Quiver full of Quincys

Monday, September 12, 2016

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!

Monday, September 5, 2016

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.