January 26, 2010 Wow!!

I have been very remiss in keeping this record up and being consistent. Time is flying and I just haven't been so motivated. But I will try and do much better.

We are doing well. We have had some interesting experiences lately. One of them was that we attended Stake Conference in Gilmer last Sunday. We went to the Saturday night session and found that it was very dim in the building. I even tried to turn on the lights so I could see to walk to the rest room. Then I realized that there wasn't any electricity!! Oh, Oh! Then I noticed they had cords and huge lights set up all around the building. The chapel was kind of dim, but we could still recognize people. Then the Stake President stood up and announced that a squirrel or chipmunk had gotten into the line and they had been out all day. He hoped they would be back on by morning conference. I was amazed that they had done so much to provide lighting so they could continue with their conference. Pres. Austin said that this had happened two years ago for stake conference also.

It was such a wonderful conference. The spirit was so strong and it just fed our souls. We loved it. President Smith, our mission President talked for about 10 minutes. He did a great job. He is so full of the spirit and enthusiasm for the work. We love him.

The concluding speaker for the night was President Austin who spoke about the atonement. How Jesus Christ gave his life for every sin we could think about committing. The spirit spoke to my heart. It spoke to all of our hearts. We drank
it up like we were thirsting for it. We didn't want him to stop. But just as he was summing things up, he said something like, "When we all accept the atonement, we will have a great light in our lives." Just as he said the word light, the lights flickered and came on throughout the whole building. I'm not sure that was by chance, the Lord does powerful things to teach us.

We have been trying to help organize the talent show for the branch and this has kept us busy and involved. I have called nearly every active person in the branch and some that are not active, trying to get involvement. The purpose of this is to help people get to know each other better and not be afraid to interact. Most of the people we have talked with have been excited to participate. WE are having a performing part of the show and we are also having the display of talents as part of the show. So if they do artwork, or handiwork or whatever, they can still feel like they are an important part of it. Right now we have about 18 different numbers of one kind or another. I sure hope they all come through.

While we were teaching Kim this week, she stated that she did not want to be baptized until she knew everything about the church. Elder Whiting gently reminded her that he is still learning things today, that it is an ongoing process. It was wonderful to teach her, she has a special spirit. Her husband is a less active member and we are hoping this will get him going too. I asked their 4 year old daughter if she would sing in the talent show. She likes to sing and her grandmother said she would help her learn the song. So I am hoping they have worked on it. We visit Kimberly on Thursday again with the second lesson.

We took a Book of Mormon to Roberto last week and then went back to tell him about it or give him a background. Roberto just kept shaking his head back and forth. He definitely was not ready to receive or read this book. I'm sure that he requested it because it was free. But we bore testimony of the truths it contained and challenged him to read it. He said he has so many things to do, he doesn't know if he will have time. We will see.

Cari has been a member since 8 years old, but has had an adventurous life since then. She is the one who saw us in Walmart and threw her arms around us. We went back last night to teach her about the church. It is pretty much back to the beginning. But she is excited to learn and really wants to repent and come back. We are going to help her all that we can. She will have to do some of it from her own desire to return to the fold. Cari is about 45ish. She has lived a whirlwind life with drugs and about three husbands.

We are going to visit Marine tonight and give her the second lesson. She is Spanish.
She is so lovable and sweet. She had several objections in the beginning, but I think we have conquered them. If things go well, we should be able to set a baptism date with her sometime this month.

The biggest problem we have is getting the members of the branch to fellowship these people and interact with them. There is kind of a group within the branch who have money, and have their noses in the air. They are not real friendly with the ones that are struggling in life. It makes us sad.