These are our newest missionaries to the Tennessee Nashville Mission.  They arrived Monday August 25, at 3:30 pm.  We were so excited to meet them and to welcome them to the greatest mission on earth.  

From left to right back row: Elder Jaden Roney, Elder Blake Casey,  Elder Reese Rasmussen, Elder Scott Wood, Elder Andrew Blazek, Sister Machel Andersen, President Kyle Andersen.
Front row: Sister Bailee Blake, Sister Mikala Dent, Sister Tia Miller, Sister Celeste Thomas

Elder Lovell and Elder Tagaloa

This is our new missionaries singing to the Lamberts at the head of the table.  They sing to the tune "There is Sunshine in my Soul Today" but the words have been changed.  They sing: It was dinner time in the home today, and we were all hungry.  But thanks to the Lambert family, we're filled with energy.  We will go and serve the Lord now, we will work and teach and preach and serve, we will visit your referrals now.  We shall thank you Lambert family!
Brother and Sister Lambert prepare and serve the dinner for the new missionaries coming into the mission.  We are so grateful for them and the wonderful support they are to us.  They are wonderful examples of Christ like service and love.  Thank you so much Steve, Sheri and Andrew.

These are our four spanish speaking missionaries who had a delayed flight.  They arrived at the  home around 9:00 pm.  They were served dinner, had their interviews with President and I and some training from the office staff and then we got them settled into their beds for some much needed rest.

From left to right: Sister Whittney Dansie, Sister Maranda Sorensen, Sister Alexandria Gamble, Elder Wyatt Black

We have been blessed with wonderful friends in our life.  One family that has touched us in so many ways is the Alan Christensen family.  We have been friends with them for 23 years.  Alan, Janis and every single one of their children, in-law children and grandchildren, we consider to be our best friends.  Alan and Janis's son Seth has ALS.  We love him and have learned so much from him over these past 23 years.  He is wise beyond his years and has taken on this fight with great faith and courage.  He hasn't given up, but has taken every opportunity to try to prolong his life and has spent his days serving and loving his friends and family.  He is a great example of enduring well, is an amazing missionary and on top of all this, is incredibly funny.  We love this little family so so much.  When given the opportunity to take a bucket of ice water for him...we jumped at the chance!! We decided that car washing day would be the perfect time.  Elder Taylor Byington gave us the challenge.  

This is the how each transfer week starts, washing all of the vehicles that will be used to transport the incoming and outgoing missionaries.  We want them to come and go looking good.  These fine men work to hard to make sure everything is just perfect for both of these groups and it is a lot of work. 

Elder Lovell Shining up the big van!

Elder Tagaloa and President Andersen

Elder Steiner!  Elder Fore is in the home taking numbers.

Today we had a celebration!  We have a new assistant to the President, Elder Fore.  We are so thrilled to have him serve in this capacity.  He is a great missionary, with great teaching and training skills.  The down side to all of this is that the need arrises for a new assistant because elder Tagaloa is going to be leaving us this week.  He has served an outstanding mission and has served so faithfully as an assistant these past months.  We love him and are going to miss him so very much.  What a blessing he has been in our life.  

Sister Romero came to church today for the first time in 13 years.  She was baptized a member at age 13 but has been less active for most of her life.  She doesn't have a home right now and is living at the park in her car with her dog Angel.  She has a beautiful spirit and is working towards getting a place to live real soon.  I wish we could keep her here but it was delightful to have her with us for a meal.  She had many stories to share and lots of questions about the gospel.  As you can see, she was surrounded by expert teachers.  We are so impressed with her courage.  She just came to church this morning because she met someone at the park yesterday who said he was a Mormon.  This sparked something in her, and she said I am too, I think I'll go to church tomorrow.  The plan was that she would meet this new friend there.  He didn't show up, but she did.  We met in the Gospel Essentials Class, and just loved her.

Left to right: Joe Booker, Elder Lovell, Elder Fore, Sister Linda Rose Romero, Elder Tagaloa, and Elder Steiner

Left to right: Elder Tagaloa, Elder Steiner, President Andersen, Joe Booker, Elder Lovell, and our newest assistant Elder Fore

Well, yesterday morning our baby Erin packed up and went home to Utah.  Isn't she just the most beautiful girl you've ever seen?  She is wonderful inside and out.  We have enjoyed the time we have been able to spend with her these past two weeks.  She has been a great sport.  She had her wisdom teeth pulled and was such a champ through all of the recovery.  We drug her around with us while we finished interviewing the missionaries and she was able to meet some of our special elders and sisters.    We are so thrilled that she is going to school and will soon finish her degree in Civil Engineering.  What a blessing she is in our life.  She is so good to us and is such a loving daughter.  

I went to the grocery store after I dropped President Andersen off at the office. I had some things to get for transfer week food.  I was going to get the lasagna made while President was working at the office.  What I really wanted to do was go back to bed and cry for awhile, it was still early enough that I could have gotten away with it.  Erin's flight left at 7:30 am so we had to get her to the airport by 6:00 am.  The spirit whispered that I would be happy if I found some sisters to study with.  I thought about which ones I should call, and decided to call the Smyrna Spanish sisters and ask if they would let me come and join their companionship study.  They were so sweet to let me.  I jumped into the car and drove the half hour to Smyrna and we studied about prayer for an investigator that they were going to challenge to pray.  We had a great role play, the spirit was strong and it is true...I felt better. Thank you Hermana McNeil and Hermana Capener, I love you!

Thank you Baby Bear for being such a sweet and beautiful daughter!  Good luck this year at Utah State!  Go Aggies!!

This dad loves his baby girl!

This afternoon we decided to see the Hermitage.  This was Andrew Jackson's home and it is amazing!  The grounds were so beautiful and we really enjoyed our walking tour equipped with these little hand held thingy mabobs.  It was 95 degrees and that was a bit of a problem, but we toughed it out.  We came home and made a yummy dinner of Bar B Que chicken, spinach and mushrooms, salad and corn on the cob.  We've had such  a nice time with this darling girl.  Her and her dad are playing a final game of Nertz! She's one of the few who can give him competition.

Ok, so I'm not crazy, just had a little extra time tonight and I feel like this is me catching up on journaling.  I promise I won't be posting ten posts a day!  I love this video.  We had been working on the transfer board for several hours and it was 11:00 pm and we had decided to call it quits for the night.  As we walked out of the Presidents office and into the common area of the office the elders noticed a box of jalapeño peppers on Sister Godfrey ledge.  They decided to each eat one.  As you will see they had a wonderful time...

Because I told sister Steiner that I would record them singing at the game and send it to her, we went back to the office and they sang for her there.  From left to right: Sister Cotton, Larsen, Warner, Cook, Torres, Tebbs and Elder Tagaloa, Peery, Lovell, Steiner, Jonah Leavitt, and President Andersen

Erin Ruth Andersen arrived in Nashville Tennessee at 9:30 pm on August 11, 2014.  We had just come from the Nashville sounds rained out baseball game where the missionaries were supposed to sing.  We have been looking forward to her visit for many weeks, and so thrilled that she is finally here.  She is just as beautiful as ever!  

The Spirit of God - The Livingston Branch Band

This is a random place to start this blog...but "it is what it is" as they say.  

The Livingston twig was one of the first meetings we went to last year when we arrived in the mission.  They began in a single car garage.  We were blessed that week, as they had just installed a window mount air conditioner which cut the heat slightly.  We attended once during the winter and it was quite a chilling experience.  Now they are an official Branch, meeting in a two car carport equipped with a ceiling fan and fireplace.  We are so delighted with the work that is being done in this part of the vineyard.  The missionaries in Livingston love it there.   Our prayer is that before we finish our mission, we will see the formation of the Livingston Ward!  Make no small plans!

The talented TNM!

This is Sister Hargadon, Sister Hulme, and President Huddleston.   This beautiful number was originally preformed at the very first official meeting of the Livingston Branch of the McMinnville Stake.  We were so moved by this beautiful music that we asked them to please video it and post it on You Tube.  Thank you sister Huddleston for your great video skills.  We hope that you enjoy this as much as we have!









Here is one more we think you'll like from the Livingston Branch Band



"When the Latter-day Saints go Marching In"
The members of this band are, left to right: Elder Zabriski, Elder Hansen, Sister Bundy, President Huddleston, Sister Hargadon, Sister Smith, and Sister Squire.