A super baptism, losing another Elder, and finally a temple session!!

This has been such a great week with more firsts and wonderful progress!  I'll start with the sad part.  Elder Watson is leaving us tomorrow!  He's been here since we got here and we are going to miss him.  He's lots of fun; pranking the sisters constantly (this week it was an open can of sardines in their truck), getting the whiffle ball games, basketball games going and cooking for us all on P-Days.  He tops out the hours allowed in service most weeks and is a great missionary.  We're all guessing he'll be the new AP.  On the good side he'll be back for the 4 baptisms he has lined up.

We had some interesting service opportunities this week; Thursday, we took the Sisters and helped the Perry/Rigli/Harris (3 generations) family can apples.  On Friday we went to the Rudolfs and while Richard did handiman jobs, including resetting clocks and hanging up Christmas decorations, I colored games for 1st graders and sharped a hundred pencils.  On Saturday we helped get a house cleaned out so they can raise it another foot.  Flood plane issues. 

; We got to go to the temple on Wednesday!!  They assigned us the day and time and we got a Spanish session!!  I was surprised at how easy it was to follow and understand in Spanish.  James Farmer, the first baptism for us here came and did baptisms while we were at the temple!

The couple that were married last week, the Beckers, were baptized this week.  The coolest thing was that James Farmer gave the talk on baptism and did a great job! 

Let's see about firsts; We got 3 member referrals this week. We took the sisters to Br. Sneed's to teach him and his daughter's family, and for one we went with the Spanish Elders to teach in the home of the members and the lesson went very well!  The other we got from the oldest guy in the ward, Br. Hamilton at the dinner the Scouts served for the Veterans in the area. I had my first day to wish I was home when my mom fell and broke her nose, Joni was having some cramping and worries about early labor, and Jonathan couldn't get his car started; all on Monday!  But my awesome siblings took good care of my mom, our Relief Society President went and checked on Joni, and James' dad, Rod Kendall helped Jon get his car going.  We are so blessed to have awesome friends and family back home!  Some random things; last night the Sisters gave us a huge container of gumbo that a member had given them.  Today we went to visit the Elder's Quorum President, who hasn't been to church for 2 weeks.  His whole family is sick.  Elder Quincy gave him a blessing and then we ran home and got him some cold medicine and the gumbo!  They were very happy to have enough dinner for their family of 6!  The Lord works in mysterious ways. We had a FHE with a family today and discovered that the dad is a UPS driver!   Tuesday our mission will be one fourth of the way over!  It is amazing how fast time goes here!  We are having a great adventure!

Our district at the temple.

James Becker and Br Roberts, Jessica was too self conscious to have her picture taken in her baptism suit.

So excited to be able to the temple!

The Elders who stated teaching the Beckers before they moved to Cleveland and the Sisters who finished the job.

The Becker family and their four missionaries. 

Playing Whiffle ball in the gym.

Elder Watson's shot.  The Spanish Elders had an early dinner, so they came back in proselyting attire and played.

After District Meeting we fed all the missionaries in our District and the Zone Leaders. 

Here we all are!

Br. Hamilton showing off his award.  He's a 30 year Veteran!

Sunset tonight.

James Farmer with the missionaries in our ward.

The best day ever! A wedding, progress, a sad text, and a Birthday Dinner!

I can't believe this week is over!  Let's start with the best day ever part; we've been visting and begging to help clean up the home of a member for 2 and a half months.  We stopped there the other day to give her a condolence card and when we asked if we could help, she said; "YES!"  She was very appreciative when we showed up with the High Priest Group Leader, his truck and a trailer to haul away stuff that night! He's been back for more boxes and the Elders have started digging a burn pit in the back yard to burn the garbage!!  And it gets better... she and her 2 kids showed up at church for the first time today!!  I figured out why it seems like we have so many meetings, its because time goes so quickly, except when we're sitting in meetings. 

The big first for the week was our first wedding here.  The Beckers were married Saturday, so we were busy from 7:45 am to after 3:00 pm picking up her best friend, setting up, cooking food, and cleaning up.  They are sweet and now ready to get baptized next Saturday!

Br. Sneed, who hadn't been to church in 18 years asked to have the missionary lesson, so we took the Sisters to teach him and his daughter's family Saturday night.  Such a great family!  And at church today, Br. Sneed bore his testimony!  Our Gospel Essentials class is getting so full that we may have to move into the cultural hall.  There have been 17 baptisms in our ward so far this year and then add the 5 investigators and 6 missionaries, the mission leader and the instructor and its pretty full!  As Br. Roberts says; "That's the kind of problem I like to have".  Brandon was made a Priest today, and James got his limited use temple recommend to do baptisms at the temple this week!  The Bishop and Br. Roberts are planning to take all of the new converts to the temple to do baptisms this year! 

Ok, now for the sad part; the Jones family with whom we've been working for so long said that someone was rude to them a the Trunk for Treat, so they won't be back to church.  We aren't giving up, its just a small set back!  So frustrating though!!  And finally, we got to go to Dean's birthday dinner today!  Its so fun to have family here!  And the Chapmans are coming down for Thanksgiving!

One step closer to being an Eternal Family!

 Jessica's Dad and brother's first time in a Mormon church.

Sister Gold the Relief Society President.

The Sisters.

Jessica's best friend and her hilarious daughter. Also their first time in a Mormon Church.

Bishop Shannon and his fun wife.

Another delicious fish fry at the Robert's .

 On the way home from Zone Meeting, we stopped and Chick-fil-A with the Sisters and 6 sets of Elders stopped and ate there, too.

James' mom had never been in a Mormon church before either.

Okay it looks like all we do is eat out, but I did cook a couple of time this week, I promise.  Here we are back at the Ranch Hand Café with Br. Hodges and the Sisters.  Duke was just made an Elder and plans to go to the temple on his year anniversary of his baptism in February.

Sister Jernigen is the sweetest, most positive terminally ill person ever!  Sister Purkeson is married to a millionaire, I hear. 

These clouds appeared on our way to Jenny's today.  We stopped at the hospital in Kingwood to visit Sister Kentish and give her the sacrament.  It was pouring when we came out.

Avery and Mary are such cute cousins.

Dean was pretty excited to open our present.

7 years old!!

Its feeling like home here.

We go very few places that we haven't visited these days.  I've noticed that its much more relaxing to do return visits; first because you can find it more easily and second because you already know what to expect.  I think that's why this week has felt so relaxing.  We had a cool week, but its back up in the mid 80's in the days, so we're sweating again.  The morning temps are perfect for our walks!

Here are some firsts for the week: Elder Quincy drove a tractor and mowed down someone's back 40 early one morning.  He got said tractor in running order last week with Br. Roberts.  I only cooked one meal this week and then ended up feeding it to the missionaries for lunch the next day.  After feeding us and the Elders dinner and having a short lesson our investigator came with us to paint another investigator's preschool.  They loved each other!  We had our Trunk or Treat activity Saturday night and we had 20 plus investigators and non members come!  About 150 people!! Best Activity Ever!  The Jones family with the dad who vowed to never come back showed up with the whole family and I was so excited to see lots of good members talk to him!!  I'm seriously thinking we need an activity every month!  Investigators love them!  A sister who's been in the hospital since we got here, and did not recognize that we were there for our last visit with her, died this week, I hear that Sweet Sister Ramsay went up to bear her testimony when she was bald from chemo and was faithful to the end.  Elder Quincy gave her a couple of blessings at her daughter's request.

We had a Senior Missionary luncheon at the Mission Home.  The sister on the far left is Becky Smith  or Sister Lowe as we call her here.  She grew up in my ward in Taylorsville!  Next to her is Sister Drake, the Mission Mom.  There are only 8 couples serving in our whole mission!  Only one ward and one branch have a senior couple!  The others work in the office, take care of cars and bikes, are the area Medical Supervisor and teach Institute classes in 3 cities (The Lowes).  President Drake says he wishes he had 30 more couples here! 

Richard's favorite sign in the Cowhand Café.

Fog on the way to paint Saturday morning.

Our 2nd farewell dinner.  One sister from the Spanish branch and one from our ward enter the MTC on Wednesday!  They are going to The Redlands, CA Spanish speaking and to Richmond, VA.

This is the street we walk on in the mornings.  We turn around at this water tower to head back.

This is a new home you could buy and come live in it and serve here.  We need more senior missionaries here!

2 highlights of the week were visiting with a man who hadn't been to church in 18 years whose had his heart softened and then him coming to church and staying to meet with the Bishop after church. And having the Gospel Doctrine teacher (Elder Quincy gave him a blessing a few weeks ago to help him quit smoking and then we've been visiting him a couple of times a week) teach the lesson on Eternal Marriage and say he plans to get his temple recommend soon and can't wait to return to the temple.  Time flies here! 

A South Jordan connection, a great realization and sooo many meetings!!

Monday night we had a FHE with the Tippetts, and yes they are related to Roy and Barbara, and Br. Tippetts asked if we knew the Sherwoods.  He grew up with Doug Sherwood.  They hung out in high school!  Small world!!  From there we picked up the Elders and had an incredible lesson with the 4 generation Allen family.  We challenged them all to read Alma 32 this week.  Tammy, one of the 2nd generation said she's scared to read  the Book of Mormon because she knows its going to completely change her life and the direction she's headed.  Can't wait to hear how it went. I texted her and know she read this week. 
Okay, we had Zone Conference on Tuesday; it is an all day affair, our usual Missionary Correlation meeting Wednesday afternoon and then District meeting on Friday morning, then we had the adult session of Stake Conference Saturday night and regular Stake Conference this morning.  That left only one day without meetings this week! 
Firsts for the week; our first Zone Meeting. We met a less active sister and her significant other who plays in the band "The Texas Twisters".  They showed us his memory room which has pictures of him with Willie Nelson.  He lost a finger in and accident once and had them cut off his toe and attach it, so he can still play the guitar.  This is really cool; Brandon was baptized on Saturday morning.  At Stake Conference the next day, before he was confirmed, the Area 70; Elder Karl Tilleman called him up to bear his testimony in front of 600 plus people!!  Then two great new members from our ward were ordained as Elders after the meeting and Elder Tilleman, a General Authority stood in the circle to confirm Brandon with these 2 new Elders!  Oh and the mission president; President Drake.  We helped the Spanish Elders to teach a couple of kids a lesson.  It was fun because I had to repeat everything Elder Riches said because he doesn't know how to talk to kids.  I'm good at simplifying.  By the time we finished the lesson their Grandma and teenage sister had joined us.  Now the Spanish Elders want us to come to all of their lessons. 
We had a great time with a family for dinner tonight.  Brother Rich hopes that we will be able to get his wife back to church.  She and Elder Quincy could talk about baseball all night!  A great ending to a wonderful week! 
Trying to get a good picture of the full moon.

Storm approaching.

Brandon's baptism.  He is almost 18 although he doesn't look it.

Another Church.

Elder Johnson made it just in time for the baptism!!

The District with the 3 newbies; Elder Burdsol, Elder Kent and Sister Smith!  Funny that Elder Quincy and I are the only missionaries from Utah in our District.