Monday was not much of a p-day for me because I spent the day preparing a power point slide show for the cottage meeting we were having on Thursday 13th. I had an old power point that I updated but for some reason the songs would not play. Kimberly had helped me figure out what to do but I had to finish it up and I am very slow at these things.
We had a dinner appointment at the Wolf's and we had such an enjoyable time with them. After dinner the power went out in the area but we sat and talked by light of our cell phones. They are a neat couple and I hope we get to spend more time with them in the future.
Tuesday during our walk we stopped at St. Vincent de Paul to look for some kind of nativity. I didn't care if we didn't have a Christmas tree but I wanted a Nativity. We found only one but I like ii so we purchased it.
After our studying we head to Sister P's house for another lesson. We had already taught her 3 lessons but I felt inspired that we should teach her a message about Christ's birth that I had read in the Ensign. Don agreed so that was our plan. We also took her a gift of an extra large print triple combination so see could read the scriptures and be more of a part of the lessons. After went over the article with her I asked Don to read 3 Nephi chapter 1. Then he talked about the Book of Mormon and explained how we got it and how it is a record of ancient prophets from the Americas. She was fascinated with it. She has been out for the past 3 Sundays so we are pretty excited because she is on the right path. The Holy Ghost is really working with her.
After we had lunch we went out and saw four other members and gave Christmas messages to them. It was a really productive day. In the evening the Elders came over and played a few games of sequence with us. It was our last evening with Elder Dunkley.
Elders Solomon, Dunkley, and our first zone leaders Elders Boswell and Petersen
Our Zone - Elder Dunkley, Solomon and Gaylor on top
Elders Petersen, Boswell, Carr, Ottley, and Heldt
Elder Peterson is Elder Solomon's new companion
Wednesday was transfer day and Elder Dunkley was being transferred to Vancouver. This was really hard on me as we had become very close to him. One of our zone leaders is being transferred too, Elder Boswell. It is so special to see these young men pull into the stake center and hug one another and catch up with each other. Sister Cole was there with her food table and she had homemade cinnamon rolls, fruit crackers and of course makings for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for them.
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Elder Peterson, Carr, Solomon and Don
Elder Ottley, Gaylor and Brother Steward
After lunch we went out and made some visits. We revisited the H's they are on the fence of coming back. We hope we can help them make that big step to come out to church. The weather here is still pretty nice. When we got here someone told us that roses still bloomed in December. So I took a few pictures of flowers that are still out.
Thursday was our 3rd cottage meeting so the day was a preparation day. We cleaned and baked and did the finalization on the power point presentation. We had 15 people attend and in that group we had an investigator, 2 less actives and a brother that can't get out to church on Sunday because he has a job where he works every Sunday. After the presentation everyone stayed around for refreshments and fellow-shipped for another hour. Don and I were on a high with all the comments about the evening. After everyone left the Elders helped us clean up and we had time to play one game of sequence.
Friday Don spent the day with the Elders. While he was gone Sister Cantrell visited me. Her daughter raises chickens and each week they give us a dozen fresh eggs. While she was here at our home I showed her our cozy home. We went out to the garage and she showed me some Christmas decorations and told me she'd take an old wreath we found home with her to spruce it up for us. How thoughtful that was. We had such a nice visit.
Saturday we had a meeting with the Dalles 1st ward mission leader Brother McDowell. After the meeting the 4 of us made a couple of visits together and then we came home and had a district meeting. Elder Peterson lead us in a discussion on the Elder Pieper talk at the mission tour. We did some role playing and I think Don and I are understanding how to implement the teachings into our teaching. After we had lunch together, Don and I headed out for some visits.
We had a wonderful experience. We stopped at this one house to looking for a brother and there was a lady sitting on the porch. So Don asked her about the guy and she said she was living in that apartment. I Shook hands with her and introduced myself and told her we were from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and would she like to know more about our church. She said that she was a member but her health had been so bad that she hadn't been to church in a long time. We made plans to see her again and we found out she had nothing to do for Christmas so Don invited her to our home for the day. I know the Lord wanted us to find this Sister, there are no coincidences in this life.
We revisited a Brother W and invited him to a few upcoming events and he gave Don a bicycle. Now he has some other form of exercise to do as long as the weather holds.
The rest of the day was very productive too. We went to Dallesport in Washington just across the river from us. We visited with three more sisters and asked them to attend church with us next Sunday and they all agreed to come. We had such good visits with these sisters and we left them with a Christmas message about coming onto Christ. Two sisters we visited gave me special gifts one a painting she had done and the other a beautiful silver rose necklace. They were so generous.
It had started to snow while we were on the road so we took our time getting home because they have so few lights here to light the roads and it is so dark. What an exciting day for us. In the evening Sister Cantrell called and said she had a small fresh Christmas tree for us and would bring it to church on Sunday. She is so good to us.
Maybe we'll have time to decorate this tomorrow on our P-day
Sunday we started once again at 7:30 but it took us a little time to get to church because the snow had stuck to the ground. by the time we came home from church the roads were free of snow and it was raining out. I have to say the time really goes by fast. We are enjoying this so much. I'm so glad we decided to come on a mission!!!!!
What a great recap of things that have been going on. I really enjoyed reading about your adventures!! The pictures of the missionaries you work with was really nice. Dad ALMOST could pass for a young missionary. I am so thankful you guys are having such a wonderful time on your mission. I am continually impressed every time you tell me about how much you both are doing.
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