So much to do and so little time left!

I honestly hadn't realized how little time we have left until I started trying to fit in all the temple trips, visits and family home evenings.  I am so glad we'll be back in December to tie up some more loose ends.  We spent a couple of hours cleaning the Graham's place.  They had no water, electricity, or air conditioning so it was a really hot time.  The temps have been in the mid 90's, but the heat index has them around 103 to 106.

It Angela's dad's house, where she kind of grew up.  The ward had donated a dryer so far, we're looking for an electric stove.

We came back on Friday when the power was on and Elder Quincy helped fix a water leak from the water heater and then he dedicated the home for them.  It was so hot in this living room that I was dripping wet by the end of the prayer. Good thing we love this family so much!

So the no cuss club from last week has been a great success!  Tammy said that she's been swearing less and less each day!  This week we were fewer in numbers and had a great lesson on Forgiveness. They have a family member they are all struggling with forgiving.  It was powerful!  

We are excited because we found out they are sending more missionaries to replace the Elders! 2 Sisters! So we'll have 4 Sisters in the ward!  

Everyone wants to have us to dinner or take us out for lunch before we go!  They are so sweet, but we'd rather just meet and talk.
It was Sister Gray's birthday Thursday and Elder Bingham's birthday Saturday, so we had a birthday lunch after District meeting Friday morning.  Fun stuff! Elder Anderson has wanted to go to the Cleveland museum, so we took them there after lunch.

these pictures are of snow in Cleveland!

We had a pioneer ward pot luck dinner Saturday night.  It was fun.  We had a couple of investigators come.  Br Bright showed the "Only a Stonecutter" video and talked about how each new convert is a pioneer in their family. He had us all turn on our Family Tree app and use Relative Locater. Everyone who's done family history was related.  Most about 10th cousins, but some 4th and 5th.  It was a fun way to get people excited about doing more research. Br. Tucker wanted his picture with us.

Luke has been struggling since his boys left!  We have hardly seen him.  He missed 2 Sundays in a row, so we were thrilled when he finally answered our text and we saw him today.  We had gone by his house and left a note on his door thinking his phone was turned off. We talked to him, read some of D&C 121 and watched the Prince of Peace/ Faith.  He read us his patriarchal blessing and said how much it helps him.   He could use some prayers!  

James Farmer was called to be  a ward missionary today and gave the closing prayer in Sacrament Meeting!  Elder Anderson is leaving us tomorrow and leaving Texas on Thursday.  We  hoped he stay with us til Thursday, but it was not to be.  We had a fun dinner for him today.  He requested biscuits and gravy.  I thought, "no way", but I said ok.  I found an easy breakfast casserole recipe and it turned out pretty good.  

We had a good scare when Br Roberts had to go to the emergency room this morning, but he's doing ok  He had a bladder infection and dehydration.  He'd been out in the super hot weather Saturday all day picking okra!

  There were 2 baptisms in the Spanish Branch today!  Br. Martinez, who was just ordained an Elder and whose family was sealed in the temple a couple of weeks ago baptized and confirmed his son, Christopher and Elder Bingham baptized the boyfriend, Ruben Gonzales, of a sister in the branch!  

Elder Anderson is a hard one to lose!  He is a master teacher.  He has the best analogies to explain difficult concepts and really loves the people he teaches.  He has a scholarship to the U to be on their debate team, so he's very good at ,well, debating.  I shared his insightful, hilarious talking scale a while back.  Transfers are seriously the worst part of the mission!

This poor flower reminds me of

Beauty and the Beast. I wonder if its just hanging in there and will suddenly drop its last petal when we leave Cleveland!
Poor Bridget's almost ex-husband has been making her life difficult because he doesn't want her to bring the girls to church.  She invited him to come to our new member lesson with her Wednesday night so he could see for himself that its good and not evil. He didn't show up!  Her poor little 6 year old has been in tears about it all.  She told Bridget Saturday that she didn't want to come to her church today, but Bridget brought her anyway, and of course she loved it, and said she had even more fun than last week.  We're all praying for the dad's heart to soften, and that he'll sign the divorce decree and stop making things so hard for them.  So feel free to join in!  I am reminded every day of the power of prayer!  We have been guided to people and have heard the phrase; "I really needed you to visit me today" many times.  I know it softens hearts and can change us as it brings the Spirit into our lifes.

4 more baptisms!

Its been an unusual week.  Elder Brinkerhoff left and no one replaced him, so we've been a threesome with Elder Anderson quite often or a fivesome with the 2 Spanish Elders.  We all went to the Allens on Monday night, so we had all the Allen family; Barbara, Jerry, Tammy, Sonya, Ashley, Jamison, Laney, and Kylie, with Luke and his 2 boys and then we 5 missionaries.  We had fun, we challenged them all to join the no cuss club (something some of them struggle with) and watched the video.  I gave them an envelope to put a dollar in every time they cussed.  Jaycie wasn't there, she was in Nauvoo with the Stake Youth Conference.  16 might be a new record for a group for a lesson.

Bridget shared her spiritual experiences with her family this week. She is so cool!  Her brother didn't make it to a lesson yet, but she'll keep inviting him.  

The family that got baptized Saturday were late!  A couple of them are pretty large, so James Farmer came to help Elder Anderson baptize them. Here they are looking sad because they're all ready and had no one to baptize.

They are really cool and so excited to be members.  Their house burnt down a few months ago with all their clothes, so they only have what's on them.  They went to another church who kicked them out because they weren't dressed appropriately. Its just like the Zoramites! (see Alma 32). They were humbled and prepared for the word to be preached to them.  Thomas and Tera and Brianna all have different last names, so its kind of confusing.  Their 10 year old niece comes with them and wants to be baptized, too.  Their youngest daughter is progressing a bit slower.

We have a 4 x and a 5 x suit.  They said they were too small.  The APs brought us a size 22 dress to use, definitely smaller than the suits, so dear Sister Teague ran to Walmart and got a couple of white t-shirts that they wore under the baptism suits, so they didn't have to zip them all the way.  

Quite a few missionaries gathered for the occasion.

In contrast cute little Moroni Cabreras was baptized with the Spanish branch on Sunday.

 His mom just moved here from California.  Her husband is very against the church, but finally gave permission for Moroni to be baptized.

I found this on Elder Quincy's tablet.  I don't think I have shared it.

  All of these Elders and Sisters are gone now!

 

The District

This is our current district with Elder Bingham cut off a bit, so I added the above picture

even though I don't like it as much.

We had so many trains stopping us this week  This one was a 10 minute wait.

Trying a pano  Still figuring it out.

Elder Quincy and I spoke in Sacrament meeting today on personal revelation. It was kind of like our farewell talks I guess, even though we have 3 more weeks!  July is going by way too fast!! Shannon is coming up on her 1 year anniversary of her husband's death.  Its been a rough one for her. Tonight is the 4th time to meet with her this week.
Sister Patterson found out she has lymphoma.  She and her husband have been getting ready to go be sealed in the temple. This may get them going faster.

Baptisms for the dead and the living!

We have had one of those weeks that's full of the good fun stuff that missionaries love!  Sweet Bridget was baptized Saturday.  Her cute girls came to church for the first time! She has been so much fun to teach!  Her boss gave her a Book of Mormon 5 years ago.  He has cancer and was unable to baptize her, but his brother-in-law baptized her.  AND it turns out he bought a house in our Cleveland ward and is moving in in a month!!  So right as we leave and won't be here to fellowship her as we'd like to, they will be here to take care of her!  

Brindee is 7 and Brooklyn is 2.

The brother-in-law

The boss and his daughter, with his sister, brother-in-law and their kids

Bridget's family came too!  Supportive families are so cool!

Odell Jackson made it to the temple!  He was baptized for his dad and Sister Grey was baptized for his mom.  It was amazing to be there for such a special moment!

And we got to see Sister Housman again!

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I told about the scary FHE in the scary place.  This is how it looks in the daylight 

3 of their kids have built places around their place.

Side of the house.

Its really not so scary any more, but I'm glad I couldn't see all this in the dark when we first came here.  I would have been more scared.

Elder Quincy and Br. Sneed got Tammy's garage done while I was doing Family History with sweet Bonnie Runge at the nursing home.

 This is the mud in Br. Sneed's driveway.

Loving all the clouds this time of year.

A beautiful Sunset in Shepherd

The Roberts had us all over for a fish fry.

Pretty amazing clouds bringing a big storm.

Jamison turned 6! Playing outside in the rain.

We had a good-bye dinner for Elder Brinkerhoff who flies home to Mesa tomorrow.

Hawaiian haystacks and Elder Brinkerhoff's favorite; boudain.  First time I've eaten it.

The kitchen after it was painted

We also helped paint the kitchen in Cheyenne's rental.
We had a cool thing happen Thursday night.  We were supposed FHE with Ashley, Luke and their kids, but they called to ask to do it Friday instead.  So we went to visit some people.  One family we decided to visit is the Carpenters.  The mom, Rhonda has been coming to church the  last few weeks. She said it had been 36 years since she'd come.  Anyway the Sisters have been teaching her daughter-in-law, Cassie.  When we visited with them, we discovered that Cassie is Ashley Evans' best friend from school days. She didn't know that Ashley, her sister, her cousin and 2 of her aunts have become Mormon. Ashley was really excited to hear about it.  God has such a great way of taking care of us and sending  missionaries to the right places at the right time!
We had a great FHE with Luke's boys Friday night, so it all worked out perfectly.  Bridget was confirmed Sunday.  We had 10 investigators there!  For the 2nd week in a row we had to open up the overflow into the gym for Sacrament Meeting!
I got this text from Bridget early this morning that I wanted to add;
I couldn't sleep last night and I laid there in bed. In that time I was laying there I got a feeling I needed to look up this. I will send a pic. As I read it I was so overwhelmed and amazed I started to cry. Did we read this before together and did we highlight it together? I don't remember doing that. And how amazing that is the chpt that popped into my head.

It is such a blessing to teach these amazing people!

Elder Quincy wanted a picture of the flood measurements there are on some streets.

This is the overgrown place the Grahams are moving into by the 1st.  There's some work to do here!

Sister Barber made us this amazing quilt!  A great momento!

Brother Roberts made me this awesome pen from the bone of an axis.