Sunday, April 14, 2013

One Of The Best Missionaries In The World

One of our fabulous missionaries from Ohio. Had a great time going to J Dawgs in Provo with him! J Dawgs really are the best hot dogs in the world! He did a great job driving the Camaro too! (Smile)


Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Departure Interview with President Vellinga

President Vellinga offered a beautiful prayer at the conclusion of the departure interview and blessed us with safety in our travels and we have been truly blessed with safety. These are the photos he took in his office when we left. We love you Ohio!





Tuesday, February 26, 2013

"How Grand and Precious"

This music piece was composed by Dee Savage. Dee and Lola were senior missionaries at our little church Branch several years ago. We learned so much from them. He wrote and composed this piece and asked us if we could take a video of it so he could hear it. The beautiful Young Women of the Warren Ward sang it at our farewell dinner after the meetings at church Sunday. Thank you beautiful Young Women. That was very special to us.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Birthday

We spent last Friday in Wintersville, Ohio, teaching Elder and Sister Pace, our eye doctor in Bountiful's parents, how to take photographs of books. It is quite a process but they have done so well on their mission doing single sheet photographs, they will learn it in no time. We spent the morning putting together the pulleys to their platform so their photographing platform will move up and down easily. That is needed because the books are between 2-4 inches in depth and you have to maintain the same distance from the camera for the whole book. Here are some pictures of how the platform looks when it is all put together. The Elders did a great job. They took us out to lunch and we had a great day.







March 2013 Newsletter Article for the Pheasant Ward

This is our last newsletter as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It is with a heavy heart that we leave the people we love and have served with but we are ready for the next step in our lives. We look forward to seeing all of you around the 15th of March.

We have been reflecting on our mission these past few weeks and have been busy with two more Elders to help with the work here. Now we have four young Elders to work with the senior couple and the Ward. We have learned greater patience from our calling as Family History Records Preservation missionaries, greater unconditional love through our Addiction Recovery Program calling, and greater love one for another through our work with our Ward and missionary work. To serve a mission as a senior couple is to expand your family 100-fold.

We know the Lord hears and answers our prayers to help us find the prepared. Our Ward has about 14 investigators and the list keeps growing. We are going to add up the number of photographs we have taken this past year for FamilySearch. We think it is somewhere around 400,000. We have been extremely busy with our missionary work with our Ward members and feel truly blessed to have served a mission in this place and at this time. We know the Lord called us here. We have loved our mission and Ohio and it will always be a cherished memory to us in our hearts and minds. Our mission has not been easy, but it has been worth it.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Four Elders

We now have an additional set of Elders in the Warren Ward.
This brings us to four total.
They are Bicycle Elders and this is what they face for a couple of months.
Count your many blessings !!!!
 
 


Baptism January 26, 2013

George was Baptized January 26, 2013 by Bishop Williams.
George has a great personality and love for the Gospel.
 


Baptism January 20, 2013

 
April was Baptized by Elder Birch January 20, 2013
She will be a great addition to the Ward.
 

Monday, January 21, 2013

February 2013 Newsletter Article for the Pheasant Ward

To quote Elder Carmack from his last testimony, “and a little child shall lead them.” Isaiah 11:6, 2 Nephi 21:6, 2 Nephi 30:12

One of the 12-year-olds got up and bore his mighty testimony and challenged all the youth to bear their testimonies and several of them took the challenge and we had a wonderful testimony meeting with a very strong Spirit. Two investigators bore their testimonies that day, one is 33 and the other is 10. The 10-year-old girl has stayed at church with us when her family comes and then her family has to leave after sacrament because of health problems. We give her a ride home. She is ready to be baptized because she loves our church and she knows it is true. Her 13-year-old sister finally stayed with us at church last time and on the way home she said she didn’t know why she was shy to stay before because she had so much fun. Their family is being baptized the end of March or so. The youth have been so great at welcoming.

The 33-year-old woman bore her testimony also. She had been studying mormon.org for 4-5 months before she called the Mission Office to find a church in our area! She was totally prepared of the Lord. She told the Elders she was ready to be baptized the first time they visited her. She is amazing. She was baptized after church the 20th. She is a miracle to us. Our Mission President asked us to pray every day for those that have been prepared of the Lord. We have been praying every day and the miracle happened. She has 3 children, 12, 8 and 4. Her 12-year-old son has been coming to church with her and joined our Boy Scout program and he wants to be baptized too. We gave them a ride to Wednesday night activities so he could go to Boy Scouts and she could check out Activity Days for her daughters. Her story is a testimony that the Lord hears and answers our prayers and she will be a strong addition to the Ward.

A young family came to church the 20th that are investigating also. Their baby is about 8 months old or so. We think there were 13 investigators in church the 20th counting the toddlers. Our Ward has been so amazing helping with the investigators and giving of their time and talents. “Let us all press on in the work of the Lord”. The young Elder missionaries have certainly taken this challenge to heart. Prior to the baptism the 20th, the young Elders had 14 investigators.

Next Saturday our Ward is having a Missionary Event for the young men and young women of the Ward. They will be divided into companionships and taught many things that will help them on their missions. After the Elders present a lesson on how to teach the Restoration lesson, there will be workshops on washing and ironing clothes, how to tie a tie, how to shine shoes, how to sew on buttons and close a seam, and etc. The youth companionships will be invited to dinner with a family of the Ward and present a missionary lesson to that family. The classrooms in the church will be set up as dining rooms for the family’s “home”. They should have a lot of fun. There will be another baptism following the activity. He is the piano teacher who was invited to church by the Bishops’ 12-year-old daughter. He is awesome.

Our work in the Archives continues to be so enjoyable. We are working on Naturalization Records from the 1800s and early 1900s now. We love to read them. Some of the wording makes you smile. There are some really nice photographs of the people on them. It makes us want to research our own and see if we can find photographs of our ancestors.

We have been tutoring on indexing in a member’s home. That has been fun and very rewarding. Our Stake goal for 2013 is 350,000 names indexed. Last year the Stake almost indexed 250,000 names.

We started teaching our Temple Prep class a few weekends ago. We have a great class. There are two young men who are preparing for their missions and two couples who are being sealed in the Temple on June 7th. Their parents can attend the class also. That has been a great honor to be called to prepare them for the Temple. We are so blessed.

We know this church is true. We know there is a true Prophet on earth today, even Thomas S. Monson. We know the scriptures are true and a guide in our lives. We know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live. We know the atonement is real. We know our prayers are heard and answered. We know there are those just waiting to hear the gospel and they will know it is true. We are so grateful for the blessings of the Temple in our lives. We know we have been called of the Lord to the Ohio Cleveland Mission and we love it. We say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Strawberry Patch

Down in the single digits for quite a while! Brrrrrrrrrr! Our strawberry patch has its' own igloo!

Thursday, January 10, 2013

YM/YW Missionary Event

The YM/YW are planning a Missionary Event on January 26th from Noon to 3pm. It is going to be a day in the life of a missionary. So fun! They will be divided into companionships (2 youth). It will be like a mini Zone Conference. They will learn the Restoration lesson from the Young Elders, learn how to sew, wash clothes, tie a tie, shine shoes, and etc. from the Leaders. Then the missionary companionship (2 youth) will be invited to your “home” for dinner and to share a message with you. There will be a room all set up at the church to be your "home". We would like to have food that you ate on your mission. For example, a brother in the Ward is doing food from Taiwan where he served his mission. If you served a mission in the US then you could pick a country of your choice. We are asking 12 returned missionaries, or parents of missionaries (youth), in the Ward if they would like to prepare a simple lunch for their family and the missionary companionship (2 youth). Then the companionship will come to dinner and share a message with you. Just like the missionaries do every day.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Fast and Testimony Sunday

We are so thrilled. Today we had five investigators at church. Two of them bore their testimonies! One of them is 10-years-old and the other is 33-years-old. We have been praying every day for someone who is prepared for the missionaries and the miracle happened. She called the mission office to find out where she could find our church. She had been studying mormon.org. She has a 12-year-old son who came with her too. We know our prayers are answered by a loving Heavenly Father. Our Ward has been so blessed by their faithfulness. The best of all was hearing Elder Carmack's heartfelt testimony. We love you.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Temple Prep Class

We are so thrilled to be called to teach the Temple Prep Class. We have 2 young couples who will be married in the Temple on June 7th. They are such cute couples. What a great blessing to be called to such a special calling on our mission. We love our mission! The Ohio Cleveland Mission area does not have a temple within the area. The Area President just approved for couples called to this mission to go to the Temple 2 times per year. We were so excited to get to go to the Temple again.