First Baptism!

Every week is another adventure!  We keep having firsts.  Richard has been helping to fix a rotten patio roof for a member family for many hours this week.  Its great because he's working with some members and getting to know them and an investigator came and helped on Friday morning.  So I've been on my own a lot this week.  One of the sister's investigators owns a Preschool.  She invited me to come give them a message Thursday morning.  Apparently the JWs have been coming every Tuesday for a year or 2, so I did that while Richard was busy.  It was so fun, I am going to give them the Nursery lessons.  Tammy, the investigator, preschool owner invited me back, so I think this will be ongoing!  The kids loved it!  I also visited the 3 sisters in the nursing home on my own and left some invitations to the Sister's Session of Conference.  I made cookies for FHEs.  I made handouts for the Preschool's next lesson, figured out a new FHE lesson on Family History in English and Spanish, and made flyers for the Chili Cook-off we're having before Priesthood meeting on Saturday.  Oh and I called a bunch of people and texted a bunch of people and gave the sisters rides.  It was great to have my companion back the last 2 days!  We got 3 new FHE's scheduled and met a couple of less actives we've tried to catch for the last month. We helped a family from California move into the ward!  An active family is like gold here, no more precious than gold! Today I was asked after Sacrament Meeting to take over Primary sharing time and to get the kids settled which was a blast, and after church I measured someone for garments.  This in on the job training! We made it to the Kendalls  to return James' saw and plan to make it to Avery's 1st birthday party Wednesday!  Its great to be able to use my experience with church service and Richard's with framing and roofing to serve!  Next week I get to teach the kids "Follow the Prophet" in Spanish for the Primary Sacrament Program! 
Last, but most important James Farmer, Brigham Young look alike, was baptized yesterday!! His parents came to sacrament meeting to see him confirmed today!!

The sisters, James Farmer and Bishop Shannon.

the patio roof.

The preschool.

Mary has turned over, but wouldn't quite do it for us.

Grandpa entertaining the girls.

Another beautiful sunset.

Another storm coming in.

James "Br Brigham" Farmer the newest member in the Cleveland ward!

Life is good in Cleveland, Texas!!

Best Week Yet!

We've had an interesting week; We've been trained by the APs and interviewed by the Mission President, helped teach English to a few members of the Spanish branch, mowed lawns, dressed a body for a funeral, framed a door, and spoke in Sacrament Meeting. 
Here's a few highlights;  Teaching English to the Spanish branch members was so much fun!  The Elders were doing a lot of vocabulary and not much speaking, so I've encouraged them to get the students speaking.  Its gone well so far.  We plan to spend all of our Friday evenings at the church with the Spanish branch members. 
We are helping the Elders teach a couple of recovering addicts. They are sweet and sincere, but its so hard for them to understand.  Judy is about 60 and Jamie is about 40.  They are cousins and the place where they live has a giant mud driveway when it rains and no air conditioning, just one fan inside. 
In contrast we went with the Sisters to teach an investigator and her daughter that are so sharp and ask so many questions that its hard to not give them all the lessons at once.  Tammy keeps notes and they have LDSlibrary on their phones so they can look up info and study about everything they hear. 
We've been taking the young missionaries to more of their appointments and its been really fun!
I've gone through 3 double batches of my chocolate chip cookies for Family Home Evenings already!  I'll make more this week. 
The last 2 Family Home Evenings this week were both awesome.  On Saturday night we met with the Grahams.  They have not been to church in ages.  Br. Graham is going through an addiction recovery program and is really humble and receptive right now.  The kids loved the games and the 13 year old boy had the right answer to every question.  He wants to get the priesthood and do baptisms for the dead.  The 9 year old girl wants to be baptized and wants her dad to baptize her.  As we were leaving the dad got all teary and said; "thanks for bringing the spirit into our home". 
Last night we had our first Family Home Evening in Spanish!  It went really well until we tried to play our games.  The family has only been member since April and they didn't know enough hymns or Primary songs to play the game right.  Oh well, we challenged them to get some names ready and to go to the temple and be baptized for them.  Now I need to prepare a FHE on family history and temple work for round two. 
We've been trying to talk to a couple of families about having FHEs with them for weeks.  On Saturday we had great visits with both of them!  Sister Homer even brought her granddaughter to church yesterday! 
This week is filling up with great plans and I'm so excited for James to be baptized on Saturday!  He is really one of those golden ones!  His brother, John isn't quite as golden, but he plans to be at the baptism and he's sure to feel the spirit there!  We've had lots of people tell us how thankful they are that we are here in Cleveland which makes us feel good about being here.

The Alley girls.

Our kids here in the area, have been helpful to us.  Jenny mended my clothes, loaned me the Family History book I needed and didn't bring with me.  Jason is loaning Richard his rain coat, and James is loaning Richard tools for more projects this week. 
Here's some pictures.

This is unique, but clever, a driveway made out of asphalt shingles. 

Gasing up in downtown Cleveland.

You see lots of ride on mowers being hauled.  Mowing yards is a big deal here.  Everyone has an acre in the country.

Sister Kentish's house. 

A storm rolling in.

A new family is moving into the ward.  This is how they put together homes here.  Everything is up on blocks like this, so they can handle the rain and flooding.

A quick visit to Kendalls to pick up tools for the project tomorrow.  We got to enjoy scriptures, family prayers and play a game before we left.  Jane showing off the shirt she made.

Mary smiling for her mommy.

Alice holding still for a second.  Her stitches on her eye left a small scar.

Dean was fascinated with our missionary badges and was thrilled to get this Future Missionary badge at church today.

Love this family!

Here's the shed Richard framed a door into.

We taught a lesson to an investigator!!

I have to share this story before I forget for my P-Day post on Monday.  We have been looking for a member at an apartment in town.  Sunday the Ward Mission Leader spotted her and got her address for us.  She said to call before we come because of their mean pit bull.  We called this morning and Sister Proctor said it was a good time to come over, so we drove to the new place out in the country.  Jimmy (not her husband we found out but her husband's friend) met at us the gate and held the dog as we walked in.  We had a great time together; Jimmy is interested in religion and we read Alma 32 together and answered some questions he had.   He wants to meet with the missionaries.  We gave him part of the first lesson and suddenly the dog came running across the room, so fast no one could have stopped him and jumped up and kissed me right on the mouth!  We were all in shock for a minute and then I couldn't stop laughing.  It was not what I expected from their "mean" dog! 
We have had more great Family Home Evenings.  Everyone loves my cookies and the little kids love our games.  We taught one family with 3 teenagers how to play speed Scrabble. 
We've been trying to visit a family for 2 weeks now and then at church Sunday, Br. Roberts offered to go with us to see them.  We not only got in the house, but they are very excited to have us there.  The man is everyone's hero.  We set up a Family Home Evening with one of these families who wouldn't open their door to us! 
We had an adventure finding the last house on our list from the Bishop out in Rye.  Lots of them roads were washed out and impassible.  We found the house and no one answered, but we left a note with our names and number.  The next day we got a call from whoever lives there, not the member family, saying they are looking for a new church and wanted to come to our's on Sunday. 
Another cool thing that happened is that we stopped to visit a 30 year old guy in the ward, Br. Tucker, who is dying of cancer in a nursing home in Shepherd.  We then went home and ate dinner.  After dinner we decided to try to catch a Sister Hurst who lives right by us in Cleveland.  She teaches school and we'd only met her son.  Anyway, we found her home and had a great visit, and discovered that Br. Tucker is her little brother.  The Lord sends us where we are needed and gives us the help we need to connect with people. 
Richard went fishing with Br. Roberts this morning and then he and his wife fed us the fish for lunch today and played Rummicube with us.  Another fun P-day!  I even got the apartment cleaned and the laundry done!
In the pictures I took one of all the signs on the gates of the places we visit.  They look uninviting, but they all welcome us kindly when we knock.  And the deserted building picture shows how weeds start to grow everywhere unless they are controlled.  They grow right out of the roof and walls of abandoned places.  And any land not mowed and maintained becomes a forest.
Br Robert's big one.

Richard's big one.

Fried up and ready to eat!

Br. Robert's taxidermy room.

Weeds growing out of this building.

Typical signs to greet us.

This is the airstrip across from houses like...

this one with 2 airplanes in their garage.

Abandoned land looks like this.

We pass this place on our way to take the sacrament to Sister Kentish every Sunday.  I think the pistols around the star are hilarious.

Our stash from our material order!  We even have Book of Mormons!!

We met another Senior MLS couple at the Zone Meeting Friday.  They are Spanish speaking and have been our for 2 months.  They were amazed that we've visited as many people as we have and they haven't got LDS tools yet for their area.  We thought they'd be giving us tips on how to do this work and we ended up helping them.  Of course not every ward can have a mission leader like our's!

End of August and into September!

We got the Cleveland ward on LDS tools!!  Very helpful.  We've been to all but 3 of the homes on the list from the Bishop!  We knew and recognized more than half of the people at church on Sunday!  We've been able to do a couple of service projects which are wonderful.  We wish more people, who really need our help would let us!  All we can do is offer!  We've had more Family Home Evenings and met more great members!  We managed to get a referral for the sisters.  It's all going better and more smoothly.  Richard is a wiz at finding places.  And we had a great Labor Day at the Kendalls with Jason and Jenny's families!  It was so nice to play all day!  We're feeling like we are figuring out things and have more people to visit to help the missionaries! We had our first FHE with investigators last night and have one tomorrow night. 

It is so pretty out in the country!

Sun set in the city.

The sisters came together.  Friday was their one year celebration at District Meeting.

All the young missionaries we work with in Cleveland.

There are at least 4 donuts shops in this small town. 

Every small town has more than one.

People fly flags all the time and not just the American flag, but the Texas flag, too.

Last freeway exit for the southern part of our mission.  Its just 5 minutes from the first Humble exit. (Jenny's city)

We arrived at Jenny's just as her cross fit class was ending.

James burnt his arm on Saturday doing something in the back yard that is "too embarrassing to share".  So he can't do cross fit, but he was doing the dishes with Mary's great help.

Jane got her hair cut!

Alice loves her sleepy baby.

Jane wanted to show off her mermaid Barbie.

Sydney arrived!

Dean being silly!

Alice dressed herself.

Avery is so mobile now!

She got on here by herself!

The kids love piling on Grandpa!

Last stop of the day.

On the way to the first visit of the day.

A very large spider on the Unger's porch.

The amazing Brother Roberts feeding his 20 head of deer, goats and cattle.

Jason.

Dean making something cool.

Ready to swim.

Avery looking awesome in her swim suit!

Jane and Sydney swimming.

Alice.

Dean doing a Super jump with Uncle Jason.

Sydney doing a smaller version.

Alice doing a smaller one.

Blowing bubbles with grandpa.

A great rainbow on the way home.

Crazy grandpa!