No Sofas, Feng Shui, and the Lemons

*Elders Hunt and Branson on the front step of their apartment in Vallejo.*

What are two items most every home has that you will not find in a missionary’s apartment? Answer: a sofa and a television. That’s right - no couches, sofas, or TVs allowed. Why, you may ask? The answer is missionaries do not watch TV and not having a sofa helps to discourage lounging around. Missionaries are asked to be out working each day by 10:00 am. When inside their apartments they spend their time studying, meal prepping, eating, grooming, and of course at night sleeping. What their apartments do have are two desks, a couple of comfortable study chairs, a kitchen table with chairs, two beds, and two dressers.

*Elders Largey and Parrish by one of their desks.*

*Sisters Butterworth and MacKay in their apartment.*

Elder and Sister Lemon are our housing coordinators. They keep busy leasing apartments, keeping track of contracts, moving furniture around and making sure the apartments have all the necessities for missionary life. They also help to maintain all the items in the apartments, getting rid of old items, like this chair found in many of the apartments. This chair, as you can see, has seen better days. We’re grateful to the Lemons who are on a first name basis with workers at Good Will and the dump in the many areas of our mission. It is a hassle to get rid of things and it can sometimes cost a lot of money. Missionaries are also asked to not bring in things off the street. One time they brought in bed bugs with a piece of furniture!

*An old favorite chair of the missionaries headed to the dump.*

When it comes to apartments, one thing I really stress to our missionaries is to keep their apartments dejunked. It is so easy with missionaries moving in and out of these apartments every six weeks to start gathering stuff that no one ever claims or uses. Quite often there will be closets and rooms full of stuff no one is using. I tell them about Feng Shui. A Chinese practice of keeping your home in balance and harmony, which in turn helps you to feel harmony within yourself. My mother always taught me, “we shape our homes and then our homes shape us!” Missionaries know that as they clean, organize, and make nice their living spaces the Spirit of the Lord is invited in! Elder Lunt bought a cute little cactus to increase Feng Shui is his apartment - great idea! To help encourage cleanliness, apartment inspections are conducted every six weeks by our senior missionaries.

Another thing I feel is important is to have clean carpets in the apartments. It is hard to feel like your apartment is in good shape if the floors are gross. We have been told by the Landlords that they only wash carpets between tenants. Because we rent the same apartment for years, the Lemons have had to work with the landlords to change this policy for us and have the carpets cleaned more often.

It has been transfer prep this week where we have missionaries returning home and we make plans for receiving new missionaries. Since the number of missionaries we have fluctuates, so does the number of apartments we need. In addition, we sometimes have to switch up where we want missionaries to live. The Lemons do a great job of keeping up with all of the changes. They have wonderful stories of miracles in finding and obtaining living places for our missionaries. We are grateful for all they do and their service here! The Lemons complete their mission in a few weeks, and we look forward to welcoming the Cawley’s, coming to be the new housing coordinators. We send the Lemons home with our gratitude and love! They have done an awesome job here in the California Santa Rosa Mission! We will miss them!

Here are some more photos from the week. Have a nice day! Sister Quinn

No Sofas, Feng Shui, and the Lemons

On the Road Again - Northward to Eureka

Missionaries Rocking Service - We Love Them!