Elder Warner and His Celestial Chariots

Above is Elder Warner's mission newsletter advice page,

with his newly-minted "Celestial Chariots" logo.

It is a great example of his "different drummer" approach

 to his job, which is the topic of this week's blog post.

 We understood when the call came

with this mission office assignment that he would be functioning

as the vehicle coordinator. He was confident that his experiences

in his professional career would assist him to do this work.

But before I speak about those activities, I want

to share what greeted us after our Sunday meetings

today at the Canterbury/Concord Stake.

 My first impression was that the autumn nymphs had

whisked in while no one was looking and decorated

our mission vehicle. Magical!

 And while I'm on the topic, I'll share this fallen branch

of oak leaves encountered on my walking route.

Vince has lamented that we haven't seen many

brightly colored oak leaves among all the other 

colored foliage, but now they begin to appear.

And here is one that represents so many million others:

it is as if this little leafy lass stepped in front of her

looking glass and tried to decide whether to put on

her orange frock or her yellow, and ended up

with this lovely watercolor fusion.

And now, I'll return to Vince's experiences here.

It is true that his professional work has been valuable here,

 but I'm not sure he enjoys the tedious record-

 keeping portions. As with most things, he immediately

let "his thinker think" and came up with some humorous ways

to explain, present, describe and deal with the mission fleet.

That's how "Celestial Chariots" reference came about.

Here is Elder Warner getting up earlier than he did before

retirement, and putting on shirt and tie to serve

another day in the NHMM office.

This image also serves as a reminder of our transition

back to apartment living, after so many decades

living in a home we owned or were buying.

One of Vince's big responsibilities as he helps

manage the fleet of approx. 70 cars across the three

states in our mission is to monitor and make sure

that the TIWI driver feedback systems are installed

in each new vehicle that comes in to replace

those that are retired. Here he is doing the installation.

 He often explains how important is his interaction with

the young missionaries, and that he loves that part of his day work.

Here he is addressing the followup training group of

new missionaries and their training companions,

along with some of the seniors as well.

He is explaining what he needs them to report,

what to send in, how to fill in the forms, his deadlines,

and more. (This is a still pic, but those who know him

can imagine him swaying and bobbing in his

characteristic way as he speaks.)

I've used this picture before. I include it again because

it represents what Elder Warner is always doing to serve

the missionaries here. That Sunday he was called away

from our regular church attendance to change out a car

that was experiencing trouble and threatening break down.

In the past week, as an example, he has driven up into Maine

to pick up an "extra" car, stopped on the way to re-install

a TIWI in the Portsmouth sisters' vehicle 

(Sisters Hernandez and Aquino), continued on to Auburn

to deliver the "extra" car to Elders Tefan and Crawford.

Then he drove back in a rainy downpour in limited 

visibility to get us home at around 9 p.m.

 As part of our office routine, we have the privilege

of seeing the missionaries in the office areas

who drop in to pick up mail, do their planning together

using the meetinghouse WIFI internet, and often they do

service that we may need. Here is Elder McBride

(trainee) and his trainer Elder Rice. 
Elder Rice has been assigned to the Bedford area
since we arrived in June.

He knows his way around cars better than Vince,

and has helped him understand how to install the TIWI.

A huge blessing and light in our lives.

We always love to be with the young missionaries,

and we look for opportunities to take them to dinner.

Since our apartment is not really large enough to

entertain, and is rarely in their teaching areas,

we go out to dinner. Yesterday, we treated these

the Manchester Hermanas (teaching in Spanish),

Sister Chesley (from Boise) and Sister Hodson

(from Kansas City, MO) to dinner and ice cream

at one of the Blake's Restaurant locations.

Vince has always tried to find ways to make everything

he does a little more fun. When he realized that

we would have access to the meetinghouse gym

every day, he ordered badminton equipment online

(extremely cheap stuff) and we play our version of it

(without a net or court lines) several times each week

during our lunch break. It's fun and it's exercise.

 He also ordered a set of lawn bowling balls

(which he calls bocci ball) and we have tried to play

that on the green apartment lawn, too.

Here he is, on the back meetinghouse lawn at

the Canterbury ward after a combined wards

activity, playing with the Concord threesome 

(Elders Peterson, Pitcher, and Buchanan) and

the Canterbury companionship Sisters Johnson and Bell.

Vince is also on the lookout non-stop for fun area outings.

Here we are near the top of the Uncanoonuc hiking trail

near Goffstown, where we have hiked twice.

Very rocky and rooty and rather steep. Elder Warner

loves maps and enjoyed plotting which trail we would take

and where we would expect to see a vista of Manchester

or a long view toward Boston.

 This is another stop on that trail.

The first time we hiked, the clouds were very low

and we didn't see much in the way of long views.

On our days off, or during more relaxed time away

from duties at the Mission Office, Vince is often

sacrificing his own time and convenience to

make our changed circumstances seem more comfortable.

Here he is patiently cooking our favorite Sunday meal

of teriyaki steak on a small Foreman grill on the deck

of our apartment. (He's good at cooking it, even this way.)

Vince loves the ocean, and so we have worked a few

ocean destinations into his routine long-range errands

that involve vehicle switches, maintenance and more.

This location is the Portland Lighthouse in NH.

Elder Warner apparently has a life's mission to make sure

that I am comfortable and happy. He understands that

serving this mission is something that may be

more important to his life goals than for mine, and

that I consciously left behind things and people I love

to be able to serve with him here.

He is constantly filling my lamp, and prompting me

to notice things and stretch and love the service.

He is a good and valuable man, and I'm a lucky girl!

Forty years of good luck!