Lafayette, Indiana Looking Back Aug. 3, 2012 Oh, how I wish that I had been better about keeping this blog up. So many memories to record. I will just review a little of what has gone on in the past three months. As I look back at Richmond, I feel it was a difficult area to wake up!! We learned to love the people there, but there was so much time that we just could not see a purpose in the things we were doing. The young missionaries were working deligently to bring new members of the church into the Gospel, but the members were not friendly or caring after they were baptized!! They seemed to be so obsessed with themselves that they could not allow anyone new in!!! One of the new families in the ward had two teenage daughters that were told when they came into the ward, (by other young women,) that they would have to prove themselves before they could be accepted!!! There was just a difficult attitude to overcome there, and in spite of the fact that we went in and did everything we could to help them, they still held us away. We greeted them each Sunday with hugs, we tried to serve them, we nothing seemed to work. As I look back now, I realize that we needed to teach them by asking them to do each little thing. They would not pick it up on their own. As a result the last three people that were baptized have fell away and other families have become less active because they haven't felt cared for. As we have discussed our experience we realize that we had to prepare the way for the next seniors who were sent to replace us, and we feel we did in many ways. At least we did our best. We left a lot of good feelings and love with them. As a result they were very welcoming to the seniors who took our place. Hopefully they will now be able to carry on from where we left. Bishop Baker is called of the lord and such a great Bishop. He is just very busy, but has been very effective in his calling. In his talk in Sacrament meeting on our last Sunday, Elder Whiting gave a great talk to the people in that ward. The spirit was very, very strongly felt!!! Some of what he talked about was loving each other. At the end of the talk he said, "I feel impressed to leave a blessing upon the people in this ward. If you will accept and love each other, this ward will grow and prosper; and a lot of people will come into the church." That was a sweet blessing. People were very kind to us when we left and we will miss all of them. The thing that was most frustrating was that we just could not find enough to do. The people were very independent and we had to work our way into the core a little at a time. It was line upon line, here a little and there a little. But in the end we had wormed our way in. The time that we spend at the Circle U could have been utilized serving more within the ward. Anyway looking forward, we are excited to be here in Lafayette and serving here. We love it already and can tell we will be really busy. I will write more about that later today.