Project Protect and Coronavirus Masks

At the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic, it was discovered that there were no masks and almost no supplies to make them.

The day after General Conference (April 4-5, 2020) Susan received a text asking if she would help make masks for people and organizations in need.  Since her initials are SEW, how could she say no.  This was her contribution to the request from the Church of Jesus Christ's Relief Society to make 6 million masks.  The original request was for 5 million masks and as the goal was received, the request came for another million, making a total of 6 million in all.  Sisters throughout the Salt Lake Valley went online to sign up for kits.  The kits contained materials to make 100 masks.  The kits were picked up on Tuesday and the finished masks were returned on Saturday. A million masks were made each week. The pickup and drop off locations were the local Deseret Industries donation locations, which were closed due to the pandemic.  Each week people picked up and then dropped off their kits making 5 million masks.  The first pickup was April 21, 2020 and the last drop off was June 20, 2020.  Women and their families worked together to make the masks each week.  Several sisters in our ward helped Susan make her 100 masks each week, they each made 20 and the masks were done in no time.  It was truly a pleasure to be involved in this wonderful project.

Of course the request for Grandma to make everyone a mask came in and things were pretty calm at the sewing machine the month of July.  However, with the start of school, each of our 10 grandchildren that would be attending school were told that they would need several masks for their return to school.  Of course GrandmaSew has been sewing in the late hours of the night in an effort to spoil her grandchildren.  They each got to choose their fabrics from Grandma's stash of fabric, color of elastic, and style of mask.

It has been a uplifting and rewarding time to be involved in the care of others.  Below is a link to a short video by President Russell M. Nelson.

https://youtu.be/-nr_NHx1MMs

This truly has been an interesting time.  Our current mission is nothing like our previous missions.  It has been a privilege to be involved in this wonderful work.



“The road ahead will always be bumpy, but the destination will be serene and secure. So, fasten your seatbelt; hang on through the bumps; and, do what’s right; and your rewards will be eternal.” President Russell M Nelson, 2020

Gardens

Gary's gardening services were requested by two sets of grandchildren.  One group had 3 grow boxes in the home they are renting.

They were able to chose what they wanted to grow.  The ground needed to be prepared, plants were planted and they were given instructions on watering. The other group had grow boxes built.  We made a trip to IFA and purchased some plants.  The family with 3 boxes gave one box to each of the 3 older children.

The other group bought their plants and then Papa helped them sow the seeds and plant the various plants.  They too were given watering instructions.

Both gardens have done better than the few plants we have planted at our home.  It is a bit late in the season, but we see other things to harvest besides Zucchini before the end of the season.  They are delighted with the results of their first gardening experience.  By the way, they only planted one Zucchini plant in each garden. Of course both gardens have plenty.

"The Prophet said to plant a garden, so that's what we'll do.  For God has given rich brown soil, the rain and sunshine too. And if we plant the seeds just right and tend them carefully, Before we know, good things will grow to feed our family. The Prophet said to Plant a Garden, Children's Songbook, Page 237

Weekly Zoom Calls

Serving remotely has been a whole new experience for us.  Our responsibilities in Frankfurt were basically serving remotely as we were the help desk for 16 different couples stationed in different European countries.  Most of our couples have been sent home.  We just have two couples who were able to stay; one couple in Hungary and one couple in Romania.  This is what our week consists of.

Monday - 8AM/4PM (Utah Time/Frankfurt Time)- Zoom Call with Area Office in Frankfurt.  

Tuesday - 9 AM/5PM (Utah Time/Frankfurt Time) - Zoom Call with all the Humanitarian Couples in the Europe Area.

Wednesday - 8AM/4PM (Utah Time/Frankfurt Time)- Zoom Call with Area Office in Frankfurt.

Thursday - No Calls 

Friday - 8AM/4PM (Utah Time/Frankfurt Time)- Zoom Call with Area Office in Frankfurt

Along with these calls, we help our couples with their individual challenges.  Susan helps them get their finances reported and Gary helps them with project issues.  In addition to this, we compile lists for the area office.  These lists consist of release dates, visa expiration dates, location and serial numbers of laptops for each couple and the US contact information for all the couples who returned to the US.  

Our office consists of a 6 foot folding table with two folding chairs.  We plug the laptop into our big screen TV as it is easier to view everyone on the big screen rather than on a 14" laptop view screen.  We feel truly blessed with the conveniences of modern technology.  Even since we began serving missions in 2012 we have seen huge changes.  Cell Phones, iPads, Tablets, Zoom Calls, Instant messages, and Live Streaming are all wonderful blessings that the Lord has given us. 

"Technology is a blessing – but it can also be a curse. We live in an age of information overload."  Alexandra Pittman, July 3, 2012

Home and Serving Remotely

We have been able to return to our home.  We checked out of our hotel and came home Saturday morning, April 4, 2020 in time to be able to watch April 2020 General Conference.  Gary was surprised that Nora (16 months) was so comfortable with him.  But why not? 
All of our grandchildren have Face-Timed with us the entire time we have been gone, so they know our voices and what we look like - what's there not to know?

We were not able to return to Frankfurt and pack all of the belongings in our apartment, so some of our fellow senior missionaries packed our belongings and left our bags with the Europe Travel department to ship our bags DHL.  Our bags were shipped and unfortunately the value placed upon our bags exceeded $1,000.00, requiring a custom tax.  So our bags were returned to Frankfurt.  The bags where then divided into two shipments.  The first two bags arrived, and the other two bags arrived the day after.  We now have more clothes to wear.  Remember, we were only going to be in Canada for 8 days so we traveled light; three changes of clothes and underwear.  Opening the bags was like Christmas morning.  We are so thankful for the kindnesses of our fellow missionaries and the Europe Area Travel Department.  Now it is merely a memory that we wore the same 3 outfits for over a month. We have since discovered there is yet another bag - what are the odds it will ever make it stateside?

The first two bags

Two more bags

"No matter the obstacles we face in this life, we can trust that the Lord will provide a way for us." Ulisses S. Soares, October General Conference 2019, After the Trial of Our Faith

A Poor Excuse

We were doing a great job with our regular posts every Sunday until our lives got turned upside down by that word (--------) we shall not name.  So we do not have any excuse (or should we say that Susan does not have any excuse).

Anyway we will be making a series of posts to catch up on the "Serving Remotely" part of Winters European Experience.  You can read them or not, but since we will make our blog into a book when we finish our mission, we cannot have our "Winters European Experience" end with "to be continued" . . .

Life got a little bit crazy and Susan did not make the time to make her weekly post.  Besides our Experience has not ended yet.

So let the catch up posts begin. . .

“The best way to get something done is to begin.”— Source unknown

Stay-cation/Self-Isolation Continues Week Two

We spent this last week working with the humanitarian missionary couples we support.  We begin each day with a Zoom call to one of our couples (we would have gone to train them in Romania last week).  After that call we usually do another Zoom call with the area office in Frankfurt.  Most of our couples have been busy submitting projects that have to do with relief effort related to the COVID 19 pandemic.  We have a Zoom Meeting three times a week with Frankfurt where we work on getting more 20+ projects approved. (We usually only have 8 to 10 projects to approve in these meetings which are usually every two weeks).  The rest of our day usually consists of putting out fires and helping our couples work through the challenges that they face.

As evening comes around we usually connect with our children and grandchildren through FaceTime.

Today (Sunday) we did a Zoom call with 3 of our daughters.  We had a short discussion about Enos in the Book of Mormon and what it must have been like to wrestle with the Lord. 

"Hope give us courage to do those things that we don't believe we are capable of." Noelle Pikus Pace