Love Ya'll

February 23, 2014

Monday was the funeral of Miss Ernestine Vick Maness.  She was 93 years old and had lived in Camden her whole life.  She was the Matriarch to most of the members of the church in our Branch. We only got to visit with her a few times since we arrived, but each visit was a treasured blessing for us. 

The Primary President asked if we would be home on Tuesday at 3:45. 

At 3:45 there was a knock at our door.  Addie, our eleven year old primary girl, asked us to come out side, that the Primary had a surprise for us. 

There they were, each with a little gift for us.  Orange Soda Pop= Orange you glad we have the Gospel!,..  mint candies=the Hepworth’s are “mint” to be with us!.....bag of pretzels= We will stick by you!...pack of Extra gum= You are EXTRA special...a package of cookies=You are sweet cookies!.....Milky Way Bars= In all the MILKY WAY, I’m glad you are here!....pop corn= we LOVE your POP!....and two packages of Honey Buns= You are a Honey!  We have only nine children in our Primary, which is FAR different from home....and  they are the sweetest children and

We have grown to love them.

Dad and I spoke in church today.  As usual I took TOO long....more than my allotted 15 minutes.  For my topic I choose to speak on “Enduring to the End!”  I won’t give you the whole thing, but just to share...I have thought that the word Enduring felt too much like enduring a trial or enduring the pain.  Bust last week in Sunday school our teacher used the word Endurance.  I liked that word.  I thought of the Olympic Athletes’ who train physically, technically and spiritually to prepare for the Olympics. They work and work, they build and they build, they practice and practice....they do not leave anything out.  They build Endurance.  We too have to use faith, prayer, the scriptures, and attend our church meetings to build our endurance to remain faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and endure to the end. I used two stories from the January 2014 Ensign....page 14. check them out.    Dad read his favorite poem, “The Touch of the Master’s Hand”.  He related it to our need to help the less active in our Branch feel the Touch of the Master’s Hand. He did a great job of motivating active members to work together to help their family members and friends to feel our love and need for them to join with us again.  WE love each of you and are so glad that you support us in serving this Mission.  We are very grateful that we have been sent to this little Branch.  We hope we can be the help, love and support that they need.  Keep us in your prayers You will each be in ours.  Love Grandma and Grandpa.