Sunday, September 23, 2012

Sept. 22,2012



September 22, 2012
Dear Family and Friends,
                Once again it is time to reflect on the happenings of the past few days here in North Carolina.  Sister Andrus and I continue to be busy, happy and healthy.  Many of our missionaries have had the flu.  Sister Andrus was a little ill yesterday.  She stayed home and feels much better today.  The missionaries whose jobs we are learning are going home this next week.  We feel really blessed to have been tutored by them for the past month.  We both feel ready and look forward to taking over our office duties.  This next week is our first experience with transfer week.  We feel its business already.  Much work in the office centers on the coming and going of missionaries all of which takes place next week.    We are planning on 10 arriving and 11 going home.  We pray we are prepared.
                We have been able to move forward in our proselyting activities this past two weeks.  We were able to speak in Sacrament Meeting last Sunday.  We were assigned to speak on the restoration.  What a wonderful missionary topic.  Preach My Gospel is so wonderful and we are to use it as a source document along with the Standard Works.  Sister Andrus did a great job—only took her 5 minutes however leaving me 40 minutes.  Needless to say I wasn’t very successful in using the simple, abbreviated versions we were counseled to use at the MTC.  We were able to introduce ourselves and feel we are fitting in very nicely as members of the Reedy Creek Ward.  We have attended two baptisms—one each on the past two Saturdays.  Wonderful converts.  The ward is very missionary minded.  I think I shared with you our plans to attend ward council—well we did and wow what a meeting.  Everything was on missionary work.  We are scrambling to keep up with the assignments we are receiving.  We are a little concerned as the sister missionaries are being transferred out of the ward this next week and having to transfer their teaching pool to the elders.  Sister Andrus and I have to step up to help which is really stretching us with our duties during transfer week.  We are going to make it somehow.  We took an investigator family to the ward activity on Friday evening—a pig pickin barbeque--Great food with great people.  They were really great with the investigator family.  We are anticipating taking them to church tomorrow—we are awaiting a phone call from the missionaries.  We are also bringing another family to church tomorrow.  They are from Nepal.  Speak very little English—they were baptized in Virginia and have moved here for work.  As we were visiting them, we discovered they are living with three different families—all in the same apartment.  They are so loving and kind.  We were hugged and fed (I hope we don’t get sick) only three are members of the church—a father and his 16 year old daughter and 13 year old son.  The daughter and son can communicate very well.  The Father is doing OK.  His name is Til.  He wants us to be with him as he teaches his family.  If they have questions he will ask us and then he will communicate in Napali with them.  We are hoping to get the Elders to be there with us.  Anyway we are picking them up tomorrow for church—we need a van.  We as Reedy Creek Missionaries meet each Saturday at 11:45 am at the ward mission leader’s home for lunch and correlation meeting.  The ward mission leader has to be prepared for PEC each week with the missionary activities going on.  Then every other week all the missionaries meet with the ward council and give our report.  We are then excused from ward council so we can greet our investigators’.  Really a fun and busy experience, however we are hoping to get some help with the transportation.
                How did the cultural celebration turn out?  The Dedication will be tomorrow.  We are missing our home very much right now with all of these wonderful events.  We so appreciate being included in the emails from our family and friends who are involved with the Brigham City Temple activities.  Please keep them coming. 
                We have a couple of missionaries from our area—Elder Jeppeson from Willard--one of Sister Melba Munn’s grandsons.  We have met him and visited with him.  We also have Elder Penrod from Brigham City.  He is one of Bart’s sons—Dallas and Joann’s grandson.  We have not met him yet; however have met him on paper.  Both, I believe, are good missionaries.  We met and visited with Sally Hall—Pres. Ladd Hall’s wife.  Pres. Hall was called a couple of week ago as stake president over the Charlotte South Stake.  Sister Andrus and I are in the Charlotte Central Stake. We met Sister Hall at a fireside which was for all of the stakes in the area put on by the General Relief Society and Primary boards.  
                We are so grateful for this wonderful experience.  We are so happy to be here.  We miss our family so much; however know we are where we need to be.  We are so proud of each of you.  We pray for all of you every day.  We find our prayers are getting longer and more meaningful—there is so much to be grateful for.  We also have so many needs to pray for.  We are so grateful for the Atonement of our Savior.  We love sharing the message of the atonement with the people of Charlotte.  They need it so desperately.  We all need it so desperately.  We have your pictures on the wall and it is so good to see you everyday—you all are smiling so good.  We now have the internet—we need to set up our Skype and Face time.  I will let Sister Andrus work out the details. 
                We love you all—have a great remainder of September—we will check in later.
Elder and Sister Andrus, Dad and Mom, Grandma and Grandpa and Don and Ruth.

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