Hello from the land of kudzu and trees and BUGS.

I counted 23 mosquito bites from standing outside for a total of maybe...MAYBE five minutes. It should be a fun summer!

The weather has been incredibly mild thus far this summer. It is wonderful! Sis. Tillman says she brought Utah weather with her. I am okay with that. I hope it stays that way. :]

We had a great week this week.

 

Nothing too exciting happened on Monday. It was just very busy. I was still folding laundry at 9:45 pm that night.

 

Tuesday: Happy Birthday Grandpa! We went and did some service for Sis. Arrington. Her little girls love us! They are so cute too. We spent the day trying to contact formers and some potentials. We received a miracle referral from Temple Square! His name is Tyler and he lives in Buies Creek. He wants to know how his family can be togehter forever. (We can answer that!) We called him and set up an appointment with him. I am so excited to go and visit him and his family.

We had dinner with the Anderson family and Sis. Anderson came on exchanges with us to see the Hudsons afterwards. We had a good lesson with them. We read the talk from conference, "To Hold Sacred" by Elder Pieper with them. It went pretty well. Sis. Hudson is concerned about some things that she could resolve if she knew the Book of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I know she'll get it eventually. Change is hard though...for some folks.

 

Wednesday: Happy Birthday to me! 23 years. If any of you have some extra canes or walkers lying around, they would be much appreciated ;). Sis. Tillman made it a special day which was so kind of her. She made me breakfast, made a happy birthday sign out of sticky notes, and made me a giant pan of brownies (I LOVE brownies! They are my downfall). I feel like everyone else knew it was my birthday too. We were finally able to meet with a family history referral named June. She invited us over and told us she had some "light" refreshments. the "light" refreshments included carrot cake, german choclolate cake, cheesecake, m&m's and fruit. It was anything but light. She also had happy birthday napkins. She talked for a LONG time. I think that was the longest appointment I have ever been in. Two hours later we finally left. Then, we had dinner with my favorite family...the Swaffords! They had a strawberry cheesecake pie for dessert that was divine. We were also able to meet with Bro. King (old man who lives in front of us). He isn't doing too well. So, we visited with him with Sis. Dale for a bit. He is a great poet! He has some beautiful poetry that he has composed. He recited a few from memory and they were incredible. We were supposed to meet with Lewis that evening, but he bailed on us so we decided to go see Sis. Langdon in the Lillington Nursing home. She told us a crazy story about how she had to bury a horse and that because of rigor mortis, the legs were sticking straight up out of the ground so they just sawed them off. lol. She was one of the first members in teh Dunn area. She has a lot of great stories about when everything first started here.

 

Thursday: Happy Birthday Connie! Happy Flag day too! Thursday we had district meeting. It was so good. We talked about the difference between being obedient and being exactly obedient. Exact obedience is doing something and understanding why. There were also some scriptures referenced including Alma 57:21, and 2 Nephi 5:10-11. Pres. Cotterell came and we had a good lesson about working more effectively with the members. He invited us to schedule appointments with members during the week to help them strengthen their covenants and help them to do missionary work. Sis. Tillman and I role played with the Cotterells. They are going to talk to some of their neighbors this week about the biblevideos.org. :) We had a great opportunity to practice what we learned that evening with the Guymon family. We read 3 Nephi 27:21-22 and talked about what the Savior expects of us and then we invited them to do things to prepare certain individuals to accept an invitation to learn more about the gopsel. We are hoping to meet with one of their friends this friday!

 

Friday: So this was a miracle! We were calling some of the less active members in the ward to schedule times to come and share a message with them. We called one brother whose last name is Kinard. He did not answer, but we noticed that there was another number in our phone for a "brother Kinard". We just assumed it was the same Kinard. We called that number, left a message and left it at that. About two days later this Brother Kinard called back and clarified that he was different Kinard than the one we thought he was. He indicated that he was moving to texas at the end of this month. We offered to help his family with moving or anything. He said that they had everything covered, but asked if we could tend their kids. We explained that we couldn't do that, but told him we could find some YW who might be willing. We called the YW president and she found a couple of girls who are willing to watch them for service. We called him back to let him know and he invited us to come to dinner with his family. We just met with them this week. His wife is from Japan and doesn't know much about the church. Brother Kinard is a convert of only a few years. He has been struggling to stay active and hasn't been in a year or so, but loves the church. We talked to them about reading the Book of Mormon and invited them to church. They came yesterday!  The elders quorum and YM are now getting involved with them moving whether or not they like it. :) It was so good to see them at church!  We also met with Jan and watched speical witnesses of Christ with her and went over the baptism interview questions (this Saturday is her day!). It was so neat to hear her explain what it means to her to know that there is a prophet on the earth today. That was something she really struggled with for a quite a while. She is so well prepared. I love her. :)

 

Saturday: More service! This time for Sis. Fredell. We scrubbed her walls and vacuumed for her and reorganized her food storage! I was also humbled. By the GPS. We were looking for a road called Lipscomb rd and I was totally outsmarted by the GPS! We drove in a circle a few times and then discovered that we were going in a circle. Then, to top it off, we put in our address to go home and I was just cruising along and all of the sudden the road we live on turned into a different road...which wasn't supposed to happen. We discovered that I had been going the wrong direction for about 12.4 miles. This isn't the first time this has happened. (sigh) We eventually made it home about 1/2 hour later. lol. Sis. Tillman was super annoyed. All I could do was just laugh. We met with a different Bro. King later that evening and had a good lesson with him about the 10 commandements.

 

Sunday: Happy Father's Day! I hope you had a great day dad. You are the best father I could ever ever have and I am so lucky to have you. Thank you for teaching me how to be strong and how to work hard and for just being there for me. I love you so much. No one can ever take you place in my heart.

We had a great turnout at church. Lewis, the Hudsons, Jan, and the Kinard family all came to church! It was definitely a blessing and tender mercy from Heavenly Father. The Kinards received a very warm welcome and their kids did really well with primary and all. The talks were a little random for sacrament...they were on modesty. I'm not sure whose plan that was, but I think they must have forgotten it was Father's day. lol.

We had a great evening with Sis. Skinner and her kids. We went and visited some sisters in the nursing home and sang them some hymns. It's a good thing they are mostly deaf. We visited one sister, Sis. Blankenship. She kept telling us how "behooved" she was that we all came to see her and that we had "made her year!" She loved Sis. Skinners kids and kept hugging and kissing them the whole time. Sis. Skinners 11 and 13 year old boys were a little unsure about that, but it sure did make her day...or year I guess. :]

 

The Lord blesses us everyday. Sometimes the things we hope he will bless us with don't come immediately; or sometimes not at all. He does know what we need and what will be best for us though. He will bless us as we strive to follow him more perfectly. Remember that you are a child of God who knows you better than you know yourself and He loves you more than you can comprehend.

 

Have a blessed week! (Everyone says that here...)

 

Lots of Love,

 

Sister J