Quiver full of Quincys

Sunday, July 16, 2017

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!

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.

Sunday, July 9, 2017

Celebrating with Service

We had a great week! Things went well at the Allens on Monday night! We watched President Uchtdorf's message from a Christmas devotional about the man in a wheel chair for the first time. Its really touching. Barbara and Jonathan both got the no cancer news! We had a busy and fun 4th of July. We started with painting Tammy's garage with the whole district of missionaries. Its so hot and humid that we hoped to get it done early, but there was so much prep work, moving stuff and cleaning the spider webs and cutting off limbs that we were already sweating before the painting started. After the painting we had a few hours so we went to Jason and Nicole's hosue and saw the grandkids. And ate delicious trifle!

We rushed back and met Luke's boys; Devin and Dustin. We went to a picnic at the swimming pool with the Allen family with them. It was getting seriously hot and that swimming pool looked so good! We didn't stay long because the Sisters had another appointment to hurry off to. We had 3 of them. Sister Holmes was with our sisters for the day. We met the Sister Leaders and dropped her off and we all had to be in by 8:00 which was nice because we were exhausted from the heat!

Wednesday we met Paloma for another lesson at the preschool. This time before she works at 7:45. She is really sweet. She had a miscarriage in the last week and really enjoyed hearing the plan of salvation. We went straight from there to teach Bridget the commandments. So we'd had 2 lessons by the time we usually leave the apartment at 10:00. We dropped the Elders off, went home and ate, and picked up the Sisters to do service at the Roberts. We cleaned and dejunked with a couple of young women inside while Elder Quincy mowed and worked outside We got rid of so many piles of magazines and papers from their living room! They are just getting too arthritic to clean. We could spend that much time in each room in their house. Thursday we met the new Mission President and family. They are amazing and pretty young! The Hewlett's brought their 18 and 15 year old daughters with them. They are dynamic speakers and will be great for the mission.

Our Book of Mormon class is going so well! I hope the Sisters can keep it up when we are gone! We had a Family Home Evening with Luke and his boys, Ashley and her kids and Jaycie Thursday night. Luke wanted us to introduce his boys to the church gently, so we had a short lesson and played lots of games. It was really fun. While we ate dessert, we watched the Children's Bible video on The Good Samaritan and the boys really got into it. They came to church Sunday and said they liked it. The Bible family of 4 came and Bridget, so we had 7 investigators to church! We helped Tammy and her family get Cheyenne's rental place ready to move into after District Meeting Friday. We spent a couple of hours helping Sister Rigli with her Family History this week She is so excited to do the work for the great aunts who taught her about Christ and the one who got her started with family history. We went to a birthday dinner with Shannon Watson and her best friends Saturday night; 1 Jew, 2 Muslims, 3 Mormons and 2 Baptists. They let us bless the food! We went to a Mediterranean buffet and I had lamb for the first time. After that we went to an open house for the Martinez family who were sealed last week. The Spanish branch knows how to party!
James Farmer was made an Elder today! So cool!

My dad turned 88 this week! I realize more and more how lucky I am that my parents are still around and how unusual it is that they are so healthy at their age!

Sister Javier told us that the shoes on the telephone lines means someone got out of the hood. I've been looking at these shoes every time we walk and now they have new meaning for me.

We took the Sisters to visit the Golds who live on Lake Livingston. Its so pretty!

This is the terrible tool that sliced open Elder Barrett's finger. Elder Quincy had me text him a picture of it.

Getting closer on the garage.

Faith Hodges is walking! She has Spinabifida, so they weren't sure if she ever would! We visited them to see and celebrate with them.

I love the clouds here!

The Martinezes.

The pretty flowers were all handmade from paper an straws!

The Martineze's daughter and granddaughters.

Luke and his boys

A family friend and the boys

Patriotic Sisters talking with the Allens.

I've been trying to get a picture of these red birds since I got here. We were visiting Sister Burks in the nursing home and there one was right on her window sill!

She has not been doing well lately! The birds cheer her up.

Sister Fisher shared this picture of the Drake's mission report attenders.

paint ball gun we found in the weeds growing by Cheyenne's front porch.

Getting ready to put on the new faucette.

Sister Torres is back from Mexico!

Beautiful and delicious!

Sunday, July 2, 2017

The Bitter with the Sweet!

What a week! I was experiencing pure joy on Saturday with the wedding and baptism of a sweet sister we have been working with since October. I got a voice mail as I was sitting in her baptism. I didn't get around to listening to it until an hour later as we were cleaning up after the after baptism dinner. The news that my dear friend's only son had died about dropped me to the ground. I felt like I'd been kicked in the stomach.
Today as I've been fasting for Nedra, I've learned a few things or rather been reminded of some things. This life is about making and keeping covenants. Michael did those things. All of us will die. We don't choose when or how we die. What we can do is try to live so that we die ready to meet our Savior. My pain about Michael's death isn't for him, its for his mom living without him for the next 30 years or so. He and his mom will be together again

“Life is a homeward journey for all of us, back to the presence of God in his celestial kingdom. Ordinances and covenants become our credentials for admission into His presence. To worthily receive them is the quest of a lifetime; to keep them thereafter is the challenge of mortality” (Boyd K. Packer)

That said, I'll get on with the week. Jon had surgery Monday. It was hard to not be there to help, but its nice to have good people there to take care of him while I'm here. We went to Robin's funeral. It was a nondenominational funeral with lots of sad people there. The highlight for me was as we filed up and past the casket at the end (they do that here) they played primary songs!
We had a wonderful lesson with the Allen family Monday night. We talked about loving others and not judging them. Elder Anderson said something I love; he said that everyone at church has someone who loves them and is thrilled that they are there. He's learned to treat everyone like he wants his converts to be treated. Just love them and be thrilled they made it to church. Somewhere there's a mom and/or a missionary who thanks you.
We taught Bridget the rest of the commandments this week. She is so awesome! She really has been living them for a couple of years. She asked if she should start paying her tithing before she's baptized. I love her!
We took the Elders to teach Cody, a member's grandson, who really wants to be baptized, but has a hard time getting to church since his grandma started feeding the homeless every Sunday. His grandma had left to rescue a family who's car broke down. They came to her shop where we teach Cody a few minutes late for the lesson. We invited them to listen with Cody. They listened and loved it. The mom said that she's almost thankful their car broke down so there could be there. When we talked about Cody's baptism date; July 22nd, Elder Brinkerhoff invited them to prepare to be baptized on the same day. She started sobbing and said that date is really significant to her; her daughter who died in infancy was born on that day and her grandpa died on that day and she thought that was a sign.
Luke's boys are coming from Virginia to spend a couple of weeks here. He is thrilled! I'm excited to meet them.
Our new mission president arrived on Friday, President Hewlett. We get to meet him on Thursday. Also on Saturday the Martinez family was sealed. And then I heard that Ruby took the kids and left Antonio and went back to Missouri. Yet more bitter and sweet!
Br. Sneed was called to be an Assistant Ward Clerk! We're excited! I helped Angela Graham to find 3 family names to do baptisms for!
We started teaching one of Tammy's employees at her preschool. We asked her if she's noticed changes in Tammy since her baptism. She said that she used to be scared of her and that she was unhappy most of the time. She said that now "she glows" she's so happy. I loved hearing that!
Living the gospel is the key to happiness! Bad things still happen, but we are supported in our trials. That's what I'm praying happens to Nedra, that she'll be blessed with peace in the midst of her sorrow. We went with the Sisters after church or they came with us to take the sacrament to Sister Rigli and the Masons. We went to teach the Estradas. The son is interested, his mom only speaks Spanish, so they couldn't tell for sure about her. She is a sweet lady and I had the great opportunity of teaching her the whole first lesson, the restoration, in Spanish. She wants to hear more and so we'll send the Spanish Elders to teach her.

Christina ready for baptism!