A birthday party, a ward social, conference, collecting churches and the end of the first transfer

Time flies by so quickly!  I can't believe its been another week!  A couple of new firsts for this week were going to our granddaughter's 1st birthday party, experiencing General Conference here, our first ward social, and cooking breakfast for those at the church for Sunday's sessions. 
It was awesome to eat Nicole's great dinner and to play with the grandkids Wednesday!  Avery is so cute!  Its amazing that in the short time we've been here she's changed so much in her motor skills! 
Watching General Conference at the church is interesting.  Apparently, usually its just the missionaries.  We, the sisters actually, had the brilliant idea of having a Chili Cook Off after the Saturday afternoon session and before Priesthood meeting, so we had about 20 watching with us.  We had about 45 people come to the cook off including 7 investigators!!  Apparently making chili is serious business in Texas.  So I made my usual easy chili with canned beans and canned tomato sauce and a package of mild chili seasoning, which I was embarrassed to enter in the contest.  I was shocked to be the winner of the contest! 
Richard and I decided that its too far for most of the members to go back and forth to eat between sessions, so we made pancakes, bacon, omelets, and smoothies after the first session Sunday morning.  It was lots of fun and timely to get the missionaries all fed because of the fact that we're losing three of them!  We are at the end of our first transfer!  Sister White, Elder Sanchez and Elder Johnson are all leaving us!  The good news is that they are all allowed to come back for baptisms of their investigators so we should see them all in the not to distant future; this Saturday for Elder Johnson and next Saturday for Sister White.  I feel like I'm sending my kids off to college or something!  So now we've been here as long or longer than all the missionaries in Cleveland!
Now for some culture.  There are so many churches down here!  Some streets will have one every block and they have some very unusual and obscure names.  I've started trying to get pictures of them, which is difficult because its from the car as we zoom along.  I'm especially partial to the Cowboy Churches, but only managed to get one of those this week.  So I'm adding the pictures I've managed so far.  This is a drop in the bucket! 
It actually got down to 55 degrees one morning for our walk at 7:15.  And that day it only got up to 79 degrees!  We haven't been into the 90's all week, so I think its getting cooler and less humid.  We hear that October is the biggest rainfall month.  So far we've only had a few sprinkles.

We at losing half of these fun missionaries tomorrow!

We got to stop at the Houston Temple on our way to Jason's, but not for a session yet.  Just to get garments for someone.

Avery is such a good walker!

Cute sisters.

Syd and I played lots of tensies.  Then she decided to make people out of the dice.  Here she is;

And here's Logan;

One handsome guy!

Avery loves her daddy!

One year old!

She loved her gifts!

Monday we got a private tour of the Cleveland historical museum.

I left my phone at the church and the missionaries played with it a little.

Our cute Cleveland missionaries.

This beautiful church has pretty stained glass.

Off the freeway there are always several churches.

The local Catholic church.

This one is called High Tower.

One of the Cowboy ones. 

 This one is just a block from our apartment.

My prize for my chili.

Richard cooking the bacon before we head to conference.

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.