Monday, May 5, 2014

Feeling like "Real Missionaries"


Dear Family,

This past week was what you would call a typical missionary week.  At the first of the week we had several appointments and a couple of lessons.  One appointment cancelled and then one lesson cancelled.   We were disappointed of course, but the other two went very well. We were able to go with our Branch President Home Teaching to a less active couple.  It was a very good visit.  She is really an expert at Family History.  She would be such an asset to the ward.  So would he.  She expressed an interest in Indexing, so we are going to make an appointment to teach her how.  Dad is very good at it.  I have just my 5th batch.  It is very rewarding and gives you experience in reading different documents.
I have been doing records from Ghana.  The person who wrote the information on the ones I have done, wrote with very good penmanship in English.  

Our lesson was with a Sister who was baptized quite awhile ago and then went inactive.  Totally inactive.  Then in the fall before we got here, she attended her Uncle’s Funeral.  He was a member of the church and his funeral was at the chapel right next to the Birmingham Temple.  She told us how she rode up to the service with her two sisters.  When they pulled into the parking lot, she looked up at the Temple and it had a glow about it.  She kept telling her sisters...”Look at the Temple!” Look at the Temple” and they just said...where shall we park?  They went into the service and the first song that was sung was “Love One Another.”  She thought that was a strange song, but she listened to the words and found her self crying quite hard.  The closing song was another unusual choice: “Count Your Blessings.”  She thought it must have been her Uncle’s favorite song and it was one of hers too when she first joined the Church.  She came home with that special spirit that the Lord have given her and determined that she would go back to church.  The first week, something happened and she didn’t make it.  The next weekend her husband needed her help, so she didn’t go.  That week she told herself and her family that no matter what, she was going to attend church the next Sunday.  AND SHE DID.  She is so amazing.  She is a counselor in the Relief Society and I tell her if she was in Salt Lake, she would probably be on the General Board.  For 5 years of her inactivity, she gathered family history, records, pictures and names.  She has 3 large 3 ring binders full of plastic sheets with volumes of information.  Her husband is not a member, nor is her only daughter, but she brings her two grandchildren to church with her each week. Brooklyn is four and last week she proudly showed my her Scripture Bag with her Bible and her "Book of Norman".  Tucker is 6 and He invited us to attend his Kindergarten Graduation on the 16th.   
We are teaching the Temple Preparation Classes.  She is so excited to enter the Temple.

These are the kind of experiences that make us so glad that took the opportunity to go on a Mission.   These special moments  don’t happen every day or even every week, but when they do, you want to help them take the next step on the path our Heavenly Father’s
Plan.    We hope that you can feel the love we have for our little branch.

We do miss you very much and some days more than ever, but we are happy and our Testimonies and our Gospel Knowledge is growing so much.  We love you and pray for each of you.  Love Grandpa and Grandma

PS  Today is Six Months!

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