Love the people here!

We have been able to meet a few of the people and have identified a few things that we are beginning to understand:
1. The Elders who lived in this apartment and served the Sulphur Springs Branch cheated themselves!! They did not do an awful low of missionary work, but hung out at member's homes and goofed off! One of the things they did was build a Dr. Pepper Tower in this apartment with their used Dr. Pepper cans. We have had a difficult time identifying how they were useful. One of them had been here for six months. The people they were visiting were not interested in the Gospel except for one, they have made that clear to us also.

2. The members here have not been coached on missionary work and how to do it. They do not understand that they are the "finders" yet. They have not experienced success as a ward, consequently.

3. The members are wonderful people and very generous. We already love them. They just need to understand how it works. They are a little afraid of the missionary process of getting acquainted with the non-members. Yesterday we had dinner with the Branch President and we ask the kids if they had told any of their friends about the church. The mother replied that everyone already had their own church! Maybe I just don't get it, but that is why we have missionary work to do; to give them the truth instead of part of it!

4. We have met with one couple who we are continuing to teach. They are very interested in the church and want the truth. They said they would come to church on Sunday and we need to prepare for them. They have a 9 month old baby, who is just darling and so sweet. They deserve to have the truth. We know that Heavenly Father is preparing others out there to receive the truth. We are just waiting for him to reveal to us who it is. I remember feeling this way in Sherman, and then Heavenly Father just took over and things took off like crazy. He knows that we want to do his work.

The last two days we have met with some very interesting people that the Elders have been meeting with regularly!!! One of them did not answer their front door, but we could see the lights were on in the house. So we went out to the car and called them on our cell phone and they answered the phone!!!! It was kind of funny. They told us that they had been outside and did not hear us. But Elder Whiting said he saw them through the curtain moving around. Anyway she said they could not see us and did not know when they could!! We just said, okay, and hung up. When people lie to us we do not consider them likely candidates as future members.

We also met with another family they had been meeting with where he had just gotten out of prison and said he was looking at churches. We could smell either tobacco and perfume mixture, or it was drugs. They also talked about talking in tongues. They were not totally honest and we took them out of teaching pool also.

Another man, who was black, had been offended by the missionaries. He said that he knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. But I think he added that he was not the only prophet. It's kind of interesting. Anyway he said that he would come to church on Sunday. We will see. He didn't want us to leave, but we had another appointment.

This morning we met a lady whom the missionaries had been spending a lot of time with. She runs a home embroidery business and they would go over and do service for her. We learned today that she also had a 17 yr. old daughter. She told us very straight that she was not the least bit interested in the church. She said she told the Elders the same thing but they just kept coming back!! Duh!!

Elder Whiting spent some time writing the mission President today letting him know a little bit of what has been going on. Most of it, the members have shared with us piece by piece. It seems that the Elders did not do the Church a great favor in the examples they set.

This is the Fourth of July Weekend and we will have to scramble to find things to do, but we will find them. It will probably be a little like Christmas was, but at least we have each other and will go from there.

Today we learned that Brett's job will extend until January and we are so happy for them. Heavenly Father is watching over our family and we do so appreciate it.

We know we will love it here as we get to know and serve the people. That just takes a while to get into people's homes.