Jeff and Tammy Mission Blog

A few Senior Couples were able to participate with Veteran Families and other volunteers in placing a flag on each of the 50,000 plus military graves in the Rosecrans National Cemetery on Point Loma.  It was a memorable and reverent event!  Place the flag, read the name, and salute or place hat on heart.  Several graves just read US Solider. (see a few of the pics). Brendda who was baptized two months ago is in Officer Candidate School in Rhode Island. She wrote us a nice letter and in part told us she feels surrounded by her church family there.  The Senior Military Relations Missionary couple there and others have been great ministers to this great sister! (see pic) April joined the church at Easter time this year.  As Senior Missionaries we can leave the mission boundaries to attend the Newport Beach Temple.  We were able to take April (center sister in photo) and her friend and fellow shipper Em...

Brendda who joined the church in April is currently at Officer Candidate School in Rhode Island - It is a 3 month long combination of basic training and officer training.  Her two children (age 8 and 10) are being cared for by their Grandmother.  Nicolle is Brendda's sister-in-law that was baptized a couple of weeks ago is helping also.  Our assignment as Military Relations Missionaries (MRMs) is to contact church leaders in Rhode Island and check to see if there are any MRMs at that military facility.  To our delight a new Senior Couple had arrived at that base 2 weeks ago and have made contact with Brendda.  Knowing that church members will be looking for you and knowing where you can attend church brings a lot of comfort to those headed to their new assignments and the unknown.  In the language of the MRMs this is described as a Golden Handoff! The Church makes a lot of effort to support the members of the military!! ...

Sending lots of love and lots of hugs from beautiful, sunny, San Diego!  We are sooo blessed to be here!  What an exciting and diverse and rewarding mission to be assigned to!  Every day brings new experiences and adventures!  The California San Diego Mission is a baptizing mission!  The young Elders and Sisters are on fire with their enthusiasm and love for the Savior!  It's such a blessing to get to serve with them!   Thanks to each of you for your prayers!  We had a beautiful miracle happen!!!! WE GOT OUR BASE PASSES!  Now we have access to the base that we are assigned!!! We were blessed to get the fun and vivacious lady (casually dressed with sparkly dangling earrings) at the pass issuing office and not the gruff military uniform clad gentleman!  We bonded over the earrings!  We truly felt like she adopted us and helped us get all the things necessary to get the passes.  She even gave me a big hug ...

We have enjoyed a couple of memorable weeks! We cover military members in the San Diego Stake - but most of the military families live in the San Diego 1st Ward and the Point Loma Ward.  The 1st Ward covers downtown and a number of suburbs and has 2 sets of Elders and a set of Sisters.   At Sacrament Meeting some of the Mormon Battalion Sisters and a Senior couple attend and a couple or two from the mission office.  So lots of Name Badges to sort through.  At the Point Loma Ward there is one set of Elders, another Battalion Senior Couple and a lot of visitors on vacation.   A lot of the single military members attend YSA Wards. There are 4 YSA Wards within the 6 Stakes in the greater San Diego area. Senior Missionary Couples are assigned to each YSA branch. The 1st Ward baptized Brenda and her 2 children on conference weekend.  In May she will be leav...

A few more notes from the MTC  - The week we arrived,s there were 54 Senior missionaries and 300 young Elders and Sisters.  The MTC is very organized and we were inspired by the Senior Missionaries going all over the world and the young missionaries learning languages and headed to incredible places - indeed the gospel is flooding all nations! One Elder I met was on his 4th mission at the MTC. Elder Makai is in charge of greeting and loving and encouraging polynesian Elders and Sisters arriving for training from 20 different countries. He works the lunch room and the other gatherings and he always returned my smile with an even bigger one.  I included a pic of his infectious smile - my DNA test does not show any polynesian genetics but I really gravitate to my cousins through my connection with Jacob(Israel) through Joseph!!! This first week in San Diego has been fast and busy!  Training, orientation, service projects, meeting with members and military members, attending two ward sacra...

What a glorious week it was!  It was inspiring and motivating!  We loved experiencing it all!!! (However, I personally did not like to roleplay! 😅 Just saying!)  As we pulled in, we were welcomed by cheering younger missionaries.  Felt like VIP's.  Our housing accommodations were excellent, like a nice hotel room.  We were so inspired by all the younger Elders and Sisters who are going all over the world.  Elder Peterson loved visiting with the Mongolian bound Sisters and Elders.  Since he has been to Mongolia, he loved showing them that it was a balmy 5 degrees that day.  They are all so vibrant and positive.  They radiated the Light of Christ in their eyes.   Every devotional was so uplifting.  I got to participate in the MTC choir the night that Elder Marcus B. Nash of the Presidency of the Seventy spoke.  Music is always uplifting and emotional for me.  I can feel the Spirit through music.  Le...