Christmas Greetings

Beloved Missionaries,

     Here it is Christmas once again and our hearts are drawn to you in remembrance of the Christmastimes and wonderful days we spent with you.  Over and over we have said that those were the most beautiful days of our lives!  And we truly mean it.  And you made it all possible for us.  How can we ever thank you enough?  Again this year so many have sent us emails and cards that we thought the best way of responding was to send this message of love and greetings to each and every one.  Thank you for your individual remembrances including pictures!   We savour those.

     We know you are celebrating this season with your individual traditions which is makes for family memories, especially for the children.   May we add our testimonies to yours that we know that the birth of the Saviour came about just as Luke described it in his second chapter.  Christ the Lord, son of the Father, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, suffered His magnificent glorious Creative Spirit to be born of a mortal mother in, of all places, a manger in a stall with animals.  What a humble tribute to the majesty of his divine spirit.  Surely he is the Christ, the Annointed One who appeared with his Father to the young prophet Joseph Smith who truly did translate the Book of Mormon from the gold plates.  President Thomas S. Monson, in his last October Conference, asked members to pray to soften the hearts of the leaders of nations who have not permitted missionaries, to please open their doors so that the doctrines of salvation may come to every nation, kindred, tongue and people.  Surely in this way the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ may be hastened.  May we invite you and yours at this Christmastime to join us in this latest request of our prophet to appeal to the Father of us all to hasten this glorious day.  Coming from our mission in China we are first hand witnesses to what this blessing would be to millions of our brothers and sisters who we learned to love.

     We extend our special love to you and yours.  May this Christmas be special to you and may you feel the love of our Heavenly Father surrounding your family.  Once again, we send our sincere love and greetings and we hope to see you in June at our reunion.  

The Ensigns

More '09 Reunion and Finding Missionaries

To our Beloved Missionaries,

This has been an incredibly busy summer for us and we suspect it has for you as well. But that's good. We seem to keep busy and yet right now I feel an urgency to find all of you. So my plan is to sequester myself and try to get the work done.

About a month ago, we met at the Epley's and laid out a plan to have the reunion around the weekend of June 20th, 2009 - give or take a few days. Also in attendance were the Ellis's and Elder Kenney. We plan to have several days of optional activities. I think it would be fun to have all our carreer Sisters have a get together,perhaps a golf game for those who are interested and a temple session for those who can get sitters or who can make it. We want both a lunch in the park and a time in the chapel nearby to be a spiritual feast and testimony meeting when the children will be tended in the cultural hall, etc. We would also invite you to attend church with us in North Salt Lake at 11:00 a.m. So much for now.

The REAL need we have at present is to find EVERYONE! Each of us at the planning meeting took some on the list and plan to find them. Yet we need many of you to volunteer to take some names on a page and find them, contact them and have a stewardship over them. We need everyone. One page has about 20 names on it and I will help all I can.

One thing I have done is to find the parents' address, the church boundries dept. and phone the Bishop and see if he can help. Jen Going has been very successful in finding many over the Internet. We hope to network and ask you to give us your contacts and if you happen to see any of our missionaries to get contact information from them for us.

I have a system on Qwest whereby I pay a flat fee of $20 and can call anywhere in the U.S. and I don't want this to be a financial burden on anyone. We hope to find everyone within the next two months to give a heads up on planning next year's vacations. If you are anxious to meet with an old companion, let us know. It is frustrating to have so little time with you at the reunion; it is very precious for us to have one-on-one contact with you either on the phone or at our home and that's our goal.

We are well. President shot an 81 in a tournament and took 2nd place and I hear about it a lot. Really, he is amazing. I can hardly keep up with him. Please contact me if you are willing to help us find. I will assign you and we will work together. I am a pretty good detective!

Know we love you; you are our other family and we will never forget you, not one!

Sister Ensign

Reunion '09! (and other thoughts)

Beloved Missionaries,

We have spent the past months working to find missionaries and although there are many yet to go, we feel we have found a treasure of emails and phone numbers.

In some cases, we have learned that you are struggling with health issues and other challenges. Our prayers are always with you and our knowledge that our Heavenly Father is mindful of you.

Recently we had a couple of wonderful sisters visit and found a few of their companions and witnessed the screams, hugs, kisses and sheer joy that they felt to be together. We wondered if we should get the girls together and have a regular confab, a slumber party and so Paivi Flannery is going tolook into it for next spring.

The men are welcome to come for a golf game here in North Salt Lake anytime you are in town. We love to see you enjoy each other.

Jen Going does a masterful work at helping us locate you but next year sheis not only supporting her husband in the bishopric, has four little ones, but is the PTA President! No doubt most of you are also busy yet if there is someone we can hire to help us follow up and find more let us know.

Our phone number is 801-294-2672. Jen has done a lot of work voluntarily and we are forever grateful for her help. Please contact us if you have a change of email, address, phone, etc. One way I have found some of you is by contacting your parents, but even then many have moved, so please help us keep in touch.

Did I tell you that the President is working at the Bountiful Temple on Saturday afternoons? We are still hoping to visit different temples in your areas and attend a session with you. It is wonderful, even heavenly, to be with you in the Celestial room. Also he is playing golf on a regular basis and serving on the Board of Directors of a business.

Remember we are planning a reunion next year. I will be contact with Elder Epley and his darling wife Robin Miller Epley because they agreed to head the committee. I hope to have it all, especially time with each one. Usually the time is too short but I hope we will have a Sisters time, a golf game, picnic with families in the park, temple session for those who have sitters, an evening together with testimonies, etc.

You continue to inspire us with the memories of our time together and we love each and every one of you. We know there are a few who are struggling with their testimonies and we pray for you as we know how critical it is in our lives to rely on the teachings of the Gospel and the great influence itis on our posterity in these latter days. We love it when you call or visit, with or without children. Know that everyone of you is welcome to come see us. We have a player piano the kids will love and if you give me notice I can bake some cookies!

You are part of our family now and forever.

Much love,

Sister Ensign