From Boston to Edmonds

One of the common questions we get asked from time to time is - What exactly are our Seattle mission boundaries?

We asked the same question when we first got here. And well, we still aren’t exactly sure. But we are pretty sure they aren’t as big as those of Elder & Sister Wells, who, if you read their wonderful blog, apparently cover most of Africa. But, the geographical area we serve is one of the funny mysteries when serving a CES mission. You simply go wherever the Institute director tells you to go and where we are directed to go apparently spans three missions.

However, there is only so much area that can be covered by two little missionaries. Between the University of Washington Institute director, Todd Knowles, and Brother Randy White, (the other full time institute teacher) they have their hands pretty full just teaching classes on campus at the Institute on the University of Washington.

We also spend a fair amount of time teaching 2 different classes on the University of Washington campus ourselves. But, the sky is basically the limit, as far as what could be accomplished on all the other campuses in the Seattle area.

For example, Seattle University has more LDS students than the University of Washington. Presently, the only institute class for Seattle University students, and all the other central and south Seattle colleges, is just one night class taught by – you guessed it, just us two little missionaries.

As far as the north end of Seattle goes, when we first got here, there was an institute class being taught at Everette college, but that was it. So one of the first things that happened to us when we first got here was Bro. Knowles opened up an additional Institute class to cover more of the north end colleges by having us two little missionaries teach a daytime class on Edmond’s campus.

This past week, to boost attendance and get the word out that we now have an Institute class at Edmonds, those students who are attending the class put up a booth display on campus at a club fair. The club fair went GREAT! The students did such a wonderful job telling their fellow students about the class. Also, of course we attracted a bit of attention from non-LDS students as well. And we placed several Books of Mormon, handed out many pass along cards and various church pamphlets and DVDs. Edmonds is a surprising diverse campus for such a small campus. The student body is about the size of BYUI. We met people from Iran, Vietnam, Turkey and those were just the people we dared asked. We were invited to attend a couple of interfaith forums in the coming weeks that we’ll try to make it to at least one of them. We felt like REAL proselyting missionaries! It was so wonderful and as you can see from the picture of our little booth, we think everybody really had fun getting into the missionary spirit of it all.

The tall young man in the back is Alex Matthews. He is the current LDS club president on campus. He is also a great return missionary who still loves missionary work. The two young sisters on the right are twins. They basically know just about everyone on Edmonds’ campus. The girl holding the orange paper is just one of the many students who came by to ask questions.

Speaking of teaching classes, this week was a little extra busy. Brother White qualified earlier this past year to run in the Boston marathon. So he flew out to Boston and competed this past week. He finished with a 3 hour 18 minute time - which for those of us who have never covered 26 miles in anything other than a car, all we can say is WAY TO GO!! And it was our pleasure to cover his classes so he could attend that event.

Also, a big shout out goes to the Greg & Michelle Wimmer this week. We “borrowed” their Thai red-curry recipe and used it in the past Friday Friendship Feast. It went over so well, that more than one of the students, who are getting married in the next little bit, want to know if the Wimmers could possibly fly out and cater their wedding dinners! Just in case there is any question - the Wimmer’s Thai red-curry recipe, yah, it is that good!

Speaking of weddings, another shout out goes to Paige Crosland who tied the knot this past weekend. Sorry we couldn’t be there Paige, but we are so excited for ya!

Also, we would like to thank the many, many families who have been so kind and considerate over the past months to invite Katie over for Sunday meals, including the Wises this past weekend. Thanks for being there for her absentee parents. No matter how old your kids get, they still love good ole fashion cook’in and some attention.

Well, we are still in Seattle if anyone ever gets a notion they will be in this neck of the woods this summer. Speaking of which, Sharon Jeppesen just emailed us and said she will be visiting her kids in Seattle this next week and may pop in on us, so we are really looking forward to that!

Well, once again it is P-day eve and we try to get this email off in time so Anziano Thornton in Italy gets it in time for his P-day on Saturdays.

Thanks again for all we know goes on to promote this wonderful work both home and abroad!

Love,

Elder “Mike” & Sister “Jenny” Thornton

Follow the Food

What is it about breaking out some fire and hot coals that seems to warm up the coldest of hearts?

Why does food roasted outdoors seem to draw out even the most ardent recluse? What is it about fire that compels us to come and share some human companionship?

Last Friday, we had a great treat. For one, we didn’t have to cook at the normal Friday Friendship Feast. Instead, we did what we do best, sit around and talk while one of the CES area secretary, Sister Butterfield, volunteered her husband and his friend to come to the Institute and do some real Dutch oven cooking.

Lucky us! And we think they even enjoyed it. Here are some pictures to prove it:





We had a few institute kids out that we hadn’t seen in a long time. What a good thing. And we had nothing to do, but to sit and enjoy visiting with them. It was a real treat all the way around.

Having them cook was doubly lucky for us. The next day was the Institute’s opening social for the new term - which kept us somewhat busy.

The opening social seemed to turn out just swell – well, sort of.

Okay, so the social was supposed to be somewhat serious and spiritual. And it did start out that way.

The stake president came and talked. The kids were fairly attentive:

And then, odd things sometimes happen between young men and women.

One minute, a well-dressed young man can be standing between two beautiful young sisters and, well, one of them may just be holding a pie.

And, , ,

Well, it is a little hard to be serious when you have whip-cream up both nostrils:

(and it is also a little bit hard to breath.)

Of course, if you are new to feeding yourself and cannot quite locate your mouth, (partly because it is moving too much), this too can become a problem:

And they say youth is spoiled on the young!

Of course, we would never be involved with such things. Which might cause you to ponder, “Just what are the odds that Mike just happened to have his camera out at just the right moments to catch such shenanigans?” What luck huh?

Seriously, we ARE working REALLY, REALLY, hard! Do you know just how HARD it is to spell out names with raspberry syrup?


Well, for the rest of the week, we really did put our noses back on the grind stone. We even made an honest effort to take a little more time to prepare and teach all of our classes this week (3 Book of Mormon classes, 1 New Testament & 1 Living Prophets.)

It is amazing how much better you feel about your lessons when you take the time (or actually have the time) to prepare well.

Did we say lately how much we love all you, your wonderful comments and all you do for us and others?

Well, we really do! They do make a BIG difference when you are out here – Not everyday is a “whip-cream” filled day.

Speaking of preparing well, it is P-day eve. We have a little personal preparation to do, so tah, tah for now!

From the “serious” senior missionaries,

Elder “Mike” & Sister “Jenny” Thornton

Spring-Sprang-Sprung - Hey, Who Just Sprang Off With That Car?

Okay, so we both know we are small-town kids, not sophisticated in big-city ways. But, we are still scratching our heads over our latest experience.

By the way, wasn’t Conference just wonderful? We were able to listen to all the talks, except for Elder Oaks. BUT we had a good excuse. Or at least a good story of why we didn’t get to listen to Elder Oaks. AND we are sticking to it.

You see, it all started out so swell. As we drove over to the Seattle North Stake House to listen to the last session of Conference, we came upon an old man who was stuck in the middle of a very, very busy road. He was frantically running around his Mercedes Benz, which had apparently stalled right in the middle of an intersection. In the true spirit of a missionary, I suggested (well, more like insisted) that we needed to help the stranded old man. Mike was fine with that, but, believe it or not, Mike was a little concerned about the situation.

You see, the road we were traveling on is called “Aurora,” aka, Highway 99. Except for maybe Interstate 5, Aurora is probably the fastest and busiest road in the Seattle area. Wandering out into the middle of a very busy, multi-lane street was not going to be easy. Anyway, we basically had to pull up onto a sidewalk and just leave our hazard lights flashing. I jumped out and just wanted to run out in the middle and help. However, Mike (being the more cautious and prudent of our missionary companionship), decided to pre-empt me and said “just hold on and I will go help.”

So, wading his way out to the middle, Mike made it to the stranded car. Just then Mike discovered the elderly gentleman was Vietnamese and could not speak English. He was visibly shaking.

Mike motioned he would push the car to get it out of the busy intersection. The old man nodded and we thought he understood. But Mike couldn’t get him to understand to get back into his car to steer and brake while Mike pushed. By that time another guy came and helped. They decided to push anyway while the old gentleman insisted on steering the car through the side window.

This created a slight problem. Once they turned the car, it was now facing a slight downhill slope. The car picked up speed. And now there was no one in the car to step on the brake. I yelled in vain to tell the elderly gentleman to GET IN THE CAR. But he was frozen, just holding onto the wheel. So, both the other guy and Mike, instead of pushing, now were desperately trying to hold onto the car and slow it down. Meanwhile, all the other cars starting honking and zooming by. You might say it was just a LITTLE bit crazy.

Just then I decided to complicate the situation. Somehow I got it into my head, I could help. Okay, maybe “help” is not quite the right word. Seeing their predicament, I somehow thought it best to put myself between the front of the rolling car and where it was heading. You know, kinda like Superman trying to stop a run away train. This of course, caused Mike to have just a little anxiety as he calmly (okay NOT so calmly) exclaimed, “What are you doing? Get out of the way!” He now pulled against the car with all his strength, seeing I would not make a very good car cushion.

I think we must have had a little divine intervention because somehow, someway, the other guy jumped into the passenger side door, and put on the brakes, just in time to avoid having me become a permanent piece of the front bumper.

But that was not all of the experience, oh no. We did get the car stopped and by that time, it was off of the busy “Aurora” street. But now it was blocking traffic on another street. This street was not quite so busy, so Mike tried once again to convince the little Vietnamese fellow that if he would just get into the car, since it was on a downhill slope, he could just coast it down a little ways to a spot that would be off the street.

However, he was really shaking at this time and just didn’t understand. Seeing the predicament the other guy volunteered to do it for him. It was at that moment, we should have taken a better assessment of the situation. We really should have thought this out just a little more. The other guy looked a little hard. Okay, he probably was, but we are missionaries. We try only to think the very best of people.

So Mike told him to simply drive the car down the hill to a parking lot and pull in. He agreed and off he went. However, instead of pulling into the parking lot, he just kept going. Now we could see he was trying to start the car. I exclaimed, “Hey, he is trying to steal the car!” Those thoughts had apparently also crossed Mike’s mind because he was already running after him.

Fortunately, the slope was not that steep. Mike soon caught him and asked while jogging beside the car, “What are you doing?” Seeing his predicament and seeing that the car would not start, the wanna- be-thief decided it best to pull over.

Once stopped, we still had a problem. We still needed to get the car off the street. The car was now on the flat and too heavy for Mike to push alone. So, Mike somehow got the wanna-be-thief out of the car and convinced him to help push the car off the road. He did. We finally got it off the street.

Just then the Vietnamese man had caught up to Mike and the thief. I went to get our own car. The Vietnamese man apparently did not realize what had just happened, because he just wanted to stay with his car. The wanna-be-thief was more than happy to just stay with the old man and let us leave. We couldn’t just leave the old man with the thief, but just what were we to do? We doubted the police would do anything under the circumstances. I said a quick silent prayer (and I think so did Mike.) Somehow we needed to convince the Vietnamese gentleman NOT to stay with the bad guy and just get into our car and we would take him home. Well, the Lord must have intervened and we were able to convince him.

Just to make things a little more dicey, the bad guy was now trying to convince the old man to leave his car doors unlocked and his hood open to “help cool off the engine.” Translation: “leave your car wide open so I can strip it while you are gone.” Anyway, somehow the Vietnamese guy finally started to see what game this guy was trying to play and he locked up his car. He then got into our car. He pointed which way to take him home.

As we dropped him off, he pointed to our missionary tags and he did his best to say “Christians?” - at least we think that is what he said. We smiled. He then did one of those slight bowing things and smiled. We departed and finally made it to the stake center just as Elder Oaks was finishing.

Other than almost helping someone steal a car, it was otherwise a beautiful weekend.

Here are some pictures to prove it:

The cherry blossoms are now out, and the U-dub campus just looks amazing!


The above pictures are along what is known as the “Quad.”


Can you see Mount Ranier in the above picture faintly in the background behind the fountain?

And of course, what is Conference weekend without a GOOD barbeque with our students in their Bishop’s backyard?

Bishop Dale Jenkins (from Ucon, Idaho!) and his good wife Ann (formerly “Rockwood” from Iona, Idaho!) are just the best with having the students in their singles ward over for Saturday Conference and a good ole’ fashioned barbeque.

Well, from the BLOSSOM capital of the good old United States, we bid you adieu until we email again!

Love,

Elder “Mike” & Sister “Jenny” Thornton

Ode to Richard and Sharon

Hello again from Seattle!

First, a special “Keep Getting Better” shout-out to Mike’s sister Nancy Jackson. We love you!

We received a few emails from the Jeppesens over the past week. As most know, they are now making their way slowly Westwest. Can anybody say “Wagons Ho!” We know (as everybody knows) Richard & Sharon make everywhere they go a far better place for having had them in their midst. We are sure it was especially true where they were serving the Lord on a full-time basis. Well done!

Time is flying by far too fast. Where did their 18 months go? We knew (at least in our heads) that we would not be home for their homecoming, but now that reality is setting in that one of the two original couples from our ward – which we were so glad to follow their lead into the mission field - have now completed their service, it feels somewhat akin to having someone kick one of the legs out from under a three legged stool. We will just have to confer with the Wells, (the other remaining couple), on that. Although the Jeppesens are, of course, irreplaceable, perhaps we can claim the Hughes as an extended ward couple to prop us back up.

Anyway, we hope somebody takes copious notes at their homecoming and send the notes to us if possible. Likewise, we REALLY hope their westward travels take them farther than Utah. Perhaps a wrong turn in Colorado might take them to somewhere even farther west like Seattle?

As for us, this week kicked off the new school term. We planted a big pot of flowers, just under the Institute sign, to draw people’s attention to it. We went with flowers, since we think it is getting too late in the spring for Mike to be making snowmen to place under the sign (we hope!)

Spring is definitely here. Cherry blossoms are in bloom and the campus is getting really lovely – If it would just quit raining long enough for us to enjoy it. But, Mike’s camera battery died, so hopefully Mike will have it fixed about the same time it quits raining in Seattle. It does actually stop raining in Seattle sometime doesn’t it? Well, come what may, we will try to have some spring pictures in next week’s installment. Speaking of not getting to take a picture, Mike’s oxygen business partner, Brad, was in Seattle for an event and he dropped in to see us at the Institute during the break which was fun.

The Spring term has now officially started. The young adults are back and the Institute has gone overnight from ghost town to a jumping place. We just finished the normal Friday feast with about 80 people, so we are off to a good start in the meet and greet department.

We also took our “south” students, whom we go teach at the Tongan branch building, who are attending other colleges, like Seattle U to a “Pho” dinner. We also had a drink called “Bubble Tea.” Now, before someone reports us to the Bishop for breaking the word of wisdom – Bubble Tea – is not what it sounds. It really is just an ice/smoothie flavored drink (we got “honeydew”) with large tapioca beads in it – which look like “bubbles.” Anyway, it sounds a little strange, but it really is pretty good. The “Pho” is a Vietnamese soup which has rice noodles and what ever kind of meat you choose to have cooked in it – we chose brisket (but for the Dave Bruner types - you can choose any kind of meat – including “tripe.”) Anyway, the brisket “Pho” was really good. Especially on a cold, rainy day – which Seattle just happens to have a few. It was also really fun to just enjoy our students outside the normal classroom setting. They are just so great!

In the spiritual feeding portion of our calling, in addition our normal load, we started a new night class on Wednesdays. We were initially excited to be teaching a night class because traditionally they are better attended as compared to daytime classes. (They apparently are just a better fit for busy student schedules.)

However, we have found at times students can be brutally honest. For example, one student told us (just before we started the class), “missionary couples usually only get like 2 students to come and that is why they normally don’t get to teach in a valuable night class time slot.” Anyway, as you can imagine, it came as a relief to find 18 students had signed up for our evening class. Normally you add a few over the next few weeks, so hopefully we can retain about 20 or more students. The 18 students makes it the second largest class - so take that “brutally honest” opinionated people everywhere! (Okay, so you might be wondering, what is the #1 largest class? For some reason, it has always been the Tuesday 7:00p.m. class. It just seems to be the day & time of the week that best fits student schedules.) Anyway, for a Wednesday, 5:30pm slot, we feel we are off to a good start.

Speaking of classes, we have a special challenge in most of our classes. In that, in each of our classes we get a wide variety of students. Some are return missionaries who are normally well-grounded in the gospel. Some are doctoral candidate students. Some are freshmen. Also, there are a number of students who have joined the church only within the last year or so. For example, one of our students just got baptized this last Saturday. So the challenge is to be able to teach a broad-knowledge base of students attending the same class.

It is a good challenge though. Studies show that if young adult converts take institute within their first year of becoming a member, (or better yet, even before they become a member), there is about a 90% retention rate among them, which we are told is incredibly higher than the normal retention rate.

Well, try to stay warm and dry for us will ya?

Love,


Elder “Mike” & Sister “Jenny” Thornton


P.S. Whaa Hoo! Its Conference weekend!