Miracles and Tender Mercies

Hello everyone.  Since we last posted, we spent 4 days trying to find or visit with some 27 young adults. We were 1 for 27 :(  We were rather discouraged by Sunday night.  But we looked on the positive side in that we learned some things about many of them, like they've moved or the address was incorrect and so forth.  We have also tried to contact by phone or text with very little results.

But yesterday the Lord blessed us with miracles and tender mercies.  We were able to actually talk to or receive texts from 7 young adults.  And they were all (but one) happy to talk with us.  Finally!  So we were grateful and felt that our prayers and fasting and effort are paying off. 

We attended Seminary last Friday with the Huntington 1st ward. The two teachers take turns.  Here is a picture of the class.  It was a very nice  class.  Her husband baked blueberry muffins for us all.

 

Saturday we went with permission from the Mission President to the Louisville, KY temple with our young adults to perform baptisms.  We had family names and so those were done.  It was a fun trip.  Only two went with us in our car (it is a three hour drive out there and the same back) but three others came from two other towns.  Sadly I forgot to get a picture!  Next time. :)

 

Sunday we attended church in Ashland KY and were asked to speak impromptu. The Ashland ward members were warm and friendly and the Bishop was so very helpful.  And the big NEWS is that Ashland will now have an institute every week!  We requested for it and President Lim (stake President) said yes it was time.  So we are very excited for these Young Adults. There could be as many as 5 attend.  Now we have 5 institute units in the stake.  So grateful!  We feel God working and we feel the faith of the Saints as well.

 

We have a busy week ahead of us, institute in Portsmouth OH.  We will spend the night in a hotel authorized and paid for by the CES budget and the next morning we will attend seminary at 5:45 am.  Then there will be more visits and more contacting.  District meeting on Friday.  Inservice meetings in Huntington and Charleston.  And it keeps going on.  It is so good to be here and we feel the Lord's hand in our lives.

 

Here is a picture of the Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Milton.  I've always wanted to see one for myself.  They are an old store chain that's been around for many years, but we never saw them in Utah or Idaho.  Most of them were in Midwest or east.  In fact I don't think there are very many of them left around anymore. So when we saw it I had to take a picture :)  Then we went in and Elder Hoggan had fresh baked pastries and I had chicken pot pie both made right there in the store.  Delicious!! 

 



 

Well, .... that's all folks!   Love you all.  God Lives.  Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.  The gospel is true!!  Have a great week. 

 





CES Broadcast and other

Our First Young Adult activity was a success!  Nine young adults attended and several young adult leaders and the Stake Presidency.  We didn't get everyone in the picture but here is a good one of most of them.  Dinner was a potato and salad bar which we prepared and that went well.  The young adults then planned some future activities and then we had the CES Devotional Fireside broadcast streamed in from SLC.  Elder Halstrom's talk was powerful.  We hope you get a chance to watch it.  There were more YA who were going to try to come but couldn't make it.  But we felt for the first activity the YA have had in a very long time, this turned out great!  Our next activity is going to the Louisville KY temple to do baptisms on Saturday.  We have 5 committed to that.  We will drive some of them out and participate with them.  Very excited about that. :)  The next activity will be to join with the Stake for their Fall Ball on November 22nd.  Then we are in the planning stages for a Christmas activity in December. 

 

Last week we attended seminary in Ashland KY but I forgot to get a picture.  There were 7 seminary students!  That is fantastic and they were all on time.  They have a great group.  It takes us 50 minutes to drive there. It starts at 6:15 am. :)

 

We have been trying to contact YA on our list, both by calling or going to see them.  Some of the phones are not working numbers anymore and addresses don't always pan out.  We have visited with the Huntington 1st and 2nd ward Bishop and the Ashland KY Bishop and they have been helpful in determining information about some of the young adults.  Some have moved, some have married, some are not interested and some are away at school or on missions.  We are just enjoying the process and having a good time getting to know those we can. 

 

We have been invited to dinner a couple of times and have several future offers for dinner.  Everyone is so warm and kind, even those who aren't members.  West Virginians are great people and we feel blessed to be here. 

 

The graveyard reminded us of Germany.  They keep silk flowers on their graves all year long. 

 

It looks like a blanket of yellow snow!! Very Pretty.

Can you see the deer? She and her two fawns were just casually walking around everyone's yards and the road.  We see deer a lot here.  We also saw some cardinal birds this week and last.  The saying is that if you see a cardinal, then it is going to rain.  And it did both times we saw the cardinal.  We also saw what we think are blue jays.  Beautiful birds. 

We had no couch so the mission got us a new one.  The three tables are new too. The lamps were some old ones they had.  They have tried to make things comfy for us.  We are grateful. 

 

 

Pictures on campus at Marshall University. "We Are Marshall".  Well we aren't but it seems to be a nice school and they have a winning record in football. :)

 

Today we went to Gallipolis Ohio for seminary (one hours drive) which started at 6:40 am.  It was at a member's home.  They had lots of different animals, one of which was a turkey.  Beautiful!  I think he's on the list for Thanksgiving dinner. :)  Ohio is more open and more farmland than we've seen in Western West Virginia.  It was pretty there.  The town is situated on the Ohio river and so is Huntington.

 

We are very grateful to serve here in the West Virginia Charleston mission!!  We know this is God's work.  We love our family and miss them and we know the Lord is watching over them.