January 2012

We love being in the mission field again!! It is such a joy to have Holy Ghost working with us so constantly. Yes, we have our times when we feel discouraged; but overall we would not trade this experience for anything. We feel it is just exactly what we need to be doing right now.

This is a different kind of mission with different people who need others to help them live as Heavenly Father wants them too. They need missionaries to love and accept them. We are those people.

It has taken us a while to get a feel for what Heavenly Father wants us to do, but we are working towards that. This week my back has been giving me problems, so we haven't been able to do all that we would like. But Leon gave me a blessing and I know it will get better so that we can go forth.

WINCHESTER
The Winchester branch is moving slowly. Natalie and Devin Holdson have been difficult to get with. She is a member, he is not. Natalie came to church two weeks ago by herself. We invited her to sit with us and were able to visit with her about Devin. We made another appointment to teach him, but it fell through because Natalie was ill. We have the Robbins, Amber and Bart, who are young and such wonderful people who are inviting them over and trying to get them into their home. They are still trying to get them and will call us as soon as they can get them over.

Amber and Bart are both returned missionaries. They are in their 20's and he has his degree in counseling. Works in a counseling group. Amber had breast cancer just after her mission and when Bart met Amber, she was bald from her chemo treatments. Bart is a convert of a few years. They haven't been able to have children so far.

As far as Winchester is concerned. We have been in their branch more than we have been to Richmond. Their Branch President, President Soloman, is also a counselor and is having to do some consult work this year. He informed us last Sunday that he is leaving for three months to go to Florida. He plans on holding his meetings in the ward via skype. It should be interesting for us. We will see.

RICHMOND
The Richmond ward is a lot more organized and moving forward. Though there is an attitude in the ward of some indifference, we are striving to help them, as are the Elders. It is sad that the people who have been baptized here in the past years are mostly less active. Some of them are living with boy friends, etc, and yet are still attending church each week!!

We have met with several people in their homes. This month we met with Ivy, who was baptized when she was a teenager and has never been active. She is black and is living with her boyfriend who is white and a nonmember. We are teaching her so that she can decide whether she really wants to be a mormon or not. She was very receptive and agreed to come to church with us this week. She is such a sweet lady. We loved teaching her. Ivy is probably in her 30's. I asked her why they weren't married, (Dad nearly swallowed his teeth,) and she said she just wasn't quite sure and she was already divorced once. So hopefully with the rest of the lessons, she will decide she wants to get married.

We have been in to many members homes. Good, people. They just are not all the way in the church. The Elders have been teaching Bro. Ward. Sister ward is already a member. Brother ward quit his smoking because the Dr. told him he would die if he didn't. The Elders challenged him to quit smoking at the same time, so that worked out. So he quit smoking for a while and they thought he was going to be baptized, but now he has gone back to smoking again. Earlier his wife told us that she just did not understand why he couldn't be baptized. He was only drinking one cup of coffee a day and he had already quit smoking. We told her that Heavenly Father wants our whole heart and soul and not part of it.

We had a Meet and Greet a couple of weeks ago and all of the converts came to it. A few of the ward members came, and we had good refreshments and a great time. At least we felt like we were doing what we needed to do.

We have gone back and helped Twila, met with Rick weekly, and met with Chase. They have all been baptized in the last 6 months. Twila and Rick have been out a couple of times, Chase has not attended at all when we have seen him. The Elders were teaching his eleven year old son, but because the father does not come out, they would be baptizing him into inactivity.

We have loved teaching Rachel Fudge. She is really making progress and has started bringing her kids to church and staying for Primary. We are proud of her and tell her so. She seems to know what she wants. Yay for her.

The Bishop asked Elder Whiting and I to teach a Temple prepapration class. We are teaching three people who are excited to go to the Temple. One of them is a life long member, one of them was baptized a year ago, and one has been active off and on.
It has been so enjoyable and the spirit is strong. We hope to go to the Temple with them in about 4-5 weeks.

BOOK OF MORMON READING PROGRAM
We are doing everything we can to support the Richmond Ward. We have developed a Book of Mormon reading program that we are planning to begin on February 12. The purpose being that our ward has the potential to grow and develop spiritually.

When we presented the idea to the Bishop and also presented the idea of using the ward members to help focus on those who are not active or who need to be taught the Gospel, he was so excited!! He said, "I would like to hold a fireside and be the speaker. There is so much joy in watching other people come into the church. We just need to be their friends!" So that is what we are going to do.

Alyson designed a book mark for us to give to every member of the ward. It is very nice, and the Bishop loved it. He told us to make 200 of them. That is a lot for this ward. I think it will be a neat program. Elder Whiting and I are not working on ideas to get into each active member's home and show love for them in every way we can. We really need them. The idea is that if they feel cared for, then maybe they will care for each other too. Some of them are pretty cool and not too friendly.

We met with Norm Davis again this week. He is an Elder who has been to the Temple and smokes cigars!! We have had some really spiritual lessons with him, he is pretty set in his ways. We told him we would help him in any way we can when he feels he is ready.

Elder Whiting and I spoke at the baptism for Robby White. He is a fellow who is a good friend of the Bishops'. The Bishop and his wife and family just loved him right into the church. Such a nice man. His wife is not a member and is just not interested right now. Her father is a pastor or something of another faith and she just can't change, she says. But the spirit was very strong and we enjoyed sharing that with our ward.

Jim Davis is a truck driver, who also has been through the Temple and then fell away. We found him for the Winchester ward and are trying to help him come back to church too. He has served in different positions in the ward, one of them being Young Men's President. He is such a nice guy and definitely belongs in the church. He loves having us come on Sunday nights and listens intently. We hope he will return soon.

We had a senior luncheon in Indianapolis the 3rd week in January. Our Mission President and wife held it in the basement of the mission home. It was a pot luck and we met a lot of people. There are three office couples, two records couples who copy courthouse and other records. There are two couples who are CES missionaries, and one other couple who are proselyting missionaries. We had a nice time for a couple of hours and then drove back to Richmond for the evening.

We love our Richmond Ward Bishop. He is so sincere and really works hard. He is so charitable towards everyone. He is very supportive of the Missionary movement and would do anything for us.