Getting Settled in Phoenix

Oh my, it is REALLY HOT down here!  We arrive to temperatures of 120 degrees.  Even with our tinted back windows and a windshield cover, the steering wheel is too hot to handle so Steve bought these our second day here.  

My sunglasses are usually too hot to wear right away.

But, when the temperatures drop to 110 degrees, NORMAL temperatures in Phoenix in the summer, it feels great!

We live in the Marley Park development -  the cutest neighborhood here in Surprise.  

Here is our side of the twin home where we live

All the grounds are maintained by the homeowner's association but we do have a small enclosed patio at the front of the house where I can grow things if I want - in the fall and winter and spring, of course!  Marvin and Rebecca Johnson, owners of the house, have planted a few desert-loving plants already.  I will try to grow some tomatoes, I think.

This is the entry area with the front door off to the left.  Continuing to the back you will find our two-car garage and a narrow alley way.  No yards to speak of.

Steve and I have had to awaken pretty early to beat the heat on our walks and bike rides (The Johnson's left their bikes for us to use!)

Even though it is the desert, they do have some green spaces in the common areas

One morning walk, we saw this guy - a very bedraggled looking coyote - just roaming the neighborhood!

And this hilarious sight....these two dogs looked like they were sitting on the top of a high fence barking at passers by.  Actually, they must be on some kind of structure up against the wall that allowed them to check things out.  The one on the right was the barker.

We live 14 miles away from the Mission Office but we have to travel on surface streets so it is about a 30-minute commute one way.  We are in the office 9-5 Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  We get to leave at 4 on Thursday and at 1 on Friday.  Getting used to a 35-hour work week without afternoon power naps has been quite an adjustment.  We come home just totally exhausted.  Steve has to be on call 24/7 to address any vehicle issues that occur.  He has already had to handle his first fender-bender.  I am in charge of all the missionary arrivals and departures which goes in a six-week cycle.   In each cycle, we seem to have about 8-10 missionaries leaving and the same arriving.  I prepare welcome and farewell packets.   I order plane tickets but don't have to actually purchase them - Salt Lake does that.  I also process baptism information.  I answer phones when the receptionist is not there.  

We are right by a Deseret Industries and have made several small purchases to help organize our things here at the house.  We have discovered all the Wal-Marts and the various grocery stores (there is even a Kroger-associated one called Fry's) between the office and home.  In Columbia, I was never much of a Wal-Mart grocery shopper but, without an Aldi and with high prices everywhere else, I guess I will become one.  We even got to find an Urgent Care last week as Steve developed a urinary tract infection!  We both are just not drinking enough water here!

I will write more about our office in the future and I will also dedicate a blog to the inside of our home.  I close with a random Charlie Brown siting in a local Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market.....

Second Week in the MTC and Zion

Walking around the MTC campus (during our exercise and back and forth to classes and devotionals), we regularly passed these two statues.  This is Samuel Smith, the first missionary for the church back in the 1800's.


And this sculpture represents modern-day missionaries (although they should be wearing bike helmets!)

We spent a lot of time in the classroom - Steve learning about managing vehicle fleets and me about office stuff.  Now that we are actually in our jobs, some of what we learned will never be needed (like, I will never need to do the monthly newsletter and Steve won't have to do finances - those are jobs covered by other individuals in the office). 

Here is our group of office missionaries on our "graduation" day!

(Lambson, Mustard (France), Jensen (Chile), Sister Haywood in the blue top (Philippines), Hogeman (Orlando), McNary (Calgary), McCracken (Riverside, CA), Glanfield (Ghana), Tooley (West Virginia), Jackson (Portland), Boyle (Madagascar), Johnson (Mississippi) 

Thursday afternoon, June 15th, we packed up our stuff from our MTC room, 

We stopped by Kirsti and Ryan's apartment to collect the rest of our stuff (cello and computer) and away we drove from Provo.

We went as far as Cedar City that night.  The next morning, Friday June 16th,  we made a four-hour detour through Zion Naational Park.

  Parking is VERY limited in the park so it is best to ride a shuttle bus but, even getting there at 8:00 am, the lines for the shuttles were terrible.  It took us an hour to finally board.

But, the scenery was completely worth it!

Maybe we can return again someday (NOT in in tourist-heavy summer time) and explore The Narrows.  We did hardly any walking, just rode the shuttle.  We actually did have to drive through the southern part of the park to leave and they had the coolest tunnel ever!  It was over a mile long and there was no electric lighting inside.  At intervals throughout the tunnel, windows were carved into the side of the mountain to let in natural light.  It was pretty amazing to see.

Then, on to Payson by way of Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell

We drove through Flagstaff where we had dinner at a Wendy's and sat next to an LDS Boy Scout troop from Queen Creek (south of Phoenix) who were returning from a high adventure at a camp in Utah.  They were a great group of leaders and boys.

The drive between Flagstaff and Payson was just gorgeous - nothing but pine trees and mountain meadows.  With the late afternoon sun slanting down, and listening to a Best of Hans Zimmer mix CD that Steven made for me years ago, it was a lovely drive!

We got into Payson before dark (a FIRST in Lambson history) and enjoyed spending time with my sister, Juli, on Saturday and Sunday before driving down to Phoenix to start our ACTUAL mission...

We took an early Saturday morning walk around the park in Payson 

And admired the water fowl....

I didn't think Canada Geese went as far west -

First Week in the Missionary Training Center (MTC)

Here we are at the Provo Missionary Training Center!

It is like a college campus with classrooms and dorms

(this is the view from our room)

with the most unusual student body ever imagined:  mostly nineteen and twenty-year-old young men and women with a sprinkling of graying, aging married couples.  All of us dressed up in suits and dresses most of the time.  The senior couples stay in small hotel-like rooms.  Here is what ours looks like.


Our window is the one with the open curtain on the right.


There are two brand-new six-story buildings on the MTC campus.

They will house all the classroom instruction from now on.   We got to take a tour of them on Friday. They have magnificent murals like this one.

And, they have photos on all the walls of current missionaries and archival photos of missionaries in the past.  As I was walking down one of the halls, I saw this one and recognized my Aunt Thelma on the right!

She was a missionary in the late 1930's in France and Belgium.  I had just been asking Steve if I had ever told him that my aunt had been a missionary and I looked to the left and bam, there was the photo.  I like to think my dad and his sister, Thelma, were present at that moment prompting me first to remember and then to look.

We have met some great couples this week.  And we were delighted to discover our very first day at lunch to see Paul and Nancy Hansen.

They lived in Columbia back in the nineties and they are here training to be visitor center missionaries in Independence, Missouri!

Speaking of lunch - I am in gluten-free heaven.  There is a special-diet's room where I can go and find all things gluten-free.  It is wonderful and delicious.

Our days here have been busy and full.  Classes go from 8:00 to 4:30 Monday through Friday.  This week, we have focused on how we can help others come to Christ.  Our second week will be learning how to function in our different rolls on our mission.  Some couples, like the Hansens, will be working in church visitor centers.  Others, who are retired military, will be assigned to military bases and act as support to military personnel since our young missionaries cannot proselyte on post. One couple will be working in Maryland in the archives taking photos of old documents.  A few couples are learning how to be of help to the church leadership in their own home towns.  They will return from the MTC to live in their own homes and be full-time workers in member and leadership support.  It seems like most of us, though, are going to be working in the various mission offices around the world as secretaries and vehicle coordinators (a.k.a. car czars)  Steve will be one of those.  I will be a secretary.

Here is a photo of our district with couple missionaries going to North Carolina, Guam, Air Force Academy, Independence, Oregon, Mississippi, or back to serve in their home wards... (the youngster on the right was our instructor.  His last name is Echo Hawk - yes, he has Native American blood)


We also connected with the Houseman family who we have known for many years in Columbia.  They were at the MTC for some immersion language training preparatory to their mission to Brazil.  Richard will be a mission president.  Mission presidents serve for three years and get to bring their families.

Guess where we are all pointing to????
(Steve, me, Matthew, Allison, Ryan, Lori, Richard)

If we have enough energy after a full day of classes, we can do whatever we like in the evenings and weekends.  We joined the Hansens and Craig and Tami Israelson for a visit to the Provo City Center Temple Wednesday night.

On Thursday, we went to Kirsti and Ryan's apartment here in Provo to watch "Moana" again.  On Saturday, we drove up to Draper to attend the temple marriage of Steve's niece, Kamrie, to Ryan Wong.






Here are some photos from the reception.....

me, Dale (Dave's wife), Dave (Steve's brother), Steve


Dave, Steve, and Jeff, father of the bride

two nephews of the bride

Just to add a bit of excitement to our Saturday - Kirsti, who is expecting a baby girl on October 1st, called us from the hospital to say she was having a gall bladder attack!  They put her in Labor and Delivery to monitor the baby - who was just fine - and to decide what to do about her situation.  Today, she was sent home to eat a less fatty diet and hopefully, she will have no more attacks until baby girl arrives.  Then, the gall bladder will come out.

In Utah

We stayed Wednesday in Liberty with Maurine and Cal.  I just loved their dog, Sandy.  Can you believe the view from their house?

Here is Sandy in the front yard.

Cal's parents (Calvin and Linnie) are in their mid-nineties and they are now living with Cal and Maurine.  It was great to visit with them.  

Add caption

Thursday afternoon, we left Liberty, made the 3:00 session at the Ogden Temple

and had dinner at Dave and Dale's.  We spent Thursday night at Michelle and Mike's in Grantsville. 

 Friday we hung out all day - just visiting.  

We fed their chickens....

They took us into Tooele for Chinese food and I just couldn't get over how beautiful the mountains were!

Saturday morning, we stopped in to visit Elliot and Doris Morris (and their doggie Wall-E) in Stansbury Park 

and then drove down to Utah Valley. We stopped in to check out the progress Cal and Maurine were making with his parent's home in Orem.  They are trying to get it ready to sell.  They have made a LOT of progress but they have so much more to do.  Steve and I helped with a bit of painting and with their run to the landfill.

We met Jeff and Darla for dinner - they took us out to eat Mexican food - and we stopped by the Orem cemetery to visit Steve's parent's gravesite. 

Again, I just couldn't stop admiring the mountains

We visited a bit afterwards at Jeff and Darla's house.  Here is Jeff with their little dog, Belle.  (can you tell I am missing Sadie a bit?  Lots of doggie photos in this blog entry)

We spent last night and tonight at Kirsti's in-law's (Craig and Andrea Merrill) home in Provo. We attended church with Ryan and Kirsti this morning.  Tomorrow, between 10:00 and 10:20, we start our training in the Missionary Training Center!  Can't wait!