Sharing Cleveland with my Sisters by birth and by marriage

Such a great week!  We got a surprise call from Luke, a former investigator Monday, saying he wanted to be taught again, that he's felt God telling him to follow this path.  Tuesday morning he called to say he wanted to be baptized!  We took the Elders with us to pick him up from work and to go over the baptism interview questions so he knew what he needs to work on.  He read them and said' "ok, I'm ready"!.  They asked when he'd last had a drink of alcohol, the day before, how about chewing tobacco, that morning.  So then they explained that he needed to live the word of wisdom for 2 weeks before he could be baptized.  We took him to Walmart to get the cinnamon mouthwash, cinnamon mints, vitamin C, and grapefruit juice that's supposed to help; juice and vitamins to flush the nicotine out of his body faster, and cinnamon to get the flavor out and help with cravings.  So he's been great and clean ever since.  He says that when he has a craving he reads a scripture and prays!  We're excited for him!  On a side note, the member he was dating who first introduced us to him, gave him a ride home from church yesterday. A baptism and then a possible marriage in the future?

We helped a less active family put up a fence on Wednesday.  Its always a lot of fun doing service with all the missionaries together.  And it was great to see the family at church yesterday!

My sisters and sister-in-law arrived Friday afternoon.  We have had so much fun taking them do service, meeting some of our favorite people, and playing with them!  Everyone loves them of course!  They all helped teaching or in Amy's case playing the piano for Primary and Relief Society Sunday!  We took the sacrament to a couple of home after church Sunday and it was great to have a whole choir to sing with us!  They made Sister Roberts soo happy by sharing some of our pioneer stories with her after a fried fish dinner.  They got to try the best hush puppies in Texas there.  We had a fun birthday dinner party at the Kendalls for Jenny and Nicole last night.  The kids loved having 4 great aunts there!  Jenny survived her half marathon on Saturday and got a great time.  My girls seem to get younger instead of older! 

Firsts this week were having an investigator call us to say he wants to be baptized, teaching lessons in the horse pasture, setting up and attending wedding reception, and sharing Cleveland 1st ward with my sisters and sister-in-law.  Elder Quincy thought that we laugh way too much.  We sure had a lot of fun! Thanks so much for coming!! 

Exploring Br. Robert's trophy room.

Saturday morning we picked them up and went to see the Bradleys.  Here's their pot belly pig.

Or course we had to go to the Ranch Hand Café.

Taking the sacrament to sweet Mary Jernigen.

Future missionary?

Wisteria blooming.

Great sunsets.

We passed these guys on the way to teach Luke a couple of times one day.  Black pioneers?

Anna lane.

This is at Lake Waterwheel where Elder Quincy went fishing with Br. Roberts last week.  They didn't get any fish, but the beautiful pictures of the sunrise were worth the trip.

Working on the fence.

Elder Allen decided he wanted to cool off by being buried.  He said it worked. 

It was in the 80's that day.

Missionary lesson in the pasture.

Luke doesn't have a car, he has a horse, which he rides to the corner store when he needs to buy stuff.

Br. Bibby showing the Spanish Elders what he's been working on since the fence project.

Luke found this 3 foot snake in the pasture where we've been teaching him.

Leaving after doing service at Ruby's.

They made it!

Br. Robert's trophy room.

some of the creative spelling my sisters enjoyed.

More of Br. Roberts stuff.

A van full of fun!

Amy had to touch the Spanish moss on Glenda's trees.

We also helped decorate the church for the Bright's wedding reception..

Such cute moms!

We look better with the kids in front of us, don't we?

James can fit a lot of kids in his lap!

Our first Crawfish Boil!

We officially started teaching Glenda's husband this week.  He's the cutest!  Tammy still hasn't gotten the message about when she should be baptized.  I'm praying that it'll be Saturday when 3 of my sisters and my sister by marriage are here visiting. The dad of Morgan, a cute girl the Sisters are teaching came to the party and then to church on Sunday!  He grew up in the church and is now trying to get ready to baptize his daughter!! 

Crawfish lovers!

It was outside of my comfort zone, but really delicious, it tastes like lobster. They cook in a Cajun spice with potatoes and corn.  I actually liked the potatoes better than the crawfish tails.  Lots less work to eat, too.  Some people suck the meat out of the head, too.  I just stuck to the tails, which are pulled off and then the shell is pulled off.  Sister Housman, being from Hawaii is all about sucking all the meat out. 

They just pour the whole pot onto the table and everyone loads up their trays!

Before they were cooked..

while cooking...

onto the second pot.  The family of members that invited us, the Sisters and the Roberts, also invited the family of investigators you see in the background. 

This sign is in a yard on our way to Glenda's house. 

This cool tree was in Luke's back yard.

While we were having a fun Senior Missionary Conference and attending the temple...

our daughter Jessica was running her first marathon.  She not only finished, but qualified for the Boston Marathon!!

We decided that we needed to have a ward party with just one Sunday to announce and advertise, so I had the brilliant idea to make reminders to take to the members that weren't there that Sunday and to our investigators and less active members.  We spent many hours this week delivering them.  We were nervous that our efforts were wasted at 6:00 when hardly anyone was at the church.

The Elders blew up all the balloons for the tables for our "Up" with missionary work ward party!.

But, in the end we had 11 investigators there and around 85 people! One of the less actives has not been to a church meeting or activity since we came to Cleveland, and she brought her 2 non member daughters!!  The other less active family that came are the Grahams whose daughter and cousin are being taught and prepared for baptism. Its great to see how God inspires us to do little things to make the difference needed for success!

One of the cutest investigators who came!

2 of the senior couples didn't make it in time for this picture before our session. We had to leave right after the session to get to the ward party, so here they are without us after the session.

Here we are before.

Its been a fun week!  We're excited for the visitors coming this week!!