Christmas Decorations!

Last night Ron and I had an appt. about fifty miles away at a part-member family's home. As we were driving up we had a few minutes before our appt. so we decided to go look at the Christmas decorations in this cute little farming town. As we pulled into town we could see a big dome that was covered in lights. We wondered what it was, but we keep finding all sorts of interesting buildings and structures having to do with the grain and cattle farms that are all over the place, so we went to investigate. The town was too small to have a "Dee Events Center-Tacoma Dome" type arena, so we really were curious what it could be all lit up in bright orange lights. As we drove closer to it...and seriously we were drawn to it like moths to a flame....we were just amazed at it's beauty and largeness...then we both said almost in unison: NUH UH!!  The big orange dome we were driving toward had now become a big orange ball barely up over the horizon...IT WAS THE MOON!!! Oh my goodness! I have never ever seen anything like it! We were partly laughing and how stupid we sounded and partly in awe of the beautiful sight that was right before our eyes! I know this picture doesn't do it justice, but let me just show you what we saw coming up just over the horizon (that's why it looked like a dome at first). That was our "boy are we city-slickers or what?" moment. Just some of the beauty we keep tripping over....literally. Heavenly Father is the ultimate artist! We are blessed.

This is just above the horizon in the farming town of Hanston.

Brother & Sister Strong & Mail Day!

This is Sister and Brother Strong. Amazing members of the ward. We had dinner at their home the other night. We keep being surprised by the members stories! I would have sworn that these two were "stock", dyed-in-the-wool- Mormons. Nope. Their story is just as awesome as they are!



                                                                                        We LOVE mail!!

A big ol' shout out to Elly, Owen and Amy for our awesome pictures! And to Abuela for the fun surprise she sent us! And to Erin for the card. Remember, we LOVE to get mail. Oh let me just repeat that. WE LOVE TO GET MAIL! Our address...in case you wrote it down and can't find it, is" 805 Beeson Ct. APT.E, Dodge City, Kansas 67801. Don't forget to include the APT. E on there, cuz there's lot's of folks that live at this address and would love to get mail just like us.

One month ... already!

Today marks one month that we’ve been in the mission field. With only 17 months left, we are feeling a sense of urgency. We have so much to do. We had some amazing things happen today... First, let me say there are times when things happen that sound tragic, but we have to laugh at them or we'd probably go a little nuts. And then there are things that sound kinda funny, and we cry about them. Today we had a little miracle. (but I'm out of Internet time so I'll have to go to the library tomorrow and post about it.) (lame Internet) ...ok back to the  little miracle...we were given a list of L.L.M. (long lost members) to find and invite to our Branch Christmas dinner. We did pretty well finding some of them, some weren't home so we didn't know if we had the right address or not. But we got to an apartment complex of eight big buildings each building had 12 apartments. We were given only the number of the building for this one sister. We found the building and decided to say a prayer to ask Heavenly Father to help us find which apartment of the 12 was the right one and could she please be home. Then Ron asked me "which one is it?" Since it was a single sister I decided to go with one that looked like it had curtains. "That one", I said. We got out of the car and headed up and heard people talking as they were coming out of one of the lower apt.'s. We stopped the family coming out and said "do you know Gladys....?" The lady said "yes, I'm her." Ron and I just looked at each other then at her and told her why we were there and handed her the invitation. we talked to her for a few more minutes then went to the car and said another prayer to Heavenly Father for answering our prayer so quickly! I know, it's not the parting of the Red Sea, or water turning into wine, but to us it was just one of the Lords tender little mercies for two weary missionaries.

....and so my needs are great.

There are some people in this world that you just have to say to yourself, ‘‘this is a child of our Heavenly Father.’’ …and then know that Heavenly Father must be weeping because of what they have let their life become.

We went to visit “Trick Knee Guy” again today. See post from Nov.14. (We’ll just call him “Hank”) Ron made me do the talking this time and we didn’t have to ask him if he was Hank, we already knew his name. So when he came to the door I said “Hi Hank! Are you having a good day?” He looked a little puzzled, like ‘Do I know these people??’

I don’t know if he remembered us from when we came by two weeks ago, but he had just about as much to say…

“Yep.”

“Well that’s great! I brought you some cookies!”

“What for?”

“Because I made them and I thought you’d like some.”

“OK.”

“They’re chocolate and soft.”

“OK.”

“Can we come back for a visit sometime, Hank?”

“Nope.”

“Well enjoy your day!”

“OK.”

Hank lives on the outskirts of town in a military retirement (if you want to call it that) community. Where half of the houses are vacant. He lives alone, and I can’t imagine he has any visitors that aren’t government home health care workers. We have made it our goal, nay, our quest to someday be invited into Hank’s living room. That man needs to be reminded that he is a child of God.

Zone Conference In Pueblo

We went to our Zone Conference in Pueblo Colorado yesterday. It was fabulous! We had to get up at 5 a.m. to make the five hour drive. And when we thought we had made it with time to spare, we got lost…that’s the last time I rely on Sister GARMIN to tell me where to go! It was a great conference. Elder Steven E. Snow, of the First Quorum of the Seventy, and his wife spoke to us. Such a wonderful couple. Also our Area Seventy, Elder Hilliar and his wife spoke to us. They are a young-ish, energetic couple. As did President Anderson and Sister Anderson, our Mission President and his wife.

This is only half of our mission. Because our mission is so spread out, the other half has the conference today in "the 'Springs" as they call Colorado Springs.

President and Sister Anderson with me and Ron

We absolutely love our President. He is so kind and just a really strong influence on all the Elders and Sisters. And Sister Anderson is just as genuine as can be. We are truly blessed to be serving under their leadership.