Meant to be in Camden

Dear Family

It has been another slow quite week here in Camden.  We have been out trying to meet with some less-actives.  We had one great experience last Tuesday night.  We went to visit a couple where the husband is not active.  He at one time was very active... but things changed for him and he slowly drifted away.  We were having a wonderful visit, just talking about life experiences, when he changed the topic to church activity.  He told Dad that he felt from the first time they met, that Dad had been sent here just for him and if we stay long enough, he knows that he will get stronger in his faith.  Dad told him that we would be here long enough.  That he too felt there was a reason that we had been sent to Camden.  He promised Dad that unless he was sick, he would not miss another Sacrament Meeting.   

On Monday, we went to the Hobbs Elementary School for Dr. Seuss Day.  

We each picked a Seuss book and went to a First Grade class and then to a Kindergarten class to read to the students.  They were so excited and so cute.  They all have such happy faces with big sparkling eyes.  When we finished reading, we went back to the Librarian and she thanked us for coming and said that she would be calling us again to come help at the school.  As we left, some of the students were coming from their class rooms with Dr. Seuss Hats on their heads.  They were having such a wonderful day.  Here’s a picture.

Today, I taught Primary and we had 8 children ranging from 11 to 4.  4 were visitors.

It turned out that I taught the full 2 hours, so it forced me to draw on all my experiences in primary, songs, stories, testimony and an activity.    This little Gospel light of mine was one of their favorites.  Pop Corn Popping another.   Dad conducted and taught Priesthood.  In a branch, you get called on to do almost anything at short notice.  We love to give the Active members a break and give them our support.

We love to hear from you, even if it is only a picture.....or that you won a math competition...or a question about the Beatles...or that you met someone at the Temple who used to live in Tualatin....or a surprise package of goodies.... it helps us to know that everything is well with you and it tells us of your loving support for us.

We love each of you dearly and pray for you everyday.  Love, Grandma and Grandpa

Delivering Bibles

Dear Family,

Last Sunday we received two referrals from the Church’s Call Center in Utah.  You have seen the ads on the TV and if you want to request missionaries or copies or whatever, it is called a referral.  These referrals are passed on to the missionaries close to the requesting party.

Each request was from a woman here in Camden requesting a Holy Bible.  One referral indicated that she was going through some trouble times  The other was from an lady who was requesting a Holy Bible for her school  We had three Bibles but they were all the soft side copies.  I wanted to take a hard bound copy to the school, so I had to order one.  They want the missionaries to respond as quickly as possible to the referrals, so we took copies of the Holy Bible and the Book of Mormon and with the help of our GPS we headed out.  The first address was in a part of Camden that we were not sure was the best, but you know me...it was day light and we would be out in the open and we would not go in.  We found the little house, climbed up a big flight of decaying concrete steps and knocked on the door.  The sweetest little black woman answered.  We could see into her humble little home so very clean and decorated with simple treasures.  She invited us in.  Of course we went in, and had a wonderful visit.  Her husband had died and her children were all grown and moved away and she just felt she needed the Lord.  She wanted a Large Print Bible, but accepted the one we brought.  We told her we would get the large print one and come back to visit her.  We told her about the Book of Mormon and that it was the word of the Lord, another testament of Jesus Christ.  She declined that copy, but did invite us to come back and visit. 

The next address turned out to be the Hobbs Elementary School.  This is the school that is almost 100% black children.  A young man in the 5^th grade directed us to the Principle’s office, but it was locked.  The young man came right back and got us and took us outside to the Vice Principal who was directing the students in boarding their buses.  We told him who we were looking for and he directed us to the Library.  We met the Librarian and she was a most vivacious and delightful woman.  We told here who we were and that we had brought the requested Holy Bible.  She was so excited.  She said, many of the children want to have a Bible, but they have no money.  As we gave her the one copy of the soft sided Bible, we told her that we had ordered a Hard Bound copy and that we would bring that and several more soft side copies for her.  I then laid the Book of Mormon next to the Bible.  I explained to her, that the Holy Bible contains the Old Testament that tells of Christ coming in the future, The New Testament which contains the teaching of Jesus Christ while he was here and that The Book of Mormon tells of Jesus Christ coming to the American Continents and teach His gospel to them.  It is another Testament of Jesus Christ.  She very gladly took both books.  Then somehow we got on service we might be able to give and she said....”Can you come Monday March 3^rd.?  We are having a Dr. Seuss Day and they could use some help in reading Dr. Seuss books to different classes.”  So dad and I are going to the school tomorrow and help out in anyway we can.  We are very excited

As you know, Senior Couple Missionaries do not have quite all the rules to follow that the young missionaries have while serving their mission.  This Thursday we spent half the day with our Branch Member Edward Smith.  He is the trapper I have mentioned.  We went out about 8:00 on four wheelers to check his traps.  I was so nervous, but it turned out to be a wonderful memorable day.  It was a cool sunny day and the woods were quite and serene. 

 He told us that this 1800 acres had been a plantation in the 1970’s. It was planted with Cotton, fields and fields of cotton, then when polyester fabric became popular, they planted Soy Beans and when the price dropped for Soy Beans, the plantation turned to growing pine trees.  Weyerhaeuser rents all this property to grow pine trees for paper.  We finished up at about 1:00 in the afternoon.  4 Coyotes and two raccoons.  Camden is not a mountainous place, but we were on top of the highest hill and could see the whole Wilcox county from the top.  It was a beautiful sight and a wonderful day!  You will love to see the pictures.Attached is a sample.  There really are woods.  We are making new memories to add to our most cherished memories....you!  We love you and keep you in our prayers daily.  

Love Grandpa and Grandma

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.

Valentine's Day Cookies

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentines Day.  I wanted to make sugar cookies and an old friend at PayLess Drug Stores made the best.  I contacted Jan Casteel to see if she had that recipe and she did.  We couldn’t find a heart shaped cookie cutter, so Dad picked out a red plastic heart that was filled with smarties.  He thought we could use that.  I made a batch and then I made another batch but I was so tired, that I just didn’t think I could use the plastic heart.  When Dad came into the kitchen he was so disappointed that I hadn’t made heart shapes, so I made another batch and dad rolled them out and cut out the shapes and put them on the cookie sheets.  

You would have loved to see that!  Altogether, we made 81 cookies. So Friday, we spent the day taking plates of cookies to all the Branch Members.  They were all so excited!    We had District meeting earlier in the day on valentines and then delivering the cookies, and being so well received, and taught a Temple Prep class and then when back to a less active who had invited us in with the cookies....it was a full missionary day!  It felt so good.  AND we were so tired! 

Saturday we had a change of pace from our Mission.  Doug and Emily McArthur were taking their family to Orlando on vacation. They would go right thru Mobile Alabama and wondered if we would be able to see them.  Mobile is about 2 hours south and it is out of our mission area.  We got permission to make the trip, so we drove to Mobile.  I really wanted to see the Gulf of Mexico, so we went to a beach called Gulf Shores.  We were to meet the McArthur’s about 4:00 up near Mobile. They arrived sooner than they expected and decided to drive down to the Gulf Shores and let the children play.  It was a sunny day, though a little cool for the beach, but the children ran and played in the sand and found shells and the grownups visited. 

 It turned out to be a great time for all of us.  One of those magic moments that you can’t quite believe we could put it together with just a few email messages.

I have to admit, I was a little homesick on our way back from Mobile.  We think of you every day and are so glad to hear about the things you are doing. It really helps us to know that everything is OKAY.  Dad and I are pretty good companions and are a good compliment to each other.  Dad is so good with the teaching moments.  We send our love to each of you! 
Love Grandma and Grandpa

Piano Lessons

I have said to many of you that I wish I had been better prepared to serve on this mission. We wish we had done some hands-on actual entering of names on Family History.  Most of these people have done very little with family history.  Some of them are even “afraid” to get to know their ancestors.  But even with that fear, they want to start getting something about their family on the Family Search program.  We went over to Greenville about 45 miles east of here, to meet with Elder and Sister Spect.  She is very good at Family History, so we got a crash course.  We have helped one of the new converts to start her family tree and she is so excited.  We are planning a pot luck evening (Bring your family’s favorite dish) to get folks interested in their family history.   We will follow up with classes.  We do have a Family History Representative, so we will be working with her.  The Stake just purchased some large screen TV’s and computers for each unit, so that will make the teaching much easier and more interesting to participate in.  This will probably be in late April.  Apparently they have an ANNUAL FISH FRY that is super successful.  The last time they had it, they had about 70 people.  We have that planned for March 30^th. 

Surprise!!!  I taught my first piano lesson on Wednesday.  Oh, how I wish had stayed with the piano longer.   Stone Vick is 13.  He had taken lessons for a few months when his life got too busy to keep up with the lessons.  When we went out to their home for dinner, Stone played a song from the Easy Hymn book for us.  Margaret called a few weeks later and asked if I would teach him, so that he could play enough for church and be a little better prepared for his mission.  Lesson one went pretty well, if I do say so for myself.  Sister Spect, one of the Senior Missionaries had made the comment, that as we do things for the branch, we should find someone who can “duplicate” us when we go home.  The Branch has really loved singing to the piano rather than a recording, even with my mistakes.  So Stone will be very valuable to the branch with this talent.  (He is already VERY VALUABLE to the branch and to his school)

We had our Zone Conference on Tuesday in Montgomery.  Wow, these young missionaries are so great.  They teach so powerfully and have such great teaching skills.

President Hanks, our Mission President is a spiritual giant.  A memorable lesson:

“What can you become...”LIVELY”  D&C 92:2. “ANXIOUSLY” D&C 58:27, “HEARTILY” Col.3:23 and “CHEERFUL” 2 Cor. 9:6-9.  “What describes you?”

Things to think about.            

Of a very sad note, our dear friend Rex Wilcox passed away on February 4^th.  Apparently he had fallen once and had a pretty serious head injury, but then he fell again and was not able to recover from the effects.  Rex has been a dear friend since the 5^th grade.  He was sort of like a brother type friend, always there, always helpful, always with a laugh.  We will miss him terribly.  Oh, what would we do without the Gospel and the Plan of Salvation!   

We love each of you very much and it means so much to us to know we have your love and support.

Keep in touch with what ever way is easiest.  It doesn’t have to be long...just great to hear from you.

We keep you in our hearts and in our prayers......Love Grandma and Grandpa