We
have been traveling the past three weeks from our apartment in Niles, Ohio to
Chardon, Ohio. Chardon is the county seat for Geauga County. It takes approximately
one hour each way and so when we return home we are tired for the day. The
working conditions in Chardon are wonderful. All brand-new buildings, well lit,
air-conditioned and very comfortable. We thought when we arrived that we were
going to do approximately 5 to 7 books total. The first day we found out we had
three weeks of work at about 2-3 books per day. But it was great and the people
there are wonderful. While we were there we met two sets of sister missionaries
that work in Chardon part-time and then the Historic Kirtland Visitor Center
during the rest of the week. We had the opportunity to take the sister
missionaries out for lunch. They are wonderful sisters. One of them is from the
Isle of Man. Look it up and see where it is found. The work we did for Stark
County was Coroners reports from the 80s. We could feel their family’s
heartbreaks as we read through them to find the information we needed. We are
so grateful for the gift of the Holy Spirit with us to feel compassion for one
another. An interesting bit of information about Geauga County in Ohio is that
Kirtland was in Geauga County in the 1800s when our church was there. We got to
look through the original records in the Archives to find the Marriage License
of Brigham Young when he married Mary Angel, his second wife. He and Sidney
Rigdon signed it.
One of our responsibilities here in the mission is to inspect
three missionary apartments. They are nice and have what they need. The Elders
are really pretty good housekeepers. Their apartments are clean and
well-organized.
On 24 July we had a picnic in Kirtland where they cooked
hamburgers and hotdogs and all the fixings. The young sisters did a Pioneer Day
presentation and involved all of us in the fun. That same day we had our first
interview with our new mission president, President Vellinga. He is a wonderful
man. The missionaries love him and we do too. We felt very inspired by his
message and look forward to continuing our work here in Warren, Ohio.
The
eight-year-old daughter of the family we have Family Home Evening with was
baptized July 8th. We think the entire ward stayed after the block meetings to
witness the baptism and confirmation. Elder Carmack felt very privileged to be
asked by the father to stand in the circle of the confirmation. There was a
wonderful spirit present and it was a beautiful event. We love to have family
home evening with this family.
We are getting a little better at doing our work
in the archives. Last week we did over 7000 pictures. We are not the fastest or
the best, by any means, but we are steady in the Lord’s work and feel so
grateful to serve a mission and have the opportunity to learn this great work.
We love our mission and we love all of you.
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