity and had a lunch with each group. We certainly had a lot of fun and a small preview of our reunion next month. We love watching cousins get along and get to know each other better. We will have one more visit at Thanksgiving Point with our Pennsylvania family right after the June reunion. We certainly get our money's worth out of grandparents passes. Some of the photos follow:

Group photo with six grandchildren at the Museum of Natural Curiosity (Debbie taking photo)

Thirty of those present on April 30 (Tom taking photo) at the Museum of Ancient Life

Butterfly Biosphere:

Six siblings on April 8

Several grandchildren on the caterpillar

We got photos of many of our family with butterflies. I will include just a few of them:

Aria

Olivia

Jacob

Owen

Farm Country:

Cousins having fun together on the wagon ride

Again, we got photos of most of the grandchildren riding a horse. Just a few of the photos follow:

Jasper

Addie

Dawson

Kaleb

Serenity and Nik

Museum of Ancient Life:

Emily

Grandkids digging for dinosaur bones

Many grandkids digging for dinosaur bones, parents and teenagers watching

Temple Visits with family:

We once again were able to do baptisms for the dead with some of our grandchildren. This was at the Draper Temple. Unfortunately McKenzie wasn't able to be with us, but it was the first time having Abbie with our group.

A Selfie with all of us at the Draper Temple

The following came from my journal:

April 9, 2022

Tonight we just had an incredible experience at the temple with Debbie’s siblings and a few nephews with their wives.

We try to do a sealing session every three to four months. It has been about five months since our last one, so we were overdue. Since Gary and LuAnn have retired they have been able to be much more engaged in temple work, greatly adding to the number of individuals who were ready to be sealed to spouses or parents.

As I scheduled this date and started to prepare the sealing cards, I found that we had many more sealings to do than we could do in one session. I asked Debbie’s siblings if we could do back to back sessions and they were supportive. Since we had six of us committed to go, I invited them to invite one of their children to participate with us. Both Doug and Gary had another couple invited Doug’s son Nate and his wife and Gary’s son Micah and his wife.

With ten of us participating, I added more people to our reservation and we moved forward. As I started looking at the work to be performed, we had several families with multiple children to be sealed. Gary suggested that we could divide into two groups to use our time better. Gary arrived before us and already arranged it with the sealing office. Gary brought quite a few additional sealings to perform and LuAnn brought several. We clearly had more than we could perform this day.

We decided to let each of the five couples do 4 couple sealings in our first sessions. Then we would focus on child to parent sealings more in a combined group second sealing session. We got a late start on the first session, either we were waiting for the temple or they were waiting for us. However, we finished the first session about 20 minutes late. They then put the ten of us together with a temple sealer with the surname of Schwitzer. We then were pleased to learn that he had served a mission in Germany and could pronounce the German names, which is always a great blessing. As we were already late starting and clearly going over our reserved time, Brother Schwitzer was so patient and kind. He was in no hurry and was willing to continue until the ordinances were all completed.

As we got started, he allowed me to organize the work in a meaningful way. We were able to do a couple sealing and then follow it with sealings of their children to the parents. This allowed us to seal 7 families together, first as a couple and then the children. One family had six children, 3 had four children, one had 3 and two more had 2 children. We were also able to seal six other children to their parents in addition to these families. In total, in the two sessions, we were able to perform proxy work for 27 couple sealings and 31 children to their parents. After finishing these, we still had 5 couples and 15 more children to seal at a later date. Many of these were Hubschmanns and Atzerodts, families that we first identified 4 years ago. It takes a long time to get so many of these ordinances performed.

That is the facts. My feelings were much greater. My heart was full as I feel like the emphasis on this saving work for the Moeller family has been accepted fully by all that were present. For the two younger couples, it was the first time that they had participated in child to parent sealings.

Because of the number of individuals that we had present, we could seal all of the children to their parents in one ordinance, with sufficient proxies and witnesses in that room. Of the ten individuals in the room, seven had the surname of Moeller and two had the maiden name of Moeller. I was the only one who had not had this name in my life, but I am privileged to be married to my favorite Moeller. This made it much easier for the sealer to identify the proxies in the ordinances since they were almost all Moellers.

As I was able to participate in the six children being sealed to their parents, I felt an overwhelming feeling of love from all involved and the clear presence of those on the other side. In fact the sealing room was filled with joy from each person in the room, seen and unseen. Words cannot express those feelings which were shared by all. As we identify our ancestors, the excitement is addictive. As we strive to serve those on the other side of the veil, the joy is real. When we witness these culminating sealing ordinances, that culminating joy is indescribable.

We had dinner together at a Chinese restaurant after the sealing sessions. My fortune cookie said “Angels are among us; when you find them, cherish their presence everyday.” How fitting for this special experience.

Since last October we have been blessed to identify more than 120 additional direct ancestors from one of Debbie’s 3rd great grandmothers. Some of these have now been sealed, many more will come. This marvelous work will continue throughout the millennium.

The ten of us that did sealings together

Special Times with Debbie:

After our April 30 activity with our children and grandchildren, Debbie and I spent the rest of the evening celebrating 23 years since we were sealed together. Since we were not able to go to the temple that day, we decided to visit temples in Utah county before going to dinner and to the play of Camelot at the Orem Hale Center Theatre.

I really enjoyed the story of Camelot. It represents people who wanted to do good, King Arthur, Sir Lancelot and Lady Guinevere. However, they made some mistakes that they could not fix. As I pondered this plot, I realized that all of us are in this predicament. We try to do good and in the process we err. The only way to resolve this is through a Savior, even Jesus Christ. He will look at our hearts and pay for our sins. With him, if our hearts are right, we can live "a happy ever after" even though we are imperfect.

Mt. Timpanogas Temple

Provo Temple

Provo City Center Temple

We really enjoyed this play.

Earlier that week, Debbie and I also went to Thanksgiving Point to enjoy the tulip festival. although all of the tulips were not in bloom, my wife was.

One of the better fields of tulips

Debbie in front of one of the larger beds of tulips

Together with the tulips behind us

Just a few days before that we were able to take a tour through a life size exhibit of the Old Testament Tabernacle that was set up in Bountiful. This really added meaning to our Come Follow Me study about the tabernacle a few weeks later. I had been able to attend the same exhibit earlier in the week with the Temple Planning Division.

The Planning Division participating in the tour at the gate to the tabernacle

In front of the location of the altar of the burnt offerings (Temple Planning Division)

With the tabernacle behind us

In the Holy Place, the table of incense and veil to the Holy of Holies

Before leaving for Germany we went to lunch with my mother. There we could celebrate Mothers Day for my mother and the mother of our children. On the actual mothers day, we were in Germany.

My favorite two women in my life enjoying a lunch at the Cheesecake Factory

My mother has a special love for daffodils. This was a special of photo of her by our daffodils.

Our daffodils did much better than our tulips this year

Special Occasions with Grandchildren:

We were overjoyed to receive a special invite from our grandsons to be present as they received their patriarchal blessings. We love the way that Joseph and Joshua are growing up, faithful and true to the Lord in their lives. This was even more special because Patriarch Grundvig is a special friend. I have known him since we both moved into West Jordan more than 40 years ago. He is the same patriarch that gave patriarchal blessings to Pollyanna and Jacob. We also learned that he and his wife are on the Thursday mid day temple shift that we will be joining. We will start out with at least one other couple that we know.

Joseph, Patriarch Grundvig, Joshua

Our grandson Jon has really enjoyed his theater class. This year they did an amazing performance about life in middle school. I was very impressed with the quality of the acting. We also learned a lot about life in middle school. It is a tough time in the life of a young teenager. In addition to the rest of the performance, Jon gave an excellent monologue.

Jon in a group scene

Jon doing his monologue

We also got to watch Addie perform in her play. She was Cinderella, the primary part for this play. She knew all of her parts, but unfortunately her microphone didn't work. She still gave all of her lines, using a hand held mic.

A beautiful Cinderella

Asleep while everyone was looking for her

Giving her big part after she was "found" by those looking for her

While Beckie and Jason got away for her birthday, we had their three kids spend the night with us. We were the beneficiaries of the goodness of these children.

McKenzie looking at her Great Grandma's journals. Fun for her and very special for Great Grandma

Kaleb teaching us in the Come Follow Me devotional that they prepared for us

Family Activities:

Beckie and her family put on a family home evening for us at the end of March. The theme was "My Favorite Thing". Each person shared one of their favorite things. It was a great success!

Dan sharing his favorite tool

River sharing a lego Jeep

Joshua sharing his favorite thing, his scriptures

Tiare enjoying her little cousins, Gina's twins

In April we had our traditional Easter Dinner. We love getting our family together. They all seem to enjoy being with each other. This makes grandparents hearts happy.