Mission Journal
May 29, 2012 – Tuesday
The new
young couple that moved to Hartford this week is so friendly. The Mrs. –
HS – volunteered to go with us to BP’s house. BP and her granddaughters are a little slow
when it comes to reading, so we decided it would be good to show them the video
Finding Faith in Christ and then give the primary lesson on the Plan of
Salvation. The primary lesson only talks
about how Jesus was willing to follow Heavenly Fathers plan, and how Lucifer
wanted to force men to return to heaven and take all the glory for
himself. HS bore her testimony and was a
great help, we’re glad to have her.
We also went to JS’s
house this afternoon, just Sister Oakley and me. We love going to their house, and they are
beginning to understand the gospel, and I believe their love for the Lord is
growing. To begin the lesson JS asked me
to say the prayer, but when it came to the ending prayer he wanted to say that
himself. He is reading his new Book of
Alma and loves it. Mrs. JS wanted to know
more about forcing people to follow Christ, and JS said he thought that was
wrong. I had him read from the D&C
section 121:41-43.
41 No power or
influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood,
only by persuasion, by long-suffering,
by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;
42 By kindness, and
pure knowledge,
which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and
without guile—
43 Reproving betimes
with sharpness,
when moved upon
by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward
him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;
JS was
really moved by this scripture, the spirit was strong. He said that he had always felt this was the
right way, and he was so glad that he has finally read a scripture that said
these things.
May 28, 2012 – Monday
Today was
P-day, but we had promised BP’s granddaughters that we would watch them play
fiddle and guitar at the strawberry festival.
We were unsure about the time when they would be there so we called BP
and asked. She said one would play at
10:15 and the other at 10:45. Well, we
got there at 10:00 but no children playing blue grass. At 11:00 they had a memorial service that
lasted until noon, which was good and I’m glad we were there. Except the temperature was 97 degrees. Finally the Blue Grass Young’uns played at
noon until 1:30 pm. We left a little
early because we were about to burn up.
It was good to get back inside an air-conditioned car. We drove on to
Owensboro and took care of a little shopping we had to do.
May 27, 2012 – Sunday
Mrs. JS said
she wasn’t feeling well so she wouldn’t be coming to church this morning. L
But TV’s daughter is ready to be baptized, and TV was able to do the
baptism! J J His daughter asked
for me to confirm her. TV blessed the
sacrament for the third week in a roll; he has come a long way. After church AC’s daughter was baptized by
Br. Pieper. She also asked that I
confirm her a member of the church. I
was humbled today by two eight year old girls.
Br. and
Sister Pieper asked us to eat with them.
We always enjoy being with these wonderful folks.
Our little
branch is being blessed by a new couple moving in and they’re living just down
the road from us. They dropped in to
meet us this evening, and they are a very nice young couple. They will add strength to the branch.
We have a
corn field just outside our kitchen window!
May 26, 2012 – Saturday
We’re so
sore this morning! L We drove over to BN’s house and he and his boys were sanding
patches on the wall. We helped with that
and discussed how the Lord blesses us.
BN has never repaired or painted a wall before. When I mentioned that where he patched was
smooth and the other parts of the wall had a texture they looked shocked, they
hadn’t thought of that. They asked, “What
can we do about that?” I explained that
the only thing they could do to make it look right is put another texture on
the wall from corner to corner. Mrs. BN
went to the store and bought some more mud and I showed them how to mix it so
as to match the rest of the room, and when we finished they were extremely happy. We felt good and set up a time to come back
and teach about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Tomorrow two
eight year old girls are going to be baptized.
We drove over to the church to fill the font and found that we couldn’t
get to the switch to turn on the water heater.
We got ahold of Br. C at the Strawberry Festival in Beaver Dam and got a
key from him. Since we had his key we
decided to empty the garbage can in the president’s office and discovered that
the floor was wet. We called Br. Pieper
and he came with a shop vac to vacuum the water from the floor, and said he
would watch the font since he and his brother-in-law were there anyway.
May 25, 2012 – Friday
We decided
to help WE with her tree limbs, especially the one hanging over the electric
wire. I borrowed a pole saw from BC and
we drove to her house, she wasn’t expecting us and was surprised when we pulled
into her driveway. It was very hard work
for the three of us, being that none of us are in very good shape, but we did
get the limbs off the wire and off the roof of her house. She was cutting the grass and me and Sister
Oakley were cutting limbs and stacking them in the back of her truck and then
moving them to a stack of limbs on another part of her property. We worked from about 9:00 am till about 1:00
pm when my hands started cramping and I couldn’t get them to stay open, I guess
I’m a wimp – what can I say. Sister
Oakley packed a lunch and we ate at WE’s house then drove home and showered –
boy that felt good.
When we got
to BN’s house they told us that they had called and left a message that they weren’t
ready for us to help with the wall, but they did invite us to watch their boys
play in a little league game. Their
youngest boy is a little sick; they said strep, so he and his mother were to
stay home, so we went home to get ready for the game. When we got to the field both boys were out
playing. Their team was one man short so
he volunteered to play even though he didn’t feel good, what a trouper. By the second game the other boy showed up,
so the sick boy went home with his mother.
It was fun to watch boys play baseball, I’ve always loved it.
May 24, 2012 – Thursday
Visited with
WE today and as usual she had questions from the Book of Mormon, I love that she
is asking questions about the Book of Mormon.
Sometimes it’s best to go back to the basics. God is our Heavenly Father – He has a body of
flesh and bone. Jesus Christ is the only
begotten Son of God and was the Jehovah of the Old Testament and today has a
body of flesh and bones. The Holy Ghost
is also a member of the Godhead and is a body of spirit. She read something in the Book of Mosiah that
confused her about the Godhead so we reviewed other scriptures that explained
this concept better. She is sooooo upset
about all the wars in the Book of Alma and wanted to know why they continued to
fight all the time. She’s such a
wonderful person and wants peace for everyone.
She has trouble seeing that in our time we are having wars as often as they
did in the Book of Mormon.
The trees
around her house are completely overgrown, on the roof of her house and one
limb is broken and hanging over the electric wire going to her house. She doesn’t have money to have them cut and
she is not in shape to do it herself.
She can’t get home owners insurance because of those trees.
Next we went
to BN’s house, he’s a school teacher and his family is so nice. They’re making
repairs to one of the walls of their house.
As we talked and gave a short lesson, I picked up a scraper and helped
scrape some of the paint. We told them
that we’d come by tomorrow and help them with the wall.
May 23, 2012 – Wednesday
Sister
Oakley was hurting very badly today and we stayed at home and studied as best
as we could. KS the nurse told us that
the 5th day after a Reclast injection would be the worst, and many
people had flu like symptoms. Some even
had fever and chills, vomiting. At least Sister Oakley was only hurting.
May 22, 2012 – Tuesday
We had three
appointments set for today, first we drove to BP’s house and nobody was home
but the cats, so we drove over to GP’s house and she wasn’t home either. Next we were to have a meeting with Brother
Pieper at the church, but when we called him he was in a business meeting –
deep breath. Next we were to have a meeting
with JS and his wife, but as we were driving the phone rang and they cancelled
as well. Then we drove to Olaton and finely
found GP at home with her husband – a nice couple that we have been trying to
catch for over a week. They have a
beautiful home with weeping willow trees, a well mowed lawn, and a front porch
with humming bird feeders on it. We
watched the humming birds zip past from one feeder to another. GP told us she was Methodist and wouldn’t
change her religion, and had no desire to listen to us. We did leave a video and a pamphlet on the
plan of salvation. We also left our card
with her.
May 21, 2012 – Monday
We drove to
the Elders apartment in Leitchfield and met with them and Elder and Sister
Peterson, we had lunch and then went to Mammoth Cave. It was beautiful and we only took
the short tour because we didn’t think we could walk the hard trail. The 2nd picture is of the cave crickets. Scary looking things. I would
like to go back and do the long tour.
May 20, 2012 – Sunday
We have been
blessed with about thirty people in Sacrament meeting and most of the men are
wearing white shirts! TV continues to
give the blessing on the sacrament and does a great job, and his English is improving.
May 19, 2012 – Saturday
For the life
of me I waited too long to blog, and didn’t give myself any notes in the calendar
book. I know we were busy, but I can’t
remember what we did.
May 18, 2012 – Friday
We were able
to meet with BP again and talk about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus
Christ. I think I probably got a little
long winded, sorry about that. Each of
the girls received a Book of Mormon. Our
next appointment with them is next Tuesday.
We also met
with WE, her back is bothering her a lot.
We discussed what she has been reading in the Book of Mosiah, she always
ask soul searching questions. We have to
be on our toes with her – that’s a good thing.
May 17, 2012 – Thursday
District
meeting was held in Leitchfield this morning.
I gave the closing prayer and Sister Oakley gave some of the training.
We met BP
this afternoon, along with two of her grandchildren, CP and JLP. They were excited to talk about Learning Inner
Beauty through Jesus Christ. We gave
them the video Our Heavenly Father’s Plan and were able to set up another
appointment for tomorrow.
May 16, 2012 – Wednesday
We went back
to the hospital for the last infusion of Iron this morning; Sister Oakley is
glad about that. She says that she
doesn’t really feel any difference, not yet anyway. Pray for her that this Iron will give her a
little more energy, she needs it.
After the
infusion we went to JS house and gave them another lesson on commandments. When we asked if they have been reading the
scriptures together and praying together they said they haven’t. We were really disappointed and encouraged
them to do so. We gave Mrs. JM a how to
quit smoking instruction and went over Baptism and authority again and asked if
they would go to church with us on Sunday.
They agreed to go to church and we are to pick them up at 9:40 Sunday
and give them a ride to church.
JS has bad
eyesight, so we ordered him an extra-large print copy of the Book of Mormon,
but that only came as a triple combination.
When we left his house we went by the post office and it was in the mail
– so we took it to him. J
May 15, 2012 – Tuesday
Today is
transfers in Nashville. We drove to
Morgantown and picked up Elder and Sister Peterson and they rode to Nashville
with us. We really enjoy being around
this couple. We first went to the
fireside where the new missionaries are introduced and those going home are
presented. It’s always a spiritual
experience, and then we (the senior couples and those missionaries going home)
eat together. Then we get the
opportunity to go to the Temple. It’s always so special to go to the temple.
Our son Robert brought our temple clothes to us when he visited, and it was so
nice to be able to use our own Temple clothes.
Going with all the seniors and the missionaries that are going home is
always so spiritual. One of the
missionaries going home got quite a surprise; his family flew in and didn’t let
him know. When he approached the Temple
he saw his mother and said, “Mom, what are you doing here?” It’s against the
rules in the white handbook – he didn’t want to break the rules. J We didn’t get home until after 9:00 pm, but
it was wonderful.
May 14, 2012 – Monday
Today is our
preparation day, but we did have to go for another Iron injection for Sister
Oakley. The nurse put the IV in her left
hand and after the infusion was done she attempted to leave the catheter
in. We went to the store and Sister
Oakley complained of it hurting a lot, so we pulled it ourselves and found that
it had infiltrated. The whole top of her hand was quite swollen and it was even
swollen up into her wrist, I’m glad we pulled it. We put ice on her hand all that day, that
night, and the next night. It’s still
swollen and I’m writing this blog ten days later!
