A Visit to the Big 4 bridge

We do enjoy working in the Mission Office, but there is not much new to write about. We keep busy doing the same things over and over. I do the same paperwork, just for different missionaries and dad pays the same bills just with different dates. This week the Halvorsen's have been sick and stayed home for a couple of days.  Dad got to work (over the phone) with two sister missionaries to arrange a tow when they got their car stuck in the mud. He's happy he's not in charge of cars. With the icy roads it has  been a busy time for car mishaps. We continue to have cold weather. It's usually in the teens in the morning and hardly ever gets above freezing. Every once in a while we are surprised.  

Saturday morning we went to a baptism.  The previous "Elder Hicken" was back in town with his parents and they came to the baptism and visited with us.  We enjoyed seeing them. President and Sister Woodbury also attended the baptism.  Barbara gave  the talk on the Holy Ghost.
      

When we left the church, it was around 50 degrees, ( cloudy)  so we decided we wanted to get out and do something. We went home and changed clothes and took the Hiatt's and went downtown to walk across the Big 4 bridge.  We had seen the bridge from the freeway but getting to it was a challenge as they are constructing a new bridge very close to it.  Dad found the entrance road to the bridge.  We were surprised by how many people were out at the park and walking on the bridge. It used to be a railroad bridge and last year they reopened it as a walking bridge. It was a great outing and we loved seeing the views of the river, Louisville on one side and Indiana on the other side. 

After we left the park, we drove along the river and tried to find the locks. We found them and were able to watch the barge with the coal go through the locks.

After hiking the river and seeing the locks, we went to a restaurant called Franco's on Dixie Highway that we had wanted to try. It is very Southern and the food was great. Now we know places to take any of you who come to visit. There is even a skateboard park by the bridge.

Sunday we were supposed to get snow and an ice storm starting around 10 AM.  so the leaders decided to only hold sacrament meeting. We stayed and fed the missionaries after church.  It didn't start to storm until about 5:00 PM . 

Monday morning, we ended up with about 2" of snow, with ice underneath it. Of course, school was cancelled again and the Mission President called to tell us that we could come into the office late.  The last picture was taken on Tuesday. This is what happens when the sun comes out and melts snow, but then it freezes again at night into icicles. According to the locals this is a very unusual winter in Louisville. 

Tuesday night, we stayed late at work, then picked up elders and their investigator and took them to the Woodbury's to a FHE that the missionaries had planned. There were about 25 people there and we enjoyed being with them. 

Wednesday, the sun was up, it was 40 degrees, so we went on a short walk by the office to look for signs of spring that we hear are in Washington. We actually saw some crocus and daffodils starting to pop up through the frozen ground and snow.  

Another Transfer Done

We had transfers last week, so it was a very busy week. The first picture is the 3 assistants, the middle one is leaving on Wed. and the one in front will take his place. We are enjoying our Monday lunch thanks to Sister H.

 The next 2 pictures are from transfers- taken out of our mission office window. It is hard to believe we still had that much snow on the grass last week. We had a huge rainstorm on Monday afternoon, right after the new missionaries arrived. We enjoyed going to dinner at the mission home Monday evening and meeting them. They are always so tired because they had to get up at 2:00 am to get to the airport. We got 6 elders and 3 sisters.

Warmer weather started on Tuesday, (transfer day). We were able to go to the temple on Tuesday afternoon with the missionaries who will depart on Wed. We always leave at 2:30 for the temple and drive some of the missionaries there. We love to be there in the sealing room and hear from the Mission President and his wife and the Temple president and his wife. Then we go on a special temple session just for us. That night the Temple Pres and his wife joined us on the session.

That evening, after we dropped off the missionaries at the mission home, we drove through Louisville to go to a visiting teaching appointment. There was a lot of traffic and tons of people walking and we couldn't figure out where they were going. We finally passed the YUM center and they were all heading to a basketball game.  This is a drive by photo. We have never seen so many people in town before.  When we got to our appointment, the Sister didn't answer the door.  We were a little early, so we went to get something to eat and then went back. Still no answer. The disappointment of Missionary work!

 Saturday was a warm day, 60 degrees.  We called the Hiatt's to see if they wanted to go with us on a hike at Iroquois Park nearby. Everyone was out enjoying the good weather.

Behind one picture, you will see families and children at the playground and in the background of the other picture, there is a group of people playing with pugil sticks. There is a 3.2 mile loop that we walked around. It was great to get outside. 

Sunday, was a good and busy day. We picked up lots of people - had great meetings and fixed lunch at the church for the elders plus 3 extra people and then took them home. It even  snowed again that day . We have two new elders in the Branch. One of our elders is brand new from Colorado. Sunday evening we picked everyone up again and went over to the new member fireside. It is always fun to hear conversion stories from the investigators and new converts. Our missionaries are busy teaching and baptizing people. We just need to work on retention. Another fun thing about the fireside is that people come from all around the area and we get to see many of the missionaries who we worked with and were transferred from the Louisville area. 

The last picture is Monday morning at the office.  The dirty blob is all that is left of the snow. We are back to 30 degree days and more snow predicted tonight.

We are finished with letters, reports, mail and crowds that come with transfers. This week has been quiet in the office and we are getting in profiles of our new missionaries who will be arriving in June and August!  It's weird to think that this President and his wife will not even meet these missionaries. The new President also arrives at the end of June.

Sister Moulton
Kentucky Louisville Mission

Valentines Week

We had a fun Valentine's week.  We had missionaries coming into the office for district meeting on Wed and Zone meeting on Thursday so I made cookies for them. 

Wednesday evening we attended the marriage of a young couple in our branch. The branch President married them in his office. I made red velvet cupcakes for a little celebration afterwards. 

Thursday, the Hiatt's came into the office for Zone meeting and we saw that the women were all wearing red, so we decided to take a picture. We let the men pose in the picture with us.

Friday we also had treats in the office for Valentine's day. President and Sister Woodbury came into the office and the new assistant joined the other 2 to plan the Transfer for next week.  We have all been busy getting ready for transfers.

Friday night, we left work and stopped at Panera bread for dinner. Then at 7:00 we met the Sister Missionaries at a young couple's home to teach them a lesson. It was a nice visit. They have a 3 year old son. The lesson was on the Proclamation for the Family and the sister seemed surprised about why our church teaches the importance of people being married before having children. This is not something that is taught in our society today. We also had another rain and snow storm tonight.

Saturday Elder Moulton and I attended the National farm machinery show that was held at the Kentucky Exhibition Center in Louisville.  It was on for 4 days and they said 300,000 people attended. Saturday was definitely crowded but Elder Moulton did get to see some tractors that he liked. Some of the machinery was huge! There were lots of families and little kids climbing around and sitting on the tractors. We wish we would have had the grandchildren with us. They would have loved it.

After the tractor show we went over to the church to an Eagle Court of Honor. This was only the 2nd person to receive the Eagle rank in our branch. He is an amazing young man. His mom had a buffet of refreshments for us afterward. The Stake Young Men's President, Brother Bednar, was there with his young son. 

That evening we went with the Elders to visit a sister in the hospital who had had pneumonia plus an infection and had been in a medically induced coma for a few weeks. She was finally able to sit up and talk, so although we have taken the missionaries there often, it was the first time we met her and visited with her.

Sunday was our branch pot luck, so we were busy on Saturday night and Sunday morning making food for it. We had a good attendance at church. We helped that out by bringing two car loads of people. The stake Patriarch talked about Patriarchal blessings and we see the need to try to help find a way for people in the branch to receive theirs . It can help us know who we are and make a plan and set goals for our life. He also talked about the importance of family. The thing that is the hardest for us to comprehend here is that a lot of people have no family to support and help them in their lives.

We hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day and know how much you are loved and missed.

February in Kentucky

I (Angela) have a trip planned to visit my parents in March.  I hope the snow is gone by then.  It appears that Kentucky has snowy winters.

A winter picture of my parents outside the mission office. 

Barbara and Sister Halvorsen shoveling the snow.  This picture must be a total set up.  I can't imagine them really shoveling the snow, especially when their husbands love to shovel it.

The tree outside my dad's office window ice covered with two robins.  Can you find them?  I always wonder what birds eat when the ground is covered by snow.  Any ideas?

Sunday dinner today with the missionaries.  Elder Clarke with the red hair goes home next week. 

 Elder Dahle and Elder Beecroft have birthdays this week so we had peach cobbler and ice cream with candles.   (I wonder what is going on with the missionary with the suspenders?)

Our mantel with the family photos.  Some are missing. (I think this is a hint for my siblings to send my parents a current photo :)

 Barbara sitting on her Valentines present (antique chairs) on our deck.  

Celebrating my birthday on the mission

Here are some new photos with explanations of them from my dad.

Here is Mom in front of the mission office on a snowy day which happens about once or twice each week.  We just had another 4 inches of snow overnight. 

In this picture  Elder Halvorsen and I are pushing the snow.  It was freezing cold that day.

Here is a picture of the used mission cars that we just sold.   They were loaded on a transport truck and will be taken to a car dealer in Mississippi. 

These are the missionaries from the Shawnee Branch.  They are being lead by Elder Beecroft from Washington doing their impersonation of a Seahawk in honor of the Seahawks being in the super bowl.

Here is Sister Moulton and Elder Hiatt and the Elders with the lunch spread for my birthday.  We had this after church at our apartment.  We ate roast beef and mashed potatoes.

Finally here I am with my birthday cake.  Mom made a delicious german chocolate cake for me, my favorite. 

January News from Kentucky

 At the temple with the departing missionaries.

We had transfers early in January. We got to go to the mission home to meet the new missionaries on Monday evening and ate a yummy dinner. That is always fun. Dad even got to be in the skit because one of the Assistants had gone home on Saturday. We had our coldest weather (1 degree ) during transfers and that cold weather has continued through January. Snow off and on and lots of days with school closures.  We are happy to be working in a warm office. It did warm up above the 30's a few days and we got to go out and take a couple of walks.

      Tuesday, I made it over to the transfer meeting. Dad stayed to man the office. Then we were busy all day with people coming and going- getting Media and storing or picking up bikes- picking up mail, etc.  I had transfer letters to write to all the bishops and stake presidents. 

       Thursday the 9th was Leadership training so all the zone leaders and sister training leaders come into the office early to prepare materials and use our computers. We feed them brunch. We made a breakfast casserole which was great! Then they head over to the mission home for meetings and lunch ( we found out that Sis. Woodbury had "breakfast for lunch" and also a breakfast casserole- Whoops!) then they swarm the office again later to pick up media and visit after their meetings.     

            Saturday the 11th, we went to visit a lady we visit teach and tried to fix her dryer- but found the motor was ruined. We did have a good visit. That afternoon we went to a baptism of two children in our ward. Their family just moved in and the children had not been baptized yet - they are 9 and 10.  After the baptism we went out to eat at the Cracker Barrel the Hiatt's. We enjoyed getting a chance to visit with them and hearing about the people they are visiting in the branch. We got to sit by the fireplace- so that was an added bonus on a freezing cold day.
            Sunday the 12th was our branch pot luck. There was a big crowd and lots of good food. It is a lot of work, but good for the branch. It is my month to teach our Gospel Principles class, so that is always stressful. They started a priesthood preparation class, so they pulled the prospective elders out and we just have women ( plus all the missionaries, of course.) Church is always a highlight - we always have such wonderful testimonies, talks and lessons by people who have little, but have great love and faith in their Heavenly father.

           We went out with the Highland sister missionares a couple of times, in the evening, to teach some of their investigators. One visit, we knocked and knocked, and no one answered even though we could hear them inside. Those times are always discouraging.  We stay late at the office, drive 30 minutes to the apt and 30 back- so they feel bad if they invite us and no one answers. We get a glimpse of what real missionary work is like!

           This past weekend, Elder Zwick, of the 1st council of 70, was in town and he spoke at a meeting of all the Zone Leaders and Sister training leaders on Saturday morning at the Crestwood Stake Center.    Saturday evening at 8:00 he spoke at a meeting for all the Ward councils and missionaries who were close enough to come. We drove 4 elders to the meeting. It was another cold and snowy day. We got there early, so I was asked to give the closing prayer. That made me nervous. At the meeting, 2 Stake Presidents bore their testimonies about missionary work and then President and Sister Woodbury thanked everyone for their efforts in helping with missionary work.  Elder Zwick spoke on "the Work of Salvation". 

He said there are 84,000 missionaries out now with 12,000 more who have calls and are preparing to go. He said that the Missionary effort  " is a huge investment of Sacred Funds of the church. But the Lord will provide the funds as the missionary force grows".  Working at the office, as we do, we see how much it really costs to run the missionary program. He said that the 1st presidency is in charge of missionary work and they know how important it is.  Elder Zwick talked about how we need to "find with the spirit" not just "teach with the spirit".  As members, we need to keep lengthening our stride, we need to ask people to be taught in our homes.  It was good meeting!  After I gave the prayer, I went to shake Elder Zwick's hand and he said, "Sister Moulton, I remember your application when it was on our desk" - I'm thinking "sure" with over 90,000 missionary applications coming through-  but we talked and he did remember it. He said he was happy when he heard we were going to the Kentucky Louisville mission.  I think it helped me understand that the Lord does know each of us individually, and cares about us- even though there are so many of us.  It was good that I was asked to give the prayer or I wouldn't have talked to him.

         This past Sunday the 19th- We fed the missionaries after church. Two of our missionaries left at transfers and we got two new ones, so it was our first time feeding them and getting to know them.  We made a huge Spaghetti dish and they were able to eat every single drop of food we brought, just like the other missionaries had done. After dinner, we went with the elders to visit a sister in a rest home and another one in the hospital.  These hospitals are at least 30 minutes from the church and from each other, so that was busy day. We do spend a lot of time driving around on our mission!
            This week we were preparing for Zone conferences. They started today. I had to arrange lunches and print Trumpets (newsletters) and other materials to be distributed.  The Halvorsen's headed out this morning to go to Lexington to the 1st  conferences to inspect the cars. It is freezing this week - around 7 degrees. Again we are happy to be here in the warm office.  However, It's always very quiet here when they are gone. They are both usually on the phone and laughing a lot.
        Yesterday Tuesday the 21st  it was kind of like Grand Central Station here- the assistants were here working.  It was p-day because Monday was a holiday- the repair man was here working on the bathroom and lights. The delivery people brought in lots of mail.  The maintenance men were shoveling and clearing the parking lot and coming in and out. Bro. Tuckett, with facilities management, works downstairs and he came up to have dad help him open all of his bids. The President came in and we had at least 3 men coming in wanting assistance.

          Last night we went to pick up Sister Brown (who we drive to church) from the hospital. They couldn't do her dialysis on Monday because her veins had closed.  She had to have surgery, yesterday,  to put a stint in her veins and then have 3 hour dialysis. We didn't get her until about 10:30 p.m. and then took her home.  She is in a lot of pain. We feel so sad for her. Yet she is always cheerful. 

         The Hiatt's (another senior couple that serve in our branch) called this morning and invited us to dinner tonight. They are so nice and it is always fun to visit with them. It's easy to get discouraged on a mission, because people here need so much and it's hard to know how best to help them. Everyone has their free agency and they don't all do things the way we would. We know that living the gospel would solve lots of the problems in the world, so the Gospel needs to be shared, but also lived.  We are blessed to have grown up in the Gospel and have family support in living it.

The start of 2014

2014 has arrived. We are excited for another great year in the mission field. We are starting to send home and transfer missionaries who have been a big part of our lives for the past 4 months.  It is sad to see them leave.

This picture is of the "Moulton Boys". The assistants, Elder Hicken and Elder Thomas and office Elders found out that they were all descendants of the same Mormon pioneer, Thomas Moulton. It has been a fun 6 weeks with them in the office. We will miss Elder Thomas, the shorter one, who is returning on Saturday to his home in Colorado. He wants to stop by and see Terrell and Tracy.

On Wednesday we went to a New Year's Day dinner at the Hiatt's apartment. We didn't know that there was a traditional Southern New Year's Dinner so Sister Hiatt (who cooks one each year) wanted to cook and share it with us. Elder Hiatt found the history of the meal. It seems that following the civil war, food in the South was difficult to come by. Southerners created special foods to take advantage of what they had.  

Their meal consisted of fried cabbage,  black eyed peas, hog jowls (they are missing in the picture, as they were all gone by the time it was taken) and sometimes rice and greens. Sister Hiatt asked me to bring meat loaf and mashed potatoes in case we didn't like the food, but we all enjoyed it.  She served a strawberry cobbler and ice cream for dessert. It was delicious and fun to have friends to share the Holiday with.

On Thursday night we went to a baptism. Harold got baptized. We drive him to church. He has a cute young son and daughter. Sister Jensen, on the left, is going home on Saturday and Elder Gallager is probably being transferred next Tuesday.

Friday night we went to the temple with the missionaries who are heading home on Saturday. They will be going home a few days early to get back to school. They are leaving Saturday instead of next Wednesday.  6 elders and 6 sisters are going home. We drove 5 of them to the temple and enjoyed hearing them talk. We learned a lot about missionary life.

The picture is of us with Sister Navarro. She is from Panama and still barely speaks English, but we got to see her each week as she came into the office with her district. We will miss her now that she is going home.

It was beautiful, crisp, clear night outside the temple and there was a crescent moon. We tried to capture it. The moon is that little crescent in the right corner.

Sunday, after church, we had another baptism.  Jamella is the one in the white shirt. We missed getting a picture of her in her baptismal clothes, because we were setting up food in the other room. She is a twin and her twin sister arrived at the baptism right as we were singing the closing song, so we were glad to get her in the picture.  We have enjoyed going with the elders to teach her.

There was little push this week to get the baptisms performed before Elder Johnson gets transferred on Tuesday. He is the taller elder. The other one is Elder Beecroft from Redmond, WA. We get to keep him a little while longer.  These missionaries getting transferred were both here in the branch when we arrived. It will be different without them.

We love you and hope all is well. We love to hear from you and your families and see your pictures.  We are expecting a big ice storm and cold spell tomorrow. We will see what we wake up to. We have 11 new missionaries flying in tomorrow- so we hope they will be able to get here ok.