Lets see - where to begin, where did I leave off? I am so far behind, oh well, I just do the best I can.
The three weeks with his mini mission companion, Elder Tanner Cathcart was a huge success. He loved serving with him and notes from his mom makes me believe that Tanner loved it and grew from his missionary experience. I am glad that they both had a great time. As far as the work went, they did several cottage meetings and had a musical fireside that they were in charge of. Dereck tells me that he is attempting to play the piano, but when he does everyone just laughs. He did say that he can play the Viva La Vida song by Coldplay pretty well -- it only has 4 chords. What a goof. Anyway, he said the fireside went okay, but the next one will go much better because he knows what he needs to do to improve. He also leads the music, but as he put it, that doesn't mean he is on beat.

Please tell me that this wasn't the musical fireside...

Here is Dereck's version of Mr. Incredible - He really does have the weight of his district on him!



They had an opportunity to hear from Elder Costa of the seventies. Dereck didn't say much about it other than it was great.

I assume this is Dereck's district that he is over... not sure though!

As of August 11, Dereck became a trainer to another Elder Tanner -- this one is from Idaho. He is a quiet talker, but hopefully after he becomes comfortable with his new role as a missionary, he will open up. I reminded Dereck that he was also quiet when he first came out, and that as he become more confident he opened up and now he can't stop talking! So we will see. I will get to hear more (I hope) with this next email on Wednesday.

His old companion, Elder Jensen, now referred to as Brandt, was on his way through Glendale on his way to school and stopped by the Cathcarts home to spend a couple of nights. Dereck was on splits with another elder and happened to stop by as well. What a surprise and such a happy reunion! Dereck really loved him. According to Sister Beck, the missionary president's wife, Elder Jensen was one of the best trainers- he saw the whole picture is what she said about him. I talked with her for a few minutes to see if she could help him line up some dental appointments and she just talked and talked about what a great missionary Dereck was as well. This was the first time we had talked to the mission home since his arrival, so it was good to hear that he is considered to be one of the best in the field.






Elder Wesche and Elder Jensen - now referred to as Brandt Jensen


Well -- I think that about catches up for now... isn't it good to see that Elders really do come home!

So quite a bit has happened since the last update, but I will try and condense! First of all, we have hit the 10 month mark -- no more single digits!
Dereck is loving being back in Glendale. He has had a few bumps in the road the last few weeks and faced the challenges of being a DL. After being back for a couple of weeks, his companion ended up going home as well as several others from the mission. This left his mission short on missionaries and they were faced with closing his area until the next transfer came along which would be August 12. To make a long story short, they were able to keep the area open because a cute 18 year old was worthy to be a temporary missionary. His name is Elder Cathcart and he just graduated from high school this year. He is from Dereck's area and is the son of the stake president there. So for the next three weeks he is now a missionary serving in his own ward and area. They seem to get along great and have very similar approaches to missionary work and life in general. I have had the opportunity to receive an email Elder Cathcart's mom. Here is an excerpt from her email dated July 29 - I am not going to lie, it makes a mama proud!


"I have always told the full time missionaries that they can stop by our house any time any day for pretty much anything so they will always have a stopping spot if they need one. Its been great to have missionaries in our home for our boys to see the great examples they are…almost all of them have been. Your son is no exception… Elder Wesche is AMAZING! He and Tanner seem to get along super great, its been a whole week and Tanner hasn’t driven him crazy yet from drumming on everything. Tanner is a drummer and has been able to maintain his addiction to drum on everything since he’s been on his mission with Elder W. But Tanner is also a sports freak so I guess he and Elder W are getting along great!
They had a baptism last Saturday which we were unable to attend, out of town, but I heard it was wonderful. They are serving in our ward which is La Pradera Park and Manistee Ranch Ward in the Glendale Stake. Sunday night they held a “cottage meeting” or investigator fireside at our house and about 30 people in attendance including the members, but it was great. My husband and I both LOVE the missionary spirit and always hope to be able to be around missionaries and share the Good News of the Gospel. I want you to know how much everyone in our ward LOVES Elder Wesche! Everyone was sooooo excited that he was able to serve in our area again. I hear that it’s the best baptizing area in the mission so President puts the best here! There really is lots of work to do here for sure. Elder W is the best. We love him."


I am not only grateful that they were able to keep the area open due to this young man, I am so grateful for his mom who was able to let me know what is going on! Dereck is quite frustrating in his lack of commuication -- he is great to email each week, but just doesn't clue us in to anything. This has been a blessing to our family to have Sister Cathcart keep us posted.
At the end of the three weeks, Dereck will receive a new companion and I am guessing it will be a "greenie" because he mentioned that he would be a trainer to his next companion.
We also received a phone call from a lady who's daughter worked with Dereck while he was at Paces. They were visiting Arizona for a wedding and lo and behold, who do they see when they walked into the stake center. Our little Dereck. What a small world. The picture is of Dereck and Elder Cathcart, along with Brit Christensen.

Dereck did say that they have been working with a 14 year old boy and that he has committed to being baptized and is scheduled for Sept 5. He says this kid just rocks and has a bunch of questions but they were able to answer them all. This kid reads the scriptures and gets answers to questions that he didin't even know he had. He will be in Glendale for at least another six weeks.