May 2, 2012

Hey! I am a day late this week. Sorry!
On Wednesday, we had a great district conference with a inspiring lesson by Elder Bridgewater on inviting others to come to Christ, centered on the missionary purpose. He does a great job. We have a small district, but those elders are powerful.

Mickey, Lavone, & Janet

Hold your applause!

Mickey, Elder Holt, Elder Bridgewater

Afterwards, we went out to Turkeyville with Mickey Baldwin, Hilde Hammer, Janet Torrance, & Lavone Miller for lunch. Turkeyville is outside of Marshall, MI. It is a restaurant, a dinner theatre, an ice cream shop, a chocolate shop, and a gift shop. It has electric train displays. In the summer there is a museum that opens. The food is all made from fresh turkeys raised there. We took the Marshall elders with us. It was cool. We invited them to come, and they said they could not. (They were not originally coming, as Mickey organized things and doesn't know them.) Well, they decided to change their plans, and it worked out. While we were in there, a lady came up to the Marshall elders and talked to them. They had tracted her out earlier. Her daughter is a young single mother who is looking for a wholesome place to go to socialize. They took the elder's card and lost it. She came up to get another. She excused herself, and we were all thinking what a tender mercy it was that the Marshall elders went with us. We went downstairs to the gift shop. They followed us downstairs. The BC elders found out that they used to live in Idaho. Low and behold, they lived in Hailey, and she taught school with Carla Scanlon. We really connected and visited for a while. I was able to encourage them to listen to the elders and to pray about what they would tell them. It was  cool.
On Thursday, we visited with Sandy and Joe Cooper. Sandy told us about her grandmother's method for killing chickens to cook for dinner. She always sent her grandfather out to kill five or six chickens for their big family. He would procrastinate until she needed them. She would go out and catch one, dig a hole in the ground and bury it up to it's neck.  She would do that with all of them. Then, she pulled out the lawn mower and mowed their heads off. Really. Creative.
On Sunday night, we went to the Powell's home to have dinner with them and the McKays. McKays are a couple who we we really like who we are encouraging to come back to church. Sister McKay is a signer/interpreter for a school up in Portage. Brother McKay is wonderful, too.

On Saturday Lauren Laubenguyer was baptized by her father. He was baptized around the first of February. There were so many people there that we had to move into the chapel.

Monday night we went out to the Schaffer's house for Jill's tenth birthday. She is a real sweet heart. We hope she will soon be getting baptized.

We area making headway in finding people. We get crazy sometimes. Yesterday afternoon we went to a home where the huge dog jumped up against the window so hard we were sure it were coming though. It was not just barking, it was snarling and would have eaten us if it could have gotten to us. They were really noisy. (There were others there, not so large. ) No one came to the door even though three cars were there. Well, we got back into the car and started off. Out came a young man, to get into his car. Elder H hurried and backed up to the edge of the drive way so he couldn't get out and jumped out and talked to him. He volunteered that he was asleep and didn't hear the dogs...even when he was not asked. We were thrilled as we found out that the person (his dad) really did live at that house. He was on his way to bring him home from work. We went back later and visited with the dad who was, at that time out in the yard. He was pleasant. We visit him mom occasionally, and they are charactors! She is the one I mentioned before whose mom used to shoot guns with Annie Oakley.
Today we had zone conference up in Kalamazoo. It was inspiring. Our mission president and his wife are wonderful. He shared a great story about Paul H Dunn, who was his mission president when he was young. He had two presidents...Paul H Dunn and Boyd K Packer...not too shabby! I love Elder Dunn. He came to Weiser and spoke when I was a kid, and he really influenced me. We learned a lot about the Holy Ghost. We also had presentations by Elder & Sister Christensen. He is the area (22 missions) mental health professional. He had some great ideas. I'll share some in a letter when I get my notes organized.
I am thankful to be here and to be serving. We are learning a lot. I think that this mission will be over before we feel like we know what we are doing. But these young people are truly inspiring. The future is in good hands. Four elders who are soon going home shared their testimonies. They were phenominal. The Lord truly directs this work.

Pres. & Sis. Hess & us

BC team

Sis. Wirig, Elder Jones, & Sis. Keyes

Sis.Wirig, Sis. Keys, & Elder Bridgewater

Elder Jones & Pres. Hess

I have to report that I am twenty two days sugar and chocolate free. It has not been easy. Kiery made the most amazing looking cupcakes I have ever seen for the baptism. I made cinnamon rolls. Today there were brownies. Turkeyville had pie, about ten kinds...including chocolate, my personal favorite, along with strawberrry, of course. I am determined to do this. We are asking a lot of people to keep the word of wisdom. They are working hard to give up those things that are hurting them. I decided I need to practice what I preach.