October 8, 2011
Hey everybody, Saturday at ten am central time, we drove to the Stake Center and met with President Wright. He set us apart as missionaries. We drove home and proceeded to pack and get ready for the trip. Sunday morning we got up at four am, packed up TJ and took him to Marianne’s house. She drove us to the DFW airport and dropped us off at the Delta gate – Thank you Marianne.
October 9, 2011
We arrived at the Salt Lake Airport at a little after ten mountain time and walked to the baggage claim, and Patrick and Angie were there waiting for us. They helped us with the bags and took us on a tour of Salt Lake City, including Temple Square, and then drove us to Provo to the MTC – Thanks Patrick and Angie. Sunday night we went to a Fire Side and heard a wonderful talk about paying tithing and how the Lord will bless us when we obey His commandments.
October 10, 2011
We are in an apartment on the third floor looking out at the beautiful mountains. I’m writing this on Monday evening after orientation and the first day of training. We’re with a group of senior missionaries of about 76 people going all over the world, and then grouped into smaller groups of about four couples each. We’ve been given an assignment to read from the book “Preach My Gospel” tonight and be ready for tomorrow.
Wow, we’re tired. Fran fell asleep after dinner; I think I’ll join her.
October 11, 2011
Today we woke up early (5:30), so we could finish our assigned reading. Actually, I read as Fran got ready. Our first class was at 8:00 am where we met as a large group. Our group leader (for the life of me I can’t remember his name) was teaching about commitment and I found out that there are 76 Senior missionaries in our group, last week they had 108. At 9:30 we met in our smaller group and after learning we roll played. We were done by 4:30 and now are back in our room. The cafeteria always has several choices and is all you can eat. Of course we don’t eat that much, but you should see what the younger men put on their plates, wow.
Sister Beck, the General Relief Society President spoke. She said she was raised in the mission home in Brazil. She is such a great speaker, the spirit was strong and I am so glad we were able to be there. As a matter of fact, this whole experience has been filled with the spirit.
October 12, 2011
Today we gave a lesson to an investigator. Wow, we were nervous. She was the granddaughter of a Methodist minister in Tonga, and wanted to know more about the God Head and about baptism. I think it went well; our teacher gave us a little critique afterward. We give another lesson tomorrow. The people here are wonderful to be around, we are so blessed.
October 13, 2011
Today we started at 8:00 am in the chapel. We were given a lot of spiritual training and heard some very special speakers. After lunch we went back to the building where we meet with investigators. Today we met with a man named Jerry. When he retired he and his wife wanted to reduce their cost of living so they sold their large house in Oregon and bought a condo in Provo. Before they actually moved his wife died, but he had already sold his home in Oregon so he buried his wife and moved to Provo. He had a meeting with the missionaries last week and promised to read the Book of Mormon. Fran and I met with him to follow up with his progress of reading. He had several questions, such as – Where did we come from? Where is my wife now, and will I ever see her again? Using the Plan of Salvation we attempted to answer his questions. It went well, the teachers said we did better today than yesterday, I hope so.
October 14, 2011
Today we met in the class rooms and practiced with one another as if we were inactive members. We wanted to befriend the inactive member and try to discern the reason that they had become inactive. Later we met with them again and attempted to address their concerns. This exercise was very telling; the couple we met with portrayed their very good friends, Brother and Sister Brown. Brother Brown was born in a member house hold, and his father was a Bishop. He rebelled in his youth and never went back to church, and smokes a pack a day. Sister Brown is Native American born in Alaska, and feels like everyone else looks down on her because of her nationality, she is angry with almost everyone in her ward. Neither of them prays or reads from the scriptures.
Fran and I prayed to know how to help them feel the love of our Heavenly Father. When we went back, we first wanted them to know that God is our loving Heavenly Father and that as His children He wants us to succeed in life on this earth. We asked if they would allow us to open our meeting with prayer, then asked if they would read from Moroni 7:45-48. We assured Sister Brown that God loves her, and asked if she could also have charity for the imperfect members of her ward that have treated her wrong. Fran told her of an experience when she felt slighted and she was admonished to go to those who had slighted her and befriend them, and how that had worked. We invited Sister Brown to forgive the sisters in her ward. She promised to do so.
Fran approached Brother Brown about the Word of Wisdom, and had him read scriptures. He also promised to pray and attempt to stop smoking. It was a good exercise.
After lunch we met in a large group and had our farewell meeting. These couples are going all over the world. One couple is going to Jakarta, Indonesia, another to Moscow, Russia, and another to Guatemala. One couple was assigned to Salt Lake City, Utah. Everyone in our group is our age or older, some going on their fifth mission. A few will be with us next week for specialized training. These are special people and we loved being with them, but now we will go and do as the Lord directs.
October 15, 2010
This is our personal day and I have a very sore throat. We’ve decided to stay in our room except to eat. We had the opportunity to go to the Temple, but I don’t want to make anyone else sick.
October 16, 2011
This morning we met with the MTC 57nd Branch for sacrament meeting. The young Elders gave the early talks and a special musical number, and the Branch President’s wife and the Branch President gave the last two talks. We then moved to another building to watch Music and the Spoken Word, and as we were walking Fran recognized Sister Pickering that she worked with at the Dallas Temple. Come to find out, her husband was called to be one of the branch presidents at the MTC. After hugging, they parted ways and we watched the program, then I left Fran and went to priesthood meeting. At 6:30 this evening we’re going to go to a Fire Side presented by a General Authority. I’ll let you know who that is in the next paragraph. Tomorrow, we’re going to Salt Lake for training about the church medical program for the missionaries.
October 17, 2011
This morning we had to go to Salt Lake City to meet with Dr. Doty and others in charge of Missionary Medical. We were lectured and watched power points from Dr. Doty and two other Doctors, it was very informative. We learned that there are over 350 missions, but only 72 nurses are out at this time. The mission president’s wife has the medical duties in each mission – whether or not she has a nurse to help her. Some of the wives have a medical background of some kind and some don’t, but the church has a website that really helps and can guide her to the right decision. If the problem is more complicated there is always the Area Medical Advisor, a medical doctor over several missions that can help her. We’re going to be mission nurse specialist in the Tennessee Nashville Mission, so we’ll take a lot of the load that Sister McKee has at this point.
We road to Salt Lake with Elder and Sister Henderson, he is a medical doctor going to South America to become an AMA. There, we met with Elder and Sister Bonnemort, Sister Bonnemort is an RN and they are going to the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. We were the only couples there and had almost one on one training. We road back to the MTC with the Bonnemorts and almost didn’t get back before the cafeteria closed – made it by seven minutes.
October 18, 2011
We stayed here at the MTC for today’s training. Dr. Richard Reese is a specialist on diseases that we might come across while in the mission field. He is a retired pediatric doctor who puts full time in with Dr. Doty at Missionary Medical. About 10:30 this morning his lecture was interrupted by a fire drill. We had to leave the class room and walk across the road to the soccer field. After about a half hour we were finally back and restarted the lesson, then about 11:45 all of a sudden Dr. Reese said he had to go to the rest room. When he returned he was shaky, pulse thready, and about to pass out. We got ahold of security so they could send an ambulance to get him to the hospital after giving him a blessing. Dr. Henderson, using the power point continued the lesson as well as he knew, until he got to the part about immunizations. We learned that Dr. Doty would come over from Salt Lake after lunch, so at 1:00 Dr. Doty continued the lecture, and in about an hour Dr. Reese was back in the class room with us. It seems that he has an ongoing infection that was getting the best of him at that time, and he said he was going to be OK. A young sister missionary joined us today, she is a new grad from nursing school and is going to Guatemala, she’ll also join us tomorrow at 4:30 pm.
October 19, 2011
We drove with Elder and Sister Henderson to Salt Lake this morning. We were trained on how to handle mental problems with the Missionaries today. It seems that sometimes the stress of a mission can cause a young person who is on the verge of a problem to fall into trouble. After lunch Elder Henderson learned how to finance visiting all of the mission presidents that are in his area. He covers eleven missions in South America and is responsible for their health. Then we drove back to Provo to the MTC and was taught by a nurse how to handle being a nurse in the mission field. This wound up being a thirteen hour day and we are tired, but we feel like this was a good day. What we learned today is truly useful.
October 20, 2011
Today we had a great adventure; we went to Megadyne Corporation for our training. Our grandson Broox would have loved it; we were trained on how to create Power Point presentations for training missionaries in the field. The owner of the company is Dr. Marsden Blanch MD. He invented a better cautery for surgeons. His has Teflon on the tip to prevent skin from sticking, and doing more damage to the patient. That’s when he started his company, and since then he has invented several more tools for surgeons. He is also one of the doctors on the Missionary Medical council. He taught us how to keep our computers safe and how to protect the missionaries’ information that we’ll have stored. At his own expense, he feed us and gave us a remote pointer to use when we give presentations to the missionaries. He at one time was an area medical advisor himself and knows what to expect when on a medical mission. It seems that he does this every time a group of nurses and doctors come through the MTC. Every one of these nurses and doctors teaching us this week are loving and caring people who give of their time helping and teaching so many, and do so at their own expense. We have been utterly impressed with so much knowledge they bring for the betterment of the missionaries. The system, the rules, and the structure are carefully and methodically put in place – not only for the protection of the missionaries, but also to protect the doctors and nurses who are serving their mission. My testimony of a loving and caring God has been increased. I know there is a God in heaven, and his only begotten son is our savior, and this is His church, and that he guides it through a living prophet who chooses competent people for such programs as Missionary Medical. We are so blessed to be a part of such a great program.
October 21, 2011
My throat has been sore for eleven days now and because of the coughing I just couldn’t sleep last night. It’s OK though, this morning we had to get up at 4:00 am and be at the curb by 6:00 am to get a ride to the Air Port, we’re heading for Tennessee! A nice young returned missionary who is studying to become a lawyer took us to the airport and explained what we saw on the way. There are six temples in the Salt Lake valley now, and two more proposed. They’re also building a train between Salt Lake and Provo. We caught our plane at 9:15 in Provo Mountain Time, and Marianne picked us up at 1:30 or so Central Time. It was so good to see Texas again, and Marianne. This evening I went to the doctor and picked up an antibiotic and cough medicine, I want this cough to go away.
October 22, 2011
This morning we got up early and took TJ to the groomer, then to Plano to pick up a new pair of walking shoes for Fran. When we went to Sam’s; they didn’t have Fran’s medicine ready and said it would be ready Monday morning early. After a little more shopping, we picked up TJ and then started packing the car, wow – too much stuff for such a little car.
October 23, 2011
At church this morning, everyone was saying, “What are you doing here? We thought you were gone on your mission.” We explained that we were packing the car, and leaving tomorrow. Sister Cook and her daughter, Danielle, sang today and it was beautiful. We stayed for sacrament meeting, shook several hands and went back home and packed some more, loading and unloading the car. We just couldn’t get everything in. That evening we went to Marianne and Daris’ house – they gave us a good meal and then gave us a GPS to help us find where we were going. I talked to Daris about loading the car and he lent me a top carrier and helped me put it on the car – thank you Daris.
October 24, 2011
I got up this morning at 5:00 am and started packing the car and couldn’t get everything in and had to remove a few things, and tried again. This car is just not big enough for this. Finally, at about 9:00 am we were packed and ready to go, except picking up Fran’s medicine at Sam’s. When we got to Sam’s; they didn’t have her medicine ready and had to wait for an hour and a half, then we were off. We arrived at Ben and Ruth’s house at about seven in the evening. They were so kind, and had supper ready for us. TJ had to ride on Fran’s lap the whole way, but he did well.
October 25, 2011
Ben built a small enclosure off the porch behind their back room, that way they can let TJ out the back door to go to the restroom. We were really tired from packing all weekend and driving to Arkansas, this was a good day for resting. I left the house without bringing my ties, so we went to a little shop in Mountain View and bought a couple of $1.00 ties, they will do me for a little while anyway. It was good to visit with Ben and Ruth, and TJ seems to be doing well with them too. Thank you, Ben and Ruth.
October 26, 2011
We left early this morning, when Fran talked to Ruth later, she said that TJ barked in the house and out at the fence and then again inside the house. He didn’t like being left behind, but he will adapt. We followed Ben’s directions out of the mountains until we were on I 40, thanks Ben, then we depended on the Magellan GPS that Daris gave us. It took us right to the mission office and then said, “You have arrived!” President McKee brought us into the office and interviewed us on the spot, and then he invited us and another couple to the mission home where his wife feed us a wonderful meal. We stayed the night in their daughter’s room on single beds, but they were sure welcome.
October 27, 2011
It rained last night, what a wonderful sight! President McKee gave us breakfast; Sister McKee was gone, taking one of their daughters to school. They have ten children, five daughters still at home. Then we packed up, we learned that we are going to Hartford, Kentucky. But first we went back to the mission office to get supplies to take with us. The biggest problem with that was – the car was full! Fran had to ride with a case of Books of Mormon on her lap for better than two hours. We reprogramed the GPS and off we went, back around Nashville on I 65 in the rush hour. Somewhere close to Bowling Green the GPS had us turn and go back to the South and instructed us to take exit 20, but everything was confusing and we missed the exit. We had to drive seventeen miles before we could turn around and come back. Otherwise, everything went well. Fran was getting very tired of carrying the case of Books of Mormon on her lap and after driving, for what seemed forever, we still didn’t see a sign saying anything about Hartford, Kentucky. Fran said she thought we were going to drive off the face of the earth. Finally, we saw a sign that said, “Hartford 6 miles.” We arrived!
We called President Wiles on his phone and he directed us to our apartment. It’s a two bedroom duplex, and it’s very nice. We spent the rest of the day unpacking the car, except we found spiders inside and sprayed before unpacking a lot. But now, the spiders are gone, and we’re here.
October 28, 2011
We spent the whole day unloading the car and getting the apartment in shape so we can live here. At 7:00 pm we met with the Branch President, President Wiles, and his counselors – Br. Pieper and Br. Canty. Br. Pieper is the Branch Mission Leader. They went over the Branch Directory with us so we’ll have a feel of the members here.
October 29, 2011
We had to buy a few more items from Wal-Mart, and finished setting up the apartment today, and then we had to get ready to talk tomorrow at church. We got to bed early so we would be rested.
October 30, 2011
We were told to be at the church at 9:00 am and found the building by 8:30. It’s an old Baptist Church building with stained glass windows. It was locked and no one was around so we drove around the town just to see what we could see. We got back at 8:59 and President Wiles was walking up to the front door, so we followed him inside. There are about 15 steps to get to the door, and as soon as you enter you have a choice, either go up stairs to the chapel, or down stairs to the classrooms, so If you have a disability – too bad. We went inside and he showed us around, it’s a beautiful building, but utterly inadequate.
After the sacrament, Fran and I were the speakers. Anyone new gets to speak because there are so few people here. After church, Brother Pieper, the branch mission leader, took us around to meet a few of the people who live in Fordsville. All of the people we’ve met so far are good people, and we’re sure we’ll be able to love this branch.
October 31, 2011
Today was P day for us; although I did go to Br. Summer’s house, a new member about 25 years old, to help him with his studies to pass the GED. He and his wife live in a mobile home not far from where we are living. I spent about an hour and a half with him. We studied when and where to capitalize words and where to punctuate sentences. He has a GED book with questions and answers that are very helpful. His reading skills are poor, but improving. We started with prayer and ended with prayer, also I had him read the last few verses of D&C 121.
Since this was P day, Fran and I went to Wal-Mart and a consignment store. At the consignment store we bought a desk chair (that I’m setting in right now) and a mirror for Fran to use while getting ready in the mornings. We had one bunch of spooks come by, I’m glad we had a bag of candy to hand out. We spent the last part of the day studying the lesson on The Gospel of Christ. It was a good day.
November 1, 2011
We were up and ready to by 8:00 am and called Br. Summers, but he said he was going out of town today. We’ll have to get back with him and his wife at a later date. So we went to the post office to check the mail and found letters for the missionaries who lived here before us. We called several people who live in Beaver Dam and they either blocked their number or didn’t answer, except for one person who was at work, I’ll try her later tonight. Next we drove to an address in the branch directory and actually found that person’s house. No one was home so we left a card. Then we found a member at home. He had to have his right leg amputated below the knee and we talked with him and his wife for over an hour. We challenged him to stop smoking, and both to read the Book of Mormon. The spirit of the Book of Mormon will give him the strength to stop smoking if he’ll read it, and will help him through the repentance process. His wife is a non-member and agreed to let us come over Friday morning and teach her the lesson on the Plan of Salvation. We feel good about this visit. The rest of the day we spent driving from place to place and never did find anyone else at home. Fran said her feet were hurting so we stopped about 5:30 pm or so. We’ll pray that we’ll be effective despite our infirmities. Please pray for us.
November 2, 2011
Leitchfield is about forty miles away and we met Elders Ferre and Robinson there for district conference at 10:00 am. Of course we started with a song and prayer, Elder Robinson can play the piano like a pro. Fran gave the opening prayer and I gave the first lesson on commitment, and Elder Ferre gave the second lesson. Next we portrayed Br and Sis Yates while the Elders taught us the lesson on The Restoration, which was very helpful. Elder Robinson gave the closing prayer and we headed back for Hartford. Next the Elders are coming here; we’ll trade off each week.
All of our appointments fell through this afternoon so we went to Owensboro about twenty miles to the north on the border with Indiana.
It’s a larger town with a Sam’s club and gas and groceries are cheaper. On the way home we got some great shots of a Kentucky sunset.
We got back to Hartford about 6:00 pm and went to the Westerfield’s house and met with them and their daughter and her husband Kyle. He agreed to let us come by his house early next week and give him a lesson. Shauna is an inactive member of the church and Kyle was raised Catholic. They have the most beautiful three month old daughter. We’re excited to be allowed to visit with this wonderful family.
November 3, 2011
It rained last night and Fran woke up with her feet killing her. We decided to stay home this morning and let her feet rest. We started reading the Book of Mormon again, and studied from Preach my Gospel. At 4:00 we drove over to Sister Pieper’s house and she introduced us to Sister King. She is an active member who was born with Hydrocephaly. She is somewhat retarded but self-sufficient. Sister Pieper cut her toenails for her. We were told that she can remember anyone’s wedding anniversary if she’s been told. They live in Beaver Dam, and Sister Pieper showed us where a few other members live as well.
November 4, 2011
Today we studied again from the Book of Mormon and Preach my Gospel. We drove over to Brother and Sister Yates house to teach them The Restoration lesson and found Brother Yates home alone. He said his wife fainted the day before and he had to call 911 and take her to the hospital. They ran a lot of test on her and said her heart might have a blockage. We talked to him until about noon and then bought him some tacos from Taco Bell. We went to the hospital and found Sister Yates with her sister getting ready to go home. Fran made supper for them and we took it over to them. We’ll teach the lesson later on – today’s lesson is how the Relief Society takes care of their own. She had never had anyone bring her supper before, and we explained to her that that is what members of the church do for one another. I hope she understands the lesson.
November 5, 2011
Brother Pieper is the branch mission leader. We met him at the hospital where he works for our weekly correlation meeting. He suggested that we visit active members and attempt to inspire them to help us find someone to teach, so we drove to house after house, only to find the families gone. One house where we knew the member had moved; we stopped anyway, just to see what would happen. The lady met us at the door and asked if she could help us. We asked if she was the person who once lived there, and she explained that she had moved a long time ago. We introduced ourselves and tried to strike a conversation, but we were sent away with our tails between our legs. After a while we said a proyer and went home.
November 6, 2011
We were up at the crack of dawn, ready to go to church. Since we were asked to attend PEC meeting we arrived at the church at 9:00 am. Soon it was 9:10, then 9:20 – no one was around, not even the Baptist minister across the street. We broke out the Book of Mormon and read a couple of chapters, and still, we were alone. I called President Wiles, and he explained to me that the time had changed back to standard time – I laughed and said that we were there on time!
At 9:00 am we had PEC meeting! We talked about some members we had located who are having needs that the Relief Society should know about. At 10:00 am we had testimony meeting and then Sunday School.
After church Fran and I shared our lunch with an older couple, the man lost his right leg below the knee, and his wife had a heart attack four days ago. We were supposed to teach her a lesson on Friday, but she was in the hospital. This is one of the families we discussed with the PEC this morning. We left a spiritual message and set an appointment to teach the lesson again on Tuesday morning. After that we met with four families with Br Pieper, and it was dark before we got home. It had been a long day, but now we have two other families we may be able to teach soon. Pray for us.
We were told our internet would be turned on today on one piece of paper, and tomorrow on another. Either way, we can have internet after 8:00 pm on the day it’s turned on. So after 8:00 pm we attempted to connect, but it didn’t work. I called the number they gave us – it was a computer, so I just hung up and went to bed.
November 7, 2011
Today is preparation day, so we’re going to Owensboro to Kroger and Sam’s. We wanted to vacuum and clean up a little before we left, but the beater bar on the vacuum isn’t working. Just as I was going to work on the vacuum, a man from ATT knocked on the door. He said he had to hook us up on the outside of the house. I gave up on the vacuum and cleaned the best I could as it is, Fran did the laundry, and we were just about to leave when the man said he had us hooked up, but it would be after 8:00 pm before we would have the internet. We’ll be glad when we do, then we can communicate without it costing so much.
We spent most of the day in Owensboro. We went to Kroger, K-Mart, Big Lots and Home Depot. This should set us up for the rest of the month except for a few small items. We got home about 4:30, so just for kicks I tried the internet, it didn’t work – yet.
November 8, 2011
We got a call from ATT and they said would send another tech out to fix our internet, and he showed up about 8:30 and called. I had been trying everything I could to get it to work, but nothing worked, so I put their CD in the computer and it went so far and said to call the help line. So, I called the help line and the man said remove the CD and turn on the internet explorer. When I did that – The internet came up, it was fixed! I don’t know when or how. Finally we could check our e-mail, but we didn’t have much time, we had a lesson to teach in about an hour.
Brother Yeats wife (Mary Lou) agreed to let us teach her the first lesson. She is a member of The Church of God. Her eyes are very bad so we scanned the pamphlet on the restoration and printed it out on a full size sheet of paper so the printing would be bigger. I believe it made a difference and we really felt the spirit as we taught. Her husband bore his testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and she promised to read with her husband and pray and ask God if it is true. I know she will feel the spirit when she prays. The spirit always testifies to the truth.
November 9, 2011
The Elders from Lietchfield came to Hartford this morning and we had district conference. We went down to the church building and they taught us a few better ways to teach. Afterwards we invited them to have lunch with us. They are young, but when it comes to teaching the gospel, their experienced, and the spirit testifies to the truth they teach.
We went to a ladies house this afternoon. She was baptized this past summer, but has never been back to church since. We sat and spoke with her and read the 8th chapter of 1 Nephi with her. Afterwards we just sat and talked and we discovered that one of the missionaries scared her talking about getting her ready for the Temple. After we explained that she would be a member for at least a year, and she would have plenty of time to learn before going to the Temple; she promised to come to church next Sunday. She also asked us to come over next Wednesday to reteach the lessons, we’ll be happy to do so.
Next we went to Tom’s house. He is an active member of the branch and his wife goes to the Baptist Church. He lives in a beautiful house way up on a mountain top looking over a small lake. His drive way winds up between tall trees and it’s intimidating to maneuver. It was already dark when we got to his house and he was there alone. His wife was at the Baptist Church, but he invited us in and we encouraged him to come to priesthood lesson next Sunday and give some of his ideas to the branch presidency. We hope our efforts will eventually strengthen the branch.
November 10, 2011
When we got to John’s house he was sitting on the couch trying to put his pants on, but was hurting so badly he could hardly move. He said he hadn’t slept all night and he was going to see his doctor in Owensboro. The stump on his right leg is infected, I pray that he doesn’t have gangrene again. Fran and I stepped out for a little while so he could get his pants on, when we got back he was dressed and I sat close to him and Fran sat close to Mary Lou. We talked for a while and then I learned that they didn’t intend to leave until 2:00 because his appointment wasn’t until 3:30. Since it wasn’t quite 1:00 I asked if we could give Mary Lou the lesson that we had prepared, I thought it might help John keep his mind busy and help Mary Lou at the same time. Anyway, we gave the lesson and asked Mary Lou to pray and ask Heavenly Father if what we had given her was true. She says that she prays all the time, but refuses to pray in our presence, that concerns us.
November 11, 2010
I called John in his hospital room; he says that he is doing better and that the doctor has put him on high dollar antibiotics. We drove over to check on Mary Lou, she seems to be OK. Next, we drove to Cromwell looking for Andrea, and we didn’t actually have an address. We were told that she lived on the corner of the highway and Lee Dr. So we took a chance and off we went. When we found Lee Dr there was a house on either corner so we went to the house with the toys in the front yard. No one was home but the dog and he was afraid of me. When I got back to the car, Fran saw a hand sticking out of the front door of the house on the other side of Lee. I walked up to her and introduced myself and gave her a pass along card, and after talking for a moment she asked for a Book of Mormon. Afterward I got her address and phone number and she promised to read in the Book of Mormon! I hope I can report more on her next week.
While across the street, Andrea drove into her drive way so we went back across to talk to her. It seems that she had had her feelings hurt at the beginning of the year. Fran bore her testimony to her and after a little while she agreed to let us come over next Tuesday and restart the lessons with her and her boyfriend, who only speaks Spanish. That’s going to be a challenge.
November 12, 2011
John is still in the hospital, and said he didn’t sleep again last night; he was up most of the night with nausea. Will anyone who reads this blog please pray for John? We are worried about Mary Lou, she refuses to pray, which is the only way to know if the gospel is true. Only God can tell you if it’s true or not, and if you don’t pray and ask, how can He tell you. Not everyone is stricken down like Paul or Alma the younger. Through the Holy Ghost we can know the truth of all things, but we do have to ask. We drove over to Mary Lou’s house and asked her to read 2 Nephi 32 with us. It only has nine verses, but is a powerful testimony for prayer. Then we played a six minute video for her showing missionaries working with a man trying to get him to pray, and finally he is able to pray. I was hoping that it would inspire her, but to our disappointment she still refused to pray. During our conference with Brother Pieper we told him about this situation, and asked for his prayers for both John and Mary Lou. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, Joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,”
November 13, 2011
After
church we were invited to Br. and Sis. Piepers house for lunch. They also had Sis. Lindsey over; they are
such nice people. Afterwards we drove
200 feet up a mountain to visit an inactive member and his non-member
wife. They have such a fantastic place,
decorated inside and out with such wonderful care. I left a pamphlet on The Restoration of The
Gospel of Jesus Christ with them before we left. They gave us a small cooler of green
tomatoes. Yvonne tried to call us while
we were there, but my cell phone couldn’t get a signal. It seemed that Lucky
drove right by our apartment and by the time we could get a signal he was all
the way to Owensboro. Too bad that we
missed him.
November 14, 2011
Mondays
are P days for us, so we drove to Bowling Green this week. We found a store called The Mighty Dollar. It’s a real dollar store, everything in the
store cost a dollar, no matter. We found
some real bargains there. Robert call
from overseas while we were there, thank God for cell phones – we didn’t miss
his call. It’s dark by 4:35 around here,
so it was well after dark by the time we got home.
November 15, 2011
Fran
had a doctor’s appointment this morning.
Brother Pieper found us a good doctor named
Dr. Rizk. He is from New Jersey, and
moved his family out of the big city and we’re glad. It’s raining and has been since last
night. When we left the doctor’s office
we stopped by the apartment to grab a quick sandwich because we had (or thought
we had) a teaching appointment, but Andrea wasn’t home. So we drove over to Roy Rob Road to try to
find a member of the ward that the GPS couldn’t find last Thursday. Not any of the houses have street numbers on
them, but we got lucky, we met the mail man who knows where everyone lives and
he told us how to find her home. She is
a member, but her husband left the room after we came in. She is very nice, but has been ill since
January and had to have her left leg amputated.
After leaving her house we drove back by Andrea’s house again, and still
no one home. We started to go on back to
Hartford, but something inside told me to look for another member who lives in
Crawford but he wasn’t home either. But,
this time when we drove by Andrea’s she was home! It was about 3:00 pm when we went
inside. Her boyfriend was there and he
speaks Spanish only, so we played the video of The Restoration for him in
Spanish with English subtitles.
Afterward he had a lot of questions – we gave him a Spanish Book of
Mormon and pamphlet. He seems to be a
man with a good heart. We setup an appointment
with them again next week. We didn’t
leave their house until 5:45, we were there way too long.
