Quiver full of Quincys

Sunday, June 4, 2017

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!

Sunday, May 28, 2017

What a Week!

So many firsts this week! Elder Quincy went fishing on Monday in the rain and got absolutely soaked to the skin. He caught a bunch of fish and had fun though. Tammy took dinner to Br. Soper and his fiancé Tuesday. Its a pretty scary looking place. She was scared to drive her truck through the mud in their driveway, and afraid to go past their scraggly cats, but she did it! Her first service as a member. She said that it felt good and she found that she shouldn't judge other people. Bless her heart, she told them they need to clean the place up, and when we were there Friday, they had! Luke did his scouting calling for the first time this week. We went with the Spanish Elders to teach at Ramon's again. They fed us tacos that were amazingly good. Elder Quincy is starting to understand a few more things in Spanish. We went fishing with President and Sister Drake and Br. Roberts up to a member's fancy place on the Lake Livingston Thursday morning. I think I caught a fish for my first time. It was pretty fun. President Drake and Sister Drake couldn't believe the fishing! We kept 127 of them and probable threw back 25. Poor Br. Roberts and Elder Quincy spent most of their time taking fish off our lines and baiting our hooks for Sister Drake and I. We then had a delicious lunch of fried, fresh fish with the Thrifts, the Drakes and the Roberts. That night we went to the Addiction Recovery Meeting and none of the 3 guys from our ward were there. The instructors weren't there. It was just Elder Quincy and I. There were a few graduations going on that night. For District Meeting Friday morning, the District Leader had Elder Quincy and I teach how to use the Book of Mormon in conversion. It was fun. Friday night, after picking up Sister Wright, taking dinner to Christina and Chris Soper, and picking up Sandy Butler, Elder Quincy left us at the church and went to get Br. Wetzel. The Sisters asked us to teach the Family History class that night. Saturday morning we were helping Tammy prep her front porch for painting with the Elders, when Elder Barrett, using a grinder with a wire brush attachment in it, ground off a bunch of his finger. So for the first time on the Mission we went to the doctor and met the member PA; Andy Gold. He's a nice guy and took great care of Elder Barrett. We went back and helped get the first coat of paint on the porch. We went to Angel Morales' 2nd Birthday party and had Guatemalan tamales for the first time. Antonio's grandmother was there to make the tamales! After that late lunch we went to the Hodges to eat dinner with the Elders.

My first fish.Jack and Steph flew in from Seattle with their kids on Friday. After church Sunday, we were able to have time with them, the Kendalls and Jason's family at the Kendalls. We celebrated Jane's 6th birthday, Mary's 1st birthday and Heidi's 4th. Tomorrow we get to play with them all day!

President Drake showing off a catfish.

Sister Drake fishing.

Fileting the 127 fish we caught takes time! Almost as much time as it took to catch them!

A really cute boathouse.

Josh and Angela Graham.

Laney wearing some awesome glasses.

We celebrated Jamison's graduation from kindergarten at the Allen's on Monday night.

I'd never seen jalapenos growing before.

This huge tree came down in the Rudolph's back yard. Elder Quincy wasn't all the way to the tree, so it make it look smaller than it is. Poor Sister Rudolph has one thing after another happen since her husband died!