Working with Elders

October 16, 2010

Dear family,

This morning dad and I got up early and took a drive along the river to see the fall colors. They were truly beautiful—vibrant reds on the sugar maples and brilliant yellows on—“unmaple” trees! Ha Ha!  We worked our way around a long loop and ended up at the local store for groceries. Autumn is one of my favorite seasons and getting outdoors and seeing Heavenly Father’s handy work lifts the spirits.

This week I’ve been busy organizing the mission files according to events and color-coding them. The next secretary should be able to find the corresponding color folders and have everything she will need to build folders or find instructions to stay on schedule. It has been a work of love in progress for sure.  Each month I have been refining it.

I have been taking opportunities lately to really listen to the elders that come into the office to work. It has been a real joy to teach them that what they are doing, whether repetitious or mundane, is very important in the Lord’s hands. We just have to be consistent and have faith that all will work itself out in the grand scheme of things. One elder has been putting the “We Believe Cards” (Like the ones I sent you) into bundles and rubber banding them together.

We ordered 60,000 cards so you can imagine how many bundles that will make. I asked him if putting together the cards was the hardest thing he had ever done. He said, “No, stacking hay was!”  Well, that led to the topic of a job well done and that led to equating bundles of cards to acres of hay cleared off the land and stacked safely in a barn for winter. I told him if only one righteous family joined the church because of all those cards and all their posterity stayed active to build the Kingdom of God, then what he was doing was the most important service he could do. He just needed faith that Heavenly Father would get those cards into the right hands. You should have seen the light go on in his face. He thanked me and went back to work. As he was leaving the office for the day he said, “I did about 3 more acres of cards, Sister Earl.” What a good young man!

A few weeks ago I sent out welcome packets to several incoming missionaries. I must have gotten distracted because I accidently switched welcome letters with 3 elders. Long story short, when I found out I called to make my apologies and straighten out my mistake. One sweet mom said it had been a blessing in disguise. Her son who was extremely shy got on Facebook and found the elder whose letter he had received. They became friends. Now her son is looking forward to the MTC because he will have a friend waiting there for him. Heavenly Father is so wonderful how he can turn a mistake on my part into a blessing for someone else!

Dad is feeling much better and his busy week doing car inspections went well. Three days worth with three different zones each day with lots of traveling between Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati. Dad was shot the last night when he dragged in but that was the same day all 33 Chilean Miners made it to the surface so we figured no matter what kind of a day we had it was one of the best days ever in history! Hurray for Chile! Thank you, Heavenly Father for answering all those prayers!

Have a great week and know we love you all. Our prayers go out to Brooklyn and her doctors on Tuesday. We love you all.

Mom and Dad

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A Fast & Testimony Meeting

The new ward has decided they sorta like us, or rather, they have taken to Mom. She wins hearts when she tells stories from her life, and now that they know her a little, the story she told today in Fast and Testimony meeting really turned the tide. Everyone was hugging her and telling me off to the side what a wonderful woman she is and how much they loved her testimony. It is odd that she had not planned to get up, and suddenly she was on her feet and headed up front. She was quite surprised and didn't know what to say, so out came a short story about how scripture study had given her an answer to prayer several years ago.

So, that's the first part of the story. Then in Priesthood a man told us what it did to his wife. His wife is a non-member but she attends with him occasionally, and he is always afraid someone will push her too hard. Background; he and his wife invited the Elders to dinner a couple months ago and the wife was so impressed with one of the elders who just talked to her and didn't push and she felt he was so sincere. Then this week they invited two different elders to dinner, and he wondered and worried what they would say to her after dinner. Turns out that she is Catholic and that one elder is a convert of two years and was Catholic. They spoke of his conversion and about how she can gain a testimony of the church through reading the Book of Mormon. He invited her in a non-threatening way to find out for herself by studying and praying about the Book of Mormon, and told her that answers to prayer come through reading the Book of Mormon after praying with real intent. So, a couple days later she comes to church with him, and Sister Earl tells a story of a problem she faced, how she prayed with real intent to find the answer of how to proceed, and then went to her scriptures, and there was the answer in the Book of Mormon. It was in the story of the Prophet Helaman and the 2000 Stripling Warriors. The good brother says he can see that "it is going to happen this time." Today after Sacrament Meeting the woman said to her husband, "In the Catholic Church there is just the clergy. No one else says or does anything. You people are So Involved!"

Yes we are. We are ALL enlisted, aren't we? We are INVOLVED. The church is not a Sunday Thing, it is a Life Thing. It changes who we are, and helps us to Become. Putcher Shoulder to the Wheel and all that.

The lesson in Priesthood today was on Repentance, and ended with the thought that we can tell when we have truly repented because our hearts are Turned. Our will has changed, we have given our will, or rather offered it to our Father in Heaven. Our will is swallowed up in the will of the Father. We don't actually loose our will, it stays strong, we just align it with that of the Father.

I see that many of my mistakes in life still cause me much pain. I guess we still remember them so that we won't forget to avoid the pain that will come if we fall back into old habits. Harder for me than the pain of my past mistakes is the thought that many who I have hurt may still hold onto that hurt rather than let it go to Him who asks us to lay those burdens at His feet. I hope they can do that some day.

Love,

Pa

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A walk in the Emily Traphagen Preserve

Emily Traphagen Preserve

The fall colors are turning things, but they all turn at different times so you don't see all the changes at once. For example, you can see all the leaves on the ground in the pictures, but few of the leaves on the trees have turned. The Oak trees have dropped their acorns. They are really neat!

This fungus is very large, over 6" wide, and grows at various places all along the log.

Here is the underside of a BIG one. The feel and odor is quite amazing. Smells just like fresh mushrooms in the store

Big Funnel web, didn't see the spider!

Vines that are sometimes 4-5" diameter! Still have not figured out if they go up the tree, drop back to the ground, and re-root themselves?

This goose at our housing complex thinks he is a Rooster!

Sugar Maples indeed are FANTASTIC. This one is right out our front door so we watch it change every day. Click the picture for a bigger view.

Here is a big fungus.

Check out the square nuts, both of them!

Snackies for Conference

Conference is coming tomorrow. You gotta have something to nibble on between the talks, right? So, here is how you make Cinnamon Rolls a super easy way. Rhodes bread dinner rolls, defrosted, flattened, some margarine, brown sugar with cinnamon, raisins and chocolate chips, well watch the video, you'll figure it out. Bake for 10 minutes at 350F.

Y U M ! ! !

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