A Story and a Walk in the Woodenism

So, the Roush family story has been so interesting. We love those two so very much, it has been a real tear at our heartstrings to watch them waver up and down after they moved to Kentucky. They stopped going to church for a while. We wrote emails to them and to their Bishop and the Bishop got strongly involved and assigned his best people to them. These good members tried to drop in any time they could. This caused the next problem, Sister Roush’s artificial leg doesn’t fit well because she is pregnant, so she kept it off while at home, and she can’t just invite people in without notice, so she wouldn’t answer the door. The visitors knew she was home so they got the wrong idea, and one thing led to another. Anyway, they didn’t go to church for quite a while. Then Sister Earl called Br. Roush on the phone one night and it was obvious he was reluctant to talk. She finally got him loosened up and then gave him some advice and some fairly direct instruction. He replied, “Yes ma’am.” The next week we got an email from him, they broke down and went back to church, and of course, it was not what they expected and they had a wonderful time. So, who told Sister Earl what to say? Hmm. They are moving to a home outside the city and located between the two cities he has been working, so that will help too. What great people.

Satan wants the Roush Family. He wants me and you too. (As to those he already has, he doesn’t bother them much.) “…for Satan desireth to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.” 3 Nephi 18:18. Now in those days the wheat stalks were laid on the threshing floor and beat senseless. (I know what that feels like!) Then the wheat was sifted by throwing it up in the air and letting the wind blow away the chaff. The solid grains of wheat dropped back to the ground and were gathered. So, this makes me think on the days I feel light headed or light minded or just light, that if I chance to get thrown into the air (life does that, you know) I might just get blown clear to Bone, Idaho.  Now, I love Bone Idaho, especially in the winter, but that’s not where I need to be if I want to go back with my family to my Father in Heaven. If I am not on the ground (firmly grounded) when the gathering comes then I “miss the boat.” See how this all fits together? It's amazing.

Okay, on to lighter stuff. It has been HOT! Not so much the temperature, high 80’s - low 90s, but the humidity. We walk out the door at 8:00 in the morning and take a breath and, well, you can’t breath it. The trees are starting to turn. Tell me how they figured out it was going to be fall when it never got within 20 degrees of freezing? Last night cooled down to 50 and we are going for a walk right now. Bye!

Hey, It was cool outside and we even had an Idaho breeze. (They call it Big Wind here.) Felt Great.


Water Towers are big out here. Since there are no hills to put them on, they stick out pretty good.

Here is the trail pretty close to our apartment.

This stream bed is usually full of water, but it hasn't rained much for a couple of weeks.

Let's see you grow a fungus bigger than a basketball!

Now THAT'S a TREE!

Hanging Vines, LOTS of them. Very strong, you can swing on them!

Okay, we love you all tons, and we have to get back to the office.
Bye!


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TRANSFERS!

This week was transfer week. Because of the merge of the two missions, the President wanted to fully integrate the two areas so that there is less tendency for Ours and Theirs thinking. Thus we made the largest transfer ever in this mission, 62 missionaries were transferred. We have a great mix now. Of course, with such a huge transfer we have to update all the files of where the missionaries are, who has which car, addresses, records, files, reports, so we have been pretty busy. Elder Hoyt at the office calls the Earls the FISH, First In–Still Here. It is quite a trip.

On Wednesday 11 new missionaries arrived. They all went to the temple with the president and his wife, then at the mission home we all had supper and did a bunch of training. We took turns presenting and April did fabulous! The next morning we met at the stake building next to the temple. More training. Then the trainers arrived and met their new companions and there was more training. Then we went into the chapel for the transfer meeting.

The transfer meeting is difficult to describe. All missionaries being transferred are brought from all corners of the mission to Columbus to the stake building next to the temple. They are brought by members in their area so as not to use up the miles on the mission cars. They bring their bicycles on trunk mounts, so it is quite a sight in the parking lot. In the chapel all the missionaries who are going home sit on the stand, the ones being transferred are all on one side of the chapel, and those who will receive a new companion are on the other side. There are a few talks and a musical number , the outgoing missionaries bear a short testimony, and the missionaries sing the Columbus Mission Song (a real rousing event for sure!) and then the assistants read who is going where. Each new companionship comes quickly to the front, hugs, and goes to the middle section. It is quite emotional and exciting. The overflow is full of us old folks and members and a few missionaries who are not transferring.

That afternoon the missionaries going home all go to the temple with the president and his wife, and then to the mission home for supper, interviews, and some sleep, and Friday morning they flew home.

The graphs below show a bit of the training President Jensen showed the new missionaries. I have seen the graph before, drawn by one of the members of the 12.

The first graph shows that when our attitude and our effort are both high, we have success.

The second graph shows that when we put even greater effort and attitude into the equation, that’s when we see the miracles. Lately my effort has been phenomenal. Now I need to move my attitude from good to great.

We sure love you and we need and feel your support. THANKS!

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Daily, HOURLY, Interruptions

I want to share a special experience we had yesterday. A man called last week and wanted to know if we believed we were saved by works or by faith. I told him I believed we must do good things for others just like Jesus did, but after all is said and done it is through the Grace of Jesus Christ we will be saved. 

The man quoted me several passages of scripture that contradicted each other. I told him, “It sounds confusing. Doesn’t it?  What do you believe?” He told me.  I asked if he would like our missionaries to stop by and shed some light on it?”  Well, he did. I found the missionaries in his area and called them. They didn’t go!  The man called me back. He was disappointed they hadn’t come.

I talked to him for some length and then turned the phone over to Scott. As I listened to your dad’s side of the conversation the spirit filled the room. A great peace and calm could be felt. We promised to get the missionaries right over to see him.

 I called the missionaries back to see what had happened. We will call him Elder Bob. He said they didn’t bother to go see him because they had asked around and other missionaries said the man in question was a “time waster.”  He had been studying with another faith and he had lots of questions, but that was it.

I shared with Elder Bob our experience in Cincinnati concerning 4 converts that were formerly from the faith the man studied with.  I told Elder Bob about those converts’ incredible faith and knowledge of the Bible and how it was their “questioning” that led them to the restored church.  Each of our dear sweet convert friends had gone through many sets of elders before they accepted the gospel. It took one sister 10 sets of elders/sisters before she joined.

I told Elder Bob it wasn’t our job to judge who is ready and who is not. Heavenly Father is preparing people. I then told him he might be lucky number 10 and to GO see the man and answer his questions. Well, he and his companion did.

Yesterday Elder Bob called and reported back to me. The visit went well, the man wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon to read because he had heard about our church all his life and he was now ready to read the Book of Mormon for himself. Also the man promised to attend church this coming Sunday with the elders!

                                                            ************

A member lady from Salt Lake called and asked if some elders could give her “in-active” mom in Ohio a blessing. The mom was recovering from surgery. Sister missionaries working in the area took a member of the bishopric and the ward mission leader with them and the brethren gave the mom a blessing. The sister missionaries reported back the blessing was given, the mom was very receptive, and they had an appointment on Friday to visit and teach her.  Such obedient sisters! When I reported back to the daughter in Salt Lake she was ecstatic . . .

                                                            **********

Two weeks ago while traveling home from Zone Conference it started to rain. “Dump buckets” would be a better description out here. A missionary didn’t stop fast enough and hit another car. The elder exchanged information with the man but the man left before he gave his information back to the elders. We didn’t know how to contact the man so we waited.

The man finally called our number. He was angry, demanding, and wanted to talk to our insurance company—not us! Your dad was calm and very professional. Yesterday your dad called the man back to see if he was able to talk to the insurance company and if they had helped him. At first the man was abrupt but calmed down and thanked your dad once he felt your dad really cared.

                                                            **********

Our days in Columbus are filled with paperwork and schedules to meet, but it is the “interrupting phone calls” that turn into “Tender Mercies “of the Lord. The longer we serve the more we see the need of a listening ear for all mankind.

What did we learn? How do I view my daily interruptions? Do I take time to listen to other’s concerns . . . little people, big people?  It does make a BIG difference! Let us start today to make the change.

Love you all, mom and dad

Zone Conferences

We have been busy all week with Zone Conferences. Tuesday we were in Cincinnati and met with all 3 zones there. It rained all the time we inspected the cars so we got REALLY drenched.

Wednesday we did 1/2 of Columbus, Thursday Dayton, and tomorrow we will do the other 1/2 of Columbus.

On the way to Dayton today we passes Miles and Miles of corn fields. The weather was just right for corn this Spring and it is all 8' tall. It is quite amazing!

 

Elder Duff was driving the Van. He is a retired truck driver from Kentucky. Here I asked him to count to 4 for you.

It is fun to see people who are not afraid to express themselves for fear of public opinion.

At the conference most of the missionaries come early and use the cleaning supplies to buff and touch up their cars so they can win the Clean Car award.

Impressive!

Each car is judged for cleanliness and if it meets the standard, the driver and co-driver get a Clean Car award. The cleanest car in each zone also wins Gold Key Chains for the driver and companion. Than at the last Zone Conference, the top cars in each zone (there are 9 zones) all compete for the Gold Plates award, a solid metal license plate bracket that says Golden Plates Award, Ohio Columbus Mission, to put on their car for the next month. The winner is chosen from the 9 cleanest cars by determining which of the 9 is getting the best gas mileage above the EPA rating for that type of car. Any missionary who earns the coveted Golden Plate award 3 times on their mission gets one to take home with them! Gas mileage has gone up over the whole mission by more than 3 mpg since Columbus started this program.


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Powell, Ohio!

Well, here we are in Powell, Ohio. Powell is two things in one. Firstly, the center of the town is a little old hamlet that dates way back and is one of the first settlements in Ohio. It has evolved into a kind of Jackson, WY or Spring, TX. Second, the surrounding area took off a few years ago as a bedroom community to Columbus and has many fancy homes and brand new stores. Trouble is you can’t afford to go into very many of them. Even food prices (already high in Ohio) are nuts in the Powell area. We have to travel about 8 miles south or 5 miles east to get to get to a Walmart, Home Depot, or Aldi’s (a way cool cheap grocery store).

On the plus side, there are sidewalks, curbs, shoulders on the roads, and all those things were completely missing in the burbs around Cincinnati. The area is much more open that Cincinnati with far fewer forests, and is much flatter, lacking the narrow canyons that take the runoff down to the Ohio river. There are walking and biking paths, parks, playgrounds, soccer fields, all that stuff. Lots of families.

On the down side, the people are markedly less friendly. That surprised us a lot. Prosperity does mean things to most people.

The stake was recently reboundaried, which took the Powell ward from huge to tiny. Church today was fun, meeting all the great new people.

Here is the front of our apartment, we go up the stairs to the back.

We are in the top three windows to the right. Nice back yard.

This pond is full of nice mossy gunk. Special!

We got to go to the Columbus Temple on Thursday, and that was truly wonderful, having not been able to go for a year. The sister that April escorted was very thrilled and had a great experience there.

Here is the ward building. It is just about across the street for the Mission Office

Here is the mission office, the door in the middle. I see President Jensen is there, working late tonight.

Here are some shots of Powell.

Okay, now to something special. Lately I have been restudying Lehi’s dream. Lehi has the dream of the Tree of Life, the Rod of Iron, the Path, the Great and Spacious building (I Nephi chapter 8). Then in chapters 11 and 12 Nephi asks to see what his father saw. There it gets interesting, because the Angel asks Nephi if he knows about the condescension of God. Nephi’s answer is vague, but actually it is not. This took me YEARS to understand. Then, instead of showing Nephi what his father saw, the angel shows him Mary and the birth of Christ. There is too much to tell, but if you are interested I gave the hints here that will let you study it out and come to your own amazing conclusions.

Anyway, I recognized that much of the gospel is contained in those few chapters, and that if you go back and take in I Nephi chapters 1-7 and then add 13 and 14, you basically have covered the vast majority of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, all within the first 30 pages of the Book of Mormon. Missionaries often try to take investigators right to 3 Nephi to see the visitation of Christ to the Americas after His resurrection, and in so doing you miss the Gospel.

So today I asked one of the missionaries back in Cincinnati what their new mission president talked about in his conference with them last week. He said, “Well, he told us that the first 30 pages of the Book of Mormon contain all of the principles contained in the first three lessons of Preach My Gospel and most of the other concepts too.”

Now, I am not a bright man. If you took all the things I know and put them into a thimble, there would still be room for your finger. That means, that the effort I put into my daily scripture study resulted in Revelation. That is truly humbling.

One more tiny story; a week ago I mentioned to a good ward member in Cincinnati that I was learning so much more about how we are all beggars, and that everything that we can possibly do really is nothing in comparison with what Christ puts into the equation to bring us eternal life. He replied, “Yes, all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” I said, “What?” He replied again, “All of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, Isaiah 64:6.” I went home and studied it. April and I discussed what the rags looked like that the lepers wore and compared that to the pure white that we will be dressed in when we pass through the veil, washed clean by the blood of the Lamb. Powerful! We are indeed all beggars. When we compare ourselves to each other it is like sitting in the gutter deciding who is the lowest of the low.

We Sure Love You All!

Scott & April

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A Moving Week

Dear Family,

It has been a very busy week. Our office looks like a hurricane has swept through. All the cupboards and shelves are bare and contents scattered in different piles.

The Columbus Mission called and asked us to inventory our entire commissary before we packed it up so they would know what we were sending them. I now know how many DVS, pamphlets, pass along cards, and forms we had!

At our last District Meeting with the missionaries the sisters surprised us with a special cake. What sweethearts they are. We are going to miss working and serving with those great sisters.

We spent yesterday loading and unloading trailers, rearranging storage units, and then we added cleaning-out one apartment for good measure. The dear sister missionaries (5 of them) begged to help the 2 office elders and us so we started bright and early at 7:00 am. At 11:00 we had the elders loaded and on the way to West Virginia with their supplies. Our sweet sisters then went back and cleaned & scrubbed the emptied apartment. One sister said, “Sister Earl, you were so right! Thank you for having us start early because we would be dying in the heat right now!” I think they are learning!

The Hermana’s (Spanish speaking sisters) shared a story with us: Their Jewish investigator has been faithfully doing her reading assignments with them. She told the sisters, “I see a pattern in the Book of Mormon. Every time the people are good they are blessed and when they sin they have problems.” The sisters then taught her about the “Pride Cycle” and how we go through it today. The Jewish lady then said she was getting closer and closer to believing The Book of Mormon was true. Two weeks ago she told them she was starting to see “the need to have a Savior in one’s life.” How profound!!!

When you realize this lady had no Bible background, no real knowledge of Christ other than we celebrate his birthday at Christmas time, no religious foundation at all just a few months ago and now she sees patterns in the Book of Mormon. It is a modern day miracle!

The power of the Holy Ghost to teach is incredible. He can teach at anyone’s level. It is such a testimony to us that Heavenly Father loves us as individuals. He can help anyone no matter where our level of learning may be. Reading the Book of Mormon every day and humbly applying its teachings (or patterns) to our lives is the KEY to happiness.

We are healthy and doing well. Everything is falling into place and we should be in Columbus by this coming weekend. Our new address will be:

Elder & Sister Earl

Ohio Columbus Mission

19 Clairdan Drive

Powell, Ohio 43065

Our internet and home phone will be down after the 30^th for a few days till we find another provider.

We love you all and keep you in our prayers. Thanks for reaching out and serving each other in their times of need. You all are the best! We love you tons.

MOM and Dad

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Still Learning! and Still Raining!

Dear family,

At District Meeting yesterday with the missionaries, we were discussing how to gain more Charity in our missionary work. One sister missionary related this story:

“I had a companion a while back. We got along just fine and she was very nice. I just wasn’t as close to her as I wanted to be. So, I asked Heavenly Father to show me why he loved her. Throughout the week as I would observe her a voice would say to me, “I love her because… or I love her because….” This sister missionary shared how she grew to love her companion. What a teaching moment!

We are truly going to miss working so close with the missionaries in the office. What a blessing and privilege that has been.

Dad has been extremely busy getting oil changes done and paying for car repairs before they close out his mission credit card this month. We had a visitor from SLC come and check our finance and car records. He was so impressed with all the work done by your dad and the office elders.

We are in the stormy part of the year out here. The other night your dad woke me up to get dressed because the tornado siren had gone off. We got dressed and grabbed out 72-hour kit. We decided to check the weather report on the Internet one more time before we headed out the door, and we watched the storm front go around us. It was pretty exciting for sure and such a testimony the Lord is watching over us missionaries.

The last couple of cloud bursts in Kentucky dropped 7 inches in one hour. The whole town was flooded. On the way to church last week, just as we got into the car, it started to rain. It didn’t stop till we reached the church 12 minutes later. It was like driving through a car wash the whole way.

Right after it stops raining here everyone jumps on their riding mowers and starts cutting their grass. They have to mow every 5 days. You have never seen such large green lawns as here. It is quite normal to have 5-10 acres of lawn to cut. We really should be ashamed of ourselves for ever complaining.

Love, Mom

Well, Dad’s turn to put something down. Lots of neat things happen and then when I sit down, they go away. I am having trouble with the starter in our car. Not a good sign. I was looking at starter prices on the internet last night. Oh well.

Here is an interesting story, interesting for what it taught me, I hope I can remember the lesson for longer than normal. My memory is becoming like a peach. Fuzzy!

So we went with the missionaries about 2 months ago to this woman whose son was soon to return from his mission. She is not a member, her ex-husband was a member, but cheated on her many years ago leading to a divorce. Her son joined the church while going to a local university and then went on a mission. So, the woman wanted answers to her questions for when her son got home from his mission. It was not a very productive lesson, we just couldn’t get her to commit to reading the Book of Mormon, she just had irrelevant questions.

She attended church once before her son came home, and then after he got home she came with him every week, but in the Gospel Principles Sunday School class she would continue to ask global type questions that were completely off the topic. I pretty much wrote her off.

Now, since I wrote her off, you know what is coming next, right? Your mom figured out that since her father was Jewish, she felt she would be betraying him by reading the Book of Mormon. Once she was taught that “doing what is right” brings honor to your parents, everything turned around. The sister missionaries started teaching her since she has a problem with “men.” That part makes sense. Anyone who is not a man has trouble with men! Now she is reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and recognizing the spirit. The biggest change, she is starting to be happy. I just love it when a sad face turns upside down and the corners of the mouth turn up. The whole world looks better and years of troubles drop from the face. Oh, what a good sight!

Well, it’s raining like crazy again and on the way to 94 degrees today and 80% humidity. Oh Joy! Guess I better smile!

We wish a Happy Fathers Day to you dad, and to you my good sons! We Love You!

Pa

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A Great Mission Conference

Dear Jason, Natalie, Kitty, Juan, Rusty, Michelle, Tyson, Suzanne, Spring, Sean, Chaun, Ali, Marisa, Benjamin, Jaden, Grant, Makenna, Hyrum, Hannah, Nathaniel, Cristine, Brooklyn, Tanner, Sierra, & Miles,

It was a busy week for grandpa and grandma. We held two great Zone Conferences. The second one we went to Huntington, West Virginia. For lunch we went over to cousin Elizabeth Temus’s cute apartment and visited with her for an hour. It was so good to see her. She is doing an internship for Amazon. com this summer. It was good to catch up on all the family news. She is doing well. She attends the ward building where we were having our conference, and the Senior missionaries that run the Institute program there already had met her knew all about her.

This weekend an apostle, Elder Todd Christofferson,

and two seventies, Jairo Mazzagardi and David L. Cook,

came and instructed 15 stakes presidencies and their bishoprics. They met with the 3 Cincinnati stake conferences this morning and then met with all of the Cincinnati area missionaries (about 70) this afternoon. They asked all of us to come up and shake their hands and introduce ourselves. They are such gracious men. They explained that due to the demographics of our area and how people move around they needed to make changes in mission boundaries. Elder Christofferson thanked Pres. Robbins for his excellent service and gave an apostolic blessing to him and his wife. He also gave us a special blessing of peace and assurance as we move forward with our service under the direction of a new mission president.

He opened up our meeting to a “Question and Answer” period. We were instructed on the Atonement, Hope, Faith, and then he gave us an update on Pres. & Sister Monson’s health. He said Pres. Monson was spending more time with his beloved wife because of her frail health. Elder Christofferson said Pres. Monson was a wonderful example of what a husband should be like. He told the men to pay attention. He also told us sisters to give the men a break and be patient with them! He apologized for men being so dumb but if we (their wives) keep loving them great things can happen.

We were taught by the spirit. The 2 hour meeting felt like a few minutes. You could feel of the love they had for the missionaries. It was a humbling experience.

Thursday we had a huge miracle take place in the office. We had just returned from West Virginia. We thought we would work in the office for a couple of hours to get caught up. Well, dad’s silly XP computer had other ideas. It just would not boot up and no matter what your dad did it just got worse. We were getting really worried because we still need the computers for a few more weeks and we have to have them to make this merge work.

We finally gave up at 6:30 (which you dad never does) and went home to sleep on it. We prayed that night asking Heavenly Father to bless his computer and we prayed about it before going to work the next morning. I told your dad if Hyrum Smith’s wife could pray over her sick oxen why not over his sick computer. Long story short, the PC was running when we went into work the next morning. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for answering our prayers!

We went on exchanges Friday night. The family we went to had 4 children, a dad, and a live-in girlfriend. The dad and children have been members for about two years now. The parents divorced some time ago and the kids were staying with the dad this summer. Our lesson was on “Recognizing the spirit and listening to its promptings.” We sang primary songs at the beginning and end of our meeting and the spirit could be felt. The children were really polite and talkative like most young kids because they were excited to have company. We liked it but the dad and girlfriend were all over them. We felt really bad for the oldest boy (age 11) because he got the full force. As we were leaving the boy, who had gotten his feelings hurt and had refused to answer any of his dad’s questions, came right over to me and gave me a hug. I had a chance to speak with just him and I shared my love and excitement for scouts and told him to be sure to go. I told him I had confidence he would do good in it. He just kept hugging me and I hated to let go of him and his sisters. Those kids were like a dried garden yearning for words of kindness to be sprinkled on them.

O, these adults!!! They don’t know the harm they are doing by scolding and correcting their kids in front of strangers instead of praising them. We have wished time and again for a magical way of giving parents an injection of parental skills. There are so many dysfunctional families. The parents think the kids are the problem when in reality the parents are the problem!

Thank you for loving your children. Thank you for teaching your children correct principles and setting the example. Thank you, Thank you for being righteous parents in Israel.

Thank you for being obedient grand children and loving your parents. Thank you for having patience’s with your mom and dad while they learn their job.

Jaden, Ben, and Grant: you looked so good on horseback. So glad you are learning how to ride horses. What all did you see in the backcountry of Harriman?

Ali: How was Civitan? How many friends did you make? Can you count that high? How was girl’s camp? Were you Jr. Leader this year? Can’t wait to hear all about it.

Marisa: When do you head to Krupp Scout Hollow? Tell me all about your fun.

Cristine & Brooklyn: What new things are you learning this summer? Aunt Spring was telling us about a funny book called “Fancy Nancy.” Maybe your mom can check it out at the library for you. Tell me what you think of it?

Tanner Man: What is your favorite bug this week? We bet it isn’t mosquitoes!!!

Hyrum & Hannah & Nate: We hope you have fun at the cabin this week. Collect some rocks for grandma. I am running low.

Sierra: We liked seeing you play “T” Ball. You have a great swing!

Miles: We bet you like going to the petting zoo with your mom and dad. The baby goat is my favorite too!

We love you all. Thanks for writing!

Grandma April and Grandpa Scott

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Powell Ohio + a teaching experience

Dear Family,

This week has been eventful. We borrowed a large passenger van from the Columbus Mission to do our transfers and departures. Due to the vandalism to our van we were able to meet President Jensen and his wife when we returned their van. They showed us around the mission office and took us out to lunch after. They were so kind and made us feel at home. The mission office is in Powell, OH, just north of Columbus.

The countryside around Columbus is more open than Cincinnati but still very green. I counted all the dead animals along the way. There were four deer, three raccoons, one possum, and one Alligator Snapping Turtle! The freeways are rough on all the animal life.

We went out teaching with the assistants last night. The family we taught was pretty much dysfunctional. Everyone was doing his and her own thing.

The elders came over to our apartment ½ hour early to work up a lesson plan with us so we all knew what part we would be teaching about Baptism. The one elder gave the first part and then focused on the youngest boy to keep him entertained so the rest of us could talk. People kept coming into the house while we taught and would just sit down and listen. We started with 5 people and ended up with 9 total. The spirit started to fill the room and then their hands shot up with questions afterwards. It was a powerful lesson and we committed the dad to be an example and bring his family out to church this Sunday.

The elders had me share “How to prepare for church.” The idea of preparing (let alone finding) your church clothes, cleaning your house and having food waiting for when you return home was new to them.

When the dad told us he had gone back to smoking after his baptism and he couldn’t quit now that he was up to a pack a day. The elders blew his lame excuse out of the water with a great scripture about “In the Lord all things are possible!” The dad just sat there and nodded his head and said he needed to be a better example to his family!

We are fasting and praying for this family. They have a great family that just needs to learn “How to be a family.” My testimony grows everyday when I see the Lord’s hand in each of our lives. He is aware of us as individuals and he does have a plan.

We love you and keep you in our prayers.

Mom and Dad

Too much is happening

Sorry to have not kept up with the Blog for a couple weeks. It is not that nothing has been happening, but rather that there has been too much. Rather than try to fill it all in, I will try to capture a few special segments.

The Ohio Cincinnati mission will be dissolved on June 30. The mission won’t change much in most ways, it is just that the administration of the area will be distributed between Columbus, Ohio and Charleston, West Virginia. The Cincinnati area will be administered from Columbus, and the Huntington, WV side will report to Charleston. In the Cincinnati area there are 8 missionaries who would normally go home at the middle of August. Since the transfer schedule in Columbus is offset from what has been the Cincinnati schedule, these missionaries will either have to go home a few weeks earlier or a few weeks later than was planned. Parents have been calling and asking to have their missionaries released sooner rather than later, many so that they can get started back into school. We put the question to the Columbus mission president. He replied to the effect that he recognizes what the parents want, he is interested in what the missionaries want. So April has been contacting the missionaries to get their input.

Here we go, I can hardy see through my wet eyes, most of them said they are loving their mission, that they came to serve for a full two years, and they would be happy to go a few weeks longer rather than a few weeks shorter. So that was a pretty special experience.

Yesterday the missionaries who will be going home today met in the office for their outgoing interviews with President Robbins. I got to talk to my trainer, a great Elder from the Boise Idaho area who used to handle the vehicles before we came. I asked him what he planned to do when he gets home. He replied, “Well I don’t know yet, because I haven’t given it much thought. I will wait till I get home and I will discuss it with my dad.” Again, I was impressed at the obedience of these great young people who want to serve the Lord so much that they willfully refuse to allow thoughts of the future to distract them. I wish I were half so good.

Some more excitement in the vehicle area, someone crawled under our passenger van this weekend and used a power saw to cut out the catalytic converter from the exhaust system. Apparently they can get up to $80 at a scrap yard for the rare metals in the converter. For the dealer to fix it they have to replace 2/3 of the exhaust system since it is all one welded piece. The estimate was $2200! I found a weld shop that is going to weld in a replacement converter for LOTS less. But in the meantime we needed a van to do the transfers yesterday, so we called Columbus and they offered to loan us theirs, so last night we drove our car to Columbus, got their van, and brought it back and the Assistants used it for the transfers. We will take it back tomorrow and probably stop in to sign a contract for our apartment there. It was quite amazing how it worked out.

Lastly, the geese in the pond out front sat on some more eggs, so now we have a couple of little ones! Can you see both babies?

We Love You!

Dad

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