Service with a Smile!

Elder Barrett got this for us at the Flea Market, it is so very Texan!

 Monday we took dinner to Tammy's.  Her parents, sister and nieces were all gone to Tennessee, so we just had Tammy, Luke and Cheyenne.  I made lasagna and they loved it.  I made 3 of them and took 2 of them to Ramon's for dinner and a lesson on Tuesday.  Elder Quincy said the prayer and blessing on the food in Spanish!  They were impressed! 

Elder Quincy has been doing so much service in the outside heat that we decided he needed this wonderful shade hat.  Its been in the 90's with the humidity making it feel like the 100's.

First thing Tueday morning we went to Tammy's to get he primer on her metal roof over her porch.  I was sweating buckets in the shade on the ground.  Poor Elder Quincy up on that hot metal roof was really feeling the heat! 

Wednesday he and Br. Sneed put these steps on the Ingolds back door. 

Then on Thursday about 8 guys cut up the fallen tree, well all except for this highest part.  They think they need a lift to get the last part down safely.

Friday night Bridget came to the church for a lesson because we had so many things going on it was the only way to teach her!  Elder Quincy got back from helping a family move into the ward just in time to get me, pick up Sandy and drop us at the church and go to help Br. Hodges with the demolition of a closet they are turning into a bathroom.  Sandy covered for me in the Family History room while I helped the Elders with Bridget's lesson!  She is getting baptized on July 15th!!After her lesson I help Sandy to help Br. Cline get some things straighten out in his family history and to print off a name to take to the temple until Ramon and his family came to the Spanish branches' Dia de los Padres fiesta!

They had a great time!  It was their first time in the church!

This is Ramon and Maria dancing. Elder Quincy got back at the end of the party in time to talk to Ramon.  Have I mentioned that Ramon really likes Elder Quincy? 

Saturday morning we picked up the Sisters and went to Monique's to help clean and organize her car port.  I wish I'd gotten a before picture.

It had been full of stuff that was stacked all over this floor. There were piles of dirty dishes (she hates to wash dishes, so she stacks them out there), which I took inside and washed..

This old wood that had been on the ground we put on a coffee table she had us tie up in the rafters.

 After the service with the Sisters we went home, showered and changed and went to the temple!! It was so nice!  The Martinez family from the branch went through the temple for their first time.  It felt so amazing to sit in the chapel and wait for the session!  I was getting teary just sitting there!  Anyway we were asked to be the witness couple, something we haven't done for ages!  It was a Spanish session, so Elder Quincy had to wear head phones, but it all worked out and was amazing!  

We rushed back to Cleveland from the temple.  Elder Quincy dropped me off at a member's house for the wedding shower for Christina.  (The one getting married and baptized on July 1st).

She was in the hospital in a coma from septic pneumonia, not expected to make it through the night a few weeks ago, so its really a blessing that she's going to be able to go ahead with the wedding/baptism plans!

It was really fun!  While I was eating and laughing and enjoying these fun ladies, Elder Quincy was checking out another tree that needs to come down and buying materials with Br. Bright for the bathroom he's building this week.

So we got back home in time for me to cook the taco meat and Elder Quincy to help the neighbors fix their dryer.

I got him this great Texas tie for Father's Day.  Hopefully my dad got his, too.

Elder Barrett goes home Tuesday.  We had a good bye/Father's day dinner with all the missionaries in the district.  It was really fun and sad at the same time!   We are really going to miss Elder Barrett! 

Sister Houseman is getting transferred tomorrow.  We're going to miss her, too!  I really don't like transfers!

 Vaya con Dios Elder Barrett!

For love of Elder Quincy

Elder Quincy turned 65 on Friday!  We had District Meeting that morning, so we had cupcakes.  Here's my only picture of this district.  Elder Barrett goes home in one week!  Elder Brinkerhoff leaves the end of July and Elder Anderson leaves the first week of August, so we have changes next week! We are going to miss these good Elders.

The members of the ward really love Elder Quincy and appreciate all the service he does for them.  A couple of them organized this surprise birthday party/lunch for him Saturday.  Jenny even came with her cute kids!  The Sisters were the party planners. 

So first thing Monday morning, while Elder Quincy was fishing, I got my crown glued back on.  That was a relief!  And its been great ever since.  So, as I was preparing some food to take to the Allens for dinner that night I dropped the big bowl of food on my big toe!  It got more and more sore.  I tried burning a hole in the nail, but only managed to slip the hot pin onto the surrounding skin and burn it.  So I asked Elder Quincy to drill a hole in it for me.  Ahh!  Instant improvement!  Today I even managed to walk all day without favoring it.

Tuesday was the birthday of the Graham's son who died as a toddler.  They asked us to spend the evening with them.  We brought pizza, so they didn't have to stress over feeding us and the Sisters.  The local Pizza Hut has this funny spelling of our name, I had to share. So if you haven't seen the Prince of Peace videos, watch the one on Compassion and you'll know how many tears flowed at the Grahams when we showed it to them.  We talked about their work and progress on getting ready to be sealed as a family in the temple and helped them realize what a wonderful gift they were giving their son for his birthday!

The Sisters had to see and get a picture with the Rudolph's tree.

We had the satisfactory job of painting the Amour's kitchen! 

From taking down the wallpaper to the last of the painting , its been fun!

Early Friday morning we went to Tammy's to power wash her roof.  I was mostly there to worry about Elder Quincy falling.  He carried the power washer up the ladder and then stood on the roof to finish the job.

Interesting things grow on the trees down here.

Saturday this couple were married at the church.  She's Sister Ford's daughter.  He's not a member, but lives in the ward boundaries.  The Sisters will be visiting them!

After the birthday party Elder Quincy helped move a member of the branch into our apartment complex!  They even came over and borrowed salt today!

Elder Quincy got a lot of cards.  I was especially touched by the missionary's comments.  They really love and respect him. 

These clouds were at 2:00 in the afternoon today!  A storm was coming in.  The sky and clouds here are gorgeous.  The only pollution I've ever seen is when they burn their trash and broken branches.

Elder Anderson is pretty insightful.  He shared his numbering system with me that he uses on how talkative investigators are;

The talking scale

1: You may have to poke them occasionally to make sure they are alive.

2: Asking them a direct question is the only way you'll pry words out of them, and then only the shortest possible response.

3: Always a silent observer to group conversations, in person will quietly listen to whatever you might have to say and may or may not give a short response.

4: always yields the conversation to whoever else might want to speak. If the circumstances don't seem exactly right, they'll keep their comments to themselves. Listens more than talks.

5: average

6: usually doesn't let a conversation pass without making a comment of some sort. Pays close attention to conversation and will start one if someone else doesn't 

7: Wants to be a major contributor to every conversation. Has a long list of stories, quotes, and sayings ready to share for every discussion. If someone ends up talking more than them, they have a tendency to compete.

8: people around them usually know the details of their daily life, and they will surely want to keep you updated. They will likely have a comment every time someone said  some and would say all of the if it were possible.

9: they will pause occasionally to maintain the illusion of a dialogue. You can tell them you need to go and they will still keep talking.

10: your comments are merely an obstacle to be overcome as they steamroll on. The topic of conversation is irrelevant: they will say whatever they want to say.

Firsts this week would be Luke teaching Priesthood meeting.  The whole Graham family here and on time for church!  Meeting Bridget's darling daughters because I got her address! 

Teaching an ex-con, recovering addict, who's just learned he has brain cancer and has less than a year to live.  Getting my toe nail drilled.  Having a guy come to the Addiction Recovery Meeting, who sobbed and said that he's on the verge of losing his family if he can't overcome his addiction.  So heart wrenching!  Having a preschool kid tell us he doesn't know how to pray and to ask us to teach him how.  Having a 65 year old husband!

Living the good life!

First of all here's the pictures from our fun trip to the Children's Museum in the Woodlands.  It is designed for kids from 7 and under.  We had two 7 year olds, a 6 year old, two 5 year olds, a 3 year old (turning 4 soon), a recently turned 3 year old, a 19 month old and an almost 1 year old, so it was a great fit.  All of the kids found fun things to do and enjoyed each other!

I especially enjoyed watching them dress up and pretend.

gotta love Grandpa with Sydney's purse.

We've had a lots of rain and beautiful clouds lately.

3 men breaking their backs working on the next ramp project.

Meanwhile the Sisters and I were able to get the primer coat on the kitchen we'd removed the wallpaper from.

starting the handrail on the ramp Saturday.

Senior missionary conference Saturday was wonderful!  Its so cool to hear how individual everyone's experience is.  We love these people!

We had several firsts this week.  Monday night we had our usual Allen family group plus the family member who joined the church in Costa Rica and started this whole investigation by her family! April is amazing and she made such drastic changes in her life that she is bearing testimony without opening her mouth!  They have all been influenced by her.
Elder Quincy loved this one; we went with Elders to teach an investigator who had been talking to someone who'd convinced him we were from the Devil; he rebuked us in the name of God and said right to my face; "Get thee behind me Satan".  A first for me, not for Elder Quincy.  He had similar things happen to him everyday in Ireland.  The poor guy was so scared of us that we didn't even try to reason with him, we just left.  We went with the Spanish Elders that night and I was able to understand and speak enough to help Ramon find and read scriptures to answer his questions about the bad things in the world. 
Our Book of Mormon class was absolutely amazing Wednesday night!  We read from Mosiah 24 and the guy who read verse 14 has been sober for 9 months and he couldn't read it without sobbing.  When he finished there wasn't a dry eye in the room.  It was really powerful!  At the end of class Tammy asked him to read it again and told him that before she was even a member she felt his powerful spirit.  That class has become my favorite hour of the week!  The investigators who come to that class all get baptized.
  We hadn't heard from Bridget all week and were concerned about her.  She usually responds to my reading assignment texts every morning.  So Thursday morning I prayed very intently and asked God to help me know how to help her feel the Spirit and be ready to be taught. I asked to know if my messages to her were the right thing to be doing.  She texted me on our way to teach preschool that morning, saying that her 2 year old daughter had been very sick and asked us to pray for her.  She said that she'd been reading every day and really appreciated my texts. Prayer works!
Preschool has grown with school out.  We taught 3 classes  about how Heavenly Father answers our prayers the best way.  We love those kids.
The Addiction Recovery class was super, with 2 of the members of our ward there with us.  They asked us to teach it next week.  It is a really inspired program! 
Friday was a day of service for Elder Quincy.  I went to District Meeting and then painted with the Sisters.  And here's another first!  We were teaching Edwin, a 32 year old member of the Spanish Branch, in the English class Friday night.  After going over greetings, and questions, we asked what he wanted to learn to say; long story short, we taught him how to ask for phone numbers and how to ask girls out on dates.  It was hilarious!  We invited him to come with us to teach on Wednesday night.  Ramon's sister-in- law is a single mom, who is just about Edwin's age. 
Elder Quincy tried to finish he ramp Saturday before the Senior Missionary conference.  He almost made it.  The Ramsays are so happy with it!  Sister Ramsay asked me about if the church can mail bibles, I found out their granddaughter is in prison, so I was able to have a Bible, Book of Mormon and Addiction Recovery Manual mailed to her in prison. 
Sunday, today, had been so good!  Tammy came fasting for her first time.  Bridget made it to church and the testimonies were wonderful and exactly what I would have asked for to touch hearts of investigators.  Multiple people mentioned how much they loved and appreciated the new members!  Blake Graham was sustained and then ordained a deacon!  A goal of ours since we got here!!  Shannon Watson was called to be a den leader!  Odell and Timothy got their limited use recommends to do baptisms at the temple with us next week!  I helped the Elders teach Bridget her first lesson during Sunday School!  She is amazing!  She stopped drinking coffee a year ago and has never smoked, drunk alcohol or used drugs.  She said she wants to get ready to be baptized.  She feels good at church and loves the ward.  She reads the Book of Mormon every day!  I'm pretty sure she IS ready to be baptized!  After the block we attended the Temple Prep class  with Sonya and Ashley.  Luke is going to teach Elder's Quorum next week!  Life is good here in Cleveland, or as the missionaries call it; The Promised Land!  Oh, yesterday, my crown fell off! No pain, but I'll try to find a dentist who'll glue it back on tomorrow!