WHAT EXACLY

IS A

'CHURCH SERVICE MISSION'?

We have had this question posed to us on a number of occasions.  I thought I would take a minute and try to explain.  Hope this will help!

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A Church Service Mission is a senior missionary couple (like in our case) can live in their own home and yet still be able to serve.  There are as many 'Church Service Missions' as there are probably senior missionary couples.  In other words, the mission can be tailored to the specific requests of what the church is in need of and what talents and abilities the couple has.  These come together to form a great missionary opportunity!  And this 'marriage' of need and talent and ability comes together under the inspiration of those in the missionary department who are in charge or putting it all together.

Yes, you have seen this picture before.  Just wanted to remind you that we are indeed set apart as Church Service Missionaries and therefore wear the 'badge'....and proudly I might add!

In our particular case, LDS Family Services was looking for a senior missionary couple to serve in a non-LDS National Office in Alexandria, Virginia.......National Council For Adoption.  We were actually contacted by the Headquarters Office for LDSFS in Salt Lake City back last November and December of 2010.  There have been a number of 'conversations' about the needs for the NCFA office.  With Wayne's background as a Professional (physician) and my background with LDSFS (13 years as the birth parent coordinator for the Maryland Office) Steve Sunday (one of the Assistant Commissioners in the Headquarters Office) felt that we were the 'perfect' couple to be in that National Office.

As we have been working in the Alexandria office for several weeks now, we indeed feel it was and still is a divine calling for us to serve here at this particular time.  We have felt the hand of the Lord in what we have already been able to do.  And we feel we are, again, being blessed for what we are trying to do.  Not only are we working on adoption issues and concerns in our own country, we are also working on inter-country adoption issues and concerns.  

We love what we are learning and able to do.  It is going to be a very rewarding calling!  We love all of the people we are working with and they seem to enjoy working with us.

Hope this helps a little.....if not, please leave a comment or two and I will try to 'address' more questions that you might have!!  Kiitos..... :-)

OUR

WEEK - AT - A - GLANCE

Here we go again.....weeks flying by so fast.  As I indicated in an earlier post, this 'mission blog' will be a bit different.  It probably will NOT be posted on a daily basis but more likely once a week.  Our days tend to be about 12-hour days.  Doesn't leave much time for doing the 'little' things that I typically like to do.....like adding to my blog.  We focus on just getting the basics done......like eating some kind of a dinner when we get home about 7:30 p.m. most night.  We leave home about 7:45 a.m  I think you get the 'picture'!  So....here are a few 'pictures' from last weeks happenings.

Our commute to and from Alexandria takes about 1 hour and 45 minutes.....traffic is usually absolutely HORRIBLE!  I am sure there is worse 'nightmare commuter traffic' somewhere other than the D.C. Area.  I don't think I want to be in it....this is bad enough.  This top picture is on the Capital Beltway (better known as I-495).  We are about to leave Maryland and enter into Virginia.  For those familiar with this route, this is the American Legion Bridge (with the Potomac River that we travel across).

 Once over the Bridge, we travel the rest of our commute on the George Washington Parkway which travels parallel to the Potomac River.  It is a beautiful drive....but we would sure like to get rid of the traffic so we could enjoy it a bit more.

 The GW Parkway goes right past the REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT.  It is amazing to watch those planes land and take-off.  They have a really steep incline and descent.  I knew there was a reason I didn't like to fly in and out of Reagan!!  They are constantly 'banking' as well.....following the river in and out of the airport.

Like I said, the drive is a beautiful drive.  The architecture is so pretty and not the typical 'cookie cutter' designs.  If we have to be stuck in the traffic every day, we enjoy looking at pretty things.  This bridge is also on the GW Parkway.

 On Wednesday this past week, we went from the office straight to the 

MORMON TABERNACLE CHOIR 

concert that was held at Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia.

 Wayne got a phone call from a client as we arrived to the park.  It is nice to be able to take care of some 'business' as we travel around.  Got to LOVE cell phones!!  (what you can't see well is the fact that Wayne is actually talking on his cell phone which is on his left ear.....and making notes with his right hand)

We met us with some old friends and had a little picnic dinner on the grounds before the concert started.  That would be B.P. across from Wayne and his girlfriend Daphne next to him.  Kay is sitting next to me with her husband, Kent, across the table from her.   It was fun catching up with everyone.  First time we had seen them since our return from Finland.

 Yeah, I know, a little 'dorkie' but I decided to take a picture of the program cover.  They were very, very nice programs.

 What can I say about the concert!  W - O - W!!  Makes a person so proud to be called a Mormon!  The choir did an amazing job.  As always.  Just an incredible evening.  We had one a 'guest director' for one of the encore numbers!  Senator Mark Warner of the great state of Virginia.  He really did NOT have a clue what he was doing.  That is why he is a 'guest director'!  But we all had fun with it......exactly what was supposed to happen.  We figured there were about 320 members of the choir.  Then there was the orchestra traveling with them......round it all up to about 400 people involved in the performance!  Incredible......

 On Thursday we decided to go 'out' for lunch.  I usually pack our lunch and we eat right there in the office.  We decided that we would try and go 'out' maybe one day a week.  Just for a little variety.  And to see the Historic area that we get to work in every day.  This was a little French Restaurant.  It was very, very good.  We both had Avocado stuffed with Crab.  OH MY.......I felt like I was in heaven.  It was totally DELICIOUS!  I will go back there again sometime.

 These are our new missionary name tags.  While we don't wear them to work at the NCFA Office, we do wear them to the temple and to church.  That is our 'direction'.  It is nice to have name tags again.  I was missing having them!

 So....coming home from the Temple on Saturday afternoon driving on the Rock Creek Parkway, low and behold.....what did we SPY!  Yupper.........a mounted police on his horse.  Now don't all mounted police have their own horse to 'drive'!  Not sure what the 'special occasion' was that he felt a need to be there.  Surrounding area seemed to be 'normal' with no special events going on.  It was fun to have him there watching over his little kingdom.

OH....can I just mention one thing about the temple.....besides the fact that we LOVE being back there working again.  You recall that I was able to perform ordinances in 6 languages when we left Finland don't you?  Of course you do.......Finnish, Russian, Lithuanian, Estonian, Swedish and English.  Well, I have now added ONE MORE LANGUAGE to my growing list.....SPANISH!  Yup!  That is one that really is needed in this temple.  Just like Russian was definitely needed in Finland.  Spanish and the Washington D.C. Temple just go hand in hand.  I have now done my first Spanish ordinances.  I am excited because I have been wanting to do that for years.  After learning Finnish (and all of those other Baltic languages), Spanish is actually kind of 'easy'!

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 Back home on Saturday evening.  It was time to be a part of the community for one evening.  We haven't had time for much of that lately.  The COMMUNITY PICNIC was held in the late afternoon.....FREE hamburgers and hot dogs along with FREE soda and chips!  Can't beat that.

Then after the picnic, it was time for the traditional

MOVIES - IN - THE - PARK.  This is a 'program' we have been helping with for years!  We were some of the 'founding' folks to begin this program in Brunswick.  We have grown a bit since those early days but the concept is still the same.....FREE WHOLESOME FAMILY FUN!  Before the movie was started, we had a little live down-home music to listen to.  

 Then it was time to get the screen down and set the projector up.  I MADE THAT SCREEN that you see being unrolled there.  And Wayne made the 'configuration' of how it is stored under the eaves of the shelter at square corner park.  And it is still doing well......no signs of wear and tear yet!

 I think Wayne really enjoys this little adventure every other week here in town.  We probably had about 150 folks come out.  The movie on this night was YOGI BEAR.  We had never seen it before and it was a fun one to have for families.

 There is the Sponsor Sign that is always displayed.  "Allgaier Family" right there on the bottom center.  We enjoy sponsoring these movies every year.

So...there you have it.  Another week gone.  Another fun-filled exciting week coming up.  It promises to be a super busy one too!!  But....alas, you will find out about that next weekend.  Actually a little 'early' next week because we will be leaving town on Saturday.  You will have to wait and see for what and where and who and....well, you get the picture!  Have a great week and be safe.......

OUR WEEK IN

REVIEW......

You, know....the weeks here are beginning to go 'FAST' like they did when we were in Finland.  Is this just our 'routine schedule' or is it ever going to s-l-o-w down at all!?  We just want to be able to enjoy a slower 'pace of life' so we can enjoy it more.  We WILL enjoy our schedule though......

We are settling into a 'routine' of sorts with our Church Service Mission to Olde Towne Alexandria, Virginia where we have been asked to work in the 'National Council For Adoption'.  We LOVE working here.  We love the people we work with.  We are learning so much.

This is the 'SCENERY' that we see every single day that we drive there........the Washington D.C. Landmarks.......THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT.......

 THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL.....and the Reagan National Airport to mention a few.  And, of course, the beautiful POTOMAC RIVER.  There is so much activity on this route.  We have tried to get our commute time down a bit but it still takes us 2 hours to go each way.....that is a total of 4 hours of commuting each day.  We have found, so far, that we can get a lot of work done while we are going back and forth.  So ...... there is really NO wasted time!  Nice.  And our gas mileage right now is holding at about 25 1/2 miles per gallon.  With the gas prices at around $3.65 per gallon, that is a very important factor for us.  Although it was a lot worse in Finland at about 9 euro per gallon.  We can't really complain now can we.  And we are LOVING our new little 2011 HONDA CR-V!

 On Friday and Saturday we drive to the Washington D.C. Temple where we serve as Ordinance Workers.  Wayne has been 'reinstated' as a Sealer (he received a letter from President Monson this past week indicating as such) so he is enjoying that opportunity once again.

 It was a beautiful drive on Saturday morning as we were driving down.

 The only thing better than this would be our wonderful Helsinki Finland Temple!!

 After our shift at the temple, we went to downtown D.C. to visit the SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART & PORTRAIT MUSEUM.  Never been here before and we absolutely loved it.

 Can you believe we found a picture of JOSEPH SMITH hanging right there on the wall!!  We were pleased to find this.

 We found that they even have some cool STATUES right here in our own hometown!  Finland has some wonderful ones as well.

 We then headed over to the J F KENNEDY PERFORMING ARTS CENTER for a performance of 

'WICKED'!!!  We had seen this last February in Helsinki (in Finnish) and one other time before our mission in Baltimore.  It was fantastic.  We were joined by Jonathan and Tina and their children along with about 40 of our closest friends!!  Great evening!  It was a very, very long day for us.....starting at about 5 a.m. and we didn't get home until about 12:00 midnight.  It was well worth it though.

 HAPPY FATHERS DAY on Sunday.......the Young Women served PIES to the fathers.  They were loving that.....the dads and the young women.

 It was quite the gathering in the hallway outside the kitchen after church.  This was definitely a BIG HIT with all of the dads.

Then it was over to J & T's for a little FATHERS DAY DINNER with filet mignon wrapped with bacon cooked on the grill.  SWEET FATHERS DAY!!

[NOTE:  unlike my almost daily blog entries of our Mission in Helsinki Finland Temple, this one may be a bit different.  I am hopeful with 'weekly' blog entries because of our long, long days and not much time to be able to make entries.  And I am OK with that!  :-)]

Before we could catch our breath or let any grass grow under our feet, we were off on yet

ANOTHER ROAD TRIP....

This time to the AMISH COUNTRY in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

David and Becky and kiddos had barely left to go back to Arizona and we were headed north.  We have noticed a LOT of DEER in our yard since we have been home.  Don't know if they have been 'pushed out' of their natural habitat because of Brunswick Crossing being developed, but they are sure well acquainted with our yard.....all 3 acres.

Again, many FAMILIAR scenes as we arrived in Bird-In-Hand.....the great HARDWARE STORE.  Love this place......so many neat, neat things.

We had tickets for the SIGHT AND SOUND THEATER in the heart of Lancaster.  We have been to a number of productions here and love every one of them.  This time we were seeing 'JOSPEH'.  This is their 35th anniversary.  Amazing.  Didn't know they had been there quite that long.

Love watching the Amish families.  They are so cute....such a simple way of life and seem to love life to it's fullest.

And they are such HARD, HARD workers....men and women alike.

Something I 'FOUND' in our hotel room......and ICE BUCKET!  We have NOT seen one of these for 2 years.  And REAL ICE!!  Amazing.  It was nice to have that again.  And an ALMOND JOY in the vending machine.  Another amazing 'find'.

'AMOS' was just a waitin for us to take our foto with him.  We were happy to accommodate him!

And back home......STILL MORE DEER ALL OVER THE YARD.

SPECIAL PEOPLE

Meet Linda Curley Christensen and her husband Greg.  They are from Utah.  Actually, you 'met' them in our Finland Mission Blog.  Yup....that's right.

Linda is a very, very talented artist.  She has been commissioned to paint a number of temples.....well, at least some of the rooms of a number of temples.  She came to Finland in January 2010 to 'touch up' a large mural painting that she had done there.  We got acquainted.

 In fact, one day while we were working our shift in the temple, Linda and Greg were 'hanging' out in our apartment.  She just started 'doodling' on some paper and sketched a picture of the temple from the view out our window.  And gave it to us.  She is so talented!!  Kiitos Paljon Linda.

We had been HOPING we would be able to find someone that we could commission to paint a picture of our home.  We FOUND HER!!

What a beautiful job she did.  And the packing that Greg did to get the painting shipped to our home!?  Well, he is incredible with the nice, safe way he did that.

We will always treasure our time with Linda and Greg and especially the beautiful picture she painted for us.

BACK HOME

FROM UTAH.....

and it was time for Becky and David and their children

to come visit us for one week!!  AAAHHHH.....another fun-filled weeks.

We are loving getting reacquainted with our family like this.....slow and easy!

Well, maybe NOT slow but fun!

Claire seemed to be quite fascinated with the 'things' around our home.  It was fun to show them off to her.

 There were lots of FAMILY DINNERS when they were here....of course.  I even brought some PAPER DOLLS back from Finland.  We had a little grandma paper doll cutting out time together.

And LOTS and LOTS of good food......

and HANGING out on J & T's new deck!  Very, very nice job J & T & T & S & G  K!!

David wanted to help take down a little of the 'trimming tape' .......what a great job they did.

the GIRLS enjoyed laying and swinging in the HAMMOCK.

Right smack dab in the middle of absolutely everything (and the HOLIDAY......what was that, Memorial Day I believe) Wayne and I bought our NEW CAR.  Yes, indeedie!  A 2011 HONDA CR-V with a moon roof (love that!) and leather seats and power 'lots of things' and the best part.......25 MPG!!! We so need that with all of our traveling up and down the road for the next foreseeable future!  This was the one I really liked and felt comfortable with.  It is a pretty metallic GREEN (VIHREA)

We all went over to the new BRUNSWICK CROSSING for Jonathan to give us a little tour.  Had these great reclining seats to sit in and relax.  Like that!!

GREAT FOTO OP with all of the grandkids lined up....oldest to youngest.  NOTE:  Tyler (the oldest grandchild) holding Crew (one of the youngest grandchildren).

And we hosted a FAMILY DINNER at our home......with Aunt Eva coming.  It was just so fun to have everyone here again!  LOVE BEING HOME!!

'What the Heck'.....what's ONE MORE COOKIE when you have already had 4 or 5??  And they were MY HOMEMADE chocolate chip cookies at that.  Can't pass those up!

The girls loved, loved, LOVED getting into GRANDMA'S SPECIAL DRAWER where they could pick out a little prize!

Wayne actually got a package from Leena Kataja....a birchwood horn.  He was loving that.  That was so sweet of her to 'find' it at a yard sale and send it on over.  She knows he loves things made from birchwood.

We always love getting the little LOVE NOTES that Becky leaves when she leaves our home (either in Finland or here in Brunswick).  She always cherish them.

Still trying to figure out WHEN LIFE WILL GET TO NORMAL!!  :-)  Loving our life without a doubt though.  Couldn't be better......