April Showers - Bring?

Missionary Work

We just want you to know that we are busy finding, visiting, teaching and caring for members and new investigators every day.  So far this month even though we had two days of General Conference, Ward Activities, Zone Conference, and Doug was sick for a week, we have still made 45 home visits.

If we work hard, we can double that by the end of the month.  We never run out of people to see, but some days it takes more courage than other days to call for appointments, or just appear on their doorsteps.

We have taught new member lessons on the Restoration, and The Plan of Salvation, and have had many Gospel discussions, and blessings in the homes, besides getting to know people better.  Many times we find people who are not members, so sometimes we have referrals for the Young Elders, and they are always excited to have new people to teach.

Our Mission President has asked us to include a song with each lesson we teach, so Doug is loving that.  He was always threatening to do it before.

We are finishing the Book of Mormon together as a mission, for the 3rd time since we came to Georgia.  It is fun to discuss it together, and interesting what new things we discover each time.

Our Mission President, who has been in the hospital for surgery, found opportunities to share the Book of Mormon with 33 new friends all in two weeks.  We could all be doing much more than we do.

Young Women's Camp Fund Raiser

Our tiny ward only has 4 or 5 girls in the YW program, but they sponsored a potato bake and dessert auction to pay for camp.  We decided we should support it, so tried to find the blog that had featured fresh strawberry pies.  We remembered they were show-y and easy to make.  Girls - which of your friends posted about strawberry pies.  We couldn't find the post so resorted to the internet.

We hope they were good, as they sold for $40 each.  The apple pie went for $25.  We couldn't test them before-hand to see if they were cooked enough etc.  We were feeling a little nervous about that.

We were giggling about the starting time of ward activities.  At 6:00 starting time, this is how the place looked.  It soon filled up though, and by 6:30 everyone was there, and it turned out to be a fun, and successful evening.

Sorry for the fuzzy picture, but I used it because for some reason, I thought it was funny to have Doug waving at you all.

Kittens and Carolyn's

Today was Fast Sunday because of General Conference last week.  We had just put dinner in the crock pot to stew away, while we made some visits, when Carolyn called to invite us to dinner.  She had not remembered it was Sunday until too late for meetings, and she wanted us to come and spend some time with her and perhaps give her a blessing.  We thought that was as important as any of our other visits so we went to Montrose (about 20 minutes away). 

Carolyn is such a sweet lady.  She keeps trying to find ways to keep track of things, but her encroaching alzheimers limits what will work for her.  This week, she has been going to help a friend just down the road, who has been ill.  I think she loses track of how many times she has been there,  so when she thinks of it, she just jumps in her car and runs down. The friend finally had to tell her not to come so much as she needed to nap.  Carolyn felt so discouraged, as she only wanted to help one of her favorite people.  She thought maybe a blessing would help.

Doug gave her a beautiful blessing to help her cope with this memory deficit that she is trying to accept.  We have truly grown to love her.  She is an important part of our lives now.

Everything looked so green today.  After dinner, we sat out on the patio, and watched it rain, and played with the newest batch of kittens born in her bedroom closet.  These pictures are especially for the grandchildren.  

Trees and Trimming

We have become interested in the way they trim some of the trees here in our neighborhood.  They cut them back all the way to small branch stubs.  Most of the other trees have already blossomed and have all their leaves.  We have been wondering when these will begin to sprout.

Now we know!  On a future blog we will show you what they look like when they are finally grown out.










We think of all of you, and pray for you daily.  We are so grateful for your lives, and for your love and support.