Tom and Debbie's Mission Blog: A Basket Full of Activities and Memories (Anniversaries, Graduations, Service and a Granddaughter's Mission Call)

Over the last several months, we have celebrated two anniversaries, of our wedding and of our temple sealing. We also attended three high school graduations for our grandchildren, fortunately on three different, but consecutive days. Earlier in May, we watched our granddaughter read her mission call, as she was called to the Independence Missouri mission. We enjoy receiving weekly emails from our missionary grandson who is serving in Zimbabwe and we love teaching institute classes to Pathway students around the world.

In our recent General Conference we learned the following from Elder David A. Bednar: "As we align our character, desire, actions, and what we truly love more closely with God’s will, the Savior can bring about a comprehensive and complete change in us. . . As we follow, love, and serve the Savior, we gradually focus less on our own desires and interests and more on understanding and addressing the needs of others. We do not merely perform benevolent deeds, rather, our state of being is changed and becomes increasingly Christlike. Charity, then, ultimately possesses us."

One of our greatest desires is to possess and be possessed by Charity, the pure love of Jesus Christ. We still have a long way to go, but we must confess that serving others is our favorite activity, especially when we can serve together. We find joy in our service with our family, in our ward, in our community, on our mission, and for our ancestors on the other side of the veil.

WARNING: This is an extra long blog, since we haven't written for the last 4 months.

Our Church Service Mission:

We are still loving our mission opportunity to be instructors for Zoom institute classes for Pathway students throughout the world. We spent January and February teaching a class on “The Eternal Family A” to students from 7 different countries in the Pacific Area. In March and April, we taught the continuation class “The Eternal Family B” to 8 more students from different locations in Brazil. Now, in May and June, we just finished teaching “The Divine Gift of Forgiveness A” to students in Asia. We are edified by the faith and diligence of all of these students and have grown to love each of them in the short period of our 7-week courses. Next month we return to teach students in Utah, teaching "The Divine Gift of Forgiveness B. Tom will teach "Foundations of the Restoration B" to students in Brazil in Portuguese. This mission keeps us busy but brings many blessings to our lives.

The on-line institute teaching program of the Church has expanded rapidly since we began our mission 18 months ago. Our first supervisor, Scott Bird, was promoted at the end of last year and we received a new supervisor, LeAnne Brennan. Now we just got word that she has been promoted and we will have another supervisor. Before LeAnne moves on to her new assignment, we just held a testimony meeting with our fellow missionaries. It lasted for one hour, by design, but was full of witnesses from different teachers of the hand of the Lord in their own lives and the lives of their students. The joys and experiences that we are enjoying are also happening with all of the others.

Photo of our Zoom testimony meeting. Those who raise their electronic hand are the next to speak.

In this meeting we shared a shortened story of one of our students. We have so many. It seems that every class that we teach, we love all of the students, but there is usually one or two that stand out because ot their backgrounds and efforts to grow and progress in life. Often it is one who is overcoming tremendous challenges in their lives and is moving forward with tremendous faith. Other times, such as our current class, it is a friend to the Church who is learning about our faith and our doctrine through the institute class. In our testimony meeting we shared about a lady that we taught last November/December. She had suffered tremendous abuse in her childhood and has struggled with many mental health issues ever since. Although a member of our Church she had not been offering personal prayers or attending Church for years. As many are, she was very vulnerable in our gatherings, her reflection assignments and in one on one communications with us. By the end of our 7 week class, we had totally bonded with this lady who was overcoming her obstacles, one step at a time. She credits much of the progress she has been making to her institute classes. She is an amazing poet who writes lyrics to songs that express her personal battle and her understanding of the true source of light. Our current "friend" of the Church this term has expressed over and over again how she feels like she is leaving the darkness of her life and beginning to feel the light that she has experienced since taking our "religion" classes. To know faithful people like these is one of the greatest paybacks that we receive in our mission.

This photo is of an in-person dinner and in-service meeting with our fellow missionaries in early May

I also had the privilege to go to the temple with Jesse and Leonina Correa and their granddaughter who is also preparing to go on a mission. One of their close friends and relative, Brauila Ferreira, was also in attendance. Brauila is the daughter of the last person that I baptized on my mission over 50 years ago. This was an amazing privilege for me to meet the posterity of my young missionary efforts. Brauila also has three daughters who have gone to the temple. It is heart warming to see some of these results that came from my young mission so many years ago.

With Jesse and Leonina Correa (parents of one of Gina's missionary companions) and Brauila, daughter of my last baptism of my young mission

Missionary grandchildren:

What can be better than having a grandchild on a mission? Having two grandchildren on a mission!

Each week we are thrilled to receive weekly emails from Elder Joshua Digerness, who is serving in Zimbabwe. Each week he shares the challenges and joys of his mission. Always he shares an insightful summary and bears his testimony. This is one from early in the year:

“I wouldn't expect the ingredients of Jele, "toilet paper", sadza, indigestion, mud, and a Cook to work well together at all for a first week of the transfer, but with the special ingredient of Jesus I got to have an incredible week full of adventure, miracles, and overcoming obstacles. Each challenge became a story to tell. Every obstacle has brought me closer to Christ. As I have turned to my Father in prayer, my burden was made light and my week made incredible. It seems Elder John D. Amos of the Seventy was right, Jesus Christ truly is the key ingredient to the "Good News Recipe" of life. God loves you and I do too! As you turn to Him for help in your struggle He will ease your burden! I say this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen”

This one came from earlier this month:

“I got to share that same testimony about repentance in fast & testimony meeting and I added how weaknesses and trials are gifts from God. As Ether 12:27 teaches, God gives us weakness so we may be humble and turn to Him. Then, when we turn to Him he makes us strong. Some of the best people I know are the ones who have had the hardest lives. Pain and weakness have been wonderful blessings in my life because they have allowed me to come to know Jesus Christ.

32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

- Moroni 10:32

I KNOW that Jesus Christ is our redeemer. I don't know how I can make you feel this newfound conviction I have received of the Good Shepard. I testify with all the energy of my soul that I know that the power of the Atonement can change the heart of any sinner who pleads for Christ's mercy. I cannot deny this because I have seen His Atonement change me. I am now closer to Him than I have ever been before. Jesus Christ is our greatest friend, and with this knowledge I sit peacefully basking in the rays of a golden sky.”

In May, our granddaughter McKenzie opened her mission call to Independence Missouri, leaving at the end of October of this year. We are so happy for her. As she spoke with seven other seniors at her seminary graduation, we noted that 7 of the 8 that spoke already had their mission calls. The other one had made a conscious decision to pursue further education at this time. I pondered at what has happened as the missionary age for young men and young women have now been lowered to 18 years. This allows most high school seniors to prepare for missionary service even before they graduate with that opportunity only weeks or months away. We have seen social media posts from many high school groups around Utah who have many, many seniors who will soon be full-time missionaries. The number of young missionaries around the world continues to grow with over 50 new missions opening next month. We are seeing the amazing hand of the Lord at work with our youth to prepare the world for the second coming. We are grateful that we have grandchildren involved in this sacred work.

McKenzie at her seminary graduation

With McKenzie after she read her mission call the previous week

High School Graduations:

May 27, 28, and 29 were days to enjoy the graduations of three of our grandchildren. Jon Digerness was the first, on Wednesday. He graduated from Hillcrest High School, with his ceremony held at the Maverick Center in West Valley. He was followed with McKenzie graduating from Granger High School the very next day, also at the Maverick Center. Then on Friday, Natalia graduated from Murray High School. Her ceremony was held at the UVU Events Center in Orem, Utah. We are proud of all three of them. Interestingly, all three of them live outside of the school district for which they graduated.

Jon in his robe before the graduation ceremony

McKenzie without her robe after the graduation ceremony

Natalia with her robe before the graduation ceremony

Jon on the Jumbotron

McKenzie on the Jumbotron

Natalia on the Jumbotron

Grandparents (and Katelyn) watching the graduation ceremony for McKenzie. Notice that Debbie claps for every student whose name is called. She doesn't want anyone to feel forgotten.

Jon also surprised with his seminary graduation announcement, which occurred earlier this month (June):

With Jon at his seminary graduation

Marriage anniversaries:

Each Spring we are able to celebrate two of our anniversaries. This year it was the 28th anniversary of our marriage in the Jordan River Temple (March 12) and the 27th anniversary of our sealing in the Salt Lake Temple (April 30). We try to spend time in the temple for both of them as part of our celebration. After our marriage anniversary we were able to also enjoy the play, Hunchback of Notre Dame, at the Hale Center Theater. Since the Salt Lake Temple is still awaiting its rededication next year, we could not enter for a temple ordinance. However, we did some temple sealings on April 30 in the Jordan River Temple and were able to visit the newly opened visitors center next to the Salt Lake Temple on May 1. This extended our celebration by one day and gave us an opportunity to enjoy some amazing displays and the new "Inside the Temple Tour". This is created to give all an opportunity to see the inside of a temple and understand better what occurs inside these holy edifices. Now, everyone can have an “Open House” experience with the temple whenever they will take the time to visit the visitors center.

Celebrating 28 years since our marriage in the Jordan River Temple

Celebrating 27 years since our temple sealing with carrot cake

At the Visitors Center, Christus and the Salt Lake Temple behind

A wonderful image of young girl admiring the Christus Statue

With the new Statue of Jesus Christ sitting, created special for this visitors center

The inside image of the Salt Lake Temple with the temple in the background

The new statue of Jesus Christ carrying the cross

Temples with our grandchildren:

We love being in the temple with our grandchildren. Since our last blog, we were able to organize a trip at Brigham City, Jordan River, and Gina and Danny took Addie to Bismarck, North Dakota.

Ellie and Dawson at the Brigham City Temple while we were tending Dan and Amy's boys (Ashton in St. George)

McKenzie, Abbie, Kaleb, and Jasper at the Jordan River Temple (Jacob in Tennessee)

Addie with her parents at the Bismarck, North Dakota Temple (grandparents in Utah)

Family History to support our temple work:

Recently, I had a family history experience that reflects my limited capabilities and the Lord's grace in this great work on the other side of the veil. This relates to Veit and Barbara Creutz, Debbie's great . . . great grandparents. I will share what I recorded in my Come, Follow Me journal. I hope that it will help us understand the goodness of God.

I have consistently found that God’s ways are higher than my ways and His thoughts are higher than my thoughts. A small recent example is my assuming that Veit Creutz married Mrs. Barbara Gott in 1649 based on a few limited observations of a misunderstood image in the middle of German marriage records in Marlishausen. I knew that Veit Creutz was Debbie's great . . . great grandfather. We went ahead and received the endowment ordinances for this couple in the temple. Then an email appeared with a message of text recognition becoming available on archion.de. I tried it on this record and found how faulty my thinking was. After I got the transcription, I put it into Google Translate and found that:

This was not a marriage record, but a record of a donation by Veit Creutz and his wife Barbara.
Barbara had most likely been married to Veit for many years, since I could not find a death record for a previous wife.
The word Gott was not her previously married name but who (God) their donation was dedicated to.

I found that my thinking was totally erroneous. I believe that the Lord rewarded my efforts, including our performing the temple ordinances for them, by sending me a message that could lead me to the truth of this record. This allowed us to put the correct name on the record before sealing them together and made it clear that identified daughters likely came from this marriage.

Thankfully, the Lord knew who should receive the ordinances, even if I had submitted an erroneous surname.

Email that I received from ARCHION, a German provider with whom I have a subscription

The image that I had found, identifying the name of Veit Creutz and what I thought was Barbara Gott. This is also the text recognition that their new software provided for me.

The following is what Google Translate said this German transcription was saying. It was not a marriage record, but a donation record, stuck in the middle of marriage records:

"In the year 1649, on the 24th of December, Mr. Veit Creutz and his wife, Barbara, presented a silver chalice to God—for their own good remembrance, as well as that of their children—in our church here; accompanying it, they also donated a small white cloth embroidered with red silk. May God reward them and their children for this, both here in this life and hereafter eternally."

Spring and Easter family activity:

On the week before General Conference, we enjoyed a family activity hosted by Beckie and Giovanna and their families. We just attended and enjoyed our posterity. It was wonderful! It included a tasty breakfast, Easter Egg hunts with an Easter theme, and games hosted by Giovanna. It was the first of our full family activities with minimal Grandparent involvement.

The activity started with a yummy breakfast!

Then the younger kids started an easter egg hunt

Even Austin, our youngest grandchild, joined in, helped by his sister, Paisley

and Liam, who is 5 months older than Austin

Teenagers looked for eggs with Easter story clues

One led them to the site where tables were overturned by Jesus Christ

Scooping up easter eggs with your eyes closed for teens and . . .

. . . for adults

Younger children walking with an egg in their spoon for . . .

a prize in the big carrot, a cup of treats for every success

Memorial Day:

Our Memorial Day weekend was full and rewarding. We were asked to organize a neighborhood breakfast in celebration of the 250th birthday of our nation. Our assigned group was 24 condos close to our condo. We had wonderful neighbors who did most of the leg work. Everyone brought an abundance of food for the breakfast. The only hiccup was when the wind blew over the canopies that we had set up. 19 of the 24 condos were represented at the breakfast. This started our weekend right on Saturday morning.

Serving food from the neighbor's patio

Eating together on neighboring parking pads (without canopies)

We then went to our granddaughter Sophia's 6th birthday party, prepared in a Brazilian way:

Sophia with her biological Brazilian grandma and her American grandparents

Sophia with her parents and brother

On Memorial Day (Monday) we went to see graves as we normally do. Jacob and Deb came with us also. Pollyanna's family went later in the day to see Great Grandma Rueckert's grave.

Debbie at her parents' grave

With Jacob and Deb at the Rueckert plots, including my parents, grandparents, great grandparents and uncles.

Pollyanna's kids enjoying the "Rueckert Plot" later that day

Finally we spent the afternoon at Jacob and Deb's house for a family barbecue. We have enjoyed this tradition for the family in the Salt Lake Valley. This year we had about 16 there, which is a good gathering for most families. We are grateful for Jacob and Deb's efforts to promote more family activities.

Nice backyard setup

Moroni, Pollyanna, Aide and her sister

Ben with Jacob cooking

River and his family in the foreground

Lamoni with three of his nieces

Moroni on his motorcycle on Memorial Day, now his primary mode of transportation

Other activities for the parents:

We get involved in a lot of other things. A few deserve to be mentioned here.

Passover dinner: For example, our daughter Beckie invited us over for Passover dinner followed by an amazing Easter presentation at their stake center.

Passover dinner hosted by Beckie and her family

Solemn Assembly: We loved General Conference which included a solemn assembly to sustain our new prophet, President Dallin H. Oaks.

President Dallin H. Oaks as we sustained him as the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The First Presidency sustaining themselves

GOP State Delegates: Debbie and I also served as State Delegates for the Republican Party. When we went to our neighborhood precinct meeting, there were only 11 individuals present. We all had to accept the different positions that needed to be fulfilled. Debbie and I decided to accept the role of 2 of the 3 state delegates. It turned out to be a good idea, as we were able to serve together. We attended gatherings of candidates for our congressional district and then spent all of April 25 in the GOP State Convention at UVU. This was my first experience in this role and I found it quite interesting.

Attending a debate of 4 candidates for our congressional district

State Delegates at the GOP Nominating Convention

At the UVU Convention Center for 9 hours

Emergency Drills: Debbie is our Block Captain in our neighborhood. On June 6 we had a drill, where the eight units of our block were to meet in front of our condo at 8:00 am as if there was an emergency. Residents of five of the units complied, two others had their green card in their window and one was in the hospital, which we were aware of. We were pleased to see such good participation.

Some of our neighbors meting in front of our condo for our emergency preparedness drill

Andrew Rueckert: On March 8, we were privileged to attend the baby blessing for Andrew Rueckert, son of James Rueckert. This is the grandson of my older brother Albert Andrew Rueckert who has been deceased for 25 years. It was really cool to see his grandson named after him and to have it occur in the Church. I think that Andy would have been very happy for this day. I am glad that we were able to be there.

March 8, 2026 blessing of Andrew Rueckert, son of James Rueckert

Tending Grandchildren:

Debbie reading to granddaughters while their parents were at a Jazz Game

Playing pantomime games with Serenity and Poppy while their parents were at a concert

Mothers Day and Roborock: Debbie received a Roborock automatic vacuum and mopping robot. This has become a fun addition to our family. We don't get quite so tired as we sit and watch it work:

Mothers Day Gift - Roborock

Roborock at work in the kitchen

Receiving Service back in our neighborhood:

A dinner from a sweet sister that Debbie's reached out to in her challenges

Debbie's Dizziness: In these past few months, Debbie's had a bout with dizziness. After different medical treatments, we decided to go to a hearing and balance center. There they put Debbie's loose crystals back into place in her inner ear. The following is a second time to get them in the correct place. So far, it is working!

Debbie having her "crystals" put back into the correct location in her inner ear, amazing!

Grandchildren Performances and activities:

As usual, we have many opportunities to support our grandchildren in their concerts, recitals, performances and sporting activities. The following are several that we were able to capture in photos: