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!

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!

Reinacting their high school prom dance.

Sparkling soda for toasts.

Br. Roberts and Christina

Michael and Meg

More beautiful clouds.

We saw Cheyenne out delivering mail. 

Our first district meeting with our new missionaries; Elder Bingham on the left is new and Sister Atencio on the left is new.

We spent hours on Friday setting up and all day Saturday heating up, serving, attending the wedding, eating and then cleaning up for the wedding.

Cute Sister Fisher did all the wedding party's hair.

President Nielson married them.

The happy couple with Sister Wright.

The Sisters setting the sparkling cider out.

A Memorable Week; Good bye to the Drakes, Charity gets married and Robin Gunnels dies

Elder Quincy went on a bike ride Monday morning, while I went tot the grocery store.  While I was there, I ran into Sister Teague G child and how they can try to be like him.  We helped Bonnie Runge find more ancestors at the Nursing home, and helped Sandy Butler work on her talk for Sunday.  I hurried and made cupcakes while Elder Quincy fixed something on Sister Witt's car.  We dropped cupcakes off at the Gunnels and visited Br. Hamilton who was in the hospital on his birthday and got back in time to pick up Sandy and meet at the church for the youth and new member temple trip! It was Jaycie's first time!  Sandy was baptized and confirmed for the 5 women out of the 10 of her ancestors the work was done for, including her mom!  Only one of the 13 youth didn't have family names!
Friday morning Elder Quincy started the bathroom. I met the Elders to have a lesson at Bridget's home for the first time!  Her 2 girls and 2 of her nieces were there!  Bridget said that she's had lots of anxiety this year (she's going through a divorce) and as she been reading and praying from and about the Book of Mormon she had been calm and felt more peaceful than she's ever felt before!  After that lesson, I went to Shepherd to help Sister Rigli to get going with Family Search.  Elder Quincy was back from his project and we got to visit a bunch of people together.
Saturday we picked up the Sisters, including our newest missionary, Sister Atencio from West Jordan and spent the whole day with them.  It was raining a bunch, so we had some adventures walking through mud and water and finding people. We fed them our left overs and went back out to work unto it was time for us to meet the Drakes and take them to Br. Robert's.  That was fun and a bonus to see them one more time before they leave us on Friday!  We tried to get Luke to come over for dinner with us that night, but he didn't make it.  Jonathan, our son's good friend and our almost daughter, Charity was married!  Hard to miss these things!  Thanks for the picture Jonathan!
Today we had regular church, with Sandy doing a fantastic job on her talk!  We took the sacrament to the Masons and visited 3 other families, ate our dinner and took the Elders to the viewing for Sister Gunnels. The family really appreciated having us there.  The Elders had been at their home the day before Sister Gunnels died!  This is the guy that we have the deal that if a missionary beats him at chess, he'll come to church.  We promised we'd be back to visit soon.  Sister Graham got her patriarchal blessing at 6 tonight. Luke had his at 7. He came by after to tell us about it and to eat the pizza he'd missed the night before.  He had an amazing experience!

The Drakes

Charity and Jonathan

The Kingwood Zone

The Summerwood Zone

Sandy

Jaycie

Br Kelly's place

I took pictures of some things on Br. Roberts' walls that I want to remember