President and Sister Ware

It was unimaginable how quickly a year had flown by and completed our full-time mission service here in the Washington Kennewick Mission aka WKM. We fondly recall the many activities we participated in the year's time we served.

We had a milestone during our mission from the very beginning. The 2012 General Conference announcement of lowering the age for the Elders and Sisters was a huge impact. The word was given days before we entered the MTC in Provo. We knew from the start a huge wave of missionaries would be filling the "Call To Serve" from all over the world. We had missionaries come to the WKM from as far away as Ghana, Italy, Paraguay, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Armenia and Mexico to name a few. Some of them learned English on their mission where a few were assigned to Spanish-speaking. They were all able to adjust and Preach the Gospel valiantly.

We had two mission presidents, attended dozens of District and Zone Trainings and Zone Conferences. Each day was an adventure to treasure. We loved working along side the young Elders and Sisters. They are all outstanding examples and so ready to bless the mission as they helped "hasten the work."

During the first six months of our missionary service was spent in an East Kennewick Branch that was only about a year old. The members of that branch were so thrilled to have a senior couple besides two sets of Elders and one set of Hermanas there. The branch president gave us several assignments that assisted him in locating the lost sheep who had not been accounted for since their branch was formed. It was over several weeks time that we sought some of those on their branch list to discover many of them had moved away in the meanwhile.

We later were assigned to a Hermiston Spanish group to help them with teaching the Spanish Gospel Principles class occasionally, or Anna was often asked to teach the Spanish group the Relief Society lesson or translate from English to Spanish. We initially attended the English ward sacrament meeting, then the Spanish speaking sacrament meeting was after the block of meetings. We got acquainted with the bi-lingual members who assisted with the Spanish group. The Ward Mission leader was very concerned about us going on Sundays and made sure we had a place to eat dinner with members in the regular ward. We loved getting to know the families and were welcomed wherever and whenever we ate with them. It bonded them to us them and appreciated their hospitality. They expressed their gratitude for assisting the ward with the less actives, the investigators and new members. We often attended the baptisms in the ward and really loved seeing so much effort and the results of the missionaries dedication to 'hastening the work.'

New convert Hermana Valencia that Ron baptized in Hermiston, Oregon, with Elders Hall and Young.

The opportunity to work with the missionaries gave us time with them each week during District meetings and when tutoring them with pronunciation and word usage in Spanish. They learned the priesthood ordinances over time and had opportunity to use them to do baptisms, bless the sacrament, confirm new members, perform ordinations or how to give priesthood blessings.

We are the ones who benefited most from the meetings, Zone conferences and specialized training with the mission presidents and the senior couples. We met each Monday and reported our week's activities and kept the president apprised of the progress the missionaries were making with their language training. We found the members of each branch and group so thankful for us to be there among them. We managed to move forward with new assignments with our "transfers" and to survive-- and grateful for the experiences.

President and Sister Greer finished their three year mission the end of June 2013.

The last part of our mission we focused more on the missionaries' language training and traveled to the new north part of the WKM that was formerly part of the Washington Spokane Mission. The number of Spanish missionaries more than doubled at that time. Some days we would go to Wenatchee to the north. We'd stay over night and work another area the next day before returning home. Some of the places we worked was Wenatchee, Ephrata, Moses Lake, Othello, Walla Walla, Toppenish, Yakima, Sunnyside, Prosser, Benton City, Washington. Also, Hermiston, Boardman, Umatilla, and Milton-Freewater, Oregon.

Traveling over 20,000 miles during the year gave us the opportunity to read the scriptures. We finished the Book of Mormon three times, read the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price and the first two books of the New Testament in Spanish. It helped to hone my Spanish skill with pronunciation and gained confidence in using my Spanish conversation with the aid of my dear, kind, and patient companion, Ron.

Our mission was truly a wonderful experience. We loved it and are happy to have served with so many choice senior missionaries who became our friends as we worked side by side together.

Ron and Anna.