A Senior Missionary Gathering of the CCSM

It was a special whirlwind trip that we took to attend the gathering of the Senior Missionaries of the Colorado Colorado Springs Mission (CCSM) on Monday, 19 March 2012. We drove over leaving about Noon from Garden City and arrived there about an hour and a half early, due to the time change from Central Time Zone to Mountain Time. So, we contacted our nephew and niece, Jeff and Mindy Whitford there in Colorado Springs and got permission to visit with them for a little over an hour.

Our nephew, Jeff Whitford and his wife Mindy, who live in Colorado Springs.

It was very special to have the choice time with them to catch up on their progress of adoption for a baby and the imminent deployment of Jeff’s Army unit, which may be next month. It seems there may be a possibility for a birth mother to choose them, so they are fasting and praying very hard for that. Many have been joining that fast. Mindy also is scheduled to have surgery to correct some problems with Endometriosis, thereby perhaps making it easier for her to get pregnant. They are a very special young couple who will make wonderful parents to some choice spirits coming to their home, one way or another.

The gathering of the senior missionaries at the Mission Home began about 6 pm. It was a very choice experience to finally get to meet all of the senior missionaries serving in the CCSM. We had a delicious potluck dinner, but they didn’t ask us to bring anything since we were coming from so far away. What talented and dedicated people we have in the group.



First in our group of senior missionaries is President and Sister Anderson, our mission president and his wife, who are such great leaders for all of the missionaries in the mission. We thoroughly appreciate their love and concern for every one of us.

President and Sister Sparrow have just completed their own mission service here in the CCSM. He is the first counselor to Pres. Anderson and he will continue as a counselor since they live locally in the mission. Sister Sparrow is such a dedicated worker that she won't be idle for long. They plan on serving another mission after a time.

President Gardner is a local member newly called as the second counselor to Pres. Anderson. His wife had to work that night and couldn't come.

To the left here are Elder and Sister Pace. He is the financial officer of the mission and she is the receptionist and general secretary in the office.

Here in the photo to the right are Elder and Sister Snow. They were recently called and they will take over the housing, referrals and supplies that the Sparrows used to handle.

Next is Elder and Sister Cherry. He is the vehicle fleet officer and she is the medical advisor for the mission. All of these previous good senior missionaries serve in the office and some go out to the zone conferences.

To the right are Elder and Sister Walker who work with the military members and their families. They are working with our nephew and niece, Jeff and Mindy Whitford, among many others there at the military bases in Colorado Springs.

To the left here is Elder and Sister Biesk who are serving like us—Member and Leadership Support--in the Pueblo Colorado Ward.

And then there are the newest missionaries in our group, Elder and Sister Niceler. They are also Member and Leadership Support but working in a Colorado Springs ward. We apologize for not getting a good front shot of them, but they are wonderful people interested in others.

Then of course there is us—Elder and Sister Howlett serving in the Garden City Kansas Ward. We are pictured here with a returned missionary, Shane Murphy, who used to be our Zone Leader here in Garden City Zone. It was so fun to have him come visit us and others here.

The group consisted of nineteen senior missionaries. President Gardner’s wife had to work and could not attend, but the group was a fascinating collection of dedicated couples who want to serve the Lord and His children with all their hearts. Most had been married for over 40 years, though one couple was on their second marriage.

It was a fun dinner with all 19 of us senior missionaries.

What a wonderful evening we had to get to know everyone and find out that many were serving their second or third mission. The Sparrows had just finished their fourth mission together and were planning to serve again in a while. So we were so grateful for the opportunity to get to know these very fine couples that we are serving with in the CCS Mission. Since we serve out in Garden City Kansas, we are the farthest from the Mission headquarters, but we so appreciate knowing that we are all praying for each other and sharing ideas to help in supporting the work here. It is probably the only time we will get to meet them all.

After the gathering we were invited to spend the night at Elder and Sister Snow’s home. They have several bedrooms in their home in Colorado Springs, though most of them are in their basement. So they insisted that we take their bedroom upstairs on the main floor and they would be happy to sleep downstairs. We tried to talk them out of doing that and just letting us stay in one of their downstairs bedrooms, but they insisted that we sleep upstairs. So we enjoyed the sleep on their “memory bed” and were ready to get up early and go up to the Denver Temple to complete one more endowment session for names we needed to finish. We left from Denver and traveled home on I-70 then down Hwy 83. It was a great trip and we made it home in time for a dinner in Garden City at one of the members’ homes. The members do a good job helping to feed all ten (5 sets) of the missionaries that work in the area.

Oh, thank the Lord, it's raining in Garden City, Kansas!

It rained in Garden City! On about the 20 March it rained all day long here. It wasn’t just a sprinkle or a hard rain with thunder and lightning, it was just a steady gentle rain that came down all day and most of the night. What a great soaking it gave to the area and in the following days we have had so many trees and plants blossom and grass begin to come up. What a difference a good rain makes! We wish it would do that several times in the year. Boy, were the farmers happy!

The list of all whom we wanted to deliver the General Conference fliers Elder Howlett printed up seemed endless. But we got them all delivered!

Now we are back at work in Garden City and Elder Howlett printed up an announcement flier about the Spring General Conference coming up. We have had a great time visiting so many people and leaving the notice about the wonderful talks and choir music coming up on General Conference week-end. It helped for us to put stickers on each of the names in the ward list of families that we wanted to visit and then we could just pull off the stickers when we completed the visit. Perhaps many of the people will not attend, but we find more members come if we hand out these fliers personally, if possible. Each session we go over to the church to watch. Most of the people stay at home and watch it on their own satellite or cable stations or online at www.lds.org. But we prefer to see it on the big screen and visit with people who might come to the church. Sometimes we bring them to the church and we can enjoy it together. It’s a very special week-end.