Mission Blog

A bit late, I know, but we just wanted to put a period on our mission blog and our mission experience. (As always, click the picture to see the full-size view.)

Our original release date was to have been February 4th, but we stayed a couple of extra weeks to help train our replacements, who arrived on February 15th.  Although duties were reassigned somewhat, my replacement was Elder Christensen, and Sue’s replacement was Sister Christensen.  They are from Fillmore, UT.  We spent time helping them understand the duties and procedures we had learned over the past nine months, and also helped them get their computer hooked up with the mission programs.

On Friday, February 19th, we had a farewell dinner/activity at the mission home for us and for the Dentons who also were leaving.  Working with these fine missionaries, and with Pres. & Sis. Hutchings has been a real treat for us.  We hope we’ve been of help to them all, and we know how much we appreciate their examples, their dedication, and their friendship.

[Gilgens and Pres & Sis Hutchings; TNM Senior Missionaries]

Shortly after these pictures were taken, we talked by phone with our Stake President, Pres. Hal Anderson from the Bloomington St George Utah Stake and he extended to us an official release.  We planned to take a couple of weeks traveling home, so they thought it would be best to go ahead and release us.

We then began our travels, early on February 20th, traveling by car to near Tampa, FL to visit with our good friend Peggy Williams and to enjoy some warmer weather!  We saw some cool sights, such as the Barnum & Bailey Ringling Brothers circus Winter Quarters (where Peggy works… she used to be a clown with BBRB), a nature preserve with lots of alligators, the manatees in Tampa Bay, and the movie Avatar!  Our next stops were to have been New Orleans, San Antonio and the Alamo, Carlsbad Caverns, and the Heidenreichs in Tucson, AZ.

However, on February 25th, at the end of our stay with Peggy, we got a call telling us that our son David, 42 yrs old, had just passed away from a heart attack.  What a shock and what sadness.  I had just talked with him that day, and he had just visited the doctor for heart problems which they began treating with medication.  He was upbeat, on top of his world, and happy.  He had struggled much of his life, but was now doing well, and we were so looking forward to sharing in his “normal” adult life in St George, where he had moved during our mission.

So with heavy hearts, and a lead foot, we hurried back home, driving 2600 miles in 2.5 days.  We did spend the night with the Heidenreichs, but got to visit only briefly.

Our return to St George was different than we had anticipated, although we did get a big family welcome as we walked into our home.  The banner on the garage door was one sign, and as we opened the door we heard the Tabernacle Choir singing (loudly) “Called to Serve” and all of our children and grandchildren were there to greet us with shouts of love and welcome.  This was special because they had all come for David’s funeral too.  Otherwise, we wouldn’t have seen them all at once like we did.

[Welcome Home!] 

[Sherri Gilgen, David's wife, with Sister Gilgen and my mom Meg Gilgen]

So the reason for delaying this last posting should be obvious.  We have spent the last month getting the funeral and David’s and our affairs in order.  (See Dave’s tribute page for information on the funeral and his life.)

(As an aside, we have been overwhelmed by the outpourings of love and sympathy over the past few weeks.  So many of you took time to personally express your condolences, your love and prayers on our behalf.  We probably will never be able to thank you all individually, but know that we have been touched.)

We have now given our “official” report to the Stake, and also spoken to the young men and women of the stake in their missionary preparation course (some 60 of them!).  Tomorrow (March 28) we give our “official” sacrament meeting homecoming talk, after which the mission will indeed be “accomplished.”

However, this mission will never really end.  Although the return was bittersweet, we were so blessed to have served the Lord for the last 18+ months.  We have had many wonderful experiences, our testimonies are even stronger, and we already miss the good people and missionaries from Tennessee and Kentucky.

We testify that Jesus is the Christ, that he indeed provided us with the means to live forever, and that he has restored his church here upon the earth in these latter days.  We invite all to hear this message.  It has blessed our lives, and we know it will yours too.

We were surprised today with a couple of beautiful and very sweet smelling leis, all the way from Hawaii, from our good Madison friends Ann & Milo Wiltbank.  Made us think “warm” thoughts all day, despite the near freezing temps outside.  In a week, we hope to be in Tampa, FL where maybe it will be a bit warmer.

Thanks Ann & Milo!!

Dear Friends,

As of next Saturday we will have completed our assignment here in the Tennessee Nashville mission.  In retrospect we realize that we got to experience two different missions.  The first nine months were spent as proselyting missionaries where time moved slowly and was full of the struggles and triumphs of our nineteen year old counterparts and more.  We taught classes, served in leadership callings, spoke in church, taught Institute, sought out referrals and taught the missionary discussions, taught quilting, genealogy, did countless home teaching and visiting teaching type visits to the two counties we were serving in.  We even baptised one adult and 3 children.  A large part of our time was spent in reactivation activities.  We attended district meetings, zone conferences, called in our numbers every Sunday night and received a phone call every night from our district leader to make sure we were safe.  We sang old hymns and folk songs in senior centers, firesides, sacrament meetings, and homes with our newly purchased guitar (played by Elder Gilgen).  We sang in funerals and special occasion events like Presidents day and Special Easter services in a Methodist Church.   During this first half of our mission we produced a major concert performed in five stakes.  We passed out 800 post cards of the Sacred grove quilt at the International Quilt festival in Paducah, KY and handed out 400 bottles of water with pass-a-long cards at the Tobacco Festival in Russellville, KY.

In May we were transferred to Nashville to work in the mission office and facilitate all the music activities of the mission.  Elder Gilgen was in charge of apartments, supplies, computer tech support, and many other things to numerous to mention.  Sister Gilgen was the referral secretary and responsible for setting up 52 performances of the beautiful “Songs of the Savior” written by  TNM missionaries, Elder and Sister Heidenreich, and performed by small missionary groups through-out the mission.  Elder Gilgen says we traveled the equivalent miles from Maine to California, 13 times.  We were priviledged to work with Stake Presidents, Bishops, Ward mission leaders, and marvelous members as we met in their homes to teach non-members about the Savior through art and music.  Then we put together and directed an Easter Concert and another Christmas Concert again presented to the Stakes of the Mission.  The Lord sent missionaries to Nashville, that could sing as well as teach.  Many were exceptional musicians with extensive musical training.  For example, this past November a marvelous violinist was loaned to our mission from Temple Square, SLC.  They did not even know she played the violin….but she held a degree in music performance.  She was only here for two transfers….long enough to star in our Christmas Concerts.  Like Manna from heaven….an answer to prayer!  This is Music City, afterall!

Working so close to President and Sister Hutchings, the Assistants and other office helpers, we got to interact with the missionaries more frequently.  We were involved with transfers, Comings, and Goings, Difficult times and many successful missionary moments.  We feel so blessed to have had all these experiences.  And just when we thought we were getting old and approaching obsolete…or at least too old fashioned.  We returned to the Elkton ward and the Russellville branch recently to speak in Sacrament meeting.  We were pleased to find our adult baptizee, Sister Wanda Harris fully active and loving her new church family!  We realized that we had sat in the living rooms of nearly all the people in those two Kentucky units and shared our testimony with them.  They loved us and even prayed for our successes.  For a brief time we got to be a part of the Army of Helaman!

I nearly forgot, we also served as temple workers for the entire 18 months.  We love the intimacy and friendliness found in the small Nashville temple.  Of course, we all felt that in Chicago as well. We also enjoyed these assignments with the other senior missionaries serving in the mission.

In speaking to the missionaries being released after a special temple session to celebrate their work as missionaries, President Hutchings referred to the scriptures in the Doctrine and Covenants where Christ calls those (Joseph Smith) who serve him “His Friends”…”.For Ye are my friends, and Ye shall have an inheritance with me.”  Then he gave us all a blessing.  What a Joyful experience.

So….does anyone want to serve a mission?   We will return home via the long way, going first to Florida to visit Peggy Williams and the Shipley Family and visit the ocean.   Then to New Orleans to hear great blues; San Antonio to see the Alamo; and Tucson to visit the Heidenreichs.  Then on to St. George around the 6th of March.

Love to you all and many thanks for your words of encouragement and love!  Sister Gilgen

(As always, click the pictures for a larger view.)

Well, not really.  We’re still going like crazy (Sister Gilgen working with referrals at the mission office), and that probably won’t stop until the day we actually leave.  But as mentioned in the previous post, we do know that we have replacements coming.  Our release date was to have been Feb 4, but the two new couples won’t arrive here until somewhere around Feb 15-18.  So we are “extending” our time here long enough to help orient them, and also to keep things going until they arrive.  At this point, our target date for returning home is Feb 20, but it could be a few days later.

So, speaking of “crazy”… on Saturday I got a call from President Hutchings asking me how my day had been “so far.”  Hmmm…  Well, transfers are coming up on Tuesday, and they had decided to keep open an area that I had been told would be closed, and where I had already given notice to the apartment complex that we were terminating our lease early (incurring penalties).   He was also going to reopen an area in rural Kentucky that we had opened and closed after only 6 weeks, but found that the reports of missionary activity by the previous missionaries had been erroneous.  Then he also was opening a new area for the Spanish missionaries in the Nashville area.  So… between Saturday noon and Tuesday noon I was going to have to find and open three apartments, and find six beds plus some other furnishings.  And we were just heading out of town to visit Elkton.  I got on the phone immediately and was able to cancel our cancellation, staying in our apartment that was going to be closed.  One down, two to go.  Today, Sunday, I got a call from the mission leader in the area that was reopening, and who we had asked to help us find something, who said he found a furnished home that we available immediately, and that would actually cost us less than the previous place we had.  Phew!  Two down.  So on Monday we’ll have only one new place to find, buy six beds, locate some other furnishings, and have them ready by transfers on Tuesday.  We also receive a bunch of new missionaries on Monday, and lose an equal number on Tuesday.  So I suspect things will be a bit busy!

Thus it was really great to get a chance to get away, and travel to Elkton, KY, where we started our mission.  We stayed overnight with Larry and Marilyn Frogue who have become close friends.  On Sunday, we gave our “farewell” talks and attended a potluck lunch in our honor.  Also speaking with us was Wanda Harris who we had baptized, and she gave a fabuluous talk.  Sister Gilgen gave a great talk also, but a tad long, and also covering most of what I was going to speak about.  So in 10 minutes (OK, I also went over time a bit) I gave a talk that was entirely different from what i had originally written.  Essentially both of us were able to express to the ward members how much we loved them, how we had grown ourselves, how the Lord really knew our talents and needed us in that area.  Indeed, we really do love these people, and will always cherish our time with them.

Well, four more weeks.  We’ll try to document everything we do, and have things prepared to hand off to the next couples.  One of the couples, the Merritts, will move into our apartment when they arrive, so we’ll spend our last several days at the mission home.

More in a while about our “last days” and our travel plans home.

Today we were excited to learn that a second office couple has been called and is coming to the mission.  They’ll arrive the same time as the previously called couple (about mid-February), so we won’t have to call elders to replace us.

As a result, we’ll extend a couple of weeks and probably be ready to leave by about February 20.  Then some travel time, and home by the beginning of March.

Stay tuned for more details, but we are quite relieved that we’ll be able to pass on our knowledge/expertise to another office couple.

Indeed, we’ve finally had a chance to catch our breath and give thanks for the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  We hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas spent with family and friends.

Our Christmas, like last year, was “minimally simple.”  For example, our tree was green christmas lights on our balcony!  Better than last year, when we had no tree at all.  We also have a real fireplace in our apartment, so we built a fire before opening our presents.  And presents are another matter… hard to surprise each other, but I think we did.  The best gift, perhaps, was that we just relaxed the entire day!  We got much needed rest, and even took a long nap.

Our Christmas tree and fireplace!

Today we took advantage of not having anything on our schedule to visit Russellville Branch in Kentucky where we served last year.  It was nice to see our friends and to remember the good things that happened while we were there.

And now we prepare for the new year.  The work still goes on.  Missionaries are working hard, teaching, and baptizing.  And we will do all we can to let them focus on their work instead of the nitty gritty details of apartments, supplies, finances, etc.

We also begin our final preparations to hand off to whomever takes over for us.  We don’t have any word yet of a couple coming to replace us, so President may have to bring in a couple of elders to do our jobs, at least for a while.  And we need to make sure they will be trained adequately.  How do you take a lifetime of experiences, including adult judgment, and teach that to a 20-year old young man?  But we remember that at one time we were all in the same boat, and somehow we learned and became “experienced.”

We’ll try to post at least a couple of more times before we head home, sometime in February.

PS  One of our 2010 projects is going to be the Hill Cumorah Pageant.  We have been chosen to participate in the pageant from July 2 to July 18 along with the Lacayo and Siolo families.  So it looks like a trip to New York is in our future picture too.

[As usual, click the pictures for a larger view.]

Yep, once again we have let our blog slip.  But that’s a good thing, because we’ve truly been “anxiously engaged” in the work.  Well, we’ve been having lots a fun along the way too!.  At any rate, they’re predicting some light snow for tonight, so with less than a week before the 25th, let us be the “first” (senior missionaries serving in Nashville Tennessee) to wish you Merry Christmas!

The last six weeks seem like a blur.  Highlighted by Thanksgiving, our Mission Christmas Musical Fireside, and a visit from my Sister Miriam and her husband Dan.  On top of all that, we began a serious weight reduction regimen.

In November we bid a final farewell to the beautiful leaves and temperate weather.  The trees are now bare, but so far (until tonight, perhaps) it hasn’t snowed.  We went to the Mission Home with other senior missionaries and some of the elders for Dinner.  As usual it was all scrumpuous.  As unusual, we were limited in what we could eat, but we had a really good time anyway.

For the privilege of serving and for the Lord’s bounteous blessings, we are truly thankful.

Dan and Miriam arrived the next week, the same day we had our final choir rehearsal.  We then crammed a couple of weeks worth of sightseeing and fun into four short days.  We ate catfish, visited the Opryland Hotel to see the lights, saw a local youth theatre play of “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” which starred a young man in our ward (the production was excellent!), and attended the Nashville Temple.  While we worked during the day, they saw several historical sites.  On Saturday we visited the Country Music Hall of Fame, saw a free Christmas country band concert, at BBQ (southern style), and then went to the Grand Old Opry which was playing at the Ryman Theater (instead of the regular Opry Theater).  We saw Trisha Yearwood among others.  After church on Sunday, Dan and Miriam hopped on their flight home and we got back to finalizing everything for the Christmas concerts (just one week away).

Dan and Miriam Steurer at the Ryman Theater and the Grand Ole Opry.

The musical program we put on was truly amazing.  Besides some standard Christmas music, we sang “Simple Joy” (a combination of “Simple Gifts” and “Joy to the World”) and “Still a Bach Christmas” (a combination of several Bach pieces, with Christmas words/themes).  We also included the “Songs of the Savior ” presentation in its entirety, with eight elders doing the narrations, backed up by the choir and with the projected video presentation.

Singing at Paducah, and at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville.

The logistics of getting 43 missionaries and the drivers, accompanists, directors around the mission were truly staggering.  We performed on Friday in Paducah (2.5 hrs north of Nashville), on Saturday at three malls in the Nashville area, including the Opryland Hotel, then at Murfreesboro (45 minutes south of Nashville), then on Sunday back to Hopkinsville, KY (1.5 hours north of Nashville) for a recording session and a final concert.  We borrowed vans from members and used our own mission van and vehicles and depended on members to help also with transportation.  Miracles truly occurred as we accomplished all of it without a single serious snag.  Every singer was present (early) for every performance during the weekend.

Missionaries getting into, and traveling in borrowed vans.

Actually, the only snag occurred coming back from Paducah.  About 11 p.m., about 45 miles north of Nashville, with 6 missionaries and 25 degree weather, the tread separated on the left rear tire of the borrowed van I was driving.  The elders put on the spare and we discovered it was flat!  So we had to wait for a service call on a dark, lonely stretch of interstate.  Two hours later we were on our way, and I finally got into bed about 2:30 in the morning.

Otherwise the whole weekend was a blessed experience, with truly wonderful singing and the opportunity to bear testimony with music.  The result was a genuine spiritual high for all of us.

Nearly as soon as the last note was sung, transfers began, with 9 new missionaries arriving, and 10 leaving the next day.  On top of that, we are seeing the influx of Christmas packages and letters which we must address and forward out to the missionaries.  Since we didn’t know until Tuesday where they’d be, we had to wait, creating quite a backlog.  As of Friday, we caught up!

Swamped by packages and mailings… all in a day’s work!

Now it’s time to enjoy Christmas.  And enjoy we will, what with the thoughtfulness of the Young Men and Young Women of the Bloomington 6th Ward in St George.  They sent us they cute “missionary stockings” complete with 12 gifts/scriptures to celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas.  On Christmas Eve we’ll get together with other senior missionaries at the Mission Home for dinner and fellowship.

Elder and Sister Gilgen with their “Missionary Stockings”

Then we’ll document what we do for our replacements (we still haven’t heard if another senior couple is coming, or whether elders will have to pick up for us).  It’s hard to believe that 18 months is drawing to and end (at the beginning of February).

Despite my best intentions, time seems to slip by and the blog gets forgotten.  October has come and gone, and it’s only three months until we finish here.  However, we still haven’t heard if we’re getting replacements, so we’ll hold off on predicting our actual departure date.

Here’s a view from our apartment balcony early in October.  See below for the late October view.  See the next blog entry for some pictures of our October.  (As always, click the pictures to see a larger version.)

October saw the last of our Songs of the Savior performances.  We enjoyed some really great success, including in our own Carnton Ward.  One recent convert had been trying to break the ice with her mother, who was quite negative about the Church.  But she finally agree to come with her daughter (a 40 something single mom) and left touched, and much more open to conversations with her daughter.  Sister Gilgen is compiling some statistics for these presentations, which we’ll share later.

Another cool experience came about in my area of arranging for missionary apartments.  Each morning we pray before we leave the apartment, but one morning I asked specifically that the Lord would open doors so we could accomplish our mission work (which I had never asked before), not even thinking of anything specific.  Later I was trying to open an apartment here in Nashville and was meeting with a fair amount of hurdles because we set up corporate leases, not leases based on missionary income (which is $0).  Finally, the manager said she’d have to talk to her corporate office to see if this could be done.  A few minutes later she called and said she had talked to her corporate president, who also happens to be LDS, and he personally vouched for us, approved the application, and even waived the background checks and the $99 application fee!  Doors were indeed opened.

During October the leaves change around here.  This is the view from our balcony about mid-month.

We have both been involved in a multi-ward choir that is doing a “Songs of America” concert a week from now.  The musical talent in our ward is awesome, and it has been great fun to sing with them.  More on that next posting.

We have just finished a crazy week at the office.  A few weeks ago, knowing we had a general authority coming to tour the mission, I suggested strongly that we need to have our carpets professionally cleaned (they are old and awful).  President suggested I call the Facilities Managment (FM) group and ask about it.  Instead of cleaning, the supervisor suggested we use carpet leftovers from various chapels and recarpet the office instead.  So this week has included not only transfers, but also three days of clearing out, then refurnishing the office.  I was in charge of the who process, but despite our best efforts, the mission office work was slowed dramatically during that time.  Add on top of that that we switched over to a new, internet-based missionary computer system last week.  Trying to learn new ways of doing things, from writing checks to tracking missionary assignments, we were all nuts.  Today, our preparation day, I slept until nine, then took another two hour nap…  that tells you something the intensity of the week.  Hopefully we’ll get back to normal next week.

Finally, we started rehearsals for our Christmas concert last Tuesday.  All we can say is “Wow!”  These missionaries are great, and the music we’ve selected is cool.  The whole thing will be really nice.  We’re also incorporating the Songs of the Savior in the concert (about 20 minutes worth).  We have three performances scheduled, from December 11-13.

Finally, the month has ended, and here is the view from our balcony after a month of leaf turning.

We continue to be blessed immensely.  We feel and appreciate your prayers on our behalf.  We are grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord in this part of the world.

Just thought you might want to see where we work (as always, click the pictures to see larger versions).  This is in the middle of a complex of business offices at the north end of Brentwood, TN, just south of Nashville.  It’s a mile away from the Mission Home, and about 5 miles (12 mins) from where we live.  It’s expensive, so the Church is looking at perhaps building an addition to one of the nearby buildings (maybe the Franklin Stake Center next to the temple) where we wouldn’t have to pay all tht rent.  But who knows if or how long it might take.

Not all is nose to the grindstone during our mission.  In fact, we get to see some really fun things.

In mid-October we went to the Grand Ole Opry for the second time since coming to Nashville.  It was a great evening with Trace Adkins, Montgomery Gentry, and The Oakridge Boys.

Finally, we got to take trips down the Natchez Trace…

and also to Kentucky to visit family farm of several acres (the McGregor homestead, where our friend Sarah Moser lives… and she’s the sister of our friend from Wisconsin, Marcia Barron). 

Besides the gorgeous trees with the contrast of the late rain-induced green grasses, we found a couple of interesting tobacco barns.  The first was a typical “old” barn, while the second shows the “smoking” process where they burn smoldering fires inside to make the leaves dark for cigar wraps or for smokeless tobacco.

We kind of liked this shot… sunset making the trees seem on fire, with the moon rising already along with wispy clouds.  Like we said, it’s really beautiful around here.

Along with many of you, we had the privilege of watching and listening to Worldwide General Conference this past weekend.  The miracles of technology allowed us to see all sessions over the internet on our own laptop.

I struck me that there were two themes (maybe different for everyone):  the qualities of Christ-like living that we need to continue to work on (love, service, control of anger, etc.); and the need to watch against personal apostasy… keeping a strong testimony and enduring in the face of continued attacks from the world.

But one speaker spoke with such power that one cannot hear him and not feel the spirit that is with him.  Elder Jeffery Holland bore one of the most powerful testimonies I have heard in many years, perhaps since the one offered by Elder Bruce McConkie some 25 years ago.

If you missed it, or if you’re one of our many friends who are not of our faith and would like to know what I’m talking about, listen in at Elder Holland Address, LDS General Conference (at lds.org), Sunday, October 4, 2009.

Elder Holland’s testimony reflects why we’re serving this mission in the first place.  Along with him, we invite all to come to Christ, to be blessed by His gospel!