News From the Field

An older but fun picture of Sister Gale at the MTC

Time for an update on our favorite missionary. She has been in the field now for two months. Her mission was recently chosen to be a part of the church's new expansion into social media and technology to hasten the work of salvation. Her mission president asked Shayla and her companion to be a part of a team of four to roll out the new program in their mission. The fact that they are both engineering majors might have had something to do with that decision. They were sent out with two elders to travel the mission and teach all of the missionaries how to use their new ipad minis. Then, they spend their evenings serving as "Tech Support" taking phone calls and answering questions. Last Friday, she and her companion met with the mission president and his wife, the mission assistants and the other two Tech Missionaries to put together the plan for using Facebook and the ipad more effectively. This week they will attend the Missionary Council and then teach at zone conferences next week.

 Anyone who knows Shayla  knows she is in her element. 

She was definitely prepared for this new era of missionary work! 

Sister Gale and her companion with the two Sister Trainer Leaders (girl version of APs)

In Which Shayla Goes on a Mission

Just a really cute baby June with her PopPop on the Sunday morning that 

Shayla gave her farewell address in the Newtown Ward.

Miss Norah turned three the day before and blew out her candles. 

She plugged her ears as we sang "Happy Birthday"--can't say as I blame her.

Shayla and her fan club:

Bailey, Mason and Norah

The whole next generation of Gale posterity on one couch.

This is the only picture out of many that didn't have at least one child in motion and blurry.

Oh, but aren't they adorable?!

And off she goes to serve a mission. 

We were held up by traffic on the way to the airport and she had to hurry to make her flight.

 We had most of the summer to say good-bye but the final send-off was short and quick.

There were tears and smiles and hugs.

Our Sister Gale will be a wonderful missionary. 

Her loving heart and obedient spirit will serve her well as she serves the Lord.

Found

I am mostly finished with the packing around these parts. But I have a few decisions still to make about "pack and take" or "get rid of". I had put that off with these suits that were left in the upstairs closet--one by our currently serving missionary and the other by our recently returned missionary. I was trying to see into the future and determine if Sam might need them for a back up (it's happened before when I forgot to pick up the dry cleaning --oops!). Also in my future-gazing I was debating whether Sam would pass his older brothers in height, rendering the suits useless.

 Except in the event of a flood.

That seems to be the direction things are going--Sam passed Seth up and seems to wake up taller every day. So, I was ready to find a new home for the suits.

As I tossed them onto the chair, I saw something peeking out of the inside jacket pocket.

It was Elder Gale's last planning book. Filled with Hmong names and appointments and some funny drawings. Also in the pocket was the flight information and boarding pass for his trip home.

So I checked the other pockets and found 

his name tag, 

where he had tucked it away after his official release from missionary service.

I'm glad I discovered that missionary suit jacket time capsule before I sent it off to its next life.

Birthday Boy

Our missionary celebrated a birthday yesterday. It was his p-day so we got another enthusiastic email from him. He was planning to celebrate his birthday by teaching a lesson to a 13 year old investigator who had asked to be baptized: "Elders! I've decided I want to be baptized! What's the next step?!" And going out to dinner with a Colonel Sanders look alike and his wife. Good times in the mission field.

Here's a little stroll down memory lane with our cute Seffers:

Seth's 1st Birthday with the traditional train cake

Looking dapper in a bow tie and suspenders

Brothers! 

Spiffed up in homemade vest and bowtie
(The bowtie was a signature look for Seth!)

Enthusiastically endorsing the scriptures

In a recent letter Elder Gale said: "Oh youth conference, if only I had appreciated the worth of such events when I was younger! Now I wish I could go. Same with seminary! I wish I had paid more attention, maybe slept a little less. But we get three hours of studies every morning, so I've become quite the scholar."

Music to my ears.

Happy Birthday Elder Gale!

Missionary Moment

This was the email I received from Elder Gale two weeks ago:
"Sorry! I only have three more minutes til the library closes. It was district pday today so I didn't have any time! A lot has happened and we're looking at baptising upwards of 12 people in the next few weeks! Some cool stories. But I will write a letter when I have more time! I love you all and I'm doing just fine! Teaching lots of people and helping them progress! Love, Elder Gale

Even in a short note he managed to fit in SIX! exclamation points. Gotta love his enthusiasm!

I got a hand-written letter in the mail yesterday

and it included PICTURES!

He apologized for the bluriness here--but you can still see
that it is the classic MTC map pose

Elder Gale cheerfully scrubbing the font

They had a baptism on Conference Sunday between sessions. 

I loved that Elder Gale wrote on the back of this picture: "This is a t-shirt at the MTC, but I found this

one in our apartment! I think it's pretty awesome!"

His Momma thinks it's pretty awesome too.

Missionary Moment

Elder Gale with Pres. and Sister Satterfield~Georgia Atlanta Mission

Our Elder Gale made it safely to the mission field last week. We got TWO letters from him yesterday--an email and a nice, long hand-written letter--yay! He is very expressive in his writing and thus very generous with his use of exclamation points!! I also have noticed that his emails are one long sentence with the exclamation points sprinkled throughout but his letters are neatly written with proper punctuation and capitalization. Since he was homeschooled for most of his education, I am relieved to know that he does know how to write a proper letter. Here are some highlights:

"I am officially in the field! Georgia is stinkin awesome! It reminds me of Washington with all the trees, although the dirt really is red! Kinda cool.  I'm serving in the Rivercrest area, about ten minutes from Alabama! It's one of the only biking areas in Georgia. Lucky me! My trainer is Elder Baleiwai, he's from Fiji! His name translated means something like: "William moves around a lot becomes a grandpa has two eyes and falls in water." Pretty outrageous, but he's super nice and is a great missionary!

We have this huge map in the apartment covered in pins of potential investigators, so we don't have to actually tract much if at all, which I'm happy about! We have a pretty full day planned today. Hopefully we can make some of these "potentials" into full 'gators! (investigators) We'll see, I've still got pretty high hopes to baptize 1 million people, so I like to think they'll all become 'gators and get baptized!

Positive attitude makes all the difference! I'm just gonna work my butt off whilst I can and do what I can for the people here! Human souls are at stake, yet they have their agency, it's just my job to give them the opportunity!

The apartment is purdy ok and I'm healthy and happy! So don't you worry mother! I love you and miss you all but this is where I need to be!

 A quick note for Sam and Shane: Make serving your goal now and plan everything around it! Nothing else will be as important as building God's Kingdom and saving souls! There is no greater duty, honour or privilege you'll have than to join the tiny percentage of the world's population authorized to be official representatives of Jesus Christ! Not to mention we owe it to God to sacrifice and serve him!

And here Gentle Reader, comes the hallelujah every parent hopes for-- please forgive me for basking in this moment of parental redemption....

Listen to Mom and Dad! They know what they're doing and are the greatest blessing in our lives! You punks are lucky and have so much (both temporal and spiritual) and you have an obligation to act on your knowledge. "To whom much is given, much is required." Elder Holland said, "We expect a lot from you and we do not apologize". We have nearly 200 years of missionary tradition to uphold and you both are directly responsible to save certain people who are this minute being prepared and are waiting for you. Don't blow it. If you are already planning, great! Keep it up, but don't ever pass up the opportunity. I love you and will see you soon! Just remember who you are, where you came from and what you have been foreordained to do and become! The church is true, everything about it. Don't ever doubt it and never think you know better than Mom and Dad, and you'll do all right....

Love,

Elder Gale

Epistle the First

Our first communication from our missionary came today. Seth's cheerful, easy-going adaptability is serving him well--he's off to a good start:

Hello mother dear!

So I wrote you a letter and sent it a few days ago, but today is my P-day and much has happened since I wrote you last.

So essentially it’s awesome here! I love it, other than having a hard time adjusting to the sleep schedule. But, I’m getting better at it. I love all the missionaries in my district! We have way too much fun, it sometimes makes it hard to study when we get talking and laughing, but I figure it’s better to be friends with everybody than not. My companion is way cool, and we get along fine. We make a good team for teaching! I LOVE teaching investigators, it’s so crazy how the Spirit does all the work and I just sit there and let it work!

 Yesterday I had the most amazing experience yet here. Before we were just teaching our teachers who were pretending to be investigators, but we got to teach an older woman who was raised Baptist! She may or may not be a member, but either way it was amazing! I talked almost the whole time and was just pulling scriptures left and right to answer her questions and explain everything we were teaching! I don’t think I’ve ever felt the spirit so strongly, I was floating on air by the end (honestly I couldn’t feel my feet, but in a weird good way! haha) anyway, we get to study so much and its crazy how much you learn and understand in such a short period of time! But I’m having a good time and love it here! It makes me sad that I only get to stay here for 3 weeks, but at the same time I cannot wait to get out into the field and start baptising people left and right! My companion and I have decided we are going to baptize at least 1 million people and convert the whole south! haha at least that’s how it feels when you have the army of God on your side!

 It’s so cool to constantly have the Spirit pouring information into your brain and always receiving revelation when you need it! Oh, and I’m the district leader now! It’s pretty unfortunate, but I think I do a good job, at least with my district, but the paperwork and meetings suck and I always forget to do the little official things, but I’m trying to see it as a blessing.  Anyway, it’s way cool here and I love you all and hope things are going well!  I’m doing fine, so don’t worry.

Love,

Elder Gale

p.s. There’s a brother Gale in my branch (an old guy) who served in the Navajo res in New Mexico! Just like dad! haha anyway, he served in Gallup, and I thought that was interesting

Man on a Mission

He came home for a few weeks.

To say good-bye to the ocean,

the beach

and his brother

The decision had been made

and confirmed

He knew  where he was going

and why

We enfolded him in the 

family bond

of here and now

and Forever

He said his piece

in church

Then he packed his bags

and made the journey

into the adventure of a lifetime

and eternity.

Called to Serve

When each of our sons was born, I counted all of their fingers and toes and 

kissed their sweet little cheeks and gazed with motherly love into their

angel faces. It seemed like they would be little for a long, long time.

But they just went ahead and grew up. 

So far, the first three boys have taken their 

turn heading off to college and then making the choice to serve a mission.

They came to this juncture in their lives each in his own way.

I've lived long enough and parented long enough to know that my

hopes and dreams for them may shape the way I lead them, guide them, and 

walk beside them; but in the end, they have to have their own hopes and dreams.

When the decision to serve a mission is confirmed, I am grateful and happy for them.

I know it will be a pivotal, life-changing experience.

So, Seth recently received his call:

The Georgia, Atlanta Mission.

He reports February 15th, 2012

His impeccable table manners will serve him well.

He can certainly rock a suit.

Plus, he knows all about brotherly love.

He will definitely "Be Prepared"

Yesterday was a beautiful day...

and the weather was pretty nice too.

Returning With Honor

In FIVE DAYS Elder Gale will be home. After serving for two years in the

 California, Sacramento Hmong Mission. 

FIVE DAYS! 

It feels like Christmas.

We received his "Going Home" letter from his mission president--his words are a sweet

culminating affirmation of his faithful service:

"It is a great personal pleasure to write this letter upon the approaching release of Elder Gale from extraordinary service in our Mission. Elder Gale has been a truly wonderful missionary here. He has been diligent, faithful and very effective in every responsibility and assignment. As an indication of his dedication and testimony of this work I would like to quote from a talk he prepared for a zone conference. He said, "I know there is no other way to see success in God's work except to do it God's way. I bear my testimony that we are engaged in the most important work on the earth, spreading the true gospel of Jesus Christ and saving souls." These two sentences summarize well how Elder Gale has approached his missionary service to his Heavenly Father. 

Elder Gale has a special love for the Hmong people and cares deeply for them and their welfare. Elder Gale has truly blessed the lives of many, many in the Hmong community. He will forever be remembered fondly and reverently by the Hmong people."

Like Christmas.

3 John 1: 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

News From the Field

We hadn't heard from our missionary for a few weeks--and I had to assume he was anxiously engaged in the work-- so not too much Mom-worrying here. But it was nice to get his email today and find out that he is fine and yes, working hard.

Here is an excerpt from his email today:

So we had an amazing baptism yesterday but you kind of missed out on the whole background story. There names are Qhua Lauj (Khoua Lo) and Neeb Thoj (Neng Thao). They are the ones that I wrote an email to Elder Trythall of the 70 a couple weeks ago about. So after he got the email he spoke with President Lewis and the answer was no, they couldn't be baptized. I spoke with President Lewis for a while about it as he tried to explain Elder Trythall's reasons and I tried to explain why there really wasn't any other option but to baptize them here. I don't think I've been so upset my whole mission, to work so hard to baptize, have an amazingly elect family that wants to be baptized, but have a general authority say they couldn't just seemed so wrong. Elder Trythall offered to meet with Elder Thao and I so that Saturday we set an appointment to go see him. I don't think I've ever prayed so long and hard as I did the couple of days leading up to the meeting. It's pretty intimidating argueing a case as 2 missionaries against your mission president and a member of the 70. The meeting was mostly him talking and trying to convince us that these boundaries are super important, and I pretty much got his point but he hardly even let us speak. The most upsetting part is that he kept trying to say that if they had enough faith they would go anywhere. Khoua and Neng are being completely disowned from their families for this, Khoua's older brother told him, "If you get baptized we're no longer brothers." They have tons of faith, they just don't speak English! But after an hour he finally admitted that with Neng not speaking any English that it would be ridiculous to make them go to an English ward when there's a Hmong ward so close. So in the end he gave us permission to baptize them and said that eventually they would need to move within mission boundaries but they could have at least until their lease ran out, that they weren't under any pressure to do it now. So we had the baptism yesterday and it was great. Nyiaj Looj Lauj, Khoua's uncle baptized him and Elder Thao baptized Neng, who is actually his aunt (by Hmong standards anyway, his great grandpa is her granpa or something like that). As soon as Qhua came up out of the water he started crying and he cryed again during the confirmation (we had a water side confirmation). It was an incredible baptism, very spiritual and very amazing. We still have 2 more people working towards baptismal dates at the end of the month and a few more that we're hoping to firm up for dates in October, hopefully before the 19th :)

So the work is still going fantastic. Oh, I forgot to mention transfers, I'm still in North Sac with Elder Thao but I'm stuck being a district leader. It may be my last transer but I don't plan on slowing down with the baptisms, I'm deffinitely going to make this last transfer count. We have a lot of good people and the ward has never been more behind us. Bishop Lo is super impressed with us for going all the way up to a general authority to in his words, "fight for the Hmong Ward." He even made a big deal out of it in Ward Council yesterday. So while all my emails about school and coming home seem trunky I promise I'm still 100% in the work. I love you all and will try to email again next week.

Love,

Elder Gale

Happy Birthday to Our Missionary!

Elder Gale: Front Row Far Right

Our Elder Gale is coming down the home stretch! We received the travel itinerary for his trip from the mission field to home. It will be a long, arduous journey from Sacramento to San Diego but after two years of sacrifice--what's a few more hours? He actually has a layover and plane change in Los Angeles--just to break it up a little.

In the meantime, our missionary is celebrating his birthday today! It is also his p-day so we got an email. He is celebrating his 21st birthday a little differently than the typical 21 year old guy. As he said,

 "The work is the most important thing so that is what I will be doing." 

Preach My Gospel

Just an update on our missionary: he arrived safely in the mission field. The two-hour flight from Provo to Sacramento was grueling, but you know Spencer--not a complainer. If you are OCD like me, you are at this moment trying to resist the urge to straighten his tie. Trust me, there's nothing you can do about it.

Although he is serving in the United States, and only six hours from where his family lives, his letters seem to be coming from some faraway, foreign outpost.

Here is a rundown of some of his recent experiences:

1. Eating pig intestines.

2. Witnessing animal sacrifice in someone's living room.

3. This included a shaman dancing and twirling on the table.

4. Eating more pig intestine. And some liver for good measure.

5. Working around demon worship traditions to bring the light of the Gospel to a new generation.

6. Five baptisms this week-end.

This Boy

Is so excited to be out of the MTC!

We have not received any recent pictures from him due to his diligence and hard work

in learning the Hmong language and  recovering from the one flu virus that slipped past

 the myriad  flu vaccines he got before he left.

So these will do for now--you can see that he is charming, adorable and enthusiastic--all good character traits in a faithful missionary. And these have been an integral part of who he is from day one.

So he will hit the ground running, I am sure.

And he will teach and preach and work like missionaries do!

Spencer is serving in the California, Sacramento, Hmong speaking mission.

If you would like to write to him, or send him cookies (he lost 15 lbs in the MTC!!)

Email me and I will give you his address.

A Fond Farewell

Yesterday we said good-bye to our Missionary Son.

He's off to learn the Hmong language in the MTC.
Then he'll be back in California sharing the Good News.
The youngsters all love Spencer. He's a kind and patient big brother.
They said their good-byes as he loaded his luggage into the car.





Andy and I drove him to the airport and helped him check in.
I told him I did all my crying the night before at our FHE Farewell.
Then I hugged him and the tears made a liar out of me.

Newly Minted

In the Stake President's office right after Spencer was set apart. I may or may not have cried a little.

Good Times

This is the original and actual game we played--yes I saved it!

When Spencer was two to three years old, Seth was the baby.

Every day Spencer looked forward to naptime when the hectic

morning gave way to a peaceful, pleasant few hours spent playing

his favorite game:

Memory

Or as he called it: "The Matching Game"
(It happens to be a family favorite and each child in turn went through a stage

of obsession with it.)

I enjoyed our time together but didn't share his

thrill of playing game, after Game, after GAME, AFTER GAME.

He also happened to be very good at it--

I didn't even have to let him win.

When our children were little, I was told:

"The days last forever but the years fly by"

Now I know what they were talking about.
Boy, do I ever.

The little boy who mastered the "Matching Game"
will soon get to master the Hmong language.


We recently spent a peaceful, pleasant afternoon
getting him outfitted for his mission.

Now that's my kind of fun.

And we didn't even have to wait for Seth to take a nap.