Signing out - New blog address for the Cookes

Thank you to everyone who has blessed the Washington DC North mission while we have been here. We know this is not "our" mission but the Lord's mission and that under the direction of President Peter Cooke and Sister Heather Cooke, it will flourish.

I will not continue the postings except when we gather in large groups of returned missionaries - like after our homecoming and the reunions.

However, you can continue to follow the missionaries serving in the Washington DC North mission by going to Sister Cooke's blog.  This page will not have postings until they arrive in July.

It is: http://calledtoserveindcnorth.blogspot.com

In the meantime, our wish for you is articulated best by those in Anacostia, "Y'all be walking with angels."

New Arrival: June 25, 2013

Because Elder Andrade is proficient in both English and Spanish, he was able to come to the mission field earlier than his group - scheduled July 24.

President Matsumori; Elder Andrade, Mexico; Sister Matsumori

The Work of Salvation - behind the scenes of the DC mission part - June 23, 2013

It was a great blessing and surprise to be invited to participate in the broadcast "The Work of Salvation".  We were asked just about a week before and didn't know too much about our part.  It slowly evolved over the week to what you saw on Sunday night.

We were asked to be at the Barlow Center at least two hours early.

The zone leaders and sister trainers gathered in the class room downstairs.  Oh and as a side note, Sister Bowman who is  in the left of the picture, is the granddaughter of Milton A. Barlow - who the Barlow Center was named after.  She attended the dedication of the building many years ago as a child and now finds herself back in the same place. 

While we wait, President Matsumori plays, "So what do you think they're going to announce?"

About an hour and a half before the broadcast we are asked to do a sound check. Everyone files into the small conference room where you saw us.

The missionaries start practicing their smiles. 

 We go back to the classroom and then forty-five minutes before the broadcast we return to the conference room to stay for the duration.

There's a lot of sitting and waiting. 

Once everyone is in place, President asks the control room to put us up on the main screen so we can take pictures.

Ready, aim...

The technician assigned to help the broadcast takes our official photo.
Front row left to right: Elder Branning, Sister Matsumori, President Matsumori, Elder Fisher and  Elder Lowry.
2nd row: Sister Tuft, Sister Bowman, Sister Brown, Sister Word, Elder Nielson, and Elder Salanoa.
3rd row: Elder Meserole, Elder Bodily, Elder Sterr, Elder Seely, Elder Watts, Elder Lott, Elder Jelitto and Elder Julander.
Back row: Elder Brown, Elder Moore, Elder Centeno, Elder Miyasaki and Elder Ah Puck.

This is what we saw:

You'll notice "Lark", the technician on the right is reading a book while waiting.  You can't see the ear phone she has that has her connected to a conference call so she can give us instructions. The microphone is on the small table in the middle.
Also notice the high tech way of getting the camera in place - it's called a stack of books.

We could always see ourselves in the upper right hand portion of the screen throughout the broadcast so we never really knew what we looked like at the moment we were on. When Elder Holland was talking to us, we could mainly see him. 

So this is what you saw:

Thanks to those who posted this on Face Book, we got to see how we looked when we were on screen.   We heard that a large group of missionaries watched this at the Visitors Center and a large scream went up when we were shown.

And here are some returned missionaries who watched at home:

 Watching the broadcast together back in Provo:
Front row: Spencer Brown and Michael Hsiung.
Back row: Josh Stallings, Bryce Robinson, Stephanie Moore,  Ling Wai Wong and David Tomlinson

Just because photos

Just because photos are the ones that I have chosen to share for no good reason other than they are fun, give you a sense of various aspects of our mission and just because...

Enjoy.  I'll try to explain in the captions.

Elder Bott shows his Halloween costume. I like this because I think there is  a bit of Superman in every missionary.

  Here are the missionaries who were in the French program who attended a Takoma Park Branch activity.
Front row left to right: Elder Gillespie, Elder Vanaa, Elder Searle.
Back row left to right: Elder Terierre, Elder pawlenchuk, Elder Tomlinson, Elder Lindsey, Elder Wery and Elder Roomataaroa. 

The missionaries go to the mall to take sunrise photos. I love this one.  I think of missionaries who get up in the morning feeling like they are going out to conquer the world. 

I love how this picture shows the dedication of the missionaries to work no matter what.  Elder Pawlenchuk and Elder Blesoe  head out at just the beginning of the storm. 

Because of our location in Washington DC, the general authorities are often here on business.  On this preparation day, it just so happened that Elder Lanham and Elder Schoemig had scheduled a tour of the capitol building, not knowing that Elder Perry and Elder Cooke would be there, too. 

Kensington House sisters are just an example of how cute and funny these sisters are.
Front row: Sister Cagnacci and Sister Staley.
Back row: Sister Wightman, Sister Crowfoot, Sister Gleason, Sister Menendez, Sister Gomez and Sister Hanny. 

Left to right: Elder Martinez, Elder Ah Puck, Elder Anderson, Elder Furugen, Elder Moore and Elder Brown in front of a more artistic graffitti -ed  wall. 

One of the oldest buildings in the mission is the Chevy  Chase building.  Occasionally there are problems when there is a break in the pipe.  Elder Krugman begins the long process of bailing out the very dirty water and refilling the font after they discovered this is what it looked like.  (What you don't are the rest of the missionaries who passed empty buckets to him and hauled dirty water to the bathrooms.)

These missionaries spell LDS.
Sister Brown and Sister Engman.  Elder Salanoa and Elder Stubbs.   Elder Giles and Elder Sterr.

Missionaries at sunrise.

One of the senior sisters sent this photo of the Elder Watts and Elder Snow who took "trunk or treat" to another level. 

See why I like sunrise pictures?

Elder Szabo provides the weight for Elder Tavana's morning workout. 

For a while the city missionaries used a trial bicycle safety program where these reflective logos were worn on backpacks and vests.  Elder Galuvao and Elder Mecham look a lot happier than the missionaries really were about having to wear them - even though it was for just one transfer. 

Nerf guns and zone activities. What could be better?  Left to right: Elder Cottrell, Elder Probst, Elder Koyle and Elder Middlesworth.

We get missionaries of all sizes.  Sister Shannon and Elder Lee show the extreme.  Elder Pound is in the middle. 

Elder McLane was involved in this past year's Chinese New Year's celebration. 

Elder and Sister Oak brought with them a puppet show to help children with the Word of  Wisdom.  While it s often done in English, these Spanish elders helped present it in Spanish to the Mt. Pleasant Branch Primary.
Left to right: Elder Guerrero, Elder Cervantes, Elder Flores and Elder  Gleed.

This is one of the results of last year's earthquake - they are beginning repairs to the Washington Monument which will take years to complete.

I love the missionaries' creative ways of finding.  The two sisters who drive this car are from Russia and Estonia. If you saw how cute these sisters are, you'd want to take Russian lessons from them, too.  

Yup. Another sunrise photo.

Missionaries spell CTR.

In this district meeting the elders had a chance to practice their baptizing skills.
Groups left to right:  Elder Bushman and Elder Krugman; Elder Danklefson and Elder Dillon; Elder Lowry and Elder Rodriguez; Elder Mataele and Elder Gorringe.

Same groups as above - finishing the practice.  Notice there isn't a third slide to show how many were on the floor.

There are many talented missionaries.  This drawing was done by Elder Williams in the bottom right hand corner. Check the next photo to see how well he did. 

Top row right to left: Elder Stallings and Elder Croft.
Bottom row right to left: Elder Lee and Elder Williams.

A map of the mission boundaries. 

More sunrise.

Swallowing the sun.

DC VC  get it??

Sisters during Festival. A little too mixed up to try to name.  But aren't they great?

These are the sisters from the international area assigned to the Washington DC Visitors Center as of June 2013.
Front row left to right: Sister Larentyeva, Russia; Sister Carcamo, Chile; Sister Kaarma, Estonia.
Back row left to right:  Sister Morotti, Italy; Sister Blasco, Spain; Sister Gros, France; Sister Nakatsuka, Japan, Sister Leben,  Germany; Sister Tembo, Zambia; Sister Lin, Taiwan. 

Sunrise

Final sunrise symbolizes how the missionaries feel at the end of their mission after they have developed such great friendships. 

Summer, spring, winter or fall....

President asked me the other day what has been a surprise.  The traffic for one.  But the other is how beautiful it is here in Maryland and in DC.  I always thought of this area as another big city.  Not true.  Here are some photos from the various seasons. And while this is not exactly how the calendar year would list the seasons, it is the way Carole King would sing about it  (does that show my age???).

Summer

Elders in the Southern part of the mission at sunrise.

And this is why we lose power for days on end following high wind storms.

Elder Moss, Elder Stoor, Elder Chapman and Elder Fisher seek shade in the high heat.  With the high humidity, the shade doesn't even feel cool at times.

Lots of rain in the summer means lots of flooding.  Now you know why your missionaries shoes end up looking the way they do. 

Elder Watson following one of our close calls with hurricanes. 

Spring

Cherry blossoms and the Washington Monument.  Very DC.

Elder Anderson, Elder Farley, Elder Morris and  Elder Winkler on a preparation day during cherry blossom time.

Tulips at the temple. 

Elder Shurtleff,  Elder Kinne, Elder Howard, Elder Hutchison and  Elder Johnson by the azaleas in front of the mission home. 

More cherry trees. 

There are azaleas everywhere.

Sister Porter demonstrates how changeable the spring weather can be.  They wanted to take pictures of the cherry tree as it was coming into full bloom.

Good thing they got the picture the day they did because this is what it looked like the following day. 

Winter

Winter makes car checks an interesting activity. 

We only get this much snow a couple of times a year. 

Sister Wankier and Sister Welch by a part of a tree we associate with winter. 

Fall

There are trees like this throughout the area. 

Here is the departing missionaries during a fall trip to Arlington. 

There were no fallen trees at our home after  Hurricane Sandy - just leaves. 

More beautiful color.