September 9th marked our 8th month in the mission field. We can smile because we have been having a wonderful experience here on our mission. September 13th was our 45th wedding anniversary. My how times flies. We can smile because we have had a wonderful life together, 7 beautiful children and their wonderful spouses, 27 and counting beautiful grandchildren, wonderful parents and siblings, and the list could go on and on. Oh how blessed we have been. We celebrated at, where else, Busch Gardens. We even discovered an area we hadn't seen before. This time Paul rode about 4 of the roller coasters; two of which got him soaking wet. It was a nice relaxing day. Then we went home, changed and visited some members in the ward that we had appointments with.
Busch Gardens was getting ready for Halloween. One of the hats they are going to try to sell. Not his style.
Beautiful Bird. He could talk too.
Coming off one of the rides. He's just a little wet!
Anniversary lunch at a cafe in the Gardens
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Summer is over, but it is still hot and humid. We are back in school. This year Paul got held back in Kindergarten and I have been promoted to the Library. I return books to their shelves and any other jobs that the librarian has for me. After my first day on the job I was so sore. The bookshelves are from just below eye level to the floor. So there is a lot of ups and downs. The next day or two were painful on the back of my legs. We were also able to volunteer for picture day at the school. That was really fun. We saw some of the kids we had last year. There were lots of kids in the library for hours. They just kept coming and coming. Kids were sitting everywhere waiting their turn for their picture. This week I helped a new teacher set up her room for her class. She will have 12 (can you believe that, just 12) students in her class. We had such a great time getting to know each other and she said that she wanted me to be in her class to help with the kids. These are kids that are behind and need a lot of tender loving care. I am going to try to get moved to her class, it would be easier on my back and legs.
This is Ray. He is a mentor at the school. The kids all love him. He also works with the kids at the YMCA in a really rough part of town.
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We spent two weeks teaching Seminary which was a great experience. We have 10 young men and women who are a delight. We never hear a negative word about getting up at 4 or 5 in the morning to come to seminary. Some come in a little slowly but as class began they were all ready to learn. It is a very diverse class. Kids from very active, to less active, to non active families. They're smart kids and all participate with us. Paul and I have had some fun activities to get them all involved. Both weeks I did the Friday scripture review with cross word puzzles, word games, memory games, etc. It was so much fun with them. I love the teaching but those early mornings are a killer (now I'm complaining). But...we do get to see a lot of beautiful sunrises.
Blindfolded-through direction he was to find a picture of Christ. It was demonstration to help the kids learn that they need the Holy Ghost to help them.
This past month we have met several new people. Don is one of our investigators who is trying to gain a testimony of the gospel. He has apparently investigated several different churches over the years and kind of has a philosophy of a combination of them all. He believes in Jesus and has been praying to him instead of the Father in Jesus' name. He has made a change in the past couple of weeks for the good in that area. He still receives material and watches a lot of christian people on TV which I feel is a stumbling block for him. He calls them cookies. We are going to direct him to lds.org and Mormon messages. We want him to watch conference and some of the "cookies" that we have. The problem is that he is not reading the Book of Mormon enough. We have been encouraging him to read certain parts and assign him reading each week. It's a slow go. But he is improving each week. The best part was that he came to church this week and enjoyed it. Prayer, reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church are so important. Those three things we emphasize every time we meet with him. Every couple of days I send him a text with a scripture from the Book of Mormon.
We've had a little more success getting into homes this past couple of weeks. There are so many members that we want to get to know. So many stories of lives that are happy and some sad. We finally met with a couple that we have tried to visit for months. Come to find out the address we were going to was wrong. We had a very good visit with an invitation over for a chicken dinner in the near future. He is a very rotund man and said as he patted his bellie that there is no food that he doesn't like. We've visited with members that have strayed away and want to get back into good fellowship, members who think it is too late for them to repent, it's not. The bishop has asked us to teach several people that are on the road back. He wants them to have a refresher course. It is so good to see them remember what they had and the light coming back into their eyes. One less active brother that we met several months ago called the Bishop and told him that I had called him when he was at a point of total desperation and I gave him the Bishop's phone number. He is now on the road back. I didn't realize I had called at such a point in his life. What a blessing the Holy Ghost is. He helps us continually. My problem is that I get too emotionally involved with people. It's so hard to see them give up what they once knew was true and right. One man, (78 years old) we just met broke my heart. He knows the church is true. When Paul bore his testimony, this man had tears in his eyes. But his chosen lifestyle keeps him from the blessings of the gospel. I came home and cried. I wrote him a letter (with the Bishop's blessing) and hope that he will take it in the spirit that it was written. There is hope. It is not too late for him. He has a loving Heavenly Father with "outstretched arms" waiting for him to return.
We had a Zone Conference and Elder Cardon of the Seventies visited us. It was a wonderful day. He, his wife and President and Sister Summerhays taught us. One theme was sacrifice and the wise use of our time. We were told that we could sacrifice through the effective use of our time. Elder Cardon taught us how to hear the Lord's voice and how we can "feel" the influence of the Holy Ghost and how it can influence us. Sister Cardon told us to "treasure up" in order to feel the spirit by study, prayer, taking notes and learning.
When we arrived at the conference these Elders were on the wall reading their scriptures. Wise use of time.
A group picture. While everyone was getting in place for the big picture I set my camera up and took a few.
Preparing to sing "I am a Child of God" to the sisters who served us lunch. President Summerhays lead us.
After the meeting with some of the Elders and Sisters in our District
A group of the sisters from the meeting
On Labor Day we went to a Stake Breakfast. It was very good. Many of the stake members came with their swimming suit to cool off in the water. They had a pool at the park and also a fun water area for the kids. After our breakfast I took Paul to the Golf Course (it was P-day) and I drove to my art lesson. I have finally finished my picture of cute little Sebastian. Last week I started to draw a picture of Brooklyn, Brian and Kellie's oldest daughter. I have so many things I want to learn from Sister Gorman and only one day a week to learn them. She is a very good teacher though. She is so sweet. I am her only student in the morning. I usually stay between 3 and 4 hours. So by noontime we are both hungry and she fixes us lunch. Her afternoon students start arriving about 1 pm. They are home schooled kids. She has a name for herself in our community. She teaches at home in a studio and also goes to a church once a week to a co-op group that she teaches. She also cares for her husband who suffers from Vietnam war trauma and anyone else who is in need. I have grown to love her very much.
This young woman has autism. She is a sweetheart. Her mom is so good with her.
Sister Guerra Sister Franc Sister Rood
One young sister, her last name is Young, needed help with her sewing machine a couple of weeks ago because she couldn't get it to work and so we went over one evening to help her. After some reading on the internet about her machine I finally got it working. She was so excited because she has a cute little baby girl that she wants to sew for. After we were done they invited us over for FHE the next week. We had a great time. Her husband talked about gratitude for the lesson and then we played a sort of Jeopardy game with gospel questions. It was a lot of fun. The Elders were there also.
We had a great Zone Meeting with our district this week. Our Zone leaders keep our Elders and Sisters challenged and encourage them as they strive to meet their goals. We will see several of our Elders and Sisters leave us at the next transfer next week. It is always sad to see them leave. We get pretty attached to them. But we always get wonderful new missionaries ready to take over and work hard. This last transfer we had 6 baptisms, three of which were in our ward. It is so wonderful to see new people accept the gospel and have that burning desire to get baptized. They are willing to give up those things that would hold them back such as their smoking, coffee, tea, etc. It is a real challenge for many of them. But they work hard to succeed. We cheer them on on a regular basis and when they quit we stay close to them to help them be strong.
Because of the transfer that is coming this next week we did inspections this week. These pictures are actually from last transfer. But most of the Elders are still here. We are going to loose some of them this time.
Elder Rowan and Elder Kenyon- very hard working Elders
Sister Guerra (going home this transfer), Sister Rood (new this past transfer), Sister Franc
Elder Durrant Elder Tevares Our district leader
When we do our inspections the Zone Leaders challenge Elder Nelson to do pull-ups on their equipment. This time he got to 7 pull-ups. But not without a very red face and some sweat.
Zone Leaders Elder Boehme Elder Perry
Elder Anderson Elder Hansen They are having a baptism this Saturday in the ocean
Elder Heining Elder Spendlove - Great missionaries
After Zone Meeting we went to Olive Garden. You should have seen the food that these Elders put away. It was the never ending pasta deal. I thought it would never end!
Cute Elder Boehme has been here for a while. He is such a good missionary.
I finally finished my grandson, Sebastian. Isn't he a cute little guy?
Smile!
It's a wonderful day because you're in it!
