Spring has sprung, but where's the Sun?

I was looking forward to Spring, in hopes that we would get out everyday and ride our bikes.    But so far it hasn't happened.   It's either been too cold or raining.  But we continue to serve where we're needed.

 The Boyer's, a wonderful missionary couple, who left for home last week....

 They had a luncheon for them at the Mission Office.

 Can you believe this lime =

 This Coconut Lime Cake?

 Sister Tefteller with some amazing missionaries.....

 Every other month we have dinner with President and Sister Vest.......

 Sister Brown,  Sister Christensen, Sister Metallo, and Sister Ross..

 Waiting to eat......before we eat, we have to take pictures....

 Elder Tefteller making sure everyone is happy!!!

 Sister Tefteller and Sister Fuller.....and Elder and Sister Wilson helping Elder T. clean up!!

We attended 2 baptisms last Saturday.  Both convert baptisms. It is so great to see people accept  the Gospel, and the Savior into their lives.  One of the things I love about the Saints here is how welcoming they are of everyone that comes to Church.  Both baptisms had a large attendance of members from their ward/Branch.  There is definitely "True Religion"practiced here in the Missouri Independence Mission.  We keep busy, which we love.   We do things to help the Ward and Branch we are assigned to.    We visit "less active".   We serve at the Temple once a week.......We sometimes go with the Housing Director and his wife to help with apartments......We are hosting at the VC in Independence and the Liberty Jail, when Seniors need to take off.   I am cooking and baking a lot which I love.   Elder Tefteller, after last Zone Conference, asked me if I get tired of cooking and baking.   I replied, "no"  Those are two things I love to do!!!  I am  so grateful for the time we have been able to serve a mission.   I'll have to admit, after the Boyer''s went home, we got a little "trunky".  But we're ok now.   We only have 5 1/2 months before we go home.    We want to give it our all with the remaining time we have.   We definitely want to go on another mission someday.  We have a testimony that God is our Heavenly Father, that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of mankind.  We know that they love everyone, everywhere, in all walks of life and they have provided the teachings and ordinances of the Gospel through living prophets.  We testify that through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism by Priesthood authority and receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring in faith till the end of our mortal lives we may be saved in the Kingdom of God.  We invite all to come unto Christ!!

Much love, Elder and Sister Tefteller

Until next time:  Read your scriptures, and be happy!! 

Zone Conference

March 7 through March 10, 2017

I had the privilege of feeding the missionaries for Zone Conference this past week.    What a blessing!  I could NOT have done it without this man right here.  I may have done all the cooking and baking, but he literally was my right arm!   Seriously, there is no way I could have done it without him!

We figured we fed about 260 people all four days, including the missionaries....and others.   I decided to fix Spaghetti, french bread, salad and cookies.   Here is kind of a rough idea of what I made.   Please know that I am NOT bragging, merely supplying information, and facts for my blog, which is also our Missionary Journal.

60 dozen cookies,  chocolate chip, some oatmeal/raisin, and Peanut butter.
33 loaves of french bread.
14 gallons of spaghetti sauce.
And, salad galore!

Years ago when we lived in Arizona, and I was serving as RS President, I was asked to feed the missionaries after a Zone Conference.     I remembered how much fun it was, and I said at that time, that I hope I get the opportunity someday, to be able to feed the missionaries again at a Zone Conference.  Elder Tefteller and I figured that it cost $1.91 to feed each person.    Not bad!!!

The highlight for me was when all the missionaries came into the cultural hall and sang Called To Serve!    Such Power, and the Spirit was strong.

President Vest talking to the missionaries....

 P
 President Vest thanking us just before the missionaries sang...

 The best Sister missionaries ever....

 Singing Called to Serve...

 Olathe, Kansas Stake Center....singing....

 more of Olethe....

 Liberty Stake Center.....

 I love when missionaries sing Called to Serve.....

 Sorry about the duplicates....

and more duplicates......

Here are more pictures of Zone Conference:

 My "Right Arm!"

 Got spaghetti?

 Me and Elder Cox....he served in our ward last year....

 President Vest and Elder Tefteller sharing a funny moment!

 Elder Corpuz, who served also with us in the Independence 3rd Ward.

 This is Elder Call from Highland, Utah, and we found out he is in our stake, and lives right down the street from us!

 Setting things up.....

 Salad fixins!!

 Elder Tefteller got a few medical calls......

 The sisters were always the first in line.......

 Elder Hiatt, who is the grandson of Elder and Sister Plummer, who we served with in the Washington DC Temple Mission....

 Me and Sister Zarate.......she is awesome....

 I baked 5 loaves of bread at one time.  Not bad for our little apartment oven....

 Here is the funniest story ever.....We were setting up for the luncheon in Olathe, Kansas......I had set the bags of cookies out on the trays.    When I went to the cultural hall after being in the kitchen, I noticed a bag of cookies wide open.   I had a dozen in each bag.   There were only 10 cookies in the bag, hence,  2 cookies were missing.  I went back into the kitchen to tell Elder Tefteller what happened.   About that time, the missionaries had a break....and President Vest walked into the kitchen.    I said, "President Vest, we have a cookie monster walking around!!"   I told him the story about the missing cookies.   He said, "we'll never know if it was a male or female."   Then he left, only to return a few minutes later.   He said, "we know that the cookie monster is a male."   I said, "how do we know that?"   He said, "because there are cookie crumbs on the counter in the men's restroom."   We got quite a chuckle out of that!!!

 Sisters getting their lunch....

 Next, the Elder's.

 I stood at the end of the table where the cookies were.   All the missionaries, Elders included would take one cookie, and I would tell them they could have 2.   They were very excited!!

 The Teftellers and Elder Parker from Hawaii!!

 The Teftellers and Elder Slesk, who happens to be the cousin of our friend and insurance agent back in Utah.

 Read for the missionaries to come eat!!!   The Teftellers with Lillianna Olvera, who helps Sister Vest at the mission home.    She helped us prepare some of the food.

Group picture....our last meeting.

What a blessing to be able to serve a mission!   We have had so many wonderful experiences!    We have met amazing people.    Before we came on our mission, and as we were telling people where we were going and told them Glenn would be the Area Medical Advisor.....we got so many comments saying that I would be so bored!!  That's the wrong thing to tell me, cause I will and have made the decision up front that I would not get bored.    And I haven't.  I always told my children growing up that "Life is what you make it!"    If you're bored,  it's your fault......we have been so blessed to be able to do so many wonderful things which has kept us busy!  With Glenn's calling it has afforded us to be able to volunteer for many different things!!!   I love to cook and bake, and I'm so grateful that I have been able to share that with others!   I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!
Until next time, say your prayers and read your scriptures!!!

The Alpha and the Omega Mission

Elder Tefteller and I have been assigned to the Sante Fe Branch which is Spanish speaking.    I abso
lutely LOVE it!  The members of the Branch are so friendly and have been very warm and welcoming to us!  I am the Primary and RS pianist.  And assistant organist.   Brother Olvera, who is currently playing the organ has been called to the Stake High Council.   When he is on assignment, I will have to play.  I am learning to play the piano in Spanish.   (True story....the tune is the same, but extra notes are added for the Spanish language.) I bore my testimony in Church today, in Spanish.   Last week I wrote my testimony in English and found an app. that translated it into Spanish.  I listened to the pronunciation of the more difficult words all week.  Elder Tefteller didn't know I was doing it.  Everyone was so sweet afterwards and told me how well I did.   Elder Tefteller was shocked.  I am hoping that before we leave our mission, I will be able to bear my testimony in Spanish by myself.  I have been studying the Rosetta Stone, and Duo Lingo.  I have noticed that people in the Branch try to help me as well.  It's hard to believe that we will be going home in 6 months.  We have had an amazing experience here in the Missouri Independence Mission.  Today marks the 1 year date that we left DC.  Tomorrow marks the day we arrived here in Independence.
This coming week is Zone Conference.   I am catering the food for the luncheons.   They break it up into 4 conferences.  Tuesday through Friday.  They'll average 60 missionaries a day.  Yesterday, with the help of my personal assistant, I made 600 cookies.   Tomorrow I will be making spaghetti sauce, and french bread and salad for Tuesday.  Each day, I will make the salad and french bread for the next day luncheon.  The Mission Presidents wife, Sister Vest, let us come to their home and use her convection ovens.  It was Heaven!!!!   We are going back there tomorrow to make the sauce.....Sister Boyer told me I was going to wear myself out.  I told her that is exactly what we are supposed to be doing...."wearing ourselves out in the Service!!"  The Boyers are leaving for Florida this week, and will come back here and pack up their apartment and head home.
We thought our release date was September 10, 2017, but we found out the other day that it is September 26,, 2017.    I feel that we should stay and finish our mission.   We had made plans to go home on the 10th, but I just don't feel right about it.

 I celebrated my 63rd birthday last week!

 I had a cake in the freezer, so I frosted it.   Elder Tefteller put the candles on and served it.

 Birthday yumminess!!

 Elder and Sister Ross brought me donuts for breakfast.......

 Mark and Flo sent me a gift certificate to my favorite restaurant....

 PF Changs.........

 Aaron, Tami and the kids sent me an edible arrangement.

 Boy was it delicious.

 I love the sweet message that came with the Edible arrangement.

 If you haven't tried dark chocolate covered pineapple, you really should!!

 I bought this for my late birthday snack.    To die for!!!

 Brother and Sister Morrill of the Independence 3rd Ward gave me these daffodils and tulips.

 Bishop Christensen and his wife Sally gave me these flowers.

 The "Girls" from the office took me to lunch on Friday....

 I guess you get a double view of us!

 These chocolates or should I say gourmet chocolates came with the Edible Arrangement.

 We went downtown KC with Sister Vest and this is the outside of the parking lot for the library.

 Megan, Johnny, Conner, Luke, Norah and Benjamin gave me this bicycle pizza cutter!!!!

 A selfie at PF Chang's....

 What more could a birthday girl ask for than a gift card to her favorite restaurant.....

and her favorite treat place......Dairy Queen.   Thank you Ross's!!    You made my birthday pretty special!!!

I can't think of anything more rewarding in your older years than to serve a mission.   The past year and a half has been amazing.    We have been so richly blessed because of our service.   The friendships we have made along the way have been life changing!!  I can't think of any better way to show our love to our Savior and Heavenly Father, than to serve a mission.   We are looking forward to going home and spending time with our children and grandchildren.   But we're anxious to serve another mission.  We highly recommend it!